Ether, Science and Crystal Skulls Robert Bruce MacDonald
What science refers to as ether and what occultism views as ether are not necessarily the same. In The Secret Doctrine (SD), H.P. Blavatsky uses different terminology depending on what she is commenting on, so sometimes it is difficult to clarify how the ether of occultism relates to the observations made by science in the world today. Certainly, for occultism, ether is a fifth round element and still very mysterious. As it is not to be fully developed until the fifth round, what we can say about it at this point is necessarily limited. However, we might be able to shed a little light on it with respect to the scientific endeavor.
In an article published in Apeiron (Vol.5 Nos.1-2, January-April 1998), "Michelson-Morley experiments revisited: Systematic errors, consistency among different experiments, and compatibility with absolute space", Héctor A. Múnera argues that the Michelson-Morley experiments on the ether did not deliver the null result as has always been claimed. Múnera claims that:
Despite the null interpretation of their experiment by Michelson and Morley, it is quantitatively shown that the outcomes of the original experiment, and all subsequent repetitions, never were null. Additionally, due to an incorrect inter-session averaging, the non-null results are even larger than reported.
Essentially, a systematic experimental error and improper averaging led to the incorrect conclusion that there existed no ether in which waves of light propagated. According to Múnera, the experiments actually showed the opposite -- there exists an absolute frame of measurement. It is incredible, but every experimenter followed Michelson-Morley in making the same errors. It almost seems like scientists wanted to destroy the notion of ethereal realms and their attendant difficulties for the scientific endeavor.
Blavatsky expressed many reservations about the various theories of the ether expressed by the scientists of her time. Menahem Simhony in an article, "The Direct Results of the Michelson-Morley Experiments and What do They Really Prove," shows that Maxwell's equations, a staple of modern physics, were in fact derived from a conception of the ether that was provided by Michael Faraday. This is interesting because at one point Blavatsky talks of electricity and says the following:
Electricity as a fluid, or atomic matter (for Occultists hold with Maxwell that it is atomic), is ever, though invisibly, present in the air and manifests under various shapes, but only when certain conditions are present to "materialise" the fluid, when it passes from its own on to our plane and makes itself objective. (Key, pp.348-49)
Occultists, like Maxwell, hold that electricity manifests from an atomic plane under the right kind of conditions. Simhony points out that Faraday's model of the ether was as follows:
Faraday's ether consisted of some unidentified, discrete, positively and negatively charged particles, elastically bound to one another by electro-magnetic forces. Bodies could move through Faraday's dielectric ether by pushing apart its elastically bound discrete particles (as in laminar motion in fluids), without tearing the particles off bonds, thus without making winds in the ether. (Simhony)
The benefit of such a model is that
unlike winds or currents, that represent translational motions of particles or layers of particles in the media, waves do not transfer matter, they transfer vibrational energy only. The velocity of this transfer depends on the elastic energy density in the medium divided by the mass density in it. As long as winds or currents inside the medium cannot change the ratio of the two densities, they cannot change the velocity of the wave motion. (Simhony)
This is what gives light its constant velocity regardless of the reference point.
We have two scientists, Múnera and Simhony, each undermining the conclusions of the Michelson-Morley experiment for different reasons. It is not clear whether the conclusions of the two scientists can be reconciled, but perhaps that just goes to show that scientists are still groping in the dark today as much as they were over 100 years ago. Whether they can be reconciled or not, clearly the debate on the ether has not yet ended, merely gone underground for the time being. Occultism confuses things further by pointing out that the ether of science is the lowest of the etheric planes:
The invisible region that surrounds our globe, as it does every other, and corresponding as the second Principle of Kosmos (the third being Life, of which it is the vehicle) to the Linga Sharira or the Astral Double in man. A subtle Essence visible only to a clairvoyant eye, and the lowest but one (viz., the earth), of the Seven Akâsic or Kosmic Principles. Eliphas Lévi calls it the great Serpent and the Dragon from which radiates on Humanity every evil influence. This is so; but why not add that the Astral Light gives out nothing but what it has received; that it is the great terrestrial crucible, in which the vile emanations of the earth (moral and physical) upon which the Astral Light is fed, are all converted into their subtlest essence, and radiated back intensified, thus becoming epidemics -- moral, psychic and physical. Finally, the Astral Light is the same as the Sidereal Light of Paracelsus and other Hermetic philosophers. "Physically, it is the ether of modern science. Metaphysically, and in its spiritual, or occult sense, ether is a great deal more than is often imagined. In occult physics, and alchemy, it is well demonstrated to enclose within its shoreless waves not only Mr. Tyndall's 'promise and potency of every quality of life', but also the realization of the potency of every quality of spirit. Alchemists and Hermetists believe that their astral, or sidereal ether, besides the above properties of sulphur, and white and red magnesia, or magnes, is the anima mundi, the workshop of Nature and of all the Kosmos, spiritually, as well as physically. The 'grand magisterium' asserts itself in the phenomenon of mesmerism, in the 'levitation' of human and inert objects; and may be called the ether from its spiritual aspect. The designation astral is ancient, and was used by some of the Neo-platonists, although it is claimed by some that the word was coined by the Martinists. Porphyry describes the celestial body which is always joined with the soul as 'immortal, luminous, and star-like'. The root of this word may be found, perhaps, in the Scythic Aist-aer -- which means star, or the Assyrian Istar, which, according to Burnouf has the same sense." (Glossary, p.38)
