The weighty problem of Gravity

We investigate the flaws in the scientific theories of gravity and the reasons why some scientists are looking for alternative theories to explain the workings of this mysterious force

Introduction

In this follow-up to our previous article on gravitational waves, published in February 2016, we investigate the flaws in the scientific theories about gravity and compare and contrast them with the largely unknown facts of Occult Science. In our customary afterword we explain how and why the phenomena of levitation and anti-gravity seem to defy the so-called laws of physics.

Most people are familiar with the charming but fanciful anecdote that an apple falling from a tree gave Sir Isaac Newton the idea of gravity. Had this spiritual and deeply religious man anticipated the warped ideas his researches would engender in the minds of future generations of scientists, he would probably have eaten the apple and kept quiet! The theory for which he is justifiably famous tells us that every particle of matter attracts every other particle in the universe with a force that is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between their centres.

This, with some modifications, continues to be used as the generally accepted approximation of the effects of gravity. But, as we saw in our article on 'Why matter matters', Newton was unhappy with this theory. In a private letter sent to his friend, Richard Bentley in 1693, he wrote: "It is inconceivable that inanimate brute matter should, without the mediation of something else which is not material, operate upon and affect other matter, without mutual contact, as it must do if gravitation be essential and inherent in it....that gravity should be innate, inherent and essential to matter, so that one body may act upon another at a distance, through a vacuum, without the mediation of anything else by and through which their action may be conveyed from one to another, is to me so great an absurdity that I believe no man, who has in philosophical matters a competent faculty of thinking, can ever fall into it. Gravity must be caused by an agent acting constantly according to certain laws; but whether this agent be material or immaterial I have left to the consideration of my readers."

Contemporary philosophers Andrew Janiak and Hylarie Kochiras interpret this as a clear affirmation of the existence of an immaterial agent acting upon material bodies. We agree and said as much in our aforementioned article on matter. We—or rather Occult Science—long ago gave this agent a name: Fohat, or Cosmic Electricity. It is Fohat that imparts all motion and awakens all into life in the Solar System. It is the life-blood of the Universe and the agent of attraction and repulsion within it. Not as understood by modern physics and according to the so-called law of gravity; but in harmony with the laws of Occult Science. The aim of this article is to expose the many flaws in the prevailing scientific ideas about gravity and why this is leading thinking scientists to seek alternative theories to explain the workings of this mysterious force.

Experimental uncertainties

We begin our survey of the weighty problem of gravity with a brief survey of the ideas of a leading 20th American astronomer—Thomas Jefferson Jackson See (1866-1962)—about this mysterious force. Although the good professor's theories have long since been consigned to the wastebasket of scientific pipe-dreams they are well worth examining for the clarifying light they shed on the woolly-headed speculation of so many scientists. We use the word 'speculation' rather than thinking as the latter is a step too far for many scientists, past or present!

Thomas See told his fellow scientists that almost infinitely long waves of gravity, travelling from the sun to the earth hold all the planets of the 'universe' in their orbits. He meant our Solar System of course, but such little slips do not seem to bother scientists! This idea was taken up in 1972 by a group of Israeli scientists who put forward a yet more sophisticated but similar theory based upon the speculative findings of 'gravitational waves' emitted by pulsars. At that time the majority of scientists agreed that the main source of these theoretical waves seemed to come from the centre of our galaxy. Nowadays, it is thought they come from binary neutron star systems and so-called 'black holes.' In February 2016, the 'discovery' of 'gravitational waves' by the LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory), was widely and enthusiastically reported by the press. However, scientists are by no means in agreement about what was detected, or even if such 'waves' exist as we discussed in our article on the discovery.

One of the more humorous claims of science on the subject of gravity was published in Scientific American in 1970; we quote: "It is also conceivable that the mass at the galactic centre is acting as a giant lens, focusing gravitational radiation from an earlier epoch of the universe." At least they agree with Occult Science that there is something very powerful at the heart of the Universe! But then they go and spoil it all by adding: "Since gravitational radiation is not appreciably absorbed by matter, it should have been accumulating since the beginning of time. The relatively large intensity apparently being observed may be telling us when time began." We ask you—what on earth could any thinking person possibly add to that piece of priceless nonsense?

