Theos-Talk Archives (March 1996 Message tl00085)

OCEAN16.TXT (The Ocean of Theosophy - W.Q.Judge)

CHAPTER XVI

THE FIELD OF PSYCHIC FORCES, phenomena, and dynamics is a vast
one. Such phenomena are seen and the forces exhibited every day
in all lands, but until a few years ago very little attention
was given to them by scientific persons, while a great deal of
ridicule was heaped upon those who related the occurrences or
averred belief in the psychic nature. A cult sprang up in the
United States some forty years ago calling itself quite wrongly
"spiritualism," but having a great opportunity it neglected it
and fell into mere wonder-seeking without the slightest shadow
of a philosophy. It has accomplished but little in the way of
progress except a record of many undigested facts which for four
decades failed to attract the serious attention of people in
general. While it has had its uses, and includes in its ranks
many good minds, the great dangers and damages coming to the
human instruments involved and to those who sought them more
than offset the good done in the opinion of those disciples of
the Lodge who would have man progress evenly and without ruin
along his path of evolution. But other Western investigators of
the accepted schools have not done much better, and the result
is that there is no Western Psychology worthy of the name.

This lack of an adequate system of Psychology is a natural
consequence of the materialistic bias of science and the
paralyzing influence of dogmatic religion; the one ridiculing
effort and blocking the way, the other forbidding investigation.
The Roman Catholic branch of the Christian Church is in some
respects an exception, however. It has always admitted the
existence of the psychic world, for it the realm of devils and
angels, but as angels manifest when they choose and devils are
to be shunned, no one is permitted by that Church to meddle in
such matters except an authorized priest. So far as that
Church's prohibiting the pernicious practice of necromancy
indulged in by "spiritualists" it was right, but not in its
other prohibitions and restrictions. Real psychology is an
Oriental product today. Very true the system was known in the
West when a very ancient civilization flourished in America, and
in certain parts of Europe anterior to the Christian era, but
for the present day psychology in its true phase belongs to the
Orient.

Are there psychic forces, laws, and powers? If there are, then
there must be the phenomena. And if all that has been outlined
in preceding chapters is true, then in man are the same powers
and forces which are to be found anywhere in Nature. He is held
by the Masters of Wisdom to be the highest product of the whole
system of evolution, and mirrors in himself every power, however
wonderful or terrible, of Nature; by the very fact of being such
a mirror he is man.

This has long been recognized in the East, where the writer has
seen exhibitions of such powers which would upset the theories
of many a Western man of science. And in the West the same
phenomena have been repeated for the writer, so that he knows of
his own knowledge that every man of every race has the same
powers potentially. The genuine psychic, or, as they are often
called, magical, phenomena done by the Eastern fakir or yogi
are all performed by the use of natural forces and processes not
even dreamed of as yet by the West. Levitation of the body in
apparent defiance of gravitation is a thing to be done with ease
when the process is completely mastered. It contravenes no law.
Gravitation is only half of a law. The Oriental sage admits
gravity, if one wishes to adopt the term; but the real term is
attraction, the other half of the law being expressed by the
word repulsion, and both being governed by the great laws of
electrical force. Weight and stability depend on polarity, and
when the polarity of an object is altered in respect to the
earth immediately underneath it, then the object may rise. But
as mere objects are devoid of the consciousness found in man,
they cannot rise without certain other aids. The human body,
however, will rise in the air unsupported, like a bird, when its
polarity is thus changed. This change is brought about
consciously by a certain system of breathing known to the
Oriental; it may be induced also by aid from certain natural
forces spoken of later, in the cases of those who without
knowing the law perform the phenomena, as with the saints of the
Roman Catholic Church.

A third great law which enters into many of the phenomena of the
East and West is that of Cohesion. The power of Cohesion is a
distinct power of itself, and not a result as is supposed. This
law and its action must be known if certain phenomena are to be
brought about, as, for instance, what the writer has seen, the
passing of one solid iron ring through another, or a stone
through a solid wall. Hence another force is used which can only
be called dispersion. Cohesion is the dominating force, for, the
moment the dispersing force is withdrawn, the cohesive force
restores the particles to their original position.

