Mental alchemy

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MENTAL ALCHEMY.

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MIND, NERVOUS SYSTEM, PSYCHOLOGY, MAGNETISM, MESMERISM, AND DISEASES.

In QLwlvz Chapters.

B. BROWN WILLIAMS, M. D.

NEW YORK: FOWLERS AND WELLS, PUBLISHERS,

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1852, by

B. BROWN WILLIAMS,

in the ClerK s Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District

of New York.

N. V. STEREOTYPE ASSOCIATION,

201 William Street.

TO

JAMES JOINER, ESQ..

? ATTORNEY-AT-LAW,

WASHINGTON, N. C,

Dear Sir, Having from our early boyhood enjoyed the pleasure of your friendship, the impressions which those associations made upon me have never been effaced from my remembrance, but have grown with my growth and strengthened with my strength; I beg, therefore, as a slight token of rny regard, to dedicate to you this little work

Very respectfully, your friend,

THE AUTHOR,

Preface

The twelve chapters comprising this little work, are the outlines of the lectures which we have been delivering for the last few years upon the interesting subjects of nature and mind. They are merely our deductions, and are presented for the inspection of the world, in as plain a manner as it was possible for us to do under existing circumstances. All that we wish in relation to the new ideas respecting physical and mental absorption is, that they may be understood in the manner in which they are expressed. They are not intended for the purpose of taking precedence over the received philosophy of man's physical and mental nature, but for the purpose of presenting the expressed relation and dependence of his being upon the elements of the universe.

We have nothing to do with the speculations and philosophy of other men, nor do we desire any thing from the world but a careful perusal of the following chapters, upon what we suppose to be the most interesting subjects that pertain to human existence. If the reader shall conclude that our deductions are in accordance with the finger-boards of nature, and shall see himself, by means of the lights presented, more plainly, it is all that we desire. It is clear, however, that the present exhibitions in mental alchemy cannot be properly analyzed by the rules of mental and physical philosophy which now obtain. The application of its rules already have made hundreds look with wonder and amazement, and exclaim they are supernatural, while others cry humbug and collusion at first, and after finding they are mistaken, speak of them as doing away with the miracles of better and former days. *

Nature, therefore, should be sifted, as far as we are able to do so, in order to a proper understanding of the subject, that the facts connected therewith may become intelligible. To prove their untruth would be to prove that two parallel straight lines would ultimately meet.

Ti PREFACE.

It matters not if lecturers have presented the inferior departments of this subject in such a ridiculous light as to produce disgust. It is still a truth, and will remain so as long as man is in the possession of a nervous system, and is dependent upon external nature for his vitality. What others, however, have done and written, is a matter between them and the public, and they must stand or fall according as the strength of the platform which they have erected may be.

Without egotism on our part, we would state, that all the private classes we have ever taught have given us cards expressing their full satisfaction in every particular in the instructions received. We have now in our possession the cards of more than a hundred classes, some of which numbered from fifty to three hundred gentlemen, among whom are many of the most learned men in the land. All, without an exception, speak the same language in relation to the instructions and the philosophy advanced in support of the astounding phenomena exhibited. Therefore, if the science of mental alchemy is not true, it certainly stands without a parallel in the history of the world.

The most learned have said, that the philosophy of this condition of things can never be explained. We do not say that it is explained in the following chapters ; but the deductions which they contain are the fruits of an humble indigenous plant of the old north state, and they are respectfully presented to the reader for his approval or disapproval.

