The Rosicrucian Philosophy
in Questions and Answers
Volume I
by Max Heindel
(Part 2)
Question No. 33
What are dreams? Have they all a significance, and how can we invite or induce dreams?
Answer: In the waking state, the different vehicles of the Ego, the
mind, desire body, vital body and dense body are all concentric. They
occupy the same space, and the Ego functions outwardly in the Physical World.
But at night, during the dreamless sleep, the Ego, clothed in the desire
body and the mind, withdraws, leaving the physical and the vital body upon
the bed, there being no connection between the higher and the lower
vehicles, save a thin, glistening thread, called the silver cord. It happens,
however, that at times the Ego has been working so interestedly in the
Physical World and the desire body has become so stirred up that it refuses
to leave the lower vehicles and is only half withdrawn. Then the connection
between the sense centers of the desire body and the sense centers of the
physical brain are partly ruptured. The Ego sees the sights and scenes of
the Desire World which, in themselves, are extremely fantastic and illusory,
and they are transmitted to the brain centers without being connected by
reason. From this condition come all the foolish and fantastic dreams which
we have.
It happens at times, however, that when the Ego is altogether outside the
dense body, as in dreamless sleep, it sees an event concerning itself about
to materialize, for coming events cast their shadows before, and ere
anything happens in the material world it has already happened in the
spiritual worlds. If, upon awaking from such an experience, the Ego
succeeds in impressing the brain with what it has seen, we have a prophetic
dream, which in due time will come true, or which the Ego, if its Fate
permits, may modify by a new action. For instance, if warned of an accident,
it may take steps to counteract the impending calamity.
Regarding the second part of the question, "How can we invite or induce
dreams," we may say that, of course, it is of no advantage to invite or
induce dreams of the confused and fantastic kind, and, as for the other kind,
there comes a time in a man's life when he begins to live the higher life.
Then, gradually, by certain exercises, he evolves the faculty of leaving his
body consciously at night or at any other time. He is then perfectly
conscious in the invisible worlds. He can go wherever he pleased to the
ends of the earth in minutes of time and as he learns how to consciously work
in those invisible worlds, he does not "dream" any longer, but lives
another life that is fuller or more real than the one he now lives.
What is sleep and what causes the body to go to sleep?
Answer: During the daytime the vital body specializes the colorless solar
fluid which is all about us, through the organ we call the spleen. This
vitality permeates the whole body and is seen by the clairvoyant as a fluid
of a pale rose color, having been transmuted upon entering the physical
body. It flows along every nerve, and when it is sent out by the brain
centers in particularly large quantities it moves the muscles to which
the nerves lead.
The vital body may be said to be built of points which stick out in all
directions, inward, outward, upward and downward, all through the body, and
each little point goes through the center of one of the chemical atoms,
causing it to vibrate at a higher rate than its natural speed. This vital
body interpenetrates the dense body from birth to death under all conditions
except when, for instance, the blood circulation stops in a certain part, as
when we rest a hand upon the edge of a table for some time and it "goes to
sleep," as we say. Then, if clairvoyant, we may see the etheric hand of the
vital body hanging down below the visible hand as a glove, and the chemical
atoms of the hand relapse into their natural slow rate of vibration. When
we slap the hand to cause it to "wake up," as we say, the peculiar prickling
sensation we feel is caused by the points of the vital body which then
reenter the sleeping atoms of the hand and start them into renewed vibration.
The vital body leaves the dense body in a similar manner when a person is
dying. Drowning persons who have been resuscitated experience an intense
agony caused by the entrance of these points, which they feel as a prickling
sensation.
During the daytime, when the solar fluid is being absorbed by the man in
great quantities, these points of the vital body are blown out or distended,
as it were, by the vital fluid, but as the day advances and poisons of decay
clog the physical body more and more, the vital fluid flows less rapidly; in
the evening there comes a time when the points in the vital body do not get a
full supply of the life giving fluid; they shrivel up and the atoms of the
body move more sluggishly in consequence. Thus the Ego feels the body to be
heavy, dull and tired. At last there comes a time when, as it were, the vital
body collapses and the vibrations of the dense atoms become so slow that the
Ego can no longer move the body. It is forced to withdraw in order that its
vehicle may recuperate. Then we say the body has gone to sleep.
Sleep is not an inactive state, however; if it were there would be no
difference in feeling in the morning and no restorative power in sleep. The
very word restoration implies activity.
When a building has become dilapidated from constant wear and tear and it
is necessary to renovate and restore it, the tenants must move out to give
the workmen full play. For similar reasons the Ego moves out of its
tenement at night. As the workmen work upon the building, to make it fit
for re-occupancy, so the Ego must work upon its building before it will be
fit to reenter. And such a work is done by us during the nighttime, although
we are not conscious of it in our waking state. It is this activity which
removes the poisons from the system, and as a result the body is fresh and
vigorous in the morning when the Ego enters at the time of waking.
Do the Rosicrucians believe in materia medica, or do they follow Christ's method of healing?
Answer: It is generally acknowledged by the best practitioners that
materia medica is an empirical science; that drugs do not act in the same
way on all person, and that, therefore, it is necessary for the physician to
experiment with his patients. Hence materia medica is unsatisfactory.
Drugs cannot be relied upon to do the work at all times.
Observation shows that while all oxen will thrive on grass, and all lions
are content with a diet of flesh, we find in the human being that there is
always an individuality which makes each different from all the rest of his
kind; and this peculiarity of the human race arises from the fact that while
each species of animals is the expression of one single group spirit which
guides the separate animals from without, there is in each human being an
individual indwelling spirit, an Ego, and therefore one man's meat is often
another's poison.
It is only when materia medica takes this point into consideration that
it can be of real service in all cases, and the way to find out the
peculiarities of the spirit that dwells in the patient body is to cast his
horoscope to see when the times are propitious for the administration of
drugs, giving the appropriate herbs at the proper time. Paracelsus did that,
and therefore he was always successful with his patients; he never made a
mistake. There are some who use astrology for that purpose today; the
writer, for instance, has thus used it in diagnosis in many cases. He has
then always been able to see the crises in the patient's condition, the
past, present and the future; and has thus been able to afford much
relief to persons suffering from various illnesses. It is to such uses that
astrology should be put, and not degraded into fortune telling for the sake
of gold, for, like all spiritual sciences, it ought to be used for the
benefit of humanity, regardless of mercenary considerations. If physicians
would study the science of astrology, they would thus with a very slight
effort be able to diagnose their patient's condition in a manner altogether
impossible from the ordinary diagnostician's point of view. Some physicians
are waking up to that fact and have discovered by their experiences that the
heavenly bodies have an influence upon the human frame. For instance, when
the writer was in Portland, Oregon, a physician mentioned as his observation
that whenever it was possible for him to perform an operation while the moon
was increasing in light, that is to say, going from the new to the full moon,
the operation was always successful and no complications would set in. On
the other hand, he had found that when circumstances compelled him to perform
an operation when the moon was going from the full to the dark there was
great danger of trouble, and that such operations were never as satisfactory
as those performed while the light of the moon was increasing.
There is also a tendency among physicians more and more to cure by
suggestion, giving to the patient a harmless pill and a good suggestion.
Every mother, whether she knows the potency of suggestion or not, at times
unconsciously applies it in the case of her child. If the little one falls,
she may be her suggestion cause it to either cry or laugh. If she says to
the little one, "Oh, you poor little baby, you've hurt yourself very bad,
that poor little head of yours," the child will commence to cry; but if, on
the other hand, she points to the floor and exclaims, "Oh, dear, how you
hurt that poor floor, why that is too bad — kiss it!" the child will be very
sorry it hurt the floor, thinking not at all of its own lesions.
In a similar manner the physician influences his patient, and it is
criminal for a physician to enter the sickroom with a gloomy mien, asking
the patient to make his will, telling him that he has not long to live.
Those things act upon the patient in a manner far greater than realized, and
many a physician has thus killed those whom he might have saved. On the
other hand, if he is cheerful and comes into the sickroom with a smile and
an encouraging word, if he gives a harmless cure and a good suggestion the
patient is apt to recover where otherwise he might succumb to the disease.
