Question: Will you please discuss the problem of cognition? How does the seer
know on the higher planes? By this I mean, (a) how can he distinguish between
a thought form emanating from his own mind and (b) the thought form emanating
from some other person either in the body or out, and (c) objective spiritual
entities? (Vol. II, #64)
Answer: Contrary to the opinion of people who do not know anything about the
matter this is purely a matter of training. It is absolutely wrong to suppose
that because a person who has developed the spiritual sight and is able to see
things in the worlds which are usually invisible to the ordinary human view in
the present stage of evolution he (or she) therefore by the same faculty knows
everything. As a matter of fact he does not know anything until he has
acquired the knowledge by investigation. The law of analogy, which is the
master key to all mysteries, should make this clear. "As above, so below," and
"as below, so above." We see the telephone hanging on the wall; we know how to
operate it by taking down the receiver, placing it to our ear and talking
through the transmitter. We know even in a vague way that it is operated by
electricity, but the mechanism is a mystery to the great majority.
Similarly, we may turn an electric switch, see the lights flash on, and the
motors begin to whirl. We see the phenomenon, but we do not know the
underlying forces until by investigation we have fitted ourselves and acquired
the knowledge. The very same conditions obtain in the Desire World to an even
greater degree, because of the superlative plasticity of the desire stuff and
the ease wherewith it is changed into different forms by the ensouling Spirit,
whether superhuman or elemental. On that account even the person who has
voluntary control of his spiritual sight requires a thorough training and must
cultivate the faculty of seeing beyond the form to the ensouling life. It is
only when he has cultivated that faculty that he is free from delusion and
able to distinguish the true nature and status of all the things and beings
which he sees in the invisible world.
To do this in the most efficient manner and have the certainty of escaping
illusion it is necessary to cultivate the grade of spiritual sight pertaining
to the concrete region of the World of Thought, where the archetypes which are
the ensouling life can be seen.
To make this clear we may call to mind that the physical sight varies so
that there are certain beings which see perfectly under conditions which to us
appear as darkness. For instance, owls and bats. The eyes of fishes are
constructed so that they see under water. The organs of spiritual sight are
also capable of being attuned to different vibrations. Each rate of vibration
produces a different grade of sight and opens up to the investigator a certain
realm of nature. By an exceedingly slight extension of the physical sight the
ethers and the beings therein become plainly visible. This grade of sight may
be likened to the X-ray, for objects which appear solid to the physical sight
are most easily penetrated by the etheric sight or vision.
When one looks at a house with etheric vision he sees right through the
wall. If he wants to find out what is taking place in a room on the farther
side of the house from where he stands, the etheric rays from his eyes to the
object in that room pierce the walls and all other intervening objects, and he
sees them just as plainly as if the whole house were made of glass. This grade
of sight may be applied to the human body, and it is possible with its help to
look through the whole organic structure and watch its functions in actual
operation. The writer (Max Heindel) also had the idea until recently that the
common trick of reading a letter which is enclosed in a sealed envelope,
perhaps in the pocket of another person was done in the same manner. One day
he took a letter addressed to himself and tried the experiment, which
succeeded beautifully, showing the person who had written the letter sitting
in his room, and giving the whole contents very nicely. Immediately afterward
he tried another letter with etheric sight to ascertain how the result would
differ, and it was then found to be very difficult to disentangle the writing
on account of the letter having been folded up. There seemed to be a
conglomerate mass of ink streaks, and it required the use of the next higher
grade of sight which penetrates to the Desire World before the letter could be
distinguished and read.
When one looks at an object with the sight necessary to see the Desire
World, even the most solid objects are also seen through and through, but with
the difference that one sees them as it were from all directions. Thought
forms such as spoken of by the enquirer would probably be clothed in this
material because no thought form can compel action save through the medium of
this force — matter which we call desire stuff, and no one who has not made a
study of it can guess how many people are actuated by thought forms which they
think are their own, but which as a matter of fact, originated in the brain of
someone else. It is in this way that what we call public opinion is formed.
Strong thinkers who have certain definite ideas about a particular thing
radiate those thought forms from themselves, and others less positive and not
antagonistic to the view expressed in these wandering thought forms catch them
up and think that these thoughts have originated within themselves. Thus
gradually the sentiment grows until that which was originally started by one
man has been accepted by a large part of the community.
To learn positively the origin of such stray thought forms would necessitate
examination by means of the grade of sight necessary to function in the Region
of Concrete Thought where the idea first took shape. There all solid objects
appear as vacuous cavities from which a basic keynote is continually sounded
and thus whoever sees a thing also hears from itself the whole history of its
being. Thought forms which have not yet crystallized into physical action or
being do not present themselves to the observer as a cavity, but there
thoughts are not silent. They speak in a language which is unmistakable and
convey far more accurately than words can, what is their intent until the
force which their originator expended to bring them into being has been spent.
As they sing in the key peculiar to the person who gave them birth it is a
comparatively easy matter for the trained occultist to trace them to their
source.
Regarding section "c" of your question it is not quite clear what you mean.
If you want to know how we can distinguish the thoughts of objective spiritual
entities from our own thoughts, the foregoing method may be applied to all
beings without any distinction whatever. But if you mean how can we
distinguish objective spiritual entities from thought forms, the answer is
that thought forms lack spontaneity. They are more or less like automatons.
They move and act in one direction only, according to the will of the thinker
which is the motive power within them. The actions of objective spiritual
entities are spontaneous and changeable in the same way that our actions or
tactics are, whenever we wish or it seems desirable to change them.
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