Hegel a paranormální jevy

7/27/2019 Hegel a paranormln jevy

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Aries 8 (2008) 21-36 www.brill.nl/arie

Hegel on the Paranormal:Altered States of Consciousness in the

Philosophy of Subjective Spirit

Glenn Alexander MageeAssistant Professor, Department of Philosophy,

Te C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University, [email protected]

AbstractHegel ber das Paranormale: vernderte Bewutseinszustnde in der Philosophie des subjektivenGeistesSeine gesamte Schaffenszeit hindurch interessierte sich Hegel fr paranormale Phno-mene und Okkultismus. Er hielt, wie wir wissen, bereits 1805 in Jena Vorlesungen ber Mes-merismus (auch tierischer Magnetismus, oder noch iermagnetismus genannt). Hegels Interessean diesen Temen wurde stark von F.W.J. Schelling geschrt, dessen Briefe an Hegel sich oftmalsum Hellsehen oder Rutengehen drehten. In dem der Philosophie des subjekiven Geistes

gewidmeten Abschnitt seiner Enzyklopdie der philosophischen Wissenschaften im Grundrisse(1817)widmet er sich dem Paranormalen am ausfhrlichsten. Dort nennt er Beispiele wie Hellsehen,Rutengehen : Fern-Sehen, und berichtet sogar von einem Manne, der mit seinem Bauchzu lesen vermochtewobei er ber solche Berichte keinerlei Skeptizismus verlauten lsst. Auchfgt Hegel eine Diskussion ber tierischen Magnetismus ein. Unter den Temen, die er inder Enzyklopdiebehandelt, widmet er letzterem eine Abhandlung, die wohl zu den am meistendetaillierten gehrt. Hegel argumentiert, da bei psychischen Phnomenen ein vernderterBewutseinszustand eintritt, in welchem der Geist auf einen vorrationalen, natrlichenZustand absinkt und sich selbst in der ursprnglichen Einheit aller Dinge verliert. Dadurch istes dem Geist mglich, sich einem Zustand der Verbindung anzugleichen, dessen wir uns imallgemeinen nicht bewut sind. Er meint, der Verstandder Standpunkt der konventionellenNaturwissenschaft, die sich ganz auf mechanische Erklrungen sttztsei nicht imstande, Ph-

nomene solcher Art zu erklren. Nur eine Philosophie, die (wie jene Hegels) Versuche zurck-weist, rumliche und zeitliche Unterschiede zu verabsolutieren, sei in der Lage, das Paranormalezu erklren. berdies lsst uns Hegel vertehen, die hchste Ebene des Geistes, die philosophischeErkenntnis, sei gleichsam eine hhere Art von Magie. Durch die Philosophie knnen sich Indi-viduen von den Grenzen von Raum und Zeit befreienebenso wie dies in gewissen psychischenZustnden geschieht.

KeywordsHegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich; Mesmer, Franz Anton; Mesmerism; animal magnetism; psychicphenomena; German idealism


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Introduction

One of the more notorious facts about Hegel is that he took an active interestin matters that are today referred to as paranormal: psychic phenomena (orextra-sensory perception), animal magnetism, dowsing, etc. Such interestswere by no means unique among the German Idealists: Schelling, Schopen-hauer, and even Kant shared them.1 But scholars tend to treat these interests aslittle more than footnotes to their careers. Few would deny that the Idealistswere interested in the paranormal, but neither is their interest thought to beone that shaped their thinking or writing in important ways. In the case ofHegel, however, I intend to argue that his interest in the paranormal was not

just a small sidelight: he thought the topic important, his interest in it wasstrong, and it occasioned profound philosophical reflections. Tese reflectionsoccur primarily in the Philosophy of Subjective Spirit, and in Hegels remarks(Zustze) on it.2 Hegels discussion of the paranormal in those remarks consti-tutes one of the lengthiest treatments of any subject in the Encyclopedia of thePhilosophical Sciencesand it culminates in Hegels striking claim that hisability to give a theoretical account of paranormal phenomena constitutes anempirical proof of speculative philosophy.3

Hegel on the Soul

Hegel divides the Philosophy of Subjective Spirit into three parts: Anthropol-ogy (Anthropologie), Phenomenology of Spirit (Phnomenologie des Geistes),and Psychology (Psychologie). It is with the first two divisions that I willconcern myself here. Anthropology, Hegel tells us, deals with Spirit (Geist) stillimplicit, Nature-Spirit (Naturgeist).4 Anthropology, in other words, deals

1 See Johnson, Commentary on Kants Dreams of a Spirit-Seer.2 Philosophy of Subjective Spirit is not a book title, but rather the name of one of the divi-

sions in Hegels philosophy, as is the Philosophy of Spirit itself. Te Philosophy of SubjectiveSpirit forms one of the sections of the Enzyklopdie der philosophischen Wissenschaften im Grun-drisse(Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences in Outline, 1817).

3 I cover some of the same ground in Hegel and the Hermetic radition, though the presentaccount goes considerably beyond what I have to say in my book.