If this theory sounds familiar, it should be, as it remains the prevailing view of most scientists today as we may read in an article published in Nature in 2018 which confidently assures us that: "Astronomers have now used a single gravitational wave event originating from the shell elliptical galaxy NGC 4993 to measure the age of the universe." Well, well, well! The article continues: "An analysis of the gravitational waves from this event infers their intrinsic strength. NGC4993 has an outward velocity due to the expansion of the universe that can be measured from its spectral lines. Knowing how far away it is and how fast the galaxy is moving from us allows scientists to calculate the time since the expansion began—the age of the universe: between about 11.9 and 15.7 billion years given the experimental uncertainties." We especially like the phrase 'experimental uncertainties.' How very modest these scientists are! Recent estimates of the 'age' of the 'universe' range from 2 billion years (The Inflationary Universe, Guth, Alan H. 1997) to 20 billion years (University of Chicago, 1977). So which is it? 2 billion years or 20 billion years, or 11.9 to 15.7 billion years? The 'experimental uncertainty' between these three estimates is only a trifling 18 billion years! This reminds us of the estimates of the Sun's temperature we quoted in our article on the Occult Sun published in 2016. The difference in those figures was as 1,461 against 9,000,000. It is gratifying to know that the experimental uncertainties of science have become less even if the guesses of scientists are no better!

Repulsive gravity

In a series of lectures delivered at the beginning of the last century Thomas See sought to convince his colleagues of the truth of his theory of gravitational waves. Even the most cursory perusal of these lectures shows that he did not know what Newton meant by either gravity or ether. We would add here that Newton's work on the ether has been distorted by subsequent generations of scientists, and much of it suppressed in various ways, because it did not, and does not suit science to have its erroneous theories demolished by that great man.

Sir Isaac Newton was well aware of the real nature of ether which we discussed in our article on the Occult Aether published in 2018. We would interject here that Aether prefixed with an 'a' is not the same as the 'ether' of Space Newton wrestled with. The former is the noumenon of the latter in the same way that electricity is the noumenon of the phenomena of light, heat and motion. Neither have any connection with the flammable liquid called 'ether' formerly used as an anaesthetic. By Aether, Occult Science designates an extremely rarefied material element which pervades the entire Universe, of which Cosmic electricity or Fohat is the progeny. The belief in Aether is a very ancient one. To the ancient Greeks, Aether was the rarefied atmosphere breathed by the gods on Mount Olympus.

Despite the various experiments conducted during the last few years there is no conclusive evidence that 'gravitational waves', long or short, exist. What holds everything in the solar systems of our Universe in balance is the law of attraction and repulsion we told you about in our article on 'why matter matters'. If science wishes to call attraction 'gravity', then it is welcome to do so, but then it should also recognise its opposite, which is repulsion, which it does not, thus losing that balance which is so necessary in understanding anything in the microcosm or macrocosm. Whilst some thinking scientists are beginning to give serious consideration to notion that gravity might be a repulsive force, they seem stubbornly incapable of embracing the concept of two opposing forces producing balance. Repulsive gravity which denies its attractive opposite is a complete negation of the Hermetic Law of Polarity and, we might add, of common sense, which seems sadly lacking among so many scientists.

In researching this article we came across the following statement: "Observation noted electrons streaming towards protons and the obvious conclusion is that protons attract. However, if protons attract electrons why are they not ultimately absorbed? What is not well defined is how this proton attraction somehow reverses into repulsion in close proximity to the nucleus and directs electrons into orbiting protons to create hydrogen." We do not know who formulated this idea as the source we consulted provided no citation for this statement. What makes this proposition particularly interesting from an occult perspective is the use (probably unintentional) of the word 'directs.' This implies the activity of some kind of controlling intelligence—dare we call it Fohat? If so, then some scientists are getting a little warmer in their search for alternative theories to explain the workings of gravity.

