THE KEELY MOTOR SECRET.
EX VIVO OMNIA.
(Compiled.)
Clara Bloomfield-Moore
Lippincott Magazine, 1887
Me stand before the dawning of a new day in science and humanity,
-a new discovery, surpassing any that has been hitherto made; which
promises to afford us a key to some of the most recondite secrets of
nature, and to open up to our view a new world. -DR. HUFELAND.
THE error of our century in questions of research seems to have
been in the persistent investigation of the phenomena of matter (or
material organization) as the sole province of physics, regarding
psychical research as lying outside. The term physics is derived from a
Greek word signifying "nature." Nature does not limit herself to matter
and mechanism. The phenomena of spirit are as much a part of Nature as
are those of matter. The psychological theories of our physicists
display a decided leaning toward materialism, disregarding the
manifestations of the vital principle, -the vis motrix, -and refusing
to investigate beyond the limits which they have imposed upon
themselves, and which, if accepted by all, would take us back to the
belief of the pagans, as echoed by Voltaire:
- Est-ce-là ce raion de lEssence Suprême
- Que Pon nous peint si lumineux?
- Est-ce-là cet Esprit survivant A nous-méme?
- Il naït avec nos sens, croît, saffoiblit comme eux:
- Hélas! il périra de même.
The Keely Motor secret teaches that the various phenomena of the
human constitution cannot be properly comprehended and explained
without observing the distinction between the physical and material and
the moral and spiritual nature of man. It demonstrates incontrovertibly
the separate existence and independent activity of the soul of man, and
that the spirit governs the body instead of being governed by the body.
As Spenser has said,
- For of the soul the body form doth take;
- For soul is form, and doth the body make.
Huxley tells us that science prospers exactly in proportion as it
is religious, and that religion flourishes in exact proportion to the
scientific depth and firmness of its basis. "Civilization, society, and
morals," says Figuier, "are like a string of beads, whose fastening is
the belief in the immortality of the soul. Break the fastening, and the
beads are scattered."
Now, as Nature nowhere exhibits to our visual perceptions a soul
acting without a body, and as we do not know in what manner the
spiritual faculties are united to the organization, psychology is
compelled to investigate the operations of the intellect as if they
were performed altogether independently of the body; whereas they are
only manifested, in the ordinary state of existence, through the
intermediate agency of the corporeal organs.
The accumulation of psychological facts and speculations which
characterize this age appears to have made little or no permanent
impression upon the minds of our scientists and our philosophers. In
truth, all their psychological theories have in general displayed a
decided leaning toward materialism. Bishop Berkeley asks, " Have not
Fatalism and Sadducism gained ground during the general passion for the
corpuscularian and mechanical philosophy which hath prevailed?" Buffon,
in writing of the sympathy, or relation, which exists throughout the
whole animal economy, said, "Let us, with the ancients, call this
singular correspondence of the different parts of the body a sympathy,
or, with the moderns, consider it as an unknown relation in the action
of the nervous system, we cannot too carefully observe its effects, if
we wish to perfect the theory of medicine." Colquhoun, commenting upon
Buffons statement, says that far too little attention has been paid to
the spiritual nature of man, -to the effects of those immaterial and
invisible influences which, analogous to the chemical and electrical
agents, are the true springs of our organization, continually producing
changes internally which are externally perceived as the marked effects
of unseen causes, and which cannot be explained upon the principles of
any law of mechanism.
These unseen causes are now made clear to us by the truths which
Etheric Physics and Etheric Philosophy demonstrate and sustain. The
prophecy of Dr. Hufeland (made in connection with an account of certain
phenomena arising from the unchangeable laws of sympathetic
association) is soon to be fulfilled, and the door thrown open to "a
new world" of research. Professor Rücker in his papers on "Molecular
Forces," Mr. Crookes in his lecture on "The Genesis of Elements,"
Norman Lockyer in his book on "The Chemistry of the Sun," -all these
scientists have approached so near to this hitherto bolted,
double-barred and locked portal that the wonder is not so much that
they have approached as that, drawing so near, they have not passed
within.
Mr. Keely gives an explanation. of the failure of scientists,
investigating in the same field with himself, to attain like results,
as follows;
"The system of arranging introductory etheric impulses by compound
chords, set by differential harmonies, is one that the world of science
has never recognized, simply because the struggles of physicists
combating with the solution of the conditions governing the fourth
order of matter have been in a direction thoroughly antagonistic to the
right one. It is true that luminosity has been induced by chemical
antagonism; and, to my mind, this ought to have been a stepping-stone
toward a more perfect condition than was accepted by them; but,
independent of what might, or what might not, be an aid toward its
analysis, the bare truth remains that the conditions were isolated,
robbed of their most vital essentials, by not having the medium of
etheric vibration associated with them."....