4 Hegel, Enzyklopdie, 38; Hegels Philosophy of Mind, 25. I have corrected Wallace andMillers translation (Hegels Philosophy of Mind) in many places. Amongst other things they

consistently mistranslate Geistas mind (it is more correctly rendered Spirit), nor do theytranslate Verstandin a consistent manner (it is now universal among Hegel translators to renderthis as Understanding).


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with that aspect of us that is still sunk in nature and is not a function of self-conscious mind or intellect. It is, as it were, the natural self, and Hegel calls

it the soul (die Seele). Te soul is the sleep of Spirit; the raw material out ofwhich character is formed.5 It contains depths that very often go unfathomedby the conscious mind.

Hegel further subdivides his treatment of soul into natural soul (natrli-che Seele) feeling soul (fhlende Seele), and actual soul (wirkliche Seele).His treatment of the natural soul is decidedly odd and genuinely speculative.Hegel describes it as an anima mundi, a world-soul, and as a single subject.He speaks as if this single subject divides into the many individual subjects,but his language is figurative: Just as light bursts asunder into an infinite host

of stars, so too does the universal natural soul sunder itself into an infinite hostof individual souls; only with this difference, that whereas light appears tohave an existence independently of the stars, the universal natural soul attainsactuality solely in individual souls.6 In other words, the natural soul does notexist separately from individuals, but the natural soul is in fact one soul, embod-ied in a multiplicity of individuals. Hegel is saying that in the most primordiallevels of our psyche we are, in a sense, identical. Trough this natural soul,further, we are in sympathy with the natural world.

In fact, Hegel refers to the natural soul as the microcosm into which

the macrocosm [nature] is compressed, thereby removing its asunderness[Auereinandersein].7 He writes,

[We are] in ourselves a world of concrete content with an infinite periphery, wehave within us a countless host of relationships and connections which are alwaysin us even if they do not enter into our sensation and ideation and which, nomatter how much these relationships can alter, even without our knowledge, nonethe less belong to the concrete content of the human soul; so that the latter, onaccount of the infinite wealth of its content, may be described as the soul of aworld, as the individuallydetermined world-soul.8

Tese thoughts may call to mind Leibniz, and Hegel himself appears to havethought of him since later he writes, Te soul is in itself (an sich) the totalityof nature: as an individual soul it is a monad (Monade).9

Hegel tells us that the natural soul, in its individual determination, isinfluenced by such things as climate and geology, and thus it subdivides itself

5 Hegel, Enzyklopdie, 43; Hegels Philosophy of Mind, 29.6 Hegel, Enzyklopdie, 50; Hegels Philosophy of Mind, 35.7

Hegel, Enzyklopdie, 51; Hegels Philosophy of Mind, 36.8 Hegel, Enzyklopdie, 120; Hegels Philosophy of Mind, 90.9 Hegel, Enzyklopdie, 123; Hegels Philosophy of Mind, 93.


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into what we might call regional souls. Tere follows his notorious discus-sion of racial and national differences. Te specification of the soul into what

we think of as truly individual character is, Hegel believes, logically posteriorto its specification into racial and ethnic character. When he turns to thedevelopment of individual character, Hegel makes some of his most penetrat-ing and profound observations on human life, as he takes us through the lifecourse of the individual from childhood to old age.

Tere follows, by a curious transition, a discussion of the nature of sensa-tion, and then we pass to the section on Feeling Soul, the second majordivision of Anthropology. Hegels discussion of feeling, and of the differencebetween sensation and feeling, is obscure to say the least. Whereas sensations

are fleeting, feeling seems to involve the coordination of sensations. But we arenot yet at the conscious level, where sense-impressions have been coordinatedinto a coherent experience of the world around us. Te soul is, again, the sleepof Spirit. Te natural soul is nature within us; all that which lives and workswithin us unconsciously. In feeling soul, on the other hand, we find the firstglimmer of awareness. Feeling soul is the great depth of the psyche: a congeriesof impressions, sensations, intuitions. At this level, however, no firm distinc-tion has been made between the subjective and the objective. Human lifebegins at this level, and individual identity must be carved out of it (which is,

in effect, what is involved in the transition to Actual Soul).Hegel claims that feeling can actually take place without the apparent medi-ation of the senses at all. He states later on that feeling, or the subjectiveway of knowing, dispenses wholly, or at least in part, with the mediations andconditions indispensable to an objective knowledge and can, for example, per-ceive visible things without the aid of the eyes or without the mediation oflight.10 Tis is the basis for Hegels discussing psychic phenomena under therubric of feeling, a discussion which occupies the bulk of the section onFeeling Soul.11 When the individual is at the level of feeling soul, it is possible

for another subject to exercise a control function over it. Hegel calls this itsGenius. Tis can occur in at least two ways.First, early in life, when the child lives at the level of feeling soul, another

individual (such as its mother) may play the role of genius. Hegel refers to how

10 Hegel, Enzyklopdie, 140; Hegels Philosophy of Mind, 107.11 In what follows I have not made fine distinctions between paranormal phenomena and

psychic phenomena, though I am aware that the former term is broader than the latter. I have

generally avoided the term occult. Hegel does not use any of these terms. He sometimes usesmagical (magisch; see my discussion of this below), and often uses magnetic (magnetisch),borrowed from animal magnetism.