Thus, suggestion is far beyond materia medica. The faith which the patient
has in the physician will work wonders, either for good or for evil, and
faith was the method which Christ used in his healing. If the inquirer will
look up the instances where the Christ healed the sick in the Bible, he will
find that there was always a question concerning the faith of the one seeking
healing. To each applicant the Christ said, "According to thy faith, be it
unto you."
That skepticism destroyed even His power is, perhaps, most evident from
the passage where we are told that He journeyed to His native city and found
that a prophet is not without honor save in his own country. This story is
told in the thirteenth chapter of Matthew, also by Mark, and it is
significant that the last verse in the thirteenth chapter of Matthew says
that He did not do many mighty works because of their unbelief. Mark tells
us that because of their skepticism He was only able to heal a very few
people by laying His hands upon them.
The open mind is an essential requisite to all investigation and
skepticism is absolutely fatal to the attainment of knowledge. As an
illustration, we may mention that the writer was in Columbus a few years
go and there went to a lecture by Professor Hyslop, the Secretary of the
Society for Physical Research. The subject of the lecture was "New Evidence
of a Future Life." The writer was astonished to find that Prof. Hyslop did
not present in his lecture one single point which had not been brought out
in the last twenty years in the reports of the Society to which he
belongs. But the solution came after the lecture, when a question brought
out the fact that Prof. Hyslop did not believe in anything that had been said
in the Society's reports. He did not believe in the results obtained by anyone but himself. This evidence which he had just presented had been
collected by him; therefore it was new to him and he expected his audience
to take his word, although he himself was unwilling to take the word of
anyone else, and as an illustration of how skepticism acts, he unconsciously
gave a very fine example, when he related that, going to a medium on a
certain day, Richard Hodgson, deceased, spoke through the medium and Prof
Hyslop commenced to ask questions which, though quite simple, Mr. Hodgson
had great difficulty in answering. Prof. Hyslop at last impatiently said,
"Why, what is the matter with you, Richard; when you were alive you were
quick enough; why can't you answer now?" "Then," said Prof. Hyslop, came
the answer, quick as lightning, "Oh, every time I get into your wretched
atmosphere I go all to pieces." Prof. Hyslop could not understand the
reason why, but anyone who has seen a pupil before a Board of Examiners which
has made up its mind that he is a dunce will know why, and understand that
it was Prof. Hyslop's critical skeptical attitude of mind which caused
Richard Hodgson's great difficulty in communicating. We may, therefore,
say that we believe in materia medica when used in conjunction with astrology
and also in Christ's method of healing, which is Faith Cure, and in the
power of suggestion and the various other systems of healing. They all
contain some truth, though unfortunately many are made into fads and carried
to extremes. Then they lose their power for good and become menaces to
those who might otherwise have been benefited.
Since suffering is the result of our own actions, do you think it wrong to take medicine to remove pain if one is not hopelessly ill or dying?
Answer: This question reveals an attitude of mind that is extremely
deplorable; as well ask if it is right to try to save one's self if drowning,
for falling in the water is also an effect of some self-generated cause.
Certainly, it is our duty to take medicine administered by a properly
qualified person, or attempt to cure the ills from which we suffer in any
other way possible that appeals to us. We should be doing decidedly wrong
if we allowed our physical instrument to deteriorate for lack of proper care
and attention. It is the most valuable tool we possess, and unless we use
it circumspectly and care for it, we are amenable to the law of cause and
effect for that neglect.
A question such as this reveals an altogether erroneous idea of the law
of cause and effect. It is our duty to try to rise above conditions instead
of allowing circumstances to guide our lives. There is a beautiful little
poem which aptly enunciates this idea:
"One ship sails east and another sails west
With the self same winds that blow;
"Tis the set of the sail and not the gale
Which determines the way they go.
"As the winds of the sea are the ways of Fate
As we voyage along through life,
"Tis the act of the soul which determines the goal
And not the calm or the strife."
If we endeavor to turn the sails of our bark of life aright, we shall
always be able to modify if not to altogether change conditions, and make our
lives what we will instead of sitting supinely waiting for the clouds to
pass by, because we have made those clouds ourselves. The very fact that we
have made them ought to be an inspiration to give us the courage and energy
to unmake them, or push them away as quickly as possible.
What form of healing do you advise, physicians or practitioners, as in the Christian Science belief?
Answer: That depends upon the nature of the sickness and the temperament
of the patient. If it is a case of a broken leg, a surgeon is obviously the
one to call. If there is an internal disorder and it is possible to get a
broad minded physician, then in certain cases he is the one to get. If, on
the other hand, a mental healer, Christian Science healer or anyone else who
is spiritually minded can be brought in, they may help a person who is himself strong in faith, for, as a tuning fork which is of certain pitch
will respond when another tuning fork of the same pitch is struck, so will
the person filled with faith respond to the ministrations of these last
named ones. But where faith in their methods is lacking in the patient, it is
far better to send for a regular physician in whom the patient has
confidence, for health or sickness depends almost altogether upon the state of
the mind, and in the conditions of sickness where a person is thwarted in his
preferences. Besides, whatever good there is in any system of healing, the
effects upon a certain person will be beneficial or the reverse in exact
proportion to this faith in its healing power.
What is your opinion in regard to fasting as a means of curing disease?
Answer: We may readily conceive that there are more people in the West
who die from over eating than from getting too little food. And under
certain conditions fasting for a day or two is undoubtedly beneficial, but
just as there are gourmands and gluttons, so there are also others who go to
the opposite extreme and fast to excess. There lies a great danger. The
better way is to eat in moderation and to eat the proper kinds of food;
then it will not be necessary to fast at all.
If we study the chemistry of food we shall find that certain foods have
properties of value to the system under certain conditions of disorder, and
taken properly food is really medicine. All the citric fruits, for
instance, are splendid antiseptics. They cleanse and purify the alimentary
canal. Thus they prevent disease. All the cereals, particularly rice, are
anti-toxins; they will kill disease and the germs of putrefaction. Thus, by
knowing these medicinal properties of the different foods, we may very
readily secure a supply of that which we need to cure our ordinary ailments
by food instead of by pasting.
Do you consider it wrong to try to cure a bad habit, such as, for instance, drunkenness, by hypnotism?
Answer: Most decidedly yes. Looked at from the standpoint of one life,
such methods as for instance those employed by the healers of the Immanuel
movement, are undoubtedly productive of an immense amount of good. The
patient is seated in a chair, put into a sleep and there he is given certain
so called "suggestions." He rises and is cured of his bad habit; from being a
drunkard he becomes a respectable citizen who cares for his wife and family,
and upon the face of it the good seems to be undeniable.
But looking at it from the deeper standpoint of the esotericist, who views this life as only one in many, and looking at it from the effect it has upon
the invisible vehicles of man, the case is vastly different. When a man is
put into a hypnotic sleep, the hypnotist makes passes over him which have
the effect of expelling the ether from the head of his dense body and
substituting the ether of the hypnotist. The man is then under the
perfect domination of another; he has no free will, and, therefore, the so
called "suggestions" are in reality commands which the victim has no choice
but to obey. Besides, when the hypnotist withdraws his ether and wakens the
victim he is unable to remove all the ether he put into him. To use a simile,
as a small part of the magnetism infused into an electric dynamo before it can
be started for the first time is left behind and remains as residual
magnetism to excite the fields of the dynamo every time it is started up,
so also there remains a small part of the ether of the hypnotist's vital body
in the medulla oblongata of the victim, which is a club the hypnotist holds
over him all his life, and it is due to this fact that suggestions to be
carried out at a period subsequent to the awakening of the victim are
invariably followed.
Thus the victim of a hypnotic healer does not overcome the bad habit by
his own strength, but is as much chained in that respect as if he were in
solitary confinement, and although in this life he may seem to be a better
citizen, when he returns to earth he will have the same weakness and have to
struggle until at last he overcomes it himself.
Are there any methods of eradicating the calcareous matter which comes into our bodies by wrong methods of diet?