Professor Rücker, in his papers (read before the Royal Institution
of Great Britain this winter) explaining the attractive and repulsive
action of molecules, found himself obliged to apologize to scientists
for suggesting the possibility of an intelligence by which alone he
could explain certain phenomena unaccounted for by science. The
"compound secret" associated with Mr. Keelys discovery shows that no
apology is needed, -that the molecule is a perfect organism, which,
like the perfect, vibratory engine of Mr. Keely, may be worked backward
as well as forward. All the light that is needed for the full
comprehension of its intelligent action will be found in Mr. Keelys
work on "Etheric Philosophy," -some thousands of pages of which are
nearly ready for the printers hands. Without referring to these pages,
we find proof in ourselves that the action of molecules is an
intelligent action; for we must admit the individuality of the
molecules in our organisms, in order to understand how it is that
nourishment maintains life. Try as we may to account for the action of
aliment upon the system, all is resolved into the fact that there must
be some intelligent force at work. Do we ourselves disunite and
intermingle, by myriad channels, in order to join and replace a
molecule which awaits this aid? We must either affirm that it is so,
that we place them where we think they are needed, or that it is the
molecules that find a place of themselves. We know that we are occupied
in other ways which demand all our thoughts. It must, therefore, be
that these molecules find their own place. Admit this, and we accord
life and intelligence to them. If we reason that it is our nerves which
appropriate substances that they need for the maintenance of their
energy and their harmonious action, we then concede to the nerves what
we deny to the molecules. Or, if we think it more natural to attribute
this power to the viscera, -the stomach, for example, -we only change
the thesis.
It will be said that it is pantheism to assert that matter, under
all the forms which it presents, is only groups of aggregates of
sympathetic molecules, of a substance unalterable in its
individualities; a thinking, acting substance. Let us not deny what we
are unable to explain. God is all that is, without everything that is
being individually God. Etheric force has been compared to the trunk of
a tree, the roots of which rest in Infinity. The branches of the tree
correspond to the various modifications of this one force, -heat,
light, electricity, and its antagonistic force, magnetism. It is held
in suspension in our atmosphere. It exists throughout the universe.
Actual science not admitting a void, then all things must touch one
another. To touch is to be but one by contiguity, or there would be
between one thing and another something which might be termed space, or
nothing. Now, as nothing cannot exist, there must be something between
"the atomic triplets" which are according to the Keely theory, found in
each molecule. This something in the molecule he affirms to be "the
universal fluid," or molecular ether. One thing touching another, all
must therefore be all in all, and through all, by the sensitive
combination of all the molecules in the universe, as is demonstrated by
electricity, galvanism, the loadstone, etc. If we account for the
intelligent action of molecules by attributing it to what has been
variously called "the universal fluid," "the electric fluid," "the
galvanic fluid," "the nervous fluid," "the magnetic fluid," it will
only be substituting one name for another; it is still some part or
other of the organization which discerns and joins to itself a portion
of one of the fluids referred to, or one of these fluids which discerns
and mingles with the material molecules; it is still the life of the
part, the life of the molecule, life individualized in all and through
all.
Admitting, then, that there is a universal fluid, it must exist in
and through all things. If void does not exist, everything is full; if
all is full, everything is in contact; if everything is in contact, the
whole influences and is influenced, because all is life; and life is
movement, because movement is a continual disunion and union of all the
molecules which compose the whole. The ancient philosophers admitted
all this. Under the different names of "macrocosm," "microcosm,
"corpuscules," "emanations," "attraction," "repulsion," "sympathy," and
"antipathy," --all names which are only one, -their various
propositions were merely the product of inductions influenced by their
modes of observing, as the deductions of scientists are influenced in
our day.
Balzac tells us that everything here below is the product of an
ethereal substance, the common basis of various phenomena, known under
the inappropriate names of electricity, heat, light, galvanic and
magnetic fluid, etc., and that the universality of its transmutations
constitutes what is vulgarly called matter. We cannot take up a book on
physics (written with true scientific knowledge) in which we do not
find evidence that its author acknowledges that there is, correctly
speaking, but one force in nature. Radcliffe tells us that what is
called electricity is only a one-sided aspect of a law which, when
fully revealed, will be found to rule over organic as well as inorganic
nature, -a law to which the discoveries of science and the teachings of
philosophy alike bear testimony, -a law which does not entomb life in
matter, but which transfigures matter with a life which, when traced to
its source, will prove only to be the effluence of the Divine life.
