EVOLUTION AND OCCULTISM/PART 6

 

Ancient and Modern Science

From the "Theosophical Review," September, 1900

In these days of exultation over the advance of Modern Science, people are perhaps a little apt to forget that there still exists in the world a Science of vast antiquity, of hoary anciency, whose achievements dwarf those as yet obtained by its modern namesake, whatever of possibly overtopping greatness may await the latter in the future. It may not then be useless to study the two briefly, side by side, to see where they agree and where they differ, whether their methods coincide or whether they entirely diverge.

 

In speaking, of Ancient Science, I am not thinking of the demi-antiquity of Greece or of Rome, the Science of which was merely an offshoot from that of Egypt, Chaldaea and India. Ancient Science strikes its roots deeply into that vast continent over the greater part of which the waves of the Atlantic are now rolling, that continent of Atlantis which Modern Science is beginning to recognise, and the last fragment of which--the Island of Poseidonis, whereof Plato tells us--disappeared some eleven thousand years ago. Traces of that occidental Ancient Science are yet to be found in the records of Egypt and in the antiquities of China, and it is not without significance that the science of chemistry takes its name from Khem, the old name of Egypt. The Ancient Science that is more familiar to us is that which--brought eastwards by the flower of the Fourth Race that bore in its heart the seed of the Fifth--was planted in India and there grew into a mighty tree. While the Ancient Science of the West was whelmed under the floods, that of the East grew up in its stead, and in the first sub-race of the Aryan stock it was carried to a magnificent height and took on the sublimest developments. It is this which we will therefore take as the type of Ancient Science.

 

The point that at once strike. us when we first put Ancient and Modern Science side by side is the profound difference in their several attitudes towards Religion. In antiquity, Religion and Science were never divorced from each other, nor did it enter into the imagination of any to regard them as possible rivals. Every temple was a school; every priest was a teacher; and, for a reason that will presently be seen, a man needed to be a saint ere he could hope to be a sage. The Brahmanas, the priestly caste, were also the teaching caste, and had it as their duty to train the young in all knowledge. And so highly was knowledge valued, that this teaching caste was the highest caste, and the ruler clad in cloth of gold would bow humbly at the feet of the half-naked but learned teacher, for it was thought a greater thing to add one small fragment to the area of knowledge than to bring another country within the confines of the empire. If Religion strove to reveal God to the heart, Science strove to reveal Him to the intelligence, and thus we find it written:

 

"Shaunaka, verily, the great householder, came near to Angiras full humbly and asked: 'What, O blessed one, is that which known makes known all else?'

 

"To him he spake: 'Two sciences should be known--thus the Brahma-knowers tell us the higher and also the lower. Now the lower is the Rigveda, the Yajurveda, the Samaveda, the Atharvaveda, prosody, rites, grammar, etymology, poetry, astronomy, and so on. But the higher is that by which the Eternal is understood.' "*1

 

Within this Lower Science, the Aparavidya, some four-and-sixty sciences were numbered, and for many patient years the student would strive for their mastery; but the Higher Science, the Para-vidya, that was but one, but a life-time could only learn its alphabet, for it was the crown of all sciences, the knowledge of the Heart of All, the Self. To know the Self, the Essence of nature, the Life universal, the supreme Being, the Eternal, that alone was knowledge--all else was ignorance. To know God was the last triumph of intelligence, the supreme achievement of Ancient Science, of the Science of the East.

 

Now the Science of the later West, Modern Science, strikes its roots in Southern Spain, in Andalusia, in the schools of the Moors and the Arabians. Fair fruit of the early days of Islam, its very origin was an offence to the Christendom on which it was grafted. It came in the wake of invading conquering armies, and its presence was felt as a blasphemy against the Christ, as a triumph of His Mussulman rival. The compasses were a weapon against the Faith like the scimitar, and while the Muslim chivalry slew the body the Muslim university poisoned the soul. Religion seized, imprisoned, tortured, burned Science, and Science, forced to fight for its very life, for air to breathe, for ground to live on, struck with ever-growing force at the Religion that strove to slay it. Hence increasing antagonism, enlarging strife, the bitter "Conflict between Religion and Science," lasting down to our own days.

