In the era of the general ravaging of the ancient tombs of Egypt, Greece and Rome, rumors spread that among other things, there were wonderful lamps in the tombs that had burned since the time of burial and self-destructed or went out when a crowd of vandals rushed into the burial, armed with picks and spade. There was so much such information that scientists became interested in this issue and found sufficiently convincing evidence from ancient and medieval thinkers regarding the truthfulness of the assertion that ancient craftsmen knew how to make lamps that burn without replacing fuel and wick for millennia.
It was also discovered that these lamps did not smoke, apart from a light cloud of smoke when they were broken or extinguished, which explained one of the mysteries of the ancient Egyptian pyramids: how could a painter apply frescoes to areas of walls inaccessible to light, without spoiling the soot of oil lamps and torches your job.
Testimonies of everlasting lamps were collected, summarized and analyzed. A similar lamp was found in the tomb of Cicero's daughter Tulliola near the Appian Way during the papacy of Paul III.
This lamp burned in a hermetically sealed room, that is, in addition to everything else without access to oxygen, for 1600 years, illuminating the body of a young girl with long golden hair, immersed in a transparent solution that prevents decomposition. The breeze that burst into the tomb extinguished the flame of the lamp, which could not be ignited again. Lamps of the same quality were found all over the world in places of ancient civilizations with highly developed spiritual culture.
Plutarch wrote about the eternally burning lamp, claiming that this lamp hung over the door of the temple of Jupiter-Ammon; Saint Augustine supplemented the narrative, mentioning in his writings the ancient Egyptian "devil's" lamp, which was not extinguished by water or wind, in the temple of Venus. In 1401, near Rome, an eternally burning lamp was discovered standing at the head of the sarcophagus of Pollant, the son of Evandros, which burned, if we consider the date of its lighting, the burial time, more than 2000 years. A similar lamp was found in an unnamed marble tomb found in 1500 on the island of Nesis in the Gulf of Naples. Another eternally burning lamp was also in Edessa (Antioch) during the reign of Emperor Justinian (VI century).
It was located in a niche protected from the elements above the city gates and burned, judging by the ignition date stamped on it, for more than 500 years, until it was destroyed by soldiers. Several lamps were also found on the territory of England, the most remarkable of which was in the tomb of an adherent of the Rosicrucian order, which, when invaded from outside, had to be broken by a mechanical knight with a long metal spear. In addition to the countries of Europe and the southern and eastern Dizemoria, eternally burning lamps have been found in Indian and Chinese temples, temples of Memphis and even in Central and South America.
Unfortunately, none of these lamps was presented to the scientist as a whole, and what fell into their hands did not at all resemble fragments of lamps in the normal sense of the word. But the difficulties did not stop the researchers, who wanted to uncover the secret of the eternal fuel, but, on the contrary, spurred them to experiment. The simplest hypothesis on this matter was put forward by the Jesuit scientist Athanasius Kircher. Here is what he writes: “Egypt has rich deposits of asphalt and oil. What did the cunning priests do? They secretly connected sections of the oil source to one or more lamps with asbestos wicks!
It was these lamps that burned with an eternal flame. From my point of view (by the way, Kircher's point of view has often changed, since in his other work he writes that the ever-burning lamps are the creation of the Devil's hands - Ed.), This is the most correct solution to the riddle of the supernatural long-suffering of these lamps."
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In total, about 200 works have been written about eternally burning lamps. The possibility of the existence of fuel, which was renewed at the same rate as it burned, was the subject of serious debate in scientific circles of the Middle Ages. The only thing that almost everyone agreed on about the eternally burning lamps was that the wicks of these lamps had to be made of fireproof asbestos, which alchemists called "wool" or "salamander skin." All the same Kircher for two years tried to get oil from this indestructible material, believing that it could also be indestructible, but after that he left his research and came to the conviction that this was impossible. Several formulas for the preparation of eternal fuel have survived since the Middle Ages, but none of them brought the expected results.
