From time immemorial, stone cutters in Japan and China have been making unique products - balls carved from solid pieces of transparent rock crystal or quartz. The local rulers loved to cool their hands and heads with these balls in hot weather (quartz has excellent thermal conductivity compared to other minerals), and they also loved to contemplate the world around them, looking at it through a transparent sphere.
Large crystals of transparent rock crystal are very rare, therefore quartz balls with a diameter of 15 centimeters or a little more are rare. Their price is significant. The most flawless crystal ball ever created by man was about 20 centimeters in diameter and was estimated at 20 thousand dollars. Smaller balls - from 4 centimeters or more - were made for export. Chinese and Japanese envoys presented them as the most valuable gifts to the rulers of friendly countries. But rare items were used not only for diplomatic purposes.
Third Eye
Amazing transparent balls - an example of the perfection of the creative power of nature and human art - the Japanese called "gifts of the gods" for a reason. Their mass is so uniform and pure that the eye has nothing to stop at either inside or outside the ball. If you put the ball on a support and put it in a rotational motion around the axis, then it is almost impossible to catch this rotation. It seems that the ball remains stationary, since the reflections of neighboring objects in it do not change, and without them it does not represent a single point at which the eye could linger.
Ideally round spheres (not necessarily transparent) have been used since the times of Ancient Egypt by various specialists in occult affairs - first of all, to predict the future. In the ancient Orphic poem Litika, a magic stone ball is mentioned - black, round and heavy. The Trojan diviner Helenus with his help predicted the death of his hometown.
Over time, balls have become integral attributes of sorcerers, wizards, witches and magicians. With their help, sorcerers during fortune-telling sessions seemed to acquire a "third eye". Although the predictions were not always accurate, the soothsayers believed that by peering into the surface of a ball or a crystal of rhinestone, they could achieve a state of trance, which in turn would cause visions of either events happening somewhere or those that are coming in the future.
The medieval Arab writer Ali Abu Gefar talked about the golden ball used by "magicians, followers of Zoroaster." The ball was inlaid with celestial symbols and adorned with sapphires, and one of the magicians, tying it to a bull's skin belt, rotated the ball, simultaneously uttering all kinds of spells. Staring at the shiny spinning ball, the magician gradually fell into a hypnotic trance, during which visions appeared to him, and then he could interpret them.
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Crystal in the form of a pyramid
In the absence of balls, mirrors, a surface of water, and even a drop of blood were used for the same purposes. In other words, what was required was simply a polished surface that reflected light and thereby attracted the attention of the soothsayer until he temporarily lost his sight - at this moment he allegedly opened an inner "vision". This very moment is captured in the painting "The Tale of Kings" by the Lithuanian artist Mikalojus Čiurlionis. “The wizard holds a faceted crystal ball in his palms. All around is night. The ball emits intense magical light. It is transparent. Inside the ball, you can see an ancient city, shimmering like a diamond with all the colors of a rainbow, "- the Russian writer Konstantin Paustovsky told about this picture in the book" The Wind of Wanderings ". Another famous writer, German Lyon Feuchtwanger,in one of his novels, he gives a description of the "crystal in the form of a pyramid" - it was carried on the stage before each performance of the clairvoyant Oscar Lautenzak.
Count Cagliostro and others like him invariably claimed that before the desired visions appeared, the surface in question disappeared and a haze rose before the eyes. On this occasion, the Muslim historian and philosopher of the XIV century Ibn Khaldun reasoned: “Some believe that the image distinguished in this way takes forms on the surface of the mirror, but they are wrong. The soothsayer gazes at the surface until it disappears, and between them, like a fog, a veil rises. The images that he wants to see appear on this veil, and they give him instructions on how to respond to
In the painting "The Tale of Kings" Mikalojus Čiurlionis portrayed two kings who cannot take their eyes off the fairy world in the palms of one of them the question posed, in the affirmative or negative. Then he describes his feelings as he received them. Soothsayers in this state do not see anything real in the mirror. This is another kind of perception, born and carried out not by sight, but by the brain."
Trance or teleportation
Just think what a wonderful explanation of the phenomenon of "visions" the medieval sage Ibn Khaldun was able to give long before the materialists of the 20th century! And it would suit everyone, if there were no reasons for doubts associated with some rare, but nevertheless inexplicable phenomena. Let us cite, for example, the trustworthy story of the everyday writer Tatyana Petrovna Passek, published in the July issue of the St. Petersburg magazine "Russian Starina" for 1876.
She heard this story from her uncle, Alexander Ivanovich Kuchin, a military officer and participant in the war in the Caucasus, where he fought side by side with the famous General Alexei Petrovich Ermolov (1777-1861). It was he who once told Kuchin what happened to him in his youth, in the early 1790s. I am citing Tatiana Passek's verbatim record: “Aleksey Petrovich Ermolov, having just been promoted to an officer, took a leave of absence and went to the village to see his mother. It was winter. At night, before reaching a few miles to the estate, he was caught in such a strong snowstorm that he was forced to stay in a small village. A light shone in the extreme hut. He drove up to her and knocked on the window, asking to spend the night. A few minutes later he was already in a spacious and clean hut … Alexei Petrovich was struck by the owner's appearance. Before him stood a tall, cheerful old man of stately appearance, with a thick beard. His blue eyes shone with intelligence and there was some kind of attraction. Yermolov's orderly brought in a samovar … we sat down to drink tea together. Talking to the owner, Yermolov marveled at his sound mind and charming look. When the conversation touched upon mysterious phenomena, Aleksey Petrovich said that he did not believe anything of that kind, and that everything could be explained simply; then the owner invited him to show one phenomenon … Alexey Petrovich agreed. The old man brought a bucket of water, poured it into a pot, lit three wax candles along its edges, spoke some words over the water and told Ermolov to look at her, thinking about what he wanted to see, he himself began to ask what he imagined. “The water is turbid,” answered Aleksey Petrovich, “as if clouds were walking on it; now I see our country house, mother's room,the mother is lying on the bed, a candle is burning on the table, the maid is standing in front of the mother, apparently accepting the order; the maid came out, the mother takes the ring off her hand, puts it on the table. " - "Do you want this ring to be with you?" the old man asked. "Want".
The old man dipped his hand into the pot, the water boiled - she was embarrassed. Alexey Petrovich felt a slight faintness. The old man gave him a gold ring on which were carved the name of his father, the year and the number of the marriage.
The next day Ermolov was already at home. He found his mother unhealthy and distressed at the loss of her wedding ring. “Last night,” she said, “I ordered to give myself water to wash my hands, took off the ring and put it on the table - as I felt faint, and forgot about it. When she missed him, he was gone, and they could not find him anywhere. A few hours later, Aleksey Petrovich gave the ring to his mother, saying that he had found it in the bedroom; I never told her what happened.”
An inexplicable case, told by Passek more than 100 years ago, suggests teleportation, that is, the transcendental movement of a material body from one point in space to another. Many researchers of such phenomena believe that our everyday ideas about space and time are still very conditional.
Magazine: Mysteries of History №52. Author: Ada Mikhailova