In this article, William
Judge talks about that ability to make people see things or beings that are not
really real.
Glamour, its Purpose and Place in Magic
The word “glamour” was long ago defined in old dictionaries as “witchery
or a charm on the eyes, making them see things differently from what they
really are.” This is still the meaning of the word. Not long ago, before the
strange things possible in hypnotic experiments became known to the Western
world, it seemed as if everything would be reduced to mere matter and motion by
the fiat of science.
Witchery was to fade away, be forgotten, be laughed out of sight, and
what could not be ascribed to defective training of the senses was to have its explanation
in the state of the liver, a most prosaic organ. But before science with its
speculation and ever-altering canons could enlighten the unlearned multitude,
hypnotism crept slowly and surely forward and at last began to buttress the
positions of Theosophy. Glamour stands once more a fair chance for recognition.
Indeed, H.P. Blavatsky uttered prophetic words when she said that in America
more than anywhere else this art would be practiced by selfish men for selfish
purposes, for money-getting and gratification of desire.
Hurriedly glancing over some fields of folk-lore, see what a mass of
tales bearing on glamour produced by men, gods, or elementals. In India the
gods every now and then, often the sages, appear before certain persons in
various guises by means of a glamour which causes the eye to see what is not
really there. In Ireland volumes of tales in which the person sees houses, men,
and animals where they are not; he is suddenly given the power to see under the
skin of natural things, and then perceives the field or the market-place full
of fairies, men, and women gliding in and out among the people. Anon a man or
woman is changed into the appearance of animal or bird, and only regains the
old semblance when touched with the magic rod.
This change of appearance is not a change in fact, but always a glamour
affecting the eyes of the other person. Such a mass of similar stories found
during all time and among every people cannot be due to folly nor be without a
basis. The basis is a fact and a law in man’s nature. It is glamour, the reason
for glamour, and the power to bring it about. Just because there have always
been those who, either by natural ability or training, had the power to bring
on a “witchery over the eyes,” these stories have arisen.
A writer well-known in England and America once thought he had found a
mare’s nest when he reported that Mme. Blavatsky had confessed to him that
certain phenomena he enquired of had been caused by glamour.
“Ah, glamour” he said; “thus falls this Theosophic house of cards”; and
he went away satisfied, for in truth he had been himself thoroughly glamoured.
But Theosophists should not stumble and fall violently as this gentleman did
over a word which, when enquired into, carries with it a good deal of science
relating to an important branch of occultism.
When I read in an issue of the Arena all about this confession on glamour,
I was quite ready to believe that H.P. Blavatsky did say to the learned enquirer
what he reported, but at the same time, of course, knew that she never intended
to apply her enchantment explanation to every phenomenon. She only intended to
include certain classes, — although in every occult phenomenon there is some
glamour upon some of the observers according to their individual physical
idiosyncrasies.
The classes of phenomena covered by this word are referred to in part by
Patanjali in his Yoga Aphorisms, where he says that if the luminousness natural
to object and eye is interfered with the object will disappear, whether it be
man or thing and whether it be day or night. This little aphorism covers a good
deal of ground, and confutes, if accepted, some theories of the day. It
declares, in fact, that not only is it necessary for rays of light to proceed
from the object to the eye, but also light must also proceed from the eye
towards the object. Cut off the latter and the object disappears; alter the
character of the luminousness coming from the eye, and the object is altered in
shape or color for the perceiver.
(Cid's observation: I
think that here perhaps William Judge was wrong and I am inclined to consider
that the bewitcher manages to manipulate the brain of the person so that she
sees —or does not see— what he wants. And this is also what William Judge detailed below.)
How does it work?
Take up now imagination in its aspects of a power to make a clear and
definite image. This is done in hypnotism and in spiritualism. If the image be
definite enough and the perceiver or subject sensitive enough, a glamour will
be produced. The person will see that which is not the normal shape or form or
corporature of the other. But this new shape is as real as the normal, for the
normal form is but that which is to last during a certain stage of human
evolution and will certainly alter as new senses and organs develop in us.
Thus far having gone, is it not easy to see that if a person can make the
definite and vivid mind-pictures spoken of, and if the minor organs can affect
and be affected, it is quite probable and possible that trained persons may
have glamoured the eyes of others so to make them see an elephant, snake, man,
tree, pot, or any other object where only is empty space, or as an alteration
of a thing or person actually there?
This is exactly what is done in experiments by the hypnotists, with this
difference, that they have to put the subject into an abnormal state, while the
other operators need no such adventitious aids. Glamour, then, has a very
important place in magic.
That it was frequently used by H.P. Blavatsky there
is not the smallest doubt, just as there is no doubt that the yogi in India
puts the same power into operation. In many cases she could have used it by making the persons present think
they saw her when she had gone into the next room, or that another person was
also present who was not in fact.
The same power of glamour would permit her to
hide from sight any object in the room or in her hands. This is one of the
difficult feats of magic, and not in the slightest degree dependent on
legerdemain. Persons sometimes say this is folly even if true, but looked at in
another light it is no folly, nor are those cases in which anyone was entitled
to know all that was going on.
She exhibited these feats —seldom as it was— for the purpose of showing
those who were learning from her that the human subject is a complicated and
powerful being, not to be classed, as science so loves to do, with mere matter
and motion. All these phenomena accomplished two objects. First, to help those
who learned from her, and second, to spread abroad again in the West the belief
in man’s real power and nature.
The last was a most necessary thing to do because in the West
materialism was beginning to have too much sway and threatened to destroy
spirituality. And it was done also in pursuance of the plans of the Great Lodge
for the human race. As one of her Masters said, her phenomena puzzled skeptics
for many years. Even now we see the effects, for when such men as Stead, the
Editor of the Review of Reviews, and
Du Prel, Schiaparelli, and others take up the facts of Spiritualism
scientifically, one can perceive that another day for psychology is dawning.
This power of glamour is used more often than people think, and not
excluding members of the Theosophical Society, by the Adepts. They are often among
us from day to day appearing in a guise we do not recognize, and are dropping
ideas into men’s minds about the spiritual world and the true life of the soul,
as well as also inciting men and women to good acts. By this means they pass
unrecognized and are able to accomplish more in this doubting and transition
age than they could in any other way.
Sometimes as they pass they are recognized by those who have the right
faculty; but a subtle and powerful bond and agreement prevents their secret
from being divulged. This is something for members of the Theosophical Society
to think of, for they may be entertaining now and then angels unawares. They
may now and then be tried by their leaders when they least expect it, and the
verdict is not given out but has its effect all the same.
But glamour covers only a small part of the field of occultism. The use
of the astral body enters into nearly all of the phenomena, and in other
directions the subject of occult chemistry, absolutely unknown to the man of
the day, is of the utmost importance; if it is ever given out it will be a
surprise to science, but certainly that divulgation will not soon be to such a
selfish age.
(The Path, Vol. VIII, May 1893, p.43-46;
Echoes I, p.357-360)
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