 

The difference between Ancient and Modern Science in their attitudes towards religion is thus due to the different environments in which they severally evolved.

 

The next point of difference that strikes us is that of the objects and line of study. Both work by observation, but the observation is directed along different lines.

 

Modern Science studies the forms that make up the kosmos; Ancient Science the life which holds it together and maintains each form. The first studies objects, and seeks by induction to discover the relations between them and the laws within which they act; the second studies the basic principles of the kosmos, and seeks by deduction to trace the path of evolution and to outline the necessary forms in which these principles will be expressed. It is as though in studying a tree one man began at the leaves, observed the shape, colour and characteristics of each, dissected them one by one, went from them to each twig, to each branch, to the trunk, to the root and the rootlets; the other took the seed, and, observing the life-principles at work, deduced their manifestations in root, trunk, branch, twig, leaf. The first studies the Many in its indefinite branches; the other the One in its indefinite expansion.

 

The order in which physiology and psychology are dealt with in relation to man will serve as a convenient illustration. Modern Science begins with physiology, studies the body, the nervous system, the brain, measures responses to stimuli, calculates the speed of nerve-waves, and so on, and on this basis proceeds to build up psychology. The individual consciousness is regarded as the outcome of all this nervous activity, and cannot be considered apart from it; to this conclusion this method of study inevitably tends.

 

Ancient Science begins with psychology, studies intelligence, analyses consciousness, investigates mental states, and regards the body as an instrument, an organ, shaped for the expression of these states. To it the body is a result, and consciousness can do without any particular body; let the one it is using be struck away, and it can readily fashion another.

 

The question at once arises in the mind: How can such a study be carried out? And the answer leads us to another profound difference between Ancient and Modern Science. When the modern scientist reaches the limits of his powers of observation, he proceeds to enlarge those limits by devising new instruments of increased delicacy; when the ancient scientist reached the limits of his powers of observation, he proceeded to enlarge them by evolving new capacities within himself. Where the one shapes matter into fresh forms, makes a more delicate balance, a finer lens, the other forced spirit to unfold new powers, and called on the Self to put forth increased energies. Why and how this was done shall be presently shown; that Self-evolution, or preferably that Self-manifestation, was the Secret of the East. Its first stages were in exoteric religion; its later stages in esoteric teachings. The end was the effectual shining forth of the Self omnipotent and omniscient, and when That was manifested all else became manifest afterwards.

 

Before dealing further with this let us glance at some results of modern study, which have carried Modern Science into a field wherein it meets its ancient predecessor. The common ground on which this meeting takes place is the ether. The two start from opposite poles, and meet at last here. Modern Science has climbed slowly upwards, making sure each step of the ascent; solids, liquids, gases, have been observed, weighed, tested, analysed, and at last Science finds itself in a region where matter fails to respond, becomes intangible, imponderable, and yet it must be present to render intelligible the working of mighty energies. So Science formulates the existence of intangible, imponderable matter--intangible, imponderable for its present resources--and proceeds to study it as best it may. Ancient Science has descended step by step from life and intelligence to the kinds of matter in which they clothe themselves, becoming ever denser and denser, till it also reaches the ether and carries on therein its later observations. Here, then, we can compare their results, and see how far they agree.

