PHENOMENA.
THOUGH
in the course of this paper
various, superphysical phenomena have been mentioned and to some extent
explained, it will perhaps before concluding be desirable so far to
recapitulate as to give a list of those which are most frequently met
with by the student of these subjects, and to show by which of the
agencies we have attempted to describe they are usually caused. The
resources of the astral world, however, are so varied that almost any
phenomenon with which we are acquainted can be produced in several
different ways, so that it is only possible to lay down general rules
in the matter.
Apparitions or ghosts furnish a very
good instance of the remark just made, for in the loose manner in which
the words are ordinarily used they may stand for almost any inhabitant
of the astral plane. Of course psychically developed people are
constantly seeing such things, but for an ordinary person to "see a
ghost," as the common expression runs, one of two things must happen:
either that ghost must materialize, or that person must have a temporary
flash of psychic perception. But for the fact that neither of these
events is a common one, ghosts would be met with in our streets as frequently
as living people.
Churchyard Ghosts. If the ghost is seen hovering about a
grave it is probably the etheric shell of a newlyburied person, though
it may
be the astral body of a living man
haunting in sleep the tomb of a friend; or again, it may be a
materialized thoughtform—that is, an artificial elemental created by
the energy with which a man thinks of himself as present at that
particular spot. These varieties would be easily distinguishable one
from the other by any one accustomed to use astral vision, but an
unpractised person would be quite likely to call them vaguely "ghosts."
Apparitions of the Dying. Apparitions at the time of death
are by no means uncommon, and are very often really visits paid by the
astral form of the dying man just before what we elect to call the
moment of dissolution; though here again they are quite likely to be
thought-forms called into being by his earnest wish to see some friend
once more before he passes into an unfamiliar condition. There are some
instances in which the visit is paid just after the moment of death
instead of just before, and in such a case the visitor is really a
ghost; but for various causes this form of apparition is far less
frequent than the other.
Haunted Localities. Apparitions at the spot where some
crime was committed are usually thought-forms projected by the criminal,
who, whether living or dead, but most especially when dead, is
perpetually thinking over again and again the circumstances of his
action. Since these thoughts are naturally specially vivid in his mind
on the anniversary of the original crime, it is often only on that
occasion that the artificial elementals which he creates are strong enough to materialize
themselves to ordinary sight a fact which account, for the periodicity of some manifestations of this
class.
Another point in reference to such
phenomena is, that wherever any tremendous mental disturbance has taken
place, wherever overwhelming terror, pain, sorrow, hatred, or indeed any
kind of intense passion has been felt, an impression of so very marked a
character has been made upon the astral light that a person with even
the faintest glimmer of psychic faculty cannot but be deeply impressed
by it. It would need but a slight temporary increase of sensibility to
enable him to visualize the entire scene—to see the event in all its
detail apparently taking place before his eyes—and in such a case he would
of course report that the
place was haunted, and that he had seen a ghost.
Indeed, people who are as yet unable
to see psychically under any circumstances are frequently very
unpleasantly impressed when visiting such places as we have mentioned.
There are many, for example, who feel uncomfortable when passing the
site of Tyburn Tree, or cannot stay in the Chamber of Horrors at Madame
Tussaud's though they may not be in the least aware that their
discomfort is due to the dreadful impressions in the astral light which
surround places and objects redolent of horror and crime, and to the
presence of the loathsome
astral entities which always swarm about such centres.
Family Ghosts. The family ghost, whom we generally find in the stock stories of the
supernatural as an appanage of the feudal castle, may be either a
thought-form or an unusually vivid impression in the astral light, or
again he may really be an earth-bound ancestor still haunting the scenes in which his thoughts and hopes centred during life.
Bell-ringing, Stone-throwing, &c.
Another class of hauntings
which take the form of bell-ringing, stonethrowing, or the breaking of
crockery, has already been referred to, and is almost invariably the
work of elemental forces, either set blindly in motion by the clumsy
efforts of an ignorant person trying to attract the attention of is
surviving friends, or intentionally employed by some childishly
mischievous nature-spirit.
