Theos-Talk Archives (September 1995 Message tl00090)

Liesel:

>The fact that more children today are clairvoyant, or clair-
>something, is probably due to that we're evolving, as you say,
>but I think another factor is that the children's parents are
>more likely to accept it for what it is, instead of just about
>forcing the child to suppress it by their disapproval.

You're probably right that more children are not being taught
to repress their native abilities, and that leads to the apparent
increase in clairvoyance and other psychic abilities as they
grow up. This would happen as the rigid, puritanical attitude
of fundamentalist religion and materialistic science loosens
its grip on popular thought.

I don't think, though, that it's a sign that somehow todays
children are more evolved than before. That statement has been
made generation after generation. Each batch of kids is seen
as somehow special. When they grow up, the next batch is seen
as unique, and so on. Perhaps it is just that children in
general are special, that we recognize a natural closeness to
the spiritual in them that we find special and often missing
in us audlts.

>[speaking to JRC, you say,]
>I don't know whether I can say anything constructive about that
>you see things differently from CWL & Hodson's pictures. But I
>recently wanted to paint an aura & tried using CWL's and Dora's
>aura pictures as models. I found I had to choose one or the
>other, because they were very different. I couldn't make a
>composite aura. So it doesn't surprise me when you say that
>what you see looks different again. There must be a certain
>amount of subjectivity.

Seeing auras is like reading palms, checking out an astrological
chart, or taking a blood sample. It is using a physical aspect of
a person to diagnose or understand something happening in their
life. All such approaches, I'd suggest, are second best to the
most direct approach of empathy, of directly coming in touch with
the mind and heart of the other person.

>I don't know who the Theosophists were that you bumped into,
>who told you that you were all wrong. I think the idea of not
>doing anything to develop psychism is a good one, but I find it
>very opinionated to give that same advice to the occasional
>person who is already very psychic. I've been taught that you
>fit the advice you give to the person, taking the circumstances
>into consideration. And to tell a psychic person to suppress
>it, well ... psychology today doesn't advise suppressing
>anything, but dealing with it in other ways.

It's easy for any of us to get dogmatic in speaking out about what
we don't aprove of, or about what we've been taught is bad. I have
to be careful myself not to sound like I'm preaching at people.
The advise to "shut down the psychic" is for members of an esoteric
school, and is necessarily appropriate to any and all people. It
is also something that might be advised on as case-by-case basis,
and not a blanket, global rule for all, regardless of personal
situation. It's also difficult, for us, when writing or talking
about things, to always express things in fresh words, in a clean,
new, genuine way. Sometimes the old, habitual words depart our lips,
and end up as something thoughtless, causing harm rather than offering
healing and upliftment.

>I know for a fact
>that both Dora Kunz, & her brother Harry Van Gelder started
>training with CWL when they were about 10 or 11, and what I've
>heard is that to become a very effective psychic who can really
>use their talent it is necessary to begin training at an early
>age. So, to me, this theosophical group you fell into is all
>wet. I don't know why someone like Dora wasn't helpful to you.
>Was there a personality clash? That puzzles me.

There are different kinds of "training". Purucker offered his students
spiritual-intellectual training, with no emphasis on the psychical.
Many things can be taught. The teachers bear the karmic responsibility
for what they have given to the students. We all act as teachers, in
our own, personal, limited way, and must watch what we depart to others.

>[Liesel, continuing to speak to JRC,]
>Lastly I can sympathize with you about what a burden it can be
>to be different. I'm not psychic, but I have several talents
>which most other people don't have, & I often just forget about
>them, because people look at you cross-eyed if you're
>different. So, I'm very circumspect about to whom I talk about
>my extra talents. Like I know a few Italian opera arias from
>having taken voice lessons when I was young. There's another
>old lady in my building who used to be a singer, & the 2 of us,
>from time to time enjoy belting out a few arias. Somebody else
>sneered at us, because we are strange enough to like operas.

We're all different, and the differences are good! We have unique
gifts to offer the world, and what we need training in is to enhance
the quality and richness of what we do! We can be better people, more
kind and loving to others. We can produce greater writings, paintings,
pieces of music, lectures -- whatever we are inspired to do! And we
can also be better at the simple things, like driving our car in a
sea of hateful drivers, at washing our dishes, and answering the phone
when being bothered yet again by another pushy salesperson!

-- Eldon