Chapter III

Man's Spiritual System further Discussed — The Subject of Communication between Man and the Spiritual World Considered, and its Natural Impossibility Presented — The Entrance of a Being into the Spiritual World analagous to the Introduction of a Human Being into this Life 33

Chapter IV

The Natural and Spiritual World — Their different Systems, Stratas, and Elements— They are both Created — They are not God — The Spiritual and Material Nature of Man Considered — Distinction between Mind and Intellect — Motion the Result of the Spirit — The Law of Equilibrium does not hold with Mind as with Matter 43

Chapter V

Doctrine of Absorption — Clod of Earth and Water — The Falling of an Apple — Mind adapted to Impressions — The Body to Absorption — External Elements — Reactive difference between Mind and Matter — Mind and its own Thunder-showers — Its wonderful Nature — Innate Development of its own Faculties — Mixed up Condition of the Organs in Mental Philosophy 60

Chapter VI

The Influence of Atmospherical Electricity upon the Nervous System of Man — Elements in the External World Produce like Elements in our Bodies— The Electro- Reactive Trinity of the Nervous System— Our Natural and Spiritual Vitality is Inductive — The Instinctive Faculties come from the same Source as our Spirits — Influence Exerted by Impressions against the Power of the Will— Striking Instances Related — Method of ascertaining the Electricel Condition of the System. 71 viii CONTENTS.

Chapter VII

Reactive Condition of the Nervous System further considered — Action of Will and Mind — Conflicting Forces of Electricity — Equality produces Death — Illustration respecting Motion and Life— Oneness of Action on the part of the Will of the Infinite Page 84

Chapter VIII

Philosopher's Stone — Power of the Will — Absorption, Extraneous Impressions, Will, and Vis-medicatrix Naturse — Philosophy of Sleep — Insanity the Reverse of the Positive Electro-reactive State — Mosaic Account of Creation — Experiment in Vegetative Creation — Geologists answered 98

Chapter IX

Alchemistic Control — The Reason of that Control — Intelligence, the Result of Electrical Agency — One System more Reactive than Another — Succession of Electrical Disturbances — Physical Trinity of the Nervous System — Kow to Ascertain that Trinity — How to Change its Reactivity — Will of God — Oneness of Action of the Will in Producing Reactive Changes — How to Experiment Properly — Influences not Supernatural — Request to Physicians and Skeptics— Cannot Square-rule the Nervous System as it now is—The Reason Why 11 8

- ELECTRICAL PSYCHOLOGY.

Chapter X

Sir David Brewster — Nature and the Will of Deity — Example— Philosophic Necessity se aside — Skepticism by Magnetizing — Zinc and Copper Plates — Buck Eyes in Piles- Fluid of the Ulnar Nerve — The Name, Electrical Psychology — Card of Approbation — Its Practice Publicly — Gazing at an Object — The great Desideratum 140

HUMAN MAGNETISM AND MESMERISM.

CHAPTER XL

Vitality of the Brain— Atmospheric Undulations— The Senses— Impressions supported beyond Consciousness— Mental Faculties— Their Secretions— Thought and Electricity —The Thoughts of Others— Their Reception explained— Two Ducks in a Pond— German Writer and Teacher— Case in Miiledgeville, Geo.— Practice of Magnetism and Mesmerism—A Card— Dr. Eisdale— The Effects of these Conditions upon the System . 152

DISEASES AND THEIR MODE 0? CURE.

Chapter XII

The Brain— Throwing a Stone— Its Disturbance of the Nervous System— Co-cperativo Influence of Mind— The Vis-medicatrix Naturse— Source of Mental and Physical Development—Consultations, Physical and Mental— The Will— Involuntary Reflex Discharges—Life not Electricity, but a Principle of Spirit— How Developed— Mental Impressions Authoritative— An Appeal to Nature 171

MENTAL ALCHEMY.

Chapter I

The relation of Mind to Matter — Action and Reaction of the Nervous System — Analogy between the Corporeal System of Man and the Universe — Man's Spiritual Nature an Emanation from the Spiritual World.

In taking a careful view of the past as well as the present, it is clear, that philosophers materially differ in their deductions in regard to the relation which mind bears to matter, and in regard to the legitimate action of the nervous system in the support of physical and mental operations.

