{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_30134/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_30134","id":"gutenberg_30134","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/30134","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Theosophy"],"text":"ELEMENTARY THEOSOPHY\n\n\n         L. W. ROGERS\n\n\n         LOS ANGELES\n  THEOSOPHICAL BOOK CONCERN\n            1917\n\n\n          Copyright\n             By\n        L. W. Rogers\n            1917\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE\n\n\nTo comprehend the significance of great world changes, before Time has\nfully done his work, is difficult. While mighty events are still in\ntheir formative period the future is obscure. But our inability to\noutline the future cannot blind us to the unmistakable trend of the\nevolutionary forces at work. One thing that is clear is that our boasted\nChristian civilization is the theater in which has been staged the most\nun-Christian war of recorded history and in which human atrocity has\nreached a point that leaves us vaguely groping for a rational\nexplanation of it. Another obvious fact is that the more than twenty\nnations involved have been forced into measures and methods before\nunknown and which wholly transform the recognized function and powers of\ngovernments. With these startling facts of religious and political\nsignificance before us thoughtful people are beginning to ask if we are\nnot upon the threshold of a complete breaking down of modern\ncivilization and the birth of a new order of things, in which direct\ngovernment by the people throughout the entire world will be coincident\nwith the rise of a universal religion based on the brotherhood of man.\n\nIn such a time any contribution to current literature that will help to\nclear the ground of misconceptions and to bring to the attention of\nthose interested in such things, that set of fundamental natural truths\nknown as theosophy, may perhaps be helpful. Whether or not the world is\nabout to recast its ethical code there can at least be no doubt that it\nis eagerly seeking reliable evidence that we live after bodily death and\nthat it will welcome a hypothesis of immortality that is inherently\nreasonable and therefore satisfies the intellect as well as the heart.\nThose who are dissatisfied with the old answers to the riddle of\nexistence and demand that Faith and Reason shall walk hand in hand, may\nfind in the following pages some explanation of the puzzling things in\nlife--an explanation that disregards neither the intuitions of religion\nnor the facts of science.\n\nOf course no pretension is made of fully covering the ground. The book\nis a student's presentation of some of the phases of theosophy as he\nunderstands them. They are presented with no authority whatever, and are\nmerely an attempt to discuss in simple language some of the fundamental\ntruths about the human being. No claim is made to originality but it is\nhoped that by putting the old truths in a somewhat different way, with\nnew illustrations and arguments, they may perhaps be seen from a new\nviewpoint. The intention has been to present elementary theosophy simply\nand clearly and in the language familiar to the ordinary newspaper\nreader. All technical terms and expressions have been avoided and the\nreader will not find a single foreign word in the book.\n\nL. W. R.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n  I.    THEOSOPHY                            9\n\n  II.   THE IMMANENCE OF GOD                15\n\n  III.  THE EVOLUTION OF THE SOUL           23\n\n  IV.   LIFE AFTER BODILY DEATH             29\n\n  V.    THE EVOLUTIONARY FIELD              43\n\n  VI.   THE MECHANISM OF CONSCIOUSNESS      49\n\n  VII.  DEATH                               59\n\n  VIII. THE ASTRAL WORLD                    69\n\n  IX.   REBIRTH: ITS REASONABLENESS        103\n\n  X.    REBIRTH: ITS JUSTICE               135\n\n  XI.   REBIRTH: ITS NECESSITY             153\n\n  XII.  WHY WE DO NOT REMEMBER             167\n\n  XIII. VICARIOUS ATONEMENT                181\n\n  XIV.  THE FORCES WE GENERATE             187\n\n  XV.   SUPERPHYSICAL EVOLUTION            205\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\nTHEOSOPHY\n\n\nRediscovery is one of the methods of progress. Very much that we believe\nto be original with us at the time of its discovery or invention proves\nin time to have been known to earlier civilizations. The elevator, or\nlift, is a very modern invention and we supposed it to be a natural\ndevelopment of our civilization, with its intensive characteristics,\nuntil an antiquarian startled us with the announcement that it was used\nin Rome over two thousand years ago; not, of course, as we use it, but\nfor the same purpose, and involving the same principles. A half century\nago our scientific men were enthusiastic over the truths of evolution\nthat were being discovered and placed before western civilization. But\nas we learn more and more of the thought and intellectual life of the\nOrient it becomes clear that the idea of evolution permeated that part\nof the world centuries ago. Even the most recent and startling\nscientific discoveries occasionally serve to prove that what we supposed\nto be the fantastic beliefs of the ancients were really truths of nature\nthat we were not yet able to comprehend! The transmutation of metals is\nan example. We have already gone far enough in that direction to show\nthat the alchemists of old were not the foolish and superstitious people\nwe supposed them to be. We have given far too little credit to past\ncivilizations and we are coming to understand now that we have rated\nthem too low. Our modesty must necessarily increase as it becomes\nclearer that much of our supposed contribution to the world's progress\nis not invention but rediscovery. We are beginning to see that it is not\nsafe to put aside without careful examination an idea or a belief that\nwas current in the world thousands of years ago. Like the supposed folly\nof the alchemists it may contain profound truths of nature that have\nthus far been foreign to our modes of thinking.\n\nTheosophy is both very old and very new--very old because the principles\nit contains were known and taught in the oldest civilizations, and very\nnew because it includes the latest investigations of the present day. It\nis sometimes said by those who desire to speak lightly of it that it is\na philosophy borrowed from the Buddhists, or at least from the Orient.\nThat is, of course, an erroneous view. It is true that the Buddhists\nhold some beliefs in common with theosophists. It is also true that\nMethodists hold some beliefs in common with Unitarians, but that does\nnot show that Unitarianism was borrowed from Wesley! When different\npeople study the same facts of nature they are likely to arrive at\nsubstantially the same conclusions. Theosophy is based upon certain\ntruths of nature. Those who study those truths and formulate a belief\nfrom them must reasonably be expected to resemble theosophists in their\nviews. Buddhism is not unique in resembling theosophy. In the same list\nmay be placed the Vedanta philosophy, the Cabala of the Jews, the\nteachings of the Christian Gnostics, and the philosophy of the Stoics.\nThe more general charge must also be denied; theosophy is not something\ntransplanted from the Orient. It belongs to the race, as the earth does,\nand cannot be localized, even to a continent. As it is taught today in\nEurope and America it is probably unknown to the masses of the Orient,\nfor the great general truths it embodies have here the special\napplication and peculiar emphasis required by a totally different\ncivilization. But that theosophical principles were earlier known and\nmore widely accepted in the Orient is quite true. That fact can in no\npossible way lessen their value to us. Precisely the same thing is true\nof the principles of mathematics. The science of mathematics reached\nEuropean civilization directly from the Arabs, but we do not foolishly\ndecline to make use of the knowledge on that account.\n\nThe literal meaning of the word theosophy is self-evident--knowledge of\nGod. It has three aspects, determined by the different ways in which the\nhuman being acquires knowledge--through the study of concrete facts, by\nthe study of the relationship of the individual consciousness to its\nsource, and through the use of reasoning faculties in constructing a\nlogical explanation of life and its purpose. In one aspect it is,\ntherefore, a science. It deals with the tangible, with the facts and\nphenomena of the material scientist and makes its appeal to the evidence\nof the physical senses. In another aspect it is a religion. It deals\nwith the relationship between the source of all consciousness and its\nmultiplicity of individual expressions; with the complex relationships\nthat arise between these personalities; with the duties and obligations\nwhich thus come into existence; with the evolution of the individual\nconsciousness and its ultimate translation to higher spheres. In its\nother aspect it is a philosophy of life. It deals with man, his origin,\nhis evolution, his destiny. It seeks to explain the universe and to\nthrow a flood of light upon the problem of existence that will enable\nthose who study its wisdom to go forward in their evolution rapidly,\nsafely and comfortably, instead of blundering onward in the darkness of\nignorance, reaping as they go the painful harvests of misdirected\nenergy.\n\nWhile theosophy is distinctly a science and a philosophy it is not, in\nthe same full sense, a religion. It has its distinctive religious\naspect, it is true, but when we speak of a religion we usually have in\nmind a certain set of religious dogmas and a church that propagates\nthem. Theosophy is a universal thing like mathematics--a body of natural\ntruths applicable to all phases of life. It sees all religions as\nequally important, as peculiarly adapted to the varying civilizations in\nwhich they are found, and it presents a synthesis of the fundamental\nprinciples upon which all of them rest.\n\nFrom all of this it will be seen that there is a vast difference\nbetween theosophy and theology. Theosophy declares the immortality of\nman but not as a religious belief. It appeals to the scientific facts in\nrelation to the nature of consciousness. It knows no such word as\n\"faith,\" as it is ordinarily used. Its faith arises from the constancy\nof natural law, the balance and sanity of nature, and the harmonious\nadjustment of the universe. Theosophy is very ancient in that it is the\ngreat fund of ancient wisdom about man and his earth, that has come down\nthrough countless centuries, reaching far back into prehistoric times.\nBut added to that hoary wisdom are the up-to-date facts that have been\nacquired by its most successful students, who have evolved their\nconsciousness to levels transcending the physical senses--facts which,\nhowever, do not derive their authority from the method of their\ndiscovery but from their inherent reasonableness. A detailed discussion\nof such methods of consciousness and the proper value to be placed upon\nsuch investigations rightly belongs to another chapter. It is enough now\nto warn the reader against the error of confusing the pronouncements of\npseudo psychism with the work of the psychic scientists who have already\ndone much toward placing a scientific foundation beneath the universal\nhope of immortality.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\nTHE IMMANENCE OF GOD\n\n\nThe antagonism between scientific and religious thought was the cause of\nthe greatest controversy in the intellectual world in the nineteenth\ncentury. If the early teaching of the Christian Church had not been lost\nthe conflict could not have arisen. The Gnostic philosophers, who were\nthe intellect and heart of the church, had a knowledge of nature so true\nthat it could not possibly come into collision with any fact of science.\nBut unfortunately they were enormously outnumbered by the ignorant and\nthe authority passed wholly into their hands. It was inevitable that\nmisunderstanding should follow. The gross materialization of the early\nteaching, the superstition, the bigotry and the persecution of the\nMiddle Ages was a perfectly natural result. That perverted,\nmaterialistic view has come down to us, and even now gives trend to the\nreligious thought of Western civilization. Of that degradation of the\nearly teaching the Encyclopedia Britannica says:\n\n      The conception of God as wholly external to man, a purely\n      mechanical theory of creation, is throughout Christendom\n      regarded as false to the teaching of the New Testament as\n      also to Christian experience.\n\nIt is, indeed, false to the teaching of the Christ but if it is so\nregarded \"throughout Christendom\" it is only on the part of its\nscholars; most certainly not by the masses of the people. The popular\nconception is undeniably that the relationship between God and man is\nidentical with that between an inventor and an animated machine. It is\nan absolutely anthropomorphic view of the Supreme Being and thinks of\nGod as being apart from man in precisely the same sense that a father is\napart from his son. It may be an exalted, idealized conception of the\nrelationship of father and son but it is nevertheless just that\nrelationship, and along that line runs practically all the teaching and\npreaching of those who speak officially in modern religious\ninterpretation. Emerson sought to counteract that popular misconception\nbut he was regarded as a heretic by all but an infinitesimal portion of\nthe church.\n\nThe idea of the immanence of God is as different from the popular\nconception as noontide is different from midnight. It is so radically\ndifferent that one who accepts that ancient belief must put aside his\nold ideas of what man is and raise him in dignity and potential power to\na level that will, at first, seem actually startling; for it means, in\nits uttermost significance that God and man are but two phases of the\none eternal life and consciousness that constitute our universe! The\nidea of the immanence of God is that He _is_ the universe; that the\nsolar system is an emanation of the Supreme Being as clouds are an\nemanation of the sea, and that the relationship between God and man is\nnot merely that of father and son but also that of ocean and raindrop.\nThis conception makes man _a part of_ God, having potentially within him\nall the attributes and powers of the Supreme Being. It is the idea that\nnothing exists except God and that humanity is one portion of Him, and\none phase of His being, as clouds are one expression of the waters that\nconstitute the sea. The immanence of God is a conception of the universe\nthat puts science and religion into perfect harmony with each other\nbecause miraculous creation disappears and evolutionary creation takes\nits place.\n\nAlthough the anthropomorphic idea of God has such widespread dominion in\nOccidental thought the immanence of God is plainly taught and repeatedly\nemphasized in the Christian scriptures. \"For in Him we live, and move,\nand have our being,\" is certainly very explicit and admits of no\nanthropomorphic interpretation. It could not be said that a son lives\nand moves in his father. The declaration presents the relationship of a\nlesser consciousness within a greater, and constituting a part of it.\nThe essentially divine nature of man is made clear in the declaration in\nGenesis that he is an image of God. To say that the likeness is on the\nmaterial side would, of course, be absurd. In divine essence, in latent\npower, in potential spirituality, man is an image of God, because he is\na part of Him. The same idea is more directly put in the Psalms with the\nassertion, \"ye are gods.\"[A] If the idea of the immanence of God is\nsound man, as a literal fragment of the consciousness of the Supreme\nBeing, is an embryo god, destined to ultimately evolve his latent powers\ninto perfect expression.\n\nThe oneness of life was explicitly asserted by Jesus in his teaching.\nEmerson's teaching of the immanence of God is unmistakable in both his\nprose and poetry. \"There is no bar or wall,\" he says, \"in the soul where\nman, the effect, ceases and God, the Cause, begins.\" Still more\nexplicitly he puts it:\n\n      The realms of being to no other bow;\n      Not only all are Thine, but all are Thou.\n\nThe statement is as complete as it is emphatic. \"Not only all are Thine,\n_but all are thou_.\" It's an unqualified assertion that humanity is a\npart of God, as leaves are part of a tree--not something a tree has\ncreated in the sense that a man creates a machine but something that is\nan emanation of the tree, and is a living part of it. Thus only has God\nmade man. Humanity is a growth, a development, an emanation, an\nevolutionary expression of the Supreme Being.\n\nIt is upon the unity of all life that theosophy bases its declaration of\nuniversal brotherhood, regarding it as a fact in nature. The immanence\nof God gives a scientific basis of morality. The theosophical conception\nis that men are separated in form but are united in the one\nconsciousness which is the life base of the universe. Their relationship\nto each other is somewhat like that of the fingers to each other--they\nare separate individuals on the form side but they are united in the\none consciousness that animates the hand. If we imagine each finger to\npossess a consciousness of its own, which is limited to itself and\ncannot pass beyond to the hand, we shall have a fair analogy of the\nunity and identity of interests of all living things. Under such\ncircumstances an injury to one finger would not appear to the others as\nan injury to them, but if the finger consciousness could be extended to\nthe hand the reality of the injury to all would be apparent. Likewise an\ninjury to any human being is literally an injury to the race. The race\ndoes not recognize the truth of it just because, and only because, of\nthe limitation of consciousness. Lowell put the fact clearly when he\nsaid:\n\n      He's true to God who's true to man;\n      Wherever wrong is done\n      To the humblest and weakest\n      'Neath the all-beholding sun,\n      That wrong is also done to us;\n      And they are slaves most base\n      Whose love of right is for themselves,\n      And not for all the race.\n\nHe's true to God who's true to man because they are one life; because\nthey are but different expressions of the one eternal consciousness;\nbecause they are as inseparable as the light and warmth of the sun. It\nfollows that being true to man is fidelity to God.\n\nThe popular idea is that people should be moral because that sort of\nconduct is pleasing to the Supreme Being and that He will, in the life\nbeyond physical existence, in some way punish those who have broken the\nmoral laws. It is belief in an external authority that threatens\npunishment as a deterrent to law breaking, as a state devises penalties\ncommensurate with offenses. But the immanence of God represents a\ncondition in which not punishments, but consequences, automatically\nfollow all violations of natural law. Under such a state of affairs it\nwould require no penalties, but only knowledge, to insure right conduct,\nfor it would be perceived that there is no possible escape from the\nconsequences of an evil act.\n\nIt is not difficult to see the relative value of the two systems of\nthought when put to a practical test in human affairs. Imagine an\nunscrupulous man of great mental capacity who is amassing an enormous\nfortune through sharp practices that enable him to acquire the earnings\nof others while he safely keeps just within the limits of the law. We\ncan point out to him that while he is not violating the law, and cannot\ntherefore be prosecuted, he is nevertheless inflicting injury upon\nothers and consequently public opinion will condemn him. But such a man\nusually cares nothing at all for public opinion and he sees no good\nreason why he should not continue in his injurious work. But if he can\nbe made to understand that all life is one and that we are so knit\ntogether in consciousness that an injury to another must ultimately\nreact upon the person who inflicts it; if he once clearly understands\nthat to enslave another is to put chains upon himself, that to maim\nanother is to strike himself, he will require neither the fear of an\nexterior hell nor the threat of legal penalties to induce him to follow\na moral course. He would see that his own larger and true self-interest\ncould be served only when his conduct was in harmony with the welfare of\nall. It is but a simple statement of the truth to say that the immanence\nof God furnishes a scientific basis of morality.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[A] Psalms LXXXII--6.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\nTHE EVOLUTION OF THE SOUL\n\n\nIf we accept the idea of the immanence of God we shall be forced to\nabandon belief in a miraculous instantaneous creation of man and the\nearth on which he exists. The old, absurd, unscientific, impossible idea\nthat the race came from an original human pair must be replaced by the\nhypothesis of the evolution of the soul.\n\nIt was about the fact of evolution that the great storm of controversy\nraged between scientists and theologians in the middle of the nineteenth\ncentury, and later. The evolutionary truths were not at first well\nunderstood. They seemed to question or deny the existence of God. Deep\nwithin humanity is intuitive religious belief. It is a natural faith\nthat transcends all facts, like the faith of a child in its mother.\nBecause evolution was contrary to all preconceived ideas of the earth's\ninception it seemed at first to shatter faith and destroy hope, and\nagainst fact and reason itself rose the protest of intuition with\nspiritual intensity. People felt more than they reasoned and cried out\nthat science was about to destroy the belief in God. But time has proved\nthat they had merely misinterpreted the meaning of evolution. Further\nunderstanding has shown that, instead of destroying the belief in God,\nevolution has given us a new and better understanding of the whole\nmatter and has placed the hope of immortality on firmer ground than it\npreviously occupied.\n\nEvolution is an established and generally accepted fact. No educated\nperson now thinks of questioning it. It is settled beyond dispute that\nall things in the physical world have become what they are through a\nlong, slow, gradual evolution and that organisms the most perfect in\nform and most complex in function have evolved from simpler ones. The\nage of miracle has passed and belief in miracle has passed so far as its\nrelation to the material world is concerned. It is no longer necessary\nto have a belief in an anthropomorphic God, performing feats in defiance\nof natural law, in order to account for that which exists. Science has\nreduced the cosmos to comprehension and shown that, given nebulous\nphysical matter, we can understand how the earth came into existence.\n\nBut why should we stop with the application of the laws of evolution to\nmaterial things? Only the outright materialist, who asserts that life is\na product of matter, can logically do so, and so great an authority in\nthe scientific world as Sir Oliver Lodge has asserted that there is no\nlonger any such thing as scientific materialism.[B] Those who accept the\nidea of the existence of the soul at all must necessarily accept the\nidea of the evolution of the soul. How can consciousness possibly\nescape the laws that evolve the media for the expression of\nconsciousness? There must be the evolution of mind as certainly as there\nis evolution of matter. The material and the spiritual, form and life,\nare inseparable. Indeed, scientific progress has now brought us to the\npoint where matter, as such, practically disappears and we are face to\nface with the fact that matter is really but a manifestation of force.\nHow, then, is it longer possible to speak of the soul and not accept the\nevolution of the soul? Psychology is no less a science than physiology.\nThe phenomena of consciousness are as definitely studied as physical\nphenomena, and it is no more difficult to account for a myriad souls\nthan to account for a million suns and their planets. The scientists who\nhave taken the position that the universe has a spiritual side as well\nas a material side are among the most eminent and distinguished of the\nmodern world. If evolution has produced the starry heavens from the\nmaterial side it has likewise evolved the human souls of our world and\nothers from the spiritual side. It is no more difficult to understand\nthe one than the other.\n\nFrom the scientific viewpoint the old popular belief in the creation of\nthe earth and the race by an act suddenly accomplished is, of course,\npreposterous. If we could know nothing back of the present moment and\nwere called upon to account for the world as we see it--with its cities,\nits ships and railways, its cultivated fields and parks--many people who\nstill believe in instantaneous creation of the soul would save\nthemselves much mental exertion by declaring that God had made it all as\nit stands for the use and entertainment of man. But we know that it is\nutterly absurd to think of the world leaping into existence\ninstantaneously--nothing existing one day and all trains running on time\nbetween ready-made cities the next, carrying ready-made people about. It\nsounds ridiculous only because we are putting it in material terms, but\nin very truth it is less ludicrous than thinking of the instantaneous\ncreation of the creators of cities and railways.\n\nThe idea that we are a sudden creation is only possible because of the\nvery vague ideas of what human souls are. The chief difficulty with the\npopular notion that a human soul is as new as the body it inhabits is\nthat it is a vague and indefinite conception of life, and the moment we\nbegin to think seriously about it the weakness of the idea becomes\napparent. Such a notion has no relationship to the processes of\nreasoning. How can one reason with a man who believes it possible for a\nsoul to spring into existence from the void? What is the use in\nreasoning about the \"whys and wherefores\" when it settles the whole\nmatter to say: \"God did it\"?\n\nOne thing that prevents us from believing not only that millions of\nsouls were created in the twinkling of an eye, but also that the world\nas it now is was likewise suddenly created, is that we happen to know\nquite definitely the history of the world a little way into the past,\nand that history affirms that the earth and all life on it is the\nproduct of slow evolutionary growth.\n\nThe evolution of the soul places the realm of religion on a scientific\nbasis. Not only the origin of the soul but its development and its\ndestiny at once appear in a new light. The mind is instinctively\nimpressed with the dignity of the idea of the evolution of the soul,\nwhich, with its corollary, the immanence of God, makes the divinity of\nman a fact in nature.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[B] Raymond: or Life and Death.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\nLIFE AFTER BODILY DEATH\n\n\nOne of the really remarkable facts of modern life is the disinclination\nto accept at apparent value the scientific and other evidence there is\nto prove that consciousness persists after the death of the physical\nbody. There is in existence a large amount of such evidence and much of\nit is offered by scientists of the highest standing; and yet the average\nman continues to speak of the subject as though nothing about it had yet\nbeen definitely learned. It is the tendency of the human mind to adjust\nitself very slowly to the truth, as it is discovered. Sometimes a\ngeneration passes away between the discovery and the general acceptance\nof a great truth. When we recall the intense opposition to the\nintroduction of steam-driven boats and vehicles, and the slowness with\nwhich the world settles down to any radical change in its methods of\nthinking, it will perhaps seem less remarkable that the truth about the\nlife after bodily death has waited so long for general recognition.\n\nThe evidence upon which a belief in the continuity of consciousness is\nbased is of two kinds--that furnished by physical science and that\nfurnished by psychic science. Together they make a very complete case.\n\nThe printed evidence of the first division--physical science--is\nvoluminous. In addition to that gathered by the Society for Psychical\nResearch there are the researches and experiments by the scientists of\nEngland, France and Italy, among whom are Crookes, Lodge, Flammarion and\nLombroso. Crookes was a pioneer in the work of studying the human\nconsciousness and tracing its activities beyond the change called death.\nAll of that keenness of intellect and great scientific knowledge, which\nhas enabled him to make so many valuable discoveries and inventions, and\nhas won for him world-wide fame, were brought to bear upon the subject,\nand for a period of four years he patiently investigated and\nexperimented. Many illustrated articles prepared by him, fully\ndescribing his work, were published at the time in _The Journal of\nScience_ of which he was then the editor.\n\nThree vital points in psychic research were established by Sir William\nCrookes. One was that there is psychic force. He demonstrated its\nexistence by levitation. He showed next, that the force is directed by\nintelligence. By various clever experiments he obtained most conclusive\nevidence of that fact. He then demonstrated that the intelligence\ndirecting the force is not that of living people. Crookes also went\nexhaustively into the subject of materialization and here, again, he was\nremarkably successful. He was the first scientist to photograph the\nmaterialized human form and engage in direct conversation with the\nperson who thus returned from the mysterious life beyond. This evidence\nfrom the camera must be regarded as particularly interesting. It was\nreceived with much amazement at the time, but that was before we had\nrevised our erroneous ideas about the nature of matter and before the\nday of liquid air. Materialization is no longer a startling idea, for\nthat is precisely what liquid air is--a condensation of invisible matter\nto the point where it becomes tangible and can be weighed, measured,\nseen and otherwise known to the physical senses.\n\nAll these things Sir William Crookes did upon his own premises and under\nthe most rigid scientific conditions. All the methods and mechanism\nknown to modern science were employed and he finally announced his\ncomplete satisfaction and acceptance of the genuineness of the phenomena\nobserved.\n\nAs Sir William Crookes was the earliest, Sir Oliver Lodge is the latest\nof the famous scientists who have taken up the investigation of the\ncontinuity of consciousness. In a lecture upon the subject, before the\nSociety for the Advancement of Science, he declared not only that the\nsubject of life after physical death was one which science might\nlegitimately and profitably investigate but that the existence of an\ninvisible realm had been established. He declared the continent of an\ninvisible world had been discovered, and added, \"already a band of\ndaring investigators have landed on its treacherous but promising\nshores.\"\n\nDifferent scientists make a specialty of certain kinds of psychic\ninvestigation and while Crookes made a detailed and careful study of\nmaterialization Lodge has given equally painstaking efforts to\ninvestigations by the use of that class of sensitives known as\n\"mediums.\" A medium is not necessarily a clairvoyant, and usually is\nnot clairvoyant. A person in whose body the etheric matter easily\nseparates from the physical matter is a medium and can readily be\nutilized as a sort of telephone between the visible and the invisible\nplanes. A medium is an abnormal person and is a good medium in\nproportion to the degree of abnormality. If the etheric matter of the\nbody is easily extruded the physical body readily falls into the trance\ncondition and the mechanism of conversation can be operated by the\nso-called \"dead\" person who has temporarily taken possession of it. In\nsuch cases it is not the medium who speaks for the living-dead\ncommunicator. He is speaking directly himself, but he may often do it\nwith great difficulty and not always succeed in accurately expressing\nthe thought he has in mind. He may have to contend with other thoughts,\nmoods and emotions than his own and to those who understand something of\nhis difficulties it is not strange that such communications are\nfrequently unsatisfactory. It is not often that an analogy can be found\nthat will give a physical plane comprehension of a superphysical\ncondition, but perhaps a faint understanding may be had by thinking of a\n\"party line\" telephone that any one of a dozen people may use at any\nmoment he can succeed in getting possession of it. A listener attempting\nto communicate with one of them may find that several others are\nconstantly \"switching in,\" much to his confusion. If distinction of\nvoices due to sound were eliminated and then a stenographic record were\nto be made of all words reaching the listener he would find that it\nwould often be fragmentary and trivial. That would not, however, prove\nthat the conversation did not come from living beings nor that there\nwas not at least one intelligent person among them. That scientists\nengaged in psychic research have similar experiences proves nothing\nmore.\n\nIt seems to be a common opinion that the evidential value of such\npsychic communications, even under the direction of a skilful scientist,\ncannot be very great. But there are ways of knowing. It is not at all\ndifficult for the investigator to confine his work, not only to\nincidents unknown to the medium, but to scientific facts which the\nmedium can not possibly comprehend. It is a matter of common knowledge\nthat mediums are usually people without technical scientific knowledge.\nSome of them have some degree of education and some of them are\nilliterate. Some of the most celebrated belong to the peasant class of\nEurope.\n\nLet us suppose that Sir Oliver Lodge is about to attempt to communicate\nwith a scientist who has passed on to join the living dead. He will ask\ntechnical scientific questions that nobody but a scientist can answer\nand that the medium can by no possibility even understand when they are\nanswered. Or suppose he gets a communication from the medium's hand\nsigned by a great author. The living dead man writes a criticism, let us\nsay, of some new book and does it in his characteristic style, full of\nthe power of keen analysis and sound literary judgment. Surely nobody\ncan believe that the medium is producing such things on her own account.\nIf she could do so she would not be earning her living as a medium. But\nthe scientists do not stop there. We often hear the expression\n\"cross-correspondence.\" Just what do they mean by that and in what way\ndoes it prove the personal identity of a dead man who is communicating?\nThe principle may be illustrated by the hotel clerk's method. Sometimes\na guest leaves a sum of money with the clerk, and he wishes to be\nperfectly sure of his identity when he returns to claim it. He requests\nthe guest to put his signature on a card. Then he tears the card in two,\ngives him one piece and keeps the other. That gives him a double proof\nof identity. When he comes for his money he must first give his name and\nthen produce the piece of card that fits into the ragged edge of the\npiece the clerk has retained, the two together making the whole and\nrestoring the signature. It's one of the simplest but most satisfactory\nproofs possible. Neither piece of that card alone is intelligible. If\none piece should be lost and others should find it nobody could read it\nor make anything of it. Nobody could guess the name unless he had the\nother piece. He knows only about the part he holds. He may be a thief\nand may earnestly desire to use what he has found to defraud, but he is\nhelpless because he has only one of the two parts it requires to make an\nintelligible whole. That is the principle involved in identity by\ncross-correspondence. Part of a message is written through one medium\nand part through another medium at another time in another place and\nneither part presents a complete statement or has coherence until it is\nfitted into the other part; and that prevents a medium who is dishonest\nfrom manufacturing a story that may be more or less plausible.\n\nWe are by no means wholly dependent upon scientific investigation for\nevidence that the dead still live. Hundreds of people are sufficiently\nsensitive to have some personal knowledge of the matter. The number is\nfar beyond what it appears to be for two reasons. One is that the\naverage person fears ridicule and keeps his own counsel about his occult\nexperience. The other is the feeling that communications from departed\nrelatives are too sacred and personal for public discussion. Tens of\nthousands of people have seen demonstrations at spiritualistic seances\nwhich, while possessing little evidential value from the scientific\nviewpoint, nevertheless have a legitimate place in the great mass of\npsychic phenomena. But more convincing is the evidence furnished in\nhundreds of homes where some member of the family acts as automatic\nwriter or medium.\n\nThe most convincing evidence is not always scientific evidence. What can\nbe more convincing than the evidence furnished in one's home by members\nof the family? There is much such evidence, obtained both through\nmediums and by automatic writing.\n\nAutomatic writing--that is, the control of the hand of a living person\nto record the thoughts of another who has lost the physical body--is\nperhaps one of the least objectionable ways in which communications have\ncome from the astral world, and to it we are indebted for some useful\nbooks with interesting accounts of the life in the unseen regions. Here,\nof course, as elsewhere, discrimination must be used, for the wise and\nfoolish, the useful and useless are to be found side by side. In\naccepting or rejecting, one must use his common sense just as he does on\nthis plane in separating the valuable from the worthless. In such\nmatters we should not lose sight of the fact that the living dead are\nunchanged in intellect and morality. The genius here is the genius there\nand the living fool is not different from the dead one. It is often\nthose who know the least who are the most anxious to tell it and the\nmedium or automatic writer sometimes gives them the opportunity.