Another scientist posits: "Just as magnetism has two charges, in which particles of like-charge repulse and particles of dissimilar charge attract, might gravity have two charges in which particles of like-charge attract and particles of dissimilar charge repulse?" Occult Science answers in the affirmative, but material science fails to make this obvious connection. Whilst there is no shortage of scientific data on attraction and repulsion in connection with electromagnetism, you will search in vain for any mention of these opposing forces in connection with gravity. Why is this? Why the strange reluctance on the part of science to recognise that the same electromagnetic laws apply to all things, including so-called 'gravity'? It is all very puzzling, especially when we are told by science that attraction is the power or force through which particles of matter are attracted or drawn to one another, and that such attraction is a mutual action which in some form all bodies, whether at rest or in motion, exert upon one another. But when bodies come together from 'sensible distances', the force being directly proportional to the square of the distance between them as Newton theorised, then, says science, it is called gravity. What a strange, illogical place the minds of some scientists must be!

The only logical conclusion to be drawn from this antithetical aberration is that science does not understand the true nature of either magnetism or electricity, which we discussed in our article on the Occult Sun. All that science is able to tell us about 'repulsion' is that it is the act of repelling or driving back; specifically cited in physics, as in the case of repulsion between two magnetic poles or similarly 'electrified bodies.' Here again, science shows its ignorance of the difference between electricity and magnetism, muddling up the two terms. It also seems to forget that ordinary physics apply, in a larger sense, to what it also calls 'astrophysics'. Before any physicists among our readers take us to task for playing fast and loose with scientific terms, let us make it clear that we are fully conscious of the fact that scientists utilise terms like 'electromagnetic radiation' to identify certain forces, energies, electric and magnetic fields, etc., but as we have said, this does not mean they understand the true nature of these forces and which they have labelled, to our mind, indiscriminately.

However, as we said earlier, some scientists are approaching—albeit on tiptoe—the truths that Occult Science has always known about the balanced nature of the force they call 'gravity.' As long ago as 1972, an article was published in New Scientist headed "Gravity appears in a repulsive light." The authors went on to say: "Gravitation, the oldest established of the fundamental physical interactions, remains full of surprises...a recent report from the University of Texas examines the possibility that the force may exhibit repulsive features." Much more recently, in 2012, National Geographic News asked: "Is Dark Energy Really Repulsive Gravity?" We quote: "The leading theory to explain the accelerating expansion of the Universe is the existence of a hypothetical repulsive force called dark energy. But in a new study, Massimo Villata, an astrophysicist at the Observatory of Turin in Italy, suggests the effects attributed to dark energy are actually due to a kind of 'anti-gravity' created when normal matter and antimatter repel one another. 'Usually this repulsion is ascribed to a mysterious dark energy that would uniformly permeate the cosmos, but nobody knows what it is nor why it behaves this way,' Villata said."

These are all positive steps—albeit small ones—in the right general direction and we do not belittle them. More and more thinking physicists are now postulating the heretical notion (to science) that gravity is repulsive as well as attractive. One scientist has gone even further in suggesting that: "it's possible that the phenomenon we know of as gravity may be due to the interaction between moving subatomic particles within nucleons." This confirms the statement we quoted earlier from another scientist who deduced the same conclusion from observing the motion of electrons.

Electricity and Magnetism

Science has long regarded electricity and magnetism as a unity. In the 19th century Michael Faraday found the last 'link' between them. But the very fact that the two had to be 'linked' together shows that they are two separate forces, though working in conjunction. Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell then linked them with light and with other waves, and in the process foresaw waves which were then unknown—among them radio waves. If now electromagnetism and 'gravitation' could be shown to act on one another, all physical forces could be united in one grand theory. This was and remains Holy Grail of Science which we mentioned in our article on the Occult Aether. Faraday conducted many experiments to find a possible correlation between gravity and electricity, and after failing time and time again, declared: "they do not shake my strong feeling of the existence of a relation." At this juncture we would like to interject that the latest scientific dictionaries do not attempt to define what 'electricity' actually is; one says "Science is unable to offer any explanation regarding the nature of an electric charge," while under 'magnetism' we are told that it is: "The branch of physics concerned with magnets and magnetic fields."