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striking changes in the childs disposition can be caused by violent emotions,injuries, etc., of the mother.12 o say that the child can be affected by the

mothers emotions seems an uncontroversial claim about maternal influenceduring the very impressionable period of childhood. But what does he meanby injuries? Is he referring to injuries of the mother while the child is inutero? Tis may be the case, as later we will see that Hegel believes that thechild can undergo psychic and even physical changes in utero as a result of themothers thoughts or feelings. Tis is not, however, the only instance in whichsomeones genius may be another person: it is also possible for adult individu-als to regress, for brief or extended periods, to the level of feeling soul. Insuch a state, another individual may control them and become their genius. As

we shall see, this idea is crucial for comprehending Hegels discussion of ani-mal magnetism. Hegel refers to such relationships, including that betweenmother and child, as involving a magic tie and states that they may go so faras to exhibit magnetic phenomena.13

Hegels use of the term magic (Magie) is deliberate and meant in a techni-cal sense; he is not using the term figuratively or poetically. In the Zusatztothis paragraph he explains it as follows:

this term connotes a relation of inner to outer or to something else generally,which dispenses with any mediation; a magical power is one whose action is not

determined by the interconnection, the conditions and mediations of objectiverelations; but such a power which produces effects without any mediation is thefeeling soul in its immediacy.14

Hegels definitionand he will make this clear later oncomprises all thosephenomena that we today term occult or paranormal. A magical relation-ship is one which operates without mediation and which seems to cancel thelimitations of time and space. Given this, and as Hegel will later state explic-itly, magic is completely inexplicable to the Understanding. It can only becomprehended by speculative philosophy.15

Hegels interest in magic was longstanding. In 1810 he began to correspondwith Karl Joseph Hieronymous Windischmann (1775-1839), a philosopher,

12 Hegel, Enzyklopdie, 125; Hegels Philosophy of Mind, 95.13 Hegel, Enzyklopdie, 126; Hegels Philosophy of Mind, 95.14 Hegel, Enzyklopdie, 127-128; Hegels Philosophy of Mind, 97.15 Te Understanding (der Verstand) is a technical term in Hegels philosophy. It refers to a

type of thinking that operates in terms of categories (especially pairs of opposites) that it regards

as fixed and not open to challenge. Speculative philosophy (spekulative Philosophie)the nameHegel gives to his systemthinks beyond the Understanding using dialectic, which transcendspairs of opposites.


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physician, and freemason who had authored a significant review ofTe Phe-nomenology of Spirit. Windischmann had understood Hegels work as an

expression of Masonic philosophy, an impression which Hegel apparently didlittle to discourage. While in correspondence with Hegel, Windischmann wasengaged in research on magic, and in 1813 he would publish Untersuchungunber Astrologie, Alchemie und Magie. On April 27, 1810 Windischmann wrotethe following to Hegel concerning magic:

Everything rests on the fundamental thought that what is temporal, finite, in astate of becoming . . . is the eternal itself comprehended in its evolution, develop-ment, and self-knowledge, and that the impenetrable Spirit must of necessityindividualize itself and take form in the infinity and infinite diversity of moments,

which in themselves can nonetheless be most sharply grasped. In this way equallynumerous forms of one-sidedness and of incantation are possible and effective,each along the path of Spirits development. All such forms must find their expli-cation in this investigation, beginning with the first and full magical power of theImpenetrableand of Nature surging forth everywhereover man, proceedingthrough the isolation and interlocking of moments, and ending with the penetra-tion, illumination, and complete magical power of Spirit itself, which dissipatesall magical incantation and constitutes the clarity and freedom of life itself.16

Exactly a month later (on May 27th) Hegel responded: I am very curious tohave your work on magic in hand. I confess I would not dare tackle this dark

side and mode of spiritual nature or natural spirit, and am all the happier thatyou will both illuminate it for us and take up many a neglected and scornedsubject, restoring it to the honor it deserves.17 Yet a few years later, in hisremarks on the Philosophy of Spirit, we find Hegel daring to tackle this darkside of Spirit.

It is important to note that while magic for Hegel includes the occult orparanormal, it is not limited to these. For instance, Hegel mentions the mag-ical power of a superior mind over a weaker and illustrates his point with theexample of the influence of Lear over Kent in Shakespeares King Lear. A few

lines later, in words that call to mind Schopenhauer, Hegel asserts that thepower of the mind to spontaneously move the body is a magical power.18

So much for the essential nature of magic as such, Hegel writes, and passeson to distinguish two different forms of the magical relation. It is in his discus-sion of these two forms that we encounter Hegels extensive treatment of ani-mal magnetism and psychic phenomena, running to some twenty-three pages

16

Hegel, Briefe, letter #155; Hegel: Te Letters, 559.17 Hegel, Briefe, letter #158; Hegel: Te Letters, 561.18 Hegel, Enzyklopdie, 128; Hegels Philosophy of Mind, 97.