For example, H. P. Blavatsky, known for her works in the field of mysticism and the occult, in the book "Isis Unveiled" gives the following sequence of actions, which she borrowed from Titenheim's work: "Sulfur. Alum.
Sublimate to a sulfur color. Add the Venetian crystal borax in powder, then pour over with high purity alcohol, evaporate and add the sediment to a new portion. Repeat until the sulfur is soft like wax and smoke. Place on a copper plate. This is for food. The wick is prepared in this way: remove a thread of asbestos as thick as the middle finger and as long as the little finger, put it in a Venetian vessel, pour over the prepared sulfuric wax, put it in the sand for twenty-four hours and heat it so that bubbles come out of the sulfur.
At the same time, the wick will become salted and lubricated, and then put it in a glass vessel, similar to a flap shell, so that a small part of it is above the sulfur wax. Then place the vessel in hot sand so that the wax softens and is evenly distributed over the wick. And if after that you light the wick, it will burn forever, and the lamp can be placed wherever you want."
Even a person who is poorly familiar with the intricacies of chemical processes will find many curiosities in this recipe, perhaps added intentionally, and will understand that a lamp made in this way is unlikely to burn at all.
But the lamps did exist! Legends were formed about them. In particular, it is interesting to "attach" to this "case" numerous oriental legends about genies living in lamps, and Western legends about the souls of people and spirits enclosed in bottles and other containers, which always emitted a glow around them. If we take into account all the characteristics accompanying eternally burning lamps, namely, the eternal burning itself, the absence of soot, the immunity to the lack of oxygen and the strange appearance of these antiquity products, then the "introduction" to the secret of these lamps, legends about genies and spirits will no longer seem like something absurd.
Moreover, having studied the beliefs of the Ancient peoples, in particular Egypt, one can live that the light emanating from the lamps had nothing to do with fire or electricity (this version was expressed at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries). To substantiate this statement, it is worth remembering the ritual burial itself. This is especially true of embalming, because ever-burning lamps were found only in those places where the preservation of the body of the deceased was of paramount importance.
It is known that the internal organs of the deceased were removed from the body and placed in special vessels installed near the sarcophagus.
Further study of this issue will become even more interesting if we take into account that during the time of the ancient kingdoms, one more internal organs was ranked among the known today internal organs, hiding behind the terms "rose of the heart", "pearl in a lotus flower", "inner temple", "fire from within "," Divine spark "," fire of the heart ", etc., which directly" made "the living - alive:" And God created man from the dust of the earth and breathed into his face the breath of life, gave him a free, reasonable, living spirit and immortal, in his own image and likeness; and a man became with an immortal soul."
The concept of "immortal soul" holds almost any doctrine of the Spirit, both prehistoric time and our modern era, be it religion, occultism or esotericism in its global scope.
From all this, a hypothetical conclusion can be drawn: in the eternally burning lamps there was no oil, no oil, no wick at all - they contained the vital forces or souls of the deceased, shining like small suns, and, naturally, giving neither burning nor soot, because they are particles of God himself, who created the world through the Heavenly Fire - Shamayim.
It goes without saying that such a treasure had to be guarded so that it did not fall into the hands of enemies, which is why all kinds of devices were installed that break the lamp when the vandals invaded.
Of course, such a rather free approach to the topic of eternally burning lamps can be challenged by citing the same ancient treatises, according to which the soul after death must unite with God. But this is true only if you do not take into account embalming or some other action that protects the body of the deceased from corruption. Why was this done? The answer can be found in the "Egyptian Book of the Dead", in which there is a chapter "On the ascent to the Light", knowing the text of which the pharaoh could leave his tomb at any time and then return back, not fearing that he would not be accepted by the guardians of the other world.
The main conclusion that can be drawn from this scripture of the ancient Egyptians is that the pharaoh needed vital force to enter the material world, which was located next to the mummy in a glass vessel, which was mistaken for a lamp because of the glow. So the "introduction" to the case of the "imprisoned genies" played some role in exposing the mystery of the eternally burning lamps. Although it is too early to talk about "exposure", at least until another secret lies in the shadow of ignorance - the secret of the immortality of the human soul.