If all these great scientists—and Faraday, Clerk Maxwell and Einstein were great men indeed—had only known that electricity is Fohat, and that it links all things together whilst that Force which Occult Science calls 'Spirit' holds all things together, the rest would have been easy, though, perhaps, this truth cannot be stated in mathematical formulae. Einstein fused his equations, which describe the non-existing gravitational field, with the equations in which Clerk Maxwell described the electromagnetic field. If this were only a formal combination, it would not have been interesting—or even new. Einstein believed that he had found the reality within the equations, by fusing together the two different kinds of symmetry within them. As always he went behind the equations to their structure, and what he proposed was both deep and original, but alas—not true! Unhappily, he was not able to propose an experiment which would test his theory. Scientists the world over are still debating how Space can be used as a 'laboratory' to test some of these theories, for the conditions required cannot be reproduced on earth. Meanwhile we still stand where Faraday stood two hundred years ago.

Science considers 'gravitation' is so pervasive and so powerful that wherever we are on earth we come under its influence. As we shall see in our afterword, there are conditions under which gravity is seemingly negated. Science does not know why, the reason being that it is dealing with a only one part (attraction) of a half-understood Principle in Nature, the complete Law being Attraction and Repulsion, producing BALANCE as we said earlier. The mathematics of Einstein's general relativity is so 'general' that it gives no practical hint of what might be looked for—again for the same reason just stated: his theory is incomplete.

Faraday invented the concept of the field to describe the forces between magnets; he pictured these forces not as physical emanations from the magnets (though Occult Science affirms they are no less physical than electricity or light), but as a field of strain through the space between them. Clerk Maxwell gave this concept mathematical form, and it runs through physics to this day, helping in this manner to conceal rather than reveal the hidden Laws of Nature.

Einstein's picture of 'gravitation' is also a field: gravity does not stream out of the earth or the sun as Thomas See thought, but is conceived as a distortion of the space around them. This is hopelessly wrong, as we pointed out in the afterword to our article on the equally wrong theory of gravitational waves. According to this wrong concept, a field is therefore essentially continuous; it undulates smoothly everywhere. Yet we know that the minute properties of matter and energy are discontinuous. An electron jumps, a photon of light 'blinks'. How can these leaps and blinks be smoothed out to give a well-mannered field? Most scientists believe that the continuity is only a statistical effect in which the large numbers involved conceal the individual leaps.

But Einstein believed that the reality lies in the continuous field, not in the quantum leap. Leaps are unpredictable, and if it is fundamental to physics that there should be an orderly march of cause and effect. Indeed, some physicists gave up looking for cause and effect in the 'minute' behaviour within the atom, not knowing that this same behaviour occurs in our Solar System, but remains undetected because of the huge difference in size between an atom and a solar system. We explained this behaviour when we discussed atoms and solar systems in our article on why matter matters. No planet has ever been observed to 'jump' but this doesn't mean it is impossible given the enormous time periods involved, as we pointed out in our investigation of the great Cycles of Sleep and Waking to which our Solar System is subject. If Einstein's unified field theory was to reach into the atom the mathematics required must somehow conjure the quantum jumps out of the continuous equations, and fix their very size—which can never happen in any case, for our human ideas of size will prevent this for ever as we said just now.

Nor can mathematics reach out to measure the 'minute' dimensions within the various types of atoms. There are simply no formulae to deal with them adequately. Not that this has deterred physicists from continually churning out figures of some kind, as well as increasingly bizarre ideas, such as string theory, just to keep pace with all their 'new discoveries' in quantum mechanics. As we have said more than once in our articles about the material world, new philosophies and theories have had to be produced in an attempt to explain the various properties of particles which are otherwise quite inexplicable. No one, not even another Einstein, could accomplish such a miracle, and in his last words this peer among scientists called it "a gigantic task", as well he might, if the term 'gigantic' can be applied to the infinitely minute world of the atom.

The Field of Life

Let us sum up all that we have said about the weighty problem of gravity, and so try to come to a sane conclusion about Einstein's theories, and the possibility of finding a still wider theory which will fit and embrace all the fields of physics. We said that there are so many factors at work in physics that Einstein's hope was impossible of fulfilment in this respect, especially as his main theory was based upon false premises, as we have pointed out. But let us remember also that there is one Universal Law—not a mere theory—which postulates that opposites complete one another, and that no material phenomena are possible if either of the opposites is absent. That Law, as our regular readers will remember, is the Hermetic Law of Polarity, discussed and explained in the ninth part of our series of articles on the teachings of Hermes—Spiritus Hermeticum. In other words, attraction is impossible without the presence of its opposite principle—repulsion, the two together creating balance.