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in the Wallace translation. Te first of these types of magical relation Hegelterms the formal subjectivity of life; it is essentially the soul sunk in the

oblivion of the unconscious mind. Tis includes the life of the child in thewomb. In discussing this, Hegel returns to the influence of the mother onthe child and illustrates it with some particularly striking examples:

Tis influence is revealed in those phenomena called birth-marks. Many of thephenomena classed under this head may well have a purely organic cause. But asregards many physiological phenomena there can be no doubt that these derivefrom the feeling of the mother and that, therefore, they have a psychic cause [psy-chische Ursache]. Tere are, for example, reports of children being born with aninjured arm because the mother either had actually broken an arm or at least hadknocked it so severely that she feared it was broken, or, again, because she hadbeen frightened by the sight of someone elses broken arm. Similar examples aretoo familiar to require mention here.19

Even with the cutting of the cord, however, a magic tie remains. Hegel states,in the relationship of parents to their grown-up children a magical elementhas revealed itself in the fact that children and parents who had long been sepa-rated and did not know each other, unconsciously felt a mutual attraction.20

Te second form of the magical relationship (the real subjectivity of thefeeling soul) is different from the first in that now the subject is oriented out-ward towards the world. In the womb and also in dreaming (where the subjectseems to have unmediated power over experiences it produces from out ofitself) subjectivity is sunk within itself. In this second form, we are related tothe external world. As his chief example of this, Hegel cites animal magnetism.In paragraph 406 he writes In this summary encyclopedic account it is impos-sible to supply a demonstration of what the paragraph states as the nature ofthe remarkable condition produced chiefly by animal magnetism [tierischeMagnetismus]to show, in other words, that it accords with experience.21Tis demonstration Hegel reserved for his oral remarks, recorded in the lengthyZusatzappended to this passage.

Hegel goes on at some length, however, in his published remarks. For onething, he mentions that there are those who steadfastly refuse to acknowledgethat the phenomena associated with animal magnetism exist. Tis is due to thefact that animal magnetism is not intelligible in terms of their fixed concep-tions, so they deny its existence: Te a prioriconceptions of these inquirersare so rooted that no testimony can avail against them, and they have evendenied what they have seen with their own eyes. In order to believe in this

19



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department even what ones own eyes have seen and still more to understandit, the first requisite is not to be in bondage to the hard and fast categories of

the Understanding.22 Hegel is, at the outset, aware that much of what he hasto say will be met with skepticism and even ridicule.

Psychic Phenomena and Animal Magnetism

Te discussion in the Zusatzthat follows paragraph 406 is wide-ranging. Inaddition to animal magnetism Hegel discusses clairvoyance, precognition (thepower to see the future), and even metal and water dowsing (a subject which

keenly interested Schelling). Tis material is highly entertaining.Hegel regales us with the story of a Frenchman who could not only readwhen a book was pressed against his stomach, but whose stomach could alsoread a book from the next room. He discusses the phenomenon of what wouldbe called today remote viewing, or seeing things at a distance without anyapparent mediation. In an amusing anecdote, Hegel tells us of how the arch-rationalist Friedrich Nicolai had a vision in which he seemed to see not theactual houses on his street, but structures which had stood there at an earliertime. Hegel remarks acidly, Te predominantly physical basis of the poetic

illusion of this otherwise thoroughly prosaic individual became apparentthrough its being dispelled by the application of leeches to his rectum.23

Hegel tells us of cases where individuals have, in trance states, revealed thatthey possessed knowledge of which they were not consciously aware. He men-tions, for instance, simple folk accustomed to speak in Low German who,when put into a trance, spoke effortlessly in High German. He also mentionscases where individuals, again in a trance, had displayed perfect recall of docu-ments they had read years prior, and of which they had no conscious recollec-tion. Such cases will be quite familiar to anyone who has studied what today

is called hypnotism.Hegel discusses the case of a girl who did not know that her brother was inSpain but who, in a vision, saw accurately not only that he was in Spain butthat he was ill and confined to a hospital. He also discusses premonitions.Hegel writes, For instance, people have been awakened and impelled to leavea room or a house by a premonition that the ceiling or the house was about tocollapse, which it subsequently did.24 Hegel is fully aware that charlatanry

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exists, but he regards many such cases as well-authenticated. He also makes itvery clear that he believes that ancient reports of clairvoyance and prophecy

are not to be lightly dismissed: Te old chronicles, which are not to betoo hastily charged with error and falsehood, relate many a case coming underthis head.25

Hegel reserves his most extensive treatment, however, for animal magne-tism or mesmerism. Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815) was a Swabian phy-sician practicing medicine in Paris who found that passing magnets or magnetizedmaterials over his patients not only seemed to improve their conditions, butsometimes put them into a trance. Mesmer created various instruments toproduce this effect, among them the baquet, which is described by Hegel as

consisting of a vessel, with iron rods which are touched by the persons to bemagnetized, and constitutes the intermediary between them and the magne-tizer.26 In time, Mesmer found that he could dispense with magnets and pro-duce the same effects merely by passing his hands over his patients. Mesmertheorized that these phenomena depended upon the presence of a fluid forcewhich he called animal magnetism (magntisme animal).

