Theos-Talk Archives (September 1995 Message tl00000)

>>And Purucker makes it clear that one of the
>>first steps for new students is to shut down the psychic,
>
> Hmm, shut down seems to imply a coercive repressive. May I suggest that
>the idea is to not pay too much attention to or not become glamoured by
>psychic abilities (which vary widely). There are many today, I believe, who
>are "old" students but who are in their twenties or younger and are free to
>follow the development as they choose. Also, humanity is on the way to a new
>discovery (as the ethers have been studied by science for several decades
>now) and etheric vision can be increasingly developed by the general public.
> This would be a natural evolutionary development.

>Patrick

It may sound repressive. While I've heard it taught as a general rule, though,
the application has to be decided on an individual basis. The emergence of
psychic abilities is not necessarily a sign of spiritual unfoldment; sometimes
it may rather be a sign of regression. I would not consider them a severe
danger, where I'd strongly advocate people avoiding them. On the other hand,
they can be sufficient a distraction from the cultivation of the spiritual
that warnings are given. And with some approaches to the spiritual, like
Purucker has written, students are taught to deemphasize and turn away from
them. Granted, there are other approaches that may use the psychic in their
training. I'm speaking, though, from the particular theosophical school where
I find my home.

-- Eldon