Fairies. The nature-spirits are also
responsible for whatever of truth there may be in all the strange fairy
stories which are so common in certain parts of the country. Sometimes a temporary accession of clairvoyance, which is by no means uncommon among
the inhabitants of lonely mountainous regions, enables some belated
wayfarer to watch their joyous
gambols; sometimes strange
tricks are played upon some terrified victim, and a glamour is cast over him, making him, for
example, see houses and people where he knows none really exist. And
this is frequently no mere momentary delusion, for a man will sometimes
go through quite a long series of imaginary but most striking
adventures, and then suddenly find that all his brilliant surroundings
have vanished in a moment, leaving him standing in some lonely valley or
on some wind-swept plain. On
the other hand, it is by no means safe to accept as founded on fact all the
popular legends on the subject, for the grossest superstition is often
mingled with the theories of the peasantry about these beings, as was
shown by a recent terrible
murder case in Ireland.
To the same entities must he
attributed a large portion of what are called physical phenomena at
spiritualistic seances—indeed,
many a seance has been given entirely by these
mischievous creatures. Such a performance might easily include many very
striking items, such as the
answering of questions and delivery of pretended messages
by raps or tilts, the exhibition of
"spirit lights," the apport of objects from a distance, the reading of
thoughts which were in the
mind of any person present, the precipitation of writings or drawings, an and even
materializations.
In fact, the nature-spirits alone, if
any of them happened to he disposed to take the trouble, could give a
seance equal to the most
wonderful of which we read; for though there may be certain phenomena which
they would not find it easy to
reproduce, their marvellous power of glamour would enable them without difficulty
to persuade the entire circle
that these phenomena also had duly occurred— unless, indeed, there were
present a trained observer who understood their arts and knew how to
defeat them. As a general rule, whenever silly tricks or practical jokes
are played at a seance we may infer the presence either of
lowclass nature-spirits, or of human beings who were of a sufficiently
degraded type to find pleasure in such idiotic performances during life.
Communicating Entities. As
to the entities who may "communicate" at a seance, or may obsess and speak through an
entranced medium, their name is simply legion; there is hardly a single
class among all the varied inhabitants of the astral plane from whose
ranks they may not be drawn, though after the explanations given it will
be readily understood that the chances are very much against their
coming from a high one. A manifesting "spirit" is often exactly what it
professes to be, but often also it is nothing of the kind; and for the
ordinary sitter there is absolutely no means of distinguishing the true
from the false, since the extent to which a being having all the
resources of the astral plane at his command can delude a person on the physical plant is so
great that no reliance
can be placed even on what seems the
most convincing proof.
If something manifests which
announces itself as a man's long-lost brother, he can have no certainty
that its claim is a just one. If it tells him of some fact known only to
that brother and to himself, he remains unconvinced, for he knows that
it might easily have read the information from his own mind, or from his
surroundings in the astral light. Even if it goes still further and
tells him something connected with his brother, of which he himself is
unaware, but which he afterwards verifies, he still realizes that even this may have been read from the astral record, or that what he sees before him may be
only the shade of his brother, and so possess his memory without in any
way being himself. It is not for one moment denied that important
communications have sometimes been made at seances by entities who in such cases have
been precisely what they said they were; all that is claimed is that it
is quite impossible for the ordinary person who visits a seance ever
to be certain that he is not being cruelly deceived in one or other of half a dozen different ways.
There have been a few cases in which
members of the lodge of occultists referred to above is originating the
spiritualistic movement have themselves given through a medium, a series
of valuable teachings on deeply inter sting subjects, but this has
invariably been at strictly private family seances, not at public performances for which
money has been paid.
Astral Resources. To understand the method, by which a
large class of physical phenomena are produced, it is necessary to have
some comprehension of the various resources mentioned above, Much a
person functioning on the astral
plane finds at his command;
and this is a branch of the subject which it is by no means easy to make
clear, especially as it is hedged about with certain obviously necessary
restrictions. It may perhaps help us if we remember that the astral
plane may be regarded as in many ways only an extension of the physical,
and the idea that matter may assume the etheric state (in which, though
intangible to us, it is yet purely physical) may serve to show us how
the one melts into the other. In fact, in the Hindu conception of Jagrat,
or "the waking state," the physical and astral planes are combined, its
seven subdivisions corresponding to the four conditions of physical
matter, and the three broad division,; of astral matter which have
previously been explained.
