{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_29399/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_29399","id":"gutenberg_29399","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29399","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Clairvoyance","Theosophy"],"text":"Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Bryan Ness, and the Online\nDistributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This\nbook was produced from scanned images of public domain\nmaterial from the Google Print project.)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n                             CLAIRVOYANCE\n\n\n                                  BY\n\n                           C. W. LEADBEATER\n\n\n\n                            SECOND EDITION\n\n\n\n\n                                LONDON\n\n                   THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY\n\n                                 1903\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\nCHAPTER I.                                  PAGE\nWHAT CLAIRVOYANCE IS.                         5\n\nCHAPTER II.\nSIMPLE CLAIRVOYANCE: FULL                    29\n\nCHAPTER III.\nSIMPLE CLAIRVOYANCE: PARTIAL                 50\n\nCHAPTER IV.\nCLAIRVOYANCE IN SPACE: INTENTIONAL           58\n\nCHAPTER V.\nCLAIRVOYANCE IN SPACE: SEMI-INTENTIONAL      83\n\nCHAPTER VI.\nCLAIRVOYANCE IN SPACE: UNINTENTIONAL         87\n\nCHAPTER VII.\nCLAIRVOYANCE IN TIME: THE PAST               96\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\nCLAIRVOYANCE IN TIME: THE FUTURE            131\n\nCHAPTER IX.\nMETHODS OF DEVELOPMENT                      163\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nCLAIRVOYANCE\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\nWHAT CLAIRVOYANCE IS.\n\n\nClairvoyance means literally nothing more than \"clear-seeing,\" and it\nis a word which has been sorely misused, and even degraded so far as\nto be employed to describe the trickery of a mountebank in a variety\nshow. Even in its more restricted sense it covers a wide range of\nphenomena, differing so greatly in character that it is not easy to\ngive a definition of the word which shall be at once succinct and\naccurate. It has been called \"spiritual vision,\" but no rendering\ncould well be more misleading than that, for in the vast majority of\ncases there is no faculty connected with it which has the slightest\nclaim to be honoured by so lofty a name.\n\nFor the purpose of this treatise we may, perhaps, define it as the\npower to see what is hidden from ordinary physical sight. It will be\nas well to premise that it is very frequently (though by no means\nalways) accompanied by what is called clairaudience, or the power to\nhear what would be inaudible to the ordinary physical ear; and we will\nfor the nonce take our title as covering this faculty also, in order\nto avoid the clumsiness of perpetually using two long words where one\nwill suffice.\n\nLet me make two points clear before I begin. First, I am not writing\nfor those who do not believe that there is such a thing as\nclairvoyance, nor am I seeking to convince those who are in doubt\nabout the matter. In so small a work as this I have no space for that;\nsuch people must study the many books containing lists of cases, or\nmake experiments for themselves along mesmeric lines. I am addressing\nmyself to the better-instructed class who know that clairvoyance\nexists, and are sufficiently interested in the subject to be glad of\ninformation as to its methods and possibilities; and I would assure\nthem that what I write is the result of much careful study and\nexperiment, and that though some of the powers which I shall have to\ndescribe may seem new and wonderful to them, I mention no single one\nof which I have not myself seen examples.\n\nSecondly, though I shall endeavour to avoid technicalities as far as\npossible, yet as I am writing in the main for students of Theosophy, I\nshall feel myself at liberty sometimes to use, for brevity's sake and\nwithout detailed explanation, the ordinary Theosophical terms with\nwhich I may safely assume them to be familiar.\n\nShould this little book fall into the hands of any to whom the\noccasional use of such terms constitutes a difficulty, I can only\napologize to them and refer them for these preliminary explanations to\nany elementary Theosophical work, such as Mrs. Besant's _Ancient\nWisdom_ or _Man and His Bodies_. The truth is that the whole\nTheosophical system hangs together so closely, and its various parts\nare so interdependent, that to give a full explanation of every term\nused would necessitate an exhaustive treatise on Theosophy as a\npreface even to this short account of clairvoyance.\n\nBefore a detailed explanation of clairvoyance can usefully be\nattempted, however, it will be necessary for us to devote a little\ntime to some preliminary considerations, in order that we may have\nclearly in mind a few broad facts as to the different planes on which\nclairvoyant vision may be exercised, and the conditions which render\nits exercise possible.\n\nWe are constantly assured in Theosophical literature that all these\nhigher faculties are presently to be the heritage of mankind in\ngeneral--that the capacity of clairvoyance, for example, lies latent\nin every one, and that those in whom it already manifests itself are\nsimply in that one particular a little in advance of the rest of us.\nNow this statement is a true one, and yet it seems quite vague and\nunreal to the majority of people, simply because they regard such a\nfaculty as something absolutely different from anything they have yet\nexperienced, and feel fairly confident that they themselves, at any\nrate, are not within measurable distance of its development.\n\nIt may help to dispel this sense of unreality if we try to understand\nthat clairvoyance, like so many other things in nature, is mainly a\nquestion of vibrations, and is in fact nothing but an extension of\npowers which we are all using every day of our lives. We are living\nall the while surrounded by a vast sea of mingled air and ether, the\nlatter inter-penetrating the former, as it does all physical matter;\nand it is chiefly by means of vibrations in that vast sea of matter\nthat impressions reach us from the outside. This much we all know, but\nit may perhaps never have occurred to many of us that the number of\nthese vibrations to which we are capable of responding is in reality\nquite infinitesimal.\n\nUp among the exceedingly rapid vibrations which affect the ether there\nis a certain small section--a _very_ small section--to which the\nretina of the human eye is capable of responding, and these particular\nvibrations produce in us the sensation which we call light. That is to\nsay, we are capable of seeing only those objects from which light of\nthat particular kind can either issue or be reflected.\n\nIn exactly the same way the tympanum of the human ear is capable of\nresponding to a certain very small range of comparatively slow\nvibrations--slow enough to affect the air which surrounds us; and so\nthe only sounds which we can hear are those made by objects which are\nable to vibrate at some rate within that particular range.\n\nIn both cases it is a matter perfectly well known to science that\nthere are large numbers of vibrations both above and below these two\nsections, and that consequently there is much light that we cannot\nsee, and there are many sounds to which our ears are deaf. In the case\nof light the action of these higher and lower vibrations is easily\nperceptible in the effects produced by the actinic rays at one end of\nthe spectrum and the heat rays at the other.\n\nAs a matter of fact there exist vibrations of every conceivable degree\nof rapidity, filling the whole vast space intervening between the slow\nsound waves and the swift light waves; nor is even that all, for there\nare undoubtedly vibrations slower than those of sound, and a whole\ninfinity of them which are swifter than those known to us as light. So\nwe begin to understand that the vibrations by which we see and hear\nare only like two tiny groups of a few strings selected from an\nenormous harp of practically infinite extent, and when we think how\nmuch we have been able to learn and infer from the use of those\nminute fragments, we see vaguely what possibilities might lie before\nus if we were enabled to utilize the vast and wonderful whole.\n\nAnother fact which needs to be considered in this connection is that\ndifferent human beings vary considerably, though within relatively\nnarrow limits, in their capacity of response even to the very few\nvibrations which are within reach of our physical senses. I am not\nreferring to the keenness of sight or of hearing that enables one man\nto see a fainter object or hear a slighter sound than another; it is\nnot in the least a question of strength of vision, but of extent of\nsusceptibility.\n\nFor example, if anyone will take a good bisulphide of carbon prism,\nand by its means throw a clear spectrum on a sheet of white paper, and\nthen get a number of people to mark upon the paper the extreme limits\nof the spectrum as it appears to them, he is fairly certain to find\nthat their powers of vision differ appreciably. Some will see the\nviolet extending much farther than the majority do; others will\nperhaps see rather less violet than most, while gaining a\ncorresponding extension of vision at the red end. Some few there will\nperhaps be who can see farther than ordinary at both ends, and these\nwill almost certainly be what we call sensitive people--susceptible in\nfact to a greater range of vibrations than are most men of the present\nday.\n\nIn hearing, the same difference can be tested by taking some sound\nwhich is just not too high to be audible--on the very verge of\naudibility as it were--and discovering how many among a given number\nof people are able to hear it. The squeak of a bat is a familiar\ninstance of such a sound, and experiment will show that on a summer\nevening, when the whole air is full of the shrill, needle-like cries\nof these little animals, quite a large number of men will be\nabsolutely unconscious of them, and unable to hear anything at all.\n\nNow these examples clearly show that there is no hard-and-fast limit\nto man's power of response to either etheric or aerial vibrations, but\nthat some among us already have that power to a wider extent than\nothers; and it will even be found that the same man's capacity varies\non different occasions. It is therefore not difficult for us to\nimagine that it might be possible for a man to develop this power, and\nthus in time to learn to see much that is invisible to his fellow-men,\nand hear much that is inaudible to them, since we know perfectly well\nthat enormous numbers of these additional vibrations do exist, and are\nsimply, as it were, awaiting recognition.\n\nThe experiments with the Roentgen rays give us an example of the\nstartling results which are produced when even a very few of these\nadditional vibrations are brought within human ken, and the\ntransparency to these rays of many substances hitherto considered\nopaque at once shows us one way at least in which we may explain such\nelementary clairvoyance as is involved in reading a letter inside a\nclosed box, or describing those present in an adjoining apartment. To\nlearn to see by means of the Roentgen rays in addition to those\nordinarily employed would be quite sufficient to enable anyone to\nperform a feat of magic of this order.\n\nSo far we have thought only of an extension of the purely physical\nsenses of man; and when we remember that a man's etheric body is in\nreality merely the finer part of his physical frame, and that\ntherefore all his sense organs contain a large amount of etheric\nmatter of various degrees of density, the capacities of which are\nstill practically latent in most of us, we shall see that even if we\nconfine ourselves to this line of development alone there are enormous\npossibilities of all kinds already opening out before us.\n\nBut besides and beyond all this we know that man possesses an astral\nand a mental body, each of which can in process of time be aroused\ninto activity, and will respond in turn to the vibrations of the\nmatter of its own plane, thus opening up before the Ego, as he learns\nto function through these vehicles, two entirely new and far wider\nworlds of knowledge and power. Now these new worlds, though they are\nall around us and freely inter-penetrate one another, are not to be\nthought of as distinct and entirely unconnected in substance, but\nrather as melting the one into the other, the lowest astral forming a\ndirect series with the highest physical, just as the lowest mental in\nits turn forms a direct series with the highest astral. We are not\ncalled upon in thinking of them to imagine some new and strange kind\nof matter, but simply to think of the ordinary physical kind as\nsubdivided so very much more finely and vibrating so very much more\nrapidly as to introduce us to what are practically entirely new\nconditions and qualities.\n\nIt is not then difficult for us to grasp the possibility of a steady\nand progressive extension of our senses, so that both by sight and by\nhearing we may be able to appreciate vibrations far higher and far\nlower than those which are ordinarily recognised. A large section of\nthese additional vibrations will still belong to the physical plane,\nand will merely enable us to obtain impressions from the etheric part\nof that plane, which is at present as a closed book to us. Such\nimpressions will still be received through the retina of the eye; of\ncourse they will affect its etheric rather than its solid matter, but\nwe may nevertheless regard them as still appealing only to an organ\nspecialized to receive them, and not to the whole surface of the\netheric body.\n\nThere are some abnormal cases, however, in which other parts of the\netheric body respond to these additional vibrations as readily as, or\neven more readily than, the eye. Such vagaries are explicable in\nvarious ways, but principally as effects of some partial astral\ndevelopment, for it will be found that the sensitive parts of the body\nalmost invariably correspond with one or other of the _chakrams_, or\ncentres of vitality in the astral body. And though, if astral\nconsciousness be not yet developed, these centres may not be available\non their own plane, they are still strong enough to stimulate into\nkeener activity the etheric matter which they inter-penetrate.\n\nWhen we come to deal with the astral senses themselves the methods of\nworking are very different. The astral body has no specialized\nsense-organs--a fact which perhaps needs some explanation, since many\nstudents who are trying to comprehend its physiology seem to find it\ndifficult to reconcile with the statements that have been made as to\nthe perfect inter-penetration of the physical body by astral matter,\nthe exact correspondence between the two vehicles, and the fact that\nevery physical object has necessarily its astral counterpart.\n\nNow all these statements are true, and yet it is quite possible for\npeople who do not normally see astrally to misunderstand them. Every\norder of physical matter has its corresponding order of astral matter\nin constant association with it--not to be separated from it except by\na very considerable exertion of occult force, and even then only to\nbe held apart from it as long as force is being definitely exerted to\nthat end. But for all that the relation of the astral particles one to\nanother is far looser than is the case with their physical\ncorrespondences.\n\nIn a bar of iron, for example, we have a mass of physical molecules in\nthe solid condition--that is to say, capable of comparatively little\nchange in their relative positions, though each vibrating with immense\nrapidity in its own sphere. The astral counterpart of this consists of\nwhat we often call solid astral matter--that is, matter of the lowest\nand densest sub-plane of the astral; but nevertheless its particles\nare constantly and rapidly changing their relative position, moving\namong one another as easily as those of a liquid on the physical plane\nmight do. So that there is no permanent association between any one\nphysical particle and that amount of astral matter which happens at\nany given moment to be acting as its counterpart.\n\nThis is equally true with respect to the astral body of man, which for\nour purpose at the moment we may regard as consisting of two\nparts--the denser aggregation which occupies the exact position of the\nphysical body, and the cloud of rarer astral matter which surrounds\nthat aggregation. In both these parts, and between them both, there is\ngoing on at every moment of time the rapid inter-circulation of the\nparticles which has been described, so that as one watches the\nmovement of the molecules in the astral body one is reminded of the\nappearance of those in fiercely boiling water.\n\nThis being so, it will be readily understood that though any given\norgan of the physical body must always have as its counterpart a\ncertain amount of astral matter, it does not retain the same particles\nfor more than a few seconds at a time, and consequently there is\nnothing corresponding to the specialization of physical nerve-matter\ninto optic or auditory nerves, and so on. So that though the physical\neye or ear has undoubtedly always its counterpart of astral matter,\nthat particular fragment of astral matter is no more (and no less)\ncapable of responding to the vibrations which produce astral sight or\nastral hearing than any other part of the vehicle.\n\nIt must never be forgotten that though we constantly have to speak of\n\"astral sight\" or \"astral hearing\" in order to make ourselves\nintelligible, all that we mean by those expressions is the faculty of\nresponding to such vibrations as convey to the man's consciousness,\nwhen he is functioning in his astral body, information of the same\ncharacter as that conveyed to him by his eyes and ears while he is in\nthe physical body. But in the entirely different astral conditions,\nspecialized organs are not necessary for the attainment of this\nresult; there is matter in every part of the astral body which is\ncapable of such response, and consequently the man functioning in that\nvehicle sees equally well objects behind him, beneath him, above him,\nwithout needing to turn his head.\n\nThere is, however, another point which it would hardly be fair to\nleave entirely out of account, and that is the question of the\n_chakrams_ referred to above. Theosophical students are familiar with\nthe idea of the existence in both the astral and the etheric bodies of\nman of certain centres of force which have to be vivified in turn by\nthe sacred serpent-fire as the man advances in evolution. Though these\ncannot be described as organs in the ordinary sense of the word, since\nit is not through them that the man sees or hears, as he does in\nphysical life through eyes and ears, yet it is apparently very largely\nupon their vivification that the power of exercising these astral\nsenses depends, each of them as it is developed giving to the whole\nastral body the power of response to a new set of vibrations.\n\nNeither have these centres, however, any permanent collection of\nastral matter connected with them. They are simply vortices in the\nmatter of the body--vortices through which all the particles pass in\nturn--points, perhaps, at which the higher force from planes above\nimpinges upon the astral body. Even this description gives but a very\npartial idea of their appearance, for they are in reality\nfour-dimensional vortices, so that the force which comes through them\nand is the cause of their existence seems to well up from nowhere. But\nat any rate, since all particles in turn pass through each of them, it\nwill be clear that it is thus possible for each in turn to evoke in\nall the particles of the body the power of receptivity to a certain\nset of vibrations, so that all the astral senses are equally active in\nall parts of the body.\n\nThe vision of the mental plane is again totally different, for in this\ncase we can no longer speak of separate senses such as sight and\nhearing, but rather have to postulate one general sense which responds\nso fully to the vibrations reaching it that when any object comes\nwithin its cognition it at once comprehends it fully, and as it were\nsees it, hears it, feels it, and knows all there is to know about it\nby the one instantaneous operation. Yet even this wonderful faculty\ndiffers in degree only and not in kind from those which are at our\ncommand at the present time; on the mental plane, just as on the\nphysical, impressions are still conveyed by means of vibrations\ntravelling from the object seen to the seer.\n\nOn the buddhic plane we meet for the first time with a quite new\nfaculty having nothing in common with those of which we have spoken,\nfor there a man cognizes any object by an entirely different method,\nin which external vibrations play no part. The object becomes part of\nhimself, and he studies it from the inside instead of from the\noutside. But with _this_ power ordinary clairvoyance has nothing to\ndo.\n\nThe development, either entire or partial, of any one of these\nfaculties would come under our definition of clairvoyance--the power\nto see what is hidden from ordinary physical sight. But these\nfaculties may be developed in various ways, and it will be well to say\na few words as to these different lines.\n\nWe may presume that if it were possible for a man to be isolated\nduring his evolution from all but the gentlest outside influences, and\nto unfold from the beginning in perfectly regular and normal fashion,\nhe would probably develop his senses in regular order also. He would\nfind his physical senses gradually extending their scope until they\nresponded to all the physical vibrations, of etheric as well as of\ndenser matter; then in orderly sequence would come sensibility to the\ncoarser part of the astral plane, and presently the finer part also\nwould be included, until in due course the faculty of the mental plane\ndawned in its turn.\n\nIn real life, however, development so regular as this is hardly ever\nknown, and many a man has occasional flashes of astral consciousness\nwithout any awakening of etheric vision at all. And this irregularity\nof development is one of the principal causes of man's extraordinary\nliability to error in matters of clairvoyance--a liability from which\nthere is no escape except by a long course of careful training under a\nqualified teacher.\n\nStudents of Theosophical literature are well aware that there are such\nteachers to be found--that even in this materialistic nineteenth\ncentury the old saying is still true, that \"when the pupil is ready,\nthe Master is ready also,\" and that \"in the hall of learning, when he\nis capable of entering there, the disciple will always find his\nMaster.\" They are well aware also that only under such guidance can a\nman develop his latent powers in safety and with certainty, since they\nknow how fatally easy it is for the untrained clairvoyant to deceive\nhimself as to the meaning and value of what he sees, or even\nabsolutely to distort his vision completely in bringing it down into\nhis physical consciousness.\n\nIt does not follow that even the pupil who is receiving regular\ninstruction in the use of occult powers will find them unfolding\nthemselves exactly in the regular order which was suggested above as\nprobably ideal. His previous progress may not have been such as to\nmake this for him the easiest or most desirable road; but at any rate\nhe is in the hands of one who is perfectly competent to be his guide\nin spiritual development, and he rests in perfect contentment that the\nway along which he is taken will be that which is the best way for\nhim.\n\nAnother great advantage which he gains is that whatever faculties he\nmay acquire are definitely under his command and can be used fully and\nconstantly when he needs them for his Theosophical work; whereas in\nthe case of the untrained man such powers often manifest themselves\nonly very partially and spasmodically, and appear to come and go, as\nit were, at their own sweet will.\n\nIt may reasonably be objected that if clairvoyant faculty is, as\nstated, a part of the occult development of man, and so a sign of a\ncertain amount of progress along that line, it seems strange that it\nshould often be possessed by primitive peoples, or by the ignorant and\nuncultured among our own race--persons who are obviously quite\nundeveloped, from whatever point of view one regards them. No doubt\nthis does appear remarkable at first sight but the fact is that the\nsensitiveness of the savage or of the coarse and vulgar European\nignoramus is not really at all the same thing as the faculty of his\nproperly trained brother, nor is it arrived at in the same way.\n\nAn exact and detailed explanation of the difference would lead us into\nrather recondite technicalities, but perhaps the general idea of the\ndistinction between the two may be caught from an example taken from\nthe very lowest plane of clairvoyance, in close contact with the\ndenser physical. The etheric double in man is in exceedingly close\nrelation to his nervous system, and any kind of action upon one of\nthem speedily reacts on the other. Now in the sporadic appearance of\netheric sight in the savage, whether of Central Africa or of Western\nEurope, it has been observed that the corresponding nervous\ndisturbance is almost entirely in the sympathetic system, and that the\nwhole affair is practically beyond the man's control--is in fact a\nsort of massive sensation vaguely belonging to the whole etheric body,\nrather than an exact and definite sense-perception communicated\nthrough a specialized organ.\n\nAs in later races and amid higher development the strength of the man\nis more and more thrown into the evolution of the mental faculties,\nthis vague sensitiveness usually disappears; but still later, when the\nspiritual man begins to unfold, he regains his clairvoyant power. This\ntime, however, the faculty is a precise and exact one, under the\ncontrol of the man's will, and exercised through a definite\nsense-organ; and it is noteworthy that any nervous action set up in\nsympathy with it is now almost exclusively in the cerebro-spinal\nsystem.\n\nOn this subject Mrs. Besant writes:--\"The lower forms of psychism are\nmore frequent in animals and in very unintelligent human beings than\nin men and women in whom the intellectual powers are well developed.\nThey appear to be connected with the sympathetic system, not with the\ncerebro-spinal. The large nucleated ganglionic cells in this system\ncontain a very large proportion of etheric matter, and are hence more\neasily affected by the coarser astral vibrations than are the cells in\nwhich the proportion is less. As the cerebro-spinal system develops,\nand the brain becomes more highly evolved, the sympathetic system\nsubsides into a subordinate position, and the sensitiveness to psychic\nvibrations is dominated by the stronger and more active vibrations of\nthe higher nervous system. It is true that at a later stage of\nevolution psychic sensitiveness reappears, but it is then developed in\nconnection with the cerebro-spinal centres, and is brought under the\ncontrol of the will. But the hysterical and ill-regulated psychism of\nwhich we see so many lamentable examples is due to the small\ndevelopment of the brain and the dominance of the sympathetic system.\"\n\nOccasional flashes of clairvoyance do, however, sometimes come to the\nhighly cultured and spiritual-minded man, even though he may never\nhave heard of the possibility of training such a faculty. In his case\nsuch glimpses usually signify that he is approaching that stage in his\nevolution when these powers will naturally begin to manifest\nthemselves, and their appearance should serve as an additional\nstimulus to him to strive to maintain that high standard of moral\npurity and mental balance without which clairvoyance is a curse and\nnot a blessing to its possessor.\n\nBetween those who are entirely unimpressible and those who are in full\npossession of clairvoyant power there are many intermediate stages.\nOne to which it will be worth while to give a passing glance is the\nstage in which a man, though he has no clairvoyant faculty in ordinary\nlife, yet exhibits it more or less fully under the influence of\nmesmerism. This is a case in which the psychic nature is already\nsensitive, but the consciousness is not yet capable of functioning in\nit amidst the manifold distractions of physical life. It needs to be\nset free by the temporary suspension of the outer senses in the\nmesmeric trance before it can use the diviner faculties which are but\njust beginning to dawn within it. But of course even in the mesmeric\ntrance there are innumerable degrees of lucidity, from the ordinary\npatient who is blankly unintelligent to the man whose power of sight\nis fully under the control of the operator, and can be directed\nwhithersoever he wills, or to the more advanced stage in which, when\nthe consciousness is once set free, it escapes altogether from the\ngrasp of the magnetizer, and soars into fields of exalted vision where\nit is entirely beyond his reach.\n\nAnother step along the same path is that upon which such perfect\nsuppression of the physical as that which occurs in the hypnotic\ntrance is not necessary, but the power of supernormal sight, though\nstill out of reach during waking life, becomes available when the\nbody is held in the bonds of ordinary sleep. At this stage of\ndevelopment stood many of the prophets and seers of whom we read, who\nwere \"warned of God in a dream,\" or communed with beings far higher\nthan themselves in the silent watches of the night.\n\nMost cultured people of the higher races of the world have this\ndevelopment to some extent: that is to say, the senses of their astral\nbodies are in full working order, and perfectly capable of receiving\nimpressions from objects and entities of their own plane. But to make\nthat fact of any use to them down here in the physical body, two\nchanges are usually necessary; first, that the Ego shall be awakened\nto the realities of the astral plane, and induced to emerge from the\nchrysalis formed by his own waking thoughts, and look round him to\nobserve and to learn; and secondly, that the consciousness shall be so\nfar retained during the return of the Ego into his physical body as to\nenable him to impress upon his physical brain the recollection of what\nhe has seen or learnt.\n\nIf the first of these changes has taken place, the second is of little\nimportance, since the Ego, the true man, will be able to profit by the\ninformation to be obtained upon that plane, even though he may not\nhave the satisfaction of bringing through any remembrance of it into\nhis waking life down here.\n\nStudents often ask how this clairvoyant faculty will first be\nmanifested in themselves--how they may know when they have reached\nthe stage at which its first faint foreshadowings are beginning to be\nvisible. Cases differ so widely that it is impossible to give to this\nquestion any answer that will be universally applicable.