Answer: The question shows that the inquirer is aware that our bodies
are gradually hardening from childhood to old age, on account of the chalky
substances contained in most of the foods we usually nourish our bodies
upon. This calcareous matter is primarily deposited in the walls of the
arteries and veins, causing what is known to the medical profession as
arterio-sclerosis or hardening of the arteries. The arteries of a little
child are extremely soft and elastic, like a rubber tube, but gradually as
we advance through childhood, youth and on toward old age, the walls of the
arteries become harder in consequence of the deposits of chalk left by the
passing blood. Thus in time they may become as stiff and inelastic as a
pipe stem. There is a condition which is called pipe-stem artery. The
arteries then become brittle and may break, causing hemorrhage and death.
Therefore it is said truly that a man is as old as his arteries. If we can
clear the arteries and capillaries of this earthy matter, we may greatly
prolong life and the usefulness of our body.
From the esoteric standpoint, of course it is no matter whether we live or
die, as the saying is, for death to us does not mean annihilation but only
the shifting of the consciousness to other spheres; nevertheless, when we
have brought a vehicle through the useless years of childhood, past the hot
years of youth, and have come to the time of discretion when we are really
beginning to gain experience, then the longer we can prolong the time of
experience the more we may gain. For that reason it is of a certain value to
prolong the life of the body.
In order to accomplish that result, we must first select the foods that
are least impregnated with the choking substances which cause the induration
of arteries and capillaries. These may be briefly stated to be the green
vegetables and all fruits. Next, it is of importance to seek to eradicate
the choking matter which we have already absorbed, if that is possible, but
science has not yet found any food or medicine that will with certainty
produce that effect. Electric baths have been found to be exceedingly
beneficial but not entirely satisfactory. Buttermilk is the best agent
for eradicating this earthy substance, and next comes grape juice. If
taken continually and in generous quantities, these substances will
considerably ameliorate the hardened condition of the arteries.
Is not nature guilty of frequent physical malformations in the plant and animal world as well as in the human race, and can there be a perfectly whole and sane intelligence with a forceful will in a diseased or malformed body?
Answer: We would ask, what do you mean by nature? Bacon says that
nature and God differ only as the print and the seal. Nature is the visible
symbol of God, and we are too apt to think of nature nowadays in a
materialistic sense. Back of every manifestation in nature there are
forces, not blind forces, but intelligences. Perhaps an illustration will
enable us to realize our relation to them.
Supposing we have materials and tools; we are engaged in making a table
and a dog is sitting looking at us. Then the dog, a being of a lower
kingdom, will gradually see us planing the wood and putting the top on the
legs; it will see the table coming into existence by degrees; it may watch
the process, though it may not know the use of the table and may not
understand what is in our minds while we are fashioning the table. It simply
beholds a manifestation, it sees us working and views the results. Supposing
further, for the sake of illustration, the dog could see the materials and
how they were gradually being shaped into a table, but could not see us
working and putting the various pieces together to form this table; then the
dog would be in about the same relation to us as we are to the nature
forces. What we speak of as electricity, as magnetism, as expansion in
steam, etc., are intelligences which work unseen to us when certain
conditions are brought about. Nature spirits build the plants, form the
crystals of the rock, and with numerous other hierarchies are working
around and about us unseen, but nevertheless busy in making that which we
call nature.
These are all evolving beings, like ourselves, and the very fact that
they are evolving shows that they are imperfect and therefore apt to make
mistakes which naturally result in malformations, so that it may be said in
answer to the question that the invisible intelligences which make what we
call nature are guilty of frequent mistakes as well as we.
As to the second part of the question, whether there can be a perfectly
whole and sane intelligence with a forceful will in a diseased or malformed
body, we may say "yes, undoubtedly," but as the expression of that
intelligence is dependent upon the efficiency of its instrument it
may, naturally, be hampered by the physical deformity, on the same principle
that no matter how skilled the workman is, his efficiency depends in a
great measure upon the condition of his tools.
What is the effect of vaccination from the esoteric point of view?
Answer: Bacteriologists have discovered that many diseases are caused by
microorganisms which invade our body, and also that when this invading army
begins to create a disturbance the body commences to manufacture germs of an
opposing nature or a substance which will poison the invaders. It is then a
question of which are the strongest, the invaders or the defenders. If the
defending microbes are more numerous than the invaders or if the poison
which is noxious to the invaders is manufactured in sufficient quantities,
the patient recovers. If the defenders are vanquished or the body is unable
to manufacture a sufficient quantity of the serum necessary to poison the
invaders, the patient succumbs to the disease. It was further discovered
that when a certain person has once successfully recovered from a specific
malady, he is immune from renewed attacks of that disease for the reason
that he has in his body the serum which is death to the germs that cause the
disease he has once weathered.
From the above facts certain conclusions were drawn:
(1) If a healthy person is inoculated with a few of the germs of a
certain disease he will contract that disease in a mild form. He will then
be able to develop the saving serum and thus he will become immune to that
disease in the future.
That is the philosophy of vaccination as a means of preventing disease.
(2) When a person has contracted a disease and is unable to manufacture a
sufficient quantity of the serum which will destroy the invading micro-
organisms, his life may be saved by inoculation with the serum obtained from
another who has become immune.
As it is not easy to get such antitoxins or cultures from human beings,
these germ-cultures and poisons have been obtained from animals, and much
has been written both for and against the use of such methods of fighting
disease. With these are are not here concerned; the inquirers asks for the
esoteric viewpoint, which goes deeper than the questions at issue as seen from
the material side of life. There are undoubtedly cases where disease has
been prevented by vaccination and cases where death has been prevented by
the use of antitoxin; there are also cases where vaccination and antitoxin
have caused the fatality they were designed to prevent, but that is beside
the question. From the esoteric viewpoint vaccination and the use of
antitoxin obtained by the processes in use in bacteriological institutes is
to be deplored. These methods work a wrong on the helpless animals and
poison the human body, making it difficult for the Ego to use its instrument.
If we study the chemistry of our food we shall find that nature has
provided all necessary medicine, and if we eat right we shall be immune from
disease without vaccination.
When in normal health the body specializes a far greater quantity of the
solar energy than it can use. The surplus is radiated from the whole
surface of the body with great force and prevents the entrance of
microorganisms which lack the strength to battle against this outwelling
current, nay, more! on the same principle than an exhaust fan will gather up
particles of dust in a room and hurl them outward does this vital fluid
cleanse the body of inimical matter, dangerous germs included. It must not
surprise us that this force is intelligent and capable of selecting the
materials which should be eliminated, leaving the beneficial and useful.
Scientists recognize this fact of selective osmosis. They know that while a
sieve will allow any particle of matter to pass through which is smaller than
the mesh of the sieve, the kidneys, for instance, will keep certain fluids of
use to the body, while allowing waste products to pass. In a similar manner
the vital fluid makes a distinction, it rids the body of the poisons and
impurities generated inside and repels similar products from without.
This emanation has been called N-rays, or Odic fluid, by scientists who
have discovered it by means of chemical reagents which render it luminous.
During the process of digestion it is weakest, for then an extra quantity of
the solar energy is required for use inside the body in the metabolism of
the food; it is the cementing factor in assimilation. The heartier we have
eaten, the greater is the quantity of vital fluid expended within the body
and the weaker the eliminative and protective outrushing current.
Consequently we are in the greatest danger from an invasion by an army
of inimical microorganisms when we have gorged ourselves.
On the other hand, if we eat sparingly and choose the foods which are
most easily digestible, the diminution of the protective vital current will
be correspondingly minimized and our immunity from disease will be much
enhanced without the necessity of poisoning our body with vaccine.
If, as you state, the Ego dwells in the blood, is not then the practice of blood transfusion from a healthy to a diseased person dangerous? Does it affect or influence the Egos in any way, and if so, how?
Answer: Among the latest discoveries of science is haemolysis — the fact
that inoculation of blood from the veins of a higher animal into one of a
lower species, destroys the blood of the lower animal and causes its death.
Thus the blood of man injected into the veins of any animal is fatal. But
from man to man it is found that transfusion may take place, although at
times there are deleterious effects.
In olden days people married in the family; it was then looked upon with
horror if one should "seek after strange flesh." When the sons of God
married the daughters of men, that is to say, when the subjects of one
leader married outside the tribe, there was great trouble, they were cast
off by their leader and destroyed, for at that time certain qualities that
we now possess were to be developed in humanity and were thus implanted in
a the common blood which ran pure in the family or small tribe. Later on
when man was to be brought down into more material conditions,
international marriages were commanded and, from that time on, it has been
looked upon as equally horrible if persons within the same family united in
marriage.