We wish it distinctly understood, that we do not venture deductions in opposition to those that now obtain ; but our purpose is merely to call attention to the practical phenomena that mental alchemy has developed. If the philosopher or physiologist should, from these developments, discover any thing deficient, or any thing that should be added to the great intellectual and physical fabric, or any thing that may have a tendency to cause it still further to unfold its mysteries, the object we have in view will be realized. Without any display of words then, we simply mean, by this term, mental alchemy, the expressed action of the nervous system in cardrying impressions to the mind, and the reaction of the mind upon the same, in the support of its mental as well as physical nature. Action and reaction, therefore, become the two important lights to direct us, so that we may understandingly realize the great principles of human nature, as developed within the periphery of nervo-vital action.

The organized arrangement of each human being is a system of the highest finite order ; and as it is perfectly clear that every system presupposes a center, we recognize the brain as the great vital center of each physical organization. The solar system itself is but a physical organization, the center of which is the sun. All the parts have a family dependence upon each other, and in their operations above, below, and around us, we behold each finer division playing harmoniously into other coarser divisions, and in these, the most sublime of all operations, it is clear that, vitally, the sun is the main point or center. How much can we understand, in a natural sense, about the nature of the being we call man, unless we carefully view him in his relation to this great system, upon which his very existence depends 7 Must w r e not lay before us a something, that in some degree corresponds to his existence, in order to understand the laws physiologically by which his being is governed? Can the mind understandingly absorb an impression, save by contrasting it with something else ? Can the mind, while in connection with the body, understand the meaning of the word good, except by contrast with bad ? Could the mind appreciate the superiority of intellect of a Webster, if there were none inferior with which to contrast it ? Is it possible, then, that the spirit of man ever absorbed an impression, intellectually and understandingly, unless it passed through the fiery ordeal of contrast? If not, we are compelled to consider the different systems of man in their relations and aptitudes to this grand and physicial organization, which has the sun for its center. Is there any other through the light of which we can properly see him ? Is there any other that gives the materials for his body than the elements of the globe — water, atmosphere, gases, and electricity ? If there is not, then we hold that this is the one with which he should be contrasted, for the purpose of looking at him through the light of nature. What is man? If we were simply to present his physical and mental emotions, as a being capable of becoming impressed with a love for his Creator, for nature, and for art, and in the possession of powers which can reflect him back to the time when the morning sun received his primeval step as the great center of our solar system, and in this wide domain of fancy, of pleasure, and of thought, to experience, and almost feel, the influence of that indescribable jubilee, when

" The morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for

joy,"

this answer would fall far short of the points essential to the practical investigation of the subject now before us.

We therefore take nature at her w T ord, and answer, that he is a finite being, and, so far as his physical creation extends, made on mechanical principles ; that is, that he is a being whose physical nature, at least, is found to possess, finitely, all the different kingdoms, elements, and compartments which compose the universe. As such, if we have before us, as a part of the external fabric, the globe or terrestrial, as its coarsest division, we have in man his bony system, and adjacent elements or departments, correspondent thereto, as his coarsest division. If we rise one step higher, to the aqueous kingdom, with its circulation filling the terrestrial with its moistening and soluble presence, we have corresponding thereto in man his blood and fluids, frolicking through their fixed, and sometimes anastomosing channels, even down to the very marrow or pith of the bones. If we rise still higher, we find another kingdom or division, extending to the distance of fifty miles above the earth's surface, called the gaseous, atmospherical, or respiratory; we have corresponding thereto in man, the lungs and their appendages, as his atmospheric and gaseous department, for the constant respiration, retention, and consumption of the elements of these external systems, as seen in the economy of respiration.

If the theory of Newton be true (and philosophers almost generally, in this particular, do not differ), we shall find that we have another kingdom or division of the external world extending to the sun — if you please an emanation or effluvium from the sun — known as the ether of Newton, the electricity of Franklin, and the electric fluid of Sir James Murray. This, it will be perceived, comes from a distance of ninety-five millions of miles to our globe, from the great material head of the external solar and physical organization.

Has not man a nervous system, which, in its operative movements, at least, speaks within the nature of this emanation, w T hich also extends from the center to the periphery of his physical organization ?

