Extracted text
A lightly normalized transcription from The Flaming Sword, Vol. 10, No. 2 (February 1896), PDF pp. 6–9. Line-wrap hyphenation, mechanical spacing, and unmistakable scan slips have been repaired; the periodical’s claims remain its own.
PDF p. 6
Physical science is the foundation of all superior knowledge. As physical or material existence is the limitation and terminus outwardly, of all celestial and spiritual existences and entities, so it is the rind, pediment or footstool of these superior or interior domains, without which they could not exist. As physical or material existence constitutes the groundwork or substructure of the superstructure built thereon, so also the science of the forms, modes, laws, and relations of the alchemico-organic cosmos constitutes the groundwork of all superior sciences in the domains of spirit and soul life.
One of the first essentials to the successful study of alchemico-organic science is the correct apprehension of the principles of perception, as they pertain to and are manifest through the function of natural vision or sight. No extensive or accurate knowledge of optics can obtain without a general and specific knowledge of the anatomy and physiology of the brain; and specially of that part of the cerebral structure directly related to the visual organs.
The cortical center upon which vision depends is situated on either side of the head, a little in advance of the occiput, nearly on a line drawn from the point of individuality, just above the eye, to the external occipital protuberance. The nerves and forces which supply the organs of sight originate at this point. The spirit and the fluids which supply the eye are generated by the respiration of the cortical cells, and conveyed by the pulsation of the cells through the fiber to the eye. Every cell is an independent lung and heart: but while they are distinctly individualized, they synchronize in the performance of their separate offices.
The entire cortical substance of the brain undergoes a process of expansion and contraction, a movement corresponding to the respiratory movement of the lungs in the body, though independent of that respiratory act. It is the respiration of the brain. This action depends on the movement of the individual cell or corpuscle in which the general expansion and contraction have their origin. The cause of the motion is the union of the two forces of thought residing in the soul itself and flowing into the cell. The cells are the beginnings and the endings (inceptions and termini) of nerve fibers, both motory and sensory. Every cell is a motory and sensory center, and each one differs from every other in its pneumic and psychic quality.
All motion has its primary origin in desire or love; and there are as many qualities of incitement to cortical activity as there are objects of desire. Thus the necessity for so great variety in the centers of generation—the cells of the gray substance of the cerebrum. The desire to live, or the love of life, is the fundamental motory incitement to possess and maintain a natural existence in the unregenerate or animal man. This is the begetting center, and rules all other desires of the mind. The desire to know, which in the highest domain of this determination of the mind is the desire to know God, has its seat in the religious region or domain. The desire to see, which is one of the avenues by which mental acquisition obtains, is the special center now under consideration.
If the cortical area originating and governing the sense of sight should be spread out or unfolded to take the form which its expanded surface actually and naturally possesses, it would occupy the space and assume the form of an amphitheater composed of concentric circles arranged in the form of a spiral or gyre, broken into segmentary departments and separated by decided lines of demarkation. That the visual area may conform to the necessary convolutions of the cerebral structure, as arranged to suit its adaptation to the contour of the cranium, there is an apparent modification of the amphitheatrical conformation of the concentric segments.
Vision itself depends, first, upon a stimulus to the retina, applied through the pupil and focalized within the cavity of the orbit by means of the cornea lucida and the double convex lens, situated behind the pupil in the anterior portion of the eyeball. The cornea is the protruding or bulging part through which sight is manifest. The stimulus is from the action of an objective force passing through the pupil. This force does not radiate directly from the posterior convex surface of the lens to the surface of the retina (an expansion of the optic nerve which lines the interior surface of the globe), but converges to a focal point between the lens and the posterior surface of the cavity, or posterior chamber. From this focal point, within the chamber and behind the double convex lens, lines of force diverge in every direction to the retina, stimulating every portion of the retinal surface. The impression thus made upon this delicate fibrile expansion is communicated to the thalami optici, thence to the visual area of cortical substance already described.
Vision depends, secondly, upon the respiratory and cardiacal activity of the cells of the visual area. When the cells are excited by an external stimulus, they generate a substance differing in quality somewhat from the force generated when not so stimulated. This force is conveyed from the cells through the fiber of the brain to the thalamus, thence, by way of the optic nerve, to the expanded fiber covering the internal cavity of the globe, whence the force converges to the focal point behind the lens. From this focal point the force diverges to the lens, and, by means of the refracting power of the lens and the bulging or protruding cornea lucida, comes to a focus at a little distance in front of the eyeball. From the focalization of the rays of force proceeding from the visual area through the organ of vision (the eye), there proceed in every direction divergent rays to every objective point of vision. (It must be remembered that the rays do not diverge directly from the pupil, but from a focus converged some little distance in front of the pupil. This focal point is the real center of vision.)