The old Vikings would not allow anyone to marry into their family unless
they had first gone through the ceremony of mixing blood to see if the
transfusion of the blood of the stranger into their family was detrimental
or otherwise. All this was because in earlier times humanity was not as
individualized as it is today. They were more under the domination of the
race spirit or family spirit, which dwelt in their blood, as the group
spirit of animals does in the blood of animals. Later the international
marriages were given to free humanity from that yoke and make every separate
Ego sole master of its own body without outside interference.
The thumb-marks of no two people are alike, and it will be found in time that the blood of each human being is different from
the blood of every other individual. This difference is already evident to
the esoteric investigator, and it is only a question of time when science will
make the discovery, for the distinguishing features are becoming more marked
as the human being grows less and less dependent, more and more
self-sufficient.
This change in the blood is most important and in time, when it has
become more marked, it will be productive of most far-reaching consequences.
It is said that "nature geometrizes," and nature is but the visible symbol
of the invisible God whose offspring and image we are. Being made in His
likeness, we are also beginning to geometrize, and naturally we starting on
the substance where we, the human spirits, the Egos, have the greatest
power, namely, in our blood.
When the blood courses through the arteries, which are deep in the body,
it is a gas; but loss of heat nearer the surface of the body causes it to
partially condense, and in that substance the Ego is learning to form
mineral crystals. In the Jupiter Period we shall learn to invest them with
a low form of vitality and set them out from ourselves as plant-like
structures. In the Venus Period we shall be able to infuse desire into them
and make them like animals. Finally, in the Vulcan Period, we shall give them
a mind and rule over them as race spirits.
At the present time we are at the very beginning of this
individualization of our blood. Therefore it is possible at present to
transfuse blood from one human being to another, but the day is near at hand
when that will be impossible. The child at present receives its supply of blood from the parents, stored in the thymus gland, for the years of childhood. But the time will
come when the Ego will be too far individualized to function in blood not
generated by itself. Then the present mode of generation will have to be
superseded by another whereby the Ego may create its own vehicle without the
help of parents.
Answer: To answer that question would require volumes, but we may say
that from the esotericist's standpoint there are four classes of insanity.
Insanity is always caused by a break in the chain of vehicles between the
Ego and the physical body. This break may occur between the brain centers
and the vital body, or it may be between the vital and desire body, between
the desire body and the mind, or between the mind and the Ego. The rupture
may be complete or only partial.
When the break is between the brain centers and the vital body, or
between that and the desire body, we have the mentally disabled. When the break is
between the desire body and the mind, the violent and impulsive desire body
rules and we have the raving maniac. When the break is between the Ego and
the mind, the mind is the ruler over the other vehicles and we have the
cunning maniac, who may deceive his keeper into believing that he is
perfectly harmless until he has hatched some diabolical, cunning scheme.
Then he may suddenly show his deranged mentality and cause a dreadful
catastrophe.
There is one cause of insanity that it may be well to explain, as it is
sometimes possible to avoid it. When the Ego is returning from the
invisible world toward re-embodiment, it is shown the various incarnations
available. It sees the coming life in its great and general events, much as
a moving picture passing before its vision. Then it is given the choice
usually, of several lives. It sees at that time the lessons it has to
learn, the fate it has generated for itself in past lives, and what part of
that fate it will have to liquidate in each of the embodiments offered. Then
it makes its choice and is guided by the agents of the Recording Angels to
the country and family where it is to live its coming life.
This panoramic view is seen in the Third Heaven where the Ego is naked
and feels spiritually above sordid material considerations. it is much
wiser then than it appears here on earth, where it is blinded by the flesh
to an inconceivable extent. Later, when conception has taken place and the
Ego draws into the womb of its mother, on about the eighteenth day after
that event, it comes in contact with the etheric mold of its new physical
body which has been made by the Recording Angels to give the brain formation
that will impress upon the Ego the tendencies necessary to work out its
destiny.
There the Ego sees again the pictures of its coming life, as the drowning
man perceives the pictures of his past life — in a flash. At that time the
Ego is already partially blind to its spiritual nature, so that if the coming
life seems to be a hard one, it will oftentimes shrink from entering the womb
and making the proper brain connections. It may endeavor to draw itself out
quickly and then, instead of being concentric as the vital and the dense
bodies should be, the vital body formed of ether may be drawn partially
above the head of the dense body. In that case the connection between the
sense centers of the vital body and the dense body are disrupted and the
result is congenital idiocy, epilepsy, St. Vitus dance, and similar nervous
disorders.
The inharmonious relation between the parents which sometimes exists is
often the last straw that makes an Ego feel that it cannot enter such an
environment. Therefore, it cannot be too seriously impressed upon prospective
parents that during the gestatory period it is of the utmost importance that
every thing should be done to keep the mother in a condition of contentment
and harmony. For it is a very hard task for the Ego to go through the womb;
it taxes all its sensibilities to the very utmost, and inharmonious
conditions in the home it is entering are, of course an added source of
discomfort which may result in the above named dreadful state of affairs.
When an insane person dies, will he still be insane in the Desire World?
Answer: That depends upon where the break is, for insanity is a rupture
in the vehicles between the Ego and the physical body, and this derangement
may occur between the Ego and the mind, between the mind and the desire
body, or between the desire body and the vital body, and also between the
latter and the dense body. If the break is between the dense and the vital
body or between that and the desire body, the Ego will be perfectly sane in
the Desire World immediately after death, because it has then discarded the
two vehicles which were afflicted.
Where the break occurs between the desire body and the mind, the desire
body is, as a matter of course, still rampant, and often causes the Ego much
trouble during its existence in the Desire World; for the Ego, of course, is
at no time insane. What appears as insanity arises from the fact that the
Ego has no control over its vehicles; the worst of all, obviously, is where
the mind itself has become affected and the Ego is tied to the personality
for a long time until these vehicles are worn away.
What is the use of knowing about the after-death state, what happens in the Invisible World, and all these things? Is it not far better to take one world at a time? Sufficient unto the day is the trouble thereof. Why borrow more?
Answer: If we knew beyond a doubt that at some time we should be forced
to leave our country and go to another place to live for a great many years
before we would be allowed to return, would it not be a good policy for us
to acquaint ourselves with the language, the customs, and the laws of that
country? Thus equipped we would not feel so strange, and we would be able
to take advantage of whatever opportunities for growth and study we should
find there; we would not be apt to run contrary to its laws and get into
trouble in consequence of our ignorance, and in many similar ways it would
be to our advantage to know about that country.
The foregoing illustrates aptly our position with regard to the Invisible
Worlds. After death we shall find ourselves there, and if we are able now
to obtain information concerning the conditions there, it will surely
benefit us greatly. In the first place, there is the advantage that
knowledge will take away from us the fear of death, because we never fear
that which we know. In the second place, by knowing about Purgatory and
the First Heaven, and by knowing about the evening exercise where we
review the happenings of the day in reverse order, we may live our Purgatory
here and now in small doses, obtaining the forgiveness of sins instead of
waiting to expiate our evil deeds; and if we take advantage of our knowledge
we shall be living in an attitude such as we would not attain before entering
the future lives, by assimilating daily the good that we have done and
expurgating the evil. Thus we shall be able to go soaring through Purgatory
and the First Heaven immediately after death.
By knowing what we are expected to accomplish in the Second Heaven, we
can more intelligently apply ourselves to the work there; we gain greater
consciousness of that realm by familiarizing ourselves with it daily. Thus
in various ways we shall be fitting ourselves to become invisible helpers,
to live consciously all the time and shorten our evolution by millions of
years.
Is there any limit of time set to the Earth life before we are born?
Answer: Yes, at the time when the Ego is coming to rebirth, it forms the
creative archetype of its physical form in the Second Heaven with the help
of the Creative Hierarchies. That archetype is a singing, vibrating thing,
which is set into vibration by the Ego with a certain force commensurate
with the length of the life to be lived upon earth, and until that archetype
ceases to vibrate the form which is built of the chemical constituents of
the earth will continue to live.
