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Part XVII
THE “higher criticism,” founded by the skeptic, infidel, and shaky theological inventor, upon the fallacious Copernican assumption, is completely knocked out as a fabrication of the devil. The self-structured and self-continuing universe as described by KoREsH, furnishes the laws and principles of social government in the earth. If, as it is declared, there can be no question of the demonstration of this theory, it will be the destruction of all the books ever published on astronomy, a revolution in university and collegiate instruction, and will give Koreshanity the monopoly of these departments of activity.
As the theological system of Koreshanity is claimed to be the logical outcome of an established astronomy, the basis of which is the exactitude of mathematical demonstration, it will naturally come in for monopoly in the manufacture and supply of material for all the pulpits of the land—as the business of that pulpit work, dependent upon a religion modified and warped through the influence of modern socalled science, will be obsolete.
The exact knowledge of the form and function of the physical universe is the basis for the religious system of Koreshanity, and from this develops the governmental and social life of the order. Mental and physical industry is classified in the system, and also the products of industry; and the relation of the one to the other is so adjusted as to provide for an equitable distribution of all the products of industry. .
Theology of the Koreshan System
Man is the habitation and permanent dwelling-place of Deity. The perfect humanity, regenerated in spirit, soul, and body, so as to render it immortal and incorruptible, is the temple of God, for ‘God is in his holy temple.” Jesus, the Christ and Savior of the world, was one of the many manifestations of the infinite, appearing at regular epochs and intervals of the world’s progress and perpetuity. The Son of God was produced from man, therefore he was the Son of man. In Him dwelt the fulness of the Godhead bodily; hence the trinity was in him and of him. He was biune, Bride and Bridegroom; and because of this fact he was immortal and became the parent of immortal life, a condition yet to be attained by the human race. He was not only the resurrection (reincarnation) of David and Abraham, but of the millions of spirits of those who had died during the Jewish age, looking forward to his coming as their Messiah and resurrection. After His resurrection from Joseph’s tomb, which was typical of the resurrection of the general humanity, he appeared materially to his Disciples. In the presence of many His material form was dissolved, his body was reduced by a spiritual combustion to Holy Spirit (Holy Ghost), and was absorbed by the church. This spirit was the séminal essence of Jehovah, and the vitalizer of the church as the germs of regeneration (reproduction). From this planting will mature the Sons of God, offspring of Jesus the Lord, and therefore Sons of God. Immortality will come to the race as a procedure from Him who is the Creator and Perpetuator of the universe.
This dispensation is coming to its close; the old heavens and earth (church and state) are about to pass away,and new heavens and new earth (church and state), wherein dwelleth righteousness, will form the beginning of the new dispensation.
The ushering in of this new kingdom of righteousness will be in the practical proof to the world of the Cellular Cosmogony; it will overthrow all “scientific” beliefs, and establish a true astronomy as the basis of a true theology.
Science Founded Upon Assumption Must Fall
It is time that wise (?) men were turned backward and their knowledge made foolish. Some years since, a&man denominating himself “Parallax” attempted to prove that the earth was flat, by proving that it was not round like a ball. That he demonstrated it to be not convex and round like a ball, there is not a shadow of a doubt in our mind;—but he did not demonstrate the flat theory.
About the time that “Parallax” was engaged in fogland upon the theory of the flat surface of the earth, we had demonstrated the concave theory, or the hypothesis of the Cellular Cosmogony. At that time we knew nothing of “Parallax’s” efforts or claims, nor did we know of them for many years after. In the discussions occurring at the time regarding the claims of “Parallax” we quote the following: ‘
‘“Parallax’s”’ chief argument at his first lecture, was one which could not possibly be answered. He described how he had stood up to his neck in the water of Bedford canal, where there is a straight reach of six miles, and had, with the telescope, seen down near the water’s edge a small boat six miles away. Of course, the only sound answer to his reiterated questions, “What say you to that? How can you explain that?” was simply, ‘““We do not explain it; we decline to believe it.””—Proctor’s Letter to Harper’s Weekly.
In an interview we had with Professor Harkness * of the Observatory at Washington, we referred him to corresponding experiments made by our Geodetic Staff on the Old Illinois Drainage Canal near Chicago, and also to experiments of like character made at various places with like results, and then asked the question: This being true, what is your explanation? To which the Professor replied: ‘If that were true, it would prove that the theory concerning the convex rotundity of the earth is wrong; but,” he continued, “it is not true.” Would Professor Harkness put himself out to examine the experiment? Most emphatically, no! And why not? ‘Because,’ to use his own expression, “I am perfectly satisfied.” With what? Why, of course with a theory which he declared is predicated upon an assumption, a theory which pleases his penchant for building air castles.
An object can be seen at the water’s edge, with a good telescope, for many miles,—six or eight or ten, and even more, according to the diameter of the instrument. The newspaper fraternity can observe it, and through their instrumentality the masses of the people can have their attention called to the fact and to the observation. Then the so called scientists will have something more to do than to say, “We do not believe it.” And more than this; the Rectilineator furnishes a mechanical proof of the concavity of the earth, from which the intricate principles of optics are expunged. The Geodetic Staff of the Koreshan Unity has demonstrated the concavity of the earth.
