The author of this treatise, Professor H. J. Arnikar, Emeritus Professor of Chemistry in the University of Poona, has made a deep study of Occult Chemistry, published in 1908, which records the clairvoyant observations on the structure of matter of Annie Besant and C. W. Leadbeater, two eminent members of the Theosophical Society. Observations such as theirs are suspect in contemporary society, because modern science has brainwashed the major part of the world into believing that what science does not know does not exist and the methods used by science alone help to unveil the truth. Hence, if religion has often served to extinguish the intellect, science has been responsible for blinding the soul with its materialistic dogmas.
Works such as the present one which point to the fact that the truth about the universe and its varied phenomena may be reached by more than one route are of great value. It is worthwhile to consider whether seers, ancient and modern, have had access in varying degrees to the secrets of Nature because they acquired knowledge through effecting changes in the observing consciousness, rather than by intellectual processes relating to observed phenomena. There is a state of consciousness, according to Vedic sages, capable of penetrating fully into the structure, laws and significance of the universe, which can be reached by undergoing the discipline of self-study (atmavidya).
Professor Arnikar's work, we hope, will evoke interest in the role of the observing consciousness in the quest for truth.
Occult Chemistry by Annie Besant and Bishop Charles Webster Leadbeater had been posing all along a series of challenges to contemporary science and to ardent students of Theosophy, for whom the treatise was primarily meant. The Theosophist's account of the origin and evolution of the chemical elements begins with the Protyle or Ylem, the primordial cosmic matter or Mulaprakrti, which is a conglomerate of neutrons, protons and electrons or mesons, materializing from the highest etheric plane El down to the dense physical planes of E5 (gas), E6 (liquid), and E7 (solid). In the theosophical literature the process of nucleosynthesis, once started, continues for ever. Contrary to this model, cosmology holds that the nucleosynthesis of all the elements was over in a time of the order of one hour (vide s. 3.2). In fact, the processes of the burning of hydrogen into helium is stated to have been all over in about 140 seconds of the Big Bang.
Naturally, the chemistry of elements begins with hydrogen, the first and the simplest of them. The current scientific theory holds since 1963 that the nucleus of a hydrogen atom, i.e., the proton, is not an indivisible elementary particle but is composed of three quarks which along with electrons are the newly (1963) postulated building blocks of all matter.
It is uncanny, indeed, that the occultists could 'see' by their psychic power, as long back as the 1890s that the proton and the neutron are each made up of 3 subparticles, triads or triplets. Seventy years later, this result was confirmed by modern physics by its sophisticated machines and instruments. Soon, the occultists showed that the triad or triplet in turn is divisible into 3 Anus each. To many this appears to be the greatest contribution of Besant and Leadbeater to science, commanding universal admiration and respect. Some have stated that this amounts to a discovery worth a Nobel Prize.
One of the principal objects we set out with in preparing Essentials of Occult Chemistry and Modern Science was to bring physical science a little closer to the philosopher-theosophists who would have had no occasion to study much science, and similarly to bring Theosophy a little closer to the hardened materialist who has no inkling of the wealth and the potential of Theosophy. Important as these twin objects are, in realizing these we were confronted by the difficult problem of how much not to say, to remain reader-friendly! There are some for whom only seeing is believing, the rest is nought. They argue, 'What we cannot see, we cannot believe.' This is understandable enough. But when they extend their logic to say What we do not see, cannot exist, it ceases to be scientific.
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