\n\nSome people begin by a plunge, as it were, and under some unusual\nstimulus become able just for once to see some striking vision; and\nvery often in such a case, because the experience does not repeat\nitself, the seer comes in time to believe that on that occasion he\nmust have been the victim of hallucination. Others begin by becoming\nintermittently conscious of the brilliant colours and vibrations of\nthe human aura; yet others find themselves with increasing frequency\nseeing and hearing something to which those around them are blind and\ndeaf; others, again, see faces, landscapes, or coloured clouds\nfloating before their eyes in the dark before they sink to rest; while\nperhaps the commonest experience of all is that of those who begin to\nrecollect with greater and greater clearness what they have seen and\nheard on the other planes during sleep.\n\nHaving now to some extent cleared our ground, we may proceed to\nconsider the various phenomena of clairvoyance.\n\nThey differ so widely both in character and in degree that it is not\nvery easy to decide how they can most satisfactorily be classified. We\nmight, for example, arrange them according to the kind of sight\nemployed--whether it were mental, astral, or merely etheric. We might\ndivide them according to the capacity of the clairvoyant, taking into\nconsideration whether he was trained or untrained; whether his vision\nwas regular and under his command, or spasmodic and independent of his\nvolition; whether he could exercise it only when under mesmeric\ninfluence, or whether that assistance was unnecessary for him; whether\nhe was able to use his faculty when awake in the physical body, or\nwhether it was available only when he was temporarily away from that\nbody in sleep or trance.\n\nAll these distinctions are of importance, and we shall have to take\nthem all into consideration as we go on, but perhaps on the whole the\nmost useful classification will be one something on the lines of that\nadopted by Mr. Sinnett in his _Rationale of Mesmerism_--a book, by the\nway, which all students of clairvoyance ought to read. In dealing with\nthe phenomena, then, we will arrange them rather according to the\ncapacity of the sight employed than to the plane upon which it is\nexercised, so that we may group instances of clairvoyance under some\nsuch headings as these:\n\n1. Simple clairvoyance--that is to say, a mere opening of sight,\nenabling its possessor to see whatever astral or etheric entities\nhappen to be present around him, but not including the power of\nobserving either distant places or scenes belonging to any other time\nthan the present.\n\n2. Clairvoyance in space--the capacity to see scenes or events removed\nfrom the seer in space, and either too far distant for ordinary\nobservation or concealed by intermediate objects.\n\n3. Clairvoyance in time--that is to say, the capacity to see objects\nor events which are removed from the seer in time, or, in other words,\nthe power of looking into the past or the future.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\nSIMPLE CLAIRVOYANCE: FULL.\n\n\nWe have defined this as a mere opening of etheric or astral sight,\nwhich enables the possessor to see whatever may be present around him\non corresponding levels, but is not usually accompanied by the power\nof seeing anything at a great distance or of reading either the past\nor the future. It is hardly possible altogether to exclude these\nlatter faculties, for astral sight necessarily has considerably\ngreater extension than physical, and fragmentary pictures of both past\nand future are often casually visible even to clairvoyants who do not\nknow how to seek specially for them; but there is nevertheless a very\nreal distinction between such incidental glimpses and the definite\npower of projection of the sight either in space or time.\n\nWe find among sensitive people all degrees of this kind of\nclairvoyance, from that of the man who gets a vague impression which\nhardly deserves the name of sight at all, up to the full possession of\netheric and astral vision respectively. Perhaps the simplest method\nwill be for us to begin by describing what would be visible in the\ncase of this fuller development of the power, as the cases of its\npartial possession will then be seen to fall naturally into their\nplaces.\n\nLet us take the etheric vision first. This consists simply, as has\nalready been said, in susceptibility to a far larger series of\nphysical vibrations than ordinary, but nevertheless its possession\nbrings into view a good deal to which the majority of the human race\nstill remains blind. Let us consider what changes its acquisition\nproduces in the aspect of familiar objects, animate and inanimate, and\nthen see to what entirely new factors it introduces us. But it must be\nremembered that what I am about to describe is the result of the full\nand perfectly-controlled possession of the faculty only, and that most\nof the instances met with in real life will be likely to fall far\nshort of it in one direction or another.\n\nThe most striking change produced in the appearance of inanimate\nobjects by the acquisition of this faculty is that most of them become\nalmost transparent, owing to the difference in wave-length of some of\nthe vibrations to which the man has now become susceptible. He finds\nhimself capable of performing with the utmost ease the proverbial feat\nof \"seeing through a brick wall,\" for to his newly-acquired vision the\nbrick wall seems to have a consistency no greater than that of a\nlight mist. He therefore sees what is going on in an adjoining room\nalmost as though no intervening wall existed; he can describe with\naccuracy the contents of a locked box, or read a sealed letter; with a\nlittle practice he can find a given passage in a closed book. This\nlast feat, though perfectly easy to astral vision, presents\nconsiderable difficulty to one using etheric sight, because of the\nfact that each page has to be looked at _through_ all those which\nhappen to be superimposed upon it.\n\nIt is often asked whether under these circumstances a man sees always\nwith this abnormal sight, or only when he wishes to do so. The answer\nis that if the faculty is perfectly developed it will be entirely\nunder his control, and he can use that or his more ordinary vision at\nwill. He changes from one to the other as readily and naturally as we\nnow change the focus of our eyes when we look up from our book to\nfollow the motions of some object a mile away. It is, as it were, a\nfocussing of consciousness on the one or the other aspect of what is\nseen; and though the man would have quite clearly in his view the\naspect upon which his attention was for the moment fixed, he would\nalways be vaguely conscious of the other aspect too, just as when we\nfocus our sight upon any object held in our hands we yet vaguely see\nthe opposite wall of the room as a background.\n\nAnother curious change, which comes from the possession of this sight,\nis that the solid ground upon which the man walks becomes to a certain\nextent transparent to him, so that he is able to see down into it to a\nconsiderable depth, much as we can now see into fairly clear water.\nThis enables him to watch a creature burrowing underground, to\ndistinguish a vein of coal or of metal if not too far below the\nsurface, and so on.\n\nThe limit of etheric sight when looking through solid matter appears\nto be analogous to that imposed upon us when looking through water or\nmist. We cannot see beyond a certain distance, because the medium\nthrough which we are looking is not perfectly transparent.\n\nThe appearance of animate objects is also considerably altered for the\nman who has increased his visual powers to this extent. The bodies of\nmen and animals are for him in the main transparent, so that he can\nwatch the action of the various internal organs, and to some extent\ndiagnose some of their diseases.\n\nThe extended sight also enables him to perceive, more or less clearly,\nvarious classes of creatures, elemental and otherwise, whose bodies\nare not capable of reflecting any of the rays within the limit of the\nspectrum as ordinarily seen. Among the entities so seen will be some\nof the lower orders of nature-spirits--those whose bodies are composed\nof the denser etheric matter. To this class belong nearly all the\nfairies, gnomes, and brownies, about whom there are still so many\nstories remaining among Scotch and Irish mountains and in remote\ncountry places all over the world.\n\nThe vast kingdom of nature-spirits is in the main an astral kingdom,\nbut still there is a large section of it which appertains to the\netheric part of the physical plane, and this section, of course, is\nmuch more likely to come within the ken of ordinary people than the\nothers. Indeed, in reading the common fairy stories one frequently\ncomes across distinct indications that it is with this class that we\nare dealing. Any student of fairy lore will remember how often mention\nis made of some mysterious ointment or drug, which when applied to a\nman's eyes enables him to see the members of the fairy commonwealth\nwhenever he happens to meet them.\n\nThe story of such an application and its results occurs so constantly\nand comes from so many different parts of the world that there must\ncertainly be some truth behind it, as there always is behind really\nuniversal popular tradition. Now no such anointing of the eyes alone\ncould by any possibility open a man's astral vision, though certain\nointments rubbed over the whole body will very greatly assist the\nastral body to leave the physical in full consciousness--a fact the\nknowledge of which seems to have survived even to mediaeval times, as\nwill be seen from the evidence given at some of the trials for\nwitchcraft. But the application to the physical eye might very easily\nso stimulate its sensitiveness as to make it susceptible to some of\nthe etheric vibrations.\n\nThe story frequently goes on to relate how when the human being who\nhas used this mystical ointment betrays his extended vision in some\nway to a fairy, the latter strikes or stabs him in the eye, thus\ndepriving him not only of the etheric sight, but of that of the denser\nphysical plane as well. (See _The Science of Fairy Tales_, by E. S.\nHartland, in the \"Contemporary Science\" series--or indeed almost any\nextensive collection of fairy stories.) If the sight acquired had been\nastral, such a proceeding would have been entirely unavailing, for no\ninjury to the physical apparatus would affect an astral faculty; but\nif the vision produced by the ointment were etheric, the destruction\nof the physical eye would in most cases at once extinguish it, since\nthat is the mechanism by means of which it works.\n\nAnyone possessing this sight of which we are speaking would also be\nable to perceive the etheric double of man; but since this is so\nnearly identical in size with the physical, it would hardly be likely\nto attract his attention unless it were partially projected in trance\nor under the influence of anaesthetics. After death, when it withdraws\nentirely from the dense body, it would be clearly visible to him, and\nhe would frequently see it hovering over newly made graves as he\npassed through a churchyard or cemetery. If he were to attend a\nspiritualistic seance he would see the etheric matter oozing out from\nthe side of the medium, and could observe the various ways in which\nthe communicating entities make use of it.\n\nAnother fact which could hardly fail soon to thrust itself upon his\nnotice would be the extension of his perception of colour. He would\nfind himself able to see several entirely new colours, not in the\nleast resembling any of those included in the spectrum as we at\npresent know it, and therefore of course quite indescribable in any\nterms at our command. And not only would he see new objects that were\nwholly of these new colours, but he would also discover that\nmodifications had been introduced into the colour of many objects with\nwhich he was quite familiar, according to whether they had or had not\nsome tinge of these new hues intermingled with the old. So that two\nsurfaces of colour which to ordinary eyes appeared to match perfectly\nwould often present distinctly different shades to his keener sight.\n\nWe have now touched upon some of the principal changes which would be\nintroduced into a man's world when he gained etheric sight; and it\nmust always be remembered that in most cases a corresponding change\nwould at the same time be brought about in his other senses also, so\nthat he would be capable of hearing, and perhaps even of feeling, more\nthan most of those around him. Now supposing that in addition to this\nhe obtained the sight of the astral plane, what further changes would\nbe observable?\n\nWell, the changes would be many and great; in fact, a whole new world\nwould open before his eyes. Let us consider its wonders briefly in the\nsame order as before, and see first what difference there would be in\nthe appearance of inanimate objects. On this point I may begin by\nquoting a recent quaint answer given in _The Vahan_.\n\n\"There is a distinct difference between etheric sight and astral\nsight, and it is the latter which seems to correspond to the fourth\ndimension.\n\n\"The easiest way to understand the difference is to take an example.\nIf you looked at a man with both the sights in turn, you would see the\nbuttons at the back of his coat in both cases; only if you used\netheric sight you would see them _through_ him, and would see the\nshank-side as nearest to you, but if you looked astrally, you would\nsee it not only like that, but just as if you were standing behind the\nman as well.\n\n\"Or if you were looking etherically at a wooden cube with writing on\nall its sides, it would be as though the cube were glass, so that you\ncould see through it, and you would see the writing on the opposite\nside all backwards, while that on the right and left sides would not\nbe clear to you at all unless you moved, because you would see it\nedgewise. But if you looked at it astrally you would see all the sides\nat once, and all the right way up, as though the whole cube had been\nflattened out before you, and you would see every particle of the\ninside as well--not _through_ the others, but all flattened out. You\nwould be looking at it from another direction, at right angles to all\nthe directions that we know.\n\n\"If you look at the back of a watch etherically you see all the wheels\nthrough it, and the face _through them_, but backwards; if you look at\nit astrally, you see the face right way up and all the wheels lying\nseparately, but nothing on the top of anything else.\"\n\nHere we have at once the keynote, the principal factor of the change;\nthe man is looking at everything from an absolutely new point of view,\nentirely outside of anything that he has ever imagined before. He has\nno longer the slightest difficulty in reading any page in a closed\nbook, because he is not now looking at it through all the other pages\nbefore it or behind it, but is looking straight down upon it as though\nit were the only page to be seen. The depth at which a vein of metal\nor of coal may lie is no longer a barrier to his sight of it, because\nhe is not now looking through the intervening depth of earth at all.\nThe thickness of a wall, or the number of walls intervening between\nthe observer and the object, would make a great deal of difference to\nthe clearness of the etheric sight; they would make no difference\nwhatever to the astral sight, because on the astral plane they would\n_not_ intervene between the observer and the object. Of course that\nsounds paradoxical and impossible, and it _is_ quite inexplicable to a\nmind not specially trained to grasp the idea; yet it is none the less\nabsolutely true.\n\nThis carries us straight into the middle of the much-vexed question of\nthe fourth dimension--a question of the deepest interest, though one\nthat we cannot pretend to discuss in the space at our disposal. Those\nwho wish to study it as it deserves are recommended to begin with Mr.\nC. H. Hinton's _Scientific Romances_ or Dr. A. T. Schofield's _Another\nWorld_, and then follow on with the former author's larger work, _A\nNew Era of Thought_. Mr. Hinton not only claims to be able himself to\ngrasp mentally some of the simpler fourth-dimensional figures, but\nalso states that anyone who will take the trouble to follow out his\ndirections may with perseverance acquire that mental grasp likewise. I\nam not certain that the power to do this is within the reach of\neveryone, as he thinks, for it appears to me to require considerable\nmathematical ability; but I can at any rate bear witness that the\ntesseract or fourth-dimensional cube which he describes is a reality,\nfor it is quite a familiar figure upon the astral plane. He has now\nperfected a new method of representing the several dimensions by\ncolours instead of by arbitrary written symbols. He states that this\nwill very much simplify the study, as the reader will be able to\ndistinguish instantly by sight any part or feature of the tesseract. A\nfull description of this new method, with plates, is said to be ready\nfor the press, and is expected to appear within a year, so that\nintending students of this fascinating subject might do well to await\nits publication.\n\nI know that Madame Blavatsky, in alluding to the theory of the fourth\ndimension, has expressed an opinion that it is only a clumsy way of\nstating the idea of the entire permeability of matter, and that Mr. W.\nT. Stead has followed along the same lines, presenting the conception\nto his readers under the name of _throughth_. Careful, oft-repeated\nand detailed investigation does, however, seem to show quite\nconclusively that this explanation does not cover all the facts. It is\na perfect description of etheric vision, but the further and quite\ndifferent idea of the fourth dimension as expounded by Mr. Hinton is\nthe only one which gives any kind of explanation down here of the\nconstantly-observed facts of astral vision. I would therefore venture\ndeferentially to suggest that when Madame Blavatsky wrote as she did,\nshe had in mind etheric vision and not astral, and that the extreme\napplicability of the phrase to this other and higher faculty, of which\nshe was not at the moment thinking, did not occur to her.\n\nThe possession of this extraordinary and scarcely expressible power,\nthen, must always be borne in mind through all that follows. It lays\nevery point in the interior of every solid body absolutely open to the\ngaze of the seer, just as every point in the interior of a circle lies\nopen to the gaze of a man looking down upon it.\n\nBut even this is by no means all that it gives to its possessor. He\nsees not only the inside as well as the outside of every object, but\nalso its astral counterpart. Every atom and molecule of physical\nmatter has its corresponding astral atoms and molecules, and the mass\nwhich is built up out of these is clearly visible to our clairvoyant.\nUsually the astral of any object projects somewhat beyond the physical\npart of it, and thus metals, stones and other things are seen\nsurrounded by an astral aura.\n\nIt will be seen at once that even in the study of inorganic matter a\nman gains immensely by the acquisition of this vision. Not only does\nhe see the astral part of the object at which he looks, which before\nwas wholly hidden from him; not only does he see much more of its\nphysical constitution than he did before, but even what was visible\nto him before is now seen much more clearly and truly. A moment's\nconsideration will show that his new vision approximates much more\nclosely to true perception than does physical sight. For example, if\nhe looks astrally at a glass cube, its sides will all appear equal, as\nwe know they really are, whereas on the physical plane he sees the\nfurther side in perspective--that is, it appears smaller than the\nnearer side, which is, of course, a mere allusion due to his physical\nlimitations.\n\nWhen we come to consider the additional facilities which it offers in\nthe observation of animate objects we see still more clearly the\nadvantages of the astral vision. It exhibits to the clairvoyant the\naura of plants and animals, and thus in the case of the latter their\ndesires and emotions, and whatever thoughts they may have, are all\nplainly shown before his eyes.\n\nBut it is in dealing with human beings that he will most appreciate\nthe value of this faculty, for he will often be able to help them far\nmore effectually when he guides himself by the information which it\ngives him.\n\nHe will be able to see the aura as far up as the astral body, and\nthough that leaves all the higher part of a man still hidden from his\ngaze, he will nevertheless find it possible by careful observation to\nlearn a good deal about the higher part from what is within his\nreach. His capacity of examining the etheric double will give him\nconsiderable advantage in locating and classifying any defects or\ndiseases of the nervous system, while from the appearance of the\nastral body he will be at once aware of all the emotions, passions,\ndesires and tendencies of the man before him, and even of very many of\nhis thoughts also.\n\nAs he looks at a person he will see him surrounded by the luminous\nmist of the astral aura, flashing with all sorts of brilliant colours,\nand constantly changing in hue and brilliancy with every variation of\nthe person's thoughts and feelings. He will see this aura flooded with\nthe beautiful rose-colour of pure affection, the rich blue of\ndevotional feeling, the hard, dull brown of selfishness, the deep\nscarlet of anger, the horrible lurid red of sensuality, the livid grey\nof fear, the black clouds of hatred and malice, or any of the other\nhundredfold indications so easily to be read in it by a practised eye;\nand thus it will be impossible for any persons to conceal from him the\nreal state of their feelings on any subject.\n\nThese varied indications of the aura are of themselves a study of very\ndeep interest, but I have no space to deal with them in detail here. A\nmuch fuller account of them, together with a large number of coloured\nillustrations, will be found in my work on the subject _Man Visible\nand Invisible_.\n\nNot only does the astral aura show him the temporary result of the\nemotion passing through it at the moment, but it also gives him, by\nthe arrangement and proportion of its colours when in a condition of\ncomparative rest, a clue to the general disposition and character of\nits owner. For the astral body is the expression of as much of the man\nas can be manifested on that plane, so that from what is seen in it\nmuch more which belongs to higher planes may be inferred with\nconsiderable certainty.\n\nIn this judgment of character our clairvoyant will be much helped by\nso much of the person's thought as expresses itself on the astral\nplane, and consequently comes within his purview. The true home of\nthought is on the mental plane, and all thought first manifests itself\nthere as a vibration of the mind-body. But if it be in any way a\nselfish thought, or if it be connected in any way with an emotion or a\ndesire, it immediately descends into the astral plane, and takes to\nitself a visible form of astral matter.\n\nIn the case of the majority of men almost all thought would fall under\none or other of these heads, so that practically the whole of their\npersonality would lie clearly before our friend's astral vision, since\ntheir astral bodies and the thought-forms constantly radiating from\nthem would be to him as an open book in which their characteristics\nwere writ so largely that he who ran might read. Anyone wishing to\ngain some idea as to _how_ the thought-forms present themselves to\nclairvoyant vision may satisfy themselves to some extent by examining\nthe illustrations accompanying Mrs. Besant's valuable article on the\nsubject in _Lucifer_ for September 1896.\n\nWe have seen something of the alteration in the appearance of both\nanimate and inanimate objects when viewed by one possessed of full\nclairvoyant sight as far as the astral plane is concerned; let us now\nconsider what entirely new objects he will see. He will be conscious\nof a far greater fulness in nature in many directions, but chiefly his\nattention will be attracted by the living denizens of this new world.\nNo detailed account of them can be attempted within the space at our\ndisposal; for that the reader is referred to No. V. of the\n_Theosophical Manuals_. Here we can do no more than barely enumerate a\nfew classes only of the vast hosts of astral inhabitants.\n\nHe will be impressed by the protean forms of the ceaseless tide of\nelemental essence, ever swirling around him, menacing often, yet\nalways retiring before a determined effort of the will; he will marvel\nat the enormous army of entities temporarily called out of this ocean\ninto separate existence by the thoughts and wishes of man, whether\ngood or evil. He will watch the manifold tribes of the nature-spirits\nat their work or at their play; he will sometimes be able to study\nwith ever-increasing delight the magnificent evolution of some of the\nlower orders of the glorious kingdom of the devas, which corresponds\napproximately to the angelic host of Christian terminology.\n\nBut perhaps of even keener interest to him than any of these will be\nthe human denizens of the astral world, and he will find them\ndivisible into two great classes--those whom we call the living, and\nthose others, most of them infinitely more alive, whom we so foolishly\nmisname the dead. Among the former he will find here and there one\nwide awake and fully conscious, perhaps sent to bring him some\nmessage, or examining him keenly to see what progress he is making;\nwhile the majority of his neighbours, when away from their physical\nbodies during sleep, will drift idly by, so wrapped up in their own\ncogitations as to be practically unconscious of what is going on\naround them.\n\nAmong the great host of the recently dead he will find all degrees of\nconsciousness and intelligence, and all shades of character--for\ndeath, which seems to our limited vision so absolute a change, in\nreality alters nothing of the man himself. On the day after his death\nhe is precisely the same man as he was the day before it, with the\nsame disposition, the same qualities, the same virtues and vices, save\nonly that he has cast aside his physical body; but the loss of that no\nmore makes him in any way a different man than would the removal of an\novercoat. So among the dead our student will find men intelligent and\nstupid, kind-hearted and morose, serious and frivolous,\nspiritually-minded and sensually-minded, just as among the living.\n\nSince he can not only see the dead, but speak with them, he can often\nbe of very great use to them, and give them information and guidance\nwhich is of the utmost value to them. Many of them are in a condition\nof great surprise and perplexity, and sometimes even of acute\ndistress, because they find the facts of the next world so unlike the\nchildish legends which are all that popular religion in the West has\nto offer with reference to this transcendently important subject; and\ntherefore a man who understands this new world and can explain matters\nis distinctly a friend in need.\n\nIn many other ways a man who fully possesses this faculty may be of\nuse to the living as well as to the dead; but of this side of the\nsubject I have already written in my little book on _Invisible\nHelpers_. In addition to astral entities he will see astral\ncorpses--shades and shells in all stages of decay; but these need only\nbe just mentioned here, as the reader desiring a further account of\nthem will find it in our third and fifth manuals.\n\nAnother wonderful result which the full enjoyment of astral\nclairvoyance brings to a man is that he has no longer any break in\nconsciousness. When he lies down at night he leaves his physical body\nto the rest which it requires, while he goes about his business in\nthe far more comfortable astral vehicle. In the morning he returns to\nand re-enters his physical body, but without any loss of consciousness\nor memory between the two states, and thus he is able to live, as it\nwere, a double life which yet is one, and to be usefully employed\nduring the whole of it, instead of losing one-third of his existence\nin blank unconsciousness.\n\nAnother strange power of which he may find himself in possession\n(though its full control belongs rather to the still higher devachanic\nfaculty), is that of magnifying at will the minutest physical or\nastral particle to any desired size, as though by a microscope--though\nno microscope ever made or ever likely to be made possesses even a\nthousandth part of this psychic magnifying power. By its means the\nhypothetical molecule and atom postulated by science become visible\nand living realities to the occult student, and on this closer\nexamination he finds them to be much more complex in their structure\nthan the scientific man has yet realised them to be. It also enables\nhim to follow with the closest attention and the most lively interest\nall kinds of electrical, magnetic, and other etheric action; and when\nsome of the specialists in these branches of science are able to\ndevelop the power to see those things whereof they write so facilely,\nsome very wonderful and beautiful revelations may be expected.\n\nThis is one of the _siddhis_ or powers described in Oriental books as\naccruing to the man who devotes himself to spiritual development,\nthough the name under which it is there mentioned might not be\nimmediately recognizable. It is referred to as \"the power of making\noneself large or small at will,\" and the reason of a description which\nappears so oddly to reverse the fact is that in reality the method by\nwhich this feat is performed is precisely that indicated in these\nancient books. It is by the use of temporary visual machinery of\ninconceivable minuteness that the world of the infinitely little is so\nclearly seen; and in the same way (or rather in the opposite way) it\nis by temporarily enormously increasing the size of the machinery used\nthat it becomes possible to increase the breadth of one's view--in the\nphysical sense as well as, let us hope, in the moral--far beyond\nanything that science has ever dreamt of as possible for man. So that\nthe alteration in size is really in the vehicle of the student's\nconsciousness, and not in anything outside of himself; and the old\nOriental book has, after all, put the case more accurately than we.\n\nPsychometry and second-sight _in excelsis_ would also be among the\nfaculties which our friend would find at his command; but those will\nbe more fitly dealt with under a later heading, since in almost all\ntheir manifestations they involve clairvoyance either in space or in\ntime.\n\nI have now indicated, though only in the roughest outlines, what a\ntrained student, possessed of full astral vision, would see in the\nimmensely wider world to which that vision introduced him; but I have\nsaid nothing of the stupendous change in his mental attitude which\ncomes from the experiential certainty as to the existence of the soul,\nits survival after death, the action of the law of karma, and other\npoints of equally paramount importance. The difference between even\nthe profoundest intellectual conviction and the precise knowledge\ngained by direct personal experience must be felt in order to be\nappreciated.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\nSIMPLE CLAIRVOYANCE: PARTIAL.