\nConsequently we get many foolish communications and an enormous amount\nof commonplace platitude is delivered at seances. But it is equally true\nthat unquestionable proof of personal identity is sometimes secured.\n\nThere is much valuable non-scientific evidence that the consciousness\nsurvives the loss of the physical body and it frequently comes from\nsources that insure respectful attention. The two following stories of\nthat kind are cited as corroboration of the scientific evidence.\n\nLittle touches of the personality often constitute the most convincing\nof all evidence. It is one thing to show that people in general live\nafter physical death. It is quite a different matter to establish the\npersonal identity of one of them who is communicating, and that is one\nof the vital points involved. W. J. Stillman, the eminent journalist,\ngives us some valuable evidence on personal identity. In his earlier\nyears he had studied art in London. Shortly before the death of Turner,\nthe great artist had volunteered to give Stillman some advice on\npainting, but had not redeemed the promise at the time of passing away.\nStillman had a friend whose daughter was mediumistic and he decided to\nexperiment. Immediately on beginning the seance the young girl was taken\npossession of by an entity claiming to be Turner. Stillman asked his\nquestion silently, speaking no words, but mentally requesting Turner to\nwrite his name. The only reply was an emphatic shake of the head. He\nthen asked if he would give some advice on painting. The response was\nanother decided negative. Stillman felt that he was foolishly wasting\nhis time and declared the seance at an end. But the girl sat silent.\nThen after a moment she slowly arose with the air of decrepitude, took a\nlithograph from the wall and went through the pantomime of stretching a\nsheet of paper on a drawing board, sharpening a pencil, tracing the\noutline, the washing-in of a drawing, etc., and then proceeded to show a\nsimple but surprising method of taking out the lights. \"Do you mean to\nsay that Turner got his effects in that way?\" asked the incredulous\nyoung artist. The answer was an emphatic affirmative. Stillman then\nasked if the central passage of sunlight and shadow through rain in the\nwell known drawing \"Llanthony Abbey\" by Turner, had been done in that\nway and was answered by another emphatic affirmative. So sure was the\nyoung artist that this could not be true that he gave it up in disgust\nand abruptly left. A few weeks later Stillman was calling upon Ruskin\nand related the experience. Ruskin, who had known the celebrated dead\nartist intimately, declared that the contrariness of the medium at the\nbeginning of the seance was remarkably characteristic of Turner. But\nwhat was much more to the point, in the way of evidence, was that the\ndrawing in question was in Ruskin's possession and eagerly it was\nbrought down from the wall for examination. After close scrutiny the\ngreat art critic and the young artist agreed that, beyond dispute, the\ndrawing _had_ been done in the way described.\n\nSuch evidence has an added value when it comes from those who are\nneither spiritualists nor professional investigators, but who have the\nthings they doubt thrust upon them in such convincing manner that they\nfeel impelled to record their experience for the enlightenment of\nothers. In the last literary work[C] done by Carl Schurz, we are given,\nquite incidentally, his testimony that at a seance soon after the Civil\nWar he was told the future in such detail as to leave no possible room\nfor the explanation of coincidence. It was in July, 1865, when Schurz\nwas on his way to Washington, whither he had been summoned by President\nJohnson, that he stopped in Philadelphia at the home of his friend, Dr.\nTiedemann. The doctor's daughter, about fifteen years old, could do\nautomatic writing. As a matter of interest and amusement in the family\ncircle the girl gave an exhibition of her psychic abilities. When Schurz\nwas invited to ask for a communication he not unnaturally requested one\nfrom the recently deceased President Lincoln, for he had been personally\nacquainted with him. The girl wrote a message purporting to come from\nLincoln. It related to politics and proved, in time, to have been an\naccurate prophecy of most unexpected facts which would not transpire for\nmore than three years! Schurz lived in Wisconsin at the time and had no\nintention of changing his residence, nor did he do so until two years\nlater. The message which the girl wrote asserted that Schurz would be\nelected to the United States senate _from Missouri_. He did not regard\nthe message as authentic and naturally enough considered the prophecy\nabsurd. In 1867 he took up his residence in St. Louis and in January,\n1869, he was elected United States senator by the Missouri legislature.\n\nSo far as the scientific evidence is concerned, it will be understood,\nof course, that no attempt is here made to present that. The intention\nis merely to call attention to some of the eminent scientists who have\ndone notable work and to mention a few of the more interesting\ndiscoveries made. Those who desire to come into possession of the\nevidence in full will find upon examination that it is voluminous.\n\nFrom the viewpoint of physical science alone the evidence of the\ncontinuity of consciousness is not only convincing but conclusive. Yet\noccult science has much more to offer. To those who have no personal\nknowledge of the existence of occult faculties, such evidence can be\noffered only upon the inherent reasonableness of the statements made.\n\nThe truth of clairvoyance, like all other truths, must slowly win its\nway to general acceptance. While large numbers of people still scoff at\nit, even as the world not so very long ago scoffed at hypnotism as a\nfantastic theory with no foundation in fact, there is nevertheless a\nlarge and rapidly growing number who personally know the truth about\nclairvoyance. There is every conceivable grade of clairvoyant power and\nsome degree of superphysical sensitiveness is becoming rather common.\n\nThere are two distinct kinds of clairvoyance and that which is most in\nevidence with the public is not calculated to inspire confidence. It is\nemployed almost exclusively in what is known as \"fortune telling\" and\nis often practiced by those who are interested only in the money they\ncan earn by it. As a matter of course, trickery and fraud are found\nassociated with it among such people, and those amongst them who are\nboth capable and honest suffer on account of it.\n\nThe fortune telling clairvoyant is usually one who was born with \"second\nsight,\" as the Scotch have named it, and almost without an exception\nthey do not in the least understand its rationale. They find certain\nfacts in their consciousness that could not be known to them by the\nphysical senses, but why or how they get the information they do not\nknow. That form of clairvoyance is a sensitiveness related to the\nsympathetic nervous system, the center of which is the solar plexus. It\nhas no relationship whatever to the mind, no association with\nintelligence, and will often--indeed, commonly--be possessed by the most\nignorant and uncouth. It is much more common among Indians and negroes\nthan among more highly evolved people. It is vestigial and will slowly\ndisappear from the race. It belongs to the realm of emotion, not\nthought.\n\nThe higher clairvoyance, the only true \"clear seeing,\" is associated\nwith the cerebro-spinal nervous system and its seat is in the brain. It\nis not a \"natural gift\"[D] like the other, although it is latent in all\nhuman beings. It has been highly developed in some who have had the\nunusual opportunity of long training under the direct supervision of\ngreat psychic scientists. Such clairvoyants are never to be found among\nthe fortune tellers. Only people with serious views of life and intense\ndevotion to human service would have the patience and endurance to\nundergo such training and only those of singular purity of life would\nhave any possibility of success. Such clairvoyants are people of keen\nintelligence. By special training and tremendous effort, not possible to\nmost of us, they have pressed forward in evolution and attained a\ndevelopment that the race will be many a century in reaching.\n\nIt is by the use of this exalted order of clairvoyance that invisible\nrealms are explored, and additional knowledge is accumulated to the\nancient wisdom. Such a clairvoyant is not a medium. The medium\nsurrenders his physical mechanism for the use of another, who speaks\nthrough it, and at the close of the seance the medium knows nothing of\nwhat has occurred. The clairvoyant is always in possession of his senses\nand is fully aware of what is occurring. He is the explorer and\ndiscoverer. He deals with the facts of the life after bodily death in a\ndifferent way than the physical scientist does but it is soon found by\nthe student that the physical scientist and the psychic scientist\ncorroborate each other. Together they bring overwhelming evidence to\nsupport the hypothesis that life is eternal; that the consciousness we\nhave at this moment will never cease to be; that our individuality, with\nall its present memories, will eternally persist; that what we call\ndeath is in reality but a forward step in an orderly evolutionary\njourney and an entrance upon a more joyous phase of life, which is not\nremarkably different from that we live today. The sum total of the\nknowledge that we have gained through the combined work of the physical\nscientists and the occult scientists leads us to the conclusion that the\ndeath of the physical body means neither the annihilation of\nconsciousness nor a radical change in consciousness. It is, in fact, but\nthe release of consciousness from its confinement to the physical form,\nas a song-bird is released from a cage to the joyous freedom of a wider\nworld, where woods and stream and field and sky give new impulse to its\ninnate characteristics.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[C] Reminiscences of Carl Schurz, Vol. III, p. 154.\n\n[D] There are, of course, really no natural gifts. Nature does not favor\nsome and ignore others. When a few possess what others do not have, they\nearned it by giving special attention to its development or as in the\ncase of the psychic sensitiveness of the sympathetic nervous system, it\nis vestigial, and has been possessed by the race in earlier ages.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\nTHE EVOLUTIONARY FIELD\n\n\nIn a treatise on elementary theosophy the solar system may be reckoned\nas our universe and we shall have no need of considering more than a\nsmall fragment of even that. It is septenary in constitution, as may be\nseen in its vibrations expressed in color and sound. Beyond the seven\ncolors of the prism we have only tints and outside the seven notes we\ncan get only overtones or undertones. There are likewise seven planes in\nthe system but less than half of them require our attention, for the\nevolutionary field of the human soul is the three lower planes, known as\nthe physical, astral and mental. When the human being has outgrown them\nin evolution he passes on to superhuman evolution.\n\nThe word \"plane,\" so often encountered in theosophical literature,\nshould perhaps have some definition. It has a wide application and is\nused as a synonym for region, place, sphere or world. In referring to\nthe physical plane the term embraces all we know of earth and sky and\nlife through the physical senses.\n\nThere are seven planes in our solar system because of the seven\ndifferent combinations of its ultimate atoms. Each plane consists of a\ntotally different grade of matter than the next plane, but all have for\ntheir base the ultimate atom of the solar system. When modern science\ndiscovered, to its astonishment, that the physical atom was a composite\nbody it confirmed the theosophical teaching that the ultimate physical\natom was _not_ the final point of division. Theosophy teaches that when\nthe ultimate physical atom is disintegrated its particles become the\ncoarsest matter of the next plane or region above it--the astral plane.\nThe process repeated with astral matter results in driving its ultimate\natom from the highest level of the astral plane or world to the lowest\nof the mental plane. That scientist who said that the atom is the brick\nof the universe stated a great truth, for of its combinations all forms\nare built; and if the idea be applied to the ultimate atom of the solar\nsystem it will then be true that of such \"bricks\" all the planes are\nbuilt.\n\nThe relationship of the planes to each other is that of interpenetrating\nspheres of matter. The physical plane, consisting of the earth and its\natmosphere, is surrounded and interpenetrated by the astral plane, or\nworld, which is an enormously larger globe of exceedingly tenuous\nmatter. This vast sphere of invisible matter is _within_ the earth as\nwell as beyond it, interpenetrating every atom of physical matter to the\nearth's center. Its grossest grade of matter is so rare, and its\nvibrations so intense, that they cannot affect the physical senses and\ntherefore we remain unconscious of it while that matter moves freely\nthrough all physical objects. We are unconscious of its life and\nactivities for precisely the same reason that we know nothing of the\nmessages of intelligence carried on the vibrations of the wireless\ntelegraph, although they pass through the room where we sit. We have no\nsense organs with which it is possible to register such vibrations.\nMessages conveying intelligence of tremendous import, involving the\nmovements of vast armies, the fall of empires and the destinies of great\nnations, flow through the very space we occupy but we are wholly\nunconscious of them. Even so we remain blind and deaf to the stupendous\nactivities of life and consciousness in the astral world,\nnotwithstanding the fact that it surrounds and permeates us while its\nforms, unseen and unfelt, move through the physical world as freely as\nwater flows through a sieve.\n\nThe mental world constitutes a region of our earth still more vast than\nthe astral portion of it. As the astral sphere encloses the physical\nglobe, the mental encompasses both, enclosing them and also\ninterpenetrating them to the earth's center. The term \"mental world\" may\nseem confusing to some because we are accustomed to think of the mental\nand the material as being opposites. The mental world, or sphere, or\nplane, of theosophy, is a world of _matter_, not merely thought. It is\nmatter, however, of such remarkable tenuosity that it may properly be\ncalled mind-stuff, and in its rarest levels it is said to be \"formless\"\nso far as the existence of what the physical senses know as form is\nconcerned.\n\nAll three of these worlds, or planes--the physical, astral and\nmental--are, then, worlds of matter, of form, of activity, of thought\nand of enterprise. They are concentric globes, the physical enclosed by\nthe astral, and both physical and astral enclosed by the mental. Within\nand without all physical matter are both astral and mental matter. Every\nphysical atom is surrounded and permeated by astral and mental matter.\nThe relationship is precisely that which exists between the ether and\nthe lower grades of physical matter.\n\nIf the relationship of the three worlds--physical, astral and mental--is\nfully understood later confusion of thought will be avoided. Physical\nlanguage is not capable of fully expressing much with which students of\nthe occult must deal. Because there is nothing better for the purpose,\nwords must be used that express but a part of the truth and may\nsometimes prove misleading unless the constitution and relationship of\nthe three spheres is kept in mind. Thus, it is necessary to speak of\nhigher and lower worlds, or planes, inner or outer, and of the soul\ncoming \"down\" into the material world when, as a matter of fact, _no\nmovement in space_ is under consideration. The astral is commonly spoken\nof as an inner plane and while it truly is so because it can be known\nonly to astral senses by a withdrawal of the consciousness from its\nexterior, material body, it is also true that the astral world is\noutside the physical because it envelops it as the sea does a sponge.\nWe usually speak of coming down from higher planes to lower and that may\nbe true not only in the sense of changing the state of consciousness\nfrom higher vibrations to lower ones but it _could_ mean a journey in\nspace from a point in the astral plane above the physical globe to a\npoint at its surface. \"Up\" and \"down\" are relative, not absolute. \"Down\"\nfor us is toward the earth's center and \"up\" is the opposite direction.\nA spire in the Occident and a spire in the Orient are both said to be\npointing upward but they are pointing in opposite directions. On most\nparts of the earth's surface we have four directions, while at the poles\nthere is, of course, but one direction--south or north, as the case may\nbe. East, west and north disappear at the north pole. Reflection upon\nsuch facts leads one to at least faintly comprehend the possibility of\nspace itself disappearing from the inner planes--space as we know it.\n\nThe matter of each of the planes consists of seven classes. We are\nfamiliar with the solids, liquids and gases of the physical plane, and\nto them must be added four grades of the ether. The seven grades of\nmatter of the astral and mental worlds constitute an important part of\nthe mechanism for the soul's evolution, for they determine the state of\nconsciousness in the life beyond the physical plane. But a study of\nthose states of consciousness belongs to a later chapter.\n\nA difficulty which the student of theosophy should make an early effort\nto eliminate, is the tendency to think of invisible realms as unreal. It\nshould not be forgotten that it is only the limitation of the physical\nsenses that gives rise to the feeling of unreality beyond the visible.\nWe should keep in mind the fact that the invisible realms are composed\nof matter as certainly as the air is matter, or a stone is matter. The\nwater in a pan may evaporate, but it does not cease to be matter because\nit has passed beyond the ken of the physical senses. It will some time\ncondense once more and play its part as the liquid, water, or as the\nsolid, ice. Only when matter is in certain forms can we know of its\nexistence through the physical senses.\n\nWe frequently hear people who are students of the occult speak of a\ndeceased person as having left the earth. But passing into the astral\nplane, or world, is not, of course, leaving the earth. Both the astral\nworld and the mental world are divisions of the earth. As the atmosphere\nis invisible and yet is a part of the earth's physical matter, so the\ninvisible astral and mental regions are other parts of the earth. They\nare properly called worlds because the activities in consciousness that\nmake up existence there are as remote from ours as though they were upon\nanother planet. We have erroneously supposed that with the physical\nsenses we really see and know the earth, whereas we have known only that\nsmall fragment of the earth that consists of physical matter. Beyond the\nlimitation of our poor senses stretch in unsuspected grandeur vaster\nregions of our earth, swept by the vibrations of an intenser life.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\nTHE MECHANISM OF CONSCIOUSNESS\n\n\nThe soul is a center of consciousness within the all-consciousness, or\nthe life of the solar Logos; an individualized portion of the universal\nmind. That fragment of the divine life, with its latent God-like\nattributes, is expressed through a mechanism of consciousness that is\nformed of the matter of the various planes. Naturally enough it is\nexpressed more fully upon the higher planes than upon the lower. At a\nvery high level it is known as the monad. When it reaches down into the\nhigher subdivisions of the mental world it is the ego, a lesser\nexpression of the same divine life that pours from the Logos through the\nmonad--lesser because it is then functioning through the denser matter\nof a lower level.\n\nThe knowledge that has been gained about the nature of matter in recent\nyears is helpful in understanding the activities of consciousness. The\natom is found to be a center of force, and we are at the point where\nmatter, as we have known it, disappears. All the force and consciousness\nof the solar system is, of course, but the life of the Logos, and on\nhigher planes the distinctions we observe here fade out. Matter becomes\na very different thing from the matter we know. The ether of the\nphysical world is almost inconceivably tenuous matter. Yet it is gross\nwhen compared to the lowest grade of astral matter. The matter of the\nmental world is enormously rarer than the most tenuous matter of the\nastral world. In view of these facts it requires no stress of the\nimagination to understand that the matter of the higher planes is\nresponsive to the vibrations of consciousness.\n\nThe outraying energies of the individualized center of consciousness act\nupon the matter of the plane and draw about it a film that slowly grows\ninto a vehicle through which consciousness can be more fully expressed,\nand which serves as a point of vantage from which its expression can be\nextended to lower planes.\n\nThe seven subdivisions of the mental world fall naturally into two\ngroups, composed of the three higher and the four lower grades of\nmatter. The ego, anchored in the matter of the two planes above the\nmental world, descends to the upper levels of the mental and the vesture\nof matter with which it clothes itself is known as the causal body.\nSending its energies downward, or outward, to the lower levels of the\nmental world, it establishes itself there in what slowly becomes a\nmental body. Again in the astral world the process is repeated and a\nvehicle of consciousness is formed of astral matter. The physical body\nis the lowest and last of the vehicles to be formed and as it is slowly\nbuilt, in the months preceding birth, the matter it contains falls into\nplace under the operation of occult laws which permit no element of\nchance to enter into its construction.\n\nEach of these bodies serves as a vehicle of consciousness on the plane\nto which it belongs. The soul is evolving simultaneously in each of the\nworlds, physical, astral and mental, and these various bodies enable it\nto receive the vibrations of the plane they belong to and thus to be\nconscious there. The mental body is the seat of intellectual activity.\nThought arises as a vibration in it and passes through the astral body\ninto the physical brain. Whenever we think we are using the mental body.\nThe astral body is the seat of emotion. With it we feel. All emotion\npasses from it to the physical body to be expressed in the material\nworld. The astral world is also called the emotional world, as the\nmental plane is called the mental world. The physical body is the soul's\ninstrument of action. It attaches it to the physical world, enables the\nconsciousness to contact material objects and to move and express on the\nmaterial plane the thoughts and emotions generated in the mental and\nastral bodies.\n\nAnother part of the mechanism of consciousness is known as the etheric\ndouble. But it is only a link in the chain and not a body through which\nthe soul can function. It is composed of the etheric matter of the\nphysical world and connects the astral body with the physical body. As\nevery atom of physical matter is surrounded and permeated by etheric\nmatter, it follows that the physical body has its duplicate in etheric\nmatter. \"Etheric double\" is a very appropriate name since it is a\nperfect duplicate of the physical body in etheric matter. It serves the\npurpose of supplying the life force to the nervous system and is the\nmedium through which sensation is conveyed. The action of an anaesthetic\ndrives out so much of the matter of the etheric double that the\nconnection is broken and sensation in the physical body ceases.\n\nOne of the difficulties in the way of getting a clear conception of the\nconstitution of man, and realizing that he is a soul functioning through\nvarious vehicles of consciousness, is the materialistic modes of thought\ncommon to Occidental civilization. We are accustomed to thinking of the\nphysical body itself as being the man, and if there is any thought at\nall of the consciousness surviving the death of the body it is very\nvague and indefinite as to where it exists and how it is expressed. Very\nlittle thinking should be necessary to show the absurdity of the belief\nthat the body is the man. Two bodies may be alike, as in the case of\ntwins, but the souls, the real men, may be absolutely unlike. The real\nman is superphysical. His intelligence or his stupidity, his genial\ndisposition or his moroseness, his generosity or his selfishness, are\nbut the manifestations of himself through the body by which they are\nexpressed. The body itself is a mere aggregation of physical atoms, as a\nplanet is, so organized that they constitute an instrument for a\npurpose. The mass of matter constituting the body is a variable mass. It\nmay increase or diminish greatly, but the man remains unchanged. There\nis no permanent relationship between the man and the physical matter\nwhich he uses for his vehicle of consciousness. According to the\nphysiologists every atom of the body changes within a period of a few\nyears. The cells wear out, break down and pass away to be replaced by\nnew matter. Not a particle of the physical matter that was in our bodies\nseven years ago is there now, and none that is there now will remain.\nWithin seven years, or less, we shall have bodies composed of new matter\nas certainly as an infant's is.\n\nOf course such reconstruction of the body does not change its\nappearance. It is built on the same lines. It is as it would be with\nsome very old cathedral. As the centuries pass it must be slowly\nrebuilt. The floors wear out and are relaid. The roof serves its time\nand is replaced. The walls crumble first in one place and then another\nuntil they have been completely reconstructed. After a thousand years\nhas passed there may be none of the original material in the building,\nyet its appearance is unchanged. The bodies we have today shall have\npassed away and will be growing in the trees and blooming in the flowers\nin a few years. The bodies we shall then have are now scattered through\nthe world. They will be brought together during that time and will come\nfrom many parts of the earth.\n\nThe physical senses continually deceive us and nowhere more than in our\nideas about the physical body. It is an unstable mass of matter, in\nconstant motion, with great gulfs of space between its atoms. Emerson\nwas very far ahead of his time and it took science a half century to\ncatch up with him and learn that he had recorded a fact in nature when\nhe wrote:\n\n      Atom from atom yawns as far\n      As earth from moon, or star from star.\n\nIn 1908 the _Scientific American Supplement_, commenting on our\nreconstructed ideas about matter, remarked that the actual mass of the\nphysical body to the apparent mass was about one to one million!\n\nIf the physical body is merely an organized mass of matter, continually\nvarying, constantly coming and going, and having no permanent\nrelationship to the consciousness that functions through it, what reason\nis there for believing that it is the man? Does it seem strange that the\ncenter of consciousness should be able to draw about itself on the\nhigher planes aggregations of matter and finally to express itself on\nthe material plane through the mass of matter we call the body? If that\nis mysterious quite as miraculous things are going on constantly about\nus unnoticed. Thoreau calls attention to the fact that we become so\naccustomed to the marvelous expressions of life all about us that we are\noblivious of the phenomena that are taking place. Commenting on the\nmagic possible to nature he says:\n\n      \"Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where\n      no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed--a, to me,\n      equally mysterious origin for it. Convince me that you have\n      a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders.... In\n      the spring of 1857 I planted six seeds sent to me from the\n      Patent Office, and labeled, I think, 'Poitrine jaune\n      grosse,' large yellow squash. Two came up, and one bore a\n      squash which weighed 123\u00bd pounds, the other bore four,\n      weighing together 186\u00bc pounds. Who would have believed\n      that there was 310 pounds of poitrine jaune grosse in that\n      corner of my garden? These seeds were the bait I used to\n      catch it, my ferrets which I sent into its burrow, my brace\n      of terriers which unearthed it.... Other seeds I have which\n      will find other things in that corner of my garden. Perfect\n      alchemists I keep who can transmute substances without end,\n      and thus the corner of my garden is an inexhaustible\n      treasure-chest. Here you can dig, not gold, but the value\n      which gold merely represents; and there is no Signor Blitz\n      about it. Yet farmer's sons will stare by the hour to see a\n      juggler draw ribbons from his throat, though he tells them\n      it is all deception. Surely, men love darkness rather than\n      light.\"[E]\n\nA seed is a center of force through which life, at a much lower level\nthan the human, flows and gathers about that center the material mass\nthat serves the purpose of its lowly evolution. At the human level\nconsciousness has become self-consciousness and a marvelously complex\nmechanism is required to express it and serve the purpose of its farther\nevolution.\n\nThis complex mechanism of consciousness, composed of the various bodies\nthrough which the ego expresses itself at different levels, is used as a\nwhole for functioning on the physical plane. But when the ego is\nfunctioning no farther down than the astral plane, the physical body\nis, of course, temporarily discarded. It is then in the condition known\nas sleep, or trance. Sleep is the natural withdrawing of the\nconsciousness from the physical body. When the separation occurs in the\ncase of the medium it is called a trance. The cause of the inert\ncondition of the physical body is the same in both cases--the withdrawal\nof the consciousness of the ego. The physical body is then unoccupied,\nbut the consciousness maintains magnetic connection with it. In death\nthat tie is severed and the consciousness can return to the body no\nmore. Instances in which the apparently dead are brought back to life\nare cases where the magnetic tie is not broken, notwithstanding there is\nevery appearance of death.\n\nIn form and feature the physical body has its exact duplicate in the\nastral body, and in it we function in the astral world whenever the\nseparation between the two occurs, whether from sleep or death. In sleep\nthe consciousness, expressing itself in the astral body in the astral\nworld, may be turned dreamily inward or it may be turned outward and be\nvividly aware of the life and activities of that world. But there is\nsmall chance that any memory of it will come through into the physical\nconsciousness upon awakening. Occasionally, however, it does occur and\nthen it is usually remembered as a very vivid dream. In illness, and\nother abnormal conditions, the connection between the physical and\nastral consciousness is much closer. At a comparatively high point in\nevolution the two states of consciousness merge. The man is then\ncontinuously conscious, and has a full memory in the physical brain of\nall his activities in the astral world during the hours when the\nphysical body was asleep.\n\nConsciousness is, of course, at its worst when expressed through the\nlimitation of its lower vehicles. Any person, whether brilliant or\nstupid, will be much abler and keener on the astral plane than on the\nphysical, because in sleep, and after death, he has lost the limitations\nimposed by physical matter. But the degree of restriction is variable\nand depends much upon the _kind_ of matter of which the brain and body\nare composed; for the physical atoms vary greatly, and as they come and\ngo in the passing years the body may either become purified and refined\nor it may grow grosser and coarser. By careful attention to food and\ndrink, and by control of the emotions, the limitations of physical\nmatter may be lessened and a much higher and more efficient state of\nconsciousness in the physical body can be attained.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[E] The Succession of Forest Trees.--Thoreau.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\nDEATH\n\n\nPerhaps one of the reasons why death is so commonly associated with a\nfeeling of fear is because we give so little thought to it. Most people\nseem never to think of the subject at all until death invades the home\nand threatens some member of the family. Then terror fills the mind and\nall but paralyzes the reasoning faculties.\n\nSuch fear of death, so widespread in Occidental civilization, is\neloquent testimony to the materialism of our times. It is doubt about\nthe future that causes fear of death. Only when we have a scientific\nbasis for the hope of immortality will the awful fear of death\ndisappear. It is feared because it seems like annihilation. If people\nreally believed in a heavenly existence beyond the physical life they\ncould not possibly be filled with terror at the prospect of entering it.\nIf a man's religion has not given him a genuine confidence in a future\nlife, and made it as much of a reality to him as this life is, it has\nfailed to do what we have a right to demand of religion. If it does not\nenable him to look upon the face of his dead without a doubt, or a fear,\nthere is something wrong, either with his religion or with his\ncomprehension of it. What possible reason is there for fearing death? A\nthing that is universal, that comes to all, can not be pernicious. To\nregard death as a disastrous thing would be an indictment of the sanity\nof nature.\n\nDeath is merely the close of a particular cycle of experience. It is the\nannihilation of nothing but the physical body, in its aspect of an\ninstrument of activity and a vehicle of the consciousness upon the\nphysical plane. The atoms of the body, drawn together in the human form\nfor temporary use, are, in death, released from the cohesive force of a\nliving organism and will return whence they came.\n\nIn reality there is no such thing as death, unless it be strictly\napplied to the form, regarded as a temporary vehicle of consciousness.\nAs for the consciousness, there is no death. There is life in a physical\nform and life out of it, but no such thing as the death, or cessation,\nof the individual intelligence. What we name \"death\" is but a change in\nthe orderly evolution of life, and it is only because the phenomenon is\nviewed from the physical plane that such a term can be applied to it.\nFrom this plane it is death, or departure. But looked at from the astral\nworld it is birth, or arrival. What we call birth is the beginning of\nthe expression of the soul through a material body on the physical\nplane. It is an arrival. But from the astral viewpoint it is a departure\nand therefore is as logically a \"death\" there as departure from a\nphysical body is here. So death and departure from one plane is simply\nbirth, or arrival, upon another, although it is not, of course, birth\nas we know it.\n\nEvery process in nature has a part to play in evolution and therefore\ndeath is as necessary as life and as beneficial as birth. Death is the\ndestroyer of the useless. There is a time when each human being should\ndie--that is to say, a time when the physical body has fulfilled its\nmission and completely accomplished the purpose for which it exists. To\ncontinue life in a physical body beyond that point is to waste energy\nand lose time in the evolutionary journey. Under the action of what we\ncall \"diseases\" the body becomes inefficient, or through the gradual\nbreaking down of old age the senses grow dim and uncertain. The\nconsciousness can no longer be keenly expressed through its impaired\nmachine and it is decidedly to the advantage of the ego to withdraw from\nit. The soul is in the position of an artisan obliged to work with\nbroken and rusted tools. Good results are no longer possible. It is then\nthat death comes, beneficently destroying the worn out instrument and\nreleasing the consciousness from its too-often painful situation and\npermitting its escape into a field of unobstructed activity.\n\nDeath is painless. The breaking down of the body under the ravages of\ndisease may cause pain, but that belongs to physical life, not death.\nDistress may also be caused by groundless fear of death. But the dying\nperson who does not know that death is upon him has no terror, and no\npain, and sinks quietly to sleep. Very little observation will convince\none that the distress about a death-bed is invariably on the part of\nsurviving friends, not on the part of the dying. Those who are left\nbehind remain within the limitations of the physical senses, and they\nare therefore separated from the so-called dead man, but he is not\nseparated from them. It is because of that separation that the terror of\ndeath exists for them.\n\nBut in that very fact is to be seen the great evolutionary value of\ndeath. The separation it causes intensifies love as nothing else could\ndo. It is only when our friend is gone that we begin to appreciate his\nreal value and comprehend how large a part he really played in our\nexistence. As sudden silence gives the consciousness a keener\nrealization of the sound that has just ceased, so death, by its\ncontrast, gives a vivid, realistic touch to life. We all know how\nenormously the heart qualities are quickened by the death of a close\nfriend. The whole nature is in some degree purified and spiritualized.