With this thought in our minds it is
easy to move a step further, and grasp the idea that astral vision, or
rather astral perception, may
from one point of view be defined as the capability of receiving an
enormously increased number of different sets of vibrations. In our
physical bodies one set of slow vibrations is perceptible to us as
sound, another small set of much more rapid vibrations affects us as
light; and again another set as electric action; but there are immense
numbers of intermediate vibrations which produce no result which our
physical senses can cognize at all.
Now it will readily be seen that if
all, or even some only, of these intermediates, with all the
complications producible by differences of wave-length, are perceptible
on the astral plane, our comprehension of nature might be very greatly
increased on that level, and we might be able to acquire much information which is
now hidden from us.
Clairvoyance. It is admitted that some of these
vibrations pass through solid matter
with perfect ease, so that this enables us to account scientifically for
the peculiarities of etheric vision, though for astral sight the theory
of the fourth dimension gives a neater and more complete explanation. It is clear
that the mere possession of
this astral vision by a being would at once account for his capability
to produce many results that seem very wonderful to us such, for
example, as the reading of a passage from a closed book; and when we
remember, furthermore, that this faculty includes the power of
thought-reading to the fullest extent, and also, when combined with the
knowledge of the projection of currents in the astral light, that of
observing a desired object in almost any part of the world, we set that
a good many of the phenomena
of clairvoyance are explicable even without rising above this level. I would
refer any one who desires to study more closely this very interesting
subject to my little book on Clairvoyance, in which its varieties are
tabulated and explained, and
numerous examples given.
Prevision and Second-Sight. True, trained, and absolutely
reliable clairvoyance calls into operation an entirely different set of
faculties, but as these belong to a higher plane than the astral, they
form no part of our present subject. The faculty of accurate prevision,
again, appertains altogether to that higher plane, yet flashes or
reflections of it frequently show themselves to purely astral sight,
more especially among simple-minded people who live under suitable
conditions—what is called "secondsight" among the Highlanders of
Scotland being a wellknown example.
Another fact which must not be
forgotten is that any intelligent inhabitant of the astral plane is not
only able to
perceive these etheric vibrations,
but can also—if he has learnt how it is done—adapt them to his own ends,
or himself set them in motion.
Astral Force. It will be readily understood that
superphysical forces and the methods of managing them are not subjects
about which much can be written for publication at present, though there is reason
to suppose that it may not be very long before at any rate some
applications of one or two of them come to he known to the world at
large; but it may perhaps be possible, without transgressing the limits
of the permissible, to give so much of an idea of them as shall be
sufficient to show in outline how certain phenomena are performed.
All who have much experience of
spiritualistic seances at which physical results are produced must at one time or another have
seen evidence of the employment of practically resistless force in, for
example, the instantaneous movement of enormous weights, and so on; and
if of a scientific turn of mind, they may perhaps have wondered whence
this force was obtained, and what was the leverage employed. As usual in
connection with astral phenomena, there are several ways in which such
work may have been done, but it will be enough for the moment to hint at
four.
Etheric Currents. First, there are great etheric
currents constantly sweeping over the surface of the earth from pole to pole in volume which makes
their power as irresistible as that of the rising tide, and there are
methods by which this stupendous force may be safely utilized, though
unskilful attempts to control it would be fraught with frightful danger.
Etheric Pressure. Secondly, there is what can best be
described as an etheric
pressure, somewhat corresponding
to, though immensely greater than,
the atmospheric pressure. In ordinary life we are as little conscious of
one of these pressures as we are of the other, but nevertheless they
both exist, and if science were able to exhaust the ether from a given
space, as it can exhaust the air, the one could be proved as readily as
the other. The difficulty of doing that lies in the fact that matter in
the etheric condition freely interpenetrates matter in all slates below
it, so that there is as yet no means within the knowledge of our
physicists by which any given body of ether can be isolated from the
rest. Practical Occultism, however, teaches how this can be done, and
thus the tremendous force of
etheric pressure can be brought into play.
Latent Energy. Thirdly, there is a vast store of
potential energy which has become dormant in matter during the
involution of the subtle into the gross, and by changing the condition
of the matter some of this may be liberated and utilized, somewhat as
latent energy in the form of heat may be liberated by a change in the
condition of visible matter.