The law of cause and effect, however, is the arbiter of the way the life
is to be lived, and certain opportunities for spiritual growth are set
before the Ego at various points in its earth life. If these opportunities
are made use of, the life will continue along the straight path, but if not
it diverges, as we might say, into a blind alley where the life then is
terminated by the creative hierarchies, which destroy the archetype in
the Heaven World. Thus we may say that the ultimate length of an earth life
is determined before we are born physically, but the life may be shortened
if we neglect certain opportunities. There is also the possibility in the
case of a few, where the life has been thoroughly lived, where it has been
very full, and where the person has endeavored in all cases to live up to his
opportunities, that more life may be infused into the archetype than had been
done in the first place, and so the life may be prolonged, but as said, that
is only in exceptional cases.
Is it possible to shorten the time between death and a new birth, so as to hasten one's evolution, and, if so, how?
Answer: Yes, it is possible for everyone who will take the pains to
review this life every day, in reverse order, from evening until morning,
judging himself for the things he has done amiss, promising himself to
rectify his mistakes and doing it to the best of his endeavor. When he
does that he will eradicate the sins he has committed from his life and he
will steadily become a very much better man or woman than those who do not
perform this simple exercise. Thus the sins which would otherwise be
expurgated in Purgatory have been already dealt with in life and so the
Purgatorial existence will be materially shortened. When at the time of
the evening exercise, the man reviews the good he has done and promises
himself to endeavor to do even better in the future he is also assimilating
the good he has done each day, and will therefore make enormous strides
in soul growth so that he will also obviate the necessity for life in the
First Heaven. Such a man will then be definitely treading the path of
initiation; he is then in reality outside the ordinary laws which govern
mankind, for he is a helper in evolution and will, therefore, be given the
opportunity to return to earth in that capacity much sooner than would
otherwise be the case.
Are there any seasons and times, ages and epochs, in the other world?
Answer: No. We might say that there it is all one long day. There is
no time, for that which makes time here is the rotation of the earth upon
its axis and its orbital revolution around the sun. These motions make day
and night, summer and winter, heat and cold, etc., because the earth's
opaque and solid composition renders it impervious to the rays of light and
heat emitted by the sun, so that one-half of the earth is always cold and
dark. But in that other world nothing is opaque nor solid, hence there is
neither heat nor cold, there is neither summer nor winter, there is no
light, there is no night, but it is one long bright day.
Therefore, we often find that those who have passed out by death, while
fully remembering their past earth life, will have no sense of time since
passing out, and may sometimes ask the question as to the length of time
which has elapsed since that event.
There is only one method there of gauging time, and this is used by the
trained clairvoyant in fixing events when he is reading in the memory of
nature, namely, by astrology, by noting the positions of the stars. Of
course, if the event he is looking for is something which happened in
historical times, he may readily fix the year of the occurrence by noting
some historical event which happened at the same time, but where he has to
go back for many thousands of years, as, for instance, when he wishes to
determine the time of the Atlantean floods, he uses particularly the
precession of the equinoxes, which is the motion of the sun backward through
the twelve signs of the zodiac, a motion that requires about twenty-six
thousand years to bring the sun once around the circle. He may then read back
to the times of the Atlantean floods, counting how many of such periods of
twenty-six thousand years elapsed between the first flood and the second,
the second and the third, and then the years from then to our present time.
If he is ignorant of the stellar science, he cannot do that, so that is one
more reason why the student of esotericism should familiarize himself with
astronomy.
Does a person who has been buried alive become conscious of his condition? And how does the spirit get back to the body when it lies in the grave?
Answer: It is evident from the changed position of corpses in coffins
that sometimes when a body has been buried before the spirit had definitely
left it, that spirit has returned to the body and moved that body about in
agonizing attempts to obtain the necessary air. And, of course, that would
show consciousness had been regained in the body. The spirit, of course, is
not at all hindered by the solid nature of the earth and the coffin from
coming and going, a spirit passes just as easily through a wall or other
opaque or dense obstacle as we pass through the air.
Answer: There are many causes for the death of children. We will give a
few of the principal ones. In the first place, when an Ego returns to earth
life, it is drawn to a certain family because it can there get the
environment which is calculated to further its progress, and where it may
liquidate a certain amount of the fate generated by itself in previous
existences. Then when parents make such radical changes in their lives that
the Ego would not be able to get that experience, or liquidate that fate, the
Ego is usually withdrawn and sent to another place where it may get the right
conditions for its growth at that time. Or it may be withdrawn for a few
years and reborn in the same family when it is seen that the conditions can be
obtained there at that late time. But there is a cause that is responsible
for infant mortality which lies much farther back, namely, in previous
lives, and to understand this cause it is necessary to know something about
what takes place at death and immediately after.
When a spirit is passing out of the body, it takes with it the desire
body, the mind and the vital body, and the vital body is at that time the
storehouse for the pictures of the past life. These are then etched into
the desire body during the three and one-half days immediately following
death. Then the desire body becomes the arbiter of man's destiny in
Purgatory and the First Heaven. The pains caused by expurgation of evil and
the joy caused by the contemplation of the good in life are carried over to
the next life as conscience to deter man from perpetuating the mistakes of
past lives and to entice him to do that which caused him joy in the former
life more abundantly.
When those next of kin to a dying person who are present in the death
chamber burst into hysterical lamentations at the time the spirit passes
out, and keep that up for the next few days, the spirit which is at that
time in exceedingly close touch with the Physical World will be much moved
by the grief of the dear ones, and will not be able to focus its attention
closely upon the contemplation of its past life, and thus the etching made
in the desire body will not be as deep as it would if the passing spirit
were left in peace and undisturbed. Consequently the sufferings in
Purgatory will not be as keen nor will the pleasures in the First Heaven be
as great as otherwise and therefore, when the Ego returns to earth life,
it will have lost a certain part of the experience from the previous
life. that is to say, the voice of conscience will not speak with the same
emphasis as would have been the case had the Ego been left undisturbed by
lamentations.
In order to compensate for this lack, the Ego is then usually brought to
birth among the same friends who lamented over it, and it is then taken away
from them while yet in the years of childhood. Then it enters the Desire
World, but, of course, a little child has not committed any sins that need
to be expurgated and so its desire body and the mind remain intact; it then
goes directly into the First Heaven to wait until a new embodiment offers,
but this waiting time is used to school it directly in the effect of the
different emotions, both good and evil. And often a relative meets it and
takes it in charge, having the task of teaching it that which it had lost
through the lamentation that person indulged in, or else it is taught by
others. At any rate, the loss is more than made up, so that when the child
returns to the second birth it will have as full a moral growth as it would
have had under ordinary circumstances had there been no lamentation at the
time when it passed out.
What is the cause of the vast number of deaths which occur in infancy and childhood?
Answer: When the man passes out at death, he takes with him the mind,
desire body, and vital body, the latter being the storehouse of the pictures
of his past life. And during the three and one-half days following death
these pictures are etched into the desire body to form the basis of the
man's life in Purgatory and the First Heaven where the evil is expurgated
and the good assimilated. The experience of the life itself is forgotten,
as we have forgotten the process of learning to write, but have retained the
faculty. So the cumulative extract of all his experiences, both during past
earth lives and past existences in Purgatory and the various heavens, are
retained by the man and form his stock in trade in the next birth. The
pains he has sustained speak to him as the voice of conscience, the good he
has done gives him a more and more altruistic character.
Now, when the three and a half days immediately following death are spent
by the man under conditions of peace and quiet, he is able to concentrate
much more upon the etching of his past life and the imprint upon the desire
body will be deeper than if he is disturbed by the hysterical lamentations
of his relatives or from other causes. And he will then experience a much
keener feeling for either good or bad in Purgatory and in the First Heaven,
and in after lives that keen feeling will speak to him with no unmistakable
voice; but where the lamentations of relatives take away his attention or
where a man passes out by an accident perhaps in a crowded street, in a
train wreck, theater fire, or under other harrowing circumstances, there
will, of course, be no opportunity for him to properly concentrate; neither
can he concentrate upon a battle field if he is slain there, and yet it
could not be just that he should lose the experiences of his life on account
of passing out in such an untoward manner, so the law of cause and effect
provides a compensation.