The scientists do not pretend that what they call ‘science’ is veritable knowledge. If their hypotheses are mere assumptions, as they declare them to be, it is high time that there be established something positive as to the fundaments of a rational prediction. An argument founded upon an assumption concludes merely an assumption,—nothing more. The time has come when assumption will no longer be called “science.”’
When there is once established a true system of physical astronomy, which we know to be contained in the theory of the Cellular Cosmogony, then there rests a foundation, a firmament, upon which may securely stand the superstructure of an established theology and consequent sociology, as corroborated by Scripture:
“Thus saith the Lord, thy Redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the Lord that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by himself. That frustrateth the tokens of the liars, and maketh diviners mad; that turneth wise men backward, and maketh their knowledge foolish. That confirmeth the word of his servant, and performeth the counsel of his messengers.”’ This prophecy is about to be fulfilled, to the dismay of the so called scientists.
The Planets of the Physical Heavens not Inhabited; the Earth the Habitation of Man, and the Brain of Man the Dwelling Place of Spirits
A brilliant display of lights on the planet Mars raised the question as to whether the inhabitants were trying to signal the earth. Attention was called to the fact that Emmanuel Swedenborg, in his account of the “Earths in the Universe,” makes the statement that “the inhabitants of Mars have a method of making a liquid fire of great brilliancy.”
Mars is a mercurial disc with metallic amalgamations, moving between the laminæ or plates of the cosmic shell,—the crust of the earth. It is seen by reflection, through the action of a ray of ultra-physical substance. It emits essences, nothing more, and is not inhabited. Mars,in the corresponding anthropostic world, is the habitation of beings. When Swedenborg visited the spirits of Mars, he did nothing more than to enter the spiritual world of the people born under the influence of the so called planet. The spiritual world is in man, not out of him. Mars spirits dwell in Mars people, but they are on this physical crust, and not in the physical heavens. Swedenborg, being under the illusion of the old system of astronomy, had not learned the difference.
It is not generally known that the entire spiritual world is within man; nevertheless, such is the truth. Man is the habitation of spirits. When the mind of any living person recedes within itself and enters the spiritual world, it does not enter a material world or world of space. The mind in the pneumic or psychic realm never travels as men travel here. The mind passes through changes of state merely; and when, in any change of mental quality, rapport is obtained with any sphere, the spirit is with the inhabitants of that sphere. The change seems like traversing space, but no space is traversed. If the minds of the “advanced” people of this material sphere could once learn the fact that there is but one world of matter, that humanity comprises all there is of being, and that the spiritual world is in humanity, one great step would be taken toward a general knowledge of Deistic being.
The inhabitants of any planet in the spiritual, do not belong to the material planets. The alchemicoorganic (physical) world is the cosmogonic sphere. The shell or rind of the universe, with all it contains— the sun at the center, the atmospheres intervening, with the various essences and their modifications—comprises the alchemico-organic integralism. Corresponding to this is the humanity, with the astral center, the atmospheres (spiritual spheres), and the outer rind of the humanity; namely, the seven churches culminating at the end of the age, as the environment of the races. Within these churches are the seven spiritual planetary spheres of spiritual being. These are all in the human race, not out of it.
The Spiritistic Mind an Unreliable Teacher Concerning any State of Spiritual Existence
God dwells in man, not out of him. ‘God is in the generation of the righteous,”’—in humanity. These things cannot be understood by the ordinary materialistic mind, and the so called spiritistic or spiritualistic mind is virtually material, thinks materially, and therefore is unreliable as a teacher concerning any state of spiritual existence.
It is a fact that the spiritual spheres are so intimately and closely related to the external domain, that they progress proportionably to the progress of the mind in the natural, and that the spiritual world can only aid the natural in its progress, through the comparison of thought in both spheres. It is the aggregate knowledge of both that enables the genuinely scientific mind to reach final and infallible conclusions. The final scientific knowledge must be attained in this world, not in the spiritual. All mysteries of the universe are unfolded here. The climax of human wisdom, of God wisdom, is attained here in the conjunction of the invisible astral center with the visible humanity who becomes, here in earth, the central man who walks with God and becomes not, because absorbed through his own consummate knowledge of the laws of life and their intellectual and scientific application.
Enoch reached his perfection here in this world; so did Moses, Elias,and Jesus. Jesus was theocrasised and sat down in the throne of Deity, for which he was fitted by his experiences and growth. From the life of man He became the life of God. The throne of God is perpetuated through the heir of that throne, who successively matures in the natural world and ascends to his inheritance from this world, where the laws of life are discovered, applied, and obeyed. The Almighty raises up his heir through successive ages, from among men, and when the perfect man appears, he is absorbed into the eternal consciousness of the Deific center, and thus the center and throne of the intellectual universe are perpetuated.