Vision depends, thirdly, upon the return rays. The
PDF p. 7
return or reflected rays pass backward from every objective point touched by the diverging rays, they acting as so many telegraphic wires to return the impression to the point of focus anterior to the pupil. These returning rays pass backward through the pupil, and the lens, to the focal point within the globe. From this point the return or reflected force passes to the retina, thence through the fiber to the visual area, and from that area, to the zone of consciousness. The excitement of the visual cortex from objective stimulus through the organ of vision is not limited to the visual area, but is reflexed to the primary center of sensory activity, and from this center every cortical cell receives an exciting impulse through which the very extremities of the body itself are reached. The lungs are influenced in a reflex manner from the stimulus of vision, and, through the office of the lungs, every fiber of the body is made to respond to the demand for a resupply of the subtle forces, which are thus transmitted to the cortex, and there transformed to the substance by which the retina is constantly resupplied with its collodionoid plasma.
The visual force has a threefold attribute. The first tendency of diverging and converging lines is direct or straight. This determination is modified by many conspiring operations, which cause the lines to take the direction of spirals. This spiral tendency is continued to and from the cortex, not only of the visual area, but through all the successive areas of the cerebral cortex, and thence to the very extremities of the ultimate organism.
The retina is subject to an incessant succession of impressions and transpositions of scenery. This induces a very rapid, lightning-like repetition of the collodionoid emplacement upon the retina. Thus there is induced a coruscatory sending out and return of rays, breaking the continuity of the lines. This produces a constant and rapid repetition of flashes or coruscations, assuming in manifestation an oscillatory or vibratory movement. Radiation is therefore spiral and coruscatory. The three movements become a unit in operation. This break in the continuity of the movement of the force called light, has its correspondent in all other movements. It is this which determines the formation of the cortical cell, and every modification of the corpuscle to the most tenuous elongation of which the fiber is made up.
When the “scientists” say that light is merely “a mode of motion,” and that motion is undulatory or wave like, they declare one half or one third of the truth. Light is not merely a mode of motion, but a substance in motion. It is not merely undulatory or wave like, but the undulations are the product of an interruption at two extremities of a divergence and a convergence which, but for obstruction to its motion, would move in direct lines. It is the outflowing force generated in the cerebral cortex in response to the impression made from without, which determines all motions of force from objective points to the pupil of the eye, and thence to the sensorium of the brain.
The organs of vision are the result of the soul’s desire to see, and therefore to know. This desire of the soul flows down into the cell. It has been said in the foregoing, that every cell is an independent heart and lung. We will here add that every cell is not dominantly lung and subdominantly heart; but one or the other may dominate in any given cortical cell, according to its situation in the cerebral cortex. The dominancy and subdominancy here mentioned are merely those of relative activity and passivity. The cell is composed of a nearly central nucleus, a lateral nucleus, cortex or rind, and perenchyma. The lateral nucleus is on the orbit or zone of pulsation, and is the heart center. The central nucleus is the respiratory center. This statement is true viewed from without, but when viewed from within, the reverse is true. When, therefore, we say that one cell is dominantly respiratory or sensory, and another is dominantly pulsatory or motic, we mean that the one cell is positively polarized in the central nucleus, and another, in the lateral nucleus. The central nucleus is the dominant seat of desire, the lateral nucleus is the dominant seat of wisdom.
Every cell in the brain has a distinct quality of desire and also of wisdom. The cells in the brain are arranged in groups according to their genus. All the genera of a given order are collected according to the qualities of the genus, and the orders are arranged in general groups, and located in the cerebral cortex according to their kind. Every region and general group of cells in the entire cerebral cortex, as well as every individual cell, aids in the function of sight, but not all in a direct manner. The cells of the visual area respond immediately to the impulse of the visual center. The transmission from the visual center is a throb or pulsation; the response is the respiratory act, primarily, and the pulsating throb, secondarily, of so much of the visual surface as is called directly into action by the retinal impression.
The surface of the retina is touched by innumerable terminal points of the lines of force, which may be coarse or fine according to the circumstances which conspire to influence the quality and texture of the lines, and therefore the function of sight. The finer the texture of the lines, the greater the number of points touched upon the retinal surface; hence the more numerous the nerve fibers employed to convey the impressions to the cortical area assigned to the special function of optical perception. It also follows that the number of cells brought into immediate requisition agree in proportion to the points impressed, and the nerve filaments employed to convey the impressions.
The focal point, a few lines anterior to the protruding cornea, is just now the point of special interest. It is the center of inductive subjectivity, or the point from which objects are perceived. From this focus the rays shoot out, radiating in every conceivable direction, passing out into space and returning to the point in question. So many of the rays as move in a posterior direction and are limited to the area of the bulging cornea, strike upon this surface, are refracted between
PDF p. 8
the posterior surface of the cornea and the anterior convexity of the lens, and, through the lens, are brought again to a focus within the cavity of the eyeball. The radiations passing outwardly into space are anfractuosed into innumerable windings, diverted in every possible direction by the atoms and molecules of invisible substance, against which they impinge in their passage.
