Aether and Gravitation

by William George Hooper

Nay! let us go further, and ask ourselves where is the key to be found for the many marvellous effects of so-called spirit phenomena? Who can read F. W. Myer's Human Personality and its Survival of Bodily Death, and not feel that we are standing on the threshold of the unseen world?

Already men are asking themselves the meaning of the strange sensations which they receive from unseen sources; already men's spirits are vibrating in unison with vibrations that come from the unseen world; and to-day we see spiritual phenomena as through a glass darkly, and the question arises, what is the medium of all this communication, of all these vibrations?

Is there no medium at all which forms the medium of communication? To assert that would be to assert something opposed to all experience and therefore would be unphilosophical.

May not then the theory of an atomic universal electro-magnetic medium help us on in our groping and searching after light in this direction? Who will uplift the veil? Already we peer almost into the spirit world. A little more light, a little more truth, and then there will burst forth upon the hearts and minds of men the grandest and most glorious truth that Nature can reveal of her Creator, and then men shall come to know and understand the place that God holds in the Universe, such truth being advanced on its way by an atomic, universal electro-magnetic Aether which is as truly matter as our own bodies.

Art. 127. God and the Universe.--To the superficial reader it may appear at first sight, that the theory of the Aether suggested in this work leaves no place in the Universe for the operations and existence of an Infinite and living Spirit, a God. It may be objected, that if all matter and all modes of motion find their physical origin in one common and primordial medium, the electro-magnetic Aether, where is the necessity for the existence of an Eternal and Infinite Spirit?

At first sight there appears some force in the objection, but it loses its point when we come to view the Universe from the standpoint of spirit phenomena. The purpose of the writer in this work has been to deal with natural phenomena only, purely from the philosophical and scientific standpoint. Spirit phenomena (which is equally as real and obvious as natural phenomena) have no part or place in a work which deals with scientific facts and data, but demand and will receive in a future work equal consideration and philosophic treatment. A man must indeed be lacking in vision who cannot see behind all things the evidence of a richer and fuller truth than that which merely lies on the surface, or who fails to read and learn the greatest truth that circles the Universe in its ultimate unity, which indisputably points to the existence of an Eternal and ever-living Spirit, a God. I affirm that there is no scientific truth, even including the law of the conservation of matter and motion, which has been enunciated in this work, but what is reconcilable with the existence of an Eternal and Infinite Spirit; and although such a statement may seem a paradox, yet I am convinced that before many more years have passed, the reconciliation of natural with spiritual phenomena will be an accomplished fact. The fool to-day may say in his heart, there is no God, but ere long not only religion, but Science herself, shall expose his lack of wisdom and his folly.

For all things derive their existence primarily, with all the energies and powers they possess, from God. Look where we will, or at what we will, from the smallest atom or molecule up to the most stupendous world, or myriads of worlds that roll and sparkle in the blue infinity, in each and all we see the indisputable evidence of the existence of a mysterious spirit, or power, that controls and governs them. A spirit or power that we cannot see, but which is so indisputably evidenced that its existence cannot be denied. For example, we see forms of many kinds, some of which are simple entities of themselves, while others are complex and made up of many parts, but while each part is inseparably connected with the other, yet each part is itself distinct from the others in nature and substance. The whole combined forms a complete mechanism or organism, and, like all mechanisms of human make, not only needs a controlling and governing power, but also evidences a maker. Even the laws of Nature and modes of motion, whether it be heat, light, electricity, or magnetism, are, however, unable of themselves to control the mechanism, and therefore prove themselves to be but the servants of an infinite Intelligence, a God.

Thus, behind and beyond all we see, in every living form, there is the evidence of a hidden spirit, which is the governing and controlling and sustaining power, and without which the organism ceases to be an organism. A spirit which animates the mechanism, and uses its activities and powers as it wills for its own purposes and ends. This spirit or power we call its life, which gives to the form its existence, together with all that it possesses, as its powers, activities, energies and productions, for all are but the effects of the hidden life. If this mysterious something, termed its life, becomes in any way separated from the mechanism or organism, then as a distinct and separate organism it ceases to be; and though the mechanism may still exist for a time, yet all its powers are gone, while the organism, robbed of its very life, begins slowly to decay.

We cannot see this power; we cannot find it We may search for it, rend and tear part from part, only to find that it baffles all our skill, and laughs at our endeavours to discover the secret of its existence. We know that it is there, just as truly as we know that in these forms of ours, these living stoves, these perfect mechanisms called our bodies, there exists and dwells a spirit, a living, conscious, self-acting and controlling power. A spirit which we know is not the mechanism itself, and which by experience and observation we know to be distinct from the organism. It is this mysterious spirit which controls and governs all our acts, that rules and reigns as king of our bodies, and makes the physical mechanism, with all its wondrous parts, obey and do its bidding. That this is so, that the spirit is distinct from the body, and is the controlling and governing principle within us, is evident in a thousand ways. If, however, that spirit departs from the mechanism of our bodies, then the controlling and governing influence is gone; and the mechanism, robbed of its life, ceases to work, ceases to fulfil its functions, and ceases to exist in that particular form.

Just as it is with ourselves, so it is with the Universe. For look where we will, from the smallest atom to the great aggregation of atoms, as our earth, or even to the more stupendous orbs of heaven, the working of a secret and mysterious power or spirit meets our gaze. A spirit or power that is not the form or the mechanism, but is separate and distinct from the mechanism, while at the same time it is inseparably connected with each and all. For everything that we see, from an atom to the Universe itself, is a perfect mechanism, or complexity of mechanisms. The entire Universe is one vast, intricate, and elaborate piece of mechanism, beginning with the simple aetherial atom, ranging through all the atomic systems, graduating by successive steps through compound substances, which, in their aggregations, form meteors, satellites, planets, suns, and stars; until the ultimate whole is reached, where everything is blended into one vast whole; a perfect, infinite, complex mechanism, a Universe.