Vol 4 Page 404

FOOTNOTES TO “MEDICAL MAGNETISM AND THE HEALER MAGNETIC”

[The Theosophist, Vol. IV, No. 8, May, 1883, p. 184]

[The writer, Seeta Nath Ghose, advocates the treatment of all diseases by magnetism, stating in support of his theory that “it has been found by experiments that the human body is a magnetizable object, though far inferior to iron or steel.” H. P. B. appends the following footnote:]

It is one of the great errors of physical science to so assert; and occult science proves it.

Page 405

[The author states: “. . . it is very easy to conceive that if you lie down with your head placed southward and feet northward, the south pole of the earth and your head, which is the north pole of your body, and the north pole of the earth and your feet, which are the two branches of the south pole of your body, being in juxtaposition, will attract each other, and thus the polarity of the body natural to it will he preserved.’’ H. P. B. comments as follows:]
Though Baron Reichenbach recommends strongly the contrary course (i.e., to place your head always north) and the initiated adepts generally do so, yet, since the Baron’s conclusions are based solely upon his experiences with sick sensitives—whose bodies are in a state of magnetic perturbation—and that the physical organism of adepts, owing to long years of peculiar physiological training, can in no way be compared to those of the average mortals (see “The Elixir of Life”)—the explanation given by the distinguished author is perfectly logical and clear.* But it is only in cases of perfect health that we must sleep with our heads southward. There are abnormal temperaments and cases of nervous diseases when the opposite is necessary. Perfect knowledge of the magnetic state of human bodies—a state which varies incessantly, can be acquired only by the supplementary study of occult science in addition to the physical.
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* [Reference is here to Baron Karl von Reichenbach’s Researches on Magnetism, etc., London, 1850.—Compiler.]
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