\n\n\nThe experiences of the untrained clairvoyant--and be it remembered\nthat that class includes all European clairvoyants except a very\nfew--will, however, usually fall very far short of what I have\nattempted to indicate; they will fall short in many different ways--in\ndegree, in variety, or in permanence, and above all in precision.\n\nSometimes, for example, a man's clairvoyance will be permanent, but\nvery partial, extending only perhaps to one or two classes of the\nphenomena observable; he will find himself endowed with some isolated\nfragment of higher vision, without apparently possessing other powers\nof sight which ought normally to accompany that fragment, or even to\nprecede it. For example, one of my dearest friends has all his life\nhad the power to see the atomic ether and atomic astral matter, and to\nrecognize their structure, alike in darkness or in light, as\ninter-penetrating everything else; yet he has only rarely seen\nentities whose bodies are composed of the much more obvious lower\nethers or denser astral matter, and at any rate is certainly not\npermanently able to see them. He simply finds himself in possession of\nthis special faculty, without any apparent reason to account for it,\nor any recognizable relation to anything else: and beyond proving to\nhim the existence of these atomic planes and demonstrating their\narrangement, it is difficult to see of what particular use it is to\nhim at present. Still, there the thing is, and it is an earnest of\ngreater things to come--of further powers still awaiting development.\n\nThere are many similar cases--similar, I mean, not in the possession\nof that particular form of sight (which is unique in my experience),\nbut in showing the development of some one small part of the full and\nclear vision of the astral and etheric planes. In nine cases out of\nten, however, such partial clairvoyance will at the same time lack\nprecision also--that is to say, there will be a good deal of vague\nimpression and inference about it, instead of the clear-cut definition\nand certainty of the trained man. Examples of this type are constantly\nto be found, especially among those who advertise themselves as \"test\nand business clairvoyants.\"\n\nThen, again, there are those who are only temporarily clairvoyant\nunder certain special conditions. Among these there are various\nsubdivisions, some being able to reproduce the state of clairvoyance\nat will by again setting up the same conditions, while with others it\ncomes sporadically, without any observable reference to their\nsurroundings, and with yet others the power shows itself only once or\ntwice in the whole course of their lives.\n\nTo the first of these subdivisions belong those who are clairvoyant\nonly when in the mesmeric trance--who when not so entranced are\nincapable of seeing or hearing anything abnormal. These may sometimes\nreach great heights of knowledge and be exceedingly precise in their\nindications, but when that is so they are usually undergoing a course\nof regular training, though for some reason unable as yet to set\nthemselves free from the leaden weight of earthly life without\nassistance.\n\nIn the same class we may put those--chiefly Orientals--who gain some\ntemporary sight only under the influence of certain drugs, or by means\nof the performance of certain ceremonies. The ceremonialist sometimes\nhypnotizes himself by his repetitions, and in that condition becomes\nto some extent clairvoyant; more often he simply reduces himself to a\npassive condition in which some other entity can obsess him and speak\nthrough him. Sometimes, again, his ceremonies are not intended to\naffect himself at all, but to invoke some astral entity who will give\nhim the required information; but of course that is a case of magic,\nand not of clairvoyance. Both the drugs and the ceremonies are methods\nemphatically to be avoided by any one who wishes to approach\nclairvoyance from the higher side, and use it for his own progress and\nfor the helping of others. The Central African medicine-man or\nwitch-doctor and some of the Tartar Shamans are good examples of the\ntype.\n\nThose to whom a certain amount of clairvoyant power has come\noccasionally only, and without any reference to their own wish, have\noften been hysterical or highly nervous persons, with whom the faculty\nwas to a large extent one of the symptoms of a disease. Its appearance\nshowed that the physical vehicle was weakened to such a degree that it\nno longer presented any obstacle in the way of a certain modicum of\netheric or astral vision. An extreme example of this class is the man\nwho drinks himself into delirium tremens, and in the condition of\nabsolute physical ruin and impure psychic excitation brought about by\nthe ravages of that fell disease, is able to see for the time some of\nthe loathsome elemental and other entities which he has drawn round\nhimself by his long course of degraded and bestial indulgence. There\nare, however, other cases where the power of sight has appeared and\ndisappeared without apparent reference to the state of the physical\nhealth; but it seems probable that even in those, if they could have\nbeen observed closely enough, some alteration in the condition of the\netheric double would have been noticed.\n\nThose who have only one instance of clairvoyance to report in the\nwhole of their lives are a difficult band to classify at all\nexhaustively, because of the great variety of the contributory\ncircumstances. There are many among them to whom the experience has\ncome at some supreme moment of their lives, when it is comprehensible\nthat there might have been a temporary exaltation of faculty which\nwould be sufficient to account for it.\n\nIn the case of another subdivision of them the solitary case has been\nthe seeing of an apparition, most commonly of some friend or relative\nat the point of death. Two possibilities are then offered for our\nchoice, and in each of them the strong wish of the dying man is the\nimpelling force. That force may have enabled him to materialize\nhimself for a moment, in which case of course no clairvoyance was\nneeded or more probably it may have acted mesmerically upon the\npercipient, and momentarily dulled his physical and stimulated his\nhigher sensitiveness. In either case the vision is the product of the\nemergency, and is not repeated simply because the necessary conditions\nare not repeated.\n\nThere remains, however, an irresolvable residuum of cases in which a\nsolitary instance occurs of the exercise of undoubted clairvoyance,\nwhile yet the occasion seems to us wholly trivial and unimportant.\nAbout these we can only frame hypotheses; the governing conditions are\nevidently not on the physical plane, and a separate investigation of\neach case would be necessary before we could speak with any certainty\nas to its causes. In some such it has appeared that an astral entity\nwas endeavouring to make some communication, and was able to impress\nonly some unimportant detail on its subject--all the useful or\nsignificant part of what it had to say failing to get through into the\nsubject's consciousness.\n\nIn the investigation of the phenomena of clairvoyance all these varied\ntypes and many others will be encountered, and a certain number of\ncases of mere hallucination will be almost sure to appear also, and\nwill have to be carefully weeded out from the list of examples. The\nstudent of such a subject needs an inexhaustible fund of patience and\nsteady perseverance, but if he goes on long enough he will begin dimly\nto discern order behind the chaos, and will gradually get some idea of\nthe great laws under which the whole evolution is working.\n\nIt will help him greatly in his efforts if he will adopt the order\nwhich we have just followed--that is, if he will first take the\ntrouble to familiarize himself as thoroughly as may be with the actual\nfacts concerning the planes with which ordinary clairvoyance deals.\nIf he will learn what there really is to be seen with astral and\netheric sight, and what their respective limitations are, he will then\nhave, as it were, a standard by which to measure the cases which he\nobserves. Since all instances of partial sight must of necessity fit\ninto some niche in this whole, if he has the outline of the entire\nscheme in his head he will find it comparatively easy with a little\npractice to classify the instances with which he is called upon to\ndeal.\n\nWe have said nothing as yet as to the still more wonderful\npossibilities of clairvoyance upon the mental plane, nor indeed is it\nnecessary that much should be said, as it is exceedingly improbable\nthat the investigator will ever meet with any examples of it except\namong pupils properly trained in some of the very highest schools of\noccultism. For them it opens up yet another new world, vaster far than\nall those beneath it--a world in which all that we can imagine of\nutmost glory and splendour is the commonplace of existence. Some\naccount of its marvellous faculty, its eneffable bliss, its\nmagnificent opportunities for learning and for work, is given in the\nsixth of our Theosophical manuals, and to that the student may be\nreferred.\n\nAll that it has to give--all of it at least that he can assimilate--is\nwithin the reach of the trained pupil, but for the untrained\nclairvoyant to touch it is hardly more than a bare possibility. It\nhas been done in mesmeric trance, but the occurrence is of exceeding\nrarity, for it needs almost superhuman qualifications in the way of\nlofty spiritual aspiration and absolute purity of thought and\nintention upon the part both of the subject and the operator.\n\nTo a type of clairvoyance such as this, and still more fully to that\nwhich belongs to the plane next above it, the name of spiritual sight\nmay reasonably be applied; and since the celestial world to which it\nopens our eyes lies all round us here and now, it is fit that our\npassing reference to it should be made under the heading of simple\nclairvoyance, though it may be necessary to allude to it again when\ndealing with clairvoyance in space, to which we will now pass on.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\nCLAIRVOYANCE IN SPACE: INTENTIONAL.\n\n\nWe have defined this as the capacity to see events or scenes removed\nfrom the seer in space and too far distant for ordinary observation.\nThe instances of this are so numerous and so various that we shall\nfind it desirable to attempt a somewhat more detailed classification\nof them. It does not much matter what particular arrangement we adopt,\nso long as it is comprehensive enough to include all our cases;\nperhaps a convenient one will be to group them under the broad\ndivisions of intentional and unintentional clairvoyance in space, with\nan intermediate class that might be described as semi-intentional--a\ncurious title, but I will explain it later.\n\nAs before, I will begin by stating what is possible along this line\nfor the fully-trained seer, and endeavouring to explain how his\nfaculty works and under what limitations it acts. After that we shall\nfind ourselves in a better position to try to understand the manifold\nexamples of partial and untrained sight. Let us then in the first\nplace discuss intentional clairvoyance.\n\nIt will be obvious from what has previously been said as to the power\nof astral vision that any one possessing it in its fulness will be\nable to see by its means practically anything in this world that he\nwishes to see. The most secret places are open to his gaze, and\nintervening obstacles have no existence for him, because of the change\nin his point of view; so that if we grant him the power of moving\nabout in the astral body he can without difficulty go anywhere and see\nanything within the limits of the planet. Indeed this is to a large\nextent possible to him even without the necessity of moving the astral\nbody at all, as we shall presently see.\n\nLet us consider a little more closely the methods by which this\nsuper-physical sight may be used to observe events taking place at a\ndistance. When, for example, a man here in England sees in minutest\ndetail something which is happening at the same moment in India or\nAmerica, how is it done?\n\nA very ingenious hypothesis has been offered to account for the\nphenomenon. It has been suggested that every object is perpetually\nthrowing off radiations in all directions, similar in some respects\nto, though infinitely finer than, rays of light, and that clairvoyance\nis nothing but the power to see by means of these finer radiations.\nDistance would in that case be no bar to the sight, all intervening\nobjects would be penetrable by these rays, and they would be able to\ncross one another to infinity in all directions without entanglement,\nprecisely as the vibrations of ordinary light do.\n\nNow though this is not exactly the way in which clairvoyance works,\nthe theory is nevertheless quite true in most of its premises. Every\nobject undoubtedly is throwing off radiations in all directions, and\nit is precisely in this way, though on a higher plane, that the\nakashic records seem to be formed. Of them it will be necessary to say\nsomething under our next heading, so we will do no more than mention\nthem for the moment. The phenomena of psychometry are also dependent\nupon these radiations, as will presently be explained.\n\nThere are, however, certain practical difficulties in the way of using\nthese etheric vibrations (for that is, of course, what they are) as\nthe medium by means of which one may see anything taking place at a\ndistance. Intervening objects are not entirely transparent, and as the\nactors in the scene which the experimenter tried to observe would\nprobably be at least equally transparent, it is obvious that serious\nconfusion would be quite likely to result.\n\nThe additional dimension which would come into play if astral\nradiations were sensed instead of etheric would obviate some of the\ndifficulties, but would on the other hand introduce some fresh\ncomplications of its own; so that for practical purposes, in\nendeavouring to understand clairvoyance, we may dismiss this\nhypothesis of radiations from our minds, and turn to the methods of\nseeing at a distance which are actually at the disposal of the\nstudent. It will be found that there are five, four of them being\nreally varieties of clairvoyance, while the fifth does not properly\ncome under that head at all, but belongs to the domain of magic. Let\nus take this last one first, and get it out of our way.\n\n1. _By the assistance of a nature-spirit._--This method does not\nnecessarily involve the possession of any psychic faculty at all on\nthe part of the experimenter; he need only know how to induce some\ndenizen of the astral world to undertake the investigation for him.\nThis may be done either by invocation or by evocation; that is to say,\nthe operator may either persuade his astral coadjutor by prayers and\nofferings to give him the help he desires, or he may compel his aid by\nthe determined exercise of a highly-developed will.\n\nThis method has been largely practised in the East (where the entity\nemployed is usually a nature-spirit) and in old Atlantis, where \"the\nlords of the dark face\" used a highly-specialized and peculiarly\nvenomous variety of artificial elemental for this purpose. Information\nis sometimes obtained in the same sort of way at the spiritualistic\n_seance_ of modern days, but in that case the messenger employed is\nmore likely to be a recently-deceased human being functioning more or\nless freely on the astral plane--though even here also it is sometimes\nan obliging nature-spirit, who is amusing himself by posing as\nsomebody's departed relative. In any case, as I have said, this method\nis not clairvoyant at all, but magical; and it is mentioned here only\nin order that the reader may not become confused in the endeavour to\nclassify cases of its use under some of the following headings.\n\n2. _By means of an astral current._--This is a phrase frequently and\nrather loosely employed in some of our Theosophical literature to\ncover a considerable variety of phenomena, and among others that which\nI wish to explain. What is really done by the student who adopts this\nmethod is not so much the setting in motion of a current in astral\nmatter, as the erection of a kind of temporary telephone through it.\n\nIt is impossible here to give an exhaustive disquisition on astral\nphysics, even had I the requisite knowledge to write it; all I need\nsay is that it is possible to make in astral matter a definite\nconnecting-line that shall act as a telegraph-wire to convey\nvibrations by means of which all that is going on at the other end of\nit may be seen. Such a line is established, be it understood, not by a\ndirect projection through space of astral matter, but by such action\nupon a line (or rather many lines) of particles of that matter as\nwill render them capable of forming a conductor for vibrations of the\ncharacter required.\n\nThis preliminary action can be set up in two ways--either by the\ntransmission of energy from particle to particle, until the line is\nformed, or by the use of a force from a higher plane which is capable\nof acting upon the whole line simultaneously. Of course this latter\nmethod implies far greater development, since it involves the\nknowledge of (and the power to use) forces of a considerably higher\nlevel; so that the man who could make his line in this way would not,\nfor his own use, need a line at all, since he could see far more\neasily and completely by means of an altogether higher faculty.\n\nEven the simpler and purely astral operation is a difficult one to\ndescribe, though quite an easy one to perform. It may be said to\npartake somewhat of the nature of the magnetization of a bar of steel;\nfor it consists in what we might call the polarization, by an effort\nof the human will, of a number of parallel lines of astral atoms\nreaching from the operator to the scene which he wishes to observe.\nAll the atoms thus affected are held for the time with their axes\nrigidly parallel to one another, so that they form a kind of temporary\ntube along which the clairvoyant may look. This method has the\ndisadvantage that the telegraph line is liable to disarrangement or\neven destruction by any sufficiently strong astral current which\nhappens to cross its path; but if the original effort of will were\nfairly definite, this would be a contingency of only infrequent\noccurrence.\n\nThe view of a distant scene obtained by means of this \"astral current\"\nis in many ways not unlike that seen through a telescope. Human\nfigures usually appear very small, like those on a distant stage, but\nin spite of their diminutive size they are as clear as though they\nwere close by. Sometimes it is possible by this means to hear what is\nsaid as well as to see what is done; but as in the majority of cases\nthis does not happen, we must consider it rather as the manifestation\nof an additional power than as a necessary corollary of the faculty of\nsight.\n\nIt will be observed that in this case the seer does not usually leave\nhis physical body at all; there is no sort of projection of his astral\nvehicle or of any part of himself towards that at which he is looking,\nbut he simply manufactures for himself a temporary astral telescope.\nConsequently he has, to a certain extent, the use of his physical\npowers even while he is examining the distant scene; for example, his\nvoice would usually still be under his control, so that he could\ndescribe what he saw even while he was in the act of making his\nobservations. The consciousness of the man is, in fact, distinctly\nstill at this end of the line.\n\nThis fact, however, has its limitations as well as its advantages,\nand these again largely resemble the limitations of the man using a\ntelescope on the physical plane. The experimenter, for example, has no\npower to shift this point of view; his telescope, so to speak, has a\nparticular field of view which cannot be enlarged or altered; he is\nlooking at his scene from a certain direction, and he cannot suddenly\nturn it all round and see how it looks from the other side. If he has\nsufficient psychic energy to spare, he may drop altogether the\ntelescope that he is using and manufacture an entirely new one for\nhimself which will approach his objective somewhat differently; but\nthis is not a course at all likely to be adopted in practice.\n\nBut, it may be said, the mere fact that he is using astral sight ought\nto enable him to see it from all sides at once. So it would if he were\nusing that sight in the normal way upon an object which was fairly\nnear him--within his astral reach, as it were; but at a distance of\nhundreds or thousands of miles the case is very different. Astral\nsight gives us the advantage of an additional dimension, but there is\nstill such a thing as position in that dimension, and it is naturally\na potent factor in limiting the use of the powers of its plane. Our\nordinary three-dimensional sight enables us to see at once every point\nof the interior of a two-dimensional figure, such as a square, but in\norder to do that the square must be within a reasonable distance from\nour eyes; the mere additional dimension will avail a man in London\nbut little in his endeavour to examine a square in Calcutta.\n\nAstral sight, when it is cramped by being directed along what is\npractically a tube, is limited very much as physical sight would be\nunder similar circumstances; though if possessed in perfection it will\nstill continue to show, even at that distance, the auras, and\ntherefore all the emotions and most of the thoughts of the people\nunder observation.\n\nThere are many people for whom this type of clairvoyance is very much\nfacilitated if they have at hand some physical object which can be\nused as a starting-point for their astral tube--a convenient focus for\ntheir will-power. A ball of crystal is the commonest and most\neffectual of such foci, since it has the additional advantage of\npossessing within itself qualities which stimulate psychic faculty;\nbut other objects are also employed, to which we shall find it\nnecessary to refer more particularly when we come to consider\nsemi-intentional clairvoyance.\n\nIn connection with this astral-current form of clairvoyance, as with\nothers, we find that there are some psychics who are unable to use it\nexcept when under the influence of mesmerism. The peculiarity in this\ncase is that among such psychics there are two varieties--one in which\nby being thus set free the man is enabled to make a telescope for\nhimself, and another in which the magnetizer himself makes the\ntelescope and the subject is simply enabled to see through it. In this\nlatter case obviously the subject has not enough will to form a tube\nfor himself, and the operator, though possessed of the necessary\nwill-power, is not clairvoyant, or he could see through his own tube\nwithout needing help.\n\nOccasionally, though rarely, the tube which is formed possesses\nanother of the attributes of a telescope--that of magnifying the\nobjects at which it is directed until they seem of life-size. Of\ncourse the objects must always be magnified to some extent, or they\nwould be absolutely invisible, but usually the extent is determined by\nthe size of the astral tube, and the whole thing is simply a tiny\nmoving picture. In the few cases where the figures are seen as of\nlife-size by this method, it is probable that an altogether new power\nis beginning to dawn; but when this happens, careful observation is\nneeded in order to distinguish them from examples of our next class.\n\n3. _By the projection of a thought-form._--The ability to use this\nmethod of clairvoyance implies a development somewhat more advanced\nthan the last, since it necessitates a certain amount of control upon\nthe mental plane. All students of Theosophy are aware that thought\ntakes form, at any rate upon its own plane, and in the vast majority\nof cases upon the astral plane also; but it may not be quite so\ngenerally known that if a man thinks strongly of himself as present\nat any given place, the form assumed by that particular thought will\nbe a likeness of the thinker himself, which will appear at the place\nin question.\n\nEssentially this form must be composed of the matter of the mental\nplane, but in very many cases it would draw round itself matter of the\nastral plane also, and so would approach much nearer to visibility.\nThere are, in fact, many instances in which it has been seen by the\nperson thought of--most probably by means of the unconscious mesmeric\ninfluence emanating from the original thinker. None of the\nconsciousness of the thinker would, however, be included within this\nthought-form. When once sent out from him, it would normally be a\nquite separate entity--not indeed absolutely unconnected with its\nmaker, but practically so as far as the possibility of receiving any\nimpression through it is concerned.\n\nThis third type of clairvoyance consists, then, in the power to retain\nso much connection with and so much hold over a newly-erected\nthought-form as will render it possible to receive impressions by\nmeans of it. Such impressions as were made upon the form would in this\ncase be transmitted to the thinker--not along an astral telegraph\nline, as before, but by sympathetic vibration. In a perfect case of\nthis kind of clairvoyance it is almost as though the seer projected a\npart of his consciousness into the thought-form, and used it as a kind\nof outpost, from which observation was possible. He sees almost as\nwell as he would if he himself stood in the place of his thought-form.\n\nThe figures at which he is looking will appear to him as of life-size\nand close at hand, instead of tiny and at a distance, as in the\nprevious case; and he will find it possible to shift his point of view\nif he wishes to do so. Clairaudience is perhaps less frequently\nassociated with this type of clairvoyance than with the last, but its\nplace is to some extent taken by a kind of mental perception of the\nthoughts and intentions of those who are seen.\n\nSince the man's consciousness is still in the physical body, he will\nbe able (even while exercising the faculty) to hear and to speak, in\nso far as he can do this without any distraction of his attention. The\nmoment that the intentness of his thought fails the whole vision is\ngone, and he will have to construct a fresh thought-form before he can\nresume it. Instances in which this kind of sight is possessed with any\ndegree of perfection by untrained people are naturally rarer than in\nthe case of the previous type, because of the capacity for mental\ncontrol required, and the generally finer nature of the forces\nemployed.\n\n4. _By travelling in the astral body._--We enter here upon an entirely\nnew variety of clairvoyance, in which the consciousness of the seer no\nlonger remains in or closely connected with his physical body, but is\ndefinitely transferred to the scene which he is examining. Though it\nhas no doubt greater dangers for the untrained seer than either of the\nmethods previously described, it is yet quite the most satisfactory\nform of clairvoyance open to him, for the immensely superior variety\nwhich we shall consider under our fifth head is not available except\nfor specially trained students.\n\nIn this case the man's body is either asleep or in trance, and its\norgans are consequently not available for use while the vision is\ngoing on, so that all description of what is seen, and all questioning\nas to further particulars, must be postponed until the wanderer\nreturns to this plane. On the other hand the sight is much fuller and\nmore perfect; the man hears as well as sees everything which passes\nbefore him, and can move about freely at will within the very wide\nlimits of the astral plane. He can see and study at leisure all the\nother inhabitants of that plane, so that the great world of the\nnature-spirits (of which the traditional fairy-land is but a very\nsmall part) lies open before him, and even that of some of the lower\ndevas.\n\nHe has also the immense advantage of being able to take part, as it\nwere, in the scenes which come before his eyes--of conversing at will\nwith these various astral entities, from whom so much information that\nis curious and interesting may be obtained. If in addition he can\nlearn how to materialize himself (a matter of no great difficulty for\nhim when once the knack is acquired), he will be able to take part in\nphysical events or conversations at a distance, and to show himself to\nan absent friend at will.\n\nAgain, he has the additional power of being able to hunt about for\nwhat he wants. By means of the varieties of clairvoyance previously\ndescribed, for all practical purposes he could find a person or a\nplace only when he was already acquainted with it, or when he was put\n_en rapport_ with it by touching something physically connected with\nit, as in psychometry. It is true that by the third method a certain\namount of motion is possible, but the process is a tedious one except\nfor quite short distances.\n\nBy the use of the astral body, however, a man can move about quite\nfreely and rapidly in any direction, and can (for example) find\nwithout difficulty any place pointed out upon a map, without either\nany previous knowledge of the spot or any object to establish a\nconnection with it. He can also readily rise high into the air so as\nto gain a bird's-eye view of the country which he is examining, so as\nto observe its extent, the contour of its coast-line, or its general\ncharacter. Indeed, in every way his power and freedom are far greater\nwhen he uses this method than they have been in any of the previous\ncases.\n\nA good example of the full possession of this power is given, on the\nauthority of the German writer Jung Stilling, by Mrs. Crowe in _The\nNight Side of Nature_ (p. 127). The story is related of a seer who is\nstated to have resided in the neighbourhood of Philadelphia, in\nAmerica. His habits were retired, and he spoke little; he was grave,\nbenevolent and pious, and nothing was known against his character\nexcept that he had the reputation of possessing some secrets that were\nconsidered not altogether _lawful_. Many extraordinary stories were\ntold of him, and amongst the rest the following:--\n\n\"The wife of a ship captain (whose husband was on a voyage to Europe\nand Africa, and from whom she had been long without tidings), being\noverwhelmed with anxiety for his safety, was induced to address\nherself to this person. Having listened to her story he begged her to\nexcuse him for a while, when he would bring her the intelligence she\nrequired. He then passed into an inner room and she sat herself down\nto wait; but his absence continuing longer than she expected, she\nbecame impatient, thinking he had forgotten her, and softly\napproaching the door she peeped through some aperture, and to her\nsurprise beheld him lying on a sofa as motionless as if he were dead.\nShe of course did not think it advisable to disturb him, but waited\nhis return, when he told her that her husband had not been able to\nwrite to her for such and such reasons, but that he was then in a\ncoffee-house in London and would very shortly be home again.