Masonic, Occult and Esoteric Online Library
H.P. Blavatsky The Light-Bringer
By GEOFFREY A. BARBORKA
Writing By Psychometry
H. P. BLAVATSKY herself described the subject of writing by means of psychometry in her first major work :
One of the most interesting discoveries of modern times is that of the faculty which enables a certain class of sensitive persons to receive from any object held in the hand or against the forehead impressions of the character or appearance of the individual, or any other object with which it has previously been in contact. Thus a manuscript, painting, article of clothing, or jewelry—no matter how ancient—conveys to the sensitive a vivid picture of the writer, painter, or wearer; even though he lived in the days of Ptolemy or Enoch. Nay, more; a fragment of an ancient building will recall its history and even the scenes which transpired within or about it. A bit of ore will carry the soul-vision back to the time when it was in process of formation. This faculty is called...psychometry.
The psychometer, by applying the fragment of a substance to his forehead, brings his inner-self into relations with the inner soul of the object he handles. It is now admitted that the universal aether pervades all things in nature, even the most solid.
It is beginning to be admitted, also, that this preserves the images of all things which transpire. When the psychometer examines his specimen, he is brought in contact with the current of the astral light, connected with that specimen, and which retains pictures of the events associated with its history. These, according to Denton, pass before his vision with the swiftness of light; scene after scene crowding upon each other so rapidly, that it is only by the supreme exercise of the will that he is able to hold any one in the field of vision long enough to describe it.
The psychometer is clairvoyant; that is, he sees with the inner eye. Unless his will-power is very strong, unless he has thoroughly trained himself to that particular phenomenon, and his knowledge of the capabilities of his sight are profound, his perceptions of p laces, persons, and events, must necessarily be very confused.* In an article on. Psychometry, Mme. Blavatsky explains the difference between the use of that faculty and Clairvoyance :
Psychometry embodies even more potentialities for instructing and elevating average humanity than Clairvoyance. While the latter faculty is most rare, and more rarely still to be found, unless accompanied by a tendency in the clairvoyant to self-deception and the misleading of others, by reason of imperfect control over the Imagination, the psychometer sees the secrets of the Akasa by the 'Eye of Siva,' while corporeally awake and in full possession of his bodily senses. A perfectly independent clairvoyant one may meet with once or twice in a lifetime, but psychometers abound in every circle of society, nay, may be found in almost every house.
The significance of the Eye of Siva is apt to be overlooked : it is a mystical way of describing the functioning of the pineal gland. It is also referred to as the Eye of Dangma.
Mme. Blavatsky also explained why the psychometer is able to describe a person who has had contact with an object; first clarifying the difference between life-atoms and sleeping atoms :
We regard and call in our occult phraseology those atoms that are moved by Kinetic energy as 'life-atoms,' while those that are for the time being passive, containing but invisible potential energy, we call 'sleeping atoms,' regarding at the same time these two forms of energy as produced by the one and same force, or life.
Heat is produced whenever visible energy is transformed into molecular energy we are told, and it may be thrown out by any material composed of sleeping atoms or inorganic matter as it is called : whereas the magnetic fluid projected 'by a living human body is life itself. 'Indeed it is life atoms' that a man in a blind passion throws off, unconsciously, and though he does it quite as effectively as a mesmeriser who transfers them from himself to any object consciously and under the guidance of his will. Let any man give way to any intense feeling, such as anger, grief, etc., under or near a tree, or in direct contact with a stone; and many thousands of years after that any tolerable Psychometer will see the man and sense his feelings from one single fragment of that tree or stone that he had touched. Hold any object in your hand, and it will become impregnated with your life-atoms, indrawn and outdrawn, changed and transferred in us at every instant of our lives. Animal heat is but so many life atoms in molecular motion. It requires no adept knowledge, but simply the natural gift of a good clairvoyant subject to see them passing to and fro, from man to objects and vice versa like a bluish lambent flame.*