We usually think that when a child is born it is born and that is the end
of it; but as during the period of gestation the dense body is shielded from
the impact of the outside world by being placed within the protecting womb
of the mother until it has arrived at sufficient maturity to meet the
outside conditions, so are also the vital body, desire body and mind in a
state of gestation and are born at later periods because they have not had as
long an evolution behind them as the dense body and, therefore, it takes a
longer time for them to arrive at a sufficient state of maturity to become
individualized. The vital body is born at the seventh year, when the period
of excessive growth marks its advent. The desire body is born at the time
of puberty, the fourteenth year, and the mind is born at twenty-one, when
the child is said to have become a man or woman — to have reached majority.
That which has not been quickened cannot die, and so when a child dies
before the birth of the desire body it passes out into the invisible world
in the First Heaven. It cannot ascend into the Second and Third Heaven
because the mind and desire body are not born and will not die, so it simply
waits in the First Heaven until a new opportunity for embodiment offers, and
where it has died in its previous life under the before-mentioned harrowing
circumstances, by accident or upon the battle field or where the
lamentations of relatives rendered it impossible for it to gain as deep an
impression of the evil committed and the good accomplished as would have been
the case had it died in peace, it is instructed when it has died in the
next life as a child in the effects of passions and desires so that it learns
the lessons then which it should have learned in the Purgatorial life had it
remained undisturbed. It is then reborn with the proper development of
conscience so that it may continue its evolution.
As in the past man has been exceedingly warlike and not at all careful of
the relatives who passed out at death because of his ignorance, holding
wakes over those who died in bed, which were few, perhaps, compared to those
who died on the battle field, there must necessarily on that account be an
enormous amount of infant mortality, but as humanity arrives at a better
understanding and realizes that we are never so much our brother's keeper as
when he is passing out of this life and that we can help him enormously by
being quiet and prayerful, so also will infant mortality cease to exist on
such a large scale as at present.
Does the cremation of the dense body after death affect the spirit in any way?
Answer: During life and in the waking state of consciousness, the
vehicles of the Ego are all together and concentric, but at death the Ego,
clothed in the mind and desire body, withdraws from the dense body, and as
the vital functions are at an end, the vital body also is taken out of the
dense body, leaving it inanimate upon the bed. One little atom in the heart
is taken out and the rest of the body disintegrates in due course. But at
that time there is an extremely important process going on, and those who
attend the passing spirit in the death chamber should be very careful that
the utmost quiet reigns there and in the whole house, for the pictures of
the whole past life which have been stored in the vital body are passing
before the eye of the spirit in a slow and orderly progression, in reverse order, from death back to birth. This panorama of the past life lasts from a
few hours to three and one-half days. The time is dependent upon the
strength of the vital body which determines how long a man could keep awake
under the most severe stress. Some persons can work for fifty, sixty and
seventy hours before they fall down exhausted, while others are capable of
keeping awake only a few hours. The reason why it is important that there
should be quiet in the house of death during the three and one-half days
immediately following death is this: During that time the panorama of the
past life is being etched upon the desire body which will be the man's
vehicle while he stays in Purgatory and the First Heaven, where he is reaping
the good or ill that he has sown, according to the deeds done in the body.
Now, where the life has been full of events and the man's vital body is
strong, a longer time will be given to this etching than under conditions
where the vital body is weak, but during all that time the dense body is connected with the higher vehicles by the silver cord and any hurt to the dense body is felt in a measure by the spirit. So that embalming, post-mortem examinations and cremation are all felt. therefore, these should be avoided during the first three and one-half days after the time of death,
for when the panorama has been fully etched into the desire body, then the
silver cord is broken, the vital body gravitates back to the dense body and
there is no more connection with the spirit, which is then free to go on
with its higher life.
When the body is buried, the vital body disintegrates slowly at the same
time as the dense body, so that when, for instance, an arm has decayed in
the grave, the etheric arm of the vital body which hovers over the grave
also disappears, and so on until the last vestige of the body is gone. But
where cremation is performed the vital body disintegrates at once, and as
that is the store-house of the pictures of the past life, which, being
etched upon the desire body to form the basis of life in Purgatory and the
First Heaven, this would be a great calamity where cremation is performed
before the three and a half days are past. Unless help were given, the
passing spirit could not hold it together. And that is part of the work
that is done by the invisible helpers for humanity. Sometimes they are
assisted by nature spirits and others detailed by the Creative Hierarchies or
leaders of humanity. There is also a loss where one is cremated before the
silver cord has broken naturally, the imprint upon the desire body is never
as deep as it would otherwise have been, and this has an effect upon future
lives, for the deeper the imprint of the past life upon the desire body, the
keener the sufferings in Purgatory for the ill committed and the keener also
the pleasure in the First Heaven which results from the good deeds of the
past life. It is these pains and pleasures of our past lives that create
what we call conscience, so that where we have lost in suffering we lose
also the realization of wrong which is to deter us in future lives from
committing the same mistakes over and over again. Therefore, the effects
of the premature cremation are very far reaching. Sad it is to say, that
while we have a science of birth with obstetricians, trained nurses,
antiseptics and everything else necessary to the comfort and well being of
a little stranger, we sadly lack a science of death to help us to care for
the departing friends of a lifetime.
Is a person has lost his memory through nervous shock or fever does that affect his vital body and prevent him from getting the record of his life in the three days immediately following death?
Answer: No. Memory is of three kinds: There is, in the first place,
the record which is made by our senses. We look about us in the world, we
see and hear things, these impressions are engraved upon the cells of our
brain and we are able to consciously call them back — yet not always, but in
varying degree, for this memory is extremely unreliable and capricious, and
were this the only method of gaining a record of our lives the law of cause
and effect would be invalidated — our after life would not be a sequence of
what we have done or left undone in the past.
There must be another memory, and this is what scientists have called the
subconscious mind. Just as ether carries to the camera of the photographer a
record of the surrounding landscape and imprints it upon the sensitive
plate to the minutest detail, regardless of whether the photographer
observed these details or not, so also does the same ether which carries a
picture to our eye and imprints it upon the retina carry into our lungs a
similar picture which then is absorbed by the blood, and as the blood passes
through the heart this record is indelibly inscribed upon the sensitive seed
atom which is located in the left ventricle of the heart near the apex. The
forces of that seed atom are taken out by the spirit at death and contain
the record of the whole life to the minutest detail, so that, regardless of
whether we have observed the facts in a certain scene or not, they are,
nevertheless, there.
George du Maurier has written a story called "Peter Ibbetson," wherein
this theory of the subconscious memory is very clearly shown. Peter
Ibbetson, a prisoner in an English penitentiary, learned how to "dream
true," that is to say, by putting his body in a certain position he learned
how to lock the currents of ether within himself so that at night he was
able at will to keep in touch with any scene in his past life that he
desired to; there he would see himself as a spectator (grown man that he was),
and he would also see himself among his parents and playmates and in the
environment as he was at the time that scene was enacted. He would see the
whole scene with many more details than he had been able to observe at the
time when the events took place in this material world. That was because,
under these circumstances, he could get in touch wit his own subconscious
memory. He would have been unable to gain any information concerning the future, but the past had been inscribed upon the tablet of his heart and
was, therefore, accessible under the proper conditions. It is from this
subconscious memory that the record of life is taken after death, and as
that is dependent upon the breath alone, it continues regardless of all
other circumstances while life is in the body, and though a man may lose his
conscious memory and become unable to recall past events at will, the
subconscious memory contains them all and will give them up at the proper
time.
If a disembodied spirit can pass through a wall, can it also pass through a mountain and the Earth, and can it see what is inside?
Answer: That depends upon what kind of a disembodied spirit the enquirer
has in mind. When a man dies, he is just the same as he was before with the
exception that he has no dense body and, therefore, it is perfectly possible
for him to pass through a wall or mountain either. But he is not able to
pass through the earth.
