Optical Factors and Illusions

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The Proofs of Cellular Cosmogony Contrasted With Assumptions

IT IS ASSUMED by those who profess to believe in and advocate the Copernican system of astronomy, that the earth is convex because it appears so from optical observation. A person standing upon a tower and looking out in every direction will see the vanishing point at an equal distance, and the horizon (the limit of geolinear vision) describes a circle around this center of observation. This fact in appearance is taken as an assumption of the earth's convexity, because it is claimed that nothing but a globe would thus respond to and impress itself upon the organs of vision.

We maintain that an assumption predicated upon an optical illusion is not sufficient ground for the establishment of a rational conviction. If the earth were a perfectly flat surface extended illimitably, an observation from a tower looking out in every direction would assume, to the eye, the appearance of a circular horizon, for the simple reason that geolinear fore-shortening would provide for a vanishing point at a given distance from the observer, proportionate to the elevation of the point from which the observation is taken.

If a person will stand upon a railroad track equidistant between two rails, the rails will seem to approach each other in the distance, the apparent contact, or vanishing point, being proportioned to the

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space between the rails and the height of observation.. If they are five feet apart, the vanishing point is less than if they were six or seven feet apart.

Suppose we take a geolinear extense on the surface of the earth as one rail, and an imaginary line through the air as the other, placing the eye two and one half feet from the earth's surface. Now, the same law obtains in looking parallel along this surface, as

Deceptive Appearances

in looking parallel to the rail and along its side. Making our observation by the side of the rail, the vanishing point is reached and the rail disappears, although extended in a straight line far beyond the vanishing point. The line over which observation is taken along the surface of the earth is the geolinear extense; it corresponds to the rail, and disappears by the same law; namely, that of foreshortening.

Appearances vs. Facts

The phenomenon of the disappearance of a ship, hull first, as it recedes from view, is caused by the same law of foreshortening as that which governs the disappearance of the rail, or causes the two rails to appear to approach each other. If we should make calculations on the basis of the appearance instead of on the basis of the fact that the rails do not approach, but only seem to, we necessarily draw false conclusions. This is precisely what the astronomers do. They conclude from appearances rather than from facts.

A balloon six or seven miles distant, appearing about the size of a pin head, if it be sixty feet in diameter, occupies as much space in the distance as when near the subjective point of observation. The law by which the balloon appears to diminish in size as it recedes from view, is the same as that which produces geolinear foreshortening, or which makes the surface of the earth diminish longitudinally as extending from the point of observation.

This phenomenon belongs to the organ of vision, and cannot be comprehended only as we possess a correct knowledge of the laws and phenomena of optics. Owing to this fact, the student cannot comprehend the principles involved in the phenomena of optical appearances and illusion without a thorough comprehension of the principles and laws of optics.

In another part of this volume the reader will find a complete record of the mechanical apparatus and processes by which we have so absolutely demonstrated the concavity of the earth as to over-shadow the fallacious conclusions of the mountebanks,--Copernicus, et al, and their deluded followers.

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[paragraph continues] We place a brief study of optics before the reader, merely to show wherein the fallacious conclusions of modern, so called science, while conflicting with the discovered and projected truth, are drawn not from facts but from appearances.

The Laws of Visual Impression

It might appear, as we proclaim the fact that a thorough knowledge of the Koreshan Cosmogony demands a thorough knowledge of optics, that it is our purpose to set forth a complete optical treatise preparatory to an understanding of the Koreshan Cosmogony. A thorough knowledge of Koreshanity must necessarily be a question of growth. A slight knowledge of the laws of optics will enable the student to see the discrepancies of modern astronomy, as predicated upon a misinterpretation of appearances.

What we behold through the organs of vision depends entirely upon the imprint of objectivities upon the retina of the eye. What we see is merely a picture placed upon the lining coat of the eyeball, and thence carried through the optic nerve, optic commissure, and optic tract, to that cortical area upon which the final function of vision depends.

We refer to a diagram setting forth some of the correlated facts of vision. The reader's attention is again called to the explicit study of the effects of subjective impression, or the imprint or picturing of the objective world upon the retinal coat. (See retinal coat in Diagram 1, Plate 1, with the area b b as the film upon which the imprint is laid.)

The picture upon the retina includes whatsoever is embraced in the obtense between the two lines 1, 2, 3, 4; a a a is the optical axis, d is the point of the appearance of the ship when the hull vanishes, as it

Click to enlarge
DIAGRAM No. 1. Illustrating ''The Laws of Visual Impression.'' Pages 34-36.
This Diagram Illustrates a Principle, not Measurements True to Scale; the Height of the Objects Is not Proportioned to the Distance.

Click to enlarge
DIAGRAM No. 2. The Rectilineator Used in the Koreshan Geodetic Survey. Page 39.

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DIAGRAM No. 3. Illustrating the Illusions of Optical Phenomena. Pages 39-40.

Click to enlarge
DIAGRAM No. 4. Comprehensive View of the Air Line, Showing Use of the Rectilineator in Survey of Chord of Arc by the Koreshan Geodetic Staff at Naples, Fla. Pages 39-42-181.

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recedes from view, as observed from the subjective x. The dotted lines indicate the appearance of the actual lines 1, 2, 3, 4, while d is the apparent position of the ship observed from x (the subjective point), and c, the ship as it actually is, viewed from its location in fact, not in appearance as at d. The perpendicular space 1, 1, implants the picture f h; the space 2, 2, implants the picture e g.

It will be noticed that the picture imprinted from 2, 2, at e g, is shorter than the one imprinted from 1, 1, at f h, proportionately as the distance from 1, 1, to 2, 2, in the objective. It follows that if a picture is imprinted from 3, 3, at b b, the ratio of shortening at b b will correspond to the imprints, 1, 1, and 2, 2. If lines were drawn from the points 4, 4 to the film b b through the focus at B, the subtense of the angle from 4, 4 to B would be so acute as to obliterate the space at the center of the film b b.

The point of obliteration at the film or retina, b b, corresponds to the vanishing point in the objective at d. At d the hull of the ship disappears, because there is no longer room for the picture upon the retina.

The lower line 1, 2, 3, 4 is the geolinear extense; the line upon the ground appearing at d, the vanishing point and the horizon. The upper line may represent a cloud covering the sky. The two points 4, 4, appear to join at d because of the distal foreshortening, which it must be remembered is merely the result of changes upon the retina, effected by distance. Any object beyond the ship c, as seen at d, will settle out of sight on the geolinear surface, proportionately to its distance beyond 4, 4.

By comparing the spaces w w with the spaces y y, it can readily be seen how the area of a given space

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appears to shorten, and narrows itself upon the retinal coat. Now if we remove the upper line 1, 2, 3, 4 and open up the space above, an object at P may imprint itself upon the retina; but an object at Q could not be seen because it is below the ground surface, which, though it might extend a thousand miles in a straight line, can make no further imprint upon the retina because the space between the lower line 4 and d is the obliterated space, as affecting the retinal film.

We have presented some optical facts upon which depend the appearances upon which rest the fallacies of the Copernican system; facts, a want of the understanding of which places the so called scientists in the catalogue of the incompetents, which graces the contradictory systems of astronomy that arise spontaneously, subserve their purpose, and die the death of the fallacious in the various careers of mental transformation, as the human mind gropes its way in darkness.