Filename: RC1037.TXT
Source: "Occult Principles of Health & Healing" by Max Heindel

[PAGE 1338]

                        ON CONDUCTING HEALING CENTERS:

                            GENERAL SUGGESTIONS:

   As  Probationers  in various places have banded  themselves  together  to
study Astro-Diagnosis and Astro-Therapy with a view to forming Healing  Cen-
ters when they shall have become sufficiently grounded in these sciences, it
may be well to give a few suggestions for the conduct of such centers.

   In  the first place we must remember that whatever is to be done  is  for
Christ's sake,  and devotional exercises at the commencement of classes  are
an absolute necessity in order to balance the intellectual side of the work.
Let us remember that the Christ is now imprisoned in the earth for our sake,
bearing the heavy burden of the earth so that we may have proper  conditions
for our evolution;  that disease is the result of ignorance of cosmic  laws,
hence a retarding factor in evolution and therefore a cause of  prolongation
of the Christ's imprisonment;  and that when we alleviate human suffering we
are  at the same time decreasing the suffering of Christ and  hastening  the
day of His liberation.

   Devotional exercises are a powerful means of putting us in tune with  the
Christ.   Through  them we gain an intuitional faculty whereby we  feel  the
suffering of others, and at the same time we find the way to ease their pain

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as  Parsifal did the cause of Amfortas' suffering when he was in the  garden
with  Kundry  and there realized how he might heal the  stricken  king.   So
first and foremost, let us have devotional exercised, reading from the Bible
with  reference to how Christ healed the sick and comforted  the  suffering.
Perhaps a few comments to drive home the lesson, would be well.

   Take "The Imitation of Christ" by Thomas a Kempis,  or anything else of a
thoroughly devotional nature,  and then turn to the study of the human body,
for a knowledge of anatomy is an absolute essential.  The body is the temple
for the indwelling Spirit,  and as it is necessary for an architect to  know
how to prop up the pillars of a church,  when the wear and tear of time have
caused  the  foundation to crumble,  so that new material may  replace  that
which has decayed to make the edifice strong and useful again,  so also must
we know how to strengthen the various parts of the living temple with  which
we are to deal.  There is a book called "The Story of the Living Temple"  by
Rossiter,  which treats of the body in a spiritual manner and  will  service
admirably  as an aid to a higher conception while using the  ordinary  text-
books.

   When taking up a horoscope for analysis,  be sure you do not use the fig-
ures for Probationers attending the meetings, or their close relatives.  For
just as students in a medical college often by suggestion develop the  symp-
toms of the diseases they are studying, so also members of the class are apt
to  suffer from neglect of the above precaution.   Moreover,  when a  Proba-
tioner  is ill and applies to the Center for healing,  he or she may not  be
admitted to the classes while in ill health, for it is absolutely impossible

[PAGE 1340]

to  avoid accidental mention of symptoms from which such a one  may  suffer,
and thus the disease may be aggravated in this manner.

                              ADVICE TO HEALERS:

   If  letters of fire that would burn themselves into the consciousness  of
the reader were obtainable, we would spare no effort to procure them for the
purpose of warning students on some particular points in connection with the
practice of Medical Astrology; these are:

         Never tell a patient a discouraging fact.
         Never tell him when impending crises are due.
         Never predict sickness at a certain time.
         Never, NEVER predict death.

   It is a grave mistake, almost a crime, to tell sick persons anything dis-
couraging,  for it robs them of strength that should he husbanded  with  the
utmost care to facilitate recovery.  It is also wrong to suggest sickness to
a  well person,  for it focuses the mind on a specific disease at a  certain
time, and such a suggestion is liable to cause sickness.  It is a well-known
fact that many students in medical colleges feel the symptoms of every  dis-
ease  they study,  and suffer greatly in consequence of autosuggestion,  but
the idea of impending disease implanted by one in whom the victim has  faith
is much more dangerous.  Therefore, it behooves the medical astrologer to be
very cautious.  If you cannot say something encouraging, be silent.

   This warning applies with particular force when treating patients  having
Taurus  or  Virgo rising or the Sun or Moon in those signs.  These positions

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predispose the mind to center on disease,  often in a most unwarranted  man-
ner.   The Taurean fears sickness to an almost insane degree, and prediction
of disease is fatal to his nature.  The Virgoans  court disease, in order to
gain sympathy, and though professing to long for recovery, they actually de-
light in probing the matter to the depths;  they will plead ability to stand
full knowledge and profess that it will help them;  but if the  practitioner
allows  himself to be enticed by their protestations,  and does  tell  them,
they wilt like a flower.   They are the most difficult people to help in any
case,  and extra care should be taken not to aggravate their chances by  ad-
missions  of the nature indicated.   Some students have a morbid  desire  to
know the time of their own death,  and probe into this matter in a most  un-
warranted  manner;  but no matter how they may seek  to  deceive  themselves
there are very few who have the mental and moral stamina to live life in the
same  manner,  if they knew with absolute certainty that on a  certain  date
their earthly existence would be terminated.  This is one of the points most
wisely hidden until we are able to see on both sides of the veil,  and we do
wrong,  no matter what our ground,  to seek to wrest that knowledge from the
horoscope.

