Modern spiritism; its science and religion - SpiritArchive.org

SECOND SIGHT AND APPARITIONS 137
5 trillions ( ?)* they form the recently discovered "X"
rays. It is quite evident that there lies an enormous
region of "potential" sight or of other wonders in
this as yet "unseen world" of vibration. In time,
if we consider the whole range of vibrations per
second as extending the space -of a year, the extent
of those known to us are as one second; that is,
a second is to a year so is the known to the
unknown. In space, the known vibrations as compared
with the unknown are as less than an inch to a
mile! As far as I understand it, true "second sight"
that visualises invisible things is often only an
abnormally acute physical vision ;f at other times
it refers to true psychic vision.
Auras
"Auras" constitute another of our recent discoveries,
and are the lineal descendants of the
time-honoured "haloes," with which early sacred
art never failed to adorn the heads of its holy
subjects. We now find, to our great surprise, they
are facts, and not the imagination of visionaries
or the fancies of the mediaeval; but alas, at the
same time, we also discover that they are neither
confined to the head, nor to the holy, for they
surround the whole bodies of just and unjust alike.
Many of the ancients, however, in this, as in much
else, had something more than an inkling of the
truth.
Paracelsus says: "The vital force is not enclosed
*
A billion is a million (not a thousand) millions, and a trillion
is a million billions, numbers wholly inconceivable. It is
equally inconceivable how these facts are ascertained.
f That can take up vibrations beyond the ultra-violet.
as