\nSelfishness is decreased and compassion expands. Sympathy for others in\ndistress is born, and thus a decided evolutionary advance is made. We\nhave only to reflect upon the fact that separation without death\nproduces the same effects in a minor key, to realize the evolutionary\nvalue of death. In constant association we grow careless and\nindifferent. But an absence of a month or two enables one to get a truer\nperspective of personal associations and thereafter life has new zest. A\nchild regards its mother with a certain degree of appreciation but a\nshort absence enormously increases its appreciation. All human beings\ncome into closer and more sympathetic association after a period of\nseparation, and the completeness of the separation caused by death\nrenders it peculiarly efficacious in the development of the spiritual\nside of one's nature. It often requires death to turn attention away\nfrom materialistic life. Frequently a family becomes completely absorbed\nin material success. There is no thought at all given to the higher\nlife. Wealth, position, power, fame, all the vanities of the world, hold\nthem firmly. They become completely self-centered. Then suddenly death\nenters and breaks the family circle, and the transient character of all\nthey had been so strenuously striving for suddenly dawns upon them, and\nattention is turned to the nobler things of life. It is a well known\nfact that great wars are accompanied or followed with widespread\nspiritual awakening, and it is no doubt largely because the shadow of\ndeath has fallen on tens of thousands of households.\n\nIt has sometimes been asked by doubtful critics if it would not be an\nimprovement on nature's plan if the sorrow caused by the death of our\nfriends were softened by direct knowledge of their continued existence.\nIt is evidently the plan of nature to have the physical life and the\nastral life normally separated at our present level of evolution. Some\nof the reasons have already been discussed. There are undoubtedly others\nthat we are incapable of understanding, and still others that we can\nreadily comprehend. If the higher, joyous life of the astral world were\nopen to our consciousness, then concentration upon the duties of this\nlife would be difficult, if not impossible. Our life in the physical\nbody may be compared to the tasks of children in school. They have\nserious business before them in the acquiring of knowledge and the\ndevelopment of the intellect. They can best accomplish the work when\ncompletely isolated from other phases of life. Introduce into their\nwork-day consciousness the joys of a child's existence, the circus, the\nmilitary parade, the picnic and the dancing parties, and the purpose for\nwhich the school exists would be defeated. To exactly the extent that\nthe consciousness is withdrawn from such things will desirable progress\nbe made with the work of the school-room. And so it is with the\nlimitation of our physical senses. It serves a purpose.\n\nBut there is a point in human evolution where such limitation of the\nsenses is no longer of any service and may be transcended. Some people\nhave attained it. They are those who have previously been referred to as\nthe psychic scientists, with the higher clairvoyance of the\ncerebro-spinal system developed. It is an accomplishment to which all\nmay aspire. None need submit to the separation commonly caused by death.\nBy hard work in co-operating with nature's methods of evolution and by a\nserious and sustained effort to live the highest and most helpful life\nof which one is capable, it is possible in time to attain a level of\nconsciousness where one has personal knowledge that the dead still live.\nBut in the very work of rising to that level, the concentration\npreviously enforced by the limitation of the physical senses will have\nbeen acquired.\n\nOne of the common delusions about death is that some radical change in\nthe nature of a person then takes place. This is no doubt due in part to\nthe theological ideas that have come down to us from the time of the\nMiddle Ages. It is popularly supposed that at death one comes to some\nsort of a judgment that classes him as either a saint qualified for\neternal bliss or a fiend fit only for endless torture! The belief is\nbased on that erroneous view of human nature that was common to the\nmelodrama of a past generation and that will possibly have eternal life\nin the cheap novel. It represented the hero as unqualifiedly good and\nthe villain as absolutely bad. The one had no flaw of character and the\nother had not a redeeming feature. But human nature does not thus\nexpress itself. The spark of divine life is in all, notwithstanding it\nis sometimes darkly hidden. On the other hand we find no perfected\nbeings. The perfect heroes were merely creations of an imperfect\nimagination. At our halfway stage of evolution we find neither the\nabsolutely good nor the hopelessly bad.\n\nWhy should the change we call death transform a human being? It is\nmerely the loss of one part of the mechanism of consciousness. The soul,\nthe thinker, has lost connection with the physical world because the\nphysical body has ceased to exist. The mental body and the astral body\nremain and they enable him to think and feel. But he can not think more\nthan he knows, nor feel what he has not evolved. All that has happened\nin death is that contact with the material world has been lost.\n\nOne of the misconceptions is that death brings great wisdom, and we\noften hear of people getting into communication with those who have\npassed on, with the hope of obtaining valuable advice. It is true that\ndeath ushers one into a realm of wider consciousness and that in the\nastral world one can see a little further ahead and take a few more\nthings into consideration. But--and it is a vital point--he would have\nno better judgment in determining a course of action than he had while\nhere in the physical world.\n\nBoth mentally and emotionally he is unchanged. His grade of morality is\nneither better nor worse. His tolerance or narrowness remains what it\npreviously was. If he was bigoted while here he is still bigoted there.\nIf he was the unevolved ignoramus here he remains precisely that in the\nastral world. Whether genius or fool, saint or villain, he remains\nunchanged and goes on with his evolutionary development, but in a world\nwhere emotion is the determining factor.\n\nDeath merely opens the door to a new and wider realm where the evolution\nof the soul proceeds. It would be difficult to say which is the greater\nmisfortune--the delusions that make death the king of terrors, or the\ncomplacent belief that if death does not end all, it at least brings the\nsoul to a judgment that ends all personal responsibility and settles\none's fate forever. Death can no more lessen responsibility or\ntransform the moral nature than sleep can change character or determine\ndestiny.\n\nThe theosophical conception of death is as consoling as it is\nscientific. Instead of the fear of death it gives us knowledge of\ncontinued life. Instead of doubt and despair it gives us confidence and\njoy, for it guarantees the companionship once more of those we have\nknown and loved, and erroneously supposed we have lost.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\nTHE ASTRAL WORLD\n\n\nWhen the physical body dies there is an interval between the loss of\nconsciousness here and the dawning of the astral consciousness. During\nthat interim a review of the life scenes takes place. Everything between\nbirth and death passes again through the consciousness, as it thus\npauses in the etheric double, between the life activities of two worlds.\nThen peaceful unconsciousness follows, from which the man awakes in the\nastral world.\n\nTo those accustomed to thinking of the dying as passing to some remote\nheaven, where they become angels, it will perhaps sound startling to say\nthat a dead man is not aware at first that the change we call death has\ntaken place. Yet that is a common experience. Nor is it at all\nremarkable that it should be so with many. We have only to recall the\nfact that all physical matter is surrounded and permeated with astral\nmatter to realize that the physical plane is duplicated in astral\nmatter. Not only the physical body of the human being but, of course,\nevery physical object, has its astral duplicate. The dying man loses\nconsciousness of the physical plane and awakes as from a sleep to the\nastral consciousness. He sees then the exact duplicate, in astral\nmatter, of the familiar scenes he has left behind. He sees, too, his\nfriends, for their astral bodies are replicas of their physical forms.\n\nAnd yet, notwithstanding all this there is a difference, though not a\ndifference that enables him to comprehend what has occurred. He may know\nthat only yesterday, or what seems to him to have been yesterday, he was\nill and confined to his bed, and was perhaps told that he was about to\ndie; and now he is not ill; indeed, he never felt so free from aches and\npains in all his life. The pulsing energies and exhilaration of youth\nare his again! This mystifies him. He sees his friends and naturally\nspeaks to them, but gets no reply and finds that he can not attract\ntheir attention. It must be remembered that he can not see their\nphysical bodies any more than they can see his astral body. Yet he truly\nsees them. If a so-called dead man and a living person look at the same\ninstant at another living person they will both see him, but the latter\nsees the physical body while the former sees the astral body that\nsurrounds and permeates it.\n\nUnder these circumstances it is not strange that the new arrival in the\nastral world is seized with a feeling of baffling mystery. He is in full\npossession of his reasoning faculties, and will power, but there is a\npuzzling limitation to his efforts to produce expected results. A\npartial analogy may be found in the case of a person suddenly stricken\nwith aphasia over night. He rises in the morning, dresses, and goes\nabout his accustomed duties without the slightest suspicion that any\nchange has come to him until he takes up the morning paper and\ndiscovers that he can not read--that the familiar print simply means\nnothing to him!\n\nOf course, in time the living dead man gets adjusted to the new life. He\nsoon meets others in the astral world who have been there longer and\nthey, sooner or later, succeed in convincing him that he is not having\nan exceptionally vivid dream.\n\nThe astral world, as explained in a previous chapter, has seven\nsubdivisions and the astral body contains matter belonging to each of\nthem. While we have the physical body the matter of the astral body is\nin rapid circulation, every grade of it being constantly represented at\nthe surface. But when the connection with the material plane is broken,\na rearrangement of the matter of the astral body automatically takes\nplace (unless it is prevented by an exercise of will power) and the\ngrossest grade of matter thereafter occupies its surface. Consequently\nthe consciousness of the man is limited to that subdivision of the\nastral world represented by the lowest grade of matter which his astral\nbody contains at the time of his death. This is a fact the importance of\nwhich it would be difficult to over emphasize, because his after-death\nstate of consciousness, his joy or sorrow--in short, his temporary\nheaven or hell, depends upon his location in the astral world.\n\nThere are three, and only three modes of death, or release from the\nphysical body--by old age, by disease, or by violence. Old age is the\nnatural and desirable close of the chapter of physical plane experience.\nIt is most desirable to live to ripe old age and accumulate a large\nharvest of experience. To live long and actively is excellent fortune.\nIt is not well to pass into the astral world with strong physical\ndesires. As old age comes on the desire forces subside. Most of that\ngrade of astral matter that is capable of expressing them has slowly\ndisappeared. Old age represents the most gradual loosening of the life\nforces from the material plane, and that has many advantages.\n\nRelease from the physical body by disease is next in order of\ndesirability. It is a quicker and less complete breaking down of the\nconnection with the physical world. Nevertheless it is a condition in\nwhich much progress may be made in getting free from physical desires,\nas those who have had experience with invalids are aware. Desires\nusually grow weaker with the progress of the disease that finally ends\nin death.\n\nRelease from the physical form by violence is, of course, the least\ndesirable of the three, not merely because it is violence, but for the\nmuch more important reason that sudden death finds the man, as a rule,\nwith a considerable amount of the lower grades of astral matter in his\nastral body.\n\nWhether the death by violence is the result of accident, murder, suicide\nor legal execution, the astral plane conditions of consciousness are\nalike unfortunate, in that it is sudden death, not the manner of death,\nthat permits entry upon the astral life before the lower grades of\nastral matter have been eliminated from the astral body. This is one\nreason why suicide is unfortunate--because it ushers the man into the\nastral world with more of the matter of the lower levels in his astral\nvehicle than would be there if he had lived out his normal physical\nlife.\n\nPurgatory is a term often applied to the lowest level of the astral\nworld. The word is well chosen because it is there that the moral nature\nis purged of its impurities. Strong desires cultivated and indulged\nduring the life in the physical body are eliminated with the gross\nastral matter through which alone they can be expressed and, freed to\nthat extent, the man passes to the next subdivision, and into its higher\nstate of consciousness.\n\nIn the astral life some people linger long on the lower levels while\nothers know them not at all, but awaken to the blissful consciousness of\nthe higher subdivisions. Nature is everywhere consistent, grouping\ntogether people of a kind. It is, however, the manner in which one lives\nduring physical life that determines his happiness or sorrow after\ndeath. The astral body, the seat of the emotions, is, like the physical\nbody, constantly changing the matter that composes it. An emotion of any\nkind expresses itself as a vibration in the matter of the astral body.\nIf it is a base emotion, such as anger, hatred, lust or cruelty, it\nthrows into vibration the grossest of the astral body's matter, for only\nin that can it be expressed. If it is an exalted emotion, such as love,\nsympathy, devotion, courage or benevolence, it affects only the rarer\ngrades of astral matter, for in them only can such feeling be expressed.\n\nWith most people there is a constant mingling of a wide range of\nemotions, with a gain in one direction and a loss in another. One who\nfortunately understands the law of emotional cause and effect may make\nabsolutely certain of a comfortable sojourn upon the astral plane after\ndeath. He would make it a rule to watch his emotions and control them,\nknowing that each time he indulged a gross one the vibration set up in\nhis astral body would strengthen and vivify the grossest grade of matter\nin it, while pure and exalted emotions would strengthen the higher\ngrades. Ultimately, the grossest grade, becoming atrophied for the lack\nof activity, would drop away from him.\n\nThe descriptions of purgatory given by the psychic scientists are\ncalculated to induce even the reckless to avoid it. If we could bring\ntogether all the vilest men and women now living on the physical plane,\nthe crudest of murderers, the most besotted drunkards, the vilest\ndegenerates, the most conscienceless and vindictive fiends of every\ndescription, and huddle them together in hovels reeking with filth, and\nlet them remain without any outward government, free to prey upon each\nother, we should perhaps have a faint comprehension of the reality of\nthe lowest subdivision of the astral world. But no physical plane\ncomparison can do it full justice, for we must remember that it is the\nemotional world and that the feelings of its inhabitants make its\natmosphere in a way that would here be impossible. Astral matter\ninstantly and exactly reproduces emotion, so that the fiend or the\nsensualist looks exactly what he feels. Even in the unresponsive\nphysical matter, the evil in a man is often sufficiently expressed to\nfill those who behold him with terror. In the astral world every cruel\nthought and hideous emotion would express itself in visible form and the\nmultitudinous emotions welling up in the lower level of the astral\nworld would be as a loathsome swarm of reptiles gliding through its\nhorrible life. Add to all that the fact that the hopeless despair of its\ndenizens gives an atmosphere of utter gloom and desolation, and we have\na hell that leaves no need of other torture to check the course of the\nerring soul. And yet there is no suffering that is not self-imposed. It\nis both consistent and just that a man should associate with his kind\nand look upon himself in others until he grows sick of his own vileness\nand cries out in agony of spirit against his own moral offenses. It must\nnot be assumed that every person dying with considerable matter\nbelonging to the lower astral level still within his emotional body will\nnecessarily pass through such experiences. It should never be forgotten\nthat we are dealing with a matter of the utmost complexity and that even\nthe most exhaustive description in print would present only a fragment\nof the truth. The conditions of consciousness on any subplane vary as\nindividuals vary. Some people on the lowest astral level are wholly\nunconscious of their surroundings. Another variation is that some people\nfind themselves floating in darkness and largely cut off from others--a\nsufficiently undesirable condition, and yet better than the fate of\nsome. All states of astral consciousness are reactions from previous\ngood or evil conduct and are, moreover, temporary conditions that will\nin time be left behind.\n\nIn a different way and at a higher level there may be suffering on the\nastral plane that is purifying the nature. Not all offenses against\nnature's laws are of so gross a type. There is the abuse of desire and\nthe violation of conscience that may result in various kinds of regret\nand emotional distress. A desire of a refined type strongly built up\nupon the physical plane lives with an intenser vitality on the astral\nplane after the physical body can no longer gratify it. A glutton and a\nmiser have strong desires of a very different type. Each of them is\nlikely to suffer on account of it during the astral life. They need not\ndwell upon the lowest level to get a reaction from their folly in the\nphysical life. We can easily imagine the distress of the glutton in a\nworld without food. There could be no distress because of hunger, for\nthe astral body is not, like the physical body, renewed and maintained\nby what it consumes. But hunger and the gratification of the sense of\ntaste are very different things. It is the latter that would trouble the\ngormand, and it is said that great suffering, as in the case of the\ndrunkard, is his lot until the desire gradually disappears because of\nthe impossibility of its gratification.\n\nThe miser represents a subtler form of desire, but his greed for gold\nmay be quite as intense as that of the glutton for sensual\ngratification. The accumulation of money has been the dominant thought\nof his life. He has created in his mind a wholly false value for money\nand it gives him real pain to part with a dollar of it. Only dire\nnecessity forces him to spend any portion of his hoard. It is not\ndifficult to imagine his emotions when he is obliged to leave it behind\nand see others spend it freely.\n\nAny kind of a desire that is related to the physical body is without\nmeans of gratification in the astral world and if such desire has been\ncultivated until it becomes strong enough to play an important part in\none's life it will certainly give him more or less trouble after the\nloss of the physical body. Whether it grows out of an over-refinement\nand excess in a natural appetite, as in the case of the epicure, or is\nsimply an artificial thing that is unrelated to any natural demand, as\nin the case of the smoker, the inability to gratify the desire is\nequally distressing. The suffering that results could hardly be judged\nby what would follow on the physical plane when desire is thwarted, for\nin the astral life emotion expresses itself much more intensely.\n\nAll of the suffering in the astral world, of whatever type, is the\nnatural result of the thoughts, emotions and acts during the life on the\nphysical plane. The astral world is that part of the mechanism for man's\nevolution that brings him up with a sharp turn when he is moving in the\nwrong direction. He is not being punished. The injurious forces he has\ngenerated are simply reacting upon him. This reaction, that sets him\nright, is as certain as in the case of the infant that picks up a live\ncoal. It is merely less direct, and not so immediate in result, and it\nworks itself out in a multiplicity of ways. One of the methods of\nreaction that helps to stamp out a fault is the automatic repetition of\nthe unpleasant consequences of wrong doing. The murderer will serve for\na general illustration. In the case of a deliberate, premeditated and\ncruel murder, the assassin is moved by such base motives as revenge or\njealousy. The results of these, so far as their frightful consequences\nto the victim are concerned, do not in the least tend to deter the\nassassin from further deeds of violence. He feels gratified with his\nsuccess and is quite satisfied with himself. Only the possibility of\ndetection and punishment troubles him. If they follow in due course they\nwill accomplish something in correcting his erroneous views of life. But\nthey will not be sufficient to register indelibly, in the very nature of\nthe man, a proper sense of the horror of which he has been guilty. Such\na man can be impressed and his viewpoint changed only by consequences to\nhimself. It is in the reaction in the astral life of the forces he has\ngenerated here that he gets the lesson that forces in upon his\nconsciousness the horror inseparable from murder. If he escapes the\nphysical plane consequences of his deed he will nevertheless come into\ncontact in the astral world with conditions sufficiently horrible. He\nhas made a tie with his victim that can not be broken until the scales\nof justice are balanced and nature's exaction has been paid to the\nuttermost. Just what form of retribution will follow depends, of course,\non the nature of the case. But the reaction is as certain as it is\nmultiplex. One of its variants is the gruesome experience of always\nfleeing from the corpse of the victim, but with the utter impossibility\nof a moment's escape. In the case of a murderer who has been\napprehended, tried, condemned and executed, the whole of the tragedy and\nits sequel would be, not only lived over in imagination but repeated\nautomatically, in fact, and worked out in full detail in the plastic\nmatter of the astral region. Probably few people have the imagination to\ncomprehend what the murderer feels of apprehension and fear at his trial\nwhen his life is in the balance; or what he suffers while hiding from\njustice and making futile efforts to escape the pursuing officers of the\nlaw; or what his emotions are as his hands are tied and he steps upon\nthe death trap. All this is reproduced in the astral life, repeatedly.\nAs one whose mind is completely filled with a subject--let us say\nsomething that is the cause of much anxiety--finds it impossible to turn\nhis attention from it and think of other things, or go to sleep, and is\nimpelled against his desire to think the matter over and over, so the\nassassin is enmeshed in the emotion web of his crime and can not escape\nfrom living and acting it all over and over again until a revulsion of\nfeeling arouses him to full comprehension of the horror of his crime.\n\nAgain it should be said that no attempt is here made to give more than a\nvery fragmentary description, and a few hints, of the manner in which\nthe retributory laws of nature work. A writer on the subject should also\nbe careful that, in pointing out the fact that to certain classes of\noffenders against nature's laws severe penalties accrue, the reader does\nnot get the impression that suffering is the common lot in the astral\nlife. The truth of the matter is that people who live clean, moderate\nlives, and refrain from generating forces that are injurious to others,\nwill know nothing whatever of the unfortunate side of astral existence.\nIn the limitations, the vexations, the physical aches and ills, the\npoverty, sorrow and suffering of the material plane, most of us are as\nnear to hell-conditions of existence as we ever will be. The ordinary\nman of average morality has so little of the matter of the lowest level\nof the astral plane lingering in him that as a rule he would begin his\npostmortem existence on the next higher subdivision, which is the\ncounterpart of the earth's surface. He would therefore have no knowledge\nof the hell that exists on the lower level. But that is not at all true\nof those who live grossly and freely indulge the emotions of anger,\njealousy, hatred, revenge, and their kindred impulses, that often lead\nto violent crimes. It is possible to live the physical life so sanely,\nusefully, harmoniously and unselfishly that at the death of the physical\nbody one will pass almost immediately to a joyous and useful career in\nthe astral world. But while that is quite possible the unfortunate fact\nis that a great many people so color all their emotions with selfishness\nthat the astral sojourn is unpleasantly affected by it. It is the\nemotions that determine the astral life and it is said that if they are\ndirectly selfish they bring the man into conditions on the astral plane\nthat are very unpleasant.\n\nIt must be expected that any idea we may form of the astral life will be\nincomplete, and inadequate to give a true conception what it is really\nlike. Perhaps the most comprehensible of the subplanes is that which\nreproduces the physical landscape in astral matter. There the average\nman will begin his conscious astral career. If we think of the world as\nwe know it here and then imagine all that is material to have vanished\nfrom it we shall gain some comprehension of the situation. Eliminate the\nnecessity of providing food, clothing and shelter and nearly all of the\nlabor of the race would cease. The tilling of the soil, the mining, the\nbuilding, the manufacturing, and the transportation and exchange of the\nproducts of field and factory, constitute nearly the whole of human\nactivity. In the astral life no food is required and one is clothed with\nastral matter from which garments are fashioned almost with the ease and\nrapidity of thought. No houses are needed for shelter. The astral body\nis not susceptible to degrees of heat and cold, and nothing there\ncorresponds to our temperatures. There is no division of night and day,\nobjects being self-luminous and light being perpetual.\n\nIf we could drop out of physical life all need of physical labor,\nabolish all response to heat or cold, the need of food and houses, and\nadd unlimited wealth or, to be more exact, give each person the power to\npossess all that wealth can confer and much that it can not, we would\nhave an approach to a conception of the astral world from one viewpoint.\nEach one entering the astral life has, of course, a fullness of liberty\nand freedom from responsibility that is not instantly comprehensible to\nthe physical mind. There is nothing whatever that he must do. There is,\nhowever, plenty that he can do if he desires to be active. On the\nphysical plane many people of wealth travel and amuse themselves with\nsight seeing. Thousands of others would do so if it were possible. In\nthe astral world it is possible and large numbers of people drift\naimlessly about with no particular plans. Multitudes belonging to\nvarious religious sects organize themselves into congregations, build\nedifices and spend much time in religious services. Others amuse\nthemselves building houses and constructing landscapes. It is not at all\nnecessary, but the old habits live and influence activities.\n\nThe average person in the astral world gives himself to idleness and\nthe enjoyment of the intensified emotions of the astral life just as the\nmajority of people would do here if it were possible to escape the round\nof duties so sternly imposed by their necessities. For a long time the\nmost of them also make daily visits to the homes they have left behind\non the physical plane. Those who have a strong tie of affection with\nsome member of the family frequently spend much time lingering around\nand going on little journeys about the premises or elsewhere with the\nloved one. They understand that the dead person is not perceived by the\nliving one, but nevertheless they desire to be near. They do not have a\nfull consciousness of all the living person is thinking and doing, but\nthey are fully aware of the state of feeling, or emotion, and whether\nthe living friend is pleasantly or unpleasantly affected by passing\nevents.\n\nAs the astral life becomes more and more familiar to the newly arrived\nindividual he gets well settled in it and gradually readjusts his\nviewpoint to a truer perspective than he has here. As time passes he is\nless and less in touch with the affairs of the physical life and finally\nloses consciousness of them altogether as he passes on to the higher\nlevels of the astral world.\n\nBut there are many people who have a more serious view of life and who\nlose no opportunity of acquiring knowledge, and the astral world, which\nis called \"the hall of learning\" by students of the occult, presents\nremarkably good conditions to them. Here we are limited in three\ndimensions of matter and hampered by the very narrow range of the\nphysical senses. In the astral world matter has four dimensions and new\nand marvelous avenues of learning open before the student. Those who are\nat all interested in music, or art of any kind, find both the field and\nthe facilities enormously extended. Those who study nature, whether by\ndirectly probing into her secrets or by cleverly combining her\nprinciples into new processes and inventions, have such opportunities as\nscientist and discoverer has not dreamed of on this plane. And so for\nall the thoughtful and studious there is a life of the most useful and\nfascinating kind in the astral world.\n\nBut it must not be supposed that the opportunity of usefulness and\nprogress is only for the studious. There as here the opportunity for\nuseful work in helping humanity forward is boundless; for while poverty\nand disease have disappeared absolutely there is much philanthropic work\nof other kinds to be done. People are to be taught, for there, as here,\nthe majority are sadly in need of knowledge of how to take advantage of\nnature's laws for our rapid progress, and how to live in harmony with\nthem in order to get the greatest happiness from life. But the work to\nbe done is by no means confined to teaching. The ignorance that makes\nthe teaching so necessary has brought a great many people into the\nunfortunate condition, where immediate assistance is most urgently\nneeded, and there is such a variety of helplessness that nobody need be\nidle.\n\nBecause of the false teaching upon the subject of life hereafter, people\nare bewildered when they become conscious in the astral life. Many have\nhad their minds so vividly impressed with the awful fate that awaits\nthose who are not \"saved\" before death that they fall into a state of\nterror when at last they realize that death has really occurred. Others,\nwho may or may not be haunted with any such absurd misconceptions, cling\nso tenaciously to the physical life when about to leave it that there is\nnot complete separation between the etheric double and astral body. The\nresult is that the unfortunate person finds himself cut off from the\nphysical world and yet not arrived in the astral! Wrapped in a cloud of\netheric matter he drifts for a time in terror of the unknown. Those\namong the so-called dead who are kindly enough to rescue the distressed\nmay come to their relief and give valuable assistance.\n\nPerhaps the commonest thing that engages the attention of the astral\nworker is the fear that death brings to most people. They arrive in the\nastral world with the feeling that everything is unknown and uncertain.\nAll preconceived ideas about the life after death have suddenly been\nfound unreliable and they are afraid of, they know not what. They want\nto cling to anybody who knows something of the new world. When we\nremember that people are arriving in the astral world by the tens of\nthousands daily, even under normal conditions, it is evident that all\nwho wish to be of service can find plenty to do. No special knowledge of\nthe astral plane is necessary. Common sense is a sufficient equipment,\nin such simple work, for those who desire to be useful instead of giving\nthe entire time to the pleasures of that world. The work for the astral\nhelpers ranges upward in complexity, of course, and there is profitable\nactivity for those with the fullest knowledge and skill. They usually\nwork in well organized groups and render service of great practical\nvalue.\n\nLife on the astral plane has its end for the same reason that it comes\nto a close on the physical plane. Nature's purpose has been accomplished\nand the man is ready to go on farther in his evolution. The length of\nthe astral life varies just as it does in the physical world. Some\nphysical lives are very long and sometimes only when five scores of\nyears, or more, have passed does the ego withdraw. Other lives are very\nshort and scarcely well begun when they unexpectedly come to a close.\nThere is nevertheless a general average to be found. It is at least\npossible to make averages for different classes of people and to say\nthat a majority of those who are of ordinary health and strength are\nlikely to attain a stated age, while it is certain that the majority of\nthose who have such, and such, a physical handicap will lose their\nphysical bodies when they are much younger. Such general rules may also\nbe applied to the astral life.\n\nHere a long and alert life is most desirable because the purpose of the\nphysical plane is to gather experience that shall be transmuted into\nwisdom on a higher plane. It is a seed time against a later harvest. But\nthe astral plane is, for the vast majority of the race, related to the\npurgative process. In that life the errors of the physical life are\nlargely worked out and desires that have grown up like weeds in a garden\nare rooted out and the budding virtues are given a chance to grow. It is\na corrective plane, where blunders are checked up and the moral\nperspective is re-established. Naturally enough the sooner that can be\ndone the better. The rule of a long life being most desirable on the\nphysical plane is, therefore, reversed on the astral plane. It is the\nshortest life in the astral world that is the greatest prize, and it\ncomes to those who have lived the purest and noblest lives while here.\nThe sooner a man gets through the astral world and begins the reaping of\nhis harvest on the mental plane, or heaven world, the better it is for\nhim.\n\nThe length of the astral sojourn depends primarily upon the durability\nof the astral body and that, in turn, depends upon the kind of a life he\nhas lived here. Let us suppose that he has lived a very gross and\nsensual life. All of the emotions of that type that he indulged built\nmore gross matter in his astral body and also strengthened and vivified\nthe lowest grade of matter that was already there. Let us also imagine\nthat he had an ungovernable temper and frequently gave way to outbursts\nof fury; further, that he was cruel and revengeful, seeking and finding\nmany opportunities of inflicting injuries upon others. Here we have a\ncase for long life on the lower levels of the astral world.\n\nLet us now consider a different type of man. He lives peacefully and\nharmoniously with those about him. He feels strong affection for wife\nand children. He has a host of friends because of his cheerful, helpful\nand sympathetic attitude toward others. He lives cleanly and thinks\nnobly. His mind is kept free from trivialities and his tongue is never\nemployed in gossip. He makes a determined and persistent effort to\neliminate pride, envy and ambition. He cultivates the habit of thinking\nfirst of the welfare of others and always last of himself--in short,\ntries hard to eliminate selfishness and see all things impersonally.\nSuch a man could know nothing whatever of the disagreeable part of the\nastral life and would pass quickly through even the higher subdivisions\nand reach the ecstatic happiness of the heaven world.\n\nFrom the lower subdivisions a man rises very gradually to the higher. He\nremains on a given level so long as is required to eliminate the matter\nof that level from his astral body. He is then immediately conscious on\nthe next higher level. The grosser matter falls away because the man has\nat last stopped sending his life force through it. Ungratified desire\nhas finally worn itself out and he is free. The process can be greatly\nhastened or retarded by the man's attitude toward life. If he foolishly\ndwells upon his desires, he gives new vitality and prolonged life to\nthem. If he can resolutely turn his mind to higher things he hastens his\nrelease. His fate is in his own hands, and he is fortunate indeed if he\nhas a knowledge of such matters.\n\nOne who dies in advanced years will pass more rapidly through the astral\nworld than he would have done had he died in the full strength of\nmanhood. As the years accumulate the emotions that vivify the lowest\ngrades of astral matter are not so much in evidence and the matter in\nwhich they are expressed loses its vitality. That is an additional\nreason why it is desirable to live to old age in the physical world.\n\nThe hold that the material world has upon the mind is one of the causes\nwhich greatly prolong existence in the astral world. Some people give\ntheir time and thought so exclusively to material things that after\nthey lose the physical body they cannot keep the mind away from the life\nthat lies behind them. This difficulty does not necessarily arise wholly\nfrom having given one's energies entirely to personal ambition and\nmaterial accumulation. Sometimes the ruler of a country is so determined\nto still manage affairs, as far as possible, that this vivid interest in\nthe physical world stretches out the period of astral life most\nunfortunately.