It is a well known fact that, though most clairvoyants and ordinary
psychics are capable of telling much about the sights and the scenes of the
Desire World, there is very little information at hand concerning the inside
of the earth, for it is found by ordinary clairvoyants that if they attempt
to enter the earth there is something like the same effect as when a man
hurls himself against a wall. That is because the earth is the body of a
great spirit and that spirit may not be approached in its inner recesses,
except by the path of initiation. There are nine layers of varying
thickness in the earth around the core, which forms, as it were, a tenth
part, and the Lesser Mysteries are the gate which leads to that innermost
core. There are nine degrees in the Lesser Mysteries, and in each degree the
candidate becomes able to penetrate into the corresponding layer of the
earth, while the tenth initiation belongs to the Greater Mysteries where there
are four divisions. The first teaches all that can be known by man in the
Earth Period; the second of the great initiations would bring him the
knowledge that will be gained by all humanity at the end of the Jupiter
Period; the third of the great initiations would bring him the wisdom
attained by humanity at the end of the Venus Period, and the fourth would end
his evolution in the present scheme. He would have the same standing as
humanity will have at the end of the Vulcan Period. Then he will know all
that the earth will contain in this embodiment and its future manifestations.
The lesser Mysteries will also have taught him the evolution he went
through in the three periods previous to our present Earth Period. It is
these secrets which are locked up in the earth, until man has opened the
door himself in the proper manner, so that no spirit, whether in the body or
discarnate, can see what is inside the earth until the gate of initiation
has opened its latent faculties.
Do we meet our loved ones after death, even if they have held a different belief from our own? Or perhaps, been atheists?
Answer: Yes, we certainly meet them and we know them, for there is no
transforming power in death. The man will appear just as he was here
because he thinks of himself as being of that shape, but the place where we
meet, of course depends upon several things.
In the first place if we have lived a very religious life, so that we
shall have no existence at all in Purgatory and but a very short existence
in the First Heaven, going almost directly to the Second Heaven, whereas,
the one whom we love was of such a nature that he would have a long stay in
the Desire World, then, of course, we should not meet until he arrived in
the Second Heaven. If we pass out shortly after our friend, the meeting
would not take place for perhaps twenty years; but then, that would not matter
for in those regions a person is entirely unconscious of time.
The materialistic friend, if he had lived a good moral life, as we
usually find that those people do, would remain in the fourth region of the
Desire World for a certain number of years, according to the length of time he
had lived, and would then pass into the Second Heaven, though he would not
have there as full and as perfect a consciousness as that possessed by a
person who had been dwelling on the realities of life.
We would see him, know him and be associated with him for centuries in
the work upon our future environment, and there he would not be materialistic
at all, for when the spirit arrives in that region, it is not under the
delusions which sometimes envelop it here in this material world. Each and
every one knows himself as a spiritual being and feels the memory of this
earth life as we feel a bad dream. The spirit, upon entering that world,
wakes up to its own true nature in any case.
Do we recognize loved ones who have passed out through the gate of death?
Answer: Yes, we certainly do. When a man passes out of this body, he is
exactly the same as he was before. There is no difference whatever, except
that he has no physical body; he sees himself in the Desire World, and as he
retains in his consciousness a picture of himself as he looked here, this
desire body will at once take the shape possessed by the physical body, so
that anyone who had known him in earth life will also know him when he has
passed over into the beyond. Besides, it may be well to add that there is
no transforming power in death — that man is also mentally and morally the
same person. We often hear people who have loved some one speak of the
dear, departed angel, even if they conceded that he was very much of a devil
here in earth life, but they usually think it irreverent to refer to him as
such when he has passed out. The fact remains, nevertheless, that only
those who were good here are good there.
Does the man who commits suicide stay longer in purgatory than the people who die naturally?
Answer: When the Ego is coming down to rebirth it
descends through the Second Heaven. There is is helped by the Creative
Hierarchies to build the archetype for its coming body, and it instills into
that archetype a life that will last for a certain number of years. These
archetypes are hollow spaces and they have a singing, vibratory motion which
draws the material of the Physical World into them and sets all the atoms in
the body to vibrating in tune with a little atom that is in the heart,
called the seed atom, which, like a tuning fork, gives the pitch to all
the rest of the material in the body. At the time when the full life has been
lived on the earth the vibrations in the archetype cease, the seed atom is
withdrawn, the dense body goes to decay and the desire body, wherein the Ego
functions in Purgatory and the First Heaven, takes upon itself the shape of
the physical body. Then the man commences his work of expiating his evil
habits and deeds in Purgatory and assimilating the good of his life in the
First Heaven.
The foregoing describes the ordinary conditions when
the course of nature is undisturbed, but the case of the suicide is different.
He has taken away the seed atom, but the hollow archetype still keeps on
vibrating. Therefore he feels as if he were hollowed out and experiences a
gnawing feeling inside that can best be likened to the pangs of intense
hunger. Material for the building of a dense body is all around him, but
seeing that he lacks the gauge of the seed atom, it is impossible for him
to assimilate that matter and build it into a body. This dreadful hollowed-
out feeling lasts as long as his ordinary life should have lasted. Thus the
law of cause and effect teaches him that it is wrong to play truant from the
school of life and that it cannot be done with impunity. Then in the next
life, when difficulties beset his path, he will remember the sufferings of
the past which resulted from suicide and go through with the experience
that makes for his soul growth.
Does a good man have to go through purgatory and be conscious of all the evil there before he can get into the first, second and third heaven; and if so, isn't that an undeserved punishment for him?
Answer: The inquirer should get away from the idea of punishment. There
is no such thing as punishment. Whatever happens to a man is in consequence
of immutable, invariable laws, and there is no personal God who gives rewards or punishments as he sees fit, according to an inscrutable will or any other such method. When the Ego invests itself with bodies, or when it divests itself of its vehicles, this is done on the very same principle and by
the very same laws that govern, for instance, in the case of a planet. When a
planet is being formed from the central firemist, a crystallization has
taken place at the poles where motion is the slowest. The crystallized matter
is thrown out by centrifugal force and flies into space because it is
heavier than the rest of the firemist. For similar reasons, when the body
of the spirit which is densest has become so crystallized and heavy that the
spirit can no longer use it to gain experience the process of disrobement is
accomplished by the centrifugal force which naturally eliminates the dense
body first. That is what we call death. Then the spirit is free for a
time, but the coarsest desire matter which was the embodiment for the lowest
passions and desires must also be thrown off, and it is the forcible
ejection of low desires that causes pain in Purgatory where the
centrifugal force of repulsion is the strongest. If a man has any of that
coarse matter in his desire body, naturally he will have to stay in Purgatory
and undergo the process of purgation before he can enter the First Heaven.
There the centripetal force of attraction whirls all the good in the life
inward to the spiritual center, where it is assimilated as soul power
available for the use of the spirit in its next earth life as conscience.
Thus our stay in Purgatory depends upon how much of the coarse desire matter
there is in the man, and a good man naturally would have very little or
nothing of that kind. Therefore, he would have no life to speak of in
Purgatory; he would pass directly through those regions into the Heaven
World.
What is the condition of the victim of a murder and the victim of an accident subsequent to death?
Answer: There is no such thing as an accident at least where the
accident terminates fatally. The life of any person in its ultimate length
is ordinarily decreed before birth, but there are certain points of life
where there is as it were a parting of the ways, where certain opportunities
for growth are placed before the person, which he may either take or
leave. Where he fails to use his opportunities, the life, as it were, runs
into a blind alley, and terminates shortly afterward.
That, however, is not usually the case in an accident, but there may be
certain reasons which make it desirable that the man should be cast out of
his body in a violent manner. He is then in the same position as all others
when they have passed out; he commences his Purgatorial existence at once.
The case of the victim of murder, like the case of the suicide, is
different. Man, on account of his divine nature, is the only being who has
the prerogative of causing disorder in the scheme of his unfoldment, and as
he may end his own life by an act of will, so may he also end the life of
a fellow creature before its time has come. The suffering of the suicide
would also be the suffering of the murdered, for the archetype of his body
would keep on gathering material which it would be impossible for him to
assimilate; but in his case, the intervention of other agencies prevent the
suffering and he will be found floating about in his desire body, in a
comatose state, for the length of time that he would ordinarily have lived.
If the murderer is brought to justice, as we say, and suffers capital
punishment, the magnetic attraction will bring him together with his victim,
who will constantly remain before his gaze, and that is really a much more
severe punishment than any which we could mete out to him; but the victim
knows naught of the presence of its slayer.
Answer: The Christ said "Heaven is within," and yet we are shown that at
the time when He left His disciples, He ascended into heaven. to understand
this, we must analyze the constitution of a planet, and according to the
hermetic action "as above so below," we shall understand better if we first
analyze the constitution of man.