It will be borne in mind that vision does not depend merely upon the entrance of light from an objective source through the pupil of the eye—an impression being thus made upon the retina, and thence conveyed to the brain—but upon a force generated by such impression in the cells of the brain and transmitted to the objects seen. It is by the touch or pingement of these outflowing lines against the objective points, that makes it possible for the return flows from such pingement or touch to transmit to the brain the impression from the object of vision. The least attenuate or most gross lines are influenced by the most gross or outermost atmosphere, and come in contact with the most material substance of the objects seen. The most tenuous lines are influenced by the subtler dimensions of space, being diverted by the refraction and reflection of the alchemico-organic forces in space, through which the lines are forced to pass, and by the force or spirit of the objects. Every object of vision is perceived to be not necessarily where it actually is, but where the curve of the lines of visual force connect it with the visual cortex. (The lines of visual force through space are never straight.)
In the foregoing paragraph, we have intimated the reason for the curves of such lines. The curves mentioned are produced by the influence of the matter and the force substance occupying the interspace—the space between the object and the eye, acting upon the line of vision and diverting the direction of the visual force. Radiations curve both upward and downward. The upward is the longer, the downward is the shorter curve. These shorter curves are absorbed, or if any object is within their range, its impression is also conveyed to the retinal surface. As the visual force passes through the cornea lucida, the rays are not only refracted and turned, but at every point where there is a refraction convergent toward the projected focus, there is also a refraction divergent from the surface of the cornea.
The rays diverging from the cornea obstruct and divert the finer rays generated at the projected focus, which diverge from that center, anfractuosing them so as to cause them to describe not only a curve forward, but a spiral winding forward. The lines of visual force outside the brain are therefore, by the very laws of optics, compelled in their gyres, anfractuosities, and points of rest or broken poles, to correspond to the arrangements within the eyeball and the brain itself. The reticulated (net-work like) ramifications of the lines of visual force in space, in their decussations or crossings, diversions, interfacings, and anfractuosings, resemble—to the open vision—the arrangement of the fibers in the brain as they extend from the cortical areas of the two hemispheres of the cerebrum, forming the white substance or fiber of that complex organ.
OUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE STRUCTURE AND THE FORM OF THE ALCHEMICO-ORGANIC COSMOS MUST DEPEND UPON OUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE LAWS OF OPTICS, AND THE APPLICATION OF VISION TO THE OBJECTIVE WORLD.
There are two universal forces in nature, which pervade and permeate all space. These constitute what the “scientists” have denominated the “attenuated ether” of space, but which we have named gravic and levic forces. One of these—the gravic, is constantly flowing downward; the other—the levic, is constantly flowing upward. These two forces are the material or matter substances of nature, metamorphosed to their attenuate force-substance; in other words, it is the transformation of matter to such a condition of rarification and refinement as to destroy its atomic properties. It will be remembered that vision depends upon a force-substance generated in the brain and flowing out from the visual organ, radiating and striking objects; there generating a reflecting force which passes back over the same lines to the eye and the brain. This visual force is acted upon by the gravic and the levic forces, and, to a lesser degree, by the atmosphere through which vision is manifest. The levic force is the most rare or refined of the two forces of space; the outflowing visual force is the most refined of the two visual forces. This last is bent upward as it passes outward from the eye, by the influence of the levic force against which it impinges. The return visual force is deflected downward by the influence of the gravic force against which it impinges. The return visual force forms, as it were, a sheath around the outflowing visual force, which bends a little more the outflowing visual substance. The sheath is an actual insulator of the outflowing visual force, and the friction of the two generates a visual magnetic force which forms, as it were, a third covering of the line of substance reaching from the eye to every object of vision. This last covering is touched by the atmosphere.
It is an admitted scientific fact that common air or atmosphere is more dense near the surface of the earth than at any given distance from such surface, and that as the distance upward increases, the density of the air diminishes. It is also an admitted scientific fact that objects can be seen at farther distances in a rare than in a dense atmosphere. The more dense the atmosphere, the less extended the vision; the rarer the atmosphere, the more extended the vision. It logically follows from these two facts, that the curve of vision is upward. Neither of the visual forces can come in direct contact with the atmosphere; but the magnetism generated by the insulation and the friction incident to the relations of the outflowing and the inflowing visual forces, does come directly in touch with the air.
The visual forces are modifications of electric currents. The magnetic visual force is the specific magnetism generated from the friction of the two visual currents, and is the real medium of contact or touch. It is the last or outmost thing between the soul, which actually
PDF p. 9
receives the impression, and the thing cognized by the sense of sight.
Any object seen appears in a straight line with the ray as proceeding from and entering the eye. From this, it follows that any object perceived must appear in a straight line, and not where it actually exists. A curved line, therefore, describes the actual line of vision, and the straight line is the apparent direction of the object.
The Flaming Sword · Vol. 10, No. 2 · Feb. 1896 · PDF pp. 6–9