If the Hermetic Law of Polarity can be called a Quantum, then we have a Law which fits all physical phenomena; we shall mention this word or term again presently. Occult Science teaches that Time is the reverse of Space, as free Electricity is the reverse of Magnetism, and Attraction the reverse of Repulsion. Each is also the opposite of the other, and both complete one another. Without Space—no Time; without Electricity—no Magnetism; without Attraction—no Repulsion, and vice versa and ad infinitum in each case. This being so, Einstein's 'Field', whether continuous or not, may be compared to and replaced by the magnetic emanations of any thing or body, which emanations stream or undulate out of and surround all things and bodies. These emanations are nothing more nor less than the Life-blood of the Universe, the Field of Life itself which Occult Science calls Fohat or Cosmic Electricity. Fohat, we would remind you, "is the noumenon of the seven primary forces of Cosmic Electricity, whose purely phenomenal, and hence grossest effects are alone cognisable by physicists on the cosmic and especially on the terrestrial plane. These include, among other things, Sound, Light, Colour, etc." Thus speaks H. P. Blavatsky in The Secret Doctrine.

In this connection we would also remind you of a rather curious statement in the Bible: "Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live" (Exodus 33:20). This reprises the ancient belief—common among all the nations of the world long before the advent of Moses, that if any being lower than the Supreme Deity should behold Him in His Full Glory he would immediately be burnt to ashes. This statement becomes perfectly explicable in the light of the fact that any living body can be destroyed and burnt by the appliance of ordinary electricity in a sufficiently high voltage. The magnetic Field of Life is a continuous equation in perfect equilibrium with the live thing or body, filled with that same electricity and emanating magnetism, forming that protective Field.

A 'living' body 'dies' when the electric-natured 'Self' departs from it for good, together with its magnetic, protecting 'Field.' Lifeless things do not die in the same sense, but retain their electric content, or life-blood, as well as their magnetic field for an indefinite period of time. When, however, the time comes, as it must, when their 'life-blood' is also withdrawn, they too perish, fall to pieces, the 'spirit' having departed from them, that which held them together, and the remains are dispersed in various ways. Their magnetic fields are also dispersed, for there is no living, eternal 'Self' in what we call inanimate things, such as there is in plants, animals and men. In lower life-forms this is our old friend the lower self or mind, be it ever so rudimentary, such as we may find in bacteria. In man it is the Higher Self. Hence, all material things come to an end when the 'spirit' leaves them, and their 'Continuous equation' ceases to exist any longer.

Some readers may be unfamiliar with the term 'Quantum' used earlier. Do not allow yourself to be overawed by this scientific term. In physics, a quantum (plural: quanta) is the minimum amount of any physical entity involved in an interaction. From this we may say that the objects we perceive with our outer senses are all quanta in so far as they occupy Space; and so also are the objects of our inner senses, in so far as they occupy Time. This, again, illustrates the Occult Law that Space is the reverse of Time, and Time the reverse, or opposite, of Space. Einstein's Field undulates smoothly only round living things, or around living bodies. Elsewhere it is absent. If electrons leap through these Fields, or photons of light blink through them, that does not affect the smooth flow of the magnetic emanations which form those Fields. Nor was the unified field theory a theory which Einstein believed would reach right into the atom as we said earlier.

The Field emanates from within and surrounds the thing or body: it does not enter them, either in fact or as a theory. But within the atom these same Fields—after emanation from within—surround all things. Occult Science affirms there are fields within fields without end, both at the smallest magnitudes and at the greatest. There is only one Theory—which is a Law—that can prove to us that all this must be so, and that is the Hermetic Law or axiom of "As above, so below; as below, so above," discussed and explained in the eighth part of Spiritus Hermeticum.

Meanwhile, the magnetic emanations from the electrical within surround all things. They act as magnets and attract their opposites, repulsing similarly constituted things and entities endowed with personal Selves, or without the same; causing formative stresses when living beings are thus combined, leading to the birth or the formation of new beings of every kind and gender. But the forces between magnets should not be regarded as fields of creative or even formative strain, though these magnetic emanations are just as physical as electricity in its manifold manifestations. Thus these Fields help to keep that Balance without which a Universe would change into Chaos in Space and Time. The various bodies, objects of every sort, alive or dead, or large or small according to our limited conceptions, move in Space and Time; all partaking of the divine electric Essence of the Maker and the Ruler who controls His Universe in Majesty and Wisdom.