The man has first the dense body which we see with our eyes, but that
dense body is not as solid as it appears; in fact it is permeated by a number
of invisible vehicles. It is composed of the solids, the liquids and the
gases of the chemical region, but these, science tells us, are interpenetrated
by ether, for man's body is no different from all other things in the world,
and in the densest solid as in the rarest gas, science says, and says truly,
every little atom is vibrating in a sea of ether. This ether is still
physical matter; a consideration portion is specialized by man and forms
an exact counterpart of our dense body, besides protruding about an inch and
a half beyond the periphery of our visible body. It was this part that the
doctors in Boston weighed by placing dying people on scales. They noted
that when the last breath was drawn something having weight left the body and
the side of the scales which had the weight on it fell to the floor with
startling suddenness. The newspaper reporters claimed that the doctors had
weighed the soul, but what they did weigh was this vital body composed of ether which leaves the body at death.
We have a still finer vehicle called the desire body, which is composed of what esotericists call desire stuff, and it may be seen by one having the
sixth sense unfolded as an egg-shaped cloud enveloping the dense body on all
sides, so that the latter is located in the center of the desire body, as
the yolk is in the center of the egg, with the difference only that while
the white envelops the yolk but does not interpenetrate, this desire body permeates both the vital body and the dense body in every nook and cranny. There is a still finer material in the makeup of man which we may call "mind
stuff," composed of the coarsest material of the world of thought, the
material wherein we form our concrete thoughts, and this envelops the
indwelling Ego.
The world is similarly constituted. Besides this visible world which we
see, composed of the solids, liquids and gases, and interpenetrated by
ether, there is also a desire world which permeates every part of the
Physical World and reaches out into space beyond both air and ether. Then
there is the world of thought, and that also penetrates every part of our
planet, from center to circumference, reaching out into space still farther than any of the other worlds.
During earth life, man lives upon this firm, visible earth, but after
death, according to the deeds done in the body, he may be still imprisoned
here, as the Purgatory regions are everywhere around and about us, also below
in the inner recesses of the earth. The First Heaven is also here in a
certain sense, insofar as similar material to that of which it is
constituted is around and about us, but the First Heaven itself, the place
where the spirits who have been liberated usually dwell, is beyond our
atmosphere. The Second heaven may also be truly said to be within, for the
material of which it is constituted is here and the spirits who are there
might visit us, yet the conditions here, the thought currents, etc., would be
derogatory to their work and development. Therefore, they prefer to stay
in the farthermost, outermost part of our planet, where the pure mind stuff is unsullied by our selfish and deleterious thought currents.
The Third Heaven is a place in which very few people at the present stage
of development have any consciousness, because most of us are guided in our
thought activities more by emotions and feelings concerning concrete things
than by abstract thought, which is the peculiar faculty pertaining to the
Third Heaven. When we think of love, we usually think of love in connection
with some person; that is a concrete thought. But of Love in the abstract,
very few of us are able to think. We can think of a house, an animal, etc.,
they are concrete, but we dislike to think of an abstract proposition such
as, for instance, that the square of the hypotenuse equals the square of
the other two sides of a triangle. Therefore, most of us have very little
consciousness in the Third Heaven, and consequently very little of the
material of that world is in the makeup of our planet.
It is said that there is no sorrow in heaven, but if our loved ones are met there and then pass on, does not the parting from them involve at least a sense of dissatisfaction?
Answer: No, it does not, for there we see things as they are. Here we
are blinded. When the Ego comes into the Physical World, it is in one sense a
cause for rejoicing, as we rejoice at the birth of a child, for this world
affords us experience and material for soul growth. But looking at it from
another point of view, when the Ego comes into this world and enters the
prison house of the dense body, it is in the most limited condition
imaginable, and to rejoice at the time when the child is born and lament when
it is liberated by death is in reality analogous to rejoicing when a friend
is put in jail and giving way to hysterical lamentations when he is liberated.
When the spirit passes into the heaven World, it meets a number of those
with whom it has associated in earth life in the First Heaven, but there it
has already become so spiritual and so much in touch with the realities that
it knows there is no death. Therefore, when someone passes into the beyond
there is a rejoicing and a pleasure at the preferment of one whom we hold
dear, and the knowledge that we shall meet again will certainly take away
any pang that might be felt by those who are left behind.
Please explain how to concentrate in order to help those in the other world? Do you mean sitting in the silence and sending out loving, helpful thoughts to them?
Answer: The ability to send out a thought and the power that that
thought has to accomplish the purpose for which it is sent, depends upon the
definiteness wherewith the thinker is able to visualize that which he
desires to accomplish. And the usual esoteric schools, particularly those along
the lines of Eastern thought, advise the method of concentration whereby
thoughts are focused upon one single point, as the rays of the sun are
brought to a focus in a magnifying glass for thus their forces are massed,
and as the sun's rays will burn when focused, so will the thought invariably
accomplish its object when concentrated to a sufficient intensity.
It takes long practice, however, to learn how to do that, and there are
very few people in the West who are able to thus direct their thoughts to
any purpose. The western religion, recognizing this disability, teaches
another method which is much more efficient than concentration, namely,
prayer.
Therefore, if we wish to help those who have passed out of the body, we
may pray earnestly for their welfare and that they may learn the lessons of
this life thoroughly in their experiences in Purgatory and the First Heaven;
then we shall accomplish much more than if we try the cold, intellectual
method of concentration. The attitude of the body sometimes has a great
deal to do with the intensity of the prayer, and if a kneeling position
seems to facilitate the act, the kneeling position should be taken. On the
other hand, as Emerson said:
"And though your knees are never bent
To Heaven, your hourly prayers are sent;
And, be they formed for good or ill,
Are registered and answered still,"
so that the attitude of the body during the act of prayer is immaterial
except as found to be conducive to produce the greatest intensity of purpose;
for that is what makes the prayer effective.
Do those who have passed out of Earth life keep watch and ward over us who are left behind; for instance, do mothers look after their little children, or even the larger ones?
Answer: Yes, very often a mother who has recently passed out will watch
over her little children for a long time, and instances have been recorded
where mothers have saved their babes from dangers. Thought not knowing
consciously how to materialize, love for the little ones and intense fear
for their safety caused the mothers in such instances to draw to
themselves material so that they could be seen by the little ones. Those
whom we call dead do not usually go away from the house where they have lived
until quite a long time after the funeral. They stay in the familiar rooms
and move about among us, although they are unseen by us. Of course, when
their time comes to go into the First Heaven, they do not remain any longer
in our houses, but very often they visit them. When in time they enter the
Second Heaven, they are no longer conscious of this physical sphere in the
sense of having homes, or friends, or relatives; they are then rather to be
looked upon as nature forces, for the time being, for they work upon the
earth and humanity in the very same manner as the nature forces who do not
take human embodiment.
Thus it is perfectly true that they watch over their loved ones for a
long time after they have passed out, and it has been often noted by persons
attending the death of a mother whose children had passed out, perhaps a
number of years before, that at the time of dying she would see the children
around her bed and exclaim: "Why, there is Johnny, and what a big boy he
has grown to be," and so on. The people around the bed would probably think
that a hallucination, but it is not, and it will be noted that a certain
phenomenon always attends those visions, namely, when a person dies there
comes over him a darkness which he feels descending upon him. Many persons
pass out without again seeing the Physical World. that is the change from
our light vibrations to the vibrations of the Desire World, and is similar
to the darkness that spread over the earth at the time of the crucifixion.
With other people it happens that the darkness lifts after a moment and then
the person is clairvoyant, seeing both the present world and the Desire
World, and there, of course, appear the loved ones, who have been attracted
by the impending death, which is birth into their world.
Thus we may say that our loved ones are interested in our welfare for a
long time after passing out, but it must be remembered that there is no
transforming power in death; that it does not give them any special ability
to care for us, and that they have no means of really influencing our
affairs, so that it is not quite right to look upon them as our guardian
angels. They are merely interested spectators except in a few specific
cases where an intense love enables them to perform some slight service in
case of great need. That service, however, would never take the form of
enriching us or anything like that, but is more in the nature of a warning of danger or the like.
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