In the late 90s of the last century a certain Dr.Gates is reported to have made experiments upon which he based the following statements of fact:.
That the emanation of the living body, or anus, differs according to the condition of the physical health. That these emanations can be tested by the chemical reactions of some salts of selenium. that these reactions are characterized b various tints or colors, according to the nature of the mental impressions. That forty different “emotion products”, as he calls them, have already been obtained.
Later, in 1911, the late Dr.Walter J.Kilner,an English physician and scientist, formerly connected with St.Thomas Hospital, London, published a work entitled The Human Atmosphere. In it he has shown that all humans have an atmosphere or aura; that this aura is three-fold, there being a part which he calls the Etheric Double, a second known as the Inner Aura, and a third as the Outer Aura; that these aurae may be distinctly seen and measured by means of certain chemical screens,treated with a dye known as dicyanin,and with proper lighting; that the Etheric Double is a dark band adjacent to,and following exactly the contour of the body, separating the latter from the cloud or true aura; that no noticeable changes were observed in this aura due to a departure from health or other circumstance; that the Inner Aura is really the middle aura, being situated between the Etheric Double and the Outer Aura; that both the Inner Aura and the Outer Aura are variable as to size in health, but variable as to both size and shape in disease,and in certain physiological shape or contour of these aurae in disease will return to a normal symmetry with the return of health; and this aura is visible only in the living.
Kilner states that the most likely theory of the Aura, is that “it consists of a force the body,which, like all forces, is invisible in itself, but which becomes perceptible by means of its action on the ether or atmosphere.”.
The next case is that of an Italian scientist named Giorgi who quite recently has published his experiments in photographing beer ferment, saliva ad various like things. the exposures were made under selected conditions and often for months at a time. Giorgi concludes from these experiments that living material emanates an activity which will impress a photographic plate under conditions of filters of a definite nature.
Likewise, we have the experiments of Cremonese; of Reiter and Gabor ; and of Gurwitch, all of which seem to confirm the earlier findings dealing with vital phenomena.
More recently, under the caption, Onion Aura,a dispatch from Cleveland, noticed in the daily papers, seems to show that the work of Giorgi is being enlarged upon in the laboratory of Dr.G,W.Crille. I quote from this clipping:.
A certain type of radiation from onions has always bee easily detected,but scientists now can photograph a new type- Exposures from the photographs require approximately 100 hours. On the negative the radiations make dark gray semicircular splotches. The clinic workers who displayed the photographs-also announced they had developed a way or measuring the quantity of radiation from the root by physical means-The apparatus consists of a vacuum tube in which the onion is instead.
An electric current is passed vacuum tube in which the onion is inserted. An electric current is passed through the tube which is connected to a radio amplifier and loud speaker. Results of a study of the mitogenetic radiation which is given off not only by onion roots,but by yeast, bacteria and embryonic tissue of animals as well were shown at the convention.
The tissues, to give off radiation, must be living and growing, or, in scientific terms, going through the process of mitosis.
Now are those phenomena which I have just mentioned in any way related to the animal spirit of Swedenborg or the spirit like dynamics of Hahnemann? We might well call them spirit like,but certainly they are not spiritual. Many emanations or aura are perceptible by the senses,and therefore cannot b spiritual although the spiritual although the spiritual is within them. Everything has its aura, yet there are comparatively few of these aurae that man can sense; but animals,both wild and domestic, can divide more. A dog has been known to pick up the scent of a bear after 36 hours.
Not much material there, but still some: probably less than man could detect with all of his instruments of precision. Was this emanation the life-force of the bear, or was it a vehicle for that force? I do not know. It is quite possible that the bear emanation and the human aura, as seen by Kilner, are very different manifestations. Yet it does seem quite probable that the life-force, flowing forth from very part of its body, might produce such a phenomenon. And it is to be noted that Kilner was always able to see a emanation from a living body, but never from a dead one.
We certainly do not know all of the qualities that may be predicated of an aura, but it is safe to hazard that an aura bears a close resemblance to the resemblance to the substance from which it originated, and that it fully represents the state of that substance. But its activity is likely to be greater because of the freedom of its particles, and in some cases obviously more powerful, as instance the emanations from radium, which are said to be three times more powerful than the radium itself.
That all substances do have their aurae, atmospheres, or emanations,just as they have life and activity, has been shown;l but why they are always present involves an explanations of the doctrine of “Influx”. All things exist and subsist by reason of a continuous inflowing of life from its source,and at the same time by a continuous outflowing from its recipient. That which inflows must flow forth again,though perhaps in a modified form,or there would be stagnation, cessation of function, and finally health. Therefore a substance must constantly give forth something of that which goes into it and gives it life. In the animal economy an uninterrupted and unobstructed flow of the live giving forces, means health; an obstructed flow, disease,and finally death. Therefore those aurae can be nothing else than the vital outflowing from the subject which received and made use of them; an efflux that life may continue to be received.
As a concluding word I wish to emphasize my firm belief that the esoteric principles in medicine can be understood only by a study based upon certain doctrines or laws contained only by a study based upon certain doctrines or laws contained in Swedenborgs philosophy. Among thee are the Doctrine of Series and Degrees; the Doctrine of Forms; the Doctrine of Influx; and last, but not least, the Law of Correspondences. If every student, preparing himself for the study of medicine, had a living knowledge of these doctrines and l was. He would have a real basis for study and research, and many of the mysteries of the medical art would open air doors at his bidding.
PHILADELPHIA.
