International photographer (Jan-Dec 1930)

Thirty-six The INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPH ER January, 1930 Photographing the "Unseen" -BY BISHOP CHARLES W. LEADBEATER EXTENSION OF FACULTY Many people suppose that our faculties are limited — that they have their definite bounds, beyond which we cannot go. But this is not so. Now and then we find an abnormal person who has the X-Ray sight by nature and is able to see far more than others; but we can observe variations for ourselves without going as far as that. ..If we take a spectroscope, which is an arrangement of a series of prisms, its spectrum, instead of being an inch or an inch and a half long, will extend several feet, although it will be much fainter. If we throw that upon a huge sheet of white paper, and get a number of our friends to mark on that sheet of paper exactly how far the violet extends at the one end and just how far the red extends at the other, we shall be surprised to find that one end and just how far the red extends at the other, we shall be surprised to find that some of our friends can see further at one end, and some further at the other. We may come upon some one who can see a great deal further than most people at both ends of the spectrum; and if so, we have found some one who is on the way to becoming clairvoyant. It might be supposed that it is only a question of keenness of sight, but it is not that in the least; it is a question of sight which is able to respond to different series of vibrations, and of two people the keenness of whose sight is absolutely equal, we may find that one can exercise it only toward the violet end, and the other toward the red end. The whole phenomenon of colour-blindness hinges on this capacity; but when we find a person who can see a great deal further at both ends of this spectrum, we have some one who is partially clairvoyant, who can respond to more vibrations; and that is the secret of seeing so much more. There may be and there are many entities, many objects about us which do not reflect rays of light that we can see, but do reflect these other rays of rates of vibration which we do not see ; consequently some of such things can be photographed, though our eyes cannot see them. What are called "spirit photographs" have often been taken, although there is a great deal of skepticism in connection with them, because, as is well known to any photographer, such a thing can easily be produced by a slight preliminary exposure. There are various ways in which it can be done; nevertheless, although they can be counterfeited by fraud, it is certain that some such photographs have been taken. DR. BARADUC'S EXPERIMENT The recent experiments of Dr. Baraduc, of Paris, France, seem to show conclusively the possibility of photographing these invisible vibrations. When last I was there he showed me a large series of photographs in which he had succeeded So many amazing developments are making in the evolution of photography these days that it ivill not seem particularly amazing that the silver plate has been made to record emotions and thought forms. There has been an interest developing in the occult side of photography for sometime and this excerpt from Bishop Leadbeater's book, "Some Glimpses of Occultism," may throw an interesting light on the subject. The experiments of Dr. Baraduc, of Paris, herein mentioned by the Bishop may start some of our bright young men on a phase of research that may one day turn the photographic world upside down. — Editor's Note. in reproducing the effects of emotion and of thought. He has one of a little girl mourning over the death of a pet bird, where a curious sort of network of lines produced by the emotion surrounds both the bird and the child. Another of two children, taken the moment after they were suddenly startled, shows a speckled and palpitating cloud. Anger at an insult is manifested by a number of little thought-forms thrown off in the shape of flecks of incomplete globules. A lady who has seen the collection since I did describes "a photograph demonstrating the purr of a cat, whose sonorous contentment projected a delicately-tinted cloud." The doctor employs a dry-plate system without contact and with or without a camera, in total obscurity through black paper or in a dark room. The plate is held near the forehead, the heart, or the hand of the person who is experimenting. He says: "Vital force is eminently plastic, and, like clay, receives impressions as life-like as if modeled by the invisible hand of some spirit sculptor. These phantom photographs, these telepathic images of the invisible, are produced by concentration of thought; thus, an officer fixed his mind upon an eagle and the majestic form of the bird was depicted upon the plate. Another shows the silhouette of a horse." He tells us that sometimes faces appear upon the plates, and especially described one case in which a mother's thought produces a portrait of a dead child. He gives us also the following interesting account of an impression made during an astral visit. "An astonishing feat of telepathic photography is related by a medical practitioner of Bucharest, Dr. Hasdeu. Being interested in the telepathic phenomena, he and his friend, Dr. Istrati, determined to put it to a photographic test, so as to prove whether it were possible to project an image at a distance upon a plate already prepared. The evening agreed on for the crucial experiment arrived. Dr. Hasdeu before retiring placed his camera beside his bed. Dr. Istrati was separated from him by several hundred miles. The latter, according to agreement was, just before going to sleep, to concentrate his thoughts in the endevaor to impress his image upon the plate prepared by his friend in Bucharest. The next morning, on awakening, Dr. Istrati was convinced that he had succeeded, being assured of it in a dream. He wrote to a mutual friend, who went to Dr. Hasdeu's residence and who found that gentleman engaged in the development of the plate in question. Upon it there appeared three distinct figures, one of them particularly clear and life-like. It depicted Dr. Istrati gazing with intensity into the camera, the extremity of the instrument being illuminated by a phosphorescent glow which appeared to emanate from the apparition. When Dr. Istrati returned to Bucharest he was surprised at the resemblance of his fluidic portrait, which revealed his type of face and most marked characteristics with more fidelity than photographs taken by ordinary processes." OUR WIDER POWERS All these experiments show us howmuch is visible to the eye of the camera which is invisible to ordinary human vision; and it is, therefore, obvious that if the human vision can be made as sensitive as the plates used in photography we shall see many things to which now we are blind. It is within the power of man not only to equal the highest sensitiveness attainable by chemicals, but greatly to transcend it; and by this means a vast amount of information about this unseen world may be gained. With regard to hearing, the same thing is true. We do not all hear equally, and again I do not mean by that that some of us have better hearing than others, but that some of us hear sounds which the others could under no circumstances hear, however, loud they might become. This, again, is demonstarble. There are various vibratory sounds caused by machinery which may be carried to such a height as to become inaudible as the machinery moves faster and faster they gradually become less and less audible, and at last pass beyond the stage of audibility, not because they have ceased, but because the note has been raised too far for the human ear to follow it. The pleasantest test I know of, which anyone can apply in the summer months if he is living in the country, is the sound of the squeak of the bat. That is a very razoredge of sound, a tin\ -needle-like cry like the squeak of a mouse, only several octaves higher. It is on the edge of the possibility of human hearing. Some people can hear it and others cannot, which shows us again that there is no definite limit, and that the human ear varies con siderably in its power of responding to vibrations. If, then, we are capable of responding only to certain small groups out of the