\n\nOrdinarily one's sojourn in the astral world is comparatively short, if\nwe measure it in the terms of physical life. A person who has lived here\nseventy years may have thirty or forty years on the astral plane. But\nthat will depend not only upon how he lived the physical life just\nclosed but also upon his general position in human evolution. A savage\nof low type would have a comparatively long astral life while a man at\nthe higher levels of civilization would have a comparatively short\nperiod there, while the man in the lower levels of civilized life might\nbe said to come in at about midway between the two. But it must be\nremembered that these are very general estimates and that among\ncivilized peoples individuals differ enormously. Some will pass very\nslowly and, so far as lower levels are concerned, painfully, through\nastral life, while the sojourn of others there is measured in minutes,\nand they pass happily and almost instantaneously from physical death to\nthe heaven world. But such people are the exception, not the rule.\n\nCommunication with those who have passed on into the astral world is\npossible, but not always desirable, for a number of reasons. As an\nevidence of the continuity of consciousness in the hands of the\nscientific investigator, such communications have been of the greatest\nvalue. As a consolation to those who have thus come again in touch with\ndead friends such messages have been of inestimable value to the\nbereaved, particularly when they have been received in the privacy of\nthe family circle by some of its members. For a time those who have lost\nthe physical body are usually within easy reach through the usual\nmethods employed for the purpose and perhaps no harm is done by such\ncommunications unless they arouse anew the grief of those who have been\nleft behind and thus greatly depress the departed. But after the living\ndead get farther along, and are practically out of touch with the\nmaterial world, then directing their attention backward may be\npositively injurious to them. For that reason careful students of the\noccult seldom seek to obtain messages, or at least do it with proper\nconsideration for all the circumstances of the particular case.\n\nDue regard for the interests of those who have passed on, as well as for\nthose who remain, requires that all the facts be given full weight. The\ntruth of the matter is that it is our keen sense of loss that gives rise\nto the desire for a message of some sort. We long to once more get into\ntouch with one that seems to be lost to us. We are not really thinking\nmuch about his welfare. As a matter of fact he has not lost sight of us\nand does not have our sense of separation. Not only is he able to see us\nat all times and be conscious of our feelings and emotions, but during\nthe hours when we are asleep he is in the fullest and freest\ncommunication with us and we with him. On awakening we usually have no\nmemory of this and if we do we think it was a dream. But it is not so\nwith him. His memory of it is perfect and the result is that he has not\nour sense of separation and loss at all.\n\nThe result of knowledge upon the subject, that is readily gained by a\nstudy of the researches of the skilled occultists, is that one comes to\nfeel that one should rest satisfied with the fact that we do converse\nwith the dead nightly, and leave mediumistic communications to the\nscientific investigators. The natural order of things is that the person\nwho passes into the astral world shall in time fix his mind exclusively\nupon the inner life and be completely divorced from physical plane\naffairs. That is the mental and emotional condition which permits of his\nrapid passage through levels where he should not linger. It is said that\nto turn his attention backward at this time may cause him acute\ndistress.\n\nA reading of the Christian scriptures with a knowledge of occultism\noften throws a new light upon the subject. An instance of this is to be\nfound in the story of the woman of Endor who is visited by Saul in his\nquest for psychic information about the crisis that has been reached in\nthe affairs of his kingdom. The woman went into trance and acted as a\nmedium for a communication from Samuel, who tells Saul just what will\noccur in the impending battle. Samuel's first words were a reproach to\nSaul. \"Why hast thou disquieted me to bring me up?\"[F] was his greeting.\nIt is the language of one who is displeased. Drawing his attention\nforcibly back to the material world by the strong desire Saul had to\ncommunicate with him was evidently distressing to the dead king, hence\nthe rebuke, \"Why hast thou _disquieted_ me?\"\n\nWhat is here said on the subject of communication, however, has\nreference to general principles only. There is no intention of\nsuggesting that it is always undesirable to communicate with those who\nhave passed over. Often those on the other side seek means of\ncommunicating and they should then find the most willing co-operation\nfrom this side. Sometimes one who has left the physical plane life has a\nmessage of great importance to deliver and such a case reverses the\ngeneral rule--he would be delayed if he could _not_ communicate. It\nwould be decidedly to his advantage to free his mind of the matter.\nUntil he has done so he may remain in a restless condition and his case\nfalls into the category of what the spiritualists call \"earth bound.\" He\nmay have left undone something that a message will set right, if he can\nget it through, or he may have secreted something that cannot be found\nbecause he died suddenly and had no opportunity to speak of it. Or it\nmay simply be a case of desiring to prove to materialistic friends the\nfact that the so-called dead are not dead, and are close at hand. It is\nsometimes possible for the important information to come through into\nphysical life in the form of a dream by the living, and thus the\nrecovery of valuables has followed.[G] In such a case the dream is a\nmemory of facts well known in astral life but hidden from the waking\nconsciousness by the unresponsive material brain.\n\nIt sometimes happens that one who thus most earnestly desires to\ncommunicate but is wholly ignorant of how to accomplish his purpose\ncauses a good deal of annoyance. His blundering attempts to use psychic\nforce may be wholly abortive and result only in meaningless noises,\nraps, the tumbling of books or dishes from shelves or the aimless\nmovement of furniture. Annoyance is sometimes caused also by intention,\non the part of those who think it is humorous to play pranks. It must be\nremembered that passing on to the astral life does not improve one's\ncommon sense. If while living here, he thought it amusing to astonish or\ndelude somebody, or trick a friend into seriously accepting some absurd\nassertion as a fact, he still regards the same course as entertaining.\nThis accounts for many of the foolish, and sometimes startling messages,\nor answers to questions, received at seances.\n\nIt has often been asked why, if communication between the physical and\nastral planes is possible, we do not receive information that might lead\nto valuable discoveries and inventions. The very fact that death does\nnot confer wisdom explains it in part. But an even more important fact\nis that communication is easy with the lower levels and correspondingly\ndifficult as the higher levels are reached. All who have had much\nexperience with seances are familiar with the fact that \"guides\" or\n\"controls,\" that is, the persons in the invisible realms who direct the\nseance and frequently speak through the medium, are very often Indians\nor others at a low level of evolution. The majority of the inhabitants\nof the astral levels with which communication is easy are not the type\ncapable of furnishing ideas of any great value. It is on the higher\nlevels that the man of intellectual power passes most of his astral\nlife. The scientist or the inventor who has given so much thought to his\nwork that he has been in some degree successful here is not likely to\nhave much consciousness on lower levels. It is the highest of the seven\nsubdivisions of the astral world that is the habitat of the person who\nhas followed intellectual pursuits, during physical life, and with that\nlevel it is practically impossible for the ordinary medium to\ncommunicate.\n\nOne of the objections to indiscriminate communication with the astral\nplane lies in the very fact that the lowest class of entities are most\naccessible. That not only accounts for the commonplace messages in such\nabundance, but it is frequently a source of actual danger, especially\nwhere people form \"circles\" for the purpose of rendering themselves more\nsensitive to psychic influences. In such cases it is common to accept\nevery message as absolute truth. There is no doubt that as a rule the\nastral people in charge of such a gathering are earnest and honest. But\nthey are neither all-wise nor all-powerful, and it sometimes comes about\nthat some of the sitters are partially or wholly obsessed by astral\nentities, and that may prove to be an exceedingly serious matter. Some\npeople have thus lost their sanity and others their lives.\n\nIt is, of course, only the gross type of astral person who has a desire\nto seize upon the physical body of another. The purpose is to gratify\ndesires that have outlived the physical body. The dead drunkard is\nperhaps the commonest example of the obsessing entity, and if the\nobsession is only partial it may lead to nothing worse than strong and\nperhaps irresistible impulses toward alcoholic stimulation. Obsession\nmay, of course, occur without the psychic door being opened\ndeliberately. But no obsession is possible, in any case, unless there is\nsomething within the victim responsive to the moral defect of the\nobsessing entity.\n\nPartial obsessions are rather common and there are frequent inquiries as\nto the best means of treating such a case. It may amount only to the\nslight annoyance of astral people hanging about and refusing to depart\nor to actual persecution. In all such cases the victim is, of course, in\nconscious touch and communication with the intruders. One of the world's\ngreatest authorities on the subject, who is a constant investigator of\nthe unseen regions, has given detailed answer to two questioners, and\nwhat he says is of such practical value that it is well worth\nreproducing. The second question itself is enlightening as to the\ncharacter of the obsessing entities. The first inquirer asks:\n\n      \"What is the best way to get rid of an excarnate human\n      being who persists in occupying one's body?\"\n\nThe reply follows:\n\n      \"I should simply and absolutely decline to be so obsessed.\n      The best and kindest plan would be to have an explanation\n      with the dead person, to enquire what he wants and why he\n      makes such persistent attempts. Quite probably, he may be\n      some ignorant soul who does not at all comprehend his new\n      surroundings, and is striving madly to get into touch again\n      with the only kind of life that he understands. In that\n      case if matters are explained to him, he may be brought to\n      a happier frame of mind and induced to cease his\n      ill-directed efforts. Or the poor creature may have\n      something on his mind--some duty unfulfilled or some wrong\n      unrighted; if this be so, and the matter can be arranged to\n      his satisfaction, he may then be at peace.\n\n      \"If, however, he proves not to be amenable to reason, if in\n      spite of all argument and explanation he refuses to abandon\n      his reprehensible line of action, it will be necessary\n      gently but firmly to resist him. Every man has an\n      inalienable right to the use of his own vehicles, and\n      encroachments of this nature should not be permitted. If\n      the lawful possessor of the body will confidently assert\n      himself and use his own willpower no obsession can take\n      place.\n\n      \"When such things occur, it is almost always because the\n      victim has in the first place voluntarily yielded himself\n      to the invading influence, and his first step therefore is\n      to reverse that act of submission, to determine strongly to\n      take matters into his own hands again and to resume control\n      over his property. It is this reassertion of himself that\n      is the fundamental requirement, and though much help may be\n      given by wise friends, nothing which they can do will take\n      the place of the development of willpower on the part of\n      the victim, or obviate the necessity for it. The exact\n      method of procedure will naturally vary according to the\n      details of the case.\"\n\nThe same authority answers another question on the same subject and he\nis here dealing with particular entities that he has evidently seen:\n\n      \"I have long been troubled by entities who constantly\n      suggest evil ideas and make use of coarse and violent\n      language. They are always urging me to take strong drink,\n      and goading me on to the consumption of large quantities of\n      meat. I have prayed earnestly, but with little avail, and\n      am driven to my wits' end. What can I do?\"\n\nTo this appeal the psychic scientist replies:\n\n      \"You have indeed suffered greatly; but now you must make up\n      your mind to suffer no more. You must take courage and make\n      a firm stand. The power of these dead people over you is\n      only in your fear of them. Your own will is stronger than\n      all theirs combined if you will only know that it is; if\n      you turn upon them with vigor and determination they must\n      yield before you. You have an inalienable right to the\n      undisturbed use of your own vehicles, and you should insist\n      on being left in peace. You would not tolerate an intrusion\n      of filthy and disgusting beings into your house on the\n      physical plane; why should you submit to it because the\n      entities happen to be astral? If an insolent tramp forces\n      himself into a man's house, the owner does not kneel down\n      and pray--he kicks the tramp out; and that is precisely\n      what you must do with these astral tramps.\n\n      \"You will no doubt say to yourself that when I give you\n      this advice I do not know the terrible power of the\n      particular demons who are afflicting you. That is exactly\n      what they would like you to believe--what they will try to\n      make you believe; but do not be so foolish as to listen to\n      them. I know the type perfectly, and mean, despicable,\n      bullying villains they are; they will torment a weak woman\n      for months together, but will fly in cowardly terror the\n      moment you turn upon them in righteous anger! I should just\n      laugh at them, but I would drive them out, hold not a\n      moment's parley with them. Of course, they will bluster and\n      show fight, because you have let them have their own way\n      for so long that they will not tamely submit to expulsion;\n      but face them with iron determination, set your will\n      against them like an immovable rock, and down they will go.\n      Say to them: 'I am a spark of the divine fire, and by the\n      power of the God within me I order you to depart!' Never\n      let yourself think for an instant of failure or of\n      yielding; God is within you, and God cannot fail.\"[H]\n\nProbably there is no astral subject of more vital importance to any of\nus than that of the right attitude of mind and emotion toward the living\ndead. It is commonly said that we can do nothing more for them when they\nhave passed away from physical plane life, but a greater error could not\neasily be made. The connection with us is by no means severed. Not only\nare they emotionally in touch with us but their emotions are very much\nkeener than when they had a physical body through which to express them.\nThey are now living in the astral body, the matter of which is\nenormously more responsive to emotional vibrations. A joyous emotion\nhere would be tremendously more joyous there and a thing that would\nproduce depression here would be a hundred times more depressing there.\nThat fact should give pause to those who are inclined to think in\nsorrow, and with something of despair, about their friends who have\npassed on. They are not far away in space and our emotions affect them\nprofoundly and instantly.\n\nWe are all familiar with the fact that moods are communicable. The\nperson who is cheerful cheers up others in his vicinity, while the one\nwho is gloomy spreads gloom wherever he goes. It is a simple matter of\nvibrations. It is often within the power of a member of the family who\nhabitually has \"the blues\" to destroy the happiness of the entire\nhousehold. If we think of the most depressing effect that can be caused\nby sorrow on the physical plane, and then multiply its effectiveness by\na hundred, we shall have no exaggeration of the astral effects of the\nemotions we indulge in the physical body. If, then, the sorrow of a\nweeping relative distresses us here it is clear that it must bring\nreally keen distress to the one who is the subject of such grief. His\nlife may thus be made miserable by the very persons who would be the\nlast to cause him sorrow if they understood what they were doing.\n\nWe can really help the so-called dead and make them very much happier by\nsimply changing our mournful attitude toward them. All violent\nexpressions of grief should be avoided and a determination to make the\nbest of the matter should be cultivated. The situation may indeed be\nbad, but we make it very much worse by our mourning. The funeral customs\nof Occidental civilization are quite consistent with its materialism. We\nact as nearly as possible as though we believe the dead are lost to us\nabsolutely. We make matters as gloomy as possible. Yet we are slowly\nimproving. Not so very long ago when anybody died those present stopped\nthe ticking of the clock, drew down the window curtains, moved about on\ntiptoe, and acted generally in a way calculated to add as much as\npossible to the awe and the gloom. We still wear somber and depressing\nblack and add all we can externally to our inward distress.\n\nA more sensible attitude of mind may be observed at any theosophical\nfuneral and, with growing frequency, at the funerals among thinking\npeople. A funeral should not be the occasion of a final expression of\ngrief, but a gathering of friends who send kindly thoughts and helpful\ngood wishes to the comrade whose life work in the physical world is\nfinished. The general feeling should be very much like that of a party\nof friends who go to the pier to see a well loved traveler off on a long\njourney to remote parts of the earth for a sojourn of many years or\npossibly a lifetime. There should be constant thought of his welfare,\nnot of the loss to his friends. Grief that thinks of itself is an\nexpression of selfishness and is detrimental to all. One should practice\nself control in such a matter just as one would control a feeling of\nanger under different circumstances.\n\nNaturally enough the control of grief when one we love has passed on is\nnone to easy. But any degree of success is much better than no effort,\nand will certainly help the one for whom we mourn. Much can be\naccomplished by avoiding unnecessary incidents that bring vividly back\nthe keen sense of loss. Many people indulge the foolish custom of\nregularly visiting the cemetery where the body has been interred. A\nlittle analysis will show that this is only another evidence of our\nmaterialistic modes of thought, and the custom serves to perpetuate\nemotions that should never have existed. We can not, of course, think\ntoo often nor too tenderly of those who have passed on, but we should\ndo nothing that leads us to think of them as being dead, or being far\naway. The fact that they are alive and well and happy and near should\nconstantly fill the mind; and all of that, in nearly all cases, will be\nperfectly true if we do not foolishly destroy their peace of mind with\nour selfish sorrow.\n\nOccasionally a hint on the subject comes from the astral plane people\nthemselves. In the recent book[I] by Sir Oliver Lodge, on his\nexperiments in psychic research, there is a message from his son, who\nwas killed in battle, agreeing to attend the family Christmas dinner and\nto occupy the chair placed for him, provided they will all refrain from\ngloomy thoughts about him! No one who is informed on the subject of\nemotional reaction on the astral body, after the loss of the physical\nbody, could be surprised by the conditions named by the young man.\n\nThe advocates of cremation have a strong argument in the fact that the\npreservation of the body for a time, whether in a tomb or a grave, tends\nto keep grief alive. When the body is reduced to ashes the delusion that\nthe body is somehow the man seems to have less of a material basis.\nVisits to a tomb or grave are unfortunate, not alone because they renew\ngrief through thinking upon it and thus cause great distress to those\nfor whom we mourn, but also because the environment of a cemetery is one\nof the worst possible for the sorrowing. It is a dismal park of\nconcentrated griefs where each mourner accentuates the emotional\ndistress of all others. There is but one sensible attitude to take\ntoward those we have lost by death--to think of them as living a joyous,\nbusy life and at least calling on us daily even though most of us are\nnot sensitive enough to be conscious of the fact. We should try to\nrealize the truth of the matter and then readjust our habits to fit the\nfacts. The average person who is afflicted with the erroneous ideas\nstill so common, is doing an enormous amount of injury and bringing into\nthe lives of the very people he loves a depression of which he little\ndreams, and which he can change to vivid pleasure by always thinking\ncheerfully of them and sending them daily thoughts of serenity and\npeace.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[F] 1 Samuel XXVIII--15.\n\n[G] Ch. 3, Dreams and Premonitions.--L. W. Rogers.\n\n[H] The Inner Life.--Leadbeater, Vol. I. p. 483.\n\n[I] Raymond: or Life and Death.--Lodge.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX.\n\nREBIRTH: ITS REASONABLENESS\n\n\nLife is the most elusive thing with which science has to deal but we\nhave learned much about both life and matter in recent years, and it is\na noteworthy fact that the more we learn the thinner become the ranks of\nthe materialists. The only scientist of note who still declares his\nphilosophy of materialism is Haeckel, and of him a brother scientist has\nwritten, \"He is, as it were, a surviving voice from the middle of the\nnineteenth century;\" and, referring to Haeckel's almost deserted ground\nin the scientific world, he declares that his voice \"is as the voice of\none crying in the wilderness, not as the pioneer or vanguard of an\nadvancing army, but as the despairing shout of a standard-bearer, still\nbold and unflinching, but abandoned by the retreating ranks of his\ncomrades as they march to new orders in a fresh and more idealistic\ndirection.\"\n\nThus is the old ground of scientific materialism being deserted by all\nprogressive scientists. While we do not yet know a great deal about\nlife, science has gone far enough to permit a grasp of facts and\nprinciples from which conclusions may be logically drawn and working\nhypotheses constructed. Sir Oliver Lodge, who is president of one of the\ngreat English Universities, and ranks as one of the world's most eminent\nscientists, speaking of his conception of life, says that \"It is\ndependent on matter for its phenomenal appearance--for its manifestation\nto us here and now, and for all its terrestrial activities; but\notherwise I conceive that it is independent, that its essential\nexistence is continuous and permanent, though its interactions with\nmatter are discontinuous and temporary; and I conjecture that it is\nsubject to a law of evolution--that a linear advance is open to\nit--whether it be in its phenomenal or in its occult state.\"[J]\n\nLater in the same work he expresses the opinion \"that life is something\noutside the scheme of mechanics--outside the categories of matter and\nenergy; though it can nevertheless control and direct material\nforces....\"\n\nIn closing his volume on _Life and Matter_ this distinguished scientist\nsays:\n\n      \"What is certain is that life possesses the power of\n      vitalizing the complex material aggregates which exist on\n      this planet, and of utilizing their energies for a time to\n      display itself amid terrestrial surroundings; and then it\n      seems to disappear or evaporate whence it came. It is\n      perpetually arriving and perpetually disappearing. While it\n      is here, if it is at a sufficiently high level, the\n      animated material body moves about and strives after many\n      objects, some worthy, some unworthy; it acquires thereby a\n      certain individuality, a certain character. It may realize\n      itself, moreover, becoming conscious of its own mental and\n      spiritual existence; and it then begins to explore the Mind\n      which, like its own, it conceives must underlie the\n      material fabric--half displayed, half concealed, by the\n      environment, and intelligible only to a kindred spirit.\n      Thus the scheme of law and order dimly dawns on the nascent\n      soul, and it begins to form clear conceptions of truth,\n      goodness, and beauty; it may achieve something of permanent\n      value, or a work of art or of literature; it may enter the\n      region of emotion and may evolve ideas of the loftiest\n      kind; it may degrade itself below the beasts, or it may\n      soar till it is almost divine.\n\n      \"Is it the material molecular aggregate that has of its own\n      unaided latent power generated this individuality, acquired\n      this character, felt these emotions, evolved these ideas?\n      There are some who try to think that it is. There are\n      others who recognize in this extraordinary development a\n      contact between this material frame of things and a\n      universe higher and other than anything known to our\n      senses; a universe not dominated by physics and chemistry;\n      but utilizing the interactions of matter for its own\n      purpose; a universe where the human spirit is more at home\n      than it is among these temporary collocations of atoms; a\n      universe capable of infinite development, of noble\n      contemplation and of lofty joy, long after this\n      planet--nay, the whole solar system--shall have fulfilled\n      its present sphere of destiny, and retired cold and\n      lifeless upon its endless way.\"\n\nSuch a conception of life carries us very far from the old popular view\nof the origin of the race, but it is a conception that brings science\nand religion into perfect agreement and will enable us to understand\nhuman evolution and explain facts in life that would otherwise remain\nincomprehensible.\n\nThe pre-existence of the soul, as a part of universal life, was taught\nand commonly accepted in the early Christian period. If we accept the\nfact of evolution at all, and are not materialists, there is no escape\nfrom the belief of the pre-existence of the soul. Indeed, not even\nmaterialism can save one from the necessity of accepting the\npre-existence of the individualized consciousness that we call a human\nbeing.\n\nLet us consider the human infant as we see it at birth. Whence came\nit--how can we account for it in a universe of law and order? We can\nunderstand it from the physical side. Its tiny body is a concourse of\nphysical atoms with a prenatal history of a few months. But its mind,\nits consciousness, its emotions, what of them? The average man replies\nthat God made them and they constitute the soul. But how and when were\nthey \"made\"? Even the material part of this infant did not spring\nmiraculously and instantaneously into existence. How much less possible\nis it that the soul did so! If we say \"God made it\" we have explained\nnothing. But it is not necessary to deny that God creates the soul in\norder for us to move toward an understanding of how the soul came to be.\nIt is only necessary to say that the process of its creation was\nevolutionary. Nobody denies that the earth was created by evolution,\nalthough men may differ in opinion on the matter of a divine\nintelligence guiding its evolutionary development. The same principle\nmust apply to the human intelligence.\n\nLodge wrote _Life and Matter_ as a reply to Haeckel's _Riddle of the\nUniverse_, which presented the latter's philosophy of materialism. But\nLodge did more than demolish Haeckel's premises and leave him with not\nan inch of scientific ground to support his theory. The English\nscientist raised questions that have not been answered, and cannot be\nanswered, by the scientific materialist. He points out that the\nmaterialist's philosophy has no explanation for \"the extraordinary\nrapidity of development, which results in the production of a fully\nendowed individual in the course of some fraction of a century.\"[K]\n\nWith those two dozen words Lodge leaves the scientific materialist\nspeechless; for all scientists are evolutionists, and it is impossible\nto account for \"_the extraordinary rapidity of development_\" by the laws\nof evolution. It is well known that the evolutionary age of anything\ndepends upon its complexity. A simple form is comparatively young while\na complex one has a long evolutionary history behind it. The earth is\nsimple compared to a human being. If, then, it has required ages to\nevolve the earth to its present stage how long did it take to evolve the\nwonderfully complex mental and emotional nature of the human being that\ninhabits the earth? And thus Lodge bottles Haeckel up on his own\npremises and shows that the very evolutionary principles to which the\nGerman scientist appeals demolish his theory! He practically says to\nHaeckel, \"Your philosophy, sir, fails to show how it is possible for the\nvacuous mind of the infant to evolve into the genius of the philosopher\nin thirty or forty years.\" In other words, if the infant is nothing but\nthe form we see it would be utter absurdity to say that that mass of\nmatter can evolve a high grade of intelligence within a few years when\nit takes centuries to make a slight evolutionary gain.\n\nLook at an infant the day it is born. Study its face. One might as well\nsearch the surface of a squash for some indication of intelligence. But\nwait only a little while and you shall have evidence not merely of\nintelligence but of emotions possible only to the highest order of life.\nClearly, here is not something evolved within a brief period from a mass\nof material atoms. Such a theory would be as unscientific as the popular\nbelief in miraculous creation at which the scientific materialist\nscoffs. The swift change from the vacuity of the infant mind to the\nintellectual power of the adult in the \"fraction of a century\" is not\nthe creation of something but its _manifestation_--_the coming through\ninto visible expression of that which already exists_. The soul, the\nconsciousness, the real man, consisting of the whole of the mental and\nemotional nature, which has been built up through thousands of years of\nevolution, is coming once more to rebirth, to visible expression in a\nmaterial body.\n\nThe body is, of course, but the new physical instrument of the old\nsoul--an instrument, as certainly as the violin is the instrument and a\nvehicle for the musician's expression. At every turn our materialistic\nconceptions mislead us and prevent the perception of nature's truth. It\nis because we think of the body as being actually the person, that it\nseems improbable that an old soul has entered the infant body. We think\nof the power and intelligence of an old soul and then look at the baby\nand find no indication of such things. But that is only because the baby\nbody is such a new and undeveloped instrument that it is at first\nuseless and only slowly can it be brought under control of the soul and\nmade to express its intelligence and power. The body is a growing\ninstrument, not a completed one.\n\nLet us suppose that musical instruments grow as physical bodies do.\nSuppose there was a time when the piano was keyless, as a baby is\ntoothless. Suppose that sounding boards have a period of immaturity and\nthat the whole mechanism of the instrument is in a state that can only\nbe characterized as infantile. If a master musician attempts to play on\nsuch a piano his performance would by no means be an indication of his\nability. A competent critic who could hear the performance but not see\nthe musician would promptly declare that no really great musician was\ntouching the keys. And that is precisely the mistake we make in assuming\nthat the immature body of an infant is capable of expressing the\nintellectual power of the old soul, or, to put it differently, denying\nthat a returned, old soul is in possession of the infant body simply\nbecause there is no physical plane evidence of the fact. If pianos\nslowly grew to maturity then only when the instrument was mature could\nthe master musician give a practical demonstration of his skill; and\nonly when the physical body has reached its maturity can the soul that\nis using it fully express itself.\n\nIn the early years of the physical body the soul is only very partially\nexpressed through it. The entrance of the consciousness into the\nphysical world is slow and gradual. It is somewhat like the growth of a\nplant, very gradual, but the analogy is not a good one, for a plant is\nvery little like a human body. It is impossible to find a material\nequivalent of the dawning of consciousness on the physical plane.\nBeginning about four and a half months before the birth of the physical\nbody and continuing for a period of several years the soul, or\nconsciousness, is engaged in the process of anchorage in the physical\nworld. For a long time the center of consciousness remains above the\nmaterial plane and during the early years of childhood the consciousness\nis divided between the astral and physical worlds, with the result that\nthe child is often somewhat confused and brings fragments of astral\nconsciousness into physical life. When the physical body is about seven\nyears old the consciousness may be said to be centered on the physical\nplane, but only when the body and brain of the soul's new instrument are\nmature has the opportunity come for the fullest expression.\n\nSome of the difficulties commonly associated in the mind with the\nthought of the pre-existence and rebirth of the soul will disappear if\nwe do not lose sight of the fact that the soul is a center of\nconsciousness, which is always consciousness somewhere, but which very\ngradually shifts its focus from plane to plane. Its permanent home is in\nthat body of filmy matter drawn about the ego in the higher levels of\nthe heaven world. From that point it sends energies outward and draws\nabout itself in the lower levels of the mental world a body, or vehicle\nof consciousness, that is not permanent but which will serve the purpose\nof functioning for a period on that plane. Downward again the energies\nare sent, building about the center of consciousness on the astral plane\na temporary body of astral matter, temporary in the same sense that the\nphysical body is temporary, and which shall serve the consciousness in\nthe astral, or emotional world, during the whole of the physical plane\nlife and for some time afterward. Still outward, or downward, the soul\nsends its energies till the material world is reached, when it begins to\nfunction partially, and very feebly, through the infant physical body.\n\nFor the time being the soul's evolution lies on the physical plane where\ncertain lessons are to be learned. After the early years of childhood\nare over the consciousness is firmly anchored here, where the chief work\nis to be done, during the hours of the waking consciousness. During\nsleep the ego temporarily lays aside the physical body and functions in\nthe astral body in the astral world. The material body sleeping here is\nmerely a deserted and empty vehicle, magnetically connected with the\nsoul, and awaiting its return.\n\nAs childhood, youth, maturity and old age pass, complex experiences\ncome to the soul thus functioning here. Other souls functioning through\nphysical bodies are encountered and various relationships are\nestablished. Out of the complexity of social, business, religious and\npolitical activities the soul gets a large and varied experience. Sooner\nor later the death of the physical body closes the chapter. The\ngathering of such experience has ceased, not because the soul has\nacquired all possible physical world knowledge, but because its\ninstrument of consciousness here has worn out.\n\nDeath cuts the soul off from its physical plane connection and the\ncenter of its consciousness is then shifted to the astral plane. There\nthe purgative process goes forward, as explained in a previous chapter.\nAs that proceeds the soul gradually gets free from one grade of astral\nmatter after another and with the loss of each the man becomes conscious\non a higher level. The physical body is lost suddenly but the matter of\nthe astral body gradually wears away until there is so little left that\nthe soul has lost connection with the astral world also. This means that\nthe center of consciousness has shifted to the mental plane, or heaven\nworld, where the man will function on the lower levels.\n\nThere in the mental world, functioning through the vehicle of mental\nmatter, a very important process goes on. The heaven world life is a\nharvest time in which assimilation of experience takes place. The\nconsciousness there deeply broods over the experiences of life and\nextracts the essence from them which is transmuted into faculty and\npower for future greater expression. It is thus that the soul grows in\nwisdom and power through its long evolution.\n\nWhen the heaven life is finished, when the harvest of experience has\nbeen threshed out and the net gain has been built into the enduring\ncausal body, the mental body, like the astral, has been completely\ndissipated. The end of a cycle of experience--of a day in the\nevolutionary school--has come and the physical, astral and mental bodies\nhave all perished. Nothing remains but the soul, the real man, the ego,\nfunctioning through the causal body which persists. From that the ego\nagain sends the forces outward, in the first activity toward rebirth,\nfirst forming a new mental body by drawing about itself the matter of\nthe lower levels of the mental plane, then securing a new astral body on\nthe astral plane and finally taking possession of another infant body in\nprocess of formation on the physical plane, into which it will in due\ncourse be reborn.