392 



The Review of Reviews. 



OCCULTISM IN THE MAGAZINES. 



TiiK .'Unidles dcs Sciences Psychiques for February 

 contains a long account of tlie work of the late Dr. 

 H. Imoda on the medium Mile. Linda Gazzera. The 

 preface of the book is written b)' Professor Richet, 

 and Mile. Gazzera seems to be a remarkable medium. 

 She is two-and-twenty years of age. and in her presence 

 all the usual phenomena occur — the movement of 

 objects without contact, materialisation, apports, and 

 in her case Xht materialised forms were photographed. 

 Dr. Imoda was the director of a home for nervous 

 patients near Turin. He had experimented with 

 Eusapia Palladino, but Mile. Linda Gazzera appears 

 superior to Eusapia Palladino in many respects. The 

 Aiinales publishes a discussion upon Mile. Gazzera's 

 mediumship, which look place at the Societe Univer- 

 selle d'Etudes Psychiques. 



In the same review I am surprised to discover that 

 I have received the honour of knighthood, for an article 

 which I contributed to the January number of La Revue 

 Spirite is noticed as haxing been written by " Sir 

 William T. Stead, le cclebre publiciste anglais." The 

 article in question summarises under five heads the 

 conclusions at which I have arrived after nearly 

 twenty years' stud)- of the invisible world. My state- 

 ment is chiefly to do with the multiplicity of per- 

 sonalities, and, as the editor of Les Aniiales says, " les 

 paroles de Sir W. Stead are only a proclamation of the 

 subliminal consciousness of Mr. M)'ers." 



In the same number I read with much interest the 

 following announcement : — " The society which was 

 recently founded in Paris under the name of the 

 French Institute of Psychical Research, which has at 

 its head Messrs. Lancelin and Lcfranc, has decided to 

 organise a ' Bureau Julia ' in Paris. Notwithstanding 

 its name this Bureau will have a very different object 

 from that which ' Sir William T. Stead ' has founded 

 in London, for it proposes the identification of 

 phantoms by means of the dactyloscopic, of direct 

 writing, photography, etc." The pamphlet describing 

 the organisation of the " Bureau Julia " is published 

 in Paris at one franc by M. Lefranc, 5, Rue Nicolas- 

 Flamel. 



In the new numlnr of the Quest. Mr. G. R. S. Mead 

 publishes an article on " The Rising Psychic Tide," in 

 which he dwells upon the abundant evidence that 

 surrounds us as to the growth of the belief in the 

 so-called supernatural, which foreshadows a recon- 

 ciliation between science and religion, and the dawning 

 of the power of the immediate intuition of the purpose 

 of life. What that purpose is Mr. Mead attempts to 

 define : — 



The iriosl praclicilly nior.il failh lluis seems to me lo require 

 the lielief th.il iiiHier the t;iii(hiiice of iJivine I'rovidence ll e 

 soul of huiiianily is working lowanls an organisation ami 

 harmonisalion of its indiviilual units tliat will enable it lo 

 reach a self-consciousness of its own proper order, and that this 

 higher consciousness can gradually be shared in by the individual 

 in proportion as he subordinates his interests to those ol the 

 whole. 



In the new numl.icr of the London Magazine Mr. Eden 

 Phillpotls contributes a short piece of fiction concern- 

 ing an astral lady in a railway carriage. The story 

 tells how a doctor saw a vision of a lady in an appa- 

 rently empty first-class compartment ; how he imme- 

 diately afterwards discovered her " corpse " under the 

 seat ; how with great effort he revived the corpse and 

 secured the arrest of the murderer. All this is very 

 brightly told. Its only importance, of course, lies in the 

 evidence it affords as to the growing tendencj' of 

 writers of fiction to rely upon the facts that are being 

 verified concerning our psychic nature. 



The Atlantic Monthly for March is very spooky. 

 Miss Corner tells a weird story of " The Little Grey 

 Ghost "^the ghost of a suicide who haunted a clair- 

 voyante night and day until he promised to look after 

 her orphan child. Mr. C. Johnston, in a paper, " East 

 and \Vcst," expounds the spiritual character of the 

 Vedantic philosophy. He says : — 



Will builds the vi'sture for Consciousness, i^o you liave ibe 

 physical body liuilt for waking Consciousness. And when Con- 

 sciousness and Will are withdrawn the building falls. With- 

 drawn whither? Into nothingness? No, but into a finer 

 vesture built by the Will, of etheric elements, just as the 

 physical liody is built of chemical elements. Vour scientists 

 already divine these etheric elements, gcing after them from 

 without. We discovered them long ages ago, going after them 

 from within. So we are familiar with the psychic body, which 

 Saint I'aul speaks of, the vesture of the second consciousness. 

 And we also know the spiritual body, the fine, immortal vesture 

 of the third consciousness. There is the fourth, the radiant robe 

 of Nirvana, the "glorious body," the garment of righteousness. 

 Each is built up, in due season, by the creative power of the 

 Will, alw.ays inseparably united with Consciousness. 



In " The One Left " m. E. V. Lucas tells how a 

 girl heard the dead voice of her lover through the 

 telephone wire which he had used in life. 



In the Quest for February W. L. Wilmshurst writes 

 a somewhat confusing paper on the text from the 

 Gospel of the Egyptians, in which our Lord replied 

 as to when His kingdom should come, by saying : — 

 " When two shall be one ; the outside as the inside ; 

 the male with the female — neither male nor female ; 

 when ye trample upon the garment of shame ; when 

 ye shall be stripped and not be ashamed." Woman's 

 suffrage thus comes into it. and the window-smashers 

 are helping to fulfil the prophecies. 



In the Theosophical Path for March Mr. H. T. Edge, 

 writing on " Influenza and Ozone," maintains that 

 science is following H. P. 15. , who maintained 

 that :— 



1. The causes of influenza are cosmical rather than bacterial. 



2. They are lo be sought in abnormal atmospheric conditions. 

 •J They consist mainly in an over-abundance of ozone. 



4. Too much ozone produces nervous fears, over-cxhilaiation, 

 too rapid consumption of the tissue, and even death. 



5. The real ozone is the I'.lixir of Life, and is either identical 

 with or closely related to the cosmic force known as JtOU.'VT and 

 the lesser forces proceeding therefrom. 



The Path is beautifully illustrated^ 