Sympathetic Vibration.
Fourthly, many striking results, both great and small, may be produced
by an extension of a principle which may be described as that of
sympathetic vibration. Illustrations taken from the physical plane seem generally to misrepresent
rather than elucidate astral phenomena, because they can never be more
than partially applicable;
but the recollection of two simple facts of ordinary life may help to make
this important branch of our subject clearer, if we are careful not to
push the analogy further than it will hold good.
It is well known that if one of the
wires of a harp be made to vibrate vigorously, its movement will call
forth sympathetic vibrations in the corresponding strings of any number
of harps placed round it, if they are tuned to exactly the same pitch.
It is also well known that when a large body of soldiers crosses a
suspension bridge it is necessary for them to break step, since the
perfect regularity of their ordinary march would set up a vibration
in the bridge which would be
intensified by every step they took, until the point of resistance of
the iron was passed, when the whole structure would fly to pieces.
With these two analogies in our
minds (never forgetting that they are only partial ones) it may seem
more comprehensible that one who knows exactly at what rate to start his vibrations knows, so to
speak, the keynote of the class of matter he wishes to affect should be
able, by sounding that keynote, to call forth an immense number of
sympathetic vibrations. When this is done on the physical plane no
additional energy is developed; but on the astral plane there is this difference, that
the matter with which we are
dealing is far less inert, and so when called into action by these
sympathetic vibrations it adds its own living force to the original
impulse, which may thus be multiplied many-fold; and then by further
rhythmic repetition of the original impulse, as in the case of the
soldiers marching over the bridge, the vibrations may be so intensified
that the result is out of all apparent proportion to the cause. Indeed,
it may be said that there is scarcely any limit to the conceivable
achievements of this force in the hands of a great Adept who fully comprehends
its possibilities; for the very building of the Universe itself was but
the result of the vibrations
set up by the Spoken Word.
Mantras. The class of mantras or spells which produce their result not by
controlling some elemental, but merely by the repetition of certain
sounds, also depend for their
efficacy upon this action of sympathetic vibration.
Disintegration. The phenomenon of disintegration also
may be brought about by the action of extremely rapid vibrations, which
overcome the cohesion of the molecules of the object operated upon. A
still higher rate of vibrations of a somewhat different type will
separate these molecules into their constituent atoms. A body reduced by
these means to the etheric condition can be moved by an astral current
from one place to another with very great rapidity; and the moment that
the force which has been exerted to put it into that condition is
withdrawn it will be forced by the etheric pressure to resume its
original condition.
Students often at first find it
difficult to understand how in such au experiment the shape of the
article dealt with can be preserved. It has been remarked that if any
metallic object—say, for
example, a key—be melted and raised to a vaporous state by heat, when the heat
is withdrawn it will certainly return to the solid state, but it will no
longer be a key, but merely a lump of metal. The point is well taken,
though as a matter of fact the apparent analogy does not hold good. The
elemental essence which informs the key would be dissipated by the
alteration in its condition—not that the essence itself can be affected
by the action of beat, but
that when its temporary body is destroyed (as a solid) it pours back into the great reservoir
of such essence, much as the higher principles of a man, though entirely
unaffected by heat or cold,
are yet forced out of a physical body
when it is destroyed by fire.
Consequently, when what had been the
key cooled down into the solid condition again, the elemental essence
(of the "earth" or solid class) which poured back into it would not be
in any way the same as that which it contained before, and there would
be no reason why the same shape should be retained. But a man who
disintegrated a key for the purpose of removing it by astral currents
from one place to another, would be very careful to hold the same
elemental essence in exactly the same shape until the transfer was
completed, and then when his will-force was removed it would act as a
mould into which the solidifying particles would flow, or rather round
which they would be re-aggregated. Thus unless the operator's power of
concentration failed, the shape would be accurately preserved.
It is in this way that objects are
sometimes brought almost instantaneously from great distances at
spiritualistic seances, and it is obvious that when
disintegrated they could be passed with perfect ease through any solid
substance, such, for example, as the wall of a house or the side of a
locked box, so that what is commonly called "the passage of matter
through matter" is seen, when properly understood, to be as simple as the
passage of water through a eve, or of a gas through a liquid in some
chemical experiment.