We have now nam^d four different kingdoms or divisions of the external world, the elements of w T hich are, unquestionably, absorbed by the different systems in man, and by this absorption alone is his finite system supported and maintained. Hence there is an adaptation of means to ends — on the part of the stomach to the reception of food and water, on the part of the lungs to the reception and absorption of the atmosphere and gases, and on the part of the nervous system to the absorption or respiration of the electrical fluid of the atmosphere.

At the fourth we would stop, if our interpretation of things would warrant us to do so, and present the hypothesis of the attractive force by the electrical or last-mentioned system, as many have done, as being supreme ; but almost knowing, and fully believing, such hypothesis to be erroneous, we shall name the fifth, or last, or interior kingdom, as the spiritual, from which, from the mechanical connection of things, all that we have named, according to the constitution of the universe, not only absorb their vitality, but present a spiritual influence interiorly to the electrical throughout nature. We see an illustration of this in the spirit that looks out from behind the sparklings of the eye.

When we look abroad into nature, therefore, is there any thing unreasonable in the supposition that from this interior kingdom or world come motion, power, and life, as well as the vital energy of man ? Must not that part of man, in the very nature of things, which possesses the power to reason and to think, receive its existence from this interior world, of which it is a part and parcel, as much as his material body, with its different systems, receive their elements from the material world of which it is a part and parcel? Does not the doctrine of absorption, by the adaptation of means to ends, as well as the very nature of our existence, force upon us this conclusion ? Hence there is truth in the hypothesis, that the universe itself is composed of two grand and distinct systems, with divisions which play harmoniously into each other division, the natural and the spiritual. Look at them, and behold the spiritual acting upon the electrical, the electrical, with its incomprehensible elasticity, acting upon the globe and its appendages, producing all its various movements, that our meaning may be clearly understood.

Infinite and sublime are the multifarious operations that come within this consideration of the universe, the center of which is the sun, and the circumference illimitable space.

Now ; look at the mind or spirit through the brain, as it acts upon the elastic fluid of the nervous sj^stem, producing the voluntary and involuntary discharges to its circumference, and to the relaxation and contraction of the muscles of the heart in the vital movement, of from twenty-five to forty-five pounds of blood throughout the circulating system, with its periodical revolutions, and we have here, finitely, a corresponding operation.

We now have before us, clearly and distinctly, five systems or kingdoms, which comprise the universe, and five corresponding thereto, finitely, which are directly concerned in the operations of special human existence. It is easy enough to perceive the harmonious action with which each division plays into each other division in the support of their vital operations, one being dependent upon the other. Are they not more and more rarefied and perfect as the} 7 rise above each other? And is not each coarser so constructed and built as to absorb the finer ? Is it not plain, when we look abroad into the external world, at the rarefied and aerial condition of the electrical fluid, and at the less rarefied condition of the atmosphere and gases, that the latter permits the absorption of the former — the one above and beyond it ; and the less rarefied condition of the aqueous division permits the absorption of the atmosphere and gases ; and the still less rarefied condition of the globe permits the absorption of water.

Here we have the doctrine of universal absorption as it obtains throughout nature. Behold the presence of the electrical fluid everywhere, and object, if you can, to the idea of this fluid filling the legitimate office of the nervous system of the world ; but still it remains as the great chemical solvent, as well as the motive power, of nature. There it is, and will ever be, the great connecting link between the spiritual * and the material world, as the nervous system of man is the connecting one between his mental and physical existence.