In 1784 a French commission headed by Benjamin Franklin investigatedMesmers techniques and theories and declared them fraudulent. But patientscontinued to flock to him. In 1812 the Prussian government set up their own

commission to study Mesmer. Te Germans proved more favorable to himthan the French, and numerous sympathetic studies of Mesmers work appeared.Tis is part of the context necessary to understand the interest of Germanacademics in mesmerism. Nevertheless, Schelling and Hegel took an interestin the subject prior to Mesmers rehabilitation by the Prussians.

In a letter to Hegel dated January 11, 1807, Schelling discusses experimentsinvolving dowsing for water and metal, and also pendulums. Schelling goes sofar as to suggest that Hegel perform these experiments himself. He says ofthese phenomena that It is an actual magic incident to the human being, no

animal is able to do it. Man actually breaks forth as a sun among other beings,all of which are his planets.27 In a subsequent letter dated March 22, Schellingsuggests that Hegel consult an article by his brother Karl on animal magnetism.Karl Eberhard Schelling (1783-1854) was a physician who attended some ofHegels classes in Jena in 1801-1802. In 1807 Karl Schelling published twoarticles on animal magnetism in theJahrbcher der Medicin als Wissenschaft.28

25 Hegel, Enzyklopdie, 146; Hegels Philosophy of Mind, 111.26

Hegel, Enzyklopdie, 152; Hegels Philosophy of Mind, 116.27 Quoted in Petry, Hegels Philosophy of Subjective Spirit, 517.28 See the bibliography. Over the course of a decade (1822-1832), Karl Schelling treated


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In an 1810 letter to Peter Gabriel van Ghert, Hegel writes:

I was very interested to hear that you are occupying yourself with animal magne-tism. o me this dark region of the organic conditions seems to merit great atten-tion because, among other reasons, ordinary physiological opinions here vanish.It is precisely the simplicity of animal magnetism which I hold to be most note-worthy. . . . Its operation seems to consist in the sympathy into which one animalindividuality is capable of entering with a second, insofar as the sympathy of thefirst with itself, its fluidity in itself, is interrupted and hindered. Tat [sympa-thetic] union [of two organisms] leads life back again into its pervasive universalstream. Te general idea I have of the matter is that the magnetic state belongs tothe simple universal life, a life which thus behaves and generally manifests itselfas a simple soul, as the scent of life in general undifferentiated into particular

systems, organs, and their specialized activities.

29

Tis was written in response to a letter from van Ghert (dated June 22, 1810),in which the latter asked Hegel to remind him of his (Hegels) theory of ani-mal magnetism. Van Ghert had been Hegels student at Jena in 1804-1806. AsI shall demonstrate, Hegels views on animal magnetism referred to in his let-ter to van Ghert are identical to those he later expressed in the Philosophy ofSubjective Spirit. Van Ghert published two works on animal magnetismDagboek der magnetische Behandeling van Mejufvrouw B*** (Diary of themagnetic treatment of mss. B***; 1814), and Mnemosyne, of aanteekeningen

van merkwaardige verschijnsels van het animalisch magnetismus(Mnemosyne,or notes of remarkable phenomena of animal magnetism; 1815)whichHegel mentioned in his later lectures.30

Hegels remarks on animal magnetism in the Philosophy of Subjective Spiritare so detailed that at times they read like a how-to manual. I have alreadyquoted his physical description of the apparatus used in Mesmers work. Atone point, Hegel discusses the magnetizers technique of passing his handsover the subject: Te hand is moved from the head toward the pit of thestomach and from there towards the extremities; care must be taken to avoid

stroking backwards because this very easily gives rise to cramps. . . . Te mag-netizer can tell whether he is still effective at a particular distance by feeling acertain warmth in his hand.31 Hegel seems to speak from first-hand experi-ence, and indeed there is a report, quoted in the volume Hegel in Berichten

Hegels sister Christiane for hysteria. It is certainly possible that he utilized magnetic therapyon Christiane. See Berthold-Bond, Hegels Teory of Madness, 13.

29

Hegel, Briefe, letter # 166; Hegel: Te Letters, 590.30 Hegel, Enzyklopdie, 154; Hegels Philosophy of Mind, 118.31 Hegel, Enzyklopdie, 153; Hegels Philosophy of Mind, 117.