\n\n\"Accordingly he arrived, and as the lady learnt from him that the\ncauses of his unusual silence had been precisely those alleged by the\nman, she felt extremely desirous of ascertaining the truth of the rest\nof the information. In this she was gratified, for he no sooner set\nhis eyes on the magician than he said that he had seen him before on a\ncertain day in a coffee-house in London, and that he told him that his\nwife was extremely uneasy about him, and that he, the captain, had\nthereon mentioned how he had been prevented writing, adding that he\nwas on the eve of embarking for America. He had then lost sight of the\nstranger amongst the throng, and knew nothing more about him.\"\n\nWe have of course no means now of knowing what evidence Jung Stilling\nhad of the truth of this story, though he declares himself to have\nbeen quite satisfied with the authority on which he relates it; but so\nmany similar things have happened that there is no reason to doubt its\naccuracy. The seer, however, must either have developed his faculty\nfor himself or learnt it in some school other than that from which\nmost of our Theosophical information is derived; for in our case there\nis a well-understood regulation expressly forbidding the pupils from\ngiving any manifestation of such power which can be definitely proved\nat both ends in that way, and so constitute what is called \"a\nphenomenon.\" That this regulation is emphatically a wise one is\nproved to all who know anything of the history of our Society by the\ndisastrous results which followed from a very slight temporary\nrelaxation of it.\n\nI have given some quite modern cases almost exactly parallel to the\nabove in my little book on _Invisible Helpers_. An instance of a lady\nwell-known to myself, who frequently thus appears to friends at a\ndistance, is given by Mr. Stead in _Real Ghost Stories_ (p. 27); and\nMr. Andrew Lang gives, in his _Dreams and Ghosts_ (p. 89), an account\nof how Mr. Cleave, then at Portsmouth, appeared intentionally on two\noccasions to a young lady in London, and alarmed her considerably.\nThere is any amount of evidence to be had on the subject by any one\nwho cares to study it seriously.\n\nThis paying of intentional astral visits seems very often to become\npossible when the principles are loosened at the approach of death for\npeople who were unable to perform such a feat at any other time. There\nare even more examples of this class than of the other; I epitomize a\ngood one given by Mr. Andrew Lang on p. 100 of the book last\ncited--one of which he himself says, \"Not many stories have such good\nevidence in their favour.\"\n\n\"Mary, the wife of John Goffe of Rochester, being afflicted with a\nlong illness, removed to her father's house at West Malling, about\nnine miles from her own.\n\n\"The day before her death she grew very impatiently desirous to see\nher two children, whom she had left at home to the care of a nurse.\nShe was too ill to be moved, and between one and two o'clock in the\nmorning she fell into a trance. One widow Turner, who watched with her\nthat night, says that her eyes were open and fixed, and her jaw\nfallen. Mrs. Turner put her hand upon her mouth, but could perceive no\nbreath. She thought her to be in a fit, and doubted whether she were\ndead or alive.\n\n\"The next morning the dying woman told her mother that she had been at\nhome with her children, saying, I was with them last night when I was\nasleep.'\n\n\"The nurse at Rochester, widow Alexander by name, affirms that a\nlittle before two o'clock that morning she saw the likeness of the\nsaid Mary Goffe come out of the next chamber (where the elder child\nlay in a bed by itself), the door being left open, and stood by her\nbedside for about a quarter of an hour; the younger child was there\nlying by her. Her eyes moved and her mouth went, but she said nothing.\nThe nurse, moreover, says that she was perfectly awake; it was then\ndaylight, being one of the longest days in the year. She sat up in bed\nand looked steadfastly on the apparition. In that time she heard the\nbridge clock strike two, and a while after said: 'In the name of the\nFather, Son and Holy Ghost, what art thou?' Thereupon the apparition\nremoved and went away; she slipped on her clothes and followed, but\nwhat became on't, she cannot tell.\"\n\nThe nurse apparently was more frightened by its disappearance than its\npresence, for after this she was afraid to stay in the house, and so\nspent the rest of the time until six o'clock in walking up and down\noutside. When the neighbours were awake she told her tale to them, and\nthey of course said she had dreamt it all; she naturally enough warmly\nrepudiated that idea, but could obtain no credence until the news of\nthe other side of the story arrived from West Malling, when people had\nto admit that there might have been something in it.\n\nA noteworthy circumstance in this story is that the mother found it\nnecessary to pass from ordinary sleep into the profounder trance\ncondition before she could consciously visit her children; it can,\nhowever, be paralleled here and there among the large number of\nsimilar accounts which may be found in the literature of the subject.\n\nTwo other stories of precisely the same type--in which a dying mother,\nearnestly desiring to see her children, falls into a deep sleep,\nvisits them and returns to say that she has done so--are given by Dr.\nF. G. Lee. In one of them the mother, when dying in Egypt, appears to\nher children at Torquay, and is clearly seen in broad daylight by all\nfive of the children and also by the nursemaid. (_Glimpses of the\nSupernatural_, vol. ii., p. 64.) In the other a Quaker lady dying at\nCockermouth is clearly seen and recognized in daylight by her three\nchildren at Settle, the remainder of the story being practically\nidentical with the one given above. (_Glimpses in the Twilight_, p.\n94.) Though these cases appear to be less widely known than that of\nMary Goffe, the evidence of their authenticity seems to be quite as\ngood, as will be seen by the attestations obtained by the reverend\nauthor of the works from which they are quoted.\n\nThe man who fully possesses this fourth type of clairvoyance has many\nand great advantages at his disposal, even in addition to those already\nmentioned. Not only can he visit without trouble or expense all the\nbeautiful and famous places of the earth, but if he happens to be a\nscholar, think what it must mean to him that he has access to all the\nlibraries of the world! What must it be for the scientifically-minded\nman to see taking place before his eyes so many of the processes of the\nsecret chemistry of nature, or for the philosopher to have revealed to\nhim so much more than ever before of the working of the great mysteries\nof life and death? To him those who are gone from this plane are dead no\nlonger, but living and within reach for a long time to come; for him\nmany of the conceptions of religion are no longer matters of faith, but\nof knowledge. Above all, he can join the army of invisible helpers, and\nreally be of use on a large scale. Undoubtedly clairvoyance, even when\nconfined to the astral plane, is a great boon to the student.\n\nCertainly it has its dangers also, especially for the untrained;\ndanger from evil entities of various kinds, which may terrify or\ninjure those who allow themselves to lose the courage to face them\nboldly; danger of deception of all sorts, of misconceiving and\nmis-interpreting what is seen; greatest of all, the danger of becoming\nconceited about the thing and of thinking it impossible to make a\nmistake. But a little common-sense and a little experience should\neasily guard a man against these.\n\n5. _By travelling in the mental body._--This is simply a higher and,\nas it were, glorified form of the last type. The vehicle employed is\nno longer the astral body, but the mind-body--a vehicle, therefore,\nbelonging to the mental plane, and having within it all the\npotentialities of the wonderful sense of that plane, so transcendent\nin its action yet so impossible to describe. A man functioning in this\nleaves his astral body behind him along with the physical, and if he\nwishes to show himself upon the astral plane for any reason, he does\nnot send for his own astral vehicle, but just by a single action of\nhis will materializes one for his temporary need. Such an astral\nmaterialization is sometimes called the mayavirupa, and to form it\nfor the first time usually needs the assistance of a qualified Master.\n\nThe enormous advantages given by the possession of this power are the\ncapacity of entering upon all the glory and the beauty of the higher\nland of bliss, and the possession, even when working on the astral\nplane, of the far more comprehensive mental sense which opens up to\nthe student such marvellous vistas of knowledge, and practically\nrenders error all but impossible. This higher flight, however, is\npossible for the trained man only, since only under definite training\ncan a man at this stage of evolution learn to employ his mental body\nas a vehicle.\n\nBefore leaving the subject of full and intentional clairvoyance, it\nmay be well to devote a few words to answering one or two questions as\nto its limitations, which constantly occur to students. Is it\npossible, we are often asked, for the seer to find any person with\nwhom he wishes to communicate, anywhere in the world, whether he be\nliving or dead?\n\nTo this reply must be a conditional affirmative. Yes, it is possible\nto find any person if the experimenter can, in some way or other, put\nhimself _en rapport_ with that person. It would be hopeless to plunge\nvaguely into space to find a total stranger among all the millions\naround us without any kind of clue; but, on the other hand, a very\nslight clue would usually be sufficient.\n\nIf the clairvoyant knows anything of the man whom he seeks, he will\nhave no difficulty in finding him, for every man has what may be\ncalled a kind of musical chord of his own--a chord which is the\nexpression of him as a whole, produced perhaps by a sort of average of\nthe rates of vibration of all his different vehicles on their\nrespective planes. If the operator knows how to discern that chord and\nto strike it, it will by sympathetic vibration attract the attention\nof the man instantly wherever he may be, and will evoke an immediate\nresponse from him.\n\nWhether the man were living or recently dead would make no difference\nat all, and clairvoyance of the fifth class could at once find him\neven among the countless millions in the heaven-world, though in that\ncase the man himself would be unconscious that he was under\nobservation. Naturally a seer whose consciousness did not range higher\nthan the astral plane--who employed therefore one of the earlier\nmethods of seeing--would not be able to find a person upon the mental\nplane at all; yet even he would at least be able to tell that the man\nsought for was upon that plane, from the mere fact that the striking\nof the chord as far up as the astral level produced no response.\n\nIf the man sought be a stranger to the seeker, the latter will need\nsomething connected with him to act as a clue--a photograph, a letter\nwritten by him, an article which has belonged to him, and is\nimpregnated with his personal magnetism; any of these would do in the\nhands of a practised seer.\n\nAgain I say, it must not therefore be supposed that pupils who have\nbeen taught how to use this art are at liberty to set up a kind of\nintelligence office through which communication can be had with\nmissing or dead relatives. A message given from this side to such an\none might or might not be handed on, according to circumstances, but\neven if it were, no reply might be brought, lest the transaction\nshould partake of the nature of a phenomenon--something which could be\nproved on the physical plane to have been an act of magic.\n\nAnother question often raised is as to whether, in the action of\npsychic vision, there is any limitation as to distance. The reply\nwould seem to be that there should be no limit but that of the\nrespective planes. It must be remembered that the astral and mental\nplanes of our earth are as definitely its own as its atmosphere,\nthough they extend considerably further from it even in our\nthree-dimensional space than does the physical air. Consequently the\npassage to, or the detailed sight of, other planets would not be\npossible for any system of clairvoyance connected with these planes.\nIt _is_ quite possible and easy for the man who can raise his\nconsciousness to the buddhic plane to pass to any other globe\nbelonging to our chain of worlds, but that is outside our present\nsubject.\n\nStill a good deal of additional information about other planets can be\nobtained by the use of such clairvoyant faculties as we have been\ndescribing. It is possible to make sight enormously clearer by passing\noutside of the constant disturbances of the earth's atmosphere, and it\nis also not difficult to learn how to put on an exceedingly high\nmagnifying power, so that even by ordinary clairvoyance a good deal of\nvery interesting astronomical knowledge may be gained. But as far as\nthis earth and its immediate surroundings are concerned, there is\npractically no limitation.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\nCLAIRVOYANCE IN SPACE: SEMI-INTENTIONAL.\n\n\nUnder this rather curious title I am grouping together the cases of\nall those people who definitely set themselves to see something, but\nhave no idea what the something will be, and no control over the sight\nafter the visions have begun--psychic Micawbers, who put themselves\ninto a receptive condition, and then simply wait for something to turn\nup. Many trance-mediums would come under this heading; they either in\nsome way hypnotize themselves or are hypnotized by some\n\"spirit-guide,\" and then they describe the scenes or persons that\nhappen to float before their vision. Sometimes, however, when in this\ncondition they see what is taking place at a distance, and so they\ncome to have a place among our \"clairvoyants in space.\"\n\nBut the largest and most widely-spread band of these semi-intentional\nclairvoyants are the various kinds of crystal-gazers--those who, as\nMr. Andrew Lang puts it, \"stare into a crystal ball, a cup, a mirror,\na blob of ink (Egypt and India), a drop of blood (among the Maories of\nNew Zealand), a bowl of water (Red Indian), a pond (Roman and\nAfrican), water in a glass bowl (in Fez), or almost any polished\nsurface\" (_Dreams and Ghosts_, p. 57).\n\nTwo pages later Mr. Lang gives us a very good example of the kind of\nvision most frequently seen in this way. \"I had given a glass ball,\"\nhe says, \"to a young lady, Miss Baillie, who had scarcely any success\nwith it. She lent it to Miss Leslie, who saw a large square,\nold-fashioned red sofa covered with muslin, which she found in the\nnext country-house she visited. Miss Baillie's brother, a young\nathlete, laughed at these experiments, took the ball into the study,\nand came back looking 'gey gash.' He admitted that he had seen a\nvision--somebody he knew under a lamp. He would discover during the\nweek whether he saw right or not. This was at 5.30 on a Sunday\nafternoon.\n\n\"On Tuesday, Mr. Baillie was at a dance in a town some forty miles\nfrom his home, and met a Miss Preston. 'On Sunday,' he said, 'about\nhalf-past five you were sitting under a standard lamp in a dress I\nnever saw you wear, a blue blouse with lace over the shoulders,\npouring out tea for a man in blue serge, whose back was towards me, so\nthat I only saw the tip of his moustache.'\n\n\"'Why, the blinds must have been up,' said Miss Preston.\n\n\"'I was at Dulby,' said Mr. Baillie, and he undeniably was.\"\n\nThis is quite a typical case of crystal-gazing--the picture correct in\nevery detail, you see, and yet absolutely unimportant and bearing no\napparent signification of any sort to either party, except that it\nserved to prove to Mr. Baillie that there was something in\ncrystal-gazing. Perhaps more frequently the visions tend to be of a\nromantic character--men in foreign dress, or beautiful though\ngenerally unknown landscapes.\n\nNow what is the rationale of this kind of clairvoyance? As I have\nindicated above, it belongs usually to the \"astral-current\" type, and\nthe crystal or other object simply acts as a focus for the will-power\nof the seer, and a convenient starting-point for his astral tube.\nThere are some who can influence what they will see by their will,\nthat is to say they have the power of pointing their telescope as they\nwish; but the great majority just form a fortuitous tube and see\nwhatever happens to present itself at the end of it.\n\nSometimes it may be a scene comparatively near at hand, as in the case\njust quoted; at other times it will be a far-away Oriental landscape;\nat others yet it may be a reflection of some fragment of an akashic\nrecord, and then the picture will contain figures in some antique\ndress, and the phenomenon belongs to our third large division of\n\"clairvoyance in time.\" It is said that visions of the future are\nsometimes seen in crystals also--a further development to which we\nmust refer later.\n\nI have seen a clairvoyant use instead of the ordinary shining surface\na dead black one, produced by a handful of powdered charcoal in a\nsaucer. Indeed it does not seem to matter much what is used as a\nfocus, except that pure crystal has an undoubted advantage over other\nsubstances in that its peculiar arrangement of elemental essence\nrenders it specially stimulating to the psychic faculties.\n\nIt seems probable, however, that in cases where a tiny brilliant\nobject is employed--such as a point of light, or the drop of blood\nused by the Maories--the instance is in reality merely one of\nself-hypnotization. Among non-European nations the experiment is very\nfrequently preceded or accompanied by magical ceremonies and\ninvocations, so that it is quite likely that such sight as is gained\nmay sometimes be really that of some foreign entity, and so the\nphenomenon may in fact be merely a case of temporary possession, and\nnot of clairvoyance at all.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\nCLAIRVOYANCE IN SPACE: UNINTENTIONAL.\n\n\nUnder this heading we may group together all those cases in which\nvisions of some event which is taking place at a distance are seen\nquite unexpectedly and without any kind of preparation. There are\npeople who are subject to such visions, while there are many others to\nwhom such a thing will happen only once in a life-time. The visions\nare of all kinds and of all degrees of completeness, and apparently\nmay be produced by various causes. Sometimes the reason of the vision\nis obvious, and the subject matter of the gravest importance; at other\ntimes no reason at all is discoverable, and the events shown seem of\nthe most trivial nature.\n\nSometimes these glimpses of the super-physical faculty come as waking\nvisions, and sometimes they manifest during sleep as vivid or\noft-repeated dreams. In this latter case the sight employed is perhaps\nusually of the kind assigned to our fourth subdivision of clairvoyance\nin space, for the sleeping man often travels in his astral body to\nsome spot with which his affections or interests are closely\nconnected, and simply watches what takes place there; in the former it\nseems probable that the second type of clairvoyance, by means of the\nastral current, is called into requisition. But in this case the\ncurrent or tube is formed quite unconsciously, and is often the\nautomatic result of a strong thought or emotion projected from one end\nor the other--either from the seer or the person who is seen.\n\nThe simplest plan will be to give a few instances of the different\nkinds, and to intersperse among them such further explanations as may\nseem necessary. Mr. Stead has collected a large and varied assortment\nof recent and well-authenticated cases in his _Real Ghost Stories_,\nand I will select some of my examples from them, occasionally\ncondensing slightly to save space.\n\nThere are cases in which it is at once obvious to any Theosophical\nstudent that the exceptional instance of clairvoyance was specially\nbrought about by one of the band whom we have called \"Invisible\nHelpers\" in order that aid might be rendered to some one in sore need.\nTo this class, undoubtedly, belongs the story told by Captain Yonnt,\nof the Napa Valley in California, to Dr. Bushnell, who repeats it in\nhis _Nature and the Supernatural_ (p. 14).\n\n\"About six or seven years previous, in a mid-winter's night, he had a\ndream in which he saw what appeared to be a company of emigrants\narrested by the snows of the mountains, and perishing rapidly by cold\nand hunger. He noted the very cast of the scenery, marked by a huge,\nperpendicular front of white rock cliff; he saw the men cutting off\nwhat appeared to be tree-tops rising out of deep gulfs of snow; he\ndistinguished the very features of the persons and the look of their\nparticular distress.\n\n\"He awoke profoundly impressed by the distinctness and apparent\nreality of the dream. He at length fell asleep, and dreamed exactly\nthe same dream over again. In the morning he could not expel it from\nhis mind. Falling in shortly after with an old hunter comrade, he told\nhis story, and was only the more deeply impressed by his recognizing\nwithout hesitation the scenery of the dream. This comrade came over\nthe Sierra by the Carson Valley Pass, and declared that a spot in the\nPass exactly answered his description.\n\n\"By this the unsophistical patriarch was decided. He immediately\ncollected a company of men, with mules and blankets and all necessary\nprovisions. The neighbours were laughing meantime at his credulity.\n'No matter,' he said, 'I am able to do this, and I will, for I verily\nbelieve that the fact is according to my dream.' The men were sent\ninto the mountains one hundred and fifty miles distant direct to the\nCarson Valley Pass. And there they found the company exactly in the\ncondition of the dream, and brought in the remnant alive.\"\n\nSince it is not stated that Captain Yonnt was in the habit of seeing\nvisions, it seems clear that some helper, observing the forlorn\ncondition of the emigrant party, took the nearest impressionable and\notherwise suitable person (who happened to be the Captain) to the spot\nin the astral body, and aroused him sufficiently to fix the scene\nfirmly in his memory. The helper may possibly have arranged an \"astral\ncurrent\" for the Captain instead, but the former suggestion is more\nprobable. At any rate the motive, and broadly the method, of the work\nare obvious enough in this case.\n\nSometimes the \"astral current\" may be set going by a strong emotional\nthought at the other end of the line, and this may happen even though\nthe thinker has no such intention in his mind. In the rather striking\nstory which I am about to quote, it is evident that the link was\nformed by the doctor's frequent thought about Mrs. Broughton, yet he\nhad clearly no especial wish that she should see what he was doing at\nthe time. That it was this kind of clairvoyance that was employed is\nshown by the fixity of her point of view--which, be it observed, is\nnot the doctor's point of view sympathetically transferred (as it\nmight have been) since she sees his back without recognizing him. The\nstory is to be found in the _Proceedings of the Psychical Research\nSociety_ (vol. ii., p. 160).\n\n\"Mrs. Broughton awoke one night in 1844, and roused her husband,\ntelling him that something dreadful had happened in France. He begged\nher to go to sleep again, and not trouble him. She assured him that\nshe was not asleep when she saw what she insisted on telling him--what\nshe saw in fact.\n\n\"First a carriage accident--which she did not actually see, but what\nshe saw was the result--a broken carriage, a crowd collected, a figure\ngently raised and carried into the nearest house, then a figure lying\non a bed which she then recognized as the Duke of Orleans. Gradually\nfriends collecting round the bed--among them several members of the\nFrench royal family--the queen, then the king, all silently,\ntearfully, watching the evidently dying duke. One man (she could see\nhis back, but did not know who he was) was a doctor. He stood bending\nover the duke, feeling his pulse, with his watch in the other hand.\nAnd then all passed away, and she saw no more.\n\n\"As soon as it was daylight she wrote down in her journal all that she\nhad seen. It was before the days of electric telegraph, and two or\nmore days passed before the _Times_ announced 'The Death of the Duke\nof Orleans.' Visiting Paris a short time afterwards she saw and\nrecognized the place of the accident and received the explanation of\nher impression. The doctor who attended the dying duke was an old\nfriend of hers, and as he watched by the bed his mind had been\nconstantly occupied with her and her family.\"\n\nA commoner instance is that in which strong affection sets up the\nnecessary current; probably a fairly steady stream of mutual thought\nis constantly flowing between the two parties in the case, and some\nsudden need or dire extremity on the part of one of them endues this\nstream temporarily with the polarizing power which is needful to\ncreate the astral telescope. An illustrative example is quoted from\nthe same _Proceedings_ (vol. i., p. 30).\n\n\"On September 9th, 1848, at the siege of Mooltan, Major-General R----,\nC.B., then adjutant of his regiment, was most severely and dangerously\nwounded; and, supposing himself to be dying, asked one of the officers\nwith him to take the ring off his finger and send it to his wife, who\nat the time was fully one hundred and fifty miles distant at\nFerozepore.\n\n\"'On the night of September 9th, 1848,' writes his wife, 'I was lying\non my bed, between sleeping and waking, when I distinctly saw my\nhusband being carried off the field seriously wounded, and heard his\nvoice saying, \"Take this ring off my finger and send it to my wife.\"\nAll the next day I could not get the sight or the voice out of my\nmind.\n\n\"'In due time I heard of General R---- having been severely wounded in\nthe assault of Mooltan. He survived, however, and is still living. It\nwas not for some time after the siege that I heard from General\nL----, the officer who helped to carry my husband off the field, that\nthe request as to the ring was actually made by him, just as I heard\nit at Ferozepore at that very time.\"\n\nThen there is the very large class of casual clairvoyant visions which\nhave no traceable cause--which are apparently quite meaningless, and\nhave no recognizable relation to any events known to the seer. To this\nclass belong many of the landscapes seen by some people just before\nthey fall asleep. I quote a capital and very realistic account of an\nexperience of this sort from Mr. W. T. Stead's _Real Ghost Stories_\n(p. 65).\n\n\"I got into bed but was not able to go to sleep. I shut my eyes and\nwaited for sleep to come; instead of sleep, however, there came to me\na succession of curiously vivid clairvoyant pictures. There was no\nlight in the room, and it was perfectly dark; I had my eyes shut also.\nBut notwithstanding the darkness I suddenly was conscious of looking\nat a scene of singular beauty. It was as if I saw a living miniature\nabout the size of a magic-lantern slide. At this moment I can recall\nthe scene as if I saw it again. It was a seaside piece. The moon was\nshining upon the water, which rippled slowly on to the beach. Right\nbefore me a long mole ran into the water.\n\n\"On either side of the mole irregular rocks stood up above the\nsea-level. On the shore stood several houses, square and rude, which\nresembled nothing that I had ever seen in house architecture. No one\nwas stirring, but the moon was there and the sea and the gleam of the\nmoonlight on the rippling waters, just as if I had been looking on the\nactual scene.\n\n\"It was so beautiful that I remember thinking that if it continued I\nshould be so interested in looking at it that I should never go to\nsleep. I was wide awake, and at the same time that I saw the scene I\ndistinctly heard the dripping of the rain outside the window. Then\nsuddenly, without any apparent object or reason, the scene changed.\n\n\"The moonlit sea vanished, and in its place I was looking right into\nthe interior of a reading-room. It seemed as if it had been used as a\nschoolroom in the daytime, and was employed as a reading-room in the\nevening. I remember seeing one reader who had a curious resemblance to\nTim Harrington, although it was not he, hold up a magazine or book in\nhis hand and laugh. It was not a picture--it was there.\n\n\"The scene was just as if you were looking through an opera-glass; you\nsaw the play of the muscles, the gleaming of the eye, every movement\nof the unknown persons in the unnamed place into which you were\ngazing. I saw all that without opening my eyes, nor did my eyes have\nanything to do with it. You see such things as these as it were with\nanother sense which is more inside your head than in your eyes.\n\n\"This was a very poor and paltry experience, but it enabled me to\nunderstand better how it is that clairvoyants see than any amount of\ndisquisition.\n\n\"The pictures were _apropos_ of nothing; they had been suggested by\nnothing I had been reading or talking of; they simply came as if I had\nbeen able to look through a glass at what was occurring somewhere else\nin the world. I had my peep, and then it passed, nor have I had a\nrecurrence of a similar experience.\"\n\nMr. Stead regards that as a \"poor and paltry experience,\" and it may\nperhaps be considered so when compared with the greater possibilities,\nyet I know many students who would be very thankful to have even so\nmuch of direct personal experience to tell. Small though it may be in\nitself, it at once gives the seer a clue to the whole thing, and\nclairvoyance would be a living actuality to a man who had seen even\nthat much in a way that it could never have been without that little\ntouch with the unseen world.\n\nThese pictures were much too clear to have been mere reflections of\nthe thought of others, and besides, the description unmistakably shows\nthat they were views seen through an astral telescope; so either Mr.\nStead must quite unconsciously have set a current going for himself,\nor (which is much more probable) some kindly astral entity set it in\nmotion for him, and gave him, to while away a tedious delay, any\npictures that happened to come handy at the end of the tube.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\nCLAIRVOYANCE IN TIME: THE PAST.\n\n\nClairvoyance in time--that is to say, the power of reading the past\nand the future--is, like all the other varieties, possessed by\ndifferent people in very varying degrees, ranging from the man who has\nboth faculties fully at his command, down to one who only occasionally\ngets involuntary and very imperfect glimpses or reflections of these\nscenes of other days. A person of the latter type might have, let us\nsay, a vision of some event in the past; but it would be liable to the\nmost serious distortion, and even if it happened to be fairly accurate\nit would almost certainly be a mere isolated picture, and he would\nprobably be quite unable to relate it to what had occurred before or\nafter it, or to account for anything unusual which might appear in it.\nThe trained man, on the other hand, could follow the drama connected\nwith his picture backwards or forwards to any extent that might seem\ndesirable, and trace out with equal ease the causes which had led up\nto it or the results which it in turn would produce.