Conclusion

Gravity then is the operation of the Law of Attraction and Repulsion which keeps all things and beings in balance. No Einstein, Clerk Maxwell, Faraday or Stephen Hawking, nor any other human scientist or sage can ever hope to penetrate, much less understand the concealed Wisdom which orders and controls this Law, or any other of the Laws of God. To do so one must needs be the equal of God, and though many scientists may think themselves so, or even deny Him altogether, what God thinks of them is best left unsaid....Yet, the Higher Self of Man, once it has sought and found the path to the Light may obtain a glimpse of the Holy Truths we have endeavoured to bring before your inner sight in this investigation, and hence comprehend something of the wondrous tapestry woven by the God of Gods for the instruction of those that love Him.

It is He, the Supreme Deity, who attracts and gathers unto himself the Sons of Light in time, and gives them strength to share with Him a particle of that vast Light and Wisdom in perfect equilibrium and Peace. And the lesser Gods, Lords of Suns and Planets, seated upon their Thrones of Splendour among the starry hosts of Heaven, utter Wisdom to one another in the midnight circuit of the planets and the suns. And their holy whisper may at times reach the within of a few earnest Seekers who consider in deepest silence the message received about the Laws of God, imbibing Truth and being blest with Understanding beyond the ken of the dry-as-dust scientist who sees no further than the end of his superior nose—if that far. Such, dear reader are the mathematics of the Soul attuned with God in everlasting union, which is the Portal and the Way to liberation from earthly theories of error.

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Defying gravity

In this afterword to our article we consider the phenomena of levitation and anti-gravity

The gravity-defying phenomena of levitation has rarely been better explained than in the preface to Isis Unveiled by H. P. Blavatsky.

"A symbolical explanation of aethrobacy is given in an old Syriac manuscript which was translated in the fifteenth century by one Malchus, an alchemist. In connection with the case of Simon Magus, one passage reads thus: Simon, laying his face upon the ground, whispered in her ear, 'O mother Earth, give me, I pray thee, some of thy breath; and I will give thee mine; let me loose, O mother, that I may carry thy words to the stars, and I will return faithfully to thee after a while.' And the Earth strengthening her status, none to her detriment, sent her genius to breathe of her breath on Simon, while he breathed on her; and the stars rejoiced to be visited by the mighty One."

The meaning of the enigmatical passage Blavatsky quotes has been cloaked in allegory and symbolism in the time honoured manner employed by all genuine alchemists and mystics. Before we try to discover what the writer was really referring to we should explain that aethrobacy (from the Greek 'Aithrobates') is the archaic term for levitation which means 'walking or being lifted in the air.'

Madame Blavatsky goes on to tell us that this faculty may be either conscious or unconscious; if conscious it is Magic, if unconscious it is either a disease or a power which requires a few words of elucidation. Let us begin by reminding you of the recognized electro-chemical principle that bodies similarly electrified repel each other, while those differently electrified attract one another; a fact that anyone may demonstrate to their complete satisfaction with a simple horseshoe magnet. Blavatsky continues:

"The earth is a magnetic body; in fact, as some scientists have found, it is one vast magnet, as Paracelsus affirmed some 300 years ago. It is charged with one form of electricity—let us call it positive—which it evolves continuously by spontaneous action, in its interior or centre of motion. Human bodies, in common with all other forms of matter, are charged with the opposite form of electricity—negative. That is to say, organic or inorganic bodies, if left to themselves will constantly and involuntarily charge themselves with, and evolve the form of electricity opposed to that of the earth itself. Now, what is weight? Simply the attraction of the earth."

How can we get rid of this attraction? According to the electrical law just stated, there is an attraction between our planet and the organisms upon it, which holds them upon the surface of the ground. Occult Science teaches that the condition of our physical systems is largely dependent upon the action of our will. If well-regulated, it can produce seeming 'miracles' and we are at once in the domain of both Alchemy and Magic. Among the changes these sciences can bring about is an alteration in electrical polarity from negative to positive.