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seiner Zeitgenossen, that while in Heidelberg Hegel attended mesmeric sittingswith his friend Franz Josef Schelver.32

When Hegel speaks of the trance state produced in Mesmerism, he makesinteresting comparisons to phenomena found in other cultures and in theancient world, including drug-induced experiences. He writes, for example:

Te shamans of the Mongols are already familiar with this method. When theyare going to prophesy they induce the magnetic state by means of certain drinks.Te same thing is done even now by Indians and for the same purpose. Some-thing similar probably took place with the Oracle at Delphi where the priestess,sitting on a tripod over a cave, fell into an ecstasy, often gentle but sometimes veryagitated, and in this state emitted more or less articulate sounds which were inter-preted by the priests, who lived in the intuition of the substantial elements of thelife of the Greek people.33

Hegel explains that for mesmerism to occur the will of the magnetizer must bestronger than that of the subject. He states that, Te main feature of thismagical relationship is that a subject works upon an individual inferior to it inrespect of freedom and independence of will. . . . It is for this reason that strongmen are especially adept at magnetizing female persons.34 o elucidate thisphenomenon, Hegel utilizes the aforementioned concept of genius. In unusualcircumstances ones genius can actually become another person, which is,

indeed, what occurs in mesmerism.Hegel reports at length about clairvoyant states and miraculous cures pro-duced by animal magnetism. Of the latter he states, in modern times men ofunimpeachable integrity have performed so many cures by magnetic treat-ment that anyone forming an unbiased judgment can no longer doubt thecurative power of animal magnetism.35 And he remarks, surprisingly, that thissubject is now so thoroughly understood that essentially new phenomena areno longer to be expected.36 However, this does not stop Hegel from offeringhis own, original theories about how animal magnetism operates.

Hegels Teories of the Paranormal

Physiologically, Hegel argues that the function exercised by the brain in thewaking state of the intellectual consciousness is taken over by the reproductive

32 Nicolin, Berichten, 157.33 Hegel, Enzyklopdie, 152; Hegels Philosophy of Mind, 116.34

Hegel, Enzyklopdie, 153-154; Hegels Philosophy of Mind, 117.35 Hegel, Enzyklopdie, 159; Hegels Philosophy of Mind, 121.36 Hegel, Enzyklopdie, 154; Hegels Philosophy of Mind, 117.


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system during magnetic somnambulism.37 Hegel means this literally. He statesthat during the magnetic trance, the souls activity descends into the brain of

the reproductive system, namely into the ganglia (die Ganglien), those heavilynodulated nerves in the abdomen.38 Hegels claim strikes us as bizarre, but inhis own day it was believed by many theorists that there are multiple centersof consciousness in the body. Tis theory has since been discarded by mostscientists in favor of a purely brain-centered view of consciousness, but it sur-vived in occult and esoteric circles and, oddly enough, found perhaps its mostbizarre and elaborate expression much later in D.H. Lawrences Fantasia of the Unconscious(1921). Hegel puts his hypothesis forward because he believesthat brain-consciousness is directed outward, whereas the consciousness of

the ganglia is directed inwards. In trance states consciousness is degradedto the simple, undifferentiated naturalness of psychical lifea naturalnesswhich has its center in the ganglia and is the basis for the purely animal con-sciousness.39

Hegel does not stress these anatomical speculations, however. His basic, philo-sophical (or psychological) theory of animal magnetism and psychic states ingeneral makes essentially the same point, without reference to the body. Putsimply, Hegel argues that in paranormal states the individual sinks down intoa sub-mental state of identity with the deepest, feeling part of the soul.40

Consciousness undergoes an altered state: the most primordial part of the soulis awakened, the part of the soul that is closest to what Hegel calls the world-soul, anima mundi. And for a whilefor the duration of a trance, or a clair-voyant stateit usurps the higher levels of Spirit.41 In this identity with theprimordial soul distinctions of time and space, distinctions between individuals,


Hegel, Enzyklopdie, 155; Hegels Philosophy of Mind, 118.40 Hegel, Enzyklopdie, 139; Hegels Philosophy of Mind, 106.41 Hegel is very careful to point out that he regards psychic states as not a higher form of

consciousness, but ratherpathological; a degradation of mind below the level even of ordinaryconsciousness (Hegel, Enzyklopdie, 16; Hegels Philosophy of Mind, 7). Further, his discussion ofthe paranormal in the Philosophy of Spirit is closely followed by his discussion of insanityandhe offers virtually the same theory to explain insanity! Daniel Berthold-Bond writes: Anticipat-ing Freud, Hegel sees madness as a regressive turn backwards into archaic states of mind, a rever-sion or sinking back of the developed, rational consciousness into the more primitive worldof instincts and drives, or what Hegel calls the life of feeling (Gefhlsleben). . . . Te most gen-eral characteristic of madness is this motion of withdrawal into the soul, or the unconscious life

of feeling, and the corresponding displacement of the usual relationship with reality. See Ber-thold-Bond, Hegels Teory of Madness, 26. Indeed Hegel very clearly states that the magneticstate is an illness (Krankheit) (Hegel, Enzyklopdie, 151; Hegels Philosophy of Mind, 115).


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are, in fact, cancelled, and therefore such things as remote viewing and mindreading become possible.