\n\nThe period between these successive appearances of the soul in a\nsuccession of physical bodies varies greatly and depends on a number of\nthings. The length of time spent upon the astral plane has already been\ndiscussed. The time spent in the heaven world depends upon the mental\nand moral forces generated during the physical and astral life. If there\nis a great harvest of experience it will require a longer time to\ntransmute it, while, of course, one who has thought little and loved but\nlittle will have a shorter period there, for it is the heart and head\nforces that have their culmination in the mental world. The question is\na rather complex one and other factors come into play, including the\nintensity of the heaven world life. In general terms, however, it can be\nsaid that the heaven life of the ordinarily intelligent person will\ncommonly be a period several times the length of his combined physical\nand astral life. Some people will have only two or three hundred years\nbetween incarnations while others may have six or seven centuries and\nstill others a much longer period.\n\nIn getting a right understanding of the subject of rebirth, or\nreincarnation, it is necessary to keep in mind the fact that the soul,\nor center of individualized consciousness, is the man and that the\nphysical body is merely an instrument he uses for a number of years;\nthat the causal body is his permanent body for the whole of human\nevolution; that the mental plane is his home plane and that from there\nhe sends forth successive expressions of himself into these lower\nplanes. With such facts before us there should be no confusion of\nthought about the successive personalities of an individual. Yet we\nsometimes hear people speak of the absurdity of supposing that a person\ncan be one man in one incarnation and another man at a later rebirth. Of\ncourse no such thing occurs. An individual remains the same individual\nforever. \"But,\" objects the critic, \"may I not have been Mr. Jones, in\nEngland six hundred years ago, whereas I am now certainly Mr. Brown, in\nAmerica at this moment? If so is that not a case of being two\nindividuals?\"\n\nIt is certainly not a case of being two individuals. It is a case of\none individual being expressed through a physical body six hundred years\nago in England, dying from it, spending a fairly long period in the\nastral plane and heaven world, and then again expressing himself through\nanother physical body in America at the present time. The confusion of\nthought on the part of the questioner arises from thinking of the\nphysical body as being the man. But it is no more the man than the\nclothing he wears. It is true that he is known at one period as Jones\nand at another as Brown, but that no more affects his individuality than\nthe assumption of an _alias_ by a fleeing criminal changes him. The name\napplies exclusively to the physical body, or personality, as\ndistinguished from the individuality. That body is but the temporary\nclothing of the soul. Let us suppose that a man's name were applied to\nhis clothing and changed with his clothing as it does with his body. We\nmight then know him as Mr. Lightclothes in the summer and as Mr.\nDarkclothes in the winter, but neither the change of clothing or name\nwould in the least degree make him somebody else. The majority of women\nchange their names in each incarnation. A man may know a certain woman\nas Miss Smith when she is a slip of a girl, free from care and with\nlittle serious thought of life. Twenty years later she may be Mrs.\nBrown, his wife, a thoughtful matron, the mother of children. She has\nchanged her name and greatly changed in character, too, but she is the\nsame individual.\n\nIt seems probable that a person may change quite as much between\ninfancy and old age as between one incarnation and the next. Even the\ndifference between a youth of twenty years who is an artist and the same\nman at three score and ten who has given forty years to scientific study\nand research, may be enormous, but the individuality is, of course,\nidentical. It has rapidly evolved and greatly improved, and that is just\nwhat occurs to the soul by repeated rebirths--steady evolutionary\ndevelopment of the eternal individual.\n\nThe reincarnating process by which the soul evolves is somewhat\nanalogous to the growth of a young physical body. The process consists\nof alternating periods of objective and subjective activity. How does\nthe body of a child grow? It consumes food, the objective activity. It\nthen digests and assimilates it, the subjective activity. These periods\nmust alternate or there can be no growth, because neither alone is the\ncomplete process. The one is the complement of the other. So it is in\nthe evolution of the soul by reincarnation. The experience of life is\nthe food on which the soul grows. The physical plane existence is the\nobjective period in which the food is gathered. At death the man passes\ninto the invisible realms where the subjective process is carried on. He\ndigests and assimilates his experiences and the gist is stored in the\ncausal body and its growth includes an actual increase in size, just as\nin the case of the child's physical body.\n\nThe same law governs mental and moral growth as it operates in our\ndaily affairs. A young man is in college. How does his intellect grow?\nBy precisely the same process of alternating periods of objective and\nsubjective activity. In the class room the instructor puts a\nmathematical problem on the blackboard and explains it. With the outward\nsenses of sight and hearing, aided by pencil and notebook, the student\ngathers the food for mental growth. This period of objective activity\ncomes to an end and he then retires to the privacy of his room and there\nthe subjective period begins. He deeply thinks over the problem. His\nmaterial, the food for mental growth, is only a few notes that serve to\nkeep the experience in his mind. At first all that they signify is not\nobvious, but as he turns the various points over and over in his mind\ntheir significance becomes clearer and fuller. It is the subjective\nprocess of digestion. Little by little new light dawns in the student's\nmind. Finally he has complete comprehension of the mathematical\nprinciples involved, and the process of assimilation is finished. This\nsubjective period is the complement of the objective period and they\nmust go on alternating or intellectual growth will stop. When the\nprocess of digestion and assimilation is finished the student must\nreturn to the classroom for further mental food and when he arrives it\nis by virtue of the fact that he did digest the previous lesson that he\nis able to take a higher and more difficult one. And precisely so it is\nwith the reincarnating soul. In the interval between incarnations it so\nassimilates the experiences of the last physical life that it comes to\nrebirth with added abilities which enable it to take higher and more\ndifficult lessons than it could previously master.\n\nIn the case of both physical growth by eating and mental growth by\ninstruction there is no possible escape from the law of alternating\nperiods of objective and subjective activity. When the child has\ndigested and assimilated a meal there is but one possible thing that can\nfollow--return to his source of supply for another meal. When the\nstudent has digested and assimilated the lesson given to him the only\npossibility of further mental growth lies in his return to the\nclass-room for more material. And so it is with the human soul in its\nwork of evolving its latent powers and possibilities. There is no other\nroad forward but the cyclic one that brings it back to the physical life\nincarnation after incarnation, but always at a higher point than it\npreviously touched. The very hunger of the child that insures its return\nto the table for more food is analogous to the desire of the soul for\nsentient expression that brings it to rebirth.\n\nThese alternating periods with the element of constant return are found\neverywhere in the economy of nature. All her evolutionary expressions\nare cyclic. But the cyclic movement is not in closed circles. It\nrepresents a spiral. The \"evolutionary ladder\" that the soul climbs is a\nwinding stairway. In its upward progress it makes many rounds but it is\nalways mounting and never returns to the same point. In each cycle, that\nis made up of the journey from the heaven world through the astral\nplane, into the physical and then back through the astral plane into the\nheaven world, it touches each of them at a higher point, or in a higher\nstate of development, than it had previously attained. Each rebirth\nfinds it abler here to gather a larger harvest of experience and each\nreturn to the mental plane, or heaven world, finds it abler to digest\nand assimilate its experiences, and to comprehend more of the realities\nof the life of its home plane.\n\nThis round, or cycle, through the physical, astral and mental regions,\nis a continuous progressive journey of the soul which began away back at\nthe dawn of mind in man and will continue until he is the perfected\nmental and moral being. At each incarnation here he gathers experience\nin proportion to his alertness and to the opportunities his previous\nlives have made for him. He learns to help others, to be sympathetic, to\nbe tolerant. Such activities will give him pleasure in the astral life\nand joy and wisdom in the mental region, or heaven world. But he also\ndoes some evil things. He makes enemies, he generates hatred and he\ninjures others. This will give him distress in the astral life and no\nresults for soul growth or general progress in the heaven world. If he\ndoes an equal amount of good and harm his progress will be slow. If he\ndoes much good and little evil his progress will be rapid and his\nexistence happy. If he is a man of great energy, and no very great moral\ndevelopment, and selfishly does much wrong, he will suffer much in the\nastral life.\n\nIt often puzzles the student of elementary theosophy to be told that\nthe soul passes through the purgation of the astral plane and goes on\ninto the heaven world only to return to another incarnation and later to\nagain enter the astral purgatory. Why, it is asked, must one who has\nthus been purified be again purified? The astral reactions are the\nresults of the blunders made in each incarnation. Each of us in any\ngiven incarnation creates by his wrong doing the purgatory that awaits\nhim after death. If he does no wrong there cannot possibly be any\nreaction. As a matter of occult fact the average good man will find the\nastral plane life a happy existence and will soon pass on to the\nblissful heaven world. As for the evil doer the suffering relates only\nto his evil deeds. Let us say he has committed murder. When the reaction\nof the evil force he has generated is over and he passes on into the\nheaven plane it does not mean that he is incapable of future evil. It\nmeans that he has probably learned thoroughly the lesson that it is very\nfoolish to take life. But there are many other lessons he has not\nlearned. When he passes into the heaven world he leaves all evil behind\nhim. He is as one who puts his shoes aside to enter a temple. The astral\nbody, like the physical, has perished and it is the freed soul that\nenters the heaven world. But when he returns through the astral plane to\nreincarnation he is clothed again in astral matter and this new astral\nbody is exactly representative of his attainments in evolution. In his\ncoming incarnation he will have other physical plane experiences and\nlearn other lessons. The next time probably he will not kill, but\nperhaps he will cheat and steal or be a drunkard. These errors will\nreact upon him in the astral life that follows. In a coming incarnation\nhe will be wise enough to be temperate and neither cheat nor steal; but\nperhaps he will be a gossip and work much evil through slander. This in\nturn will bring its pain. And so in time he will learn to generate no\nevil force at all but to live in good will and helpfulness toward\neverybody. Then his progress will be rapid indeed, his life on all\nplanes will be happy and the painful part of human evolution will be\nover.\n\nThe purpose of evolution is no less obvious than the fact of evolution.\nEvolution is an unfolding process in which the latent becomes the active\nand the inner life is more and more fully expressed in outer form. The\ndevelopment and improvement in form keeps pace with the necessities of\nthe unfolding life. In the lowest levels of the animal kingdom the form\nis but a cell. But as the life comes into fuller and fuller expression,\nlimbs for locomotion and, in due course, the organs for hearing, and\nseeing, and the other mechanism of the developing consciousness, are\nevolved. In the human kingdom the vehicle of consciousness comes to its\nhighest possible form and then evolution goes on in the perfecting of\nthe physical form. In the process of continually changing the matter of\nthe body it is possible for the brain to be constantly improved and the\nwhole body to grow more and more sensitive and gradually to become a\nbetter and truer expression of the evolving life within. In each\nincarnation the physical body thus improves. The evolution of life and\nform keep pace. Ultimately perfection of form, as well as perfection of\nintellect and morality, will be reached and human evolution will be\nfinished.\n\nThe purpose of evolution, then, is clear. Man is a god in the\nmaking--not actually, but only potentially a god, a being to whom all\nwisdom, perfect compassion and unlimited power are possible; and by the\nprocess of evolution he changes the latent into the active. He is at\nfirst only an individualized center of consciousness within the\nAll-Consciousness, a mere fragment of the divine life. His relationship\nto God is something like that of a seed to its plant, a product of it\nthat has latent within it all the characteristics of the plant and the\npower to become a plant. It is not a plant and neither is man a god; but\nwhen it has sent out a sprout and taken root in the soil it is a plant\nin the making; and when the human being has begun to evolve his latent\nspiritual qualities he is a god in the making. The theosophical view is\nthat man is essentially divine.\n\nCritics sometimes ask why, if man is originally divine, it is necessary\nfor him to pass through any evolutionary process. Divinity here\nindicates merely the essential nature of the human being, not his\npossession of either knowledge or power or any degree of spiritual\nperfection. It is as though we should say that the infant son of a great\nking is royal. The word \"royal,\" like the word \"divine,\" indicates a\nrelationship. The baby royalist is not a king. But he is a king in the\nmaking. He has much to learn. He must be educated in statecraft and he\nmust evolve diplomacy. After much experience and development he will, in\ntime, be capable of ruling an empire. At present this helpless infant\nbears little resemblance to a king. Nevertheless, on the day of his\nbirth he was as much royal as he will ever be. In the same sense the\ndivinity of man represents potential possibilities rather than an\nobvious fact of the moment. Man is an embryo god and, in time, he shall\nevolve faculties and powers that his present limited consciousness can\nnot even comprehend. He is not an ephemeral creature of physical origin\nthat lives a brief span to catch a glimpse of immortality and perish,\nbut the deathless son of the living God, and by right divine he walks\nthe upward way of eternal life.\n\nSome people appear to accept evolution as a matter of course, in a\ngeneral way, but they appear unwilling to admit that the race has really\nmade any evolutionary progress. Even scientific men have sometimes\nexpressed doubt whether the world is growing better. In a newspaper\ninterview an English scientist was quoted as saying a few years ago that\nthe race is just as wicked today as at any time within recorded history.\nBut if he was correctly reported it must have been a hasty expression of\nopinion which a little deliberation would have led him to revise. It is\ntrue that things are still bad enough but they are certainly enormously\nbetter than they were some centuries ago. To say that the world is full\nof crime and violence proves nothing; nor does even the fact that a\ncivilized nation has reverted to the wartime practices of savage life\nfurnish real ground for a pessimistic view. What we have to do in\ndetermining whether there has been any racial progress in morality is to\ntake as our standard of measurement something that tests the collective\nconscience. How does the world of today view war and how did the world\nin the day of Caesar regard it? There is plenty to shock us now but the\nvery fact that it does shock us is the best evidence of moral progress.\nAtrocities were expected and taken as a matter of course some centuries\nago. They are not the rule now but the rare exception and those guilty\nof them are likely to make their name a by-word among nations. Well\nwithin the era of recorded history the usages of nations' condemned\nprisoners of war to become slaves for life. Now the rule is to feed and\nclothe them and at the close of the conflict to send them home. A simple\nthing like public sports may be used as a measure of public morals. They\nshow what the collective conscience approves. In these days there is\nvery little of brutality in public sports. Professional pugilism still\nlingers, but barely lingers, in the most enlightened nations. In less\nprogressive countries like Spain and Mexico bull fighting is popular.\nThat is about all we can say against modern popular entertainment. But\nif we look backward to the Roman period we find a cruelty in public\nsports that is comparatively shocking. Gladiators were compelled to\nfight to the death and offenders were devoured by starving wild beasts\nand it all made a Roman holiday. Such \"sports\" would, of course, be\nutterly impossible anywhere in the world today. But at that time they\nwere matters of course in the life of the world's greatest empire. The\nfact that the race has evolved morally and that the collective\nconscience marks a higher point on the ethical thermometer than in the\npast is too obvious for argument.\n\nNow, how is that evolutionary progress to be accounted for? It will not\ndo to say that the Christian religion has wrought the change because,\nsplendid as are the teachings of the Christ, the world has not accepted\nthem and shaped its civilization by them. If it had done so the world\nwar would have been impossible. Not only have the so-called Christian\nnations wrangled and fought over commercial spoils through all their\nhistory but class has been arrayed against class and every gain in\neither personal liberty or economic improvement has been wrested by\nforce from those who profited by the misfortunes of others. In other\nwords, the particular improvements that should have been brought about\nby religion were compelled, not freely volunteered. All religious\nteaching helps but, allowing all we reasonably may for the influence of\nChristianity, we are still unable to account for the change in the\ncommon conscience of the race, an evolutionary gain that has been going\nsteadily on since long, long before the coming of the Christ. How then\nshall we account for it?\n\nIf the hypothesis of reincarnation is sound the progress of the race in\nmorality becomes simple. The majority of the great groups of souls that\nconstituted the civilized nations in the time when Rome was mistress of\nthe world have had several incarnations in that time and in each sojourn\non the astral plane have had the severe lesson of the painful reaction\nfrom cruelty to others. Thus does nature gradually change the cruel man\nto the merciful man. In every incarnation the soul grows more humane as\nwell as more intelligent. All of the lessons learned in any incarnation\nare carried forward into the next life, and thus compassion grows until\nthere is ultimately perfect sympathy with all suffering. Both the\nprogress of the soul and of the race are comprehensible from the\nviewpoint of reincarnation.\n\nExcept by that hypothesis how is it possible to explain such\nevolutionary progress? Those who do not believe in the pre-existence of\nthe soul and hold that it is in some way brought into being at the time\nof conception or birth, are put in the very illogical position of saying\nthat the reason why the world is better now than it was in the Roman\nperiod is because it pleases God to create a better kind of souls now\nthan he created then!\n\nThe tendency of large groups of people, tribes or nations, to act in a\nway that imitates, or nearly duplicates, what has been done centuries\nbefore by other tribes or nations, is such a common phenomenon that it\nhas given rise to the declaration that history repeats itself. The fact\nof reincarnation shows why it repeats itself. A nation like the Romans,\nor the Carthaginians, are bound together in the subtle ties that are\nformed by the intimate relationships of constant association. The group\ntends to persist and the members of it are largely drawn together and\nregrouped in the following incarnations. All have evolved beyond the\nlevel of the previous centuries but the general traits and tendencies\nremain and the same general policies are likely to shape the national\naffairs. There comes a time in the existence of the great group, or\nnation, when the old environment will no longer serve for its further\ncollective evolution as well as some other country. The majority then\nreincarnate elsewhere and the old country comes gradually to be\ninhabited by a different great group of souls. Hence the remarkable\ndifference in the people of a given nation in different periods. Compare\nRome in the time of Caesar to Rome late in the Middle Ages, or compare\nthe mighty civilization of ancient Egypt with modern Egypt. It is\nhigh-class egos that make a great nation and when a country has no more\nlessons to teach them, or rather when another country will serve as a\nbetter environment for their further progress, they return in rebirth to\nthe more advantageous spot on the earth, and a different set of souls\ncome into possession of the abandoned environment. The valley of the\nNile, that was once the home of an energetic people with a flourishing\ncivilization would not now serve such a purpose. The center of virile\ncivilization has shifted to central and northern Europe because only\nthat environment, in full touch with the great commercial stream of the\neconomic world, can serve the purpose. As the world is today what could\na pushing, energetic, up-to-date group of souls do if born into Egypt?\nNothing but leave it. So they are not reincarnated there, but other\nsouls that are at the point in evolution where the primitive life of an\nisolated country will give the simpler lessons they must acquire,\ninherit the abandoned environment. As an individual moves continually\nonward in each return to incarnation to professional and business\nenvironments that will enable him to put into effect all the new skill\nand wisdom he has gained, so a nation goes on to greater and greater\nopportunities. Souls that made the greatness of Greece and Carthage and\nRome are now making the greatness of Europe and America. Such facts\nexplain many things that have seemed puzzling. How, for example, was it\npossible for the world's greatest civilization to spring up suddenly in\nEurope from barbarous peoples? When Rome declined--declined because her\npeople largely reincarnated elsewhere--Europe was inhabited by slightly\ncivilized hordes. To assume that since then, in a few centuries--a mere\npassing moment in the great lapse of time required for race\nevolution--the civilization today could arise, would be to ignore the\nfundamentals of evolution. But when we understand that great groups of\nold souls incarnate in the strong physical bodies which the more\nprimitive peoples could bring into the world, the mystery of the rapid\nrise of a great civilization in Europe is solved.\n\nThe principle of rebirth holds also with the animal kingdom at a high\nlevel in it. The last phase of evolution in the animal kingdom is the\nindividualizing of the consciousness. A particularly intelligent cat or\ndog, for example, may be just finishing animal evolution and will be\nreborn at the lowest human level. Previous to its individualization it\nevolves in a group with others of its kind, animated by a common\nensoulment that has not reached the level of complete\nself-consciousness. At that group-soul stage the experience of each\nanimal in the group adds to the knowledge of all. This theosophical\nteaching on one of nature's most interesting facts enables us to\nunderstand many things that would otherwise remain mysterious. Instinct\nhas never been explained by science. Some of its best known expressions\nare altogether mysterious. Why does a young wild animal hide from the\nenemies of its kind but not from friends, when it has never seen either?\nA quail a day old will fall upon its side with a chip or small stone or\nbit of grass firmly clutched in its tiny claws to hide its body, and\nremain perfectly motionless at the approach of a human being, but will\ntake no alarm at the passing of a squirrel or a rabbit. How does a young\nchick know the difference between a crow and a hawk? And why, in remote\nplaces like the antarctic regions, are both young and old birds and\nanimals unafraid of man? The group-soul is a clear and simple\nexplanation of all such phenomena. The youngest have the knowledge of\nthe oldest because they are attached to the same group-soul, or source\nof consciousness. The young quails of this season come back to rebirth\nfrom the group-soul that is the storehouse of the experiences of the\nquails that were killed by men in past seasons, and thus all young\nthings know the common enemy. In the remote regions referred to the\nkilling proclivities of the human being have not become known and there\nis no \"instinct\" to warn.\n\nAn excellent bit of evidence on the subject of the group-soul is the\nfact, often chronicled but not explained, that when telephone or\ntelegraph lines are built in new countries the birds fly against the\nwires and are killed by thousands, the first season. But when the next\nseason's birds are hatched they are wise and avoid the wires! If the\ngroup-soul were not a fact in nature it would naturally require a long\ntime for wire education. No such sudden adjustment would be possible.\n\nReincarnation represents continuous evolution with no waste of time or\nloss of energy. Death is not the sudden break in the life program that\nthe popular belief pictures it. The common view of death is as erroneous\nas the common view of birth. If death were what most people believe it\nto be it would constitute a blunder of nature--an irrational\ninterruption of orderly development. In nature's economy there is\nconservation of energy and no loss can arise through the change called\ndeath. If the popular belief that at death we go far away to a totally\ndifferent kind of existence were sound then death would usually mean an\nenormous waste. A young man is educated for some particular work,\nengineering, architecture or statecraft, and graduates only perhaps to\ndie soon afterward. All that time and energy spent in getting such an\neducation would be largely lost either if death ends all, or is the\nlast he will know of the material world. But nature does not thus\nblunder. Her law of conservation is always operative. All the skill and\nwisdom acquired will be brought back in rebirth and will be used in the\nfuture incarnations.\n\nA child in school is a fair analogy for a soul in evolution. The child\ncannot get an education in a term nor in a year. He must return often to\nthe same school, after the rest of regular vacations. He may use new\nbooks with higher lessons but he returns periodically to the same\nenvironment. Continuous attendance would be as unthinkable as finishing\nhis education in a single term. In evolution the soul returns\nperiodically to the physical world, or plane, for the same reasons.\nContinuous life here until all material experience is gained would be\nimpossible. Aside from the need of the double process of acquiring and\ndigesting experience the physical body would become a hindrance to\nevolution. Within certain limits the physical brain can respond to the\nrequirements of the growing soul, but a new body is in time an absolute\nnecessity to further evolution.\n\nIf we give a little thought to the evolutionary progress the ordinary\nperson must make to raise him to mental and moral perfection, the\nabsurdity of a single lifetime becomes apparent. Consider, a moment,\nintellectual perfection. It would mean a development of the mind to the\npoint of genius in many directions. If we combine into one mind the\nattainments of the mathematical genius, the musical genius, the\ninventive genius, the statecraft genius, and so on until every line of\nintellectual activity is included, we then have only the perfect mental\nman. On the moral side we must add to that the combined qualities of the\nsaints. Then we have the perfected human being, with nothing more to be\nlearned from incarnation here. His further evolution belongs to\nsuperphysical realms.\n\nIn trying to comprehend the evolution of the soul, that slowly changes\nit life after life from the savage to the civilized state and finally\nraises it to perfection, it is helpful to observe how this great work\ncorresponds to the smaller cycle of a single incarnation. A great\ncharacter in history begins with helpless infancy. Steadily he\nprogresses, unfolding new power at each step. He passes through the\ngraded schools, slowly acquiring elementary lessons. College follows\nwith higher and more difficult mental acquirements. Then he enters\nprofessional life and begins to use his intellect with more and more\ninitiative. He moves on into public life with increased duties and\nresponsibilities. From one post of honor he rises to another with\nincreasing ability and mastery, until at last he is the head of a nation\nand has become a world figure. Even so it is in the evolution of the\nsoul. Life by life we rise, evolving new powers and virtues amidst every\nincreasing opportunities and responsibilities. In one incarnation we\nhave conditions that evolve courage. In another we are thrown into\nsituations that develop tolerance. In still another we acquire patience\nand balance. In all of these incarnations we steadily evolve intellect\nand strengthen all previously acquired virtues. In each life we find\nthe new conditions that are necessary for the exercise of our added\nabilities and, ultimately, with the powers, the spiritual insight and\nthe ripened wisdom of the gods themselves, we move forward to higher\nfields of evolution.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[J] \"Life and Matter,\" Lodge, p. 119, 120.\n\n[K] Life and Matter.--Lodge, p. 121.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X.\n\nREBIRTH: ITS JUSTICE\n\n\nNo matter how much we may differ in our view of the relationship between\nGod and man there is general agreement about the attributes of the\nSupreme Being. All ascribe to him unlimited power, wisdom, love and, of\ncourse, the perfection of all those desirable qualities we see in human\nbeings. The theosophical view is that all we know in man of power,\nwisdom, love, justice, beauty, harmony, et cetera, are faint but actual\nmanifestations of the attributes of the deity. All who are not\nmaterialists, denying the existence of a Supreme Being, will agree that\nthe wisdom and justice of God must be perfect. It would be illogical and\ninconsistent to limit or qualify His attributes. Either He is all-wise\nand absolutely just, or else the materialist is right. We cannot have a\ndeity at all unless He represents perfect justice.\n\nAnother point on which all but the materialists must agree is that\ncreation is so ordered that the common welfare of humanity is best\nserved by just the conditions of life that surround us. Nothing is\ndifferent from what it should be unless it is because of man's failure\nto do what he should do for his own welfare. If it were otherwise what\nwould become of the argument that an omniscient God has ordered it as it\nis? If, then, things are as they should be in the truest interests of\nman, and we find things in life that, according to our views of\ncreation, are not right and just, it necessarily follows that the views\nwe hold are erroneous.\n\nThe popular belief is that human beings constitute a special creation;\nthat whenever a baby is born God creates a soul or consciousness for\nthat body and that after a life of many years, or a few days, or a few\nminutes, as the case may be, the body dies and the consciousness goes to\ndwell in remote regions for ever and ever. If the person lived a good\nlife and also believed in the current religion he will be \"saved\" and\nwill be eternally happy. If he did not live a good life but finally\n\"believed\" before death he will be saved anyway and be just as happy as\nthough he had lived right from the start. If he did live a good life,\nbut was not born with the ability to believe easily, he will be lost and\nwill be eternally miserable. According to this theory of special\ncreation God makes people of all sorts. None of them can help being what\nthey are created. Some are wise and some are foolish. Those who are\nsmart enough to find the way of salvation will finally have heaven added\nto their original gift of wisdom. Those who are not smart enough to find\nit will finally have hell added to their original lack of sense. This is\nwhat some people are pleased to call divine justice!\n\nIt will hardly do to argue that the possibility that all may at last be\nhappy in an endless heaven, makes it unimportant that there are\ninequalities now. The majority of the theologians do not admit that such\na state awaits the whole of the human race, and the comparatively few\nwho do believe it will hardly venture to assert that present justice can\nbe determined by future happiness. Even if we positively knew that\neternal bliss awaited everybody after the close of this physical life\nhow could that make it just that one person shall be born a congenital\ncriminal and another shall be born a poet and philosopher? How could it\nmake it right that one is born to life-long illness, suffering and\npoverty, while another inherits both wealth and a sound physical body?\nNot even the certainty of future happiness would be compensation for\npresent inequalities. But why should there be any such inequalities if\nGod represents unlimited power and perfect justice? Why should there be\nany poverty when, if He really created the soul itself instantaneously,\nHe can as certainly create any necessary condition for the soul? Why\npoverty and disease and suffering at all? There must be a better answer\nto such questions than that \"it pleased God to have it so.\" It is surely\nlittle better than blasphemy to suggest that any kind of hard conditions\nfor man are pleasing to the deity.\n\nTo hold that any future condition of happiness can make present justice\nout of the truly terrible inequalities of life, would be much like a\nmillionaire who has two sons giving one of them all the advantages of\nwealth, travel, skilled instructors and special care, while the other\nwas permitted to wear rags and go hungry. If the neglected son asked why\nhe was thus treated while his brother was most carefully provided for,\nthe father might reply with some indignation, \"You are to have plenty in\nthe future! My will is so drawn that when I die my great wealth will be\nequally divided between you and your brother. You will then be a\nmillionaire with more money than you can possibly spend. So don't be\nfoolish about your hardships now. Learn to starve like a gentleman!\" The\nfather's position in such a case would be just as reasonable as that of\nthose who think a heaven hereafter can justify an earthly hell now.\n\nNow let us take some of the particular facts of life that puzzle us and\ntest them with the hypothesis of special creation, and also with the\nhypothesis of reincarnation, and see which can really explain them in a\nsatisfactory manner. We will take some facts of real life. In a\nMassachusetts prison there is an old man whose name became familiar to\nmany of us in our youth. He was then known as Jesse Pomeroy, the boy\nmurderer. The present generation scarcely knows him. But forty years or\nmore ago he was talked about by all the newspapers. For the crime of\nmurdering his playmates the boy was sent to prison for life. Why did\nPomeroy become a noted criminal in childhood? If the theory of special\ncreation is sound he was created and put in the world to fit himself for\na future heaven. But he was created in such fashion that he was\ndeficient in moral perception and he began life with an act that led to\nhis expulsion from society. If God created this soul as we first knew\nhim why was he not created with the moral balance of a law-abiding\ncitizen so that he could have lived long and peacefully in civilized\nsociety and have been prepared for heaven at death? What could have been\nthe purpose of giving him a brain that could not think soundly and a\nconscience that welcomed murder? That leads us inevitably to the\nquestion, Why are criminals created at all? Why are idiots created? The\ndeeper we look into the facts of life the more unsatisfactory does the\ntheory of special creation become because we find a thousand things that\ncontradict it and show its inconsistency. If the purpose of God was to\ncreate a heaven to be enjoyed by those who reach it we cannot see why He\nshould create a humanity the majority of which is incapable of ever\nattaining it. If He creates them as they come into the world at birth\nwhy are not all of them created wise and kind? Why must most of them\nblunder through life, making all sorts of mistakes, bringing suffering\nto others by their unkindness or cruelty and only, in the end, to pass\nfrom a life of failure to eternal punishment for that failure? There is\nno reason, no justice, no sanity in such a theory.