 

Among the more significant of late discoveries has been that of the Roentgen or X-rays, vibrations in the ether which pass through matter hitherto regarded as opaque, and, for instance, enable a photograph to be taken of the skeleton within a living body, or of a bullet imbedded in an internal organ. These vibrations are alleged to be seventy-five times smaller than the smallest light vibrations, and thus can pass through matter impermeable to light and heat. Now eight years before the X-rays were discovered The Secret Doctrine was published, and in that Mme. Blavatsky remarked: "Matter has extension, colour, motion (molecular motion), taste and smell, corresponding to the existing senses of man, and the next characteristic it develops--let us call it for the moment 'Permeability'--will correspond to the next sense of man, which we may call 'normal clairvoyance.'. . . A partial familiarity with the characteristic of matter--permeability--which should be developed concurrently with the sixth sense, may be expected to develop at the proper period in this Round. But with the next Element added to our resources in the next Round, Permeability will become so manifest a characteristic of matter that the densest forms of this Round will seem to man's perceptions as obstructive to him as a thick fog, and no more."*2 The fulfilment of the latter part of this quotation lies in the future, but the earlier part is now verified, for the discovery of the X-rays has completed a singular chain. Not long ago, a little boy in America saw the bones of his father's hand through the covering flesh, and medical observations established the fact that he "saw by the X-rays," or, to use our own phrase, was " physically clairvoyant." Other people here and there show this faculty, born with them, "variations" pointing to a line of evolution. Under hypnotic conditions many persons show this same power, and "hypnotic lucidity" is a well-established fact. Others become clairvoyant by practice. Surely when these facts are set side by side: etheric vibrations by which certain objects may be seen through opaque matter; occasional instances of people born with a power to receive and respond to those vibrations; many people able to receive and respond to them when shut off from the vibrations they normally respond to; artificial development of the power to receive and respond to them; we have definite signs of the evolution of a new sense and sense-organ. The sense-organ is rudimentary in the normal person, is at least partially developed in the born clairvoyant, is susceptible of stimulation in most people when the developed senses are temporarily silenced, and may have its development forced by special means. Here the positive declaration of Ancient Science, based on innumerable experiences, is in way of verification by the discoveries of Modern Science.

 

The existence of what occultists from immemorial antiquity have called "dark light," or "invisible light," is being proved by the experiments of Dr. Le Bon, related by himself in a monograph, of which the salient points are quoted in the Parisian La Nature for June, I900. Conscious or unconscious of its significance, he has named his discovery la lumiere invisible.

 

Ancient Science asserts that etheric vibrations can be utilised for purposes of communication without the employment of apparatus connecting the points of generation and reception. Jagadish Chandra Bose and Marconi have severally proved this to be true as regards some such vibrations marked off as electrical. "Wireless telegraphy" is now an established fact, and shows that the ether itself suffices as a medium of communication between widely separated points. The transmission of thought-waves through the ether is thus proved to be theoretically possible, and its actuality is asserted by such eminent scientists as Sir William Crookes and Professor Oliver Lodge, to say nothing of less important investigators.

 

Another interesting statement, made by Marconi, may be mentioned: that he believed that the electrical vibrations were of different forms. Herein he is quite at one with Ancient Science. Some observers, who study according to the old rules, have stated that the form of the X-ray vibrations is a double spiral or helix. It will be interesting to see if any later scientific discovery verifies this observation.

 

As Modern Science continues its discoveries in the etheric region, it will more and more substantiate the assertions of Ancient Science, reached by methods so different from its own.

 

As the limits of our space forbid us to further multiply instances of concord between Ancient and Modern Science in the etheric region, we must turn to the question already formulated: Why did Ancient Science begin with consciousness, and how can study be carried on along its lines? Thus is it answered:

 

The universe consists of the vibrations of a universal life, and of the forms into which they throw the matter in which they play. Life is motion. Consciousness is motion. Forms vibrate under its impulse according to the rarity or density of the matter of which they are composed. The life vibrating within a form enters into relations with, affects, any other portions of life within forms which are capable of responding to it, i.e., of reproducing its vibrations in whole or in part. At a certain stage of this exchange the separated lives become conscious of each other.