A person's relations with the earth-magnet would then become repellent, and so-called 'gravity' would cease to exist for them. It would then be as natural for them to rush into the air until the repellent force had exhausted itself, as, before, it had been for them to remain upon the ground. The altitude of their levitation would be measured by their ability, greater or less, to charge their body with positive electricity. Once such supernormal, but not supernatural, control over the physical forces of attraction and repulsion had been obtained, alteration of altitude would be as easy as breathing.

We mentioned earlier that Madame Blavatsky stated that levitation could also be caused by some disorder. This is what she had to say: "The study of nervous diseases has established that even in ordinary somnambulism [sleepwalking], as well as in hypnotised subjects, the weight of the body seems to be diminished. In the 19th century Professor Perty mentioned a somnambulist by the name of Koehler, who, when in water, could not sink, but floated. The Seeress of Prevorst rose to the surface of her bath and could not be kept seated in it. There is the case of Anna Fleisher, who, being subject to epileptic fits, was often seen to rise in the air; and was once, in the presence of two trustworthy witnesses (two deans) and others, raised seven feet from her bed in a horizontal position.

"The similar case of Margaret Rule is cited by Upham in his History of Salem Witchcraft. Professor Perty also stated that in ecstatic subjects the rising in the air occurs much more frequently than with somnambulists. We are so accustomed to consider gravitation as being a something absolute and unalterable, that the idea of a complete or partial rising in opposition to it seems inadmissible; nevertheless, there are phenomena in which, by means of material forces, gravitation is overcome. In several diseases—as, for instance, nervous fever—the weight of the human body seems to be increased, but in all ecstatic conditions to be diminished. And there may, likewise, be other forces than material ones which can counteract this power."

In these examples we see the same electrical laws at work as those which allowed Simon Magus to fly through the air like a bird. Were our modern physicians equipped with diagnostic tools that could measure electrical polarity they would find that such patients are strongly charged with positive electricity. So far as we are aware no such tools yet exist, but may be discovered in the future.

The annals of 19th-century spiritualism are filled with references to human levitation, as well as tables, chairs and other objects gaining or losing weight without intervention. Vera Petrovna Zhelikhovskaya—Blavatsky's sister—relates an example of this in her letters. The incident in question took place at the home of their mutual friends, the Yakhontovs. Blavatsky was telling her brother Leonid and her father Peter that is was possible for certain persons to make light objects so heavy it was impossible to lift them; and others which were naturally heavy as light as a feather. Vera takes up the narrative:

"And you mean to say that you can do it?" asked her brother.
"Mediums can, and I have done it occasionally; though I cannot always answer for its success," coolly replied Mme. Blavatsky.

"But would you try?" asked somebody in the room; and immediately all joined in requesting her to do so.

"I will try," she said, "but I beg of you to remember that I promise nothing. I will simply fix this chess table. He who wants to make the experiment, let him lift it now, and then try again after I shall have fixed it."

"Do you mean to say that you will not touch the table at all?" asked her father.
"Why should I touch it?" answered Mme. Blavatsky with a quiet smile.

Upon hearing the extraordinary assertion, one of the young men went determinedly to the small chess table and lifted it up as though it were a feather. "All right," said Mme. Blavatsky. "Now kindly leave it alone and stand back!"

All, holding their breath, anxiously watched for what Madame Blavatsky would do next. She apparently, however, did nothing at all. She merely fixed her large blue eyes upon the chess table, and kept looking at it with an intense gaze. Then without removing her gaze, she silently, with a motion of her hand, invited the same young man to remove it. He approached, and grasped the table by its leg with great assurance. The table could not be moved! He then seized it with both his hands. The table stood as though screwed to the floor. He grew red with the effort, but all in vain!

The young man, looking very much confused, slowly said, "Well, this is a good joke!"
"Indeed, it is a good one!" echoed her brother Leonid. A suspicion had crossed his mind that the young visitor was acting in secret confederacy with his sister. "May I also try?" he suddenly asked her.
"Please do, my dear," was the laughing response.