Materialization. Since it is possible by an alteration
of vibrations to change matter from the solid to the etheric condition,
it will be comprehended that it is also possible to reverse the process and to bring
etheric, matter into the
solid state. As the one process explains the phenomenon of disintegration,
so does the other that of
materialization; and just as in the former case a continued effort of
will is necessary to prevent the object from resuming its original
state, so in exactly the same
way in the latter phenomenon a continued effort is necessary to prevent the
materialized matter from relapsing into the etheric condition.
In the materializations seen at an
ordinary seance, such matter as may be required is borrowed as far as
possible from the medium's etheric double—an operation which is
prejudicial to his health, and also undesirable in various other ways.
Thus is explained the fact that the materialized form is usually
strictly confined to the immediate neighbourhood of the medium, and is
subject to an attraction which is constantly drawing it back to the body
from which it came, so that if kept away from the medium too long the
figure collapses, and the matter which composed it, return into the
etheric condition, rushes back instantly to its source.
In some cases there is no doubt that
dense and visible physical matter also is temporarily removed from the
body of the medium, however
difficult it may be for us to realize the possibility of such a transfer. I
have myself seen instances in which this phenomenon undoubtedly took
place, and was evidenced by a very considerable loss of weight in the
medium's physical body. Similar cases are described in Colonel Olcott's
People from the Other Worlds, and in Un Cas de
Dematerialisation, by M. A. Aksakow.
Why Darkness is Required. The reason why the beings
directing a seance find it easier to operate in darkness or in very
subdued light will now be manifest, since their power would usually be
insufficient to
hold together a materialized form or
even a "spirit hand" for more than a very few seconds amidst the intense
vibrations set up by brilliant light.
The habitues of seances will
no doubt have noticed that materializations are of three kinds:—First,
those which are tangible but
not visible; second, those which are visible but not tangible; and
third, those which are both visible and tangible. To the first kind,
which is much the most common, belong the invisible spirit hands which
so frequently stroke the faces of the sitters or carry small objects
about the room, and the vocal organs from which the "direct voice"
proceeds. In this case, an order of matter is being used which can
neither reflect nor obstruct light, but which is capable under certain
conditions of setting up vibrations in the atmosphere which affect us as
sound.
Spirit Photographs. A variation of this class is that
kind of partial materialization which, though incapable of reflecting
any light that we can see, is yet able to affect some of the
ultra-violet rays, and can therefore make a more or less definite
impression upon the camera, and so provide us with what are known as
"spirit photographs."
When there is not sufficient power
available to produce a perfect materialization we sometimes get the
vaporouslooking form which constitutes our second class, and in such a
case the "spirits" usually warn their sitters that the forms which
appear must not be touched. In the rarer case of a full materialization
there is sufficient power to hold together, at least for a few moments,
a form which can be both seen and touched.
When an Adept or pupil finds it
necessary for any purpose to materialize his mental or astral vehicle,
he does not draw upon either
his own etheric double or any one
else since he has been taught how to
extract the matter which he
requires directly from the surrounding ether.
Reduplication. Another phenomenon closely connected
with this part of the subject is that of reduplication, which is
produced by simply forming a perfect mental image of the object to be
copied, and then gathering about that mould the necessary astral and
physical matter. Of course for this purpose it is necessary that every
particle, interior as well as
exterior, of the object to be duplicated should be held accurately in view
simultaneously, and consequently the phenomenon is one which requires
considerable power of concentration to perform. Persons unable to
extract the matter required directly from the surrounding ether have
sometimes borrowed it from the material of the original article, which
in this case would be correspondingly reduced in weight.
Precipitation. We read a good deal in Theosophical
literature about the precipitation of letters or pictures. This result,
like everything else, may be obtained in several ways. An Adept wishing
to communicate with some one might place a sheet of paper before him,
form a mental image of the writing—which he wished to appear upon it,
and draw from the ether the matter wherewith to objectify that linage;
or if he preferred to do so it would be equally easy for him to produce
the same result upon a sheet of paper lying before his correspondent,
whatever might be the distance between them.