What lesson did the God of nature impart in creating the different divisions of the universe which are tangible — one more and more rarefied and perfect than another, as they rise above each other, and as they thus rise requiring less and less force to move them, at least, in bulk — if it were not by analogy to lead the mind, in its contemplations, to that kingdom whose very nature is motion and purity? Does it not require more force to move the same bulk of the particles of the globe than it does of the same bulk of water — more force to move the same bulk of water than atmosphere — more to move the same bulk of atmosphere than electricity? And does not the smallest touch, or close contact even, give impulse to the electrical fluid? If so, it is presented in its official, mechanical, and chemical relations as the fourth kingdom — not of nature alone, but of the universe — standing, as it were, poised between the two worlds. If it is in a condition *so easy to move, and in its passage outstripped from point to point only by thought, we see no reason why the one still beyond in rarefaction, purity, and power, may not be looked upon as the highest and most sublime of all kingdoms composed of systems and elements, with their different stratas — if we may be allowed the expression, to be understood — entirely different in all their particulars. This, then, must be, in the nature of things, the presignification of all lower systems of a nature to move and to react, perfect, indestructible, and eternal. From this, man derives his spiritual body, and all animals below him their instinctive and reactive nature, according to their different instinctive and spiritual origins. Hence the mind of man is not of a nature to desire sleep, but simply the resting of one of its properties — the will — for the recuperation of the vital forces of the body.

The nature to feel, taste, smell, see, and hear, as well as the various grades of instinct, and intellectual susceptibility of thought and power, all belong to the bodies derived from this interior world.

The spirit of man, from the nature of its origin, is stationed on a mental elevation, where he may be rendered capable of comprehending the relation between cause and effect. And, although in common with instinctive nature, chained to earth by the laws of gravitation, and compelled to move upon the same clods with the worm, yet, by the high prerogative of his being, he can, w T ith one mental effort, elevate his majestic brow above all material incumbrances, and experience sweet converse with the skies.

If, then, the mechanical connection of these different kinddoms of the external and internal universe before us are plainly seen, a specimen of architecture magnificent and awfully sublime in all its parts, as well as supreme in the splendor of its workmanship, opens itself before us, as a production worthy of its great Author. Will not a finite development of the same systems, put together upon mechanical principles, with their great variety of physical and mental dispensations, constitute all that we can possibly conceive of in the special existence of a human being? Look at these as they now stand finitely before us, and do we not see man, in his natural and spiritual fabric, in a light too clear to require further explanation 1 In fact, a combination of these different systems and elements makes the human being, while their high and proper use, physiologically and mentally, makes the man.

This is our answer, in a general sense, to the question, " What is man?" In an especial consideration we desire now to look at him for one moment. Is it a truth, that the solid and gaseous portions of the universe lie at the foundation of the existence of the solids and fluids of nan's body 1 If this be so, it will also follow, from the special adaptation of means to ends, that the atmospheric and gaseous system has as much to do with the vital existence of his respiratory system. Does the electrical impart to the nervous system of man, as well as to the voltaic eel, its peculiar nature and quickness of action? If so, it must have something to do with its vital and special existence. Now, then, we have the doctrine of special absorption before us, through the light of which we behold the fluids and solids of nature absorbed and digested into the system, forming bone and muscle ; the lungs absorb the atmosphere and gases, by the opening and closing of which we constantly absorb a finite portion from the great respiratory system of external nature ; and by the respira- \ tory action of the nerves, minutely ramified upon the surface, we absorb (mostly w T hen asleep) a supply of electricity from the atmosphere. These exercise their specific influence, and impart their peculiar nature to our existence, according to their condition and the power of our systems to absorb the good and reject the bad.

It certainly appears, from the nature of things, conclusive, that our mental system and being is just as much an emanation from, and bears the same relation to, the interior or spiritual w T orld beyond, that our material bodies do to those we have named as systems with their different strata^ and elements. In the very constitution of the universe this must be so. It is impossible for finite power even to imagine the existence of fluids and solids in the body without the prior existence of fluids and solids in nature. When and where, we respectfully ask, did nature eve* speak a different language in relation to the spiritual existence of man ? In the wide domain of fancy, to which the minds of men have been attracted, we are aware that they have spoken differently, in consequence of which, man has been looked upon almost as an isolated being. But we see man rising forth in bis majesty from two worlds, with a spirit and a body which apparently make but one. The one, that reasons, thinks, perceives, and feels, itself unseen by mortal eyes, comes, in the nature of things, from the world also unseen by mortal eyes. The other, which is seen, emanates from the world whieh is seen ; and by the great doctrine of special absorption, which connects the spirit of man with the spiritual world and his body with the natural world, are his two existences maintained.

