Theos-Talk Archives (October 1993 Message tl00015)

Psychic powers are acquired by the personality. They represent
extensions to the experiences of material existence. The senses are
enhanced on this or is some cases another plane. On any plane where you
have fully manifested your consciousness, you are a fully-embodied
seven principle being. I would associate the senses, the sensory input
with the Linga Sharira, fairly low on the scale of consciousness.

Being able to see physical things at a distance, being able to look into
the astral light at the formative energies behind material objects,
being able to perhaps get some confused sensory input from yet another
globe or plane--all these are experiences that we first acuqired while
in the mineral kingdom. Our seat of conscious if far higher, centered
in kama-manas and our goal is to raise it to buddhi-manas.

Extensions of the senses do not make one wiser. A dog is not wiser than
a man just because the dog has an acute sense of smell. If the dog
could see into the astral light, it would still not have manas, and
having more to preoccupy it, might be distracted from its evolutionary
goal in life, the acquisition of the capability of thought.

If you could run faster, lift heavier weights, hear better, see
sharper, smell as more acutely, would you be better off? I would say
no. I would say that it is not appropriate to awaken senses on other
planes unless you have the qualities of consciousness appropriate to
those planes. When those qualities have been developed, an appropriate
vehicle of consciousness will have been developed for that globe and
you will just naturally find yourself reborn there.

Faculties of the personality, including the senses, both ordinary and
psychic (ahead of one's time), are appropriate to the personality you
have here on globe D, our earth. Enhancing this personality does not
develop the personalities appropriate to the other globes, and only
strengthens the ties to physical existence here, the karmic bonds or
nidanas that hold you back rather than hasten your evolution. What good
it is to be able to walk on water or see what's going on at this
moment thousands of miles away? The personal desire for powers can be
corrupting and is a hinderance to overcome.

Say you could bridge the gap to another plane and see what is happening
there. It would not be understandable. You would be looking at it
through the personality evolved for the manifestation of consciousness
on this globe, which is simply not equipped to interpret and deal with
experiences there. (When I say another plane, I mean another *real*,
substantive world, another sphere of causes, and not just the looking
into the astral light surrounding our globe D earth, a passive sphere
of effects in which our dreams and "astral projections" occur.)

I do not think that the idea of the "psychic scientist" is a good one.
Anything that give more power to the personality, that centers one's
consciousness in the activity of the personal ego, is to be avoided.
Human knowledge will not be advanced by the cultivation of psychic
capabilities. Common knowledge of how to cultivate paranormal powers
would lead to widespread sorcery and a hastening of the end of our
modern civilization.

The senses we have are what is appropriate for our current evolution.
What we have at our disposal to live a life in the human kingdom
through our personal existences is *not* a chance occurrence, and
altering the situation does not advance humanity. The evolution is
overseen by our parents, the Dhyani-Chohans, and programmed the way it
is based upon what is appropriate at this time.

To hasten our spiritual evolution, to advance beyond the current
state of things, is not related to any particular alteration of the
personality, because it is born into a regulated existence, an
existence whose parameters are controlled and laid out according to the
general plan of human evolution. Any accelerated advancement comes
by stepping aside and cultivating with the faculties of consciousness
appropriate to future periods of existence, consciousness that cannot
be directly given expression in and through the personality. It is
something different that merely upgrading, enhancing, extending the
powers of personality.

Our ultimate goal is to develop the buddhi-manasic consciousness,
something that is not an extension or extrapolation of any other
principle of consciousness that we currently have. It is something
that is different, yet functions at the same time, as other aspects
of consciousness, and it is hard to even get the true flavor of what
it's all about! The Great Initiations all represent stages of being
infilled with it, coming from one's Inner God. There are a number of
mysteries to it that are only hinted at in our theosophical books!
Life has all sorts of wonders awaiting us!

                           Eldon Tucker
                           eldon@netcom.com