\n\nNow let us turn to the explanation of reincarnation. According to that,\nPomeroy has had many past incarnations and will have many more. Like all\nthe rest of us he came up from primitive man. We have all learned the\nlessons of civilized life slowly by experience like children acquiring\nlessons from their books. The majority have come along well and\ndeveloped a fair share of intellect in dealing with life's problems,\nand some degree of sympathy for others. Some have evolved rapidly like\nhard working pupils and they are called geniuses. Some have lagged\nbehind and have learned very little. They are like the truants at school\nwho have broken the rules and run away from their lessons. These\nlaggards of the human race are the dullards and the criminals, who have\nmoved so slowly incarnation after incarnation, or are so much younger in\nevolution, that they are now bringing savage traits into our present\ncivilized life.\n\nReincarnation not only explains who and what the criminal is but it also\nexplains away the hell with which special creation threatens him. No\nhell awaits him except that which he has created himself by what he has\ndone. By the law of cause and effect all the cruelty and suffering he\nhas inflicted will react upon him to his sorrow, but will also serve for\nhis enlightenment. In his next incarnation the kind of body he will have\nand the environment in which he will live will be determined exactly by\nthe thoughts and emotions and acts of this and past incarnations. He\nwill therefore neither go to a heaven for which he is not fitted nor to\na hell which he does not justly deserve. He will simply come back in\nanother physical body and have a chance to try it again, but he will\nhave to make the trial under the conditions which his conduct has\nmerited.\n\nAnd what of the idiot? According to special creation we cannot possibly\nexplain him. It would be blasphemous to believe that God creates a\nmindless man. If one soul is given a mind and another is not, and for no\nreason whatever, it is the most monstrous injustice that ever forced\nitself upon the understanding of man! Think for a moment of the\ndifference between the idiot and the normal person. The man of sound\nmind has before him the opportunity of progress, of mental and moral\ndevelopment. The avenues of business and professional life are open\nbefore him. He is free to try his powers and win his way. Wealth, power\nand fame are all possible for him. All the joys of social life may be\nhis. Think of him surrounded by his family and friends, successful,\nsatisfied, happy, and then think of the life of the idiot. Language\ncannot express the horror of the contrast! If there were no other\nexplanation of life than that of special creation it would change the\nworld into the hopeless hell of a mad-house. Again reincarnation saves\nus from either blasphemy or madness. The idiot, like the congenital\ncripple, differs from the normal man only in the body, which is the\ninstrument of the soul. Deformity of the body is a limitation of the ego\nwho functions through it. A withered arm, a club foot, a deformed back,\nin this incarnation are results of unfortunate causes which that soul\nhas generated in past lives. In idiocy the malformation is in the brain.\nOf course this is not an accident. There is no element of chance which\nplaces the limitation in one body where it causes but little trouble and\nin another where it prevents mental activity and thus produces idiocy.\nIn each case it is the exact working out of the law. The body of the\nidiot is the physical plane representation of a soul that has made a\nserious blunder in the past, possible by limiting another with cruel\nrestraint, and the gross misuse of his intellect and power in that way\nhas operated to prevent his using it at all in the present life. But\nsuch limitations belong to the outer planes. It is the form that limits\nand when the form perishes the limitation disappears. As with the\ncriminal no hell is needed to punish the idiot. He has made his own hell\nby his mistake in the past and in this incarnation he must live in it\nand expiate his blunder. Perhaps it may seem to some that since the\nidiot is incapable of realizing the life of the normal person the\nsituation represents no real misfortune for him. But idiocy on the\nphysical plane does not mean idiocy in the soul. Even from the astral\nplane the ego may keenly feel the horror of functioning for a lifetime\nthrough such a physical body, as one here would feel the anguish of\nincarceration in a dungeon.\n\nThe criminal and the idiot are striking illustrations of the failure of\nthe theory of special creation to satisfactorily explain the facts of\nlife. But if we turn to the other extreme and consider the most\nfortunate people in the world we shall find there, too, precisely the\nsame failure to explain. By the hypothesis of special creation we find a\ngross injustice done to the soul born an ignoramus. Yet we find others\npossessing enough intelligence for several people. In the case of\nMacaulay we have the evidence in his own handwriting in a letter the\ndate of which proves his age, that he was reading Greek and Latin and\nstudying mathematics deeply when seven years old. There are many other\ncases of the remarkable display of talents in childhood, but a single\ninstance will serve for all. It is all the better as an illustration\nbecause it is a contemporaneous case and the facts are known to scores\nof living people. It is recorded of William James Sidis, of Brookline,\nMassachusetts, that at six years of age he entered a grammar school and\nin six months had completed the work of seven grades. At the age of\nseven he had gone so far with his mathematical studies that his father,\nProfessor Boris Sidis, could be of little assistance to him. He worked\nout the most abstruse and difficult problems with the greatest ease and\ninvented new systems of computation which attracted much attention. When\neight years old he entered the Brookline High School and in six weeks\nhad completed the mathematical course and began writing a book on\nastronomy. He then took up the study of French, German, Latin and\nRussian. On leaving school he took up mathematics as a specialty and\ninvented a system of logarithms based on the number 12 instead of 10.\nThis was inspected by several well known mathematicians who pronounced\nit perfect in every detail. He applied for admission to Harvard\nUniversity but the authorities refused his petition on account of his\nyouth, only, since he could have passed the examination with ease. He\ntried again the next year and was again refused on the same ground. But\nat eleven years of age, having passed the entrance examination for the\nMassachusetts Institute of Technology, he was judged to know enough of\nchemistry and kindred subjects to make him eligible for admission to the\nHarvard medical school. He then entered upon a special course at Harvard\nbecause the ordinary course in college was far below the abilities of\nthis boy of eleven years. Professor James, of Harvard, the famous\npsychologist, has pronounced him the greatest mental marvel he ever\nknew. It is said the young prodigy could recite pages of Shakespeare\nfrom memory at an age when the ordinary boy is learning his alphabet.\n\nIn the same city where young Sidis was born we find the idiot. Did God\ncreate them both as they were born or did they come up to their present\ndifference of mental equipment through a process of evolution that\naccounts for it all satisfactorily? If the theory of special creation is\nsound why did not the idiot get at least a little of the intellect that\nSidis could so easily have spared? If they are the work of special\ncreation it is impossible to find reason or justice in such terrible\ninequalities. But if reincarnation is God's method of creation the\nexplanation of the difference between them becomes simple. Sidis is not\nonly an old soul but evidently one who has worked hard in past lives,\nthrowing off the lassitude of the dense bodies and evolving the power of\nwill that enabled him to triumph over obstacles, conquering all the\nenemies of intellectual progress and thus earning the fine physical body\nand brain he now possesses. His present abilities are but the sum total\nof the energies he has put forth in the past.\n\nThe theory of special creation does not explain the facts of life. It\nlacks justice, it lacks harmony and it lacks consistency. It is not in\naccord with natural law. Nature knows no such thing as special creation.\nTo believe in special creation is to ignore all scientific facts and\nprinciples. On the other hand reincarnation is in harmony with science\nand with natural law. Reincarnation is evolution and every kingdom of\nnature develops through evolution. The difference between the shriveled\nwild grain that struggles with the rock and soil for life enough to\nbarely reproduce itself, and the plump wheat of the cultivated fields\nthat feeds the world, is the work of evolution. The wild stalk produced\nthe seed and from that seed came a better stalk. The better stalk\nproduced a still better kernel and from that better kernel sprang a\nsuperior stalk to yield a higher grade of wheat than any of its\npredecessors. The stalk sprouts from the ground, matures, stores all its\ngain of growth within the seed and perishes. But from the seed springs\nits reincarnated form, to repeat the process that changes poor to good,\ngood to better and better into best. And thus it is with the\nreincarnating soul. As the almost worthless grain through many seasons\nis slowly changed to perfect worth, the soul is by that same law of\nevolution slowly changed through many incarnations from the chaos of\nsavage instincts to the law and order of the moral world. Each\nincarnation yields some improvement. As the seed sprouts within the\ndarkness of the soil and, perishing there, attains its full results in\nthe higher realm of sun and air, drawing from the soil that which,\nstored within the grain, gives power to reproduce its better self, so\nthe soul strikes anchorage in the lower planes and draws from its varied\nexperiences that which, transmuted after the body's death, gives the\npower to return with greater life.\n\nAttempts have been made to find some explanation of the mental and moral\ninequalities that exist at birth. In the earlier days of the study of\nevolution it was usually asserted that the human being inherits his\nmentality and morality from his parents. But even if that were true the\ninjustice of one being born a genius and another a fool would remain. It\nis the fact of inequality that constitutes the injustice, and it is of\nno importance whether it comes about through heredity or otherwise. But\nas a matter of fact heredity is confined to the physical side of\nexistence. As more and more is learned by observation the old theory of\nmental and moral heredity has lost ground until it can be said that it\nnow has no recognition in the scientific world. Nobody is better\nqualified to speak upon the subject than those with practical\nexperience. Dr. A. Ritter, of the Stanford University Children's Clinic,\nthat has large numbers of defective children in charge, treating no less\nthan sixteen hundred in a single year, says:\n\n      \"As to the definite causes of the prevalence of defective\n      types, I cannot speak with finality or assurance. I do not\n      agree with social or educational doctrinaires who assign\n      the causes definitely to liquor, poverty, infectious\n      diseases, or other social or moral shortcomings. The\n      greatest minds of the world are hesitant in theorizing\n      about this. There are a complex of causes which explain\n      many of these cases, but no generalization fits absolutely.\n      We may find a case which is not traceable to any of these\n      conditions--_a case in which the antecedents would promise\n      a perfectly normal child, and yet we are confronted with a\n      defective child_. On the other hand, bright, normal\n      children, even children of superior intelligence sometimes\n      spring from such conditions.\"[L]\n\nA little reasoning about the facts concerning both genius and idiocy\nwill make it clear that neither is inherited. If it were true that\ngenius is inherited society would present a different appearance. There\nwould be famous families of geniuses living in the world, in music, in\npoetry, in warfare, in invention, in art, if genius were inherited. The\nfact is that it is difficult to find even two geniuses in any family.\nThe Caesars, Napoleons, Edisons, Lincolns, Wagners, Shakespeares, stand\nalone with neither great ancestors nor great descendants. We search in\nvain for great ancestors for such men; but if the theory of mental\nheredity were sound we should know their ancestors for precisely the\nsame reason that we know them.\n\nHeredity, then, does not explain whence genius comes; and if anybody had\nreally traced genius from father, or grandfather, to son or grandson, we\nshould still have no explanation of what genius is. We could then only\nregard it as the result of some strange chance; yet the scientist knows\nthat laws of nature contain no such element. But the only reason why\ngenius appears so incomprehensible is because we have not looked at it\nin the light of nature's truth. We have erroneously assumed that this is\nthe only life we live on the physical plane, and therefore the time is\ntoo short for the evolution of genius. A man can become an expert in one\nlifetime but not a genius. But if we give him many incarnations to\ndevelop along certain lines he can become a genius of a given type. The\nsoul that works strenuously at building up a certain faculty through\nmany incarnations naturally develops qualities in the causal body that\nshine out brilliantly upon its return to a physical body and we have the\ngenius. We evolve our mentality and morality, and there could be no\njustice in life if it were otherwise.\n\nThere is no element of chance in getting a new physical body in the next\nincarnation. The body is the material expression of the self. It is as\nmuch the product of the self as the rose is of the bush, the apple of\nthe tree, or the tulip of the bulb. The musician can no more get a body\nsuitable to the blacksmith than the rose bush can produce an apple. We\ndo not get bodies by lottery, like destitute people drawing clothing by\nnumbers which might result in grotesque misfits. We do not get bodies at\nall, we evolve them, and in each incarnation the new body expresses all\nthe soul has come to be up to that point in its evolution. Such a view\nof life has a basis of absolute justice. Every soul gets exactly what\nit has earned.\n\nThe common belief in Occidental civilization is that we live here for\nonly sixty or seventy years and that then, when we die, we pass on to\nlive eternally somewhere else, and that the whole of eternity, whether\nit is filled with pleasure or is horrible with pain, is made to depend\non how we spent those few years of the physical life! Such a fate would\nbe unfair and unjust. If a schoolboy is incorrigible for a term it would\nnot be fair to condemn him to lose all opportunity of getting an\neducation. We would give him another chance at the following term.\n\nA little incident of disobedience from home life will illustrate the\npoint involved. A quinine capsule was lying on the table. A\nthree-year-old boy reached for it. His mother called across the room,\n\"Don't eat that, dearie, it isn't candy.\" But in a spirit of reckless\nmischief he hurried it into his mouth and quickly chewed it up! It was a\nvery disagreeable but salutary lesson for the little fellow. It is an\nexample of nature's methods. She is always consistent, and has a\nbalanced relationship between cause and effect. But suppose in this case\nwe throw her consistency aside as those who believe that eternal results\nwill follow temporal effects are obliged to do. An ordinary lifetime\ncompared to eternity is somewhat like that instant of disobedience\ncompared to eighty years, but the illustration is not adequate because\neternity never ends. As nearly as the principle can be applied it would\nbe by saying to the child, \"Because you were disobedient for a second\nof time you shall taste quinine for eighty years!\" If that punishment is\ninjustice what must we call the infliction of an eternity of pain as the\nresult of the errors committed in a lifetime?\n\nAny hypothesis of existence that does not take into consideration the\nwelfare of humanity is a false hypothesis. What plan can better serve\nthe common welfare than a chance to redeem a failure? When a prisoner is\ncondemned for a crime we do not deprive him of opportunities. We give\nhim every possible chance to improve his character. God cannot be less\njust or merciful than man. Rebirth is a new chance. Every incarnation is\nanother opportunity.\n\nIf the popular idea of an eternal heaven and hell is sound, and there be\nfew who find the \"narrow way,\" the time will come when the majority of\nthe race will have used their one opportunity of a brief lifetime, and\nhave failed. If that were really true, it is easy to imagine what they\nwould do with another opportunity if they had it! How long should\nopportunity be given? Just as long as it will be used, and to deprive\nanybody of it when he is eager to redeem past errors is to ignore the\nprinciples of human welfare. Therefore such a plan cannot be the true\none. John J. Ingalls personified opportunity and wrote:\n\n      Master of human destinies am I!\n         Fame, Love and Fortune on my footsteps wait;\n         Cities and fields I walk; I penetrate\n      Deserts and seas remote, and passing by\n         Hovel and mart and palace, soon or late\n         I knock unbidden once at every gate.\n      If sleeping, awake; if feasting, rise before\n         I turn away. It is the hour of fate,\n         And they who follow me reach every state\n      Mortals desire, and conquer every foe\n         Save Death; but those who doubt or hesitate,\n      Condemned to failure, penury and woe,\n         Seek me in vain and uselessly implore;\n         I answer not and I return no more.\n\nThat is true enough from one viewpoint and profitably emphasizes the\nimportance of promptly acting when the time for action arrives. But\nthere is another truth to be expressed on the subject and it is well\ndone by Walter Malone, who says:\n\n      They do me wrong who say I come no more,\n          When once I knock and fail to find you in;\n      For every day I stand outside your door,\n          And bid you awake and rise to fight and win.\n      Wail not for precious chances passed away;\n          Weep not for golden ages on the wane;\n      Each night I burn the records of the day,\n          At sunrise every soul is born again.\n      Laugh like a boy at splendors that are sped;\n          To vanished joys be blind and deaf and dumb;\n      My judgments seal the dead past with its dead,\n          But never bind a moment yet to come.\n      Though deep in mire, wring not your hands and weep,\n      I lend my arm to all who say, \"I can.\"\n\nWhat a magnificent view of human evolution! No ultimate failure possible\nbecause there is always another chance. The failure of one incarnation\nmade good by the sincere efforts of the next. All the faults and\nfrailties--the shadow blots of the past--vanishing in the light of a\nhigher wisdom that has been won. No endless hell, no eternal torment;\nnot even the ghosts of vanished chances to haunt the mind; but only the\ninsistent voice of immortal Opportunity, urging us to wake and rise to\nstrive and win!\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[L] Interview in San Francisco Examiner, March 5, 1916.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI.\n\nREBIRTH: ITS NECESSITY\n\n\nThere are apparently but three ways in which anybody has attempted to\nexplain the origin of the race. If two of these are shown to be\nimpossible we have no course open to us but to accept the one which\nremains. One of the three theories is that of the materialist. Another\nis the common belief that God created an original human pair and\ncontinues to create souls for babies. The third hypothesis is that of\nthe evolution of the soul.\n\nThe materialist's position seems to be, briefly, that the forces of\nnature, with no directive intelligence, are sufficient to account for\nman as we see him; that a continuing consciousness in the human being is\na delusion; that immortality is a vain dream and that humanity has\nneither a past nor a future. Yet the very facts of science to which the\nmaterialist appeals contradict such conclusions.\n\nThis materialistic belief regards the human body as a self-sufficient\nmachine whose brain generates thought. But the savage has a completely\nevolved physical body with eyes, ears and other organs like our own. His\nbrain under the microscope shows no trace of difference in its material\nconstitution from the brain of civilized man. Indeed, his physical body\nis not only as complete a machine as ours but is likely to be materially\nsounder. Why, then, if the brain produces thought, does not this savage\nproduce the thoughts of a philosopher? If there is no directing soul\nback of the brain, why the marvelous difference in the product of the\ntwo brains?\n\nMaterialists go too far in the assumption that they can explain the\nphenomena of life. They can talk learnedly about it but they must stop\nshort of the source of life. Everything about anatomy and physiology\nthey know, but the life that flows through the human machine remains\nunexplained. They can trace the circulation of the blood from the heart\nthrough the arteries, from the arteries across to the veins, from the\nveins back to the heart, but the greatest mind the race has produced\ncannot say what makes the heart beat. Life has not been explained and\ncannot be explained from the materialist's viewpoint. Every human being\nis a miracle. A fingernail is a mystery of evolution. It is formed from\nthe same food that makes the flesh and it will continue to be formed\nregardless of the variety or quality of the food. Why do certain\nparticles become flesh or nails? Who can draw the division line between\nthem? With marvelous instruments and wondrous skill science has explored\nand mapped and charted the \"tabernacle of clay,\" but it cannot throw a\nsingle ray of light upon the intelligence that animates it.\n\nMaterialism fails sadly enough in that direction, but still worse as a\nsatisfactory interpretation of the panorama of the life about us. It is\na philosophy of the gloomiest fatalism. It holds that we simply chance\nto be that which we are; that we are what we are merely because of\nfortuitous chemical and mechanical combinations. Had the combinations\nchanced to be something different we should not be in existence. Chance\nis the king of the materialist's world.\n\nAccording to this theory all abilities are the gifts of nature and all\nlack of them is the blind award of chance. No credit whatever is due to\nanybody for what he is, nor can anybody be logically blamed for his\ndeficiencies. All are like men who, with closed eyes, draw something\nfrom a bag under compulsion. It is not to the credit of one that he got\na prize nor to the discredit of another that he drew a blank. This\nhypothesis holds that recently we were not and that presently we shall\ncease to be; that we appear by chance, live our brief period, suffer or\nenjoy as it may happen and then pass to the oblivion of eternal silence;\nthat all the thought, all the toil and the striving, all the effort and\nendurance were for nothing, and accomplished nothing. Such a philosophy\nwill not long survive the progress of our age. It lacks the balance of\nnature's principle of conservation. It lacks the completeness of\nuniversal law. It lacks the element of justice that is enthroned in\nevery human consciousness and without which life would be a meaningless\nmockery and the world a chaos of despair.\n\nBut the materialist's philosophy has no monopoly of bad points or\nundesirable beliefs. The old popular idea of a mechanical creation is\nequally at war with both fact and reason. That belief is that God\ncreated the world as men build houses, and added the human beings as men\nfurnish their houses when built. It is the belief that He is still\nmaking souls as fast as bodies are being born in the world, that these\nsouls begin their existence at birth, live here but one life and then\npass on into either endless bliss or eternal pain.\n\nThis idea differs from materialism in the matter of a governing\nintelligence and on immortality but it is remarkably like it in other\nways. Like materialism it is fatalistic because it makes man the\nhelpless subject of resistless power. It merely puts an intelligent\nforce as first cause where the materialist postulates blind force.\n\nThe materialist says that all human characteristics are the gift of\nnature while according to the popular belief they are the gifts of God.\nIn either case one class of human beings gets abilities that they have\nnot earned and others get defects that they do not deserve. The\nintellectual man is favored without reason and the fool is handicapped\nwithout mercy. Some come into the world with salvation assured by being\nwell born while others are foredoomed to failure. Predestination goes\nlogically with such ideas.\n\nHappily the world has long been growing away from the once wide-spread\nbelief in predestination because it is too shocking to the modern sense\nof justice. But is the world at the same time catching the point that if\nthere is but one life on earth and the soul is created at birth, then\nthe very essence of predestination remains, because some are created\nwith the wisdom to attain salvation and others are created without it?\n\nIf the soul has no pre-existence it can have no responsibility at the\ntime of birth. Neither can it have any merit. One is born with a sound\nmind and moral insight. These qualities may lead to salvation but the\nman has done nothing to earn them. Another is born with cruel and\nvicious tendencies and poor intellect. He may therefore miss salvation,\nbut if he had no pre-existence he can have done nothing to deserve such\na start in life. If we are really here for the first time then justice\ncan be done only by giving us equal equipment at the start and equal\nopportunities afterward.\n\nThink for a moment of the sweeping difference between human beings at\nbirth. There is every degree of vice and virtue from the savage to the\nsaint and every mental variation from the fool to the philosopher. If\nGod really creates the soul at birth, then one is created wise and kind\nthough he did nothing to earn it. Another is created vicious and\ndepraved. He did nothing to deserve it. One is showered with natural\ngifts to which he is not justly entitled. Another is blighted with a\nstupidity he did nothing to incur; and we are asked to believe that God\nmade them thus! Such a belief is contrary to reason and to justice.\n\nIt is easy to see why, in this old view of the relationship between God\nand man, salvation was to be by faith. It was impossible for a person to\nbe saved by his merit because, if his qualities were given to him by God\nat birth, he had no merit. His very ability to comprehend spiritual\ntruth and his moral strength to resist temptation, were conferred upon\nhim, not earned by him. If this popular view is sound, human beings\nshould be neither praised nor censured. They are simply human automata\noperated by such degree of mental and moral ability as God chose to\nassign to them. If this be true, genius should have no credit for its\naccomplishments, indolence no frown of disapproval, cowardice no lash of\ncondemnation, tolerance no need of praise, cruelty no rebuke, virtue no\napplause and heroism no fame for its selfless sacrifice. And yet this\nabsurd and illogical belief lingers in the minds of millions of people.\nIt is believed because it always has been believed.\n\nIf materialism is an impossible philosophy, then the popular belief that\nthe soul is created at birth is also impossible. It is a theory that\nencumbers its belief in immortality with conditions that destroy justice\nand defy logic. That old form of belief has outlived its day. It was\npossible at any time only because there was too little information and,\nlike the old belief that the world was flat, it must yield place to the\nnewer knowledge. The truth of evolution is the stanchest friend of\nreligion. It is the foundation on which may be built a scientific belief\nin a Supreme Being, a rational faith in immortality and a brotherhood of\nman that has a basis in nature itself. The very idea that was hastily\nthought to be destructive of a belief in God and heaven and immortality\nis rapidly becoming the most important witness to the truth of them all.\nWhile it is true that in the earliest days of evolution the most eminent\nscientists were agnostic, it is equally true that today the most eminent\nscientists of the world believe in the existence of the soul, and in its\nimmortality, and base that belief upon scientific grounds.\n\nWhat is the essence of the facts of evolution and how does it give\nevidence against materialism and for immortality? Evolution is an\norderly unfolding from the single to the diversified, from the simple to\nthe complex, in which process life evolves by passing from lower to\nhigher forms and storing within itself the gist of the experiences\ngained in each.\n\nOne of the vital facts that evolution establishes is that slow building\nis the order of creation. The horse is an example. He is traced backward\nwith certainty to a small creature that resembles him very little\nindeed. Ages were required to evolve the horse into his present\nintelligence and utility. Another profoundly important fact in evolution\nis the continuity of life from body to body. The butterfly is frequently\nused as an illustration, but the principle holds with all the higher\norder of insects like ants, flies and bees. In the metamorphosis of the\ncaterpillar we have a phenomenon so common that most people have\npersonally observed it. Watch, in imagination, its transformation that\ncontradicts materialistic philosophy. The worm is a physical body\noccupied by an evolving life or intelligence. Its physical body perishes\nand becomes part of the dust of the street. The life enters the grave of\nthe chrysalis. The scientist takes that chrysalis, packs it in an ice\nhouse and leaves it frozen for a number of years. Now a mere frost will\nkill either caterpillar or butterfly, but when the chrysalis is removed\nfrom the ice and brought into a higher temperature the triumphant life\nemerges in the form of the butterfly. This phenomenon proves that life\ndoes survive the loss of the body. The body of the caterpillar is dead\nand has turned to dust years ago, but the caterpillar that lived in it\nis not dead. It now lives again in the physical world in a physical\nbody of a higher type.\n\nHere, in an order of existence almost infinitely below man, we have an\nindividual life existing in a physical form, passing from it and, after\na number of years, taking possession of another form and living in that.\nWho can admit such continuity of life for the insect and deny it for\nman? Can there be a deathless something in a worm and not in a human\nbeing? Even without the mass of physical evidence that exists upon the\nsubject the logic of nature would lead us to confident conclusions. The\nknowledge of evolution which science has so far accumulated leads to\nfour natural inferences. One is that man is immortal. Another is that he\nhas, like all creatures, slowly evolved to what he now is. A third is\nthat both life, and the forms it uses, are evolving together, and the\nfourth is that lower orders evolve into higher and continually higher\nones. The human soul evolves from the savage to the saint--from animal\ninstincts to the self-sacrifice of martyrs and heroes. We cannot escape\nthe conclusion that the race has evolved, is evolving and will continue\nto evolve until mental and moral perfection has been attained.\n\nIf neither the theory of the materialist nor the popular notion that the\nsoul is created at birth is satisfactory, we have only reincarnation\nleft as a working hypothesis; and if we accept the evolution of the soul\nas a natural truth, then reincarnation becomes a necessity in explaining\nthe known facts of life.\n\nBut there are some students of life who appear to refuse the hypothesis\nof reincarnation while wishing to accept the idea of the evolution of\nthe soul. But how would that be possible? If the soul is evolving it is\nunder the necessity of developing by the laws of growth. They were\ndiscussed in Chapter IX.\n\nThose who desire to put their ideas about the soul and its immortality\ninto harmony with the facts of evolution sometimes ask why it would not\nbe possible for the soul to leave the material plane forever at the\ndeath of the physical body and then pursue its evolution on higher\nplanes. In the vast universe there must be opportunity for all possible\ndevelopment, it is argued.\n\nBut why go on into other regions when the lessons here have not been\nlearned? That would be a violation of nature's law of the conservation\nof energy. The average human being is in the elementary grades, with\nscores of incarnations ahead of him before he will be in a position even\nto take advantage of his opportunities and thus make fairly rapid\nprogress. To talk of going on to higher planes for further evolution is\nlike proposing that a child shall leave the kindergarten and enter the\nuniversity.\n\nWe are evolving along two lines, the mental and moral, and a little\nconsideration of the matter will make clear two important points--that\nwe have much to learn and that the physical plane is wonderfully\narranged for our instruction. We have conditions here for developing\nmentality that do not exist on higher planes. The absolute necessity of\nprocuring food is an example. Death is the penalty for failure to obtain\nit. Hunger was the earliest spur to action at the lowest level of\nevolution and even now at our high point of attainment it is one of the\nchief factors of racial activity. In providing the necessities of life\nand in gratifying our multitude of desires mentality is developed.\nBusiness and professional life rests upon these physical plane\nnecessities and, engaged in solving the problems of civilization, the\nrace evolves intellect. Such problems do not, of course, exist on higher\nplanes.\n\nWhile the mentality is thus being pushed along in evolution by our\nmaterial necessities, the heart qualities are developed by the family\nties in a way that could not be done elsewhere. In the nature of things\nthe entrance of the soul to the physical plane is attended with\nhelplessness. From the beginning it must have material necessities or\ndie, and yet it can do nothing in its new infant body. Again, as a rule,\nlong before it leaves the physical plane old age has once more rendered\nit helpless. Thus every human being must depend on the assistance of\nothers at two critical periods of each incarnation. The help it\nreceives, in infancy and old age, it pays back to the race, in the care\nof both the helpless young and the helpless old, when it is in the vigor\nof mature physical life. It is obvious that such experience develops the\nqualities of sympathy and compassion as no phase of business life could.\nThe relationship of parent and child, husband and wife, evolves the\nheart qualities in a way that would be impossible in the totally\ndifferent environment of higher planes. Naturally enough, each plane has\na specific work to do in the soul's evolution. We can no more learn in\nthe highest planes the lessons the material world is designed to teach\nus than a pupil can acquire a knowledge of mathematics from his lessons\nin geography. Hence the necessity for a periodical return to this life\nuntil its experiences have developed in us the qualities we lack.\n\nNot only has each plane its special adaptability to particular needs of\nthe soul in its evolution, but the two kinds of physical\nbodies--masculine and feminine--through which the soul functions, afford\nspecial advantages for acquiring the lessons of life. The soul on its\nhome plane is, of course, sexless. Sex, as we know it, is a\ndifferentiation arising from the soul's expression on lower planes. All\ncharacteristics of the soul itself, like intelligence, love, or\ndevotion, are common to both sexes.\n\nThe ego functioning through the masculine body has the opportunity of\ncertain experiences that would be impossible in the feminine body,\nwhile, of course, the feminine form enables the ego to get experience\nthat could not be known through the masculine body. A consideration of\nthe widely different experiences of fathers and mothers, sons and\ndaughters, will show how true this is. The lessons obtained in the\nmasculine body are largely those of the head while in the feminine form\nthey are lessons of the heart.\n\nWhen the ego puts forth its energies and begins descent into lower\nplanes for another incarnation it is apparently beginning a cycle of\nexperience in which either mentality or spirituality shall be the\ndominant note for that incarnation, and probably for several others. If\nit is to evolve for the time being through those experiences related to\nobjective activity, with intellect as the guiding factor, the masculine\nbody can best serve the purpose. But if the dominant note is to be\nspirituality, rather than mentality and the soul is, for the time,\nmoving along the line of the heart side--the subjective, the\nintuitive--then the feminine body is the better vehicle in which such\nexperience can be obtained. But to say that mentality is the dominant\nfactor of masculine incarnation does not at all mean that men have a\nmonopoly of the reasoning faculty. Nor does the fact that other souls\nare being expressed through the feminine body mean that they have a\nfundamental spiritual advantage. Some women are better reasoners than\nsome men, while some men are more spiritual than some women. What it\ndoes mean is that a certain ego can express intellect better through a\nmasculine body and intuition better through a feminine body.\n\nOur ordinary language confirms the truth of the statement that men\nnormally express more the head qualities and women more the heart\nqualities. We speak of men as being reasoners and of women as being\nintuitional and depending upon their impressions. The soul in the\nmasculine body is for the time being getting experiences of the outer,\nobjective activities. He is the home builder and protector, the bread\nwinner, the battle fighter. The soul in the feminine body is, for the\ntime, getting experience along the line of the inner, subjective life.