Her brother upon this, approached, smiling, and seized the table by its leg. But the smile instantly vanished, to give place to an expression of mute amazement. He gave it a tremendous kick, but the little table did not even budge. Applying to its surface his powerful chest he entirely enclosed it. "How strange!" he said, with a wild expression of astonishment. Addressing him with her usual careless laugh, Mme. Blavatsky said, "Try and lift it now." Pulling it upward by a leg, Leonid nearly dislocated his arm. It lifted like a feather!"

Here ends Vera Zhelikhovskaya's extraordinary account of the power of the human will to overcome so-called 'gravity.' Many mediums could and did produce the same phenomena unconsciously with the aid of so-called 'spirits' which H. P. Blavatsky accomplished consciously by manipulating the Law of Attraction and Repulsion.

The 19th century medium Daniel Dunglas Home (1833-1886) is perhaps the most famous of these mediums. His first recorded levitation took place at a séance in August 1852. Later he was able to levitate at will, and believed he was lifted up by the 'spirits' he could see. In reality these were the elementals described in Vision Five of The Golden Star on spiritualism.

The English physicist and psychic investigator Sir William Crookes (1832-1919) saw Home levitate on several occasions and verified that there was no trickery involved. On one occasion, Crookes' wife, who was sitting beside Home, was raised off the ground in her chair.

Readers may be surprised to learn that levitation remains one of the criteria recognised by the Catholic Church as indicative of demonic possession. In 1906 a 16-year-old schoolgirl from South Africa, Clara Germana Cele, who the local priest believed was possessed by devils, levitated up to five feet off the ground, sometimes vertically and sometimes horizontally. However, she fell to the ground when she was sprinkled with holy water! If you believe that part of this tale then pigs really can fly—unless, of course, they are sprinkled with holy water by a devout Catholic priest!

Anti-gravity

Many experiments conducted during the last century have established a clear connection between electromagnetism and gravity. The American physicist Erwin Saxl (1904-1981) found that when a torsion pendulum was positively charged, it took longer to swing through its arc than when it was negatively charged. French physicist Maurice Allais (1911-2010) conducted several experiments in 1953 to investigate the action of a magnetic field on the motion of a glass pendulum oscillating inside a solenoid, and concluded that there was a connection between electromagnetism and gravity.

In 1970's American physicist Bruce DePalma (1935-1997) conducted numerous experiments showing that rotation and rotating magnetic fields can have anomalous gravitational and inertial effects. A more controversial experimenter is John R. R. Searl, born in Wantage in Berkshire in 1932. When he was just 17 and newly apprenticed as an electrical technician, he discovered that a small voltage was induced in spinning metal objects. The negative charge was on the outside and the positive charge was around the centre of rotation. He reasoned that free electrons were thrown out by centrifugal force, leaving a positive charge in the centre.

In 1952 he constructed a generator based on this principle which lifted off the ground, and while still accelerating, rose to a height of about 50 feet. It reportedly caused local radio receivers to go on of their own accord. Searl, now nearly ninety, claims that he and his colleagues subsequently built over 50 versions of what has come to be known as his 'levity disc.'

He also claims to have been persecuted by the authorities, resulting in wrongful imprisonment and the destruction of most of his work. This has led orthodox scientists to dismiss him as a delusional fraudster. Yet, subsequent research by many independent scientists from around the world suggests that the electromagnetic effect he discovered is genuine.

In the late 1990's two Russian scientists, Vladimir. V. Roschin and Sergey M. Godin, carried out an experiment with a Searl-type generator and observed a 35% weight reduction, anomalous magnetic-field effects, and a fall in temperature. They concluded that physics cannot explain these results. In 2002, a Canadian physicist, Dr Paulo Correa assisted by his wife Alexandra demonstrated that gravity can be controlled by electric means. In one experiment, a piece of gold leaf weighing 43mg was suspended from the arm of a wooden beam connected to a sensitive electronic balance and reduced in weight by 70%.

Unless we wish to dismiss all such experiments as hoaxes and the many hundreds of scientists around the world seriously investigating so-called 'anti-gravity' effects and devices as fraudsters, it is not unreasonable to conclude that gravity, as we showed in our article at left, is not what science currently thinks it is, nor does it operate in the manner predicted by the so-called 'laws' of physics.

occult mysteries