Theos-Talk Archives (October 1993 Message tl00115)

This is from Brenda Tucker.

Being as Eldon appears to be trying to reform Jerry, who appears to be
doing astral travel, I thought I'd try to help by telling a little
about my own experience with the development of consciousness.

By reading statements made about pain and the integration of pain
with life, I sensed that the condition of humanity is one which is
unalterable except by degree and by liberation.  Even by securing
one's own fate as much as possible with meditation or riches and good
behavior, a sensitive person true to their heart responds to every
other pilgrim's plight.  The crimes and disappointments of others
become as real to you as your own and by attempting to do away with
selfishness, you open your emotions and life to the suffering of
others.

The eternal course of the human kingdom is not even changed once the
bulk of humanity has passed on to the superhuman kingdom, for at that
time, the animals have reached their stage of individuality and must
set out on the same road which we once travelled.  While it is very
true that there is, corresponding to the pain, an abounding joy
similar to what is felt when we watch children playing, growing, and
learning, or the younger generations experiencing much about life
that we remember recently going through ourselve, there is still
travail for all, until the lessons are complete.  But we are equal to
our difficulties, or so we reassure ourselves, because we are the
cause of them and because God planned it so we would not be
overwhelmed, but the truth would be revealed to us in stages and this
through death and rebirth.

Anyway, many have come to accept this as a way of life.  Except, I
still cannot feel equal to the pain of all suffering humanity and so
must seek after liberation with all my might.  At one point, early on
when astral travel and projection were under study, I became
convinced that the astral vehicle, which was being separated from the
physical, was important to the health and proper functioning of the
physical.  My resolution was that by avoiding any occurrence of their
separation except in dire emergency, I could continue the mental -
astral - physical makeup where the astral is at most a bridge for
thoughts and at least a light body holding the cells in vitality.
All interest that I had hoped would make astral travel a learning
experience was squashed.

When I read about investigating inner planes and establishing a sense
of where we are and thereby what there is to learn and study, I only
believed it to be possible under the "guidance" of the inner man at
least, and guidance of the friendly, assisting deities at most.

It was in this setting that I regained the freedom of inner plane
study with a new limitation, my own being.  By making the entire plane
of experience off limits for various reasons, the only recourse was to
study within the limits of my astral and mental body, so any signposts
I might erect would have position in inner time and space, because I
erected them for my own use.  I don't know if it's possible for anyone
else to see them or not; maybe through the Jungian concept of a
unified subconscious, these signposts would effect others.

So what is there for an individual limited to the study of their own
bodies on the inner planes? Maybe some of the people writing here
have an answer to this.  Maybe all types of energy exist in one
person; I've heard that all the elements are present in man's body.

Since we mentioned the idea of things floating through one another,
if something were floating through, would I have the right (let alone
the ability) to capture its course for a time until I had finished my
examination and testing of it?

What other possibilities of occurrence are there? Well the
inbreathing and outbreathing of life, the ceaseless changing as whole
worlds arise and then fall in the conscious mind.  A sudden
appearance and equally sudden departure of one's own thought or is
thought an independent existence? Does thought have a life of its own
deserving of study? Do some thoughts fade over time or dissipate in
the presence of another? What is the influence of the will? I imagine
the will could resurrect a dead thought if it was ever alive.

I don't believe anyone has ever seen a desire.  Does anyone recall
mention of this in the literature? Why is desire so illusive that it
can't be sensed? Sure we recognize the product of desire, a
coarseness in our surroundings, but the desire itself is rooted so
deeply that it could successively recede into itself if we were
attempting to confront it.

Isn't it like that, too, for people we'd like to know and become
friends with or at least become useful to? All they have to do is
withdraw and all contact with them is lost.

I hope you'll consider the importance of the astral body in your
general welfare and not so willingly elect to do without its
potential and influence in daily living, every second of time.