Now, if this theory is correct, Hegel reasons that we could expect that psy-chic phenomena would be more prevalent amongst people who have not yetfully developed the higher levels of Spirit, and who are therefore more vulner-able to the usurpation of the intellect by the baser parts of the soul. Hegelargues that this is precisely what we do find. He mentions the Scottish High-lands, Holland, and Westphalia as places from which reports of psychic phe-nomena often emanate and where the people do not occupy themselves withwhat Hegel calls universal aims, but chiefly with the particular and contin-gent, indolently following in the footsteps of their forefathers.42 Hegel also

asserts that reports of paranormal activity are common among the Italians andthe Spanish, because in those two peoples the life of Nature in man is moregeneral than it is with us.43 One could add to this the well-known fact thatso-called poltergeist phenomena are said to center around pubescent chil-dren, most often girls. Hegel does not mention this specifically but he doesallude at one point to the oncoming of puberty in girls as an example of acondition that often gives rise to a temporary usurpation of the intellectualfaculties by the lower level, psychical ones.44

Hegel believes, as I have noted, that in paranormal states space and time are

cancelled. He is very explicit about this. He states that, when the free, intel-lectual consciousness sinks to the form of the merely feeling soul, the subjectis no longer tied to space. . . . Secondly, the clairvoyant soul also rises above thecondition of time no less than that of space.45 Terefore, psychic states annulthe distinctness of sensibly given particulars. A person in a paranormal state isthus able, as I have said, to have an unmediated cognition of or control overobjects and persons. Hegel states, Te soul pervades everything, it does notexist merely in a particular individual; for as we have previously said, the soulmust be grasped as the truth, as the ideality, of everything material, as the

wholly universal being in which all differences are only ideal and which doesnot one-sidedly stand over against its other, but overarches it.46

Hegel goes on to assert something quite unexpected: he draws parallelsbetween the clairvoyant state and philosophy. Te former, of course, involvesthe lowest level of the psyche, and the latter the highest. But in a dialec-tical philosophy we would expect that the lowest level would not just be


Hegel, Enzyklopdie, 139; Hegels Philosophy of Mind, 106.45 Hegel, Enzyklopdie, 145-146; Hegels Philosophy of Mind, 111-112.46 Hegel, Enzyklopdie, 143; Hegels Philosophy of Mind, 109.


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transcended but also, in a sense, recapitulated at the highest. Indeed, Hegelannounces this in his remarks on the Introduction to the Philosophy of Spirit

itself: in the visible liberation of Spirit in those magnetic phenomena from thelimitations of space and time and from all finite associations, there is some-thing akin to philosophy . . ..47 Like the paranormal, philosophy also cancelsthe limitations of time and space. Hegelian philosophy cancels the rigid cate-gories of the Understanding, which insist on the absolute distinctness ofobjects and persons. And Hegelian philosophy is also, in a sense, a kind ofmagical cognition since it is a presuppositionless science, founded, literally,upon Nothing. Paranormal states are one way in which the individual tran-scends the categories of the Understandingbut Hegel is careful to point out

that the absolute elevation above the Understanding takes place only in theconceptual recognition of the eternal (nur in dem begreifenden Erkennen desEwigen).48

Earlier in the text, in his discussion of magic, Hegel states cryptically thatAbsolute magicwould be the magic of Spirit as such (die absolute Magie wredie Magie des Geistes als solchen).49 Remember that, for Hegel, a magical poweris one whose action is not determined by the interconnection, the conditionsand mediations of objective relations.50 Te magic of Spirit as such is simplyAbsolute Knowing, or philosophy.

Conclusion: Te Importance of the Paranormal for Hegel

In the foregoing I have tried to explain how Hegel understands paranormalphenomena within the framework of his philosophy. Of course, one mightobject, Hegel tries to understand many things within the framework of hisphilosophy. Why should we think that this subject was particularly importantto him? Te real question lurking behind this question is, I believe, the follow-

ing: why should Hegelian philosophers regard the issue of paranormal phe-nomena, and Hegels treatment of it, as an important one?Te answer is both simple and striking: Hegel makes it very clear that he

believes that the ability of speculative philosophy to explain the paranormal isa proof of the veracity of speculative philosophy. And we need to take Hegelseriously on this point.

47 Hegel, Enzyklopdie, 16; Hegels Philosophy of Mind, 7.48

Hegel, Enzyklopdie, 147; Hegels Philosophy of Mind, 112.49 Hegel, Enzyklopdie, 128; Hegels Philosophy of Mind, 97.50 Hegel, Enzyklopdie, 127-128; Hegels Philosophy of Mind, 97.


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G. A. Magee / Aries 8 (2008) 21-36 35

In their recent bookIrreducible Mind, University of Virginia psychologistsEdward F. Kelly, Emily Williams Kelly, et al., argue that the current reductionist-

materialist model of the mind must be abandoned. Tey argue, in effect, thata paradigm shift must take place due to the abundant anomalies which can-not be explained by the dominant model. Teir book is in large measuredevoted to cataloguing these anomalies, which include much the same sorts ofphenomena Hegel discusses: examples of mental telepathy, remote viewing,psychokinesis, precognition, mesmeric trance states, etc. In Hegelian terms,the sort of science the Kellys are opposing is science from the standpoint of theUnderstanding: science which absolutizes commonsense time-space relations.