\nShe is the wife and mother, and her lessons are of the heart rather than\nthe head.\n\nAs we study nature we are more and more impressed with her wonderful\nmechanism for the evolution of the soul. It soon becomes clear to the\nstudent that every individual is, in each incarnation, thrown into\nprecisely the circumstances required for the greatest possible progress\nof that particular ego. If the qualities of initiative and courage, for\nexample, are to be developed, the masculine body admirably serves the\npurpose, while if sympathy and compassion need stimulation the feminine\nform is wonderfully effective for that kind of progress. It requires\nlittle reasoning to see that the soul would not continue to incarnate in\none sex indefinitely. It must develop all its inner qualities. Both\nintellect and compassion must reach perfect expression. Such a\nconsummation can, of course, be best attained by alternating sex\nexperiences. But here again there is wide latitude in the operation of\nthe law. The rule seems to be that ordinarily there are not less than\nthree nor more than seven successive incarnations in one sex, and then\nthe ego begins to express itself through a body of the other sex. By\nthat rule it would commonly be for a period of from a few hundred years\nto some thousands of years, that the ego expresses itself through one\nsex before it changes to the other. One case is mentioned by the occult\ninvestigators in which for about thirty thousand years a certain ego had\nexpressed itself only through the masculine form. At least no trace of a\nfeminine incarnation could be found during that time.\n\nThe necessity for rebirth becomes clearer and clearer as we study the\nnature of the human being and the inherent divine qualities he is\nunfolding. Reincarnation is the method of evolution at the human level.\nOnly by physical plane experience can man's potential powers be aroused\nand so tremendous is the evolutionary work to be done that only a mere\nfragment of it can be accomplished in an ordinary lifetime. The absolute\nnecessity of many rebirths is obvious.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII.\n\nWHY WE DO NOT REMEMBER\n\n\nThe loss of memory between incarnations and the failure to now recall\nany of our experiences previous to the present physical plane life has\nsometimes been cited as a negative kind of evidence against the\nhypothesis of rebirth. The point could not be made, however, by one who\nhas studied the matter because close scrutiny will show that the loss of\nmemory is a necessary part of reincarnation. The fact that we do not\nremember is in perfect harmony with the principles of evolution. Indeed,\nthe close student of the subject would be very much surprised if we\ncould normally remember, because he does not get far until he sees, not\nonly why we do not remember past incarnations but why we should not\nremember them.\n\nThe very nature of the evolutionary work to be done by reincarnation\nnecessitates a sacrifice of memory. One useful purpose of the\nconfinement of consciousness in matter, through the use of a physical\nbody, is that it narrows the scope of consciousness and thereby\nincreases its efficiency. The consciousness of the ego sweeps over a\nvast range, forward and backward, including all past incarnations. But\nthe limitation of matter which compels consciousness to be expressed\nthrough a physical body, focuses the attention on the evolutionary work\nimmediately in hand. The brain becomes the instrument of consciousness\nbut also, fortunately, the limitation of consciousness. If there were\nnot loss of memory our minds would now range over the adventures of\nthousands of years in the past. It would encompass a vast drama with\ncountless loves and hates, of many lives filled with pathos and tragedy.\nTo thus distract the mind from the present life would retard our\nprogress. When one is alone and in a secluded place one can think better\nand accomplish more than when in the midst of turbulent scenes and\nthrongs of people. When there is less to think about the thinking is\nmore effective. It is necessary to restrict the consciousness and limit\nthe mind to the present life in order to get the most satisfactory\nresults. The same truth is embodied in that old saying that whoever is\njack of all trades is master of none. Concentration alone can produce\nsatisfactory results. If we would master the lessons of this life we\nmust not take other lives within the field of consciousness. The very\nprocess of reincarnation is a coming out of the general into the\nparticular, with the consequent narrowing of consciousness.\n\nWe should keep in mind the fact that our true and permanent life is in\nthe causal body, and on the mental plane, and that there, alone, is\nunbroken memory possible. The descent into matter in each incarnation is\nalso beyond reach of the brain memory, of course. Getting new bodies is\nthe working out of natural law even as instinct works in animals. The\nwhole animal kingdom, lacking the reasoning power of man, nevertheless\nadapts means to ends with unerring accuracy and with a depth of wisdom\nthat is beyond our comprehension. And so is human evolution directed by\nimpelling forces that are unknown to our waking consciousness. But our\nwaking consciousness is only a small part of our consciousness--that\nfragment of it that can be expressed through the physical brain. The\nphysical brain is a limitation of consciousness, and therefore of\nmemory, as certainly as a mountain range is a limitation of sight and\nprevents one's knowing what lies beyond it. In higher realms we do know\nour wider life and vaster consciousness that includes the memory of our\npast incarnations. But when we come downward into another incarnation it\nis as though we were descending in a narrow vale within mountain ranges\nthat stand between us and the wider world. Memory is dependent on things\nnot within the control of the will. Memory often fails to establish\nfacts which we wish to recall. We know, for example, the name of a\ncertain person. There is no doubt that we know it and yet it is\nimpossible to remember it at will. Tomorrow it will flash upon us, but\nwe cannot remember it now, try as we may. Now, if memory fails to\nproduce its record even when we have a mental picture of just how that\nperson looks, and know just where we have met him, it is certainly not\nremarkable that with no such immediate connection with our last\nincarnation we fail to recall it. It was perhaps in another part of the\nworld, and in another civilization, and is separated from us by the long\ninterval between incarnations. Of course memory likewise fails to\nproduce that record. But all of our past experiences are within the\nsoul, just as the records of all of the experiences of this life are in\nthe mind whether we can connect them with the present moment or not.\n\nBut it may be asked why it is that, if we do not remember events that\nhave occurred in past lives and people we have seen before, we do not at\nleast now have a knowledge of the facts previously familiar to us. What\nthe soul gains from incarnation to incarnation is not concrete facts but\nsomething higher and far more valuable. It gains the essence of facts\nwhich gives the understanding of their true relationship; and this is\nthe thing we call good judgment or common-sense. A man does not succeed\nin business because he knows a lot of facts, but because he knows what\nto do with the facts. An encyclopedia is full of facts but it cannot run\na business. Every theorist and dreamer is loaded with facts. The\nsuccessful man is the one with balance and judgment.\n\nIt might seem on first thought that one who has been a carpenter in a\nprevious incarnation should have no need to learn the name and use of a\nsaw, or one who has been a skillful penman to learn slowly to hold the\npen and fashion the letters. But we must remember that the old soul is\nnow breaking in a new physical instrument with which to express itself\nand that while it will be able to use all the skill it has previously\nevolved, its full expression must await the time when the new instrument\nhas been brought into responsive action.\n\nThe situation might be fairly illustrated by the case of a stenographer\nwho is still using the original typewriter, in some remote corner of the\nearth, and who has not even seen or heard of any of the remarkable\nimprovements made in such machines in the last thirty years. If his old\nmachine were suddenly taken from him and a model of the present year\nwere put in its place, it is obvious that he could at first make little\nuse of it--not because he has no knowledge but because he must become\naccustomed to the new machine before he can express himself through it.\nIt would have mechanism and appliances that he could not immediately\nmanage. Let us imagine also that all the characters are in a foreign\nlanguage which must be mastered before the machine can be used. But the\ndifficulties are not great enough yet for a fair illustration. We must\nalso suppose that it is a living thing, with moods and emotions, and\nthat it must pass through stages of growth comparable to infancy and\nyouth. Under these handicaps it would be certain that the stenographer\nwould appear to have very little knowledge and to possess little skill.\nYet as a matter of fact it is merely the conditions that temporarily\nprevent him from expressing his wisdom and skill.\n\nThe gist of knowledge gained in the past represents skill that has no\ndependence whatever upon brain memory. If a man should suffer a lapse of\nmemory, as sometimes happens, and wander about unable to give his name\nor place of residence, such loss of memory does not prevent him using\nany skill he may have evolved. If he is an athlete he may not know in\nwhat gymnasium he evolved his great strength, but he can use it just as\neffectively regardless of the absence of memory.\n\nOne who has been a skillful penman brings all his skill to the new\nincarnation but of course the new body must be trained to hold the pen\nand form the letters. Every public school teacher knows that one child\nwill quickly learn that and soon become a competent penman while another\ncan by no possibility exhibit skill in that particular art. The reason\nis that one has previously evolved his skill and the other has not, and\nmay not, for several more incarnations.\n\nIt is sometimes objected that by the hypothesis of reincarnation we are\nrequired to go over the same ground again and again and learn what we\nhave previously learned. But the criticism has no foundation in fact.\nThere is undoubtedly some necessary recapitulation in the early part of\nthe incarnation, just as there may be in the early part of a school\nterm. But in the main we are thrown into new conditions which are\ncalculated to develop additional faculties. We return to the same\nmaterial world but we find it with a higher form of civilization than\nwhen we were here before. Never before have we who are now here seen a\ncivilization like this, with its age of iron and steam and electricity,\nwith its marvelous opportunities for developing the mechanical faculty\nin human nature. And that is another bit of evidence of the beauty and\nutility of the evolutionary scheme. We come back always to greater\nopportunities than we have yet known.\n\nIt is not only clear that the failure to remember the past has nothing\nto do with our ability to use the skill and wisdom we have previously\nevolved but it is equally obvious that it is the best of good fortune\nthat we cannot remember the past. If we could do so that memory would\nkeep alive the personal antagonisms of past reincarnations. Nobody will\ndeny that we have plenty of them in this incarnation or that the world\nwould be the better if we could bury some of the present antagonisms in\na like oblivion. If all quarreling neighbors were to suddenly lose\nmemory of their feuds it would be an undeniable advantage to everybody\nconcerned.\n\nNature's wisdom in veiling the past from us can be understood by\nobserving the pernicious effects of remembering too long the blunders\npeople make in this incarnation. Take the case of a very young man who\nhas charge of his employer's money and who, finding himself pressed for\nready cash, makes the grave mistake of \"borrowing\" a hundred dollars\nwithout his employer's knowledge and consent. The young man really\nbelieves he is borrowing it and knows just where the money is to come\nfrom to replace it soon, and he thinks nobody but himself will ever know\nanything about it. But to his consternation the money that was due him\nin a few days cannot be collected in time and an unexpected examination\nof his books leads to his arrest for embezzlement. He is convicted,\nsent to prison for a year, and returns a marked man. Thoughtless\nsociety closes its doors against him. He seeks employment in vain.\nNobody wants an ex-convict. He explains that he had no criminal intent\nand that he really was guilty of only an indiscretion and that he paid\nback the money later. But the world is too busy to listen. It sees only\nthe court record, and that was against him. The public forgets, or never\nknows, the extenuating circumstances. But it never forgets two\nthings--the verdict of guilty and the prison. The young man would almost\ngive his life for a chance to wipe it all out, but it is impossible. It\nstands against him for life. But nature is wise. She does not permit our\nvicious traits to extend their injury too far. If we could remember from\nincarnation to incarnation that man's misfortune might afflict him for\nthousands of years. But by the wise plan of closing all accounts at the\nend of each incarnation the mischief of remembering the blunders of\nothers comes to an end. In the next incarnation all start with clear\nrecords again.\n\nOne of the objections that one sometimes hears against reincarnation is\nthat it seems to separate us for long periods, if not forever, and that\neven when we meet those we have previously known and loved, there is no\nmemory of the past. The answer to the first point is that the separation\nis wholly on the lower planes and that the time spent on the higher\nplanes is often twenty times that given to the lower. Separation is, of\ncourse, unavoidable on the physical plane, even where people live\ntogether in the same home. The average man spends most of the day at\nhis office and sleeps about eight hours during the twenty-four. He is\nreally separated from his family most of the time. But there is no such\nseparation on higher planes and there is spent most of the whole period\nof evolution. The second point--that we do not now have the pleasure of\nknowing that our friends are those we knew and loved before--is not an\nimportant one. What is really important is that we again have them. If\nthe ties of affection have been strong between us in the past there will\nbe instant friendship when we meet for the first time in this\nincarnation. Those with strong heart ties are certain to be drawn into\nvery close association life after life. It has been observed through the\ninvestigations that egos have been husband and wife, or parent and\nchild, again and again. The probability of such close relationships\ndepends upon the strength of the ties of affection. But if such real\nbond between the souls is lacking the mere fact that they now have\nfamily relationships is no guarantee of such future intimate\nassociation. When two souls have strong ties arising out of past\nassociation the failure to remember that incarnation does not in the\nleast weaken the ties. But it does mercifully hide the past contentions\nthat are to be found in nearly all lives.\n\nThe failure to remember previous incarnations will be more clearly\nunderstood if we now give some thought to the fact that the personality\nhere on the material plane is only a fragment of the whole consciousness\nof the soul. As we come down into lower planes from the mental world\neach grosser grade of matter through which the ego expresses itself is a\nlimitation of consciousness. On the astral plane each of us, whatever he\nmay be here, is more alive and enjoys an actual extension of\nconsciousness. On the mental plane he has enormously greater wisdom than\nhere, with a still further extension of consciousness that is quite\nbeyond the present comprehension of the brain intelligence.\n\nTo put it differently, the ego really does not come into incarnation at\nall. It merely sends outward a ray from itself--a mere fragment of\nitself, as a man might put his hand down into the water of a shallow\nstream to gather bits of ore from which gold can be obtained. So the ego\nputs a finger, only, down into denser matter to get the general\nexperience that can be transmuted into the gold of wisdom and skill.\nThat finger of the ego, that we know as the personality, gathers the\nexperience and then it is withdrawn into the ego. During the incarnation\nthe personality has been animated by only a little of the ego's vast\nintelligence and that is why it blunders so often. But, veiled in dense\nmatter, not much of the ego's consciousness can reach it.\n\nThe relationship between the ego and the personality may be illustrated\nby that which exists between the brain consciousness and that of the\nfinger-tip. The difference, of course, is great. The finger tip cannot\nsee of hear or taste or smell. It is limited to one sense--touch. But it\nis a form of consciousness, and it can get experience and pass it on to\nthe brain consciousness. A man may be addressing an audience and see\nsome substance on the table before him. It may be sand or sugar. Without\ninterrupting his lecture he can put down his finger and get at the truth\nabout the matter. The finger-tip gets the information and passes it on\nto the brain consciousness. Meantime there has been no pause in the\ndiscourse. Not a phrase nor a word nor the shading of a thought has been\nmissed. The intellectual life went on in its completeness while the ray\nof intelligence sent down in the finger-tip got and reported the fact as\nit was. Just so the life of the ego--the true self of each of us--goes\nforward on its home plane while the personality here gropes for its\nharvest of experience. Some of those experiences will be painful to the\npersonality, and the event will seem tragic here, but it will be a\npassing incident to the ego. In the illustration just used the substance\non the table may prove to be neither sand nor sugar, but tiny bits of\nglass. Some of the sharp points may penetrate the finger and pain\nfollows. To the finger-tip consciousness it is a blinding flash of\ndistress that is overwhelming. But to the brain consciousness it is a\ntrivial incident. And thus it is with most of our painful experiences\nhere. They do a useful work in our evolution and they are trifling\nincidents to the consciousness of the ego.\n\nThe personality finishes its work and perishes, in the sense that it is\ndrawn up and incorporated in the ego. Most people identify themselves so\nfully with the personality that its loss seems like a tragedy to them.\nBut that feeling will trouble them no longer when the ego is understood\nto be the real self. We might say that the relationship between the ego\nand the personality is like that between man and child. Childhood will\nperish but only to be merged into manhood. When we look at that\ntransformation from the viewpoint of the man it is quite satisfactory.\nBut if looked at from the viewpoint of the child it may look appalling.\nIf you should say to your son of three summers, \"My child, the time will\ncome when all these beautiful toys will be broken and lost and your\nlittle playmates will see you no more,\" you might cause him much\ndistress. It would seem to his limited child consciousness nothing less\nthan a tragic destruction of what makes life worth while. But when he\nreaches manhood he will look back with a smile to the trivial things of\nthose early days. If there is something in his childhood of real,\npermanent value, it will persist in manhood. All the trivial and\ntransient will have disappeared and he will be pleased that it is so,\nfor manhood is the real life of the personality as the ego is the real\nself.\n\nAs the memory of childhood lives in the brain of the man, so the memory\nof all the hundreds of incarnations persists in the causal body and is\nan eternal possession of the ego. When we are sufficiently evolved to\nraise the consciousness to the level of the causal body, while still\nliving on the physical plane, as some people are now able to do, we\nshall thus temporarily recover the memory of past lives. When that time\ncomes, however, the soul is sufficiently advanced to use such wider\nknowledge without injury to itself or others.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII.\n\nVICARIOUS ATONEMENT\n\n\nBack of the old doctrine of vicarious atonement is a profound and\nbeautiful natural truth, but it has been degraded into a teaching that\nis as selfish and brutal as it is false. The natural truth is the\nsacrifice of the solar Logos, or the deity of our system. The sacrifice\nconsists of limiting Himself in the matter of manifested worlds and it\nis reflected in the sacrifice of the Christ and other great teachers who\nuse their vast consciousness through a physical brain for the helping of\nthe world. Compared to the descent of such supermen into mundane spheres\na mere physical death is a trifling sacrifice indeed.\n\nThe help that such great spiritual beings have given mankind is\nincalculable and altogether beyond what we are able to comprehend. But\nfor such sacrifice the race would be very, very far below its present\nevolutionary level. But to assume that such sacrifices relieve man from\nthe necessity of developing his spiritual nature or in any degree\nnullify his personal responsibility is false and dangerous doctrine.\nNobody more than the theosophist pays to the Christ the tribute of the\nmost reverent gratitude. He also holds with St. Paul that each must\nwork out his own salvation.\n\nThe belief in special creation arose in that period of our history when\nour ancestors knew little of nature. Modern science was then unborn and\nsuperstition filled the western world. Now that we do know the truths of\nnature, now that we know that creation is a continuous process that is\nstill going on, it is time to abandon the old conceptions and bring\nreligious beliefs and scientific principles into harmonious\nrelationship.\n\nWherever it touches the practical affairs of life the old idea of\nspecial creation and special salvation fail to satisfy our sense of\njustice and of consistency. Intuitively we know that any belief that is\nnot in harmony with the facts of life is a wrong belief. The idea of\nspecial creation is not only inconsistent with the facts as science has\nfound them, but it does not give us a sound basis for moral development.\nHaving started with the false idea of the special creation of the soul,\nwhich brings it into the world free from personal responsibility, it\nbecame a necessity to invent a special salvation to give any semblance\nof justice at all.\n\nNow the vital point against this plan of salvation is that it denies the\nsoul's personal responsibility and teaches that whatever the offenses\nagainst God and nature have been, they may be cancelled by the simple\nact of believing that another suffered and died in order that those sins\nmight be forgiven. It is the pernicious doctrine that wrong doing by one\ncan be set right by the sacrifice of another. It is simply astounding\nthat such a belief could have survived the Middle Ages and should\ncontinue to find millions who accept it in these days of clearer\nthinking. But it seems that when people are taught a thing in childhood\nthe mind accepts it then without reasoning and afterwards vaguely\nregards it as one of the established facts without thinking further of\nit at all. But upon reflection we see at once the impossibility of its\nbeing true. We hear of a lingering practice in a remote province of\nChina, whereby a man convicted of a crime is permitted to hire a\nsubstitute to suffer the penalty in his stead. The law must have its\nvictim and its supremacy must be upheld. We laugh at that and know well\nenough that punishing the unfortunate substitute, who sacrifices himself\nto obtain a sum of money that will provide for his family, cannot\nregenerate the offender. Indeed, we see clearly that his willingness to\nshift the responsibility for his crime upon another only sinks him\nfarther into iniquity. The only person who can gain in moral strength is\nthe one who makes the sacrifice.\n\nLet us suppose that that system of vicarious atonement for wrong doing\nwere to be adopted generally. Then every murderer who had the means\nwould escape the consequences of his crime. Every burglar who was\nsuccessful enough to have the cash on hand could elude prison. Every\npickpocket could hire a substitute to suffer for him and thus continue\nhis criminal career. Every embezzler would have the money to purchase\nfreedom. Every corruptionist would be safe. Every thief could laugh at\nthe law. It would make a mockery of justice. It would place a premium\nupon crime and a handicap upon honesty and virtue. However bad the\ndishonest might be it would make them worse. It would necessarily lower\nthe standard of their morality by shifting the burden of their sins to\nothers. It would destroy personal responsibility, and personal\nresponsibility is the basis of sound morals and the foundation of\ncivilized society.\n\nYet that is precisely the sort of thing that goes with the belief in\nspecial creation and special salvation--the teaching that we are not\nresponsible for our sins and that by believing that another assumed them\nand died for us we can escape the results of our wrong doing and thus be\nsaved. What are we to be saved from? From nothing but ourselves. From\nour selfishness, from our capacity to do evil, from our willingness to\ninflict pain, from our lack of sympathy with all suffering and from the\nheartlessness that is willing to let others suffer in order that we may\nescape. Salvation must necessarily mean capacity to enjoy heaven. The\nman who is willing to purchase bliss by the agony of another is unfit\nfor heaven and could not recognize it if he were there. What do we think\nof a person here who shifts his sins upon another and while that other\nsuffers he goes free and enjoys the fruits of his baseness?\n\nA heaven that is populated with those who see in vicarious atonement a\nhappy arrangement for letting them in pleasantly and easily would not be\nworth having. It would be a heaven of selfishness and that would be no\nheaven at all. A real heaven can be composed only of those who have\neliminated selfishness; only of those who want to help others instead of\ntrying to dodge the consequences of their own acts; only of those who\nare manly and womanly and generous and just and true. Nothing less than\na recognition of personal responsibility can lead to a heaven like that.\nYet the theory of special salvation ignores it, waves it aside--in fact\ndenies it!\n\nReincarnation represents personal responsibility and therefore absolute\njustice. It shows that, not merely in all the vast future, but also in\nthis life and in every life, and all the time, our degree of happiness\ndepends upon our present and past course. If reincarnation were\ngenerally understood it would necessarily raise the average of morality.\nIt furnishes a deterrent for the evil doer and a tremendous incentive\nfor the man who desires to obey natural law and be happy. It shows the\none that there is no possible escape from evil deeds; that he must\nreturn life after life to associations and environments determined by\nthe good or the ill he has done; that he can no more escape from his\nevil deeds than he can escape from himself; that he must ultimately\nsuffer in turn the pain of every blow and the humiliation of every\ninsult he has inflicted upon others. It assures the man of good\nintentions and right desires that every good deed shall rise up in the\nfuture to bless him; that all whom he has helped shall become his\nhelpers hereafter; that even his good intentions that failed in their\npurpose through mistaken judgment, shall bring him joy in the future.\n\nWhat a splendid thing it is to know that every thought and act adds\npermanent value to the character; that all we learn in any life becomes\nan eternal possession; that we can add to our intellect, to our insight,\nto our compassion, to our wisdom, to our power, as certainly and\ndefinitely as a man can add to his bank account or permanent\ninvestments; that whatever we may be in this incarnation we can return\nagain stronger and wiser and better.\n\nThe hypothesis of reincarnation shows our inherent divinity and the\nmethod by which the latent becomes the actual. Instead of the ignoble\nbelief that we can fling our sins upon another it makes personal\nresponsibility the keynote of life. It is the ethics of self-help. It is\nthe moral code of self-reliance. It is the religion of self-respect.\n\nThink of the utility as well as of the common-sense of a scheme of\nsalvation that really saves us because it evolves us; that never denies\nus a chance to retrieve an error; that gives us an opportunity to right\nevery wrong; that brings us back life after life until all enemies have\nbeen changed to friends; until all accounts are closed and balanced;\nuntil all our powers have been evolved, until intellect has become\ngenius; until sympathy has become compassion and the last moral battle\nhas been fought and won.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV.\n\nTHE FORCES WE GENERATE\n\n\nEvery human being is constantly generating three classes of forces, and\nthey determine the kind of life he will lead here, the degree of success\nor failure that will characterize it, and the state of his consciousness\non the inner planes after the death of his physical body. The law of\nrebirth brings us back to incarnation, but it is the law of action and\nreaction under which we evolve while here.\n\nThe three classes of energies which we generate are those of thought,\ndesire and action. They belong, in the order named, to the mental world,\nthe astral world and the physical world. All people are constantly\nthinking and desiring and, with varying degrees of energy, are putting\nthought and desire into action. These forces sent out into the worlds of\nthought, emotion and action, produce certain reactions, or consequences,\nand to them the man is bound until justice is done and the soul has\nlearned its evolutionary lesson.\n\nThat thought and desire are forces as certainly as electricity is, the\nstudent of the occult well knows, but the world is not quite yet at the\npoint where the fact is generally accepted. That, however, is the\nhistory of all human progress. When Franklin began his experiments with\nelectrical force almost nobody believed there was any such thing in\nexistence. Yet today we use it to carry our messages, run our trains and\ndrive our machinery. Had anybody predicted all that at the time of the\nfirst experiments he would have been considered extraordinarily foolish.\nWhat the world accepts or rejects at any particular time usually has\nvery little to do with the facts. The general public can be expected to\ncome trailing along, about a half century late, with its acceptance and\napproval. Thought is a force or telepathy and hypnotism would be\nimpossible. Both have been scientifically demonstrated.\n\nThe mental body grows by the process of thinking. The force generated in\nthinking reacts in the production of greater faculty for thinking, so\nthat we literally create our mental abilities. The activities of thought\nchange the mental body into a better and constantly better instrument\nthrough which the ego can express itself. But our thoughts also affect\nothers and we thereby make ties with them that must work out sooner or\nlater in associated experience.\n\nDesires generate a kind of energy that plays a most important role in\nthe drama of human evolution. The law operates to bring together the\ndesirer and the object that aroused the desire. For the soul can only\njudge the wisdom of its desires by observing the result of gratifying\nthem. Thus do we acquire discrimination. It is usually a strong desire\nnature that brings trouble of various kinds and yet the force of desire\nit is that pushes all evolution onward. Through experience the soul\nfinally learns to control desire, to raise lower desires into higher\nones and thus ultimately to attain non-attachment and liberation.\n\nActions are the physical expression of thoughts and desires and, as we\nare constantly simultaneously thinking, desiring and acting, very\ncomplex results arise. In the multitudinous activities of life we set up\nrelationships with other souls, some of the results of which reach far\ninto the future. The average man, with no knowledge of the laws under\nwhich he is evolving, is usually making both friends and foes for future\nincarnations and is often unwittingly laying up pain and sorrow for\nhimself that a little occult knowledge would enable him to avoid. Every\ninjury that he inflicts will return to him, though not necessarily in\nkind. Nature does not punish. She merely teaches and knows nothing of\nretaliations. Her great concern seems to be that all souls shall get on\nin evolution and when a lesson is learned her purpose appears to be\naccomplished.\n\nThe forces we generate in each incarnation shape and determine the next\nand succeeding ones. Our friends, our families, our business associates,\nour nation, are determined by what we have thought and felt and done in\nthe past and by the lessons it is necessary we shall learn. Our wealth\nor poverty, our fame or obscurity, our strength or frailty, our\nintelligence or stupidity, our good or bad environment, our freedom or\nlimitations, all grow out of the thoughts and emotions and acts in the\npast. From their consequences there is no possibility of escape.\n\nBut that does not mean that we are the helpless slaves of fate from\nwhich there is no release. We who generated the forces can neutralize\nthem. We can undo anything we have done. It only means that for a time\nwe must work within the self-imposed limitations created by a wrong\ncourse in the past.\n\nThose who are interested in the long-time discussion over free-will and\ndeterminism have often been impressed with the remarkably strong\narguments that can be marshaled by each side to the controversy. Either\nside, when presented alone, appears to be conclusive. The explanation\nlies in the fact that each is right, but only to a certain point. Both\nfree will and necessity are factors and when the theosophical viewpoint\nis understood the apparent contradiction disappears. We are temporarily\nbound, _but we did the binding_, by the desires we indulged and the\nemotions we freely harbored in the past.\n\nThe condition of temporary restraint in which we now find ourselves may\nbe likened to that of a party of gold hunters who go into Alaska to\nlocate mines. They are all aware that in that remote northern country\nnavigation closes very early and that after the last boat leaves there\nis no possibility of getting out of that region until navigation opens\nagain in the next season. Some of them are discreet and reach the\nlanding in ample time. Others are careless. They continue their search\nfor gold a little too long, and arrive at the river a day too late. The\nboat has sailed and they must become prisoners of the ice king. It's a\ngreat misfortune but they alone are responsible. They cannot escape from\nAlaska for many months but within Alaska they are absolutely free. They\ncan build a cabin and either waste the time with idle games or seriously\nthink and study. They are limited but free within the limitation, and\nthe limitation itself was of their own making. It is precisely so with\nus in the environment of the present incarnation and with our various\nfortunes. We made them and, when the forces with which we did it are\nexhausted, we shall be free. Meantime we can do much toward modification\nand improvement.\n\nThe reactions from the forces we generate naturally do us exact justice\njust because they _are_ reactions. We reap precisely what we sow. The\nreaction may sometimes seem harsh but consideration of the matter from\nall points of view will show that mercy as well as justice is always a\nfactor. Let us consider the method by which nature changes recklessness\ninto caution. A man is careless, we will say, about lighting a cigar and\nthrowing the burning match down wherever it may happen to fall. He may\ngo on doing that a long time with no serious result, yet all careful\npeople know that he is a source of danger. Some time ago a newspaper\ntold the story of such a man, who passed along the street, lighted a\ncigaret and carelessly flung the flaming match from him. A nurse was\npassing with her charge in its tiny carriage. The match fell on some of\nthe light, airy wraps of the infant and they burst into a blaze. Before\nthe fire could be extinguished the child was so badly burned that it\ndied the next day.\n\nThe moment such a case is stated we realize the necessity of something\nthat will cure the man of such fatal carelessness. He is a menace to the\nlives and property in his vicinity. No law, however, can be invoked. He\nhad no criminal intent but he is none the less dangerous for that, as\nthe incident proved. We are helpless, however, to prevent his continued\ncarelessness. But nature is not helpless. Under the law of action and\nreaction he must reap as he has sown. It may be in the latter part of\nthis incarnation, or it may be in a following one, but sooner or later\nhis carelessness will react and he will lose his physical body in pain\nand distress and come to know personally just what his recklessness\nmeans. In the reaction, a part only of which is on the physical plane,\nhe gets the experience that is necessary to set him right. The folly of\nhis course is so driven in on his consciousness that he is changed from\nthe careless man to the careful man. In no other way could his cure be\nbrought about.\n\nIt may be said that if a misfortune comes to us as the result of our\nwrong thinking and acting in a past life we can now know nothing of its\ncause and therefore we cannot profit by the reaction. But while we do\nnot know in the limited consciousness of the physical brain the soul\ndoes know and in the wider consciousness the lesson is registered.