Letter by P. T. Srinivasaingar | Reply by Damodar K. Mavalankar
Our Brother P. T. Srinivasaingar of Negapatam, writes to ask:—
“Can you please explain the following phenomenon?
“If a man closes his eyes, lets two fingers pass over them, presses the lower eyelids tightly with these fingers (meanwhile the eye being closed) and tries to see, then before 2′ are over, a bright light begins to develop itself before his (is it mind’s?) eye.”
Note.—Our Brother Mr. Srinivasaingar does not seem to have read any works on Mesmerism. If he had, and if, moreover, he had witnessed personally Col. Olcott benumbing the limbs of his patients and incapacitating them, by his will-power, from opening their eyes, once that he had passed his hand over them, our Negapatam friend would have seen the rationale of the phenomenon he describes. The effect, he witnesses, is due to Auto-Magnetisation, pure and simple. Once that the eyes are closed and the mind, drawn away from all external objects of sense, is concentrated, what may appropriately be called the sixth sense, or “Siva’s eye” — clairvoyant sight — is opened and the Astral Light, one of the correlations of Akasa, becomes perceptible. Those who are mediumistic can achieve this quicker than others and in some instances, on certain occasions, without any effort. But these effects will not be under the control of these peculiarly constituted people who become but passive agents of the elementals and the elementaries. He who desires to develop his psychological capacities has to practise self-Magnetisation and, becoming an active operator, has to subject the nature-forces to his WILL. It was with that view that the ancient Aryans enjoined the performance of the Sandhya Ceremony now so much neglected and misunderstood!
D.K.M.