Macvicar teaches that the nearer we ascend to the fountain-head of
being and of action, the more magical must everything inevitably
become; for that fountain-head is pure volition. And pure volition, as
a muse, is precisely what is meant by magic; for by magic is meant a
mode of producing a phenomenon without mechanical appliances, -that is,
without that seeming continuity of resisting parts and that leverage
which satisfy our muscular sense and our imagination and bring the
phenomenon into the category of what we call "the natural;" that is,
the sphere of the elastic, the gravitating, -the sphere into which the
vis inertiæ is alone admitted.
There is in Professor Crookess "Genesis of the Elements" an
hypothesis of great interest, -a projectment of philosophical truth
which brings him nearer than any known living scientist to the ground
held by Mr. Keely. Davy defines hypothesis as the scaffolding of
science, useful to build up true knowledge, but capable of being put up
or taken down at pleasure, without injuring the edifice of philosophy.
Lockyer, as well as Crookes and Rücker, is also "quite warm," as the
children would say of the one who approaches the hidden object in the
game of "hide-and-seek." When we find men in different parts of the
world constructing the same kind of scaffolding, we may feel fairly
sure that they have an edifice to build. The scaffolding may prove to
be insecure, but it can be flung away and another constructed. It is
the edifice that is all-important, -the philosophy, not the hypotheses.
The science of learning, says Lesley, and the science of knowledge are
not quite identical; and learning has too often, in the case of
individuals, overwhelmed and smothered to death knowledge. It is a
familiar fact that great discoveries come at long intervals, brought by
specially-commissioned and highly-endowed messengers; while a perpetual
procession of humble servants of nature arrive with gifts of lesser
moment, but equally genuine, curious, and interesting novelties. From
what unknown land does all this wealth of information come? who are
these bearers of it? and who intrusted each with his particular burden,
which he carries aloft as if it deserved exclusive admiration? Why do
those who bring the best things walk so seriously and modestly along,
as if they were in the performance of a sacred duty, for which they
scarcely esteem themselves worthy?
The Bishop of Carlisle, in his paper on "The Uniformity of Nature,"
suggests the answer to all who are prepared to approach the abyss which
has hitherto divided physical science from spiritual science, -- an
abyss which is soon to be illumined by the sunlight of demonstration
and spanned by the bridge of knowledge. To quote from the paper of the
Bishop of Carlisle, "There are matters of the highest moment which
manifestly do lie outside the domain of physical science. The
possibility of the continuance of human existence in a spiritual form
after the termination of physical life is, beyond contradiction, one of
the grandest and most momentous of possibilities, but in the nature of
things it lies outside physics. Yet there is nothing absolutely absurd,
nothing which contradicts any human instinct, in the supposition of
such possibility; consequently, the student of physical science, even
if lie cannot find time or inclination to look into such matters
himself, may well have patience with those who can. And be may easily
afford to be generous; the field of physical science is grand enough
for any ambition, and there is room enough in the wide world both for
physical and for psychical research."
But does psychical research lie outside the domain of physical
science? What is the supernatural but the higher workings of laws which
we call natural, as far as we have been able to investigate them? Is
not the supernatural, then, just as legitimate a subject of
consideration, for the truly scientific mind, as is the natural? If it
explain, satisfactorily, phenomena which cannot be otherwise explained,
there is no good reason why its aid should not be invoked by the men of
science. The truth is, that the ordinary course of nature is one
continued miracle, one continued manifestation of the Divine mind.
"Everything which is, is thought," says Amiel, "but not conscious and
individual thought. Everything is a symbol of a symbol; and a symbol of
what? --of mind. We are hemmed round with mystery, and the greatest
mysteries are contained in what we see, and do, every day."
Mr. Keely affirms, with other philosophers, that there is only one
unique substance, and that this substance is the Divine spirit, the
spirit of life, and that this spirit of life is God, who fills
everything with his thoughts, disjoining and grouping together these
multitudes of thoughts in different bodies called atmospheres, fluids,
matters, animal, vegetable, and mineral forms.