\n\nThe principles of justice are never violated in teaching the soul its\nevolutionary lessons. Nothing can come to a man that he does not merit\nand that which often looks like a misfortune is only the beneficent\nworking of the law seen from an angle that makes it illusory. But, it\nmay be objected, how does theosophy see \"beneficent working of the law\"\nin the burning of a theater where a score of people lose their lives,\nincluding several children? How can theosophy explain that?\n\nHow can it be explained by those who hold that the soul is created at\nbirth? If God really brings the soul into its original expression in an\ninfant body, why does he throw it out again in a few years, or even\nmonths? What can be the purpose? It would be difficult indeed to explain\nthe death of children if the soul were created at birth. But let us look\nat it from the theosophical viewpoint. The child is an old soul with a\nyoung body. Hark back to the case of the man whose carelessness caused\nthe death of the baby in its carriage. He, and others like him, are\nagain in incarnation and in the burning theater they get the reaction of\nthe unfortunate forces they have generated. But why so many in some\ncatastrophes? it may be asked. A principle is not affected by the number\ninvolved. If we can see justice in the death of one person we can see\njustice in the death of a hundred. It is simply class instruction.\nPeople of a kind have been drawn together.\n\nWe should not forget that we see only a small fragment of any such case\nfrom the physical plane. We form an opinion, however, on that inadequate\nsurvey and are quick to declare our opinion of the justice or injustice\ninvolved. But our verdict depends wholly upon a viewpoint. Let us\nsuppose, for example, that a man strolls down the street and that, as he\nturns a corner, he suddenly comes upon a little tragedy of life. A young\nman is lying on the ground, battered and bleeding, while two others\nstand over him. What would the average man, coming suddenly on the scene\nsay? He would probably indignantly blurt out \"The ruffians!\" and he\nwould be inclined to assist the man who was down. But let us suppose\nthat he had been a moment earlier. He would then have been in time to\nturn around the corner with the other men and would have seen him rush\nupon a defenseless woman, push her down, snatch her purse and dash away,\nbut, fortunately, in the direction of the men who assaulted and stopped\nhim. Had the last arrival seen the entire affair he would have reversed\nhis opinion and said that the thief got what he deserved. And so it is\nin our inadequate physical plane view of what we call a calamity. It may\nappear to involve an injustice, but only because we do not see the\nentire transaction.\n\nThose who study the occult laws that shape human destiny may learn to\nuse them for their rapid progress and for insuring a comfortable, as\nwell as spiritually profitable, life journey.\n\nBut before we can work successfully within the law we must know that the\nlaw really exists. Most people seem either to believe there is no law\nthat will certainly bring them the results of their good or evil\nthoughts and acts or that if there is such a law they can in some way\ndodge it and escape the consequence, and so we see them go along\nthrough life always doing the selfish thing or the thoughtless thing.\nThey misstate facts, they engage in gossip, they harbor evil thoughts,\nthey have their enemies and hate them, they scheme to bring discomfort\nand humiliation upon those whom they dislike. And then, when the harvest\nfrom this misdirected energy is ripe and they are misled by the\nfalsehoods of others to their loss and injury, when they fall into the\ncompany of schemers and are swindled, when a false story is started\nabout them, when--through no fault of the moment--they are plunged into\ndiscomfort and humiliation, they merely call it so much bad luck and go\nblindly on with their generation of wrong forces that will in due time\nbring another enforced reaping of pain.\n\nThere is a law that regulates the pleasure and pain of daily life as\ncertainly as there is a law that guides the earth in its orbit about the\nsun. That law of action and reaction is just as constant, accurate and\nimmutable as the law of gravity that keeps our feet upon the ground\nwhile we come and go and think nothing at all about it.\n\nThere is something almost terrifying in the immutability of all natural\nlaws and their utterly impersonal aspect. They are the operation of\nforces which, in themselves, are not related to what we call good and\nbad. They simply are. The law of gravity will illustrate the point. It\noperates with no consideration whatever for character or motives. It\nholds all people, good and bad alike, firmly upon the earth while it\nwhirls through space. If a saint and a fiend stumble over a precipice,\nit will hurl them both to the bottom with perfect impartiality. If the\nfiend, who may just have murdered a victim, is more cautious than the\nsaint and avoids the precipice, the law has not favored him. He has\nmerely reaped the reward of his alertness in spite of his bad morals.\nThe saintly man may have come fresh from some deed of mercy but the law\nof gravity takes no account of that. When he stepped over the precipice,\nand was dashed to death, he paid the penalty of carelessness regardless\nof his benevolence. There is profound wisdom in the words \"God is no\nrespecter of persons,\" for, of course, all natural laws are but the\nexpression of the divine will.\n\nBut this immutability of natural law is not in the least terrifying when\nwe come to look more closely at it. On the contrary it is within that\nvery immutability that divine beneficence and compassion are hidden. It\nis only by the constancy if the changeless law that we can calculate\nwith absolute certainty and surely attain the results at which we aim.\nIt is because of the certainty that the doing of evil brings pain and\nthe doing of good yields a return of happiness that we can control\ncircumstances and determine destiny.\n\nWhy should there be such a law operating in the mental and moral realm?\nBecause only thus can we evolve. We must not only change from ignorance\nto wisdom but from selfishness to compassion, from wrong doing to\nperfect harmlessness. How would that be possible without the law of\ncause and effect, without action and reaction which brings pleasure for\nrighteousness and pain for evil deeds? Only under such a law can we\nlearn what is the right and what is the wrong thing to do. If it is\nagreed that we are souls, that evolution is a fact, and that perfection\nis the goal of the human race, then the necessity for the law of action\nand reaction is as obvious as the reason for a law of gravity.\n\nThe existence and operation of this law of cause and effect are set\nforth repeatedly in the Christian scriptures. \"With what measures ye\nmete it to others it shall be measured to you,\" is certainly explicit.\nIn Proverbs[M] we have this definite declaration: \"Whoso diggeth a pit\nshall fall therein, and he that rolleth a stone, it shall return upon\nhim.\" Of course the language is figurative. No writer of common sense\nwould assert that every time a workman digs a pit he shall tumble into\nit nor that whenever anybody rolls a stone it will roll back upon him!\nWe dig pits in the moral world whenever we undermine the character of\nanother with a false story, whether we originate it or merely repeat it,\nand into such a pit we shall ourselves fall, in the reaction of the law.\nWe have loosened and set rolling the stones of envy and hatred and they\nshall return to crush us down to failure and humiliation in the reaction\nthat follows. We have ignorantly generated evil forces under the law\nwhen we could have used it for our success and happiness.\n\n\"Judge not, that ye be not judged,\" is another statement of the law of\naction and reaction. It is not an assertion that we should not judge\nbecause we are not qualified nor because we may ignorantly wrong\nanother with such a judgment. It is an explicit statement that the\nconsequence of judging others is that we, in turn, shall be judged. If\nwe criticize, we shall be criticized. If we condemn others for their\nfaults and failures, we shall be condemned. If we are broad and tolerant\nand remain silent about the frailties of others we shall be tolerantly\nregarded by others.\n\nAll of us who have studied the subject find in our daily lives the\nevidence of the truth of such Biblical declarations. We know perfectly\nwell that anger provokes anger and that conciliation wins concessions,\nwhile retaliation keeps a feud alive. We know that retort calls out\nretort, while silence restores the peace. In these little things it is\nusually within the power of either party to the trouble to have peace\ninstead of turmoil--just a matter of self control. But in the larger\nevents it is not always so. They are not invariably within our immediate\ncontrol because they are often the results of causes generated in the\npast which we can no longer modify. And this brings us to a wider view\nof this law of cause and effect.\n\nIf we look at the life history of an individual as it stretches out from\nbirth to death it presents a remarkable record of events that appear to\nhave no logical relationship to each other. In childhood, there may have\nbeen either great happiness or great sorrow and suffering regardless of\nthe qualities of character we are considering, and there is nothing in\nthe present life of the child to explain either. The child itself may be\ngentle and affectionate and yet it may be the recipient of gross abuse\nand cruel misunderstanding. In maturity we may find still greater\nmysteries. Invariably there are mingled successes and failures,\npleasures and pains. But when we come to analyze them we fail to find a\nsatisfactory reason for them. We see that the successes often arrive\nwhen they are not warranted by anything that was done to win them, and\nfor the want of any rational explanation we call it \"good luck.\" We also\nobserve that sometimes failure after failure comes when the man is not\nonly doing his very best but when all of his plans will stand the test\nof sound business procedure. Baffled again we throw logic to the winds\nand call it \"bad luck.\"\n\nLuck is a word we use to conceal our ignorance and our inability to\ntrace the working of the law. Suppose we were to ask a savage to explain\nhow it is that a few minutes' time with the morning paper enables one to\nknow what happened yesterday in London. He knows nothing of reporters\nand cables and presses. He cannot explain it. He cannot even comprehend\nit. But if he is a vain savage and does not wish to admit his ignorance\nhe might solemnly assert that the reason we know is because we are\nlucky; and he would be using the word just as sensibly as we use it!\n\nIf by luck we mean chance, there is no such thing in this world. Chance\nmeans chaos and the absence of law. From the magnificent, orderly\nprocession of a hundred million suns and their world systems that wheel\nmajestically through space down to the very atom, with all of its\nelectrons, the universe is a stupendous proclamation of the\nall-pervading presence of law. It is a mighty panorama of cause and\neffect. There is no such thing as chance.\n\nWhat then _is_ good luck? We know that people do receive benefits which\nthey apparently have not earned. There simply cannot be a result without\na cause. They have earned it in other lives when the conditions did not\npermit immediate harvesting of the results of the good forces generated\nand Nature is paying the debt and making the balance of her books at a\nlater period. It may be in the case of one that some specific act is\nattracting its reward, or it may be in the case of another that he is\nnearing the point in evolution where he no longer desires things for\nhimself, only to discover that nature fairly flings her treasures at his\nfeet. He has put himself in harmony with evolutionary law--with the\ndivine plan, and nature withholds nothing.\n\nWhen we eliminate chance, then, we are forced to seek the cause of\nunexplained good or bad fortune beyond the boundaries of this life\nbecause there is nothing else we can do. We have results to explain and\nwe know they do not come from causes that belong to this life. They must\nof necessity arise from causes generated in a past life.\n\nNow the moment we get away from the narrow view that we began existence\nwhen we were born, all the mysteries about us disappear and we can fall\nback on natural law and logically explain everything. Why does one\nperson begin life with a good mind while another is born with small\nmental capacity? Because one worked hard at life's problems in past\nincarnations while the other led a butterfly existence and merely amused\nhimself. Why does one move serenely through trying circumstances always\nmaintaining a cheerful view of life while another loses control of his\ntemper at the slightest annoyance and wears himself out with the\ntrifling vexations of existence? Only because one has for a long period\npracticed self control while the other has never given a thought to the\nmatter. Why is one so thoughtful of others that he wins universal love\nand admiration while another is so self centered that he makes no true\nfriends at all? Again past experience explains it. The one has studied\nthe laws of destiny and lived by them while the other has not yet even\nlearned of their existence.\n\nPutting aside the old belief that the soul is created at birth, and\nkeeping in mind the newer and scientific view that we have all lived\nmany lives before, all the difficulties and perplexities at once\ndisappear. We are no longer puzzled because we find in a man's life some\ngood fortune when he has apparently done nothing to deserve it, for we\nsee that he must have set the forces in motion in a previous life which\nnow culminate in this result. We are no longer mystified because\napparent causeless misfortunes befall him for we know that in the nature\nof things he did generate the causes in the past. A single incarnation\nhas the same relation to the whole of the soul's evolution that a single\nday has to one incarnation. As the days are separated by the nights and\nyet all the days are related by the acts which run through them, so the\nincarnations are separated by periods of rest in the heaven world and\nyet all the incarnations are related by the thoughts and acts running\nthrough them. What a man does in his youth affects his old age, and\nwhat we did in our last incarnation is affecting the present one. The\none is no more remarkable than the other. As we mould old age by youth\nso we are shaping the coming incarnation by this one. Before we shall be\nable to see the utter reasonableness of the truth that what we are now\nis the result of our past we must have a clear understanding of the\nrelationship between the soul and the body. The physical body in each\nincarnation is the material expression of the soul, of its moral power\nor weakness, of its wisdom or ignorance, of its purity or its grossness,\njust as one's face is, at each moment the expression of one's thought\nand emotion in physical matter. Every change of consciousness registers\nitself in matter. A man has emotions. He feels a thrill of joy and his\nface proclaims the fact. He becomes angry, and the change from joy to\nanger is registered in physical matter so that all who see his face are\naware of the change in his consciousness, which they cannot see. These\nare passing changes like sunshine and shadow and they are obvious to\nall. But we know that as the years pass the constant influence of\nconsciousness moulds even physical matter into permanent form. A soul of\nsunny disposition finally comes to have benevolent features while one of\nmorose tendency as certainly has a face of settled gloom. Nobody can\ncontact the soul of another with any physical sense we possess yet\nnobody has the slightest doubt of his ability to distinguish between a\nsunny, peaceful soul and a soul that is not in harmony with life. We\nknow the difference only because consciousness moulds matter. But this\nis merely the surface indication. Consciousness is continually\ninfluencing matter and the major part of its work is not visible to us.\nWhat the consciousness is, the body becomes. Whether we are now\nbrilliant or stupid, comely or deformed, is the result of the activities\nof consciousness, and the very grain of the flesh and the shape of the\nphysical body are the registrations in matter of what we, the soul,\nthought and did in the past.\n\nConsider a specific thing like deformity and we shall begin to see just\nwhy and how it may have come about. If in a past life a person was\nguilty of deliberate cruelty to another, and on account of it suffered\ngreat mental and emotional distress afterward, it would be no remarkable\nthing if the mental images of the injuries inflicted on his victim are\nreproduced in himself. In idiocy we have apparently merely a distorted\nbrain so that the consciousness cannot function through it. Might not\nthat distortion of the physical brain easily be the result of violent\nreaction from cruelties in a past life? The consciousness that can be\nguilty of cruelty is seeing things crooked--out of proportion. Otherwise\nit could not be cruel. This distortion in consciousness must register a\ncorresponding distortion in matter, for the body is the faithful and\naccurate reflection of that consciousness. It is just because the body\nis the true and exact expression of the consciousness in physical matter\nthat the palmist and phrenologist can sometimes give us such remarkable\ndelineations of character. The record is there in hand and head for\nthose who can read it.\n\nThis broader outlook on the life journey, extending over a very long\nseries of incarnations, gives us a wholly different view of the\ndifficulties with which we have to contend and of the limitations which\nafflict us. It at once shows us that in the midst of apparent injustice\nthere is really nothing but perfect justice for everybody; that all good\nfortune has been earned; that all bad fortune is deserved, and that each\nof us is, mentally and morally, what he has made himself. Masefield put\nit well when he wrote:\n\n      All that I rightly think or do,\n          Or make or spoil or bless or blast,\n      Is curse or blessing justly due\n          For sloth or effort in the past.\n      My life's a statement of the sum\n      Of vice indulged or overcome.\n      And as I journey on the roads\n          I shall be helped and healed and blessed.\n      Dear words shall cheer, and be as goads\n          To urge to heights as yet unguessed.\n      My road shall be the road I made.\n      All that I gave shall be repaid.\n\nHave we ever heard of a plan more just, of a truth more inspiring? It is\nsurely a satisfying thought that every effort shall give increased power\nof intellect; that all kindly thought of others is a shield for our own\nprotection in time of need; that every impulse of affection shall ripen\ninto the love of comrades; that all noble thinking builds heroic\ncharacter, with which we shall return, in some future time, to play to a\nstill noble part in the world of men.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[M] Proverbs, XXVI, 27.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XV.\n\nSUPERPHYSICAL EVOLUTION\n\n\nIf we accept the idea of evolution at all we cannot escape the\nconclusion that there is superphysical evolution. The belief that man is\nthe highest intelligence in the universe, except God himself, would be\nutterly inconsistent with evolutionary facts and principles. Evolution\nis a continuous unfolding from within, and it is only the limitation of\nour senses that leads us to set limitations to it. The one great life of\nthe universe expresses itself in myriad forms and at innumerable levels\nof development. One of those levels is humanity. But as certainly as our\nconsciousness has evolved to its present stage it shall go on to higher\nones.\n\nOrderly gradation is clearly nature's method of expression. A\ncontinuous, unbroken line of life reaches downward from man. Its\nsuccessive stages are seen in the animals, the reptiles, the insects and\nthe microbes. Even the great kingdoms into which the biologist divides\nlife fade into each other almost imperceptibly and it becomes difficult\nto say where the vegetable kingdom stops and the animal kingdom begins.\nJust as that continuous chain of life runs downward from man it must\nalso rise above him until it merges in the Supreme Being. There must\nnecessarily be the higher as well as the lower products of evolution.\nMan is merely one link in the evolutionary chain. The human level is the\npoint where consciousness has become completely individualized and is\ncapable of turning back upon itself and studying its own inner\nprocesses.\n\nThe thought of Occidental civilization has been sadly fettered with\nmaterialism. It has scarcely dared to think beyond that which could be\ngrasped with the hands. The physical senses were its outposts of\ninvestigation. What could not be seen or heard or felt had no existence\nfor it. Modern science explored the material universe and perfected its\nmethods until the vast panorama of worlds could be intimately studied,\nand its illimitable scope and colossal grandeur be somewhat\ncomprehended. But there was no study of life comparable to the vast\nstretch of worlds; for material science had made the remarkable blunder\nof assuming that the last word on the nature of matter had been said.\nThen came the startling discoveries that revolutionized the accepted\nviews of matter, that proved that the supposedly indivisible atom was a\nminiature universe, a tiny cosmos of force. The old theories about\nmatter had to be thrown aside. They were as much out of date as the\nbelief that the earth is flat. Stripped of technical terms of expression\nthe revised view of matter is, substantially, that it is the lowest\nexpression of life; and now modern science is turning tardy attention to\na study of the life side of the universe. The moment that is done the\nsense of consistency and the law of correspondence compel us to\npostulate a gradation of intelligences rising above man as man does\nabove the insects.\n\nThe scientific mind instantly grasps the inherent reasonableness of the\nexistence of superphysical beings. Writing on the subject of energy,\nNicola Tesla says:\n\n      \"We can conceive of organized beings living without\n      nourishment and deriving all the energy they need for the\n      performance of their life functions from the ambient\n      medium.*** There may be *** individualized material systems\n      of beings, perhaps of gaseous constitution, or composed of\n      substance still more tenuous. In view of this\n      possibility--nay, probability--we cannot apodictically deny\n      the existence of organized beings on a planet merely\n      because the conditions on the same are unsuitable for the\n      existence of life as we conceive it. We cannot even, with\n      positive assurance, assert that some of them might not be\n      present here in this our world, in the very midst of us,\n      for their constitution and life manifestation may be such\n      that we are unable to perceive them.\"[N]\n\nAlfred Russell Wallace, who was called \"the grand old man of science,\"\nwrote in one of his latest books:\n\n      \"I think we have got to recognize that between man and the\n      ultimate God there is an almost infinite multitude of\n      beings working in the universe at large, at tasks as\n      definite and important as any we have to perform on earth.\n      I imagine that the universe is peopled with spirits--that\n      is, with intelligent beings with powers and duties akin to\n      our own, but vaster. I think there is a gradual ascent from\n      man upward and onward.\"\n\nWhile the scientist, still lacking the absolutely conclusive evidence,\ngoes only to the point of asserting that it is reasonable and probable\nthat supermen exist, the occultist asserts it as a fact within his\npersonal knowledge.[O] So we have the direct testimony of the\noccultists, the endorsement of the scientists as to its probability,\nand, perhaps the most important of all, the inherent reasonableness of\nthe idea.\n\nThe relationship of the supermen, or great spiritual hierarchy, to the\nhuman race is that of teachers, guardians and directors. They\nsuperintend human evolution. But this does not mean in the very least\nthe relationship that is expressed in the term \"spirit guides\" so\nfrequently use by the spiritualist. That is a totally different thing.\nThey seem to imply that the \"spirit guide\" gives direct instructions or\norders to the person known as a \"medium.\" If we were all thus controlled\nand directed what would become of free will? Evolution can proceed only\nif we use our initiative in the affairs of life. If we were to be\ndirected by the wisdom and will of others we would not evolve at all. We\nwould be merely automata directed by others, and no matter how great\nthey were we could never thus develop our judgment and self-reliance. It\nis not thus that the great spiritual hierarchy directs human evolution.\nIt is, in part, by working with mankind en masse and bringing mental and\nmoral forces to play upon them, thus stimulating latent spiritual forces\nfrom within. It is also by directly, or indirectly placing ideals\ninstead of commands before the race. In another direction it is actual\nsuperintendence, or administration, or teaching, in a way that does not\ninterfere with one's initiative or will. If the soul is to evolve it\nmust have liberty--even the freedom to make mistakes.\n\nIt is sometimes asked why, if the supermen exist, those who are in\nincarnation do not come out into the world and give us ocular evidence\nof the fact. It is pointed out that they could speedily convince the\nworld by a display of superphysical force. But they are probably not in\nthe least interested in convincing anybody of their existence. They\n_are_ interested in raising the general level of morality, of course,\nbut such an exhibition would not make people morally better. The work of\nthe supermen can best be done from higher planes than the physical. As\nfor the very small number of the supermen who take physical bodies to\nbetter do their special work, they can best accomplish it from secluded\nplaces; and if they sometimes have reason to come out into the seething\nvibrations of our modern civilization it is easy to understand that they\nwould not be conspicuously different from other men, to the ordinary\nobserver.\n\nIt is from the spiritual hierarchy that come all the religions of the\nworld. There the question may arise, \"Then why do they differ so\ngreatly?\" Because the peoples to whom they are given differ greatly. The\ndifference of temperament and viewpoint between the Orient and the\nOccident is enormous. We are evolving along the outer, the objective,\nand our civilization represents the material conquest of nature. They\nare evolving the inner, the subjective. In the Orient the common trend\nof conversation is philosophical, just as in the Occident it is\ncommercial. Such different types of mind require somewhat different\nstatements of ethics, but the fundamental principles of all religions\nare identical.\n\nWhen a new era in human evolution begins a World Teacher comes into\nvoluntary incarnation and founds a religion that is suited to the\nrequirements of the new era. Humanity is never left to grope along\nalone. All that it can comprehend and utilize is taught it in the\nvarious religions. World Teachers, the Christs and saviours of the race,\nhave been appearing at propitious times since humanity began existence.\n\nMost readers will probably agree that a World Teacher known as the\nChrist did come and found a religion nearly two thousand years ago. Why\ndo they think so? They reply that God so loved the world that he sent\nhis Son, the Christ, to bring it light and life. If that is true how can\nwe avoid the conclusion that He, or his predecessors, must have come\nmany a time before? The belief that He came but once is consistent only\nwith the erroneous notion that Genesis is history instead of allegory,\nand that the earth is about six thousand years old! Science has not\ndetermined its age but we know that it is very old, indeed. Many eminent\nscientists have made rough estimates, taking into consideration all that\nwe have learned from astronomy, geology and archeology. Phillips, the\ngeologist, basing his calculations upon the time required for the\ndepositions of the stratified rocks, put the minimum age at thirty-eight\nmillion years and the maximum age at ninety-six million years. Sir\nGeorge Darwin, basing his calculation wholly upon astronomical data,\nputs the earth's age at a minimum of fifty-six million years. Joly\narrived at his estimate by a calculation of the time required to produce\nthe sodium content of the ocean, and concluded that the age of the earth\nis between eighty million and one hundred million years. Sollas is said\nto have made careful study of the matter and he finds the minimum to be\neighty million, and the maximum age to be one hundred and fifty million\nyears. But perhaps the most exhaustive study of the matter, and that\nmade by the use of the later scientific knowledge, was by Bosler, of the\nFrench scientists. He bases his calculations upon the radio-activity of\nrocks and arrives at a minimum earth age of seven hundred and ten\nmillions of years. Thus it will be observed that as our knowledge grows\nthe estimated age of the earth increases.\n\nIn the face of such facts what becomes of the assertion that God so\nloved the world that he sent His Son to help ignorant humanity about two\nthousand years ago--but never before? What about the hundreds of\nmillions of human beings who lived and died before that time? Did He\ncare nothing for them? Did He give his attention to humanity for a\nperiod of only two thousand years and neglect it for millions of years?\nTwo thousand years, compared to the age of the earth, is less than an\nhour in the ordinary life of a man. Does anybody believe that God, in\nhis great compassion, sent just one World Teacher for that brief period?\nWhat would we say of a father who gave one hour of his whole life to his\nchild and neglected him absolutely before and after that? Countless\nmillions of the people who lived and died prior to the coming of the\nChrist were very much like ourselves. They belonged to ancient\ncivilizations that often surpassed our own in many desirable\ncharacteristics. They were educated and cultured in their time and\nfashion. They were fathers and sons and mothers and daughters and\nhusbands and wives, with the same kind of heart ties that we have. What\nof them? Were they permitted to grope in the moral wilderness without a\nTeacher or a ray of light? Of course the idea is preposterous. If God so\nloved the world that He sent his Son two thousand years ago He sent Him,\nor some predecessor, very many times before. By the same token He will\ncome again. The only logical escape from such a conclusion is in the\nmaterialist's belief that He never came at all.\n\nAll religions crystalize, become materialized, and lose their spiritual\nsignificance. That is precisely what has happened to the various great\nreligions of the modern world, including Christianity. It is no longer\nthe dynamic thing in the lives of the people it once was. That's why a\nworld war was possible. The fault is not with the teachings of the\nChrist. The trouble is that the world has not lived by them. We need a\nrestatement of the old teachings in the terms of modern life that shall\nagain make it a living force in the lives of men. It is when the World\nTeacher is most needed that he comes; and when has the need been greater\nthan now? The world war has demonstrated the failure of so-called\nChristian civilization. We have seen the highest type of that\ncivilization revert to the law of the jungle, deliberately disregard\nthe usages of civilized warfare, and commit atrocities that would shame\nbarbarians. We surely need no further proof that the Christian religion\nhas not accomplished all that the spiritual hierarchy had a right to\nhope for, and that the coming of the Christ again is a necessity.\n\nBut the spiritual hierarchy sends its great ambassadors only when the\ntime is propitious, only when the world is ready to listen. Perhaps such\nan event can never be predicted in terms of time, but only in those of\nconditions. When the strength of the nations is spent, when the slain\ntotals appalling numbers, when few homes of high or low degree are\nwithout their terrible sacrifice, when the heart of the race is filled\nwith anguish, when famine and disease have done their awful work, and\nhumanity fully realizes what the reaction from greed, lust, cruelty and\nrevenge actually means, the world will be ready to listen as it never\nlistened before, and after that we may reasonably expect the Christ to\nagain appear to re-proclaim the ancient truth in terms of modern life.\n\nThe supermen are not myths nor figments of imagination. They are as\nnatural and comprehensive as human beings. In the regular order of\nevolution we shall reach their level and join their ranks while younger\nhumanities shall attain our present estate. As the supermen rose we,\ntoo, shall rise. Our past has been evolution's night. Our present is its\ndawn. Our future shall be its perfect day. Think of that night from\nwhich we have emerged--a chaos of contending forces, a world in which\nmight was the measure of right, a civilization of scepter and sword, of\nbaron and serf, of master and slave. That, we have left behind us.\nThink of the grey dawn that our civilization has reached--the dawn of a\npublic conscience, of individual liberty, of collective welfare, of the\nsacredness of life, but with armed force still dominant, with war the\narbiter of national destiny, with industrial slavery still lingering,\nwith conflict between the higher aspirations and the lower desires still\nraging--a world of selfishness masked by civilized usage, a world of\nveneered cruelty and refined brutality. In all that we now live. But\nthink of the coming results of evolution!--an era in which love shall\nreplace force, when saber and cannon shall be unknown, when selfish\ndesires shall be transmuted into noble service, when, finally, we shall\nfinish the painful period of human evolution and join the spiritual\nhierarchy to direct the faltering steps of a younger race.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[N] \"The Conservation of Energy,\" Nicola Tesla, Century Magazine, June\n1900.\n\n[O] An Outline of Theosophy, C. W. Leadbeater, pp. 6-12.\n\n\n\n\n[Transcriber's Note:\n\n\nThe following corrections were made:\n\np. 6: pretention to pretension (no pretension is made)\n\np. 12: An to In (In another aspect it is a religion.)\n\np. 12: thesosophy to theosophy (While theosophy is distinctly a science)\n\np. 13: discusison to discussion (A detailed discussion of such methods)\n\np. 16: nevertheelss to nevertheless (is nevertheless just that\nrelationship)\n\np. 17: explicilt to explicit (is certainly very explicit)\n\np. 19: period to semi-colon (who's true to man;)\n\np. 34: communciating to communicating (dead man who is communicating?)\n\np. 35: extra 'the' removed (more convincing than the evidence)\n\np. 46-47: envelopes to envelops (because it envelops it)\n\np. 63: oftens to often (often requires death)\n\np. 74: repreduces to reproduces (exactly reproduces emotion)\n\np. 82: consciouness to consciousness (finally loses consciousness)\n\np. 83: of to or (or by cleverly combining)\n\np. 86: strengthend to strengthened (strengthened and vivified)\n\np. 89: slight to sight (has not lost sight of us)\n\np. 91: communciate to communicate (had to communicate with him)\n\np. 91: communcation to communication (subject of communication)\n\np. 92: communciate to communicate (desires to communicate)\n\np. 93: influnces to influences (sensitive to psychic influences)\n\np. 94: persist to persists (who persists in occupying)\n\np. 95: confidenty to confidently (will confidently assert himself)\n\np. 96: close quote added (What can I do?\")\n\np. 103: missing comma added (While we do not yet know a great deal about\nlife, science)\n\np. 105: perect to perfect (perfect agreement)\n\np. 109: extra 'and' removed (new and undeveloped)\n\np. 115: thoughtul to thoughtful (a thoughtful matron)\n\np. 117: methematical to mathematical (a mathematical problem)\n\np. 120: If to It (It often puzzles)\n\np. 121: from to form (highest possible form)\n\np. 124: missing apostrophe added (of nations' condemned prisoners)\n\np. 128: extra 'to' removed (civilization today could arise)\n\np. 129: two erroneously reversed lines corrected (consciousness. The\nyoung quails of this season come / they are attached to the same\ngroup-soul, or source of)\n\np. 138: crminal to criminal (a noted criminal)\n\np. 142: possesing to possessing (we find others possessing)\n\np. 146: blockquote formatted to match others in text\n\np. 158: meed to need (no need of praise)\n\np. 181: incalcuable to incalculable (is incalculable and altogether\nbeyond)\n\np. 185: responsibilty to responsibility (personal responsibility and\ntherefore)\n\np. 191: hapen to happen (may happen to fall)\n\np. 191-192: extinquished to extinguished (Before the fire could be\nextinguished)\n\np. 193: beneficient to beneficent (\"beneficent working of the law\")\n\np. 193: phsical to physical (from the physical plane)\n\np. 195: mistate to misstate (misstate facts)\n\np. 196: atain to attain (and surely attain)\n\np. 203: idocy to idiocy (In idiocy we have)\n\np. 204: Maesfield to Masefield (Masefield put it well)\n\np. 204: blest to blessed (I shall be helped and healed and blessed.)\n\np. 207: appodictically to apodictically (cannot apodictically deny)\n\np. 209: superman to supermen (small number of the supermen)\n\np. 209: it to is (it is easy to understand)\n\np. 211: calcualations to calculations (He bases his calculations upon)\n\np. 212: chrystalize to crystalize (All religions crystalize)\n\np. 213: embassadors to ambassadors (sends its great ambassadors)\n\nIrregularities in hyphenation (e.g. wide-spread vs. widespread,\nclass-room vs. classroom) and variant spellings (e.g. cigaret) have not\nbeen corrected.]","title":"Elementary Theosophy","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":53185}