Here we begin to see a much more magical medium when taken in its metaphysical aspects. However, it is its physical aspects that we want to focus on in this paper. At the end of the above passage, Blavatsky points to the "star-like" aspect of the astral light. In a sense it is star stuff. This seems to be made clearer elsewhere when HPB writes:
Metcalfe maintains that the imponderable and active agency which he calls caloric is not a mere form of motion, not a vibration amongst the particles of ponderable matter, but itself a material substance flowing from the Sun through Space,* filling the voids between the particles of solid bodies, and conveying by sensation the property called heat. (SD I, p.524)
In the attendant footnote, Blavatsky comments:
Not only "through space," but filling every point of our solar system, for it is the physical residue, so to say, of Ether, its lining on our plane; Ether having to serve other cosmic and terrestrial purposes besides being the "agent" for transmitting light. It is the astral fluid or "Light" of the Kabalists, and the "Seven rays" of Sun-Vishnu. (SD I, p.524)
Here we see clearly that the residue to ether lines our plane and fills every point of our solar system. It is this lining that scientists seem to be referring to when they speak of ether. It is our space in one sense.
Blavatsky, again, gives us a clue as to the nature of this lining:
For, disposing of that property of matter which they call impenetrability by simply regarding the atoms as "material points exerting on each other attractions and repulsions which vary with the distances that separate them" -- the French theorist explains that: "From this it follows that, if it pleased the author of nature simply to modify the laws according to which the atoms attract or repel each other, we might instantly see the hardest bodies penetrating each other, the smallest particles of matter occupying immense spaces, or the largest masses reducing themselves to the smallest volumes, the entire universe concentrating itself, as it were, in a single point." (Sept leçons de physique Générale, p.38 et seq., ed. Moigno.)
And that "point," invisible on our plane of perception and matter, is quite visible to the eye of the adept who can follow and see it present on other planes. (SD I, p.489)
This is suggestive of the theory put forward by Simhony above. The ether becomes a grid of forces whose intersections are monads. This idea of a grid can also be found in the work of Bruce L. Cathie. Cathie has come up with some interesting implications of the grid system. Cathie was wondering about the following observation with respect to electrons:
A quote I found in a book I was reading recently appears to confirm my theory of the double matter/antimatter cycle. The book is called "Beyond the Occult" by Colin Wilson.
"Human beings are accustomed to the fact that if they turn round through 360 degrees (through a full circle) they find themselves facing in the direction they started from. Not so an electron. By passing it through a certain type of magnetic field its "axis of spin" can be tipped through 360 degrees, which ought to restore it to its original position. But it doesn't. The electron has to be turned through yet another full circle before it behaves as it did before. We cannot distinguish the difference between the two circles -- the electron can -- which seems to suggest that in the sub-atomic world a full circle is not 360 degrees but 720 degrees. In our world we have somehow lost half the degrees we ought to have. Or to put it another way, there may be another dimension in the sub-atomic world." (Cathie)
Cathie then takes this 720 degree reality and postulates the following:
Matter and antimatter are formed by the same wave motions in space. The waves travel through space in a spiralling motion, and alternately pass through positive and negative stages. Matter is formed through the positive stage, or pulse, and antimatter through the negative pulse. Each spiral of 360 degrees forms a single pulse. The circular motion of an electron about the nucleus of an atom is therefore an illusion. The relative motion of the nucleus and electrons through space gives the illusion of circular motion. The period during the formation of antimatter is completely undetectable, since obviously all physical matter is manifesting at the same pulse rate, including any instruments or detectors used to probe atomic structures. The period or frequency rate between each pulse of physical matter creates the measurement that we call time, as well as the speed of light, at the particular position in space of which we are aware at any given moment. (Cathie)
This should immediately remind us of what Blavatsky has described elsewhere concerning the astral light:
Now, the Astral Light is not a universally diffused stuff, but pertains to our earth and all other bodies of the system on the same plane of matter with it. Our Astral Light is, so to speak, the Linga-Sarîra of our earth; only instead of being its primordial prototype, as in the case of our Chhâyâ, or Double, it is the reverse. While the human and animal bodies grow and develop in the model of their antetypal Doubles, it is the Astral Light that is born from the terrene emanations, grows and develops after its prototypal parent, and reflects everything reversed in its treacherous wave (both from the upper planes and from its lower solid plane, the earth). Hence the confusion of its colors and sounds in the perception and clairaudience of the sensitive who trusts to its records -- be that sensitive a Hatha-Yogi or a medium. (CW XII, p.613)
The astral light whether accepting energy from above or below reverses everything. In a sense it records in negative everything that happens below, in the physical world and those impressions willed on it from above. In addition, Cathie proposes that our positive reality is not continuous but rather winks in and out of existence as matter passes from its positive manifestation to its negative astral manifestation and back again. This again must sound familiar to the occultist.
