Theos-Talk Archives (October 1993 Message tl00032)

Eldon,

     I have enjoyed reading your articles on various theosophical
themes.  Your viewpoint on magic and psychic abilities sounds
very close to the Pasadena TS line.  I agree with you for the
most part, but have a few reservations with some minor aspects.

     You wrote <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.>  What is your source for implying that we will be reborn
on other globes of this planetary chain?  Do you mean as our
lifewave evolves?  Or as an individual?  Do we still come back
again to globe D?

     A very small point, is your suggestion that a dog has no
manas (ie., "it would still not have manas").  This sounds like
the Christian notion that a dog has no soul and thus no afterlife
or reimbodiment.  I would like to think that all animals have
manas, but simply not as developed as humans.  Certainly many
animals have the rudiments of thought processes.  One of the
teachings of Besant/Leadbeater that I most dislike is the notion
of a group soul.  Not that I don't buy it, but they always seem
to forget that we human beings also have a group soul.  The group
soul does not distinguish us from animals - at least not in MHO.
Every living monadic life-wave has its own group soul.  Animals
are as independent as humans in MHO.

     <The personal desire for powers can be corrupting and is a
hinderance to overcome>  I think I agree with you here in
principle.  Powers should be allowed to develope naturally as a
fallout from spiritual development.  They are a by-product rather
than a goal in themselves.

     I am not at all sure why you think the "psychic scientist"
cultivates his/her ego.  Why can't a psychic scientist help
others in some way?  Maybe you could further define this term?

     <To hasten our spiritual evolution, to advance the current
state of things, is not related to any particular alteration of
the personality>  Oh yes it is.  Perhaps I am quoting you out of
context here, but to tell the truth, I am not sure what you are
saying in this paragraph.  Maybe you could rephrase it for me(?).
I agree that "Our ultimate goal is to develop the buddhi-manasic
consciousness."  It is just this goal that we can reach in this
very lifetime by an "accelerated advancement."  Just look, for
two quick examples, at Jesus and Buddha.  Both were human beings,
just like us.  But they had highly developed buddhi-manas
principles, while we do not.  Why can't yoga and magic be used to
advance such a development?

     Why do you say that practicing magic is equivalent to
"enhancing the kama-pranic powers of the personality?"  I rather
agree with Jay that "magic is a tool that can be used to further
a person's efforts at service."  First of all, there are two
kinds of magic.  Low magic is probably what you had in mind -
using consciousness and psychic forces to bring about a
deliberate change in one's environment.  This usually tends to
inflate the ego.  But what is wrong with high magic (except, of
course, for the dangers inherent in it)?  The goal of high magic
and yoga are identical - to raise consciousness to union with
divinity, and to raise our sense of identity to that of our inner
god (or goddess).  High Magic teaches that we each have an inner
god/goddess.  It then says that this inner divinity is our
spiritual component and that we can unite our consciousness (and
our sense of identity) with it.  High Magic also uses the
technique of out-of-body travel to send consciousness out into
the planes and globes of our planetary chain, to learn first-hand
what is there, and what our universe is all about.  This
knowledge can either be used for one's selfish purposes (black
magic), or to help others (white magic).

     You write that <Magic relates to kama-prana, the energized
desire that leads to things happening in the world>  which sounds
like low magic.  What is your source for this relationship?  I
think that HPB wrote that the only difference between black and
white magic was in the purpose.  Both use occult or hidden forces
and laws.

     Speaking for myself, I do not practice low magic.  However,
I do practice high magic as well as yoga.  I do not think that it
necessarily strengthens the sense of personal self.  In fact, the
personal self can go no higher than the mental plane.  To go
beyond the mental plane, you must leave the human personality and
take on a new one (for example, you must identify with your
Reincarnating Ego to reach the Causal Plane).

     Grace Knoche once told me that the real danger to trying to
hasten spiritual development was one's own karma.  As soon as you
sincerely decide to tread to Path, your own karmic burden, laid
up over many lifetimes, will ripen and manifest itself in a
torrent of horrible circumstances, that would otherwise have
required many more lifetimes to manifest.  This certainly rang a
chord in myself.  I had found this to be true many years earlier,
while practising Christian Science.  Christian Scientists call
the Opposer, Mortal Mind, and teach that it shouts loudest after
you make an honest effort to practice Christian Science.  This is
the same idea in different words.  The theosophical Opposer is
karma.  To every would-be Horus, there is a Set.  However, I
deliberately chose to take on this burden and "go for it."  I
would certainly never suggest this for anyone else - it is a
highly personal decision, and one that we must each make for
ourselves, when we are ready to do so.  For example, I now have
RA (the bad kind of arthritis) and my wife has breast cancer,
etc.  Now, I no longer practice low magic, nor am I a Christian
Scientist.  So I do the best I can with medicine (a few aspirins
when things get bad) and try to hang in there.  I have discovered
that feeling pain all day, every day, can make one a sensitive
person.  I have also discovered that pain and pleasure are a
duality and that you can't experience one without the other.
Maybe I will make a few more discoveries before the pain goes
away?  Anyway, I have tried to face my karma as much as possible
- not an easy task at all.  In addition to all of this, I feel
that my own books on magic have also generated some personal
karma for me.  I knew that this would be the case before
publishing the first book, and decided that if my books on magic
could help people (the whole business of Enochian Magic was a
chaotic mess up until then, and people were hurting themselves by
having only partial knowledge) then it would be worth it.
Anyway, I consider myself living proof of the dangers of magic
and of treading the Path, albeit I may be an Initiate and not yet
an Adept (how does one know for sure, since there is always more
to learn?).

By the way, I especially liked your essay on truthfulness.  As a
Christian Scientist, I was taught that Truth is a synonym for
God, and thus to be honest is essential if one wants to get
closer to God.  I still feel the impotance of telling the truth,
and I am delighted to see that others feel the same way.

                                     Jerry S.