A third method which, since it saves
time, is much more frequently
adopted, is to impress the whole substance of the letter on the mind of
some pupil, and leave him to do the mechanical work of
precipitation. That pupil would
then take his sheet of paper, and,
imagining he saw the letter written thereon in his Master's hand, would
proceed to objectify the writing as before described. If he found it
difficult to perform simultaneously the two operations of drawing his
material from the surrounding ether and precipitating the writing on the
paper, he might have either ordinary ink or a small quantity of coloured
powder on the table beside him, which, being already dense matter, could
be drawn upon more readily.
It is of course obvious that the
possession of this power would be a very dangerous weapon in the hands
of an unscrupulous person, since it is just as easy to imitate one man's
handwriting as another's, and it would be impossible to detect by any
ordinary means a forgery committed in this manner. A pupil definitely
connected with any Master has always an infallible test by which he
knows whether any message really emanates from that Master or not, but
for others the proof of its origin must always be solely in the contents
of the letter and the spirit breathing through it, as the handwriting,
however cleverly imitated is of absolutely no value as evidence.
As to speed, a pupil new to the work
of precipitation would probably be able to image only a few words at a
time, and would, therefore,
get on hardly more rapidly than if he wrote his letter in the
ordinary way, but a more experienced individual who could visualize a
whole page or perhaps the entire letter at once would get through his
work with greater facility. It is in this manner that quite long letters
are produced in a few seconds at a seance.
When a picture has to be precipitated
the method is precisely the same, except that here it is absolutely
necessary that the entire scene
should be visualized at once, and if many colours are required there is
the additional complication of manufacturing them, keeping them separate, and reproducing accurately the exact tints of the scene to
be represented. Evidently there is scope here for the exercise of the
artistic faculty, and it must not be supposed that every inhabitant of
the astral plane could by this method produce an equally good picture; a
man who had been a great artist in life, and had therefore learnt how to
see and what to look for, would certainly be very much more successful
than the ordinary person if he attempted precipitation when on the
astral plane after death.
Slate-writing. The slate-writing, for the production
of which under test conditions some of the greatest mediums have been so
famous, is sometimes produced by precipitation, though more frequently
the fragment of pencil enclosed between the slates is guided by a spirit
hand, of which only just the tiny points sufficient to grasp it are
materialized.
Levitation. An occurrence which occasionally takes place at
seances, and more frequently among Eastern
Yogis, is what is called levitation—that is, the floating of a human body in the air. No doubt when this takes place in the case of a medium, he is often
simply upborne by "spirit
hands," but there is another and more scientific method of accomplishing
this feat which is always used in the East, and occasionally here also.
Occult science is acquainted with a means of neutralizing or even
entirely reversing the attraction of gravity, and it is obvious that by
the judicious use of this power all the phenomena of levitation may be
easily produced. It was no doubt by a
knowledge of this secret that some of
the air-ships of ancient India and Atlantis were raised from the earth
and made light enough to be readily moved and directed; and not
improbably the same acquaintance with nature's finer forces greatly
facilitated the labours of those who raised the enormous blocks of stone
sometimes used in cyclopean architecture, or in the building of the
Pyramids and Stonehenge.
Spirit Lights. With the knowledge of the forces of
nature which the resources of the astral plane place at the command of
its inhabitants the production of what are called "spirit lights" is a
very easy matter, whether they be of the mildly phosphorescent or the
dazzling electrical variety, or those curious dancing globules of light
into which a certain class of fire elementals so readily transform
themselves. Since all light
consists simply of vibrations of the ether, it is obvious that any one
who knows how to set up these vibrations can readily produce any kind of
light that he wishes.
Handling Fire. It is by the aid of the etheric
elemental essence also that the remarkable feat of handling fire unharmed is generally performed,
though there are as usual
other ways in which it can be done. The thinnest layer of etheric
substance can be so manipulated as to be absolutely impervious to heat,
and when the hand of a medium or sitter is covered with this he may pick
up burning coal or red-hot iron with perfect safety.
