Theos-Talk Archives (April 1996 Message tl00931)

JRC:

Peace ...

I don't have the energy (and time) to keep up with the lengthy
debate that we have at times, and there are probably ways in which
we could describe the subject where our views aren't too widely
different.

First, I'll attempt to summarize your position, as I read it from
your 365-line posting. You've never called psychic development a
path nor suggested anyone experiment with it. Your interest in the
subject is in terms of research, by interviewing people and
through some personal experiments. You read and respect the early
theosophical literature, like the writings of HPB and "The Mahatma
Letters". Your interest in the subject is from the standpoint of
an investigative scientist, and would like to see that form of
research found acceptable in theosophical circles.

My posting to Daniel may have produced some productive results in
our communication. In your response, you mention how you've ceased
to hold back, and are now talking about your views rather than
simply reacting defensively in response to what I've written. It's
good to read the clarification of your background.

I'd agree that the intellectual is dangerous, and not merely the
psychical. In fact, in "The Mahatma Letters", it mentions that 1/3
of the world's evil arises from selfishness, but 2/3 from false,
but sincerely held beliefs. And we read how the mind is the great
slayer of the real.

We agree on the value of Blavatsky's writings, but I would not put
down as "lesser writers" some of the people that followed. I'd
accord de Purucker a significant role in teaching and illuminating
the theosophical philosophy, and in presenting it in a way that
makes it possible to become a living reality in peoples' lives.
(I'd suggest that you read one of his books before you dismiss him;
there's a lot there that you may not know you're missing.)

Do you really think that I may have gone overboard in the psychic
in some previous lifetime, and am now spending a few lives
deliberately avoiding it? Anything's possible. I think the case is
true of humanity as a whole, since the Atlantean times.

You speak of "a doctrine ... that winds up often being presented
in such a fashion as to imply that HPB or the Adepts want everyone
to spend their lives sitting around studying books, meditating,
having calm 'deep' discussions of the intricacies of arcane
'truths' and studiously avoiding anything that might lead them
into 'illusion'."

This form of lifestyle can be quite useful to people at a certain
stage.  I can picture Tibetan monks, studying for the Geshe
degree (something like a PhD in spiritual studies) doing just
what you say.  It would not appeal to most people, since they are
still caught up in the busy whirl of external life, too busy
making a life in the world and chasing personal enjoyment to feel
divine discontent and start to desire a greater depth to life.

While you indicate that I've misread your position on the psychic,
I'm not sure from what you say that you've really heard what I've
been writing about.

Psychic powers are not evil per se, not any more than eyesight or
the ability to walk across the street. They are nothing to fear;
except if someone has psychological problems that might emerge
when the person is exposed to greater unconscious content. They
are one avenue of exploration of the world about it, both visible
and invisible, and may at some point be of use to science. But
they are quite distinct from mind, insight, spiritual knowing and
development, although they may naturally appear individuals, as a
foreshadowing of the sense faculties of future races.

Meditation, direct insight, enlightenment, wisdom, understanding,
a flowering spirituality, compassion, a knowledge of the unity of
life, compassion in action, etc. are all awakening inner
abilities, and are *something else* than the psychical. They do
not depend upon psychical abilities to exist, and for many people
may be easier to develop in the absence of the psychical. But on
the other hand, at a certain point along the way, the psychical
will appear, along with other changes to the personality and
external lives of people. So there is a correlation, but no causal
relation, I'd say, between the presence of the psychical and a
flowering spirituality.

You posed the question: How do adepts acquire their abilities? I'd
pose a different question: What makes an adept into an adept? To
my question, I'd say the awakening of higher faculties *of
consciousness*, not of sense perception or the ability to do
"physical things" on this, the astral, or perhaps yet another
plane.

Both a man and a wolf may be able to see into "invisible worlds",
but a man may have the ability to understanding and think
mathematics, to enjoy and compose music, etc.  These
understandings or appreciations of life are independent of
"astral eyesight".  Both a man and a wolf could walk into a
library and look at a book, but only the man would *understand*.

The next step in evolution, as I see it, is to greatly deepen our
spirituality, our understanding of life, and to overcome the
negative burden of the false notion of a personal self, the
construct of "personality" as it tends to bias our unselfish and
impersonal perception of life. In addition, I see yet unknown-to-us
faculties of understanding and awareness of life open up. This
does not require our ability to exist on the astral plane, nor our
having enhanced sense perceptions. The important development is an
awakening of consciousness, not in enhanced senses and the ability
to produce physical phenomena.

I'm not against the scientific investigation of the psychic, and
find nothing wrong with societies for psychical research. And
there should be room for some research to go on in theosophical
groups as well. But by far the most important work for
theosophical groups, I think, is in teaching the doctrines and in
support of its members and friends in entering upon the spiritual
path.

Regards

-- Eldon