Following this out the Adept in such great dynamics is able to
disperse the atoms of an object, excluding always the human
body, to such a distance from each other as to render the
object invisible, and then can send them along a current formed
in the ether to any distance on the earth. At the desired point
the dispersing force is withdrawn, when immediately cohesion
reasserts itself and the object reappears intact. This may sound
like fiction, but being known to the Lodge and its disciples as
an actual fact, it is equally certain that Science will sooner
or later admit the proposition.

But the lay mind infested by the materialism of the day wonders
how all these manipulations are possible, seeing that no
instruments are spoken of. The instruments are in the body and
brain of man. In the view of the Lodge "the human brain is an
exhaustless generator of force," and a complete knowledge of the
inner chemical and dynamic laws of Nature, together with a
trained mind, give the possessor the power to operate the laws
to which I have referred. This will be man's possession in the
future, and would be his today were it not for blind dogmatism,
selfishness, and materialistic unbelief. Not even the Christian
lives up to his Master's very true statement that if one had
faith he could remove a mountain. A knowledge of the law when
added to faith gives power over matter, mind, space, and time.

Using the same powers, the trained Adept can produce before the
eye, objective to the touch, material which was not visible
before, and in any desired shape. This would be called creation
by the vulgar, but it is simply evolution in your very presence.
Matter is held suspended in the air about us. Every particle of
matter, visible or still unprecipitated, has been through all
possible forms, and what the Adept does is to select any desired
form, existing, as they all do, in the Astral Light and then by
effort of the Will and Imagination to clothe the form with the
matter by precipitation. The object so made will fade away
unless certain other processes are resorted to which need not be
here described, but if these processes are used the object will
remain permanently. And if it is desired to make visible a
message on paper or other surface, the same laws and powers are
used. The distinct, photographically and sharply definite,
image of every line of every letter or picture is formed in the
mind, and then out of the air is drawn the pigment to fall
within the limits laid down by the brain, "the exhaustless
generator of force and form." All these things the writer has
seen done in the way described, and not by any hired or
irresponsible medium, and he knows whereof he speaks.

This, then, naturally leads to the proposition that the human
Will is all powerful and the Imagination is a most useful
faculty with a dynamic force. The Imagination is the
picture-making power of the human mind. In the ordinary average
human person it has not enough training or force to be more than
a sort of dream, but it may be trained. When trained it is the
Constructor in the Human Workshop. Arrived at that stage it
makes a matrix in the Astral substance through which effects
objectively will flow. It is the greatest power, after Will, in
the human assemblage of complicated instruments. The modern
Western definition of Imagination is incomplete and wide of the
mark. It is chiefly used to designate fancy or misconception and
at all times stands for unreality. It is impossible to get
another term as good because one of the powers of the trained
Imagination is that of making an image. The word is derived from
those signifying the formation or reflection of an image. This
faculty used, or rather suffered to act, in an unregulated mode
has given the West no other idea than that covered by "fancy."
So far as that goes it is right but it may be pushed to a
greater limit, which, when reached causes the Imagination to
evolve in the Astral substance an actual image or form which may
be then used in the same way as an iron molder uses a mold of
sand for the molten iron. It is therefore the King faculty,
inasmuch as the Will cannot do its work if the Imagination be at
all weak or untrained. For instance, if the person desiring to
precipitate from the air wavers in the least with the image made
in the Astral substance, the pigment will fall upon the paper in
a correspondingly wavering and diffused manner.

To communicate with another mind at any distance the Adept
attunes all the molecules of the brain and all the thoughts of
the mind so as to vibrate in unison with the mind to be
affected, and that other mind and brain have also to be either
voluntarily thrown into the same unison or fall into it
voluntarily. So though the Adept be at Bombay and his friend in
New York, the distance is no obstacle, as the inner senses are
not dependent on an ear, but may feel and see the thoughts and
images in the mind of the other person.