\n\nWe shall probably find it easier to grasp this somewhat difficult\nsection of our subject if we consider it in the subdivisions which\nnaturally suggest themselves, and deal first with the vision which\nlooks backwards into the past, leaving for later examination that\nwhich pierces the veil of the future. In each case it will be well for\nus to try to understand what we can of the _modus operandi_, even\nthough our success can at best be only a very modified one, owing\nfirst to the imperfect information on some parts of the subject at\npresent possessed by our investigators, and secondly to the\never-recurring failure of physical words to express a hundredth part\neven of the little we do know about higher planes and faculties.\n\nIn the case then of a detailed vision of the remote past, how is it\nobtained, and to what plane of nature does it really belong? The\nanswer to both these questions is contained in the reply that it is\nread from the akashic records; but that statement in return will\nrequire a certain amount of explanation for many readers. The word is\nin truth somewhat of a misnomer, for though the records are\nundoubtedly read from the akasha, or matter of the mental plane, yet\nit is not to it that they really belong. Still worse is the\nalternative title, \"records of the astral light,\" which has sometimes\nbeen employed, for these records lie far beyond the astral plane, and\nall that can be obtained on it are only broken glimpses of a kind of\ndouble reflection of them, as will presently be explained.\n\nLike so many others of our Theosophical terms, the word akasha has\nbeen very loosely used. In some of our earlier books it was considered\nas synonymous with astral light, and in others it was employed to\nsignify any kind of invisible matter, from mulaprakriti down to the\nphysical ether. In later books its use has been restricted to the\nmatter of the mental plane, and it is in that sense that the records\nmay be spoken of as akashic, for although they are not originally made\non that plane any more than on the astral, yet it is there that we\nfirst come definitely into contact with them and find it possible to\ndo reliable work with them.\n\nThis subject of the records is by no means an easy one to deal with,\nfor it is one of that numerous class which requires for its perfect\ncomprehension faculties of a far higher order than any which humanity\nhas yet evolved. The real solution of its problems lies on planes far\nbeyond any that we can possibly know at present, and any view that we\ntake of it must necessarily be of the most imperfect character, since\nwe cannot but look at it from below instead of from above. The idea\nwhich we form of it must therefore be only partial, yet it need not\nmislead us unless we allow ourselves to think of the tiny fragment\nwhich is all that we can see as though it were the perfect whole. If\nwe are careful that such conceptions as we may form shall be accurate\nas far as they go, we shall have nothing to unlearn, though much to\nadd, when in the course of our further progress we gradually acquire\nthe higher wisdom. Be it understood then at the commencement that a\nthorough grasp of our subject is an impossibility at the present stage\nof our evolution, and that many points will arise as to which no exact\nexplanation is yet obtainable, though it may often be possible to\nsuggest analogies and to indicate the lines along which an explanation\nmust lie.\n\nLet us then try to carry back our thoughts to the beginning of this\nsolar system to which we belong. We are all familiar with the ordinary\nastronomical theory of its origin--that which is commonly called the\nnebular hypothesis--according to which it first came into existence as\na gigantic glowing nebula, of a diameter far exceeding that of the\norbit of even the outermost of the planets, and then, as in the course\nof countless ages that enormous sphere gradually cooled and\ncontracted, the system as we know it was formed.\n\nOccult science accepts that theory, in its broad outline, as correctly\nrepresenting the purely physical side of the evolution of our system,\nbut it would add that if we confine our attention to this physical\nside only we shall have a very incomplete and incoherent idea of what\nreally happened. It would postulate, to begin with, that the exalted\nBeing who undertakes the formation of a system (whom we sometimes\ncall the Logos of the system) first of all forms in His mind a\ncomplete conception of the whole of it with all its successive chains\nof worlds. By the very act of forming that conception He calls the\nwhole into simultaneous objective existence on the plane of His\nthought--a plane of course far above all those of which we know\nanything--from which the various globes descend when required into\nwhatever state of further objectivity may be respectively destined for\nthem. Unless we constantly bear in mind this fact of the real\nexistence of the whole system from the very beginning on a higher\nplane, we shall be perpetually misunderstanding the physical evolution\nwhich we see taking place down here.\n\nBut occultism has more than this to teach us on the subject. It tells\nus not only that all this wonderful system to which we belong is\ncalled into existence by the Logos, both on lower and on higher\nplanes, but also that its relation to Him is closer even than that,\nfor it is absolutely a part of Him--a partial expression of Him upon\nthe physical plane--and that the movement and energy of the whole\nsystem is _His_ energy, and is all carried on within the limits of His\naura. Stupendous as this conception is, it will yet not be wholly\nunthinkable to those of us who have made any study of the subject of\nthe aura.\n\nWe are familiar with the idea that as a person progresses on the\nupward path his causal body, which is the determining limit of his\naura, distinctly increases in size as well as in luminosity and purity\nof colour. Many of us know from experience that the aura of a pupil\nwho has already made considerable advance on the Path is very much\nlarger than that of one who is but just setting his foot upon its\nfirst step, while in the case of an Adept the proportional increase is\nfar greater still. We read in quite exoteric Oriental scriptures of\nthe immense extension of the aura of the Buddha; I think that three\nmiles is mentioned on one occasion as its limit, but whatever the\nexact measurement may be, it is obvious that we have here another\nrecord of this fact of the extremely rapid growth of the causal body\nas man passes on his upward way. There can be little doubt that the\nrate of this growth would itself increase in geometrical progression,\nso that it need not surprise us to hear of an Adept on a still higher\nlevel whose aura is capable of including the entire world at once; and\nfrom this we may gradually lead our minds up to the conception that\nthere is a Being so exalted as to comprehend within Himself the whole\nof our solar system. And we should remember that, enormous as this\nseems to us, it is but as the tiniest drop in the vast ocean of space.\n\nSo of the Logos (who has in Him all the capacities and qualities with\nwhich we can possibly endow the highest God we can imagine) it is\nliterally true, as was said of old, that \"of Him and through Him, and\nto Him are all things,\" and \"in Him we live and move and have our\nbeing.\"\n\nNow if this be so, it is clear that whatever happens within our system\nhappens absolutely within the consciousness of its Logos, and so we at\nonce see that the true record must be His memory; and furthermore, it\nis obvious that on whatever plane that wondrous memory exists, it\ncannot but be far above anything that we know, and consequently\nwhatever records we may find ourselves able to read must be only a\nreflection of that great dominant fact, mirrored in the denser media\nof the lower planes.\n\nOn the astral plane it is at once evident that this is so--that what\nwe are dealing with is only a reflection of a reflection, and an\nexceedingly imperfect one, for such records as can be reached there\nare fragmentary in the extreme, and often seriously distorted. We know\nhow universally water is used as a symbol of the astral light, and in\nthis particular case it is a remarkably apt one. From the surface of\nstill water we may get a clear reflection of the surrounding objects,\njust as from a mirror; but at the best it is only a reflection--a\nrepresentation in two dimensions of three-dimensional objects, and\ntherefore differing in all its qualities, except colour, from that\nwhich it represents; and in addition to this, it is always reversed.\n\nBut let the surface of the water be ruffled by the wind and what do we\nfind then? A reflection still, certainly, but so broken up and\ndistorted as to be quite useless or even misleading as a guide to the\nshape and real appearance of the objects reflected. Here and there for\na moment we might happen to get a clear reflection of some minute part\nof the scene--of a single leaf from a tree, for example; but it would\nneed long labour and considerable knowledge of natural laws to build\nup anything like a true conception of the object reflected by putting\ntogether even a large number of such isolated fragments of an image of\nit.\n\nNow in the astral plane we can never have anything approaching to what\nwe have imaged as a still surface, but on the contrary we have always\nto deal with one in rapid and bewildering motion; judge, therefore,\nhow little we can depend upon getting a clear and definite reflection.\nThus a clairvoyant who possesses only the faculty of astral sight can\nnever rely upon any picture of the past that comes before him as being\naccurate and perfect; here and there some part of it _may_ be so, but\nhe has no means of knowing which it is. If he is under the care of a\ncompetent teacher he may, by long and careful training, be shown how\nto distinguish between reliable and unreliable impressions, and to\nconstruct from the broken reflections some kind of image of the\nobject reflected; but usually long before he has mastered those\ndifficulties he will have developed the mental sight, which renders\nsuch labour unnecessary.\n\nOn the next plane, which we call the mental, conditions are very\ndifferent. There the record is full and accurate, and it would be\nimpossible to make any mistake in the reading. That is to say, if\nthree clairvoyants possessing the powers of the mental plane agreed to\nexamine a certain record there, what would be presented to their\nvision would be absolutely the same reflection in each case, and each\nwould acquire a correct impression from it in reading it. It does not\nhowever follow that when they all compared notes later on the physical\nplane their reports would agree exactly. It is well known that if\nthree people who witness an occurrence down here in the physical world\nset to work to describe it afterwards, their accounts will differ\nconsiderably, for each will have noticed especially those items which\nmost appeal to him, and will insensibly have made them the prominent\nfeatures of the event, sometimes ignoring other points which were in\nreality much more important.\n\nNow in the case of an observation on the mental plane this personal\nequation would not appreciably affect the impressions received, for\nsince each would thoroughly grasp the entire subject it would be\nimpossible for him to see its parts out of due proportion; but,\nexcept in the case of carefully trained and experienced persons, this\nfactor does come into play in transferring the impressions to the\nlower planes. It is in the nature of things impossible that any\naccount given down here of a vision or experience on the mental plane\ncan be complete, since nine-tenths of what is seen and felt there\ncould not be expressed by physical words at all; and, since all\nexpression must therefore be partial, there is obviously some\npossibility of selection as to the part expressed. It is for this\nreason that in all our Theosophical investigations of recent years so\nmuch stress has been laid upon the constant checking and verifying of\nclairvoyant testimony, nothing which rests upon the vision of one\nperson only having been allowed to appear in our later books.\n\nBut even when the possibility of error from this factor of personal\nequation has been reduced to a minimum by a careful system of\ncounter-checking, there still remains the very serious difficulty which\nis inherent in the operation of bringing down impressions from a higher\nplane to a lower one. This is something analogous to the difficulty\nexperienced by a painter in his endeavour to reproduce a\nthree-dimensional landscape on a flat surface--that is, practically in\ntwo dimensions. Just as the artist needs long and careful training of\neye and hand before he can produce a satisfactory representation of\nnature, so does the clairvoyant need long and careful training before he\ncan describe accurately on a lower plane what he sees on a higher one;\nand the probability of getting an exact description from an untrained\nperson is about equal to that of getting a perfectly-finished landscape\nfrom one who has never learnt how to draw.\n\nIt must be remembered, too, that the most perfect picture is in\nreality infinitely far from being a reproduction of the scene which it\nrepresents, for hardly a single line or angle in it can ever be the\nsame as those in the object copied. It is simply a very ingenious\nattempt to make upon one only of our five senses, by means of lines\nand colours on a flat surface, an impression similar to that which\nwould have been made if we had actually had before us the scene\ndepicted. Except by a suggestion dependent entirely on our own\nprevious experience, it can convey to us nothing of the roar of the\nsea, of the scent of the flowers, of the taste of the fruit, or of the\nsoftness or hardness of the surface drawn.\n\nOf exactly similar nature, though far greater in degree, are the\ndifficulties experienced by a clairvoyant in his attempt to describe\nupon the physical plane what he has seen upon the astral; and they are\nfurthermore greatly enhanced by the fact that, instead of having\nmerely to recall to the minds of his hearers conceptions with which\nthey are already familiar, as the artist does when he paints men or\nanimals, fields or trees, he has to endeavour by the very imperfect\nmeans at his disposal to suggest to them conceptions which in most\ncases are absolutely new to them.\n\nSmall wonder then that, however vivid and striking his descriptions\nmay seem to his audience, he himself should constantly be impressed\nwith their total inadequacy, and should feel that his best efforts\nhave entirely failed to convey any idea of what he really sees. And we\nmust remember that in the case of the report given down here of a\nrecord read on the mental plane, this difficult operation of\ntransference from the higher to the lower has taken place not once but\ntwice, since the memory has been brought through the intervening\nastral plane. Even in a case where the investigator has the advantage\nof having developed his mental faculties so that he has the use of\nthem while awake in the physical body, he is still hampered by the\nabsolute incapacity of physical language to express what he sees.\n\nTry for a moment to realize fully what is called the fourth dimension,\nof which we said something in an earlier chapter. It is easy enough to\nthink of our own three dimensions--to image in our minds the length,\nbreadth and height of any object; and we see that each of these three\ndimensions is expressed by a line at right angles to both of the\nothers. The idea of the fourth dimension is that it might be possible\nto draw a fourth line which shall be at right angles to all three of\nthose already existing.\n\nNow the ordinary mind cannot grasp this idea in the least, though some\nfew who have made a special study of the subject have gradually come\nto be able to realize one or two very simple four-dimensional figures.\nStill, no words that they can use on this plane can bring any image of\nthese figures before the minds of others, and if any reader who has\nnot specially trained himself along that line will make the effort to\nvisualize such a shape he will find it quite impossible. Now to\nexpress such a form clearly in physical words would be, in effect, to\ndescribe accurately a single object on the astral plane; but in\nexamining the records on the mental plane we should have to face the\nadditional difficulties of a fifth dimension! So that the\nimpossibility of fully explaining these records will be obvious to\neven the most superficial observation.\n\nWe have spoken of the records as the memory of the Logos, yet they are\nvery much more than a memory in an ordinary sense of the word.\nHopeless as it may be to imagine how these images appear from His\npoint of view, we yet know that as we rise higher and higher we must\nbe drawing nearer to the true memory--must be seeing more nearly as He\nsees; so that great interest attaches to the experience of the\nclairvoyant with reference to these records when he stands upon the\nbuddhic plane--the highest which his consciousness can reach even\nwhen away from the physical body until he attains the level of the\nArhats.\n\nHere time and space no longer limit him; he no longer needs, as on the\nmental plane, to pass a series of events in review, for past, present\nand future are all alike simultaneously present to him, meaningless as\nthat sounds down here. Indeed, infinitely below the consciousness of\nthe Logos as even that exalted plane is, it is yet abundantly clear\nfrom what we see there that to Him the record must be far more than\nwhat we call a memory, for all that has happened in the past and all\nthat will happen in the future is _happening now_ before His eyes just\nas are the events of what we call the present time. Utterly\nincredible, wildly incomprehensible, of course, to our limited\nunderstanding; yet absolutely true for all that.\n\nNaturally we could not expect to understand at our present stage of\nknowledge how so marvellous a result is produced, and to attempt an\nexplanation would only be to involve ourselves in a mist of words from\nwhich we should gain no real information. Yet a line of thought recurs\nto my mind which perhaps suggests the direction in which it is\npossible that that explanation may lie: and whatever helps us to\nrealize that so astounding a statement may after all not be wholly\nimpossible will be of assistance in broadening our minds.\n\nSome thirty years ago I remember reading a very curious little book,\ncalled, I think, _The Stars and the Earth_, the object of which was to\nendeavour to show how it was scientifically possible that to the mind\nof God the past and the present might be absolutely simultaneous. Its\narguments struck me at the time as decidedly ingenious, and I will\nproceed to summarize them, as I think they will be found somewhat\nsuggestive in connection with the subject which we have been\nconsidering.\n\nWhen we see anything, whether it be the book which we hold in our\nhands or a star millions of miles away, we do so by means of a\nvibration in the ether, commonly called a ray of light, which passes\nfrom the object seen to our eyes. Now the speed with which this\nvibration passes is so great--about 186,000 miles in a second--that\nwhen we are considering any object in our own world we may regard it\nas practically instantaneous. When, however, we come to deal with\ninterplanetary distances we have to take the speed of light into\nconsideration, for an appreciable period is occupied in traversing\nthese vast spaces. For example it takes eight minutes and a quarter\nfor light to travel to us from the sun, so that when we look at the\nsolar orb we see it by means of a ray of light which left it more than\neight minutes ago.\n\nFrom this follows a very curious result. The ray of light by which we\nsee the sun can obviously report to us only the state of affairs\nwhich existed in that luminary when it started on its journey, and\nwould not be in the least affected by anything that happened there\nafter it left; so that we really see the sun not as he _is_, but as he\nwas eight minutes ago. That is to say that if anything important took\nplace in the sun--the formation of a new sun-spot, for instance--an\nastronomer who was watching the orb through his telescope at the time\nwould be quite unaware of the incident while it was happening, since\nthe ray of light bearing the news would not reach him until more than\neight minutes later.\n\nThe difference is more striking when we consider the fixed stars,\nbecause in their case the distances are so enormously greater. The\npole star, for example, is so far off that light, travelling at the\ninconceivable speed above mentioned, takes a little more than fifty\nyears to reach our eyes; and from that follows the strange but\ninevitable inference that we see the pole star not as and where it is\nat this moment, but as and where it was fifty years ago. Nay, if\nto-morrow some cosmic catastrophe were to shatter the pole star into\nfragments, we should still see it peacefully shining in the sky all\nthe rest of our lives; our children would grow up to middle age and\ngather their children about them in turn before the news of that\ntremendous accident reached any terrestrial eye. In the same way there\nare other stars so far distant that light takes thousands of years to\ntravel from them to us, and with reference to their condition our\ninformation is therefore thousands of years behind time.\n\nNow carry the argument a step farther. Suppose that we were able to\nplace a man at the distance of 186,000 miles from the earth, and yet\nto endow him with the wonderful faculty of being able from that\ndistance to see what was happening here as clearly as though he were\nstill close beside us. It is evident that a man so placed would see\neverything a second after the time when it really happened, and so at\nthe present moment he would be seeing what happened a second ago.\nDouble the distance, and he would be two seconds behind time, and so\non; remove him to the distance of the sun (still allowing him to\npreserve the same mysterious power of sight) and he would look down\nand watch you doing not what you _are_ doing now, but what you _were_\ndoing eight minutes and a quarter ago. Carry him away to the pole\nstar, and he would see passing before his eyes the events of fifty\nyears ago; he would be watching the childish gambols of those who at\nthe very same moment were really middle-aged men. Marvellous as this\nmay sound, it is literally and scientifically true, and cannot be\ndenied.\n\nThe little book went on to argue logically enough that God, being\nalmighty, must possess the wonderful power of sight which we have\nbeen postulating for our observer; and further, that being\nomnipresent, He must be at each of the stations which we mentioned,\nand also at every intermediate point, not successively but\nsimultaneously. Granting these premises, the inevitable deduction\nfollows that everything which has ever happened from the very\nbeginning of the world _must_ be at this very moment taking place\nbefore the eye of God--not a mere memory of it, but the actual\noccurrence itself being now under His observation.\n\nAll this is materialistic enough, and on the plane of purely physical\nscience, and we may therefore be assured that it is _not_ the way in\nwhich the memory of the Logos acts; yet it is neatly worked out and\nabsolutely incontrovertible, and as I have said before, it is not\nwithout its use, since it gives us a glimpse of some possibilities\nwhich otherwise might not occur to us.\n\nBut, it may be asked, how is it possible, amid the bewildering\nconfusion of these records of the past, to find any particular picture\nwhen it is wanted? As a matter of fact, the untrained clairvoyant\nusually cannot do so without some special link to put him _en rapport_\nwith the subject required. Psychometry is an instance in point, and it\nis quite probable that our ordinary memory is really only another\npresentment of the same idea. It seems as though there were a sort of\nmagnetic attachment or affinity between any particle of matter and the\nrecord which contains its history--an affinity which enables it to act\nas a kind of conductor between that record and the faculties of anyone\nwho can read it.\n\nFor example, I once brought from Stonehenge a tiny fragment of stone,\nnot larger than a pin's head, and on putting this into an envelope and\nhanding it to a psychometer who had no idea what it was, she at once\nbegan to describe that wonderful ruin and the desolate country\nsurrounding it, and then went on to picture vividly what were\nevidently scenes from its early history, showing that that\ninfinitesimal fragment had been sufficient to put her into\ncommunication with the records connected with the spot from which it\ncame. The scenes through which we pass in the course of our life seem\nto act in the same manner upon the cells of our brain as did the\nhistory of Stonehenge upon that particle of stone: they establish a\nconnection with those cells by means of which our mind is put _en\nrapport_ with that particular portion of the records, and so we\n\"remember\" what we have seen.\n\nEven a trained clairvoyant needs some link to enable him to find the\nrecord of an event of which he has no previous knowledge. If, for\nexample, he wished to observe the landing of Julius Caesar on the\nshores of England, there are several ways in which he might approach\nthe subject. If he happened to have visited the scene of the\noccurrence, the simplest way would probably be to call up the image of\nthat spot, and then run back through its records until he reached the\nperiod desired. If he had not seen the place, he might run back in\ntime to the date of the event, and then search the Channel for a fleet\nof Roman galleys; or he might examine the records of Roman life at\nabout that period, where he would have no difficulty in identifying so\nprominent a figure as Caesar, or in tracing him when found through all\nhis Gallic wars until he set his foot upon British land.\n\nPeople often enquire as to the aspect of these records--whether they\nappear near or far away from the eye, whether the figures in them are\nlarge or small, whether the pictures follow one another as in a\npanorama or melt into one another like dissolving views, and so on.\nOne can only reply that their appearance varies to a certain extent\naccording to the conditions under which they are seen. Upon the astral\nplane the reflection is most often a simple picture, though\noccasionally the figures seen would be endowed with motion; in this\nlatter case, instead of a mere snapshot a rather longer and more\nperfect reflection has taken place.\n\nOn the mental plane they have two widely different aspects. When the\nvisitor to that plane is not thinking specially of them in any way,\nthe records simply form a background to whatever is going on, just as\nthe reflections in a pier-glass at the end of a room might form a\nbackground to the life of the people in it. It must always be borne in\nmind that under these conditions they are really merely reflections\nfrom the ceaseless activity of a great Consciousness upon a far higher\nplane, and have very much the appearance of an endless succession of\nthe recently invented _cinematographe_, or living photographs. They do\nnot melt into one another like dissolving views, nor do a series of\nordinary pictures follow one another; but the action of the reflected\nfigures constantly goes on, as though one were watching the actors on\na distant stage.\n\nBut if the trained investigator turns his attention specially to any\none scene, or wishes to call it up before him, an extraordinary change\nat once takes place, for this is the plane of thought, and to think of\nanything is to bring it instantaneously before you. For example, if a\nman wills to see the record of that event to which we before\nreferred--the landing of Julius Caesar--he finds himself in a moment\nnot looking at any picture, but standing on the shore among the\nlegionaries, with the whole scene being enacted around him, precisely\nin every respect as he would have seen it if he had stood there in the\nflesh on that autumn morning in the year 55 B.C. Since what he sees is\nbut a reflection, the actors are of course entirely unconscious of\nhim, nor can any effort of his change the course of their action in\nthe smallest degree, except only that he can control the rate at which\nthe drama shall pass before him--can have the events of a whole year\nrehearsed before his eyes in a single hour, or can at any moment stop\nthe movement altogether, and hold any particular scene in view as a\npicture as long as he chooses.\n\nIn truth he observes not only what he would have seen if he had been\nthere at the time in the flesh, but much more. He hears and\nunderstands all that the people say, and he is conscious of all their\nthoughts and motives; and one of the most interesting of the many\npossibilities which open up before one who has learnt to read the\nrecords is the study of the thought of ages long past--the thought of\nthe cave-men and the lake-dwellers as well as that which ruled the\nmighty civilisations of Atlantis, of Egypt or Chaldaea. What splendid\npossibilities open up before the man who is in full possession of this\npower may easily be imagined. He has before him a field of historical\nresearch of most entrancing interest. Not only can he review at his\nleisure all history with which we are acquainted, correcting as he\nexamines it the many errors and misconceptions which have crept into\nthe accounts handed down to us; he can also range at will over the\nwhole story of the world from its very beginning, watching the slow\ndevelopment of intellect in man, the descent of the Lords of the\nFlame, and the growth of the mighty civilisations which they founded.\n\nNor is his study confined to the progress of humanity alone; he has\nbefore him, as in a museum, all the strange animal and vegetable forms\nwhich occupied the stage in days when the world was young; he can\nfollow all the wonderful geological changes which have taken place,\nand watch the course of the great cataclysms which have altered the\nwhole face of the earth again and again.\n\nIn one especial case an even closer sympathy with the past is possible\nto the reader of the records. If in the course of his enquiries he has\nto look upon some scene in which he himself has in a former birth\ntaken part, he may deal with it in two ways; he can either regard it\nin the usual manner as a spectator (though always, be it remembered,\nas a spectator whose insight and sympathy are perfect) or he may once\nmore identify himself with that long-dead personality of his--may\nthrow himself back for the time into that life of long ago, and\nabsolutely experience over again the thoughts and the emotions, the\npleasures and the pains of a prehistoric past. No wilder and more\nvivid adventures can be conceived than some of those through which he\nthus may pass; yet through it all he must never lose hold of the\nconsciousness of his own individuality--must retain the power to\nreturn at will to his present personality.