Transmutation. Most of the
occurrences of the seanceroom
have now been referred to, but there are one or two of the rarer
phenomena of the outer world which must not he left quite without
mention in our list. The transmutation of metals is commonly supposed to
be a mere dream of the mediaeval
alchemists, and no doubt in
most cases the description of the phenomenon was merely a symbol of the
purification of the soul; yet there seems to be some evidence that it
was really accomplished by them on several occasions, and there are
petty magicians in the East who profess to do it under test conditions
even now. Be that as it may, it is evident that since the ultimate atom
is one and the same in all substances, and it is only the methods of its
combination that differ, any one who possessed the power of reducing a
piece of metal to the atomic condition and of re-arranging its atoms in
some other form would have no difficulty in effecting transmutation to
any extent that he wished.
Repercussion. The principle
of sympathetic vibration mentioned above also provides the explanation
of that strange and little-known phenomenon called repercussion, by
means of which any injury done to, or any mark made upon, the materialized body in the
course of its wanderings will
be reproduced in the physical body. We find traces of this in some of the evidence given at
trials for witchcraft in the
middle ages, in which it is not infrequently stated that some wound
given to the witch when in the form of a dog or a wolf was found to have
appeared in the corresponding part of her human body. The same strange
law has sometimes led to in entirely unjust accusation of fraud against
a medium, because, for example, some colouring matter rubbed upon the
hand of a materialized "spirit" was afterwards found upon his hand—the
explanation being that in that case, as so often happens, the "spirit"
was simply the medium's etheric double, forced by the guiding influences
to take some form other than his own. In fact these two parts
of the physical body are so
intimately connected that it is impossible to touch the keynote of one
without immediately setting up exactly corresponding vibrations in the
other.
CONCLUSION.
IT is hoped that any reader who has been sufficiently interested to follow
this treatise thus far, may by this time have a general idea of the
astral plane and its possibilities, such as will enable him to
understand and fit into their proper places in its scheme any facts in
connection with it which he may pick up in his reading. Though only the
roughest sketch has been given of a very great subject, enough has
perhaps been said to show the extreme importance of astral perception in
the study of biology, physics, chemistry, astronomy, medicine, and
history, and the great impulse which might be given to all these
sciences by its development.
Yet its attainment should never be
regarded as an end in itself,
since any means adopted with that object in view would. inevitably lead
to what is called in the East the
laukika method of
development—a system by which certain psychic powers are indeed
acquired, but only for the present personality; and since their
acquisition is surrounded by no safeguards, the student is extremely
likely to misuse them. To this class belong all systems which involve
the use of drugs, invocation of elementals, or the practices of Hatha
Yoga.
The other method, which is called the
lokottara,
consists of Raj Yoga or
spiritual progress, and though it may be somewhat slower than the
other, whatever is
acquired along this line is gained
for the permanent individuality, and never lost again, while the guiding
care of a Master ensures perfect safety from misuse of power as long as his orders are scrupulously
obeyed. The opening of astral
vision must be regarded then only as a stage in the development of
something infinitely nobler—merely as a step, and a very small step, on
that great Upward Path which leads men to the sublime heights of
Adeptship, and beyond even that through glorious vistas of wisdom and power such as our finite minds
cannot now conceive.
Yet let no one think it an unmixed
blessing to have the wider sight of the astral plane, for upon one in
whom that vision is opened the sorrow and misery, the evil and the
greed of the world press as an ever-present burden, until he often feels inclined to echo the
passionate adjuration of Schiller: "Why hast thou cast me thus into the
town of the ever-blind, to proclaim thine oracle with the opened sense?
Take back this sad clear-sightedness; take from mine eyes this cruel
light! Give me back my blindness—the happy darkness of my senses; take
back thy dreadful gift!" This feeling is perhaps not an unnatural one in
the earlier stages of the Path, yet higher sight and deeper knowledge
soon bring to the student the perfect certainty that all things are working together for the
eventual good of all—that
Hour after hour, like an opening flower, Shall truth after
truth expand;
For the sun may pale, and the stars may fail, But the LAW
of GOOD shall stand.
Its splendour glows and its influence grows As Nature's
slow work appears,
Front the zoophyte
small to the LORDS of all,
Through kalpas and crores of years.
OTHER WORKS IN THIS
SERIES.
By ANNIE BESANT:—
The Seven Principles of Man.
Re=incarnation.
Death and After.
Karma.
Man and his Bodies.
By C. W. LEADBEATER:—
The Devachanic Plane.
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