Mars people in the earth comprise the habitation of the Mars spirits. What is true of the Mars spirits is true also of all planetary inhabitants. The light generated by the spirits of the psychic realm of the Mars people, is nothing more than the light of intellectual power. But this light has its correspondence in the peculiar manifestations that may be seen as the result of natural forces of the mercurial planetary disc.
The Cortical Area of Vision Through which Sight Is Conveyed
In considering the objections against the present astronomical hypothesis about to engage the reader’s attention, we would first invite a consideration of the principles of optics as enunciated through the pages of Koreshan literature, and especially to the fact that visual substance generated in the gray matter of the cerebrum and cerebellum, has more to do with the function of sight than the motion of extraneous physical force. Therefore while studying this objection, the reader will remember that in our presentation of the inconsistencies of the Copernican system, we are also presenting the modern astronomer’s views of the action of physical substance.
Vision, according to the present conception, radiates from any given center of the substance called light, and penetrates the pupil of the eye, making its impression upon the retina, whence the impression is conveyed through the optic nerve, commissure, and tract, to the cortical area of vision in the gray matter of the cerebrum. Every radiation of substance from the sun or any of the stars, enters our atmosphere at some angle of deflection; the angle of refraction being proportionate to the divergence of the ray from the central or vertical one. In observing any star except the star vertical to the point of observation, it is observed through an angle of refraction at the point where the substance enters the atmosphere.
No living being—supposing for the sake of the argument that a ray of light penetrated our atmosphere from the sun or stars—could possibly determine the angle of refraction, without knowing the distance of the limit of the atmosphere from the point of observation. The depth of the atmosphere is conceded by all astronomers to be only approximately determined; and no two astronomers are agreed as to the atmospheric depth. Any man can positively know that the angle of refraction cannot be determined without a knowledge of the ray of incidence, and that if the angle of refraction is not known, the direction of a star observed through the ray cannot be determined.
It is positively known that no angle of refraction of any given ray of light from an objective source beyond the atmosphere, can be determined unless the exact depth of the atmosphere is absolutely known to the fraction of an inch. In observing a star, either with the unaided eye or with a telescope, at an objective point divergent from the vertical direction, if the atmosphere were fortyfive miles in depth, to the fraction of an inch, the angle of refraction could be determined, had we an exact knowledge of the difference in the tenuity of the atmosphere and of the ether beyond. If we could determine the angle of refraction we could determine the direction. If the atmosphere were just ninety miles in depth, as some astronomers affirm, then from that knowledge— were it absolute— we could determine the direction.
The Law of Refraction Must Be Known Before Radiatory Deflection Can Be Determined
If the atmosphere were forty-five miles in depth, the amplitude of the arc of its curvation could be accurately determined and the degree of refraction equally known. The depth of the atmosphere, whether forty-five, ninety, or five hundred miles deep, must be positively known before the amplitude of its arc can be known, and before the amount of radiatory deflection can be determined. We know that astronomers,in making observations, pay no attention to any refraction at the supposed summit of the atmosphere. We also know that in works on physics and civil engineering, it is claimed that allowance is made for what is supposed to be the refraction of the atmosphere. If the atmosphere refracts three inches to the mile, in an observation made along a horizontal line, how much does it refract at any given direction from the horizontal to the vertical? If observation is made of a star at or near the horizon, and the first mile shows a deviation of three inches,what will be the amount of deviation at any uncertain distance of forty-five, ninety, or five hundred miles? All of these estimates have been made by various observers and calculators.
If the earth curvates eight inches to the mile, it is estimated, on a calculation made at a ratio inversely to the square of the distance, that at the distance of three miles the deviation from the direction of the optical tangent is about seventy-two inches, or six feet. If the atmosphere refracts an optical line three inches to the mile, then at the distance of three miles—by the application of the same law—the second mile would be nine inches, and the third mile twenty-seven inches.
If the third mile affords a deviation of twenty-seven inches from the tangent of the rectiline, making the calculation upon the basis of the inverse ratio of the square of the distance to the uncertain limitation, which may be forty-five, ninety, or five hundred miles, (as yet undetermined by any of the astronomers,) what will be the amount of deviation at the unknown and uncertain point—the limitation of the atmosphere? This is the question to which the Koreshan Cosmogonist demands an answer, and to which the investigating world also demands an answer.
These considerations entering as factors into the problems of astronomy, demand some explanations regarding the fact that the astronomers do come to correct conclusions. Upon the basis of the ordinary calculation of the earth’s curvation, or even a simple divergence of an optical line from a rectiline, supposing the divergence at the objective end of a telescope twenty feet in length to be only an eighty-one millionth of an inch, what would be the direction and location of a star trillions of miles distant?
(To be continued.)
Printed notes
- The interview with the Professor, here mentioned, took place in the year 1896.
Editorial transcription checked against the cited scans; historical claims remain those of The Flaming Sword.
The Flaming Sword · Vol. 28, No. 5 · May 1914 · PDF pp. 6–9