\n\nIt is often asked how it is possible for an investigator accurately to\ndetermine the date of any picture from the far-distant past which he\ndisinters from the records. The fact is that it is sometimes rather\ntedious work to find an exact date, but the thing can usually be done\nif it is worth while to spend the time and trouble over it. If we are\ndealing with Greek or Roman times the simplest method is usually to\nlook into the mind of the most intelligent person present in the\npicture, and see what date he supposes it to be; or the investigator\nmight watch him writing a letter or other document and observe what\ndate, if any, was included in what was written. When once the Roman or\nGreek date is thus obtained, to reduce it to our own system of\nchronology is merely a matter of calculation.\n\nAnother way which is frequently adopted is to turn from the scene\nunder examination to a contemporary picture in some great and\nwell-known city such as Rome, and note what monarch is reigning there,\nor who are the consuls for the year; and when such data are discovered\na glance at any good history will give the rest. Sometimes a date can\nbe obtained by examining some public proclamation or some legal\ndocument; in fact in the times of which we are speaking the difficulty\nis easily surmounted.\n\nThe matter is by no means so simple, however, when we come to deal\nwith periods much earlier than this--with a scene from early Egypt,\nChaldaea, or China, or to go further back still, from Atlantis itself\nor any of its numerous colonies. A date can still be obtained easily\nenough from the mind of any educated man, but there is no longer any\nmeans of relating it to our own system of dates, since the man will be\nreckoning by eras of which we know nothing, or by the reigns of kings\nwhose history is lost in the night of time.\n\nOur methods, nevertheless, are not yet exhausted. It must be\nremembered that it is possible for the investigator to pass the\nrecords before him at any speed that he may desire--at the rate of a\nyear in a second if he will, or even very much faster still. Now there\nare one or two events in ancient history whose dates have already been\naccurately fixed--as, for example, the sinking of Poseidonis in the\nyear 9564 B.C. It is therefore obvious that if from the general\nappearance of the surroundings it seems probable that a picture seen\nis within measurable distance of one of these events, it can be\nrelated to that event by the simple process of running through the\nrecord rapidly, and counting the years between the two as they pass.\n\nStill, if those years ran into thousands, as they might sometimes do,\nthis plan would be insufferably tedious. In that case we are driven\nback upon the astronomical method. In consequence of the movement\nwhich is commonly called the precession of the equinoxes, though it\nmight more accurately be described as a kind of second rotation of\nthe earth, the angle between the equator and the ecliptic steadily but\nvery slowly varies. Thus, after long intervals of time we find the\npole of the earth no longer pointing towards the same spot in the\napparent sphere of the heavens, or in other words, our pole-star is\nnot, as at present, [Greek: a] Ursae Minoris, but some other celestial\nbody; and from this position of the pole of the earth, which can\neasily be ascertained by careful observation of the night-sky of the\npicture under consideration, an approximate date can be calculated\nwithout difficulty.\n\nIn estimating the date of occurrences which took place millions of\nyears ago in earlier races, the period of a secondary rotation (or the\nprecession of the equinoxes) is frequently used as a unit, but of\ncourse absolute accuracy is not usually required in such cases, round\nnumbers being sufficient for all practical purposes in dealing with\nepochs so remote.\n\nThe accurate reading of the records, whether of one's own past lives\nor those of others, must not, however, be thought of as an achievement\npossible to anyone without careful previous training. As has been\nalready remarked, though occasional reflections may be had upon the\nastral plane, the power to use the mental sense is necessary before\nany reliable reading can be done. Indeed, to minimize the possibility\nof error, that sense ought to be fully at the command of the\ninvestigator while awake in the physical body; and to acquire that\nfaculty needs years of ceaseless labour and rigid self-discipline.\n\nMany people seem to expect that as soon as they have signed their\napplication and joined the Theosophical Society they will at once\nremember at least three or four of their past births; indeed, some of\nthem promptly begin to imagine recollections and declare that in their\nlast incarnation they were Mary Queen of Scots, Cleopatra, or Julius\nCaesar! Of course such extravagant claims simply bring discredit upon\nthose who are so foolish as to make them but unfortunately some of\nthat discredit is liable to be reflected, however unjustly, upon the\nSociety to which they belong, so that a man who feels seething within\nhim the conviction that he was Homer or Shakespeare would do well to\npause and apply common-sense tests on the physical plane before\npublishing the news to the world.\n\nIt is quite true that some people have had glimpses of scenes from\ntheir past lives in dreams, but naturally these are usually\nfragmentary and unreliable. I had myself in earlier life an experience\nof this nature. Among my dreams I found that one was constantly\nrecurring--a dream of a house with a portico over-looking a beautiful\nbay, not far from a hill on the top of which rose a graceful building.\nI knew that house perfectly, and was as familiar with the position of\nits rooms and the view from its door as I was with those of my home,\nin this present life. In those days I knew nothing about\nreincarnation, so that it seemed to me simply a curious coincidence\nthat this dream should repeat itself so often; and it was not until\nsome time after I had joined the Society that, when one who knew was\nshowing me some pictures of my last incarnation, I discovered that\nthis persistent dream had been in reality a partial recollection, and\nthat the house which I knew so well was the one in which I was born\nmore than two thousand years ago.\n\nBut although there are several cases on record in which some\nwell-remembered scene has thus come through from one life to another,\na considerable development of occult faculty is necessary before an\ninvestigator can definitely trace a line of incarnations, whether they\nbe his own or another man's. This will be obvious if we remember the\nconditions of the problem which has to be worked out. To follow a\nperson from this life to the one preceding it, it is necessary first\nof all to trace his present life backwards to his birth and then to\nfollow up in reverse order the stages by which the Ego descended into\nincarnation.\n\nThis will obviously take us back eventually to the condition of the\nEgo upon the higher levels of the mental plane; so it will be seen\nthat to perform this task effectually the investigator must be able to\nuse the sense corresponding to that exalted level while awake in his\nphysical body--in other words, his consciousness must be centred in\nthe reincarnating Ego itself, and no longer in the lower personality.\nIn that case, the memory of the Ego being aroused, his own past\nincarnations will be spread out before him like an open book, and he\nwould be able, if he wished, to examine the conditions of another Ego\nupon that level and trace him backwards through the lower mental and\nastral lives which led up to it, until he came to the last physical\ndeath of that Ego, and through it to his previous life.\n\nThere is no way but this in which the chain of lives can be followed\nthrough with absolute certainty: and consequently we may at once put\naside as conscious or unconscious impostors those people who advertise\nthat they are able to trace out anyone's past incarnations for so many\nshillings a head. Needless to say, the true occultist does not\nadvertise, and never under any circumstances accepts money for any\nexhibition of his powers.\n\nAssuredly the student who wishes to acquire the power of following up\na line of incarnations can do so only by learning from a qualified\nteacher how the work is to be done. There have been those who\npersistently asserted that it was only necessary for a man to feel\ngood and devotional and \"brotherly,\" and all the wisdom of the ages\nwould immediately flow in upon him; but a little common-sense will at\nonce expose the absurdity of such a position. However good a child\nmay be, if he wants to know the multiplication table he must set to\nwork and learn it; and the case is precisely similar with the capacity\nto use spiritual faculties. The faculties themselves will no doubt\nmanifest as the man evolves, but he can learn how to use them reliably\nand to the best advantage only by steady hard work and persevering\neffort.\n\nTake the case of those who wish to help others while on the astral\nplane during sleep; it is obvious that the more knowledge they possess\nhere, the more valuable will their services be on that higher plane.\nFor example, the knowledge of languages would be useful to them, for\nthough on the mental plane men can communicate directly by\nthought-transference, whatever their languages may be, on the astral\nplane this is not so, and a thought must be definitely formulated in\nwords before it is comprehensible. If, therefore, you wish to help a\nman on that plane, you must have some language in common by means of\nwhich you can communicate with him, and consequently the more\nlanguages you know the more widely useful you will be. In fact there\nis perhaps no kind of knowledge for which a use cannot be found in the\nwork of the occultist.\n\nIt would be well for all students to bear in mind that occultism is\nthe apotheosis of common-sense, and that every vision which comes to\nthem is not necessarily a picture from the akashic records, nor every\nexperience a revelation from on high. It is better far to err on the\nside of healthy scepticism than of over-credulity; and it is an\nadmirable rule never to hunt about for an occult explanation of\nanything when a plain and obvious physical one is available. Our duty\nis to endeavour to keep our balance always, and never to lose our\nself-control, but to take a reasonable, common-sense view of whatever\nmay happen to us; so shall we be better Theosophists, wiser\noccultists, and more useful helpers than we have ever been before.\n\nAs usual, we find examples of all degrees of the power to see into\nthis memory of nature, from the trained man who can consult the record\nfor himself at will, down to the person who gets nothing but\noccasional vague glimpses, or has even perhaps had only one such\nglimpse. But even the man who possesses this faculty only partially\nand occasionally still finds it of the deepest interest. The\npsychometer, who needs an object physically connected with the past in\norder to bring it all into life again around him, and the\ncrystal-gazer who can sometimes direct his less certain astral\ntelescope to some historic scene of long ago, may both derive the\ngreatest enjoyment from the exercise of their respective gifts, even\nthough they may not always understand exactly how their results are\nproduced, and may not have them fully under control under all\ncircumstances.\n\nIn many cases of the lower manifestations of these powers we find that\nthey are exercised unconsciously; many a crystal-gazer watches scenes\nfrom the past without being able to distinguish them from visions of\nthe present, and many a vaguely-psychic person finds pictures\nconstantly arising before his eyes without ever realizing that he is\nin effect psychometrizing the various objects around him as he happens\nto touch them or stand near them.\n\nAn interesting variant of this class of psychics is the man who is\nable to psychometrize persons only, and not inanimate objects as is\nmore usual. In most cases this faculty shows itself erratically, so\nthat such a psychic will, when introduced to a stranger, often see in\na flash some prominent event in that stranger's earlier life, but on\nother similar occasions will receive no special impression. More\nrarely we meet with someone who gets detailed visions of the past life\nof everyone whom he encounters. Perhaps one of the best examples of\nthis class was the German writer Zschokke, who describes in his\nautobiography this extraordinary power of which he found himself\npossessed. He says:--\n\n\"It has happened to me occasionally at the first meeting with a total\nstranger, when I have been listening in silence to his conversation,\nthat his past life up to the present moment, with many minute\ncircumstances belonging to one or other particular scene in it, has\ncome across me like a dream, but distinctly, entirely involuntarily\nand unsought, occupying in duration a few minutes.\n\n\"For a long time I was disposed to consider these fleeting visions as\na trick of the fancy--the more so as my dream-vision displayed to me\nthe dress and movements of the actors, the appearance of the room, the\nfurniture, and other accidents of the scene; till on one occasion, in\na gamesome mood, I narrated to my family the secret history of a\nsempstress who had just before quitted the room. I had never seen the\nperson before. Nevertheless the hearers were astonished, and laughed\nand would not be persuaded but that I had a previous acquaintance with\nthe former life of the person, inasmuch as what I had stated was\nperfectly true.\n\n\"I was not less astonished to find that my dream-vision agreed with\nreality. I then gave more attention to the subject, and as often as\npropriety allowed of it, I related to those whose lives had so passed\nbefore me the substance of my dream-vision, to obtain from them its\ncontradiction or confirmation. On every occasion its confirmation\nfollowed, not without amazement on the part of those who gave it.\n\n\"On a certain fair-day I went into the town of Waldshut accompanied by\ntwo young foresters, who are still alive. It was evening, and, tired\nwith our walk, we went into an inn called the 'Vine.' We took our\nsupper with a numerous company at the public table, when it happened\nthat they made themselves merry over the peculiarities and simplicity\nof the Swiss in connection with the belief in mesmerism, Lavater's\nphysiognomical system and the like. One of my companions, whose\nnational pride was touched by their raillery, begged me to make some\nreply, particularly in answer to a young man of superior appearance\nwho sat opposite, and had indulged in unrestrained ridicule.\n\n\"It happened that the events of this person's life had just previously\npassed before my mind. I turned to him with the question whether he\nwould reply to me with truth and candour if I narrated to him the most\nsecret passages of his history, he being as little known to me as I to\nhim? That would, I suggested, go something beyond Lavater's\nphysiognomical skill. He promised if I told the truth to admit it\nopenly. Then I narrated the events with which my dream-vision had\nfurnished me, and the table learnt the history of the young\ntradesman's life, of his school years, his peccadilloes, and, finally,\nof a little act of roguery committed by him on the strong-box of his\nemployer. I described the uninhabited room with its white walls, where\nto the right of the brown door there had stood upon the table the\nsmall black money-chest, etc. The man, much struck, admitted the\ncorrectness of each circumstance--even, which I could not expect, of\nthe last.\"\n\nAnd after narrating this incident, the worthy Zschokke calmly goes on\nto wonder whether perhaps after all this remarkable power, which he\nhad so often displayed, might not really have been always the result\nof mere chance coincidence!\n\nComparatively few accounts of persons possessing this faculty of\nlooking back into the past are to be found in the literature of the\nsubject, and it might therefore be supposed to be much less common\nthan prevision. I suspect, however, that the truth is rather that it\nis much less commonly recognized. As I said before, it may very easily\nhappen that a person may see a picture of the past without recognizing\nit as such, unless there happens to be in it something which attracts\nspecial attention, such as a figure in armour or in antique costume. A\nprevision also might not always be recognized as such at the time; but\nthe occurrence of the event foreseen recalls it vividly at the same\ntime that it manifests its nature, so that it is unlikely to be\noverlooked. It is probable, therefore, that occasional glimpses of\nthese astral reflections of the akashic records are commoner than the\npublished accounts would lead us to believe.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\nCLAIRVOYANCE IN TIME: THE FUTURE.\n\n\nEven if, in a dim sort of way, we feel ourselves able to grasp the\nidea that the whole of the past may be simultaneously and actively\npresent in a sufficiently exalted consciousness, we are confronted by\na far greater difficulty when we endeavour to realize how all the\nfuture may also be comprehended in that consciousness. If we could\nbelieve in the Mohammedan doctrine of kismet, or the Calvinistic\ntheory of predestination, the conception would be easy enough, but\nknowing as we do that both these are grotesque distortions of the\ntruth, we must look round for a more acceptable hypothesis.\n\nThere may still be some people who deny the possibility of prevision,\nbut such denial simply shows their ignorance of the evidence on the\nsubject. The large number of authenticated cases leaves no room for\ndoubt as to the fact, but many of them are of such a nature as to\nrender a reasonable explanation by no means easy to find. It is\nevident that the Ego possesses a certain amount of previsional\nfaculty, and if the events foreseen were always of great importance,\none might suppose that an extraordinary stimulus had enabled him for\nthat occasion only to make a clear impression of what he saw upon his\nlower personality. No doubt that is the explanation of many of the\ncases in which death or grave disaster is foreseen, but there are a\nlarge number of instances on record to which it does not seem to\napply, since the events foretold are frequently exceedingly trivial\nand unimportant.\n\nA well-known story of second-sight in Scotland will illustrate what I\nmean. A man who had no belief in the occult was forewarned by a\nHighland seer of the approaching death of a neighbour. The prophecy\nwas given with considerable wealth of detail, including a full\ndescription of the funeral, with the names of the four pall-bearers\nand others who would be present. The auditor seems to have laughed at\nthe whole story and promptly forgotten it, but the death of his\nneighbour at the time foretold recalled the warning to his mind, and\nhe determined to falsify part of the prediction at any rate by being\none of the pall-bearers himself. He succeeded in getting matters\narranged as he wished, but just as the funeral was about to start he\nwas called away from his post by some small matter which detained him\nonly a minute or two. As he came hurrying back he saw with surprise\nthat the procession had started without him, and that the prediction\nhad been exactly fulfilled, for the four pall-bearers were those who\nhad been indicated in the vision.\n\nNow here is a very trifling matter, which could have been of no\npossible importance to anybody, definitely foreseen months beforehand;\nand although a man makes a determined effort to alter the arrangement\nindicated he fails entirely to affect it in the least. Certainly this\nlooks very much like predestination, even down to the smallest detail,\nand it is only when we examine this question from higher planes that\nwe are able to see our way to escape that theory. Of course, as I said\nbefore about another branch of the subject, a full explanation eludes\nus as yet, and obviously must do so until our knowledge is infinitely\ngreater than it is now; the most that we can hope to do for the\npresent is to indicate the line along which an explanation may be\nfound.\n\nThere is no doubt whatever that, just as what is happening now is the\nresult of causes set in motion in the past, so what will happen in the\nfuture will be the result of causes already in operation. Even down\nhere we can calculate that if certain actions are performed certain\nresults will follow, but our reckoning is constantly liable to be\ndisturbed by the interference of factors which we have not been able\nto take into account. But if we raise our consciousness to the mental\nplane we can see very much farther into the results of our actions.\n\nWe can trace, for example, the effect of a casual word, not only upon\nthe person to whom it was addressed, but through him on many others as\nit is passed on in widening circles, until it seems to have affected\nthe whole country; and one glimpse of such a vision is far more\nefficient than any number of moral precepts in impressing upon us the\nnecessity of extreme circumspection in thought, word, and deed. Not\nonly can we from that plane see thus fully the result of every action,\nbut we can also see where and in what way the results of other actions\napparently quite unconnected with it will interfere with and modify\nit. In fact, it may be said that the results of all causes at present\nin action are clearly visible--that the future, as it would be if no\nentirely new causes should arise, lies open before our gaze.\n\nNew causes of course do arise, because man's will is free; but in the\ncase of all ordinary people the use which they will make of their\nfreedom can be calculated beforehand with considerable accuracy. The\naverage man has so little real will that he is very much the creature\nof circumstances; his action in previous lives places him amid certain\nsurroundings, and their influence upon him is so very much the most\nimportant factor in his life-story that his future course may be\npredicted with almost mathematical certainty. With the developed man\nthe case is different; for him also the main events of life are\narranged by his past actions, but the way in which he will allow them\nto affect him, the methods by which he will deal with them and perhaps\ntriumph over them--these are all his own, and they cannot be foreseen\neven on the mental plane except as probabilities.\n\nLooking down on man's life in this way from above, it seems as though\nhis free will could be exercised only at certain crises in his career.\nHe arrives at a point in his life where there are obviously two or\nthree alternative courses open before him; he is absolutely free to\nchoose which of them he pleases, and although some one who knew his\nnature thoroughly well might feel almost certain what his choice would\nbe, such knowledge on his friend's part is in no sense a compelling\nforce.\n\nBut when he _has_ chosen, he has to go through with it and take the\nconsequences; having entered upon a particular path he may, in many\ncases, be forced to go on for a very long way before he has any\nopportunity to turn aside. His position is somewhat like that of the\ndriver of a train; when he comes to a junction he may have the points\nset either this way or that, and so can pass on to whichever line he\npleases, but when he _has_ passed on to one of them he is compelled to\nrun on along the line which he has selected until he reaches another\nset of points, where again an opportunity of choice is offered to him.\n\nNow, in looking down from the mental plane, these points of new\ndeparture would be clearly visible, and all the results of each choice\nwould lie open before us, certain to be worked out even to the\nsmallest detail. The only point which would remain uncertain would be\nthe all-important one as to which choice the man would make. We\nshould, in fact, have not one but several futures mapped out before\nour eyes, without necessarily being able to determine which of them\nwould materialize itself into accomplished fact. In most instances we\nshould see so strong a probability that we should not hesitate to come\nto a decision, but the case which I have described is certainly\ntheoretically possible. Still, even this much knowledge would enable\nus to do with safety a good deal of prediction; and it is not\ndifficult for us to imagine that a far higher power than ours might\nalways be able to foresee which way every choice would go, and\nconsequently to prophesy with absolute certainty.\n\nOn the buddhic plane, however, no such elaborate process of conscious\ncalculation is necessary, for, as I said before, in some manner which\ndown here is totally inexplicable, the past, the present, and the\nfuture, are there all existing simultaneously. One can only accept\nthis fact, for its cause lies in the faculty of the plane, and the\nway in which this higher faculty works is naturally quite\nincomprehensible to the physical brain. Yet now and then one may meet\nwith a hint that seems to bring us a trifle nearer to a dim\npossibility of comprehension. One such hint was given by Dr. Oliver\nLodge in his address to the British Association at Cardiff. He said:\n\n\"A luminous and helpful idea is that time is but a relative mode of\nregarding things; we progress through phenomena at a certain definite\npace, and this subjective advance we interpret in an objective manner,\nas if events moved necessarily in this order and at this precise rate.\nBut that may be only one mode of regarding them. The events may be in\nsome sense in existence always, both past and future, and it may be we\nwho are arriving at them, not they which are happening. The analogy of a\ntraveller in a railway train is useful; if he could never leave the\ntrain nor alter its pace he would probably consider the landscapes as\nnecessarily successive and be unable to conceive their co-existence....\nWe perceive, therefore, a possible fourth dimensional aspect about time,\nthe inexorableness of whose flow may be a natural part or our present\nlimitations. And if we once grasp the idea that past and future may be\nactually existing, we can recognize that they may have a controlling\ninfluence on all present action, and the two together may constitute the\n'higher plane' or totality of things after which, as it seems to me, we\nare impelled to seek, in connection with the directing of form or\ndeterminism, and the action of living beings consciously directed to a\ndefinite and preconceived end.\"\n\nTime is not in reality the fourth dimension at all; yet to look at it\nfor the moment from that point of view is some slight help towards\ngrasping the ungraspable. Suppose that we hold a wooden cone at right\nangles to a sheet of paper, and slowly push it through it point first.\nA microbe living on the surface of that sheet of paper, and having no\npower of conceiving anything outside of that surface, could not only\nnever see the cone as a whole, but he could form no sort of conception\nof such a body at all. All that he would see would be the sudden\nappearance of a tiny circle, which would gradually and mysteriously\ngrow larger and larger until it vanished from his world as suddenly\nand incomprehensibly as it had come into it.\n\nThus, what were in reality a series of sections of the cone would\nappear to him to be successive stages in the life of a circle, and it\nwould be impossible for him to grasp the idea that these successive\nstages could be seen simultaneously. Yet it is, of course, easy enough\nfor us, looking down upon the transaction from another dimension, to\nsee that the microbe is simply under a delusion arising from its own\nlimitations, and that the cone exists as a whole all the while. Our\nown delusion as to past, present, and future is possibly not\ndissimilar, and the view that is gained of any sequence of events from\nthe buddhic plane corresponds to the view of the cone as a whole.\nNaturally, any attempt to work out this suggestion lands us in a\nseries of startling paradoxes; but the fact remains a fact,\nnevertheless, and the time will come when it will be clear as noonday\nto our comprehension.\n\nWhen the pupil's consciousness is fully developed upon the buddhic\nplane, therefore, perfect prevision is possible to him, though he may\nnot--nay, he certainly will not--be able to bring the whole result of\nhis sight through fully and in order into this light. Still, a great\ndeal of clear foresight is obviously within his power whenever he\nlikes to exercise it; and even when he is not exercising it, frequent\nflashes of fore-knowledge come through into his ordinary life, so that\nhe often has an instantaneous intuition as to how things will turn out\neven before their inception.\n\nShort of this perfect prevision we find, as in the previous cases,\nthat all degrees of this type of clairvoyance exist, from the\noccasional vague premonitions which cannot in any true sense be called\nsight at all, up to frequent and fairly complete second-sight. The\nfaculty to which this latter somewhat misleading name has been given\nis an extremely interesting one, and would well repay more careful\nand systematic study than has ever hitherto been given to it.\n\nIt is best known to us as a not infrequent possession of the Scottish\nHighlanders, though it is by no means confined to them. Occasional\ninstances of it have appeared in almost every nation, but it has\nalways been commonest among mountaineers and men of lonely life. With\nus in England it is often spoken of as though it were the exclusive\nappanage of the Celtic race, but in reality it has appeared among\nsimilarly situated peoples the world over. It is stated, for example,\nto be very common among the Westphalian peasantry.\n\nSometimes the second-sight consists of a picture clearly foreshowing\nsome coming event; more frequently, perhaps, the glimpse of the future\nis given by some symbolical appearance. It is noteworthy that the\nevents foreseen are invariably unpleasant ones--death being the\ncommonest of all; I do not recollect a single instance in which the\nsecond-sight has shown anything which was not of the most gloomy\nnature. It has a ghastly symbolism which is all its own--a symbolism\nof shrouds and corpse-candles, and other funereal horrors. In some\ncases it appears to be to a certain extent dependent on locality, for\nit is stated that inhabitants of the Isle of Skye who possess the\nfaculty often lose it when they leave the island, even though it be\nonly to cross to the mainland. The gift of such sight is sometimes\nhereditary in a family for generations, but this is not an invariable\nrule, for it often appears sporadically in one member of a family\notherwise free from its lugubrious influence.\n\nAn example in which an accurate vision of a coming event was seen some\nmonths beforehand by second-sight has already been given. Here is\nanother and perhaps a more striking one, which I give exactly as it\nwas related to me by one of the actors in the scene.\n\n\"We plunged into the jungle, and had walked on for about an hour\nwithout much success, when Cameron, who happened to be next to me,\nstopped suddenly, turned pale as death, and, pointing straight before\nhim, cried in accents of horror:\n\n\"'See! see! merciful heaven, look there!'\n\n\"'Where? what? what is it?' we all shouted confusedly, as we rushed up\nto him and looked round in expectation of encountering a tiger--a\ncobra--we hardly knew what, but assuredly something terrible, since it\nhad been sufficient to cause such evident emotion in our usually\nself-contained comrade. But neither tiger nor cobra was\nvisible--nothing but Cameron pointing with ghastly, haggard face and\nstarting eyeballs at something we could not see.