And when it is desired to look into the mind and catch the
thoughts of another and the pictures all around him of all he
has thought and looked at, the Adept's inner sight and hearing
are directed to the mind to be seen, when at once all is
visible. But, as said before, only a rogue would do this, and
the Adepts do not do it except in strictly authorized cases. The
modern man sees no misdemeanor in looking into the secrets of
another by means of this power, but the Adepts say it is an
invasion of the rights of the other person. No man has the
right, even when he has the power in his hand, to enter into the
mind of another and pick out its secrets. This is the law of the
Lodge to all who seek, and if one sees that he is about to
discover the secrets of another he must at once withdraw and
proceed no further. If he proceeds his power is taken from him
in the case of a disciple; in the case of any other person he
must take the consequence of this sort of burglary. For Nature
has her laws and her policemen, and if we commit felonies in the
Astral world the great Law and the guardians of it, for which no
bribery is possible, will execute the penalty, no matter how
long we wait, even if it be for ten thousand years. Here is
another safeguard for ethics and morals. But until men admit the
system of philosophy put forward in this book, they will not
deem it wrong to commit felonies in fields where their weak
human law has no effect, but at the same time by thus refusing
the philosophy they will put off the day when all may have these
great powers for the use of all.

Among phenomena useful to notice are those consisting of the
moving of objects without physical contact. This may be done,
and in more than one way. The first is to extrude from the
physical body the Astral hand and arm, and with those grasp the
object to be moved. This may be accomplished at a distance of as
much as ten feet from the person. I do not go into argument on
this, only referring to the properties of the Astral substance
and members. This will serve to some extent to explain several
of the phenomena of mediums. In nearly all cases of such
apportation the feat is accomplished by thus using the unseen
but material Astral hand. The second method is to use the
elementals of which I have spoken. They have the power when
directed by the inner man to carry objects by changing the
polarity, and then we see, as with the fakirs of India and some
mediums in America, small objects moving apparently unsupported.
These elemental entities are used when things are brought from
longer distances than the length to which the Astral members may
be stretched. It is no argument against this that mediums do not
know they do so. They rarely if ever know anything about how
they accomplish any feat, and their ignorance of the law is no
proof of its non-existence. Those students who have seen the
forces work from the inside will need no argument on this.

Clairvoyance, clairaudience, and second-sight are all related
very closely. Every exercise of any one of them draws in at the
same time both of the others. They are but variations of one
power. Sound is one of the distinguishing characteristics of the
Astral sphere, and as light goes with sound, sight obtains
simultaneously with hearing. To see an image with the Astral
senses means that at the same time there is a sound, and to hear
the latter infers the presence of a related image in Astral
substance. It is perfectly well known to the true student of
occultism that every sound produces instantaneously an image,
and this, so long known in the Orient, has lately been
demonstrated in the West in the production to the eye of sound
pictures on a stretched tympanum. This part of the subject can
be gone into very much further with the aid of occultism, but as
it is a dangerous one in the present state of society I refrain
at this point. In the Astral Light are pictures of all things
whatsoever that happened to any person, and as well also
pictures of those events to come the causes for which are
sufficiently well marked and made. If the causes are yet
indefinite, so will be the images of the future. But for the
mass of events for several years to come all the producing and
efficient causes are always laid down with enough definiteness
to permit the seer to see them in advance as if present. By
means of these pictures, seen with the inner senses, all
clairvoyants exercise their strange faculty. Yet it is a faculty
common to all men, though in the majority but slightly
developed; but occultism asserts that were it not for the germ
of this power slightly active in every one no man could convey
to another any idea whatsoever.

In clairvoyance the pictures in the Astral Light pass before the
inner vision and are reflected into the physical eye from
within. They then appear objectively to the seer. If they are of
past events or those to come, the picture only is seen; if of
events actually then occurring, the scene is perceived through
the Astral Light by the inner sense. The distinguishing
difference between ordinary and clairvoyant vision is, then,
that in clairvoyance with waking sight the vibration is
communicated to the brain first, from which it is transmitted to
the physical eye, where it sets up an image upon the retina,
just as the revolving cylinder of the phonograph causes the
mouthpiece to vibrate exactly as the voice had vibrated when
thrown into the receiver. In ordinary eye vision the vibrations
are given to the eye first and then transmitted to the brain.
Images and sounds are both caused by vibrations, and hence any
sound once made is preserved in the Astral Light from whence the
inner sense can take it and from within transmit it to the
brain, from which it reaches the physical ear. So in
clairaudience at a distance the hearer does not hear with the
ear, but with the center of hearing in the Astral body.
Second-sight is a combination of clairaudience and clairvoyance
or not, just as the particular case is, and the frequency with
which future events are seen by the second sight seer adds an
element of prophecy.