Herbert Spencer says that amid the mysteries that become the more
mysterious the more they are thought about, there will remain the one
absolute certainty, that we are ever in the presence of an infinite and
an eternal energy, from which all things proceed. Macvicar foreshadowed
the teachings of this new philosophy when he wrote, "All motion in the
universe is rhythmical. This is seen in the forward and backward
movement of the pendulum, the ebb and the flow of the tides, the
succession of day and night, the systolic and diastolic action of the
heart, and in the inspiration and expiration of the lungs. Our
breathing is a double motion of the universal æther, an active and a
reactive movement. This androgyne principle, with its dual motion, is
the breath of God in man." The writings of the ancients teem with these
ideas, which have been handed down to us from generation to generation,
and are now flashing their light, like torches in the darkness, upon
mysteries too long regarded as "lying outside the domains of physical
science."
Twenty years ago Macvicar wrote his "Sketch of a Philosophy," in
which be advanced the above views, with other views now maintained and
demonstrated by Mr. Keely, who during these twenty years, without
knowing Macvicars views, or of his existence even, has been engaged in
that "dead-work which cannot be delegated," the result of which is not
learning, but knowledge; for learning, says Lessing, is only our
knowledge of the experience of others; knowledge is our own. This
burden of dead-work, writes Lesley, every great discoverer has had to
carry for years and years, unknown to the world at large, before the
world was electrified by his appearance as its genius. Without it,
there can be no discovery of what is rightly called a scientific truth.
Every advancement in science comes from this "dead-work," and creates,
of its own nature, an improvement in the condition of the race;
putting, as it does, the multitudes of human society on a fairer and
friendlier footing with one another. And during these twenty years of
"dead-work" the discoverer of etheric force has pursued the even tenor
of his way, under circumstances which show him to be a giant in
intellectual greatness, insensible to paltry, hostile criticism,
patient under opposition, dead to all temptations of self-interest,
calmly superior to the misjudgments of the short-sighted and the
ignoble; noble means as indispensable to him as noble ends; fame and
riches less important than his honor; his joys arising from the
accomplishment of his work and the love and the sympathy of the few who
have comprehended him! "Only the noble-hearted can understand the
noblehearted." Mr. Keelys chief ambition has been to utilize the force
he discovered, not for his own aggrandizement, but to bless the lives
of his fellow-men. He has scaled the rocks which barricade earth from
heaven, and he knows that the fire which he has brought down with him
is divine.
This so-called secret is an open secret, which, after it is known,
may be read everywhere, -in the revolution of the planets as well as in
the crystallization of minerals and in the growth of a flower.
"But why does not Mr. Keely share his knowledge with others?"
Why does be not proclaim his secret to the world?" are questions
that are often asked.
He is not yet ready to do so. He has made out his programme of
unfinished work, ranging from its present operations to the concluding
tests with dynamometer and by rail ; but no one can say when the latter
tests will be made. All depends upon the degree and measure of his
success in the line of research that he is now following. Every man who
has passed the mere threshold of science ought to be aware that it is
quite possible to be in possession of a series of facts long before he
is capable of giving a rational and satisfactory explanation of them,
-in short, before he is enabled to discover their causes even. This
"dead-work" has occupied many years of Mr. Keelys life; and only within
the last five years has he reached that degree of perfection which
warranted the erection of a scaffolding for the construction of the
true edifice of philosophy.
We have only to recall the wonderful discoveries which have been
made in modern times, relative to the properties of heat, of
electricity, of galvanism, etc., in order to acknowledge that had any
man ventured to anticipate the powers and uses of the steam-engine, the
voltaic pile, the electrical battery, or of any other of those mighty
instruments by means of which the mind of man has acquired so vast a
dominion over the world of matter, he would probably have been
considered a visionary; and had he been able to exhibit the effects of
any of these instruments, before the principles which regulate their
action had become generally known to philosophers, they would in all
likelihood have been attributed to fraud or to juggling. Herein lies
the secret of Mr. Keelys delay. His work is not yet completed to that
point where be can cease experimenting and publish the results of his
"dead-work" to the world.
"When will he be ready?" is a question often asked; but it is one
that God only can answer, as to the year and day. Now that continuity
of action in his engine has been attained, and every impediment and
obstacle to eventual triumphant success has been overcome, it would
seem that the time is near at hand, -within this very year; but not
even Mr. Keely himself can fix the date, until be has finished his
present course of experiment, his necessary "dead-work."