\n\n\"'Cameron! Cameron' cried I, seizing his arm, \"'for heaven's sake,\nspeak! What is the matter?'\n\n\"Scarcely were the words out of my mouth when a low, but very peculiar\nsound struck on my ear, and Cameron, dropping his pointing hand, said\nin a hoarse, strained voice, 'There! you heard it? Thank God it's\nover' and fell to the ground insensible.\n\n\"There was a momentary confusion while we unfastened his collar, and I\ndashed in his face some water which I fortunately had in my flask,\nwhile another tried to pour brandy between his clenched teeth; and\nunder cover of it I whispered to the man next to me (one of our\ngreatest sceptics, by the way), 'Beauchamp, did _you_ hear anything?'\n\n\"'Why, yes,' he replied, a curious sound, very; a sort of crash or\nrattle far away in the distance, yet very distinct; if the thing were\nnot utterly impossible, I could have sworn it was the rattle of\nmusketry.'\n\n\"'Just my impression,' murmured I; 'but hush! he is recovering.'\n\n\"In a minute or two he was able to speak feebly, and began to thank us\nand apologize for giving trouble; and soon he sat up, leaning against\na tree, and in a firm, though still low voice said:\n\n\"'My dear friends, I feel I owe you an explanation of my extraordinary\nbehaviour. It is an explanation that I would fain avoid giving; but it\nmust come some time, and so may as well be given now. You may perhaps\nhave noticed that when during our voyage you all joined in scoffing at\ndreams, portents and visions, I invariably avoided giving any opinion\non the subject. I did so because, while I had no desire to court\nridicule or provoke discussion, I was unable to agree with you,\nknowing only too well from my own dread experience that the world\nwhich men agree to call that of the supernatural is just as real\nas--nay, perhaps, even far more real than--this world we see about us.\nIn other words, I, like many of my countrymen, am cursed with the gift\nof second-sight--that awful faculty which foretells in vision\ncalamities that are shortly to occur.\n\n\"'Such a vision I had just now, and its exceptional horror moved me as\nyou have seen. I saw before me a corpse--not that of one who has died\na peaceful natural death, but that of the victim of some terrible\naccident; a ghastly, shapeless mass, with a face swollen, crushed,\nunrecognizable. I saw this dreadful object placed in a coffin, and the\nfuneral service performed over it. I saw the burial-ground, I saw the\nclergyman: and though I had never seen either before, I can picture\nboth perfectly in my mind's eye now; I saw you, myself, Beauchamp, all\nof us and many more, standing round as mourners; I saw the soldiers\nraise their muskets after the service was over; I heard the volley\nthey fired--and then I knew no more.'\n\n\"As he spoke of that volley of musketry I glanced across with a\nshudder at Beauchamp, and the look of stony horror on that handsome\nsceptic's face was not to be forgotten.\"\n\nThis is only one incident (and by no means the principal one) in a\nvery remarkable story of psychic experience, but as for the moment we\nare concerned merely with the example of second-sight which it gives\nus, I need only say that later in the day the party of young soldiers\ndiscovered the body of their commanding officer in the terrible\ncondition so graphically described by Mr. Cameron. The narrative\ncontinues:\n\n\"When, on the following evening, we arrived at our destination, and\nour melancholy deposition had been taken down by the proper\nauthorities, Cameron and I went out for a quiet walk, to endeavour\nwith the assistance of the soothing influence of nature to shake off\nsomething of the gloom which paralyzed our spirits. Suddenly he\nclutched my arm, and, pointing through some rude railings, said in a\ntrembling voice, 'Yes, there it is! that is the burial-ground I saw\nyesterday.' And when later on we were introduced to the chaplain of\nthe post, I noticed, though my friends did not, the irrepressible\nshudder with which Cameron took his hand, and I knew that he had\nrecognized the clergyman of his vision.\"\n\nAs for the occult rationale of all this, I presume Mr. Cameron's\nvision was a pure case of second-sight, and if so the fact that the\ntwo men who were evidently nearest to him (certainly one--probably\nboth--actually touching him) participated in it to the limited extent\nof hearing the concluding volley, while the others who were not so\nclose did not, would show that the intensity with which the vision\nimpressed itself upon the seer occasioned vibrations in his mind-body\nwhich were communicated to those of the persons in contact with him,\nas in ordinary thought-transference. Anyone who wishes to read the\nrest of the story will find it in the pages of _Lucifer_, vol. xx., p.\n457.\n\nScores of examples of similar nature to these might easily be\ncollected. With regard to the symbolical variety of this sight, it is\ncommonly stated among those who possess it that if on meeting a living\nperson they see a phantom shroud wrapped around him, it is a sure\nprognostication of his death. The date of the approaching decease is\nindicated either by the extent to which the shroud covers the body, or\nby the time of day at which the vision is seen; for if it be in the\nearly morning they say that the man will die during the same day, but\nif it be in the evening, then it will be only some time within a year.\n\nAnother variant (and a remarkable one) of the symbolic form of\nsecond-sight is that in which the headless apparition of the person\nwhose death is foretold manifests itself to the seer. An example of\nthat class is given in _Signs before Death_ as having happened in the\nfamily of Dr. Ferrier, though in that case, if I recollect rightly,\nthe vision did not occur until the time of the death, or very near it.\n\nTurning from seers who are regularly in possession of a certain\nfaculty, although its manifestations are only occasionally fully under\ntheir control, we are confronted by a large number of isolated\ninstances of prevision in the case of people with whom it is not in\nany way a regular faculty. Perhaps the majority of these occur in\ndreams, although examples of the waking vision are by no means\nwanting. Sometimes the prevision refers to an event of distinct\nimportance to the seer, and so justifies the action of the Ego in\ntaking the trouble to impress it. In other cases, the event is one\nwhich is of no apparent importance, or is not in any way connected\nwith the man to whom the vision comes. Sometimes it is clear that the\nintention of the Ego (or the communicating entity, whatever it may be)\nis to warn the lower self of the approach of some calamity, either in\norder that it may be prevented or, if that be not possible, that the\nshock may be minimized by preparation.\n\nThe event most frequently thus foreshadowed is, perhaps not\nunnaturally, death--sometimes the death of the seer himself, sometimes\nthat of one dear to him. This type of prevision is so common in the\nliterature of the subject, and its object is so obvious, that we need\nhardly cite examples of it; but one or two instances in which the\nprophetic sight, though clearly useful, was yet of a less sombre\ncharacter, will prove not uninteresting to the reader. The following\nis culled from that storehouse of the student of the uncanny, Mrs.\nCrowe's _Night Side of Nature_, p. 72.\n\n\"A few years ago Dr. Watson, now residing at Glasgow, dreamt that he\nreceived a summons to attend a patient at a place some miles from\nwhere he was living; that he started on horseback, and that as he was\ncrossing a moor he saw a bull making furiously at him, whose horns he\nonly escaped by taking refuge on a spot inaccessible to the animal,\nwhere he waited a long time till some people, observing his situation,\ncame to his assistance and released him.\n\n\"Whilst at breakfast on the following morning the summons came, and\nsmiling at the odd coincidence (as he thought it), he started on\nhorseback. He was quite ignorant of the road he had to go, but by and\nby he arrived at the moor, which he recognised, and presently the bull\nappeared, coming full tilt towards him. But his dream had shown him\nthe place of refuge, for which he instantly made, and there he spent\nthree or four hours, besieged by the animal, till the country people\nset him free. Dr. Watson declares that but for the dream he should not\nhave known in what direction to run for safety.\"\n\nAnother case, in which a much longer interval separated the warning\nand its fulfilment, is given by Dr. F. G. Lee, in _Glimpses of the\nSupernatural_, vol. i., p. 240.\n\n\"Mrs. Hannah Green, the housekeeper of a country family in\nOxfordshire, dreamt one night that she had been left alone in the\nhouse upon a Sunday evening, and that hearing a knock at the door of\nthe chief entrance she went to it and there found an ill-looking tramp\narmed with a bludgeon, who insisted on forcing himself into the house.\nShe thought that she struggled for some time to prevent him so doing,\nbut quite ineffectually, and that, being struck down by him and\nrendered insensible, he thereupon gained ingress to the mansion. On\nthis she awoke.\n\n\"As nothing happened for a considerable period the circumstance of the\ndream was soon forgotten, and, as she herself asserts, had altogether\npassed away from her mind. However, seven years afterwards this same\nhousekeeper was left with two other servants to take charge of an\nisolated mansion at Kensington (subsequently the town residence of the\nfamily), when on a certain Sunday evening, her fellow-servants having\ngone out and left her alone, she was suddenly startled by a loud knock\nat the front door.\n\n\"All of a sudden the remembrance of her former dream returned to her\nwith singular vividness and remarkable force, and she felt her lonely\nisolation greatly. Accordingly, having at once lighted a lamp on the\nhall table--during which act the loud knock was repeated with\nvigour--she took the precaution to go up to a landing on the stair and\nthrow up the window; and there to her intense terror she saw in the\nflesh the very man whom years previously she had seen in her dream,\narmed with the bludgeon and demanding an entrance.\n\n\"With great presence of mind she went down to the chief entrance, made\nthat and other doors and windows more secure, and then rang the\nvarious bells of the house violently, and placed lights in the upper\nrooms. It was concluded that by these acts the intruder was scared\naway.\"\n\nEvidently in this case also the dream was of practical use, as without\nit the worthy housekeeper would without doubt from sheer force of\nhabit have opened the door in the ordinary way in answer to the knock.\n\nIt is not, however, only in dream that the Ego impresses his lower\nself with what he thinks it well for it to know. Many instances\nshowing this might be taken from the books, but instead of quoting\nfrom them I will give a case related only a few weeks ago by a lady of\nmy acquaintance--a case which, although not surrounded with any\nromantic incident, has at least the merit of being new.\n\nMy friend, then, has two quite young children, and a little while ago\nthe elder of them caught (as was supposed) a bad cold, and suffered\nfor some days from a complete stoppage in the upper part of the nose.\nThe mother thought little of this, expecting it to pass off, until one\nday she suddenly saw before her in the air what she describes as a\npicture of a room, in the centre of which was a table on which her\nchild was lying insensible or dead, with some people bending over her.\nThe minutest details of the scene were clear to her, and she\nparticularly noticed that the child wore a white night-dress, whereas\nshe knew that all garments of that description possessed by her little\ndaughter happened to be pink.\n\nThis vision impressed her considerably, and suggested to her for the\nfirst time that the child might be suffering from something more\nserious than a cold, so she carried her off to a hospital for\nexamination. The surgeon who attended to her discovered the presence\nof a dangerous growth in the nose, which he pronounced must be\nremoved. A few days later the child was taken to the hospital for the\noperation, and was put to bed. When the mother arrived at the hospital\nshe found she had forgotten to bring one of the child's night-dresses,\nand so the nurses had to supply one, which was _white_. In this white\ndress the operation was performed on the girl the next day, in the\nroom that her mother saw in her vision, every circumstance being\nexactly reproduced.\n\nIn all these cases the prevision achieved its result, but the books\nare full of stories of warnings neglected or scouted, and of the\ndisaster that consequently followed. In some cases the information is\ngiven to someone who has practically no power to interfere in the\nmatter, as in the historic instance when John Williams, a Cornish\nmine-manager, foresaw in the minutest detail, eight or nine days\nbefore it took place, the assassination of Mr. Spencer Perceval, the\nthen Chancellor of the Exchequer, in the lobby of the House of\nCommons. Even in this case, however, it is just possible that\nsomething might have been done, for we read that Mr. Williams was so\nmuch impressed that he consulted his friends as to whether he ought\nnot to go up to London to warn Mr. Perceval. Unfortunately they\ndissuaded him, and the assassination took place. It does not seem very\nprobable that, even if he had gone up to town and related his story,\nmuch attention would have been paid to him, still there is just the\npossibility that some precautions might have been taken which would\nhave prevented the murder.\n\nThere is little to show us what particular action on higher planes led\nto this curious prophetic vision. The parties were entirely unknown to\none another, so that it was not caused by any close sympathy between\nthem. If it was an attempt made by some helper to avert the threatened\ndoom, it seems strange that no one who was sufficiently impressible\ncould be found nearer than Cornwall. Perhaps Mr. Williams, when on the\nastral plane during sleep, somehow came across this reflection of the\nfuture, and being naturally horrified thereby, passed it on to his\nlower mind in the hope that somehow something might be done to\nprevent it; but it is impossible to diagnose the case with certainty\nwithout examining the akashic records to see what actually took place.\n\nA typical instance of the absolutely purposeless foresight is that\nrelated by Mr. Stead, in his _Real Ghost Stories_ (p. 83), of his\nfriend Miss Freer, commonly known as Miss X. When staying at a country\nhouse this lady, being wide awake and fully conscious, once saw a\ndogcart drawn by a white horse standing at the hall door, with two\nstrangers in it, one of whom got out of the cart and stood playing\nwith a terrier. She noticed that he was wearing an ulster, and also\nparticularly observed the fresh wheel-marks made by the cart on the\ngravel. Nevertheless there was no cart there at the time; but half an\nhour later two strangers _did_ drive up in such an equipage, and every\ndetail of the lady's vision was accurately fulfilled. Mr. Stead goes\non to cite another instance of equally purposeless prevision where\nseven years separated the dream (for in this case it was a dream) and\nits fulfilment.\n\nAll these instances (and they are merely random selections from many\nhundreds) show that a certain amount of prevision is undoubtedly\npossible to the Ego, and such cases would evidently be much more\nfrequent if it were not for the exceeding density and lack of response\nin the lower vehicles of the majority of what we call civilized\nmankind--qualities chiefly attributable to the gross practical\nmaterialism of the present age. I am not thinking of any profession of\nmaterialistic belief as common, but of the fact that in all practical\naffairs of daily life nearly everyone is guided solely by\nconsiderations of worldly interest in some shape or other.\n\nIn many cases the Ego himself may be an undeveloped one, and his\nprevision consequently very vague; in others he himself may see\nclearly, but may find his lower vehicles so unimpressible that all he\ncan succeed in getting through into his physical brain may be an\nindefinite presage of coming disaster. Again, there are cases in which\na premonition is not the work of the Ego at all, but of some outside\nentity, who for some reason takes a friendly interest in the person to\nwhom the feeling comes. In the work which I quoted above, Mr. Stead\ntells us of the certainty which he felt many months beforehand that be\nwould be left in charge of the _Pall Mall Gazette_ though from an\nordinary point of view nothing seemed less probable. Whether that\nfore-knowledge was the result of an impression made by his own Ego or\nof a friendly hint from someone else it is impossible to say without\ndefinite investigation, but his confidence in it was fully justified.\n\nThere is one more variety of clairvoyance in time which ought not to\nbe left without mention. It is a comparatively rare one, but there\nare enough examples on record to claim our attention, though\nunfortunately the particulars given do not usually include those which\nwe should require in order to be able to diagnose it with certainty. I\nrefer to the cases in which spectral armies or phantom flocks of\nanimals have been seen. In _The Night Side of Nature_ (p. 462 _et\nseq._) we have accounts of several such visions. We are there told how\nat Havarah Park, near Ripley, a body of soldiers in white uniform,\namounting to several hundreds, was seen by reputable people to go\nthrough various evolutions and then vanish; and how some years earlier\na similar visionary army was seen in the neighbourhood of Inverness by\na respectable farmer and his son.\n\nIn this case also the number of troops was very great, and the\nspectators had not the slightest doubt at first that they were\nsubstantial forms of flesh and blood. They counted at least sixteen\npairs of columns, and had abundance of time to observe every\nparticular. The front ranks marched seven abreast, and were\naccompanied by a good many women and children, who were carrying tin\ncans and other implements of cookery. The men were clothed in red, and\ntheir arms shone brightly in the sun. In the midst of them was an\nanimal, a deer or a horse, they could not distinguish which, that they\nwere driving furiously forward with their bayonets.\n\nThe younger of the two men observed to the other that every now and\nthen the rear ranks were obliged to run to overtake the van; and the\nelder one, who had been a soldier, remarked that that was always the\ncase, and recommended him if he ever served to try to march in the\nfront. There was only one mounted officer; he rode a grey dragoon\nhorse, and wore a gold-laced hat and blue Hussar cloak, with wide open\nsleeves lined with red. The two spectators observed him so\nparticularly that they said afterwards they should recognize him\nanywhere. They were, however, afraid of being ill-treated or forced to\ngo along with the troops, whom they concluded to have come from\nIreland, and landed at Kyntyre; and whilst they were climbing over a\ndyke to get out of their way, the whole thing vanished.\n\nA phenomenon of the same sort was observed in the earlier part of this\ncentury at Paderborn in Westphalia, and seen by at least thirty\npeople; but as, some years later, a review of twenty thousand men was\nheld on the very same spot, it was concluded that the vision must have\nbeen some sort of second-sight--a faculty not uncommon in the\ndistrict.\n\nSuch spectral hosts, however, are sometimes seen where an army of\nordinary men could by no possibility have marched, either before or\nafter. One of the most remarkable accounts of such apparitions is\ngiven by Miss Harriet Martineau, in her description of _The English\nLakes_. She writes as follows:--\n\n\"This Souter or Soutra Fell is the mountain on which ghosts appeared\nin myriads, at intervals during ten years of the last century,\npresenting the same appearances to twenty-six chosen witnesses, and to\nall the inhabitants of all the cottages within view of the mountain,\nand for a space of two hours and a half at one time--the spectral show\nbeing closed by darkness! The mountain, be it remembered, is full of\nprecipices, which defy all marching of bodies of men; and the north\nand west sides present a sheer perpendicular of 900 feet.\n\n\"On Midsummer Eve, 1735, a farm servant of Mr. Lancaster, half a mile\nfrom the mountain, saw the eastern side of its summit covered with\ntroops, which pursued their onward march for an hour. They came, in\ndistinct bodies, from an eminence on the north end, and disappeared in\na niche in the summit. When the poor fellow told his tale, he was\ninsulted on all hands, as original observers usually are when they see\nanything wonderful. Two years after, also on a Midsummer Eve, Mr.\nLancaster saw some men there, apparently following their horses, as if\nthey had returned from hunting. He thought nothing of this; but he\nhappened to look up again ten minutes after, and saw the figures, now\nmounted, and followed by an interminable array of troops, five\nabreast, marching from the eminence and over the cleft as before. All\nthe family saw this, and the manoeuvres of the force, as each\ncompany was kept in order by a mounted officer, who galloped this way\nand that. As the shades of twilight came on, the discipline appeared\nto relax, and the troops intermingled, and rode at unequal paces, till\nall was lost in darkness. Now of course all the Lancasters were\ninsulted, as their servant had been; but their justification was not\nlong delayed.\n\n\"On the Midsummer Eve of the fearful 1745, twenty-six persons,\nexpressly summoned by the family, saw all that had been seen before,\nand more. Carriages were now interspersed with the troops; and\neverybody knew that no carriages had been, or could be, on the summit\nof Souter Fell. The multitude was beyond imagination; for the troops\nfilled a space of half a mile, and marched quickly till night hid\nthem--still marching. There was nothing vaporous or indistinct about\nthe appearance of these spectres. So real did they seem, that some of\nthe people went up, the next morning, to look for the hoof-marks of\nthe horses; and awful it was to them to find not one foot-print on\nheather or grass. The witnesses attested the whole story on oath\nbefore a magistrate; and fearful were the expectations held by the\nwhole country-side about the coming events of the Scotch rebellion.\n\n\"It now comes out that two other persons had seen something of the\nsort in the interval--_viz._, in 1743--but had concealed it, to escape\nthe insults to which their neighbours were subjected. Mr. Wren, of\nWilton Hall, and his farm servant, saw, one summer evening, a man and\na dog on the mountain, pursuing some horses along a place so steep\nthat a horse could hardly by any possibility keep a footing on it.\nTheir speed was prodigious, and their disappearance at the south end\nof the fell so rapid, that Mr. Wren and the servant went up, the next\nmorning, to find the body of the man who must have been killed. Of\nman, horse, or dog, they found not a trace and they came down and held\ntheir tongues. When they did speak, they fared not much better for\nhaving twenty-six sworn comrades in their disgrace.\n\n\"As for the explanation, the editor of the _Lonsdale Magazine_\ndeclared (vol. ii., p. 313) that it was discovered that on the\nMidsummer Eve of 1745 the rebels were 'exercising on the western coast\nof Scotland, whose movements had been reflected by some transparent\nvapour, similar to the Fata Morgana.' This is not much in the way of\nexplanation; but it is, as far as we know, all that can be had at\npresent. These facts, however, brought out a good many more; as the\nspectral march of the same kind seen in Leicestershire in 1707, and\nthe tradition of the tramp of armies over Helvellyn, on the eve of the\nbattle of Marston Moor.\"\n\nOther cases are cited in which flocks of spectral sheep have been seen\non certain roads, and there are of course various German stories of\nphantom cavalcades of hunters and robbers.\n\nNow in these cases, as so often happens in the investigation of occult\nphenomena, there are several possible causes, any one of which would\nbe quite adequate to the production of the observed occurrences, but\nin the absence of fuller information it is hardly feasible to do more\nthan guess as to which of these possible causes were in operation in\nany particular instance.\n\nThe explanation usually suggested (whenever the whole story is not\nridiculed as a falsehood) is that what is seen is a reflection by\nmirage of the movements of a real body of troops, taking place at a\nconsiderable distance. I have myself seen the ordinary mirage on\nseveral occasions, and know something therefore of its wonderful\npowers of deception; but it seems to me that we should need some\nentirely new variety of mirage, quite different from that at present\nknown to science, to account for these tales of phantom armies, some\nof which pass the spectator within a few yards.\n\nFirst of all, they may be, as apparently in the Westphalian case above\nmentioned, simply instances of prevision on a gigantic scale--by whom\narranged, and for what purpose, it is not easy to divine. Again, they\nmay often belong to the past instead of the future, and be in fact the\nreflection of scenes from the akashic records--though here again the\nreason and method of such reflection is not obvious.\n\nThere are plenty of tribes of nature-spirits perfectly capable, if for\nany reason they wished to do so, of producing such appearances by\ntheir wonderful power of glamour (see _Theosophical Manual, No. V._,\np. 60), and such action would be quite in keeping with their delight\nin mystifying and impressing human beings. Or it may even sometimes be\nkindly intended by them as a warning to their friends of events that\nthey know to be about to take place. It seems as though some\nexplanation along these lines would be the most reasonable method of\naccounting for the extraordinary series of phenomena described by Miss\nMartineau--that is, if the stories told to her can be relied upon.\n\nAnother possibility is that in some cases what have been taken for\nsoldiers were simply the nature-spirits themselves going through some\nof the ordered evolutions in which they take so much delight, though\nit must be admitted that these are rarely of a character which could\nbe mistaken for military manoeuvres except by the most ignorant.\n\nThe flocks of animals are probably in most instances mere records, but\nthere are cases where they, like the \"wild huntsmen\" of German story,\nbelong to an entirely different class of phenomena, which is\naltogether outside of our present subject. Students of the occult\nwill be familiar with the fact that the circumstances surrounding any\nscene of intense terror or passion, such as an exceptionally horrible\nmurder, are liable to be occasionally reproduced in a form which it\nneeds a very slight development of psychic faculty to be able to see\nand it has sometimes happened that various animals formed part of such\nsurroundings, and consequently they also are periodically reproduced\nby the action of the guilty conscience of the murderer (see _Manual\nV._, p. 83).\n\nProbably whatever foundation of fact underlies the various stories of\nspectral horsemen and hunting-troops may generally be referred to this\ncategory. This is also the explanation, evidently, of some of the\nvisions of ghostly armies, such as that remarkable re-enactment of the\nbattle of Edgehill which seems to have taken place at intervals for\nsome months after the date of the real struggle, as testified by a\njustice of the peace, a clergyman, and other eye-witnesses, in a\ncurious contemporary pamphlet entitled _Prodigious Noises of War and\nBattle, at Edgehill, near Keinton, in Northamptonshire_. According to\nthe pamphlet this case was investigated at the time by some officers\nof the army, who clearly recognized many of the phantom figures that\nthey saw. This looks decidedly like an instance of the terrible power\nof man's unrestrained passions to reproduce themselves, and to cause\nin some strange way a kind of materialization of their record.\n\nIn some cases it is clear that the flocks of animals seen have been\nsimply hordes of unclean artificial elementals taking that form in\norder to feed upon the loathsome emanations of peculiarly horrible\nplaces, such as would be the site of a gallows. An instance of this\nkind is furnished by the celebrated \"Gyb Ghosts,\" or ghosts of the\ngibbet, described in _More Glimpses of the World Unseen_, p. 109, as\nbeing repeatedly seen in the form of herds of mis-shapen swine-like\ncreatures, rushing, rooting and fighting night after night on the site\nof that foul monument of crime. But these belong to the subject of\napparitions rather than to that of clairvoyance.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX.\n\nMETHODS OF DEVELOPMENT.\n\n\nWhen a man becomes convinced of the reality of the valuable power of\nclairvoyance, his first question usually is, \"How can I develop in my\nown case this faculty which is said to be latent in everyone?\"\n\nNow the fact is that there are many methods by which it may be\ndeveloped, but only one which can be at all safely recommended for\ngeneral use--that of which we shall speak last of all. Among the less\nadvanced nations of the world the clairvoyant state has been produced\nin various objectionable ways; among some of the non-Aryan tribes of\nIndia, by the use of intoxicating drugs or the inhaling of stupefying\nfumes; among the dervishes, by whirling in a mad dance of religious\nfervour until vertigo and insensibility supervene; among the followers\nof the abominable practices of the Voodoo cult, by frightful\nsacrifices and loathsome rites of black magic. Methods such as these\nare happily not in vogue in our own race, yet even among us large\nnumbers of dabblers in this ancient art adopt some plan of\nself-hypnotization, such as the gazing at a bright spot or the\nrepetition of some formula until a condition of semi-stupefaction is\nproduced; while yet another school among them would endeavour to\narrive at similar results by the use of some of the Indian systems of\nregulation of the breath.\n\nAll these methods are unequivocally to be condemned as quite unsafe\nfor the practice of the ordinary man who has no idea of what he is\ndoing--who is simply making vague experiments in an unknown world.\nEven the method of obtaining clairvoyance by allowing oneself to be\nmesmerized by another person is one from which I should myself shrink\nwith the most decided distaste; and assuredly it should never be\nattempted except under conditions of absolute trust and affection\nbetween the magnetizer and the magnetized, and a perfection of purity\nin heart and soul, in mind and intention, such as is rarely to be seen\namong any but the greatest of saints.\n\nExperiments in connection with the mesmeric trance are of the deepest\ninterest, as offering (among other things) a possibility of proof of\nthe fact of clairvoyance to the sceptic, yet except under such\nconditions as I have just mentioned--conditions, I quite admit, almost\nimpossible to realize--I should never counsel anyone to submit himself\nas a subject for them.