Kolisko move to Gloucestershire

A new Beginning

Eleanor C Merry

THE MODERN MYSTIC HAS PUBLISHED several articles by Mrs. L. Kolisko dealing with her researches and experiments in connection with the planets and the metals, the moon, and its influence upon plant growth, and which are the results of her studies in Rudolf Steiner’s Spiritual Science. Readers will also have observed that an appeal was printed for funds to open a laboratory for this work in England.

The “embryo” of this laboratory is now in existence. A small bungalow, adjoining the gardens at Bray, near Maidenhead, which represent the nucleus of the Anthroposophical Agricultural Foundation, has been purchased. It is intended later to build on to it an adequate laboratory where Mrs. Kolisko will be able to carry out extensive experiments in various fields of this most fascinating form of biological science.

On Saturday, November 6th, the bungalow, its modest rooms filled with the evidence of Mrs. Kolisko’s unique genius, was “opened” in the presence of a few friends. They represented the great numbers who have an unshakeable belief in the immense practical value of the work which Mrs. Kolisko has done and can do in the future.

I have known Mrs. Kolisko for a number of years, and I look upon her always with astonishment. Never have I met any woman with so dauntless a faith and courage. Nothing is too hard for her to attempt, no expenditure of strength and time is too great for her. Among many other remarkable things, I saw displayed in one of the rooms a collection of mineral substances which had been subjected by her to a crystallising process at varying depths under the earth, to test the subterranean influences of the moon. To obtain these she had to descend into a specially dug pit, extending to a depth of sixteen metres, and shut off from the surface at intervals of one metre, by a series of metal trap doors: sixteen doors to be separately opened before one could regain the day or star-light! Hours and hours were spent on these experiments, under conditions which would have terrified most people. And that represents only one – and relatively “small” part – of her incessant seventeen years’ work, her descriptions of which readers of The Modern Mystic will have seen. By no means all of the results have yet been published; and we look forward to many publications in the future. A great part of her work is connected with medical as well as agricultural problems. But it goes without saying that the value and quantity of her future experiments must depend to a great extent upon the amount of financial help she may receive.

For six months from the end of November, Mrs. Kolisko will be travelling in India, having been invited to visit Southern India and Calcutta, and later Java, in order to lecture on the influence of the planets upon metals, of the moon upon plant growth, etc. At Christmas she will be at Trivandrum; in January lecturing at the Science Congress in Calcutta, invited there by Dr. Mukerjee, Principal of the Homeopathic College, who is deeply interested in her work on the Influence of the Infinitesmal.

In India an immense interest exists concerning the question of cosmic influences, and in the spiritualisation of science. Representative people in India find that Mrs. Kolisko’s work accords in many respects with much that is to be found in the ancient Vedas, and which has so far eluded practical interpretation.

For the East, it is undoubtedly a burning question as to whether a bridge can be built between science and religion. For such a bridge – which can only arise through a Spiritual Science – would do far more than solve that immediate problem: it could be the means of uniting West and East in a new spirit of understanding and sympathy.

The East is looking anxiously to the West for signs of a spiritualising influence in modern science. The experience of many Western individuals who have an intimate knowledge of eastern life brings constant proof of this; and the eagerness with which Mrs. Kolisko’s visit is anticipated – as many letters received show – strengthens this view.

So what strikes me as particularly important is not so much the fact that somebody is going to give lectures in India on cosmic influences, but the fact that this work emanates from the West, and is being carried to India from England. It is trite enough to say that great things result from small beginnings; but I have come fresh from that extremely unpretentious little bungalow by the Thames, with my mind full of the great-heartedness of a little figure who has unostentatiously worked for seventeen years at disclosing the first of the great secrets of the planetary System, which lie beyond the range of our present science. Such things may have incalculably far-reaching results.

I know well that it has been no light task for her to leave her well-equipped laboratories abroad, and make a new beginning in a foreign land. I am sure that The Modern Mystic, with its ideal for bringing together Science and Mysticism, will wish her all success.

1938

Vol2 #2

Modern Mystic editorial

Readers who enjoyed Mrs. Kolisko’s articles on-Moon and Plant Growth and the results of her experiments with the effects of the planets on metals, will probably be glad to know that large audiences are appreciating her lectures in India. Mrs. Kolisko went first to Cochin, and gave several lectures in various parts of Travancore, the most southern province of India. During Christmas she was in Calcutta where she attended a science congress and met the Baron Von Veltheim, whose name is familiar to those who have read Rom Landau’s God is My Adventure. Mrs. Kolisko was invited by Dr. Mukerjee, President of the Indian Homoeopathic Society, to give lectures to homoeopathic and general practitioners. She has created the utmost interest among her audiences in her experiments with the effect of the moon on plants and the planets on metals, – effects well enough known to students of the old Indian wisdom. Our contributor next visited Rabindranath Tagore, the world-famous Indian poet and mystic in his school. Mrs. Kolisko’s lecture tour will be extended to Madras, Bombay, Java and the Dutch Indies. We hope in the near future to publish extracts from her letters.