I.K. Taimni, in Science and Occultism, describes time and the universe as follows:
The intermittent nature of time is a philosophical and scientific concept of the greatest significance and can be illustrated almost perfectly by the projection of a cinematographic picture on a screen. Although the projection produces the impression of a continuous series of events, we know that this continuity is merely an illusion produced by our inability to distinguish between the alternate periods of illumination and darkness. The manifested universe is similarly an intermittent phenomenon owing to the intermittent nature of time which brings about changes in it. But instants or moments of time succeed one another so rapidly that we cannot distinguish between the periods in which the universe appears and disappears alternately. The procession of events which we cognize through our sense-organs or instruments of cognition are thus seen as a continuous phenomenon but this continuity is illusory.
The appearance and disappearance of the universe may be considered as the result of the turning inwards and outwards of the Consciousness of Mahesha, the Presiding Deity of the manifested system. When His Consciousness is turned outwards, the manifested system comes into existence. When His consciousness is turned inwards towards the unmanifest the manifested universe disappears. It is this turning inward and outward of His Consciousness which . . . fixes the measure of time for the particular universe over which He presides. A complete cycle of this inward and outward turning of consciousness may be considered as a Ksana, the fundamental unit of time for the system. (Science and Occultism, pp.99-100)
This seems to once again bring the scientific enterprise into the realm of the occultist.
Both Cathie and Simhony are treading closely to some aspects of the world of the occult. Simhony describes the ether in a manner similar to the direction that Blavatsky was pointing the SD readers towards. Cathie extends this idea with his own grid system expressing an idea not dissimilar to that of the ancient Hindus where time and space become discontinuous, blinking in and out of manifestation according to the rhythm of the deity. Science will validate occultism as it develops and matures, it cannot do anything else. Interestingly enough, a clue that might one day help science delve more deeply into the nature of the ether is common rock crystal or quartz.
Chris Morton and Ceri Louise Thomas, in their book, The Mystery of the Crystal Skulls, go into the formation of rock crystal. The book discusses the finding of various crystal skulls in the Americas and how these skulls interact with the minds of some people coming into proximity with the skulls. In general rock crystal forms as follows:
The process requires immense heat and pressure and always a 'seed' crystal is needed to start it off. This seed is created when a single silicon atom, under intense heat and pressure, fuses with two oxygen atoms from superheated water or steam trapped in the same space. The atoms fuse to form a single crystalline cell of silicon dioxide, the substance from which all quartz crystal is made. (The by-product is hydrogen.) Over the millennia, if conditions are right, this seed starts to grow. But the surrounding fluid must contain just the right proportions of silicon and water, or pressurized steam, maintained at a phenomenal intensity of heat and pressure for a sufficiently long period of time. As the primordial fluid oozes over the first cell of silicon dioxide, the cell starts to replicate itself, laying down its complex crystalline structure one atom at a time. Every cell in the crystal repeats the same pattern. Each cell is a tiny little crystal in and of itself, and each cell repeats the same pattern as the one before. In this way the crystal builds up a complex three-dimensional network structure, known as a 'crystal lattice', with absolute geometric regularity, where every cell is exactly symmetrical and precisely repeated throughout the whole. And so little by little, over the years, a piece of pure, transparent natural quartz crystal comes into being. In its natural state it is highly angular in shape, always with six sides, tapering at either end to a fine point. (Crystal Skulls, p.42)
The interesting thing about a crystal lattice is that it describes the makeup of the ether of science very well. There are these molecular nodes of silicone dioxide connected in this crystalline matrix in a manner not too dissimilar to the structure as hypothesized by Simhony. There is more. Morton and Thomas relate to us some experiments where results "suggest that it is possible for the human mind to communicate more directly with a silicon crystal chip than at present" (Crystal Skulls, p.52). The type of quartz silicone used in computers is piezo-electric silicone, a very pure type of quartz with some amazing properties.