But if the philosophy of many be true, his body is in possession of a something that came from nothing, or, in other words, that something is merely the result of certain impressions, and not an emanation from the invisible world, which seems to be the highest link in the great chain of creation, filled with different systems and stratas, of which the ma terial world is but a mere impression.

Now, then, if we look at the special creation of man through the imaginations of other men, and not through the real developments of the universe, and expect, under such circumstances, to understand the physical and mental phenomena which the absorption of impressions from the authority of the nervous system presents, our disappointment is sure. All the systems that make the human being have a mutual dependance upon each other, and as is the m case in the external world, they, in their turn of relations, acknowledge their vital dependence upon those that are higher, and those that are higher acknowledge the supreme sovereignty of the universe ; that is, those that are put together finitely to make the man are not independent, but constantly receive, by inductive absorption, the elements of all their vital movements. So far as we are able to understand the mechanical, natural, and constitutional spirit of things, we cannot believe the mere opinions of men, when a belief in those opinions would cause us to isolate the special from the general developments of the universe. They are together by the attractive law of God. They were moved into existence by His almighty fiat, and we have no reason to believe, therefore, that the first link will be broken to accommodate the imaginative hypothesis of mortality, or to suit the views of a world of finite beings, when those views separate man from the great fountain of nature and of spirit.

Chapter II

The Elements or Systems comprising the Material World — An Error in Medical Practice — Nature our unerring Guide — Man an Epitome of the Universe — The Nature and Office of Electricity — The Spiritual System of Man.

It would, perhaps, be well to remark, that the subject already before us appears too vast for finite comprehension. One thing is certain, however, that the universe is unquestionably divided off into systems and stratas, and that one is absorbed by the other. This, we know, could not be, if they were of the same degree of rarefaction.

Now, then, the question may with some degree of propriety be asked, what is the universe ? We answer, that, separate and apart /from the ^terrestrial division, thl aqueous/atmospheric, electrical, and spiritual, the mind of man could have no idea of the universe. Is not each division more and more rarefied and pure, as well as more powerful in its convulsive movements, as it rises above the other ? Has the convulsive arm of the stirring gale the power of the thunderbolt ? Has the thunderbolt the power of the mind which spoke, and through its agency controlled the waves of the ocean ?

What, then, is the material world? We answer, that the terrestrial, the oceanic, the atmospheric, and electrical divisions, mechanically put together, as they are, above, below, and around us, constitute the material world. These dismissed from the mind, any knowledge of materiality would be impossible. And we would respectfully ask, were not these different systems spoken into existence by that Being to whose inspection the wisdom of all worlds is but fearful foolishness ? Can we expect that nature, which seems primarily to reside in the fourth system of the universe, or the electrical fluid, dispensing her positive and negative influences in the >same, over the material w T orld, w T ould loose her strong-hold, even if she had the authority from that Being who arms her with power ? Can she cling for vital support to finite arms, tossed about on the tumultuous ocean of conjecture, or accommodate herself to the rules of imaginative philosophy 1

If, then, all the rules which govern every system of nature, in a general sense, primarily, reside in the electricity of the universe, as well as specially in the nervous system — one the agent of the power that obtains in the spiritual world, the other the agent of the finite power that obtains in the material body — how can we expect a change of those rules to correspond with our peculiar deductions, stimulated as they are in many instances by the wildest secretions of the imagination ? Look at it. Was there not a time when the learned philosophy of the land, in a medical consideration, spoke to thirsty and diseased nature, burning with fever, demanding water, You mistake — you do not want it — you do not require it, and you shall not have it? Did they not, clothed with the power of science, and the medical usages of the day, even set a watch over the patient at the midnight hour, to prevent him from allaying his thirst — to prevent him from drinking at the living fountain of nature, because they believed, by the rules which had been established for them in physiology, that if the patient did drink, it would be certain death 1 Did not learned men absorb these rules, and were they not governed by them at the bedside of patients'? Did they not honestly believe them to be true 1 And what occasioned that belief, if it were not their education 1