\n\nCurative mesmerism (in which, without putting the patient into the\ntrance state at all, an effort is made to relieve his pain, to remove\nhis disease, or to pour vitality into him by magnetic passes) stands\non an entirely different footing; and if the mesmerizer, even though\nquite untrained, is himself in good health and animated by pure\nintentions, no harm is likely to be done to the subject. In so extreme\na case as that of a surgical operation, a man might reasonably submit\nhimself even to the mesmeric trance, but it is certainly not a\ncondition with which one ought lightly to experiment. Indeed, I should\nmost strongly advise any one who did me the honour to ask for my\nopinion on the subject, not to attempt any kind of experimental\ninvestigation into what are still to him the abnormal forces of\nnature, until he has first of all read carefully everything that has\nbeen written on the subject, or--which is by far the best of\nall--until he is under the guidance of a qualified teacher.\n\nBut where, it will be said, is the qualified teacher to be found? Not,\nmost assuredly, among any who advertise themselves as teachers, who\noffer to impart for so many guineas or dollars the sacred mysteries of\nthe ages, or hold \"developing circles\" to which casual applicants are\nadmitted at so much per head.\n\nMuch has been said in this treatise of the necessity for careful\ntraining--of the immense advantages of the trained over the untrained\nclairvoyant; but that again brings us back to the same question--where\nis this definite training to be had?\n\nThe answer is, that the training may be had precisely where it has\nalways been to be found since the world's history began--at the hands\nof the Great White Brotherhood of Adepts, which stands now, as it has\nalways stood, at the back of human evolution, guiding and helping it\nunder the sway of the great cosmic laws which represent to us the Will\nof the Eternal.\n\nBut how, it may be asked, is access to be gained to them? How is the\naspirant thirsting for knowledge to signify to them his wish for\ninstruction?\n\nOnce more, by the time-honoured methods only. There is no new patent\nwhereby a man can qualify himself without trouble to become a pupil in\nthat School--no royal road to the learning which has to be acquired in\nit. At the present day, just as in the mists of antiquity, the man who\nwishes to attract their notice must enter upon the slow and toilsome\npath of self-development--must learn first of all to take himself in\nhand and make himself all that he ought to be. The steps of that path\nare no secret; I have given them in full detail in _Invisible\nHelpers_, so I need not repeat them here. But it is no easy road to\nfollow, and yet sooner or later all must follow it, for the great law\nof evolution sweeps mankind slowly but resistlessly towards its goal.\n\nFrom those who are pressing into this path the great Masters select\ntheir pupils, and it is only by qualifying himself to be taught that a\nman can put himself in the way of getting the teaching. Without that\nqualification, membership in any Lodge or Society, whether secret or\notherwise, will not advance his object in the slightest degree. It is\ntrue, as we all know, that it was at the instance of some of these\nMasters that our Theosophical Society was founded, and that from its\nranks some have been chosen to pass into closer relations with them.\nBut that choice depends upon the earnestness of the candidate, not\nupon his mere membership of the Society or of any body within it.\n\nThat, then, is the only absolutely safe way of developing\nclairvoyance--to enter with all one's energy upon the path of moral\nand mental evolution, at one stage of which this and other of the\nhigher faculties will spontaneously begin to show themselves. Yet\nthere is one practice which is advised by all the religions\nalike--which if adopted carefully and reverently can do no harm to any\nhuman being, yet from which a very pure type of clairvoyance has\nsometimes been developed; and that is the practice of meditation.\n\nLet a man choose a certain time every day--a time when he can rely\nupon being quiet and undisturbed, though preferably in the daytime\nrather than at night--and set himself at that time to keep his mind\nfor a few minutes entirely free from all earthly thoughts of any kind\nwhatever and, when that is achieved, to direct the whole force of his\nbeing towards the highest spiritual ideal that he happens to know. He\nwill find that to gain such perfect control of thought is enormously\nmore difficult than he supposes, but when he attains it it cannot but\nbe in every way most beneficial to him, and as he grows more and more\nable to elevate and concentrate his thought, he may gradually find\nthat new worlds are opening before his sight.\n\nAs a preliminary training towards the satisfactory achievement of such\nmeditation, he will find it desirable to make a practice of\nconcentration in the affairs of daily life--even in the smallest of\nthem. If he writes a letter, let him think of nothing else but that\nletter until it is finished if he reads a book, let him see to it that\nhis thought is never allowed to wander from his author's meaning. He\nmust learn to hold his mind in check, and to be master of that also,\nas well as of his lower passions he must patiently labour to acquire\nabsolute control of his thoughts, so that he will always know exactly\nwhat he is thinking about, and why--so that he can use his mind, and\nturn it or hold it still, as a practised swordsman turns his weapon\nwhere he will.\n\nYet after all, if those who so earnestly desire clairvoyance could\npossess it temporarily for a day or even an hour, it is far from\ncertain that they would choose to retain the gift. True, it opens\nbefore them new worlds of study, new powers of usefulness, and for\nthis latter reason most of us feel it worth while; but it should be\nremembered that for one whose duty still calls him to live in the\nworld it is by no means an unmixed blessing. Upon one in whom that\nvision is opened the sorrow and the misery, the evil and the greed of\nthe world press as an ever-present burden, until in the earlier days\nof his knowledge he often feels inclined to echo the passionate\nadjuration contained in those rolling lines of Schiller's:\n\n    Dien Orakel zu verkuenden, warum warfest du mich hin\n    In die Stadt der ewig Blinden, mit dem aufgeschloss'nen Sinn?\n    Frommt's, den Schleier aufzuheben, wo das nahe Schreckniss droht?\n    Nur der Irrthum ist das Leben; dieses Wissen ist der Tod.\n    Nimm, O nimm die traur'ge Klarheit mir vom Aug' den blut'gen Schein!\n    Schrecklich ist es deiner Wahrheit sterbliches Gefaess zu seyn!\n\nwhich may perhaps be translated \"Why hast thou cast me thus into the\ntown of the ever-blind, to proclaim thine oracle by the opened sense?\nWhat profits it to lift the veil where the near darkness threatens?\nOnly ignorance is life; this knowledge is death. Take back this sad\nclear-sightedness; take from mine eyes this cruel light! It is\nhorrible to be the mortal channel of thy truth.\" And again later he\ncries, \"Give me back my blindness, the happy darkness of my senses;\ntake back thy dreadful gift!\"\n\nBut this of course is a feeling which passes, for the higher sight\nsoon shows the pupil something beyond the sorrow--soon bears in upon\nhis soul the overwhelming certainty that, whatever appearances down\nhere may seem to indicate, all things are without shadow of doubt\nworking together for the eventual good of all. He reflects that the\nsin and the suffering are there, whether he is able to perceive them\nor not, and that when he can see them he is after all better able to\ngive efficient help than he would be if he were working in the dark;\nand so by degrees he learns to bear his share of the heavy karma of\nthe world.\n\nSome misguided mortals there are who, having the good fortune to\npossess some slight touch of this higher power, are nevertheless so\nabsolutely destitute of all right feeling in connection with it as to\nuse it for the most sordid ends--actually even to advertise themselves\nas \"test and business clairvoyants!\" Needless to say, such use of the\nfaculty is a mere prostitution and degradation of it, showing that its\nunfortunate possessor has somehow got hold of it before the moral side\nof his nature has been sufficiently developed to stand the strain\nwhich it imposes. A perception of the amount of evil karma that may be\ngenerated by such action in a very short time changes one's disgust\ninto pity for the unhappy perpetrator of that sacrilegious folly.\n\nIt is sometimes objected that the possession of clairvoyance destroys\nall privacy, and confers a limit-less ability to explore the secrets\nof others. No doubt it does confer such an _ability_, but nevertheless\nthe suggestion is an amusing one to anyone who knows anything\npractically about the matter. Such an objection may possibly be\nwell-founded as regards the very limited powers of the \"test and\nbusiness clairvoyant,\" but the man who brings it forward against those\nwho have had the faculty opened for them in the course of their\ninstruction, and consequently possess it fully, is forgetting three\nfundamental facts: first, that it is quite inconceivable that anyone,\nhaving before him the splendid fields for investigation which true\nclairvoyance opens up, could ever have the slightest wish to pry into\nthe trumpery little secrets of any individual man; secondly, that even\nif by some impossible chance our clairvoyant _had_ such indecent\ncuriosity about matters of petty gossip, there is, after all, such a\nthing as the honour of a gentleman, which, on that plane as on this,\nwould of course prevent him from contemplating for an instant the idea\nof gratifying it; and thirdly, in case, by any unheard-of possibility,\none might encounter some variety of low-class pitri with whom the\nabove considerations would have no weight, full instructions are\nalways given to every pupil, as soon as he develops any sign of\nfaculty, as to the limitations which are placed upon its use.\n\nPut briefly, these restrictions are that there shall be no prying, no\nselfish use of the power, and no displaying of phenomena. That is to\nsay, that the same considerations which would govern the actions of a\nman of right feeling upon the physical plane are expected to apply\nupon the astral and mental planes also; that the pupil is never under\nany circumstances to use the power which his additional knowledge\ngives to him in order to promote his own worldly advantage, or indeed\nin connection with gain in any way; and that he is never to give what\nis called in spiritualistic circles \"a test\"--that is, to do anything\nwhich will incontestably prove to sceptics on the physical plane that\nhe possesses what to them would appear to be an abnormal power.\n\nWith regard to this latter proviso people often say, \"But why should\nhe not? it would be so easy to confute and convince your sceptic, and\nit would do him good!\" Such critics lose sight of the fact that, in\nthe first place, none of those who know anything _want_ to confute or\nconvince sceptics, or trouble themselves in the slightest degree about\nthe sceptic's attitude one way or the other; and in the second, they\nfail to understand how much better it is for that sceptic that he\nshould gradually grow into an intellectual appreciation of the facts\nof nature, instead of being suddenly introduced to them by a\nknock-down blow, as it were. But the subject was fully considered\nmany years ago in Mr. Sinnet's _Occult World_, and it is needless to\nrepeat again the arguments there adduced.\n\nIt is very hard for some of our friends to realize that the silly\ngossip and idle curiosity which so entirely fill the lives of the\nbrainless majority on earth can have no place in the more real life of\nthe disciple; and so they sometimes enquire whether, even without any\nspecial wish to see, a clairvoyant might not casually observe some\nsecret which another person was trying to keep, in the same way as\none's glance might casually fall upon a sentence in someone else's\nletter which happened to be lying open upon the table. Of course he\nmight, but what if he did? The man of honour would at once avert his\neyes, in one case as in the other, and it would be as though he had\nnot seen. If objectors could but grasp the idea that no pupil _cares_\nabout other people's business, except when it comes within his\nprovince to try to help them, and that he has always a world of work\nof his own to attend to, they would not be so hopelessly far from\nunderstanding the facts of the wider life of the trained clairvoyant.\n\nEven from the little that I have said with regard to the restrictions\nlaid upon the pupil, it will be obvious that in very many cases he\nwill know much more than he is at liberty to say. That is of course\ntrue in a far wider sense of the great Masters of Wisdom themselves,\nand that is why those who have the privilege of occasionally entering\ntheir presence pay so much respect to their lightest word even on\nsubjects quite apart from the direct teaching. For the opinion of a\nMaster, or even of one of his higher pupils, upon any subject is that\nof a man whose opportunity of judging accurately is out of all\nproportion to ours.\n\nHis position and his extended faculties are in reality the heritage of\nall mankind, and, far though we may now be from those grand powers,\nthey will none the less certainly be ours one day. Yet how different a\nplace will this old world be when humanity as a whole possesses the\nhigher clairvoyance! Think what the difference will be to history when\nall can read the records; to science, when all the processes about\nwhich now men theorize can be watched through all their course; to\nmedicine, when doctor and patient alike can see clearly and exactly\nall that is being done; to philosophy, when there is no longer any\npossibility of discussion as to its basis, because all alike can see a\nwider aspect of the truth; to labour, when all work will be joy,\nbecause every man will be put only to that which he can do best; to\neducation, when the minds and hearts of the children are open to the\nteacher who is trying to form their character; to religion, when there\nis no longer any possibility of dispute as to its broad dogmas, since\nthe truth about the states after death, and the Great Law that\ngoverns the world, will be patent to all eyes.\n\nAbove all, how far easier it will be then for the evolved men to help\none another under those so much freer conditions! The possibilities\nthat open before the mind are as glorious vistas stretching in all\ndirections, so that our seventh round should indeed be a veritable\ngolden age. Well for us that these grand faculties will not be\npossessed by all humanity until it has evolved to a far higher level\nin morality as well as in wisdom, else should we but repeat once more\nunder still worse conditions the terrible downfall of the great\nAtlantean civilization, whose members failed to realize that increased\npower meant increased responsibility. Yet we ourselves were most of us\namong those very men let us hope that we have learnt wisdom by that\nfailure, and that when the possibilities of the wider life open before\nus once more, this time we shall bear the trial better.\n\n\n\n\nINDEX\n\n\n                                 PAGE\n\nAdvantages of astral vision, 41, 65, 71\n  mental vision, 79\n  training, 20, 56, 70, 103, 116, 121\n\nAkashic records, 85, 97 _et seq._, 160\n\nApparitions, 54\n\nArmies, phantom, 154\n\nAssassination of Mr. Perceval, 151\n\nAspect of the records, 115\n\nAstral body, 69\n  counterpart  16\n  current, 62 _et seq._, 88, 95\n  matter, polarization of, 63\n  senses, 17\n  sight, 37 _et seq._, 59 _et seq._, 66\n  telescope, 65, 85, 103\n  world, 81, 103\n\nAura, the, 42 _et seq._, 101\n\n\nBalance, 126\n\nBat's cry, experiment with, 11\n\nBattle of Edgehill, 161\n\nBody, the astral, 69\n  the causal, 101\n\nBrownies, 33\n\nBuddhic faculty, 18, 108, 136, 139\n\nBull and the doctor, the story of, 147\n\n\nCausal body, 101\n\nCentres of vitality, 14, 17\n\nCerebro-spinal system, 22\n\nCeremonies used to gain clairvoyance, 52, 163\n\nCertainty of eventual good, 174\n\nCharacter, judgment of, 42\n\nChakrams, 14-17\n\nChord of a man, the, 80\n\nClairaudience, 6, 69 _et seq._\n\nClairvoyance by drugs or ceremonies, 52 _et seq._, 163\n  casual, 93\n  does it destroy privacy?, 171\n\nClairvoyance during sleep, 26\n  how first manifested, 26\n  hysterical, 53\n  limitations of, 79, 81, 171\n  meaning of word, 5\n  occasional flashes of, 23\n  of the uncultured, 21\n  on mental plane, 56\n  on trivial subjects, 55, 95, 152\n  partial and temporary, 54\n  restrictions upon, 81, 171\n  sadness of, 169\n  under mesmerism, 24, 52, 164\n\nClairvoyants, \"test and business\", 51, 170\n\nClassification of phenomena, 27\n\nColours, new, 35\n\nCommon-sense in occultism, necessity of, 125\n\nConsciousness, continuous, 46\n  the focus of, 31\n\nConsiderations, preliminary, 7\n\nContemplation, 167\n\nContinuous consciousness, 46\n\nControl of thought, 168\n\nCounterpart, astral, 16\n\nCrystal-gazing, 66, 84 _et seq._, 127\n\nCurative mesmerism, 165\n\nCuriosity not permitted, 173\n\nCurrent, astral, 62 _et seq._, 88, 95\n\n\nDangers, 78\n\nDate, how to find a, 119 _et seq._\n\nDead, the, 45, 62\n\nDeath, visits at, 74 _et seq._\n\nDelirium tremens, 53\n\nDervishes, the, 163\n\nDevas, the, 44\n\nDevelopment, methods of, 163\n  the path of, 167\n  regular, 19\n\nDifference between etheric and astral sight, 36\n\nDifficulties, 103 _et seq._\n\nDimension, the fourth, 38 _et seq._, 65, 107, 137\n\nDistance, sight at a, 59, 81\n\nDouble, the etheric, 34\n\nDrugs used to gain clairvoyance, 52, 163\n\nDuke of Orleans, the story of the, 90\n\n\n_Earth, the Stars and the_, 110\n\nEdgehill, battle of, 161\n\nElementals, 32, 44, 162\n\nEquation, the personal, 104 _et seq._\n\nEternal now, the, 109, 137\n\nEtheric double, the, 34\n  vision, 30 _et seq._\n\nExperiments in crystal-gazing, 66, 84 _et seq._\n  with bat's cry, 11\n  with spectrum, 10\n\nExtension of senses, 12\n\n\nFaculties, latent, 7\n  buddhic, 18, 108, 136, 139\n\nFairy ointment, 34\n\nFinding a stranger, 80\n\nFirst manifestations of clairvoyance, 25 _et seq._\n\nFlocks, phantom, 154, 160, 162\n\nFocus of consciousness, the, 31\n\nFourth dimension, the, 38 _et seq._, 65, 107, 137\n\nFreewill limited, 132 _et seq._\n\nFuture prospects, 175\n\n\nGhosts of the gibbet, 162\n\nGlamour, 160\n\nGoffe, the story of Mary, 75\n\n\nHelpers, invisible, 46, 74, 88, 166\n\nHistorical study, possibilities of, 114 _et seq._\n\nHinton's works, 38\n\nHousekeeper's dream, the story of the, 147 _et seq._\n\nHow a picture is found, 116 _et seq._\n  to find a date, 119 _et seq._\n  to investigate, 55\n\nHuntsman, the wild, 160\n\nHypnotization, self, 86\n\nHysterical clairvoyance, 53\n\n\nIncarnations, past, 118, 123 _et seq._\n\nInvestigate, how to, 55\n\nInvisible helpers, 46, 74, 88, 166\n\n\nJudgment of character, 42\n\nJung Stilling's story, 71 _et seq._\n\n\nKnowledge, the value of, 125\n\n\nLatent faculties, 7\n\nLimitations of clairvoyance, the, 79, 81, 171\n\nLimited freewill, 132 _et seq._\n\nLinks needed, 114\n\nLodge, address by Dr. Oliver, 137\n\nLogos of the system, the, 99 _et seq._\n\n\nMagic, 53\n\nMagnifying, the power of, 47-67\n\nManifestations of clairvoyance, the first, 26\n\nMasters of Wisdom, the, 20, 167, 174\n\nMaterialization, 70\n\nMayavirupa, the, 78\n\nMeaning of word clairvoyance, 5\n\nMeditation, 167\n\nMediums, trance, 83\n\nMental plane clairvoyance, 56\n  plane sense, 18\n  world, 80, 104, 115\n\nMesmerism, clairvoyance under, 24, 62, 164\n  curative, 165\n\nMethods of development, 163\n\nMicawbers, psychic, 83\n\nMooltan, story of the siege of, 92\n\nMurder, reproduction of, 161\n\n\nNature spirits, 33, 44, 61, 160\n\nNecessity of common-sense in occultism, 125\n\nNew colours, 35\n\nNow, the eternal, 109, 137\n\n\nOccasional clairvoyance, 23\n\nOintment, fairy and witch, 34\n\nOrleans, the story of the Duke of, 90\n\nOther planets, 81\n\n\nPartial and temporary clairvoyance, 54\n\nPast incarnations, 118, 123 _et seq._\n\nPath of development, the, 167\n\nPerceval, assassination of Mr., 151\n\nPersonal equation, the, 104 _et seq._\n\nPhantom flocks, 154, 160, 162\n\nPhenomena, classification of, 27\n  seance room, 35, 62\n\nPhiladelphian seer, the story of a, 72 _et seq._\n\nPhysical objects, the transparency of, 32\n\nPictures before going to sleep, 93\n\nPlanets, other, 81\n\nPolarization of astral matter, 63\n\nPoseidonis, the sinking of, 120\n\nPossibilities of historical study, 114 _et seq._\n\nPower of magnifying, the, 47, 67\n\nPower of response to vibrations, 9, 11\n\nPreliminary considerations, 7\n\nPremonition, Mr. Stead's, 153\n\nPrevision, 132, 139\n\nProspects for the future, 175\n\nPsychic Micawbers, 83\n\nPsychometry, 114, 127\n\n\nQualifications of the student, 166\n\nQualified teachers, 165\n\n\nRadiations, 59\n\nRecords, akashic, 85, 97 _et seq._, 160\n  aspect of the, 115\n\nRegular development, 19\n\nReproduction of a murder, 161\n\nRestrictions upon clairvoyance, 81, 171\n\nRoentgen rays, the, 11\n\n\nSadness of clairvoyance, the, 169\n\nSchiller's lines, 169\n\nSeance-room phenomena, 35, 62\n\nSecond-sight, 140 _et seq._\n  the symbolism of, 145\n\nSeer, a Philadelphian, 72 _et seq._\n\nSelf-hypnotization, 86\n\nSense, extension of, 12\n\nSenses, astral, 17\n\nSight, astral, 37 _et seq._, 59 _et seq._, 66\n  at a distance, 59, 81\n  spiritual, 57\n\nSleep, clairvoyance during, 26\n\nSociety, the Theosophical, 167\n\nSolar system, the, 99\n\nSpectral armies, 154\n\nSpectrum, experiment with the, 10\n\nSpiritualistic phenomena, 35, 62\n\n_Stars and the Earth, The_, 110\n\nStories of crystal-gazing, 84 _et seq._\n  second sight, 132, 140 _et seq._\n\nStory by Jung Stilling, 72\n  Mr. Stead's, 93\n  of Captain Yonnt, 89\n  Mary Goffe, 75\n  Miss X.'s dogcart, 152\n  Mr. Stead's premonition, 153\n\nStory of Souter Fell, 156-7\n  the bull and the doctor, 147\n  the Duke of Orleans, 90\n  the housekeeper's dream, 147 _et seq._\n\nStory of the siege of Mooltan, 92\n  the white night-dress, 149\n  Zschokke, 127 _et seq._\n\nStranger, finding a, 80\n\nSympathetic system, the, 22 _et seq._\n\nSystem, the Logos of the, 99 _et seq._\n\n\nTeachers, qualified, 165\n\nTelescope, the astral, 65, 85, 103\n\nTemporary and partial clairvoyance, 54\n\nTests not given, 172\n\nTheosophical Society, The, 167\n  terms, 7\n\nThought-control, 168\n\nThought-forms, 43, 67\n\nThroughth, 39\n\nTime only relative, 138\n\nTraining, the advantages of, 165\n  where to be had, 167\n\nTrance mediums, 83\n\nTransparency of physical objects, 32\n\nTrivial subjects, clairvoyance on, 55, 95, 152\n\n\nUncultured, clairvoyance in the, 21\n\n\nValue of knowledge, the, 125\n\nVariable capacity of response, 10 _et seq._\n\nVibrations, 9\n  power of response to, 11\n\nVision, astral, 37 _et seq._, 59 _et seq._, 66\n  etheric, 30 _et seq._\n\nVisions, casual, 141\n\nVisits at death, 74 _et seq._\n\nVoodoo or Obeah, 163\n\n\nWhite night-dress, the story of the, 149\n\nWild huntsman, the, 160\n\nWisdom, the Masters of, 20, 167, 174\n\nWorld, the astral, 81, 103\n  mental, 80, 104, 115\n\n\nX.'s story, Miss, 152\n\nX Rays, 11\n\n\nYonnt's story, Captain, 89\n\n\nZschokke's story, 127 _et seq._\n\n\nPRINTED BY NEILL AND CO., LTD., EDINBURGH.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.\n\nSATYANNASTI PARO DHARMAH\n\n[Illustration]\n\nTHERE IS NO RELIGION HIGHER THAN TRUTH.\n\n\n_OBJECTS._\n\nTo form a nucleus of the universal Brotherhood of Humanity, without\ndistinction of race, creed, sex, caste or colour.\n\nTo encourage the study of comparative religion, philosophy and\nscience.\n\nTo investigate unexplained laws of nature and the powers latent in\nman.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAny person desiring information as to the Theosophical Society is\ninvited to communicate with any one of the following General\nSecretaries:\n\nAMERICA: Alexander Fullerton; New York, 46 Fifth Avenue.\n\nBRITAIN: Bertram Keightley, M.A. (_pro tem._); London, 28 Albemarle\nStreet, W.\n\nINDIA: Upendra Nath Basu, B.A., LL.B.; Benares, N.W.P.\n\nSCANDINAVIA: Arvid Knoes; Sweden, Engelbrechtsgatan 7, Stockholm.\n\nAUSTRALIA: H. A. Wilson; Sydney, N.S.W., 42 Margaret Street.\n\nNEW ZEALAND: C. W. Sanders; Auckland, Mutual Life Buildings, Lower\nQueen Street.\n\nHOLLAND: W. B. Fricke, Amsterdam, 76 Amsteldijk.\n\nFRANCE: Dr. Th. Pascal Paris; 59 Avenue de la Bourdonnais.\n\nITALY: Rome, Societa Teosofica, 70 Via di Pietra.\n\nGERMANY: Dr. Rudolph Steiner (_pro tem._); 95 Kaiserallee, Friedenau,\nBerlin.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTHE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY is composed of students, belonging to any\nreligion in the world or to none, who are united by their approval of\nthe above objects, by their wish to remove religious antagonisms and\nto draw together men of good-will whatsoever their religious\nopinions, and by their desire to study religious truths and to share\nthe results of their studies with others. Their bond of union is not\nthe profession of a common belief, but a common search and aspiration\nfor Truth. They hold that Truth should be sought by study, by\nreflection, by purity of life, by devotion to high ideals, and they\nregard Truth as a prize to be striven for, not as a dogma to be\nimposed by authority. They consider that belief should be the result\nof individual study or intuition, and not its antecedent, and should\nrest on knowledge, not on assertion. They extend tolerance to all,\neven to the intolerant, not as a privilege they bestow, but as a duty\nthey perform, and they seek to remove ignorance, not to punish it.\nThey see every religion as an expression of the DIVINE WISDOM, and\nprefer its study to its condemnation, and its practice to proselytism.\nPeace is their watch-word, as Truth is their aim.\n\nTHEOSOPHY is the body of truths which forms the basis of all\nreligions, and which cannot be claimed as the exclusive possession of\nany. It offers a philosophy which renders life intelligible, and which\ndemonstrates the justice and the love which guide its evolution. It\nputs death in its rightful place, as a recurring incident in an\nendless life, opening the gateway of a fuller and more radiant\nexistence. It restores to the world the science of the spirit,\nteaching man to know the spirit as himself, and the mind and body as\nhis servants. It illuminates the scriptures and doctrines of religions\nby unveiling their hidden meanings, and thus justifying them at the\nbar of intelligence, as they are ever justified in the eyes of\nintuition.\n\nMembers of the Theosophical Society study these truths, and\nTheosophists endeavour to live them. Every one willing to study, to be\ntolerant, to aim high, and to work perseveringly, is welcomed as a\nmember, and it rests with the member to become a true Theosophist.\n\nBOOKS RECOMMENDED FOR STUDY.\n\n                                                            s.  d.\nAn Outline of Theosophy.  C. W. Leadbeater                   1  0\nAncient Wisdom. Annie Besant                                 5  0\nTheosophical Manuals.\n  Seven Principles of Man. Annie Besant                      1  0\n  Re-incarnation. Annie Besant                               1  0\n  Karma. Annie Besant                                        1  0\n  Death--and After? Annie Besant                             1  0\n  The Astral Plane.  C. W. Leadbeater                        1  0\n  The Devachanic Plane. C. W. Leadbeater                     1  0\n  Man and his Bodies. Annie Besant                           1  0\nThe Key to Theosophy. H. P. Blavatsky                        6  0\nEsoteric Buddhism. A. P. Sinnett                             2  6\nThe Growth of the Soul.  A. P. Sinnett                       5  0\nMan's Place in the Universe                                  2  0\nMan Visible and Invisible (illustrated).  C. W. Leadbeater  10  6\n\nA student who has thoroughly mastered these may study The Secret\nDoctrine. H. P. Blavatsky. Three volumes and separate index, L 3. Man\nVisible and Invisible (illustrated). C. W. Leadbeater 10 6\n\n      WORLD-RELIGIONS.                                           s. d.\nFragments of a Faith Forgotten. G. R. S. Mead                    10  6\nEsoteric Christianity. Annie Besant                               5  0\nFour Great Religions. Annie Besant                                2  0\nOrpheus. G. R. S. Mead                                            4  6\nThe Kabalah.  A. E. Waite                                         7  6\n\n      ETHICAL.\nIn the Outer Court. Annie Besant                                  2  0\nThe Path of Discipleship. Annie Besant                            2  0\nThe Voice of the Silence.  H. P. Blavatsky                        1  6\nLight on the Path. Mabel Collins                                  1  6\nBhagavad-Gita. Trans. Annie Besant                                1  6\nStudies in the Bhagavad-Gita                                      1  6\nThe Doctrine of the Heart                                         1  6\nThe Upanishats. Trans. by G. R. S. Mead and J.C. Chattopadyaya.\n  Two Volumes, each                                               1  6\nThree Paths and Dharma.  Annie Besant                             2  0\nTheosophy of the Upanishats                                       3  0\nThe Stanzas of Dayan. H.P. Blavatsky                              1  6\n\nVARIOUS.\nNature's Mysteries. A. P. Sinnett                                 2  0\nClairvoyance. C. W. Leadbeater                                    2  0\nDreams. C. W. Leadbeater                                          1  6\nThe Building of the Kosmos. Annie Besant                          2  0\nThe Evolution of Life and Form. Annie Besant                      2  0\nSome Problems of Life. Annie Besant                               1  6\nThought-Power, its Control and Culture. Annie Besant              1  6\nThe Science of the Emotions.  Bhagavan Das                        3  6\nThe Gospel and the Gospels.  G. R. S. Mead                        4  6\nFive Years of Theosophy                                          10  0\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nTHE THEOSOPHICAL REVIEW.\n\nEDITED BY\n\nANNIE BESANT AND G. R. S. MEAD.\n\nAmongst the Regular Contributors are:\n\nANNIE BESANT.\nALEX. FULLERTON.\nG. R. S. MEAD.\nBERTRAM KEIGHTLEY.\nA. P. SINNETT.\nC. W. LEADBEATER.\nDR. A. A. WELLS.\nMICHAEL WOOD.\nAnd other well-known Writers on Theosophy.\n\nSINGLE COPIES, 1s. 12s. PER ANNUM. Half-yearly Bound Volumes, Cloth,\n8s. 6d.\n\nENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.\n\n\"THE THEOSOPHICAL REVIEW is a magazine of which any society might be\nproud. It is weighty, striking, suggestive, and up to date. The\narticles are all by recognised experts, and they all deal with some\naspect of a really profound subject. It is a very remarkable\nshilling's worth.\"--_The Gentleman's Journal._\n\n_All the above-named books are published at unit prices by THE\nTHEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY, 3 LANGHAM PLACE, LONDON, W., from\nwhom a full catalogue of works on Theosophy and kindred subjects can\nbe obtained, post free, on application._\n\n       *       *       *       *       *","title":"Clairvoyance","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":43441}