Morton and Thomas describe the properties of this type of quartz as follows:
Piezo is Greek, meaning 'to squeeze', and electrose means 'to get a charge from'. The fact that the crystal skull is made from this type of quartz means that it actually has a positive and negative polarity, just like a battery. It also means that if you apply pressure to the skull, or 'squeeze' it, it is actually capable of generating electricity! Alternatively, if you apply an electric charge to the crystal skull it actually changes its shape, without in any way affecting its mass or density.
But, like all piezo-electric quartz, the crystal skull is anisotropic in this as well as every other respect, which is to say that all of its properties, other than its mass, are different in every direction. In the case of its electrical properties, its precise orientation is defined by its X-Y axis, in other words, it can carry an electric current, but only in six particular directions relative to this X-Y axis. In any other direction it acts as an insulator.
In the case of the crystal skull, the scientists found that it was 'vertically piezo-electrically oriented', which is to say that its X-Y axis runs directly through the centre of the skull, from top to bottom. This means that if you apply an electric charge to the top of the crystal skull, not only does its shape change in the process, but also the electric current passes from the very top of the skull's head straight down to the Earth below. In the case of squeezing the skull to generate electricity, strangely enough, if you reverse the direction of pressure, the direction of electrical polarity in the crystal also reverses. (Crystal Skulls, p.47)
We begin to see that this type of crystal is remarkably sensitive in many different ways. From an occult perspective it is able to interact very easily with the electrical fluid as it enters and leaves the astral. Blavatsky goes into this when she refers to some crystal gazing done by H.S. Olcott:
At a number of his lectures Colonel Olcott has exhibited a crystal from the Gastein Mountains, which was kindly sent him by our very esteemed friend and fellow, the Baroness Adelma von Vay, which has curious properties. If a person, naturally endowed with a certain amount of clairvoyant power, gazes for a while into the crystal, he will see a succession of visions coming into its heart -- landscapes, scenes by sea and land, faces of living and dead persons, and sometimes messages written on scrolls which unwind of themselves, or printed in books, that appear and then fade away. The experiment was tried with dozens of people, and in many cases succeeded. One Hindu gentleman saw, besides various scenes, the face of his deceased father and was deeply agitated by the vision. These sights cannot be seen by everyone, nor equally well by all who have the conscious clairvoyant power in some degree. (CW IV, p.180)
How this crystal could be accessed by some minds and not others probably has to do with the range of the mind and the natural frequency of the crystal. The natural frequency of piezo-electric quartz is another property that Morton and Thomas bring up:
For modern science has also established that one of the particularly unusual properties of piezo-electric quartz is that it can function as an excellent oscillator or resonator. . . . In other words, crystal, unlike other materials, has an amazing ability to hold electrical energy under control and to oscillate at a constant and precise frequency. This means that, in theory at least, the crystal skull may actually be able to hold electrical energy, potentially a form of information, and send out electrical impulses, or vibrating waves of information. (Crystal Skulls, p.48)
This particular crystal skull may be able to do all of these things because of the ether-like properties of the quartz of which it is made.
Like most of H.P. Blavatsky's hints in The Secret Doctrine, the more observations that science makes, the more easily those observations can be reconciled with the occult science. We have seen here in this speculative article how certain scientific theories concerning the ether help to incorporate more of the observational facts of science into this stronger theoretical model. At the same time, science moves that much closer to the occult. Again, science, in the end, can only validate the occult.
Bibliography
Blavatsky, H.P., The Key to Theosophy. Pasadena, CA: Theosophical University Press, 1972.
Blavatsky, H.P., The Secret Doctrine. Los Angeles, CA: The Theosophy Company, 1982.
Blavatsky, H.P., Theosophical Glossary. Los Angeles, CA: The Theosophy Company, 1971.
Cathie, Bruce. http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Parliament/3460/bruceb.html
H.P. Blavatsky Collected Writings, compiled by Boris de Zirkoff. Wheaton, IL: The Theosophical Publishing House, 1966-1991.
Morton, Chris & Ceri Louise Thomas, The Mystery of the Crystal Skulls. Rochester, VT: Bear & Company, 2002 (1997).
Simhony, Mehahem, "The Direct Results of the Michelson-Morley Experiments and What do They Really Prove", www.word1.co.il/physics/michelson.html
Taimni, I.K., Science and Occultism. Adyar, Madras: The Theosophical Publishing House, 1974.