"But what are his hypotheses? and what the tenets of his new
philosophy?" His hypotheses are as antithetic to existing hypotheses in
chemistry as the Newtonian system, at its first publication, was
antithetic to the vortices of Descartes. The philosophy is not of his
creation; nor is it a new philosophy. It is as old as the universe. Its
tenets are unpopular, heterodox tenets, but their grandeur, when
compared with prevailing theories, will cause the latter to appear like
the soap-bubbles that Sir William Drummond said the grown-up children
of science amuse themselves with, whilst the honest vulgar stand gazing
in stupid admiration, dignifying these learned vagaries with the name
of science. It is the sole edifice of true philosophy, the corner-stone
of which was laid at Creation, when God said, "Let there be light; and
there was light." The scaffolding which our modern Prometheus has built
is not the airy fabric of delusion, nor the baser fabric of a fraud, as
has been so often asserted. It has been built, plank by plank, upon
firm ground, and every plank is of pure gold, as will be seen in due
time.
Another question is often asked: "What is vibratory ether?"
The answer echoes down the ages, faintly heard as yet, it is true;
but, call it what you will, "the universal ether," "hypothetical
ether," "the universal life-principle," "the ambient fluid," "the
electro-magnetico-intellectual-divine fluid," it is all the same, -one
sole and unique substance, of which Mr. Keely has written, "The true
study of the Deity by man being in the observation of his marvellous
works, the discovery of a fundamental creative law, of as wide and
comprehensive grasp as would make this etheric vapor a tangible link
between God and man, would enable us to realize, in a measure, the
actual existing working qualities of God himself (speaking most
reverentially), as we would those of a fellow-man." As this philosopher
interprets the physical forces, they are the fingers of God, -not all
that there is for God.
It has been justly said that we have no ground for assuming that we
have approached a limit in the field of discovery, or for claiming
finality in our interpretations of Nature; that we have, as yet, only
lifted one comer of the curtain, enabling us to peep at some of the
machinery by which her operations are effected, while much more remains
concealed; and that we know little of the marvels which in course of
time may be made clear to us.
Earnest minds in all ages and in all countries have arrived at the
same inferences which Mr. Keely has reached in his researches, -viz.,
that the one intelligent force in nature is not a mere mathematical
dynamism in space and time, but a true Power existing in its type and
fulness, -in one word, God. You may say that such an inference belongs
to religion, not to science; but you cannot divorce the two.
No systematic distinction between philosophical, religious, and
scientific ideas can be maintained. All the three run into one another
with the most perfect legitimacy. Their dissociation can be effected
only by art, their divorce only by violence. Great as is the revolution
in mechanics which is to take place through this discovery, it has an
equally important bearing on all questions connected with psychical
research. Once demonstrated, we shall hear no more of the brain
secreting thought, as the liver secretes bile. The laws of "rhythmical
harmony," of "assimilation," of "sympathetic association," will be
found governing all things, in the glorious heavens above us, down to
the least atom upon our earth. Leibnitzs assertion, that "perceptivity
and its correlative perceptibility are coextensive with the whole
sphere of individualized being," will be accounted for without
depriving us of a Creator. " The music of the spheres" will be proved a
reality, instead of a figure of speech. St. Pauls words, " In him we
live, and move, and have our being," will be better understood. The
power of mind over matter will be incontrovertibly demonstrated.
The requirement of every demonstration is that it shall give
sufficient proof of the truth it asserts. This Mr. Keely is prepared to
give, -mechanical demonstration; and should he really have discovered
the fundamental creative law, which he long since divined must exist,
proving that the universal ether which permeates all molecules is the
tangible link between God and man, connecting the infinite with the
finite, -that it is the true protoplasm, or mother-element of
everything, we may look for a philosophy which will explain all
unexplained phenomena and reconcile the conflicting opinions of
scientists.
The great law of sympathetic association, once understood, will
become known as it is, -viz., as the governing medium of the world.
Herein lies one secret of "the compound secret," the full revelation of
which will usher in the spiritual age foretold by the Prophets of the
Old Testament and the Apostles of the New Testament. Inspiration is not
confined to prophets and apostles and poets; the man of science, the
writer, all who reach out after the Infinite, receive their measure of
inspiration according to their capacity. We need a new revelation to
turn back "the tidal wave of materialism" which has rolled in upon the
scientific world, as much as Moses needed one when he sought to
penetrate the mysteries of the Creation ; and our revelation is near at
hand, -a revelation which will change the statical "I am" into the
dynamical "I will," -a revelation which, while teaching us to look from
Nature up to Natures God, will reveal to us our own powers as "children
of God," as "heirs of immortality."
Clara J. Bloomfield Moore