The highest order of clairvoyance, that of spiritual vision,
is very rare. The usual clairvoyant deals only with the ordinary
aspects and strata of the Astral matter. Spiritual sight comes
only to those who are pure, devoted, and firm. It may be
attained by special development of the particular organ in the
body through which alone such sight is possible, and only after
discipline, long training, and the highest altruism. All other
clairvoyance is transitory, inadequate, and fragmentary,
dealing, as it does, only with matter and illusion. Its
fragmentary and inadequate character results from the fact that
hardly any clairvoyant has the power to see into more than one
of the lower grades of Astral substance at any one time. The
pure-minded and the brave can deal with the future and the
present far better than any clairvoyant. But as the existence of
these two powers proves the presence in us of the inner senses
and of the necessary medium, the Astral Light, they have, as
such human faculties, an important bearing upon the claims made
by the so-called "spirits" of the seance room.

Dreams are sometimes the result of brain action automatically
proceeding, and are also produced by the transmission into the
brain by the real inner person of those scenes or ideas high or
low which that real person has seen while the body slept. They
are then strained into the brain as if floating on the soul as
it sinks into the body. These dreams may be of use, but
generally the resumption of bodily activity destroys the
meaning, perverts the image, and reduces all to confusion. But
the great fact of all dreaming is that someone perceives and
feels therein, and this is one of the arguments for the inner
person's existence. In sleep the inner man communes with higher
intelligences, and sometimes succeeds in impressing the brain
with what is gained, either a high idea or a prophetic vision,
or else fails in consequence of the resistance of brain fiber.
The karma of the person also determines the meaning of a dream,
for a king may dream that which relates to his kingdom, while
the same thing dreamed by a citizen relates to nothing of
temporal consequence. But, as said by Job: "In dreams and
visions of the night man is instructed."

Apparitions and doubles are of two general classes. The one,
astral shells or images from the astral world, either actually
visible to the eye or the result of vibration within thrown out
to the eye and thus making the person think he sees an objective
form without. The other, the astral body of living persons and
carrying full consciousness or only partially so endowed.
Laborious attempts by Psychical Research Societies to prove
apparitions without knowing these laws really prove nothing, for
out of twenty admitted cases nineteen may be the objectivization
of the image impressed on the brain. But that apparitions have
been seen there is no doubt. Apparitions of those just dead may
be either pictures made objective as described, or the Astral
Body, called Kamarupa at this stage, of the deceased. And as
the dying thoughts and forces released from the body are very
strong, we have more accounts of such apparitions than of any
other class.

The Adept may send out his apparition, which, however, is called
by another name, as it consists of his conscious and trained
astral body endowed with all his intelligence and not wholly
detached from his physical frame.

Theosophy does not deny nor ignore the physical laws discovered
by science. It admits all such as are proven, but it asserts the
existence of others which modify the action of those we
ordinarily know. Behind all the visible phenomena is the occult
cosmos with its ideal machinery; that occult cosmos can only be
fully understood by means of the inner senses which pertain to
it; those senses will not be easily developed if their existence
is denied. Brain and mind acting together have the power to
evolve forms, first as astral ones in astral substance, and
later as visible ones by accretions of the matter on this plane.
Objectivity depends largely on perception, and perception may be
affected by inner stimuli. Hence a witness may either see an
object which actually exists as such without, or may be made to
see one by internal stimulus. This gives us three modes of
sight: (a) with the eye by means of light from an object, (b)
with the inner senses by means of the Astral Light, and (c) by
stimulus from within which causes the eye to report to the
brain, thus throwing the inner image without. The phenomena of
the other senses may be tabulated in the same manner.

The Astral substance being the register of all thoughts, sounds,
pictures, and other vibrations, and the inner man being a
complete person able to act with or without coordination with
the physical, all the phenomena of hypnotism, clairvoyance,
clairaudience, mediumship, and the rest of those which are not
consciously performed may be explained. In the Astral substance
are all sounds and pictures, and in the Astral man remain
impressions of every event, however remote or insignificant;
these acting together produce the phenomena which seem so
strange to those who deny or are unaware of the postulates of
occultism.

But to explain the phenomena performed by Adepts, Fakirs, Yogis,
and all trained occultists, one has to understand the occult
laws of chemistry, of mind, of force, and of matter. These it is
obviously not the province of such a work as this to treat in
detail.

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