 

The Self in man is part of the kosmic Self, and is capable of vibrating in every way in which the kosmic Self vibrates. This Self in man is the "I" which is conscious of its own existence, which feels and thinks. As it exchanges vibrations with other Selves around it, it distinguishes all in which it is not conscious of its own existence, in which it does not feel and think, as the Not-Self. (The separation of forms leads it to the false conclusion that the Selves are also separate.) This Self can only know the other Selves as it is able to respond to them, and its "evolution" is merely the bringing out of the capabilities it contains. Hence it can know everything by turning outwards the powers within it, and all true knowledge is attainable by Self-unfoldment only. We know a thing when we become it, i.e., when we vibrate as it vibrates. The bodies with which the Self is clothed enable it to come into touch with all bodies composed of similar materials, which vibrate at the same rates.

 

In the present solar system there are seven fundamental types of matter, elements or atoms, primitive bases of all combinations. Each of these types gives rise to innumerable combinations, which in their totality form a "world," or "plane," or "region of existence." The Self clothes itself in a body or sheath of each kind of matter, and thus comes into touch with all these worlds, each body receiving and responding to the vibrations of its world. Consciousness is the relation between the Self and the Not-Self, and the expansion of this relation is evolution. As the physical world is known by means of the physical body, through which the Self receives it, so each world of lessening density is perceived by the Self through a body of similar matter. Further, these bodies are separable from each other, and the Self can temporarily discard the grosser to facilitate its observations of the subtler.

 

The fundamental principles of Ancient Science were established by the experiences of highly-developed men, and are always verifiable anew by those who develop the capacities inherent alike in all. But this development is, it is fair to say, not practicable for everyone within the limits of the present life, any more than great scientific attainments can be said to be within reach of the majority. If a man is to become a great mathematician, a great astronomer, a great physicist, he must begin life with a marked aptitude for the branch of science in which he is to excel. To this marked aptitude he must add careful and prolonged study, aided in the earlier stages by competent instructors; he must give his life to his work, if he is to achieve eminence, and must make other pursuits subordinate to the one aim of his life. All this is equally necessary for the man who would win success in the pursuit of the highest Science, and first-hand knowledge cannot be enjoyed by any who do not fulfil these conditions of all successful pursuit of truth in any kingdom of nature.

 

It will now be clear why religion could not be divorced from Science among those who thus regarded life. The first thing necessarily demanded from the student was that he should cease from evil ways and dominate his passions, so that the Self might utilise its lower vehicles for the gaining of knowledge, undisturbed by riotous vibrations which blurred all vision. Then the student was taught to refine the physical body and render it ever increasingly sensitive to vibrations, while preserving it in health. He was trained to control his senses and to concentrate his mind, until, having purified and thoroughly mastered his vehicles, he could use them only for the purposes of the Self. Then he could come into touch with every part of nature, and for such a one "Nature has no secrets in all her kingdoms."

 

Along such road travelled Ancient Science, and for those who would still follow that Science there is no other road.

 

Those who are not yet prepared to tread this ancient path, may yet do much to profit by the suggestions and hints gathered from Ancient Science, if they will avoid falling into extremes in Religion on the one side and in Modern Science on the other.

 

There are two great enemies that ever stand opposed to human progress, one wearing the mask of Science, the other the mask of Religion. One is the Incredulity which denies facts because they are new; the other is the Credulity which accepts superstitions because they are old. Each grasps a poniard with which it strikes at Truth, the Angel which guides Humanity along the upward path. Which is the more dangerous foe it is hard to decide, for the rigid refusal to even consider the evidences on which a new and startling truth reposes, shuts a man out from progress as much as does the folly which swallows open-mouthed the emptiest tale. Superstition often renders a man more ridiculous than does scepticism, but their effects on progress are much the same. Hard iron cannot be shaped any more than fluid mud. We need willingness to study, impartiality, clear vision and right judgment, and then we shall find that now, as of old, right knowledge is attainable, for we have within us That whose nature is knowledge, and who can never rest until can say "I know."

 

 

*1 Mundakopanishad. i. 3-5.

 

134.  *2 Op. cit., i. 272, 278, last edition.

NEXT CHAPTER 

Modern Science and the Higher Self (1904)