Needless to say, it is not just Hegelian philosophy that challenges the rigid-

ity of the Understanding, but also modern physics. Reductionist psychology,in fact, operates as if our understanding of the physical world had never pro-gressed beyond Newton. Hegelian philosophers like Errol E. Harris have beenquick to point out that only Hegelianism can provide a philosophical frame-work for understanding modern physics. And in the Philosophy of SubjectiveSpirit, Hegel himself essentially argues that only his philosophy can makesense out of the evidence for paranormal phenomenaevidence which main-stream psychologists, in his time and in ours, simply choose to ignore becauseit cannot be explained by their model of the mind.

Indeed, this is such an important point for Hegel that he places it right atthe beginning, in the Introduction to the Philosophy of Spirit. He writes inparagraph 379: In modern times especially the phenomena of animal magne-tism have given . . . a lively and visible confirmation of the underlying unity ofsoul, and of the power of its ideality. Before these facts, the rigid distinctionsof the Understanding are struck with confusion; and in order to dissolve theresultant contradictions a speculative approach is shown to be necessary.51

In theZusatzthat follows this paragraph Hegel remarks that animal mag-netism has played a part in ousting the untrue, finite interpretation of Spirit

from the standpoint of the Understanding.52

In other words animal magne-tism constitutes empirical disconfirmation of the materialist model of the

51 Hegel, Enzyklopdie, 13; Hegels Philosophy of Mind, 4-5. Hegel later states that it will proveimpossible for us to understand animal magnetism so long as we assume independent person-alities, independent of one another and of the objective world which is their contentso long aswe assume the absolute spatial and material externality of one part of being to another (Hegel,Enzyklopdie, 138; Hegels Philosophy of Mind, 105).

52 [Der] tierische Magnetismus dazu beigetragen, die unwahre, endliche, blo verstndige

Auffassung des Geistes zu verdrngen (Hegel, Enzyklopdie, 15; Hegels Philosophy of Mind, 6).Of course such finite interpretations have proved far more long-lived than Hegel thought theywould be!


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mind. In animal magnetism Spirits ability to rise above space and time ismanifest in sensuous existence itself.53 Tus, the ability of Hegelian philoso-

phy to predict and account for these phenomena constitutes a sensuous,empirical confirmation of the truth of that philosophy.

Is Hegel right? Well, ifparanormal phenomena exist, then Hegelian phi-losophydoesoffer a coherent theory to explain them. Whether or not theyexist is, of course, a question that cannot be settled here.54

Bibliography

Berthold-Bond, Daniel, Hegels Teory of Madness, Albany: State University of New York Press1995.Hegel, G.W.F., Briefe von und an Hegel. Edited by Johannes Hoffmeister. Hamburg: Felix

Meiner Verlag 1952-81 (Note: Hoffmeister numbers the letters. Reference in my text is tothe letter number.)

, Enzyklopdie der philosophischen Wissenschaften (Eva Moldenhauer & Karl MarkusMichel, eds.), vol. 3, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag 1986.

, Hegels Philosophy of Mind, Oxford: Clarendon Press 1971., Hegels Philosophy of Subjective Spirit(M.J. Petry, transl. & comm.), vol. 2., Dordrecht:

D. Reidel 1978., Hegel: Te Letters, Bloomington: Indiana University Press 1984.

Johnson, Gregory R.,A Commentary on Kants Dreams of a Spirit-Seer. Ph.D. Dissertation, TeCatholic University of America 2001.Kelly, Edward F., et al., Irreducible Mind, Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield 2007.Magee, Glenn Alexander, Hegel and the Hermetic radition, Ithaca: Cornell University Press 2001.Nicolin, Gnther (ed.), Hegel in Berichten seiner Zeitgenossen, Hamburg: Felix Meiner 1970.Schelling, Karl Eberhard, Ideen und Erfahrungen ber den thierischen Magnetismus,Jahrb-

cher der Medicin als Wissenschaft2 (1807), 3-46., Weitere Betrachtungen ber den thierischen Magnetismus, und die Mittel ihn nher

zu erforschen,Jahrbcher der Medicin als Wissenschaft2 (1807), 158-190.

53 Hegel, Enzyklopdie, 16; Hegels Philosophy of Mind, 7.54 Tis article originated as a paper given at the Esalen Institute in May 2007, for a conference

entitled Secret States: Altered States of Consciousness and Western Esotericism. I wish to

thank Michael Murphy, Wouter Hanegraaff, and Jeffrey Kripal for inviting me, and for theirhelpful comments and good company. I would also like to thank Antoine Faivre and GregoryR. Johnson for their comments on an earlier draft of this paper.


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Hegel a paranormální jevy