   In  the past when our efforts in behalf of the sick were necessarily  re-
stricted  to members on account of lack of help in the office the  questions
sometimes asked:   "How may I help a sick friend?"   Though we are now  pre-
pared to render aid from Headquarters to "whosoever will" some, it is impor-
tant  to impress upon probationers of the great opportunity which is  theirs
by virtue of the connection they have established with the Teacher.  Healing

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is accomplished principally by Probationers who "live the life" under direc-
tion of the Elder Brothers;  and application TO THEM,  written with pen  and
ink,  whether directed through Headquarters or to a Probationer,  invariably
evokes a response.

   The  Elder  Brothers know how to use the law to the best  advantage,  but
cannot work contrary to it nor do more than the material furnished them  ad-
mits,  physical sickness may be overcome by spiritual power,  but a  certain
amount of this power is required.   It is a law of physics that a number  of
coals  must be heaped together and sufficient oxygen furnished in  order  to
make a fire.   Christ said,  "Where two or three are gathered together in my
name, there will I be among them."

   Association  of Probationers in Center of Healing furnishes the  material
in  which the Elder Brothers may kindle the Spiritual Fire required to  heal
physical, moral, and mental ailments.  Singlehanded there is small change of
doing good, but in numbers there is strength, particularly if all are forti-
fied  with  a  knowledge of diagnosis from the horoscope and  how  to  apply
treatment at propitious times.

                         HEALING SERVICE INAUGURATED:

   On  Holy Night the spiritual power in the Sun culminates,  pouring out  a
benediction   upon the air.   From the 25th of December to the 25th of  June
the  physical  activities are in the ascendant,  gradually  gathering  force
which  culminates at the Summer Solstice;  and then blesses  man  physically
with  the things needed for his material sustenance.   During that time  the
spiritual  activities  are  difficult to inaugurate, and therefore we waited

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quietly until the turn recently,  holding the first evening healing  service
on Tuesday,  the 23rd of June (1914), at half past seven,  when the Moon was
in the cardinal sign of Cancer.  And in the future a healing service will be
held in the Pro-Ecclesia each week at that hour on a day when the Moon is in
one of the cardinal signs.   We decided to have these services that we might
utilize  the  little  Pro-Ecclesia to the very utmost,  and  thus  earn  the
privilege  of having the Ecclesia,  too.  This was approved by the  Teacher,
and  he suggested that the healing service be held when the Moon is  in  the
cardinal signs.   But we want to go a step further in our efforts to  secure
efficiency;  and this is where we want to add the help of every earnest stu-
dent in The Rosicrucian Fellowship.

   There is a passage in the ritual used at The Rosicrucian Fellowship  ser-
vices which says:  "One coal cannot make a fire, but where a number of coals
are gathered together the heat which is latent in each may be kindled into a
flame emitting light and warmth.   It is in obedience to the same law of Na-
ture that we have gathered here tonight, that by massing our spiritual aspi-
rations we may light and keep ablaze the beacon light of true spiritual fel-
lowship."   The power of numbers is insignificant in the world  of  physical
existence,  compared  with  the power of the same number  in  the  spiritual
realm.  Here additions to the power of a community count as one, two, three,
four, etc., but there the power increases in a proportion that might be lik-
ened to the square;  two, four, eight, sixteen,  etc.,  for the first twelve
who attend a spiritual service.   The thirteenth then would bring it up into
another  higher  realm of the spiritual universe.  For the sake of illustra-

[PAGE 1344]

tion,  we  may  count  the  increase there by  the  power  of  three,  nine,
twenty-seven, etc., as so on.  Thus you will see how important even the very
weakest  one  among  us  may become WHEN IT IS A  QUESTION  OF  MASSING  OUR
SPIRITUAL ASPIRATIONS.   Nor can there by any questions of the powerful  in-
fluence that will have on the sick.

   To secure the help of all earnest students and give them the privilege of
helping,  we  will publish in the Echoes each month the date  on  which  the
healing services will be held,  and if each student will sit down in his  or
her own home at half past seven,  directing their thoughts to Mt.  Ecclesia,
to the little Pro-Ecclesia,  where the symbol of the Invisible Helpers  will
then be unveiled,  the love, sympathy, and strength thus given these workers
will  enable  them to do a much greater service for humanity;  each  one  of
course them having part in that work.   The symbol of the Invisible  Helpers
upon which we concentrate at Mt.  Ecclesia is a snow-white cross,  with  the
seven  red roses and a pure white one in the center;  the usual  stars  (the
rays),  goes out from the cross, and the background is blue, the whole being
beautifully illuminated,  thus making it an apt emblem of the effulgence  of
that  soul body wherein these workers travel.   It will not be necessary  to
make corrections in time for your place of residence,  because the Sun  will
gather all the aspirations as he goes along, and when the rays at the proper
angle  arrive  at Mt.  Ecclesia the influence directed here  will  certainly
transmit itself and unite with our aspirations taking place at this time and
help  us in the work.   (NOTE:   The time of this healing service has  since
been changed to half past six.)

[PAGE 1345]

                              "THERE IS NO DEATH"

                           THE REAL NATURE OF DEATH:

   Amid  all the uncertainties which are the characteristics of this  world,
there is but one certainty--Death.  At one time or another, after a short or
long  life,  comes this termination to the material phase of our  existence,
which is a birth into a new world, as that which we term "birth" is,  in the
beautiful words of Wordsworth, a forgetting of the past.

   Birth  and death may therefore be regarded has the shifting of man's  ac-
tivity  from  one world to another,  and it depends upon  our  own  position
whether we designate such a change birth or death.   If he enters the  world
in which we live,  we call it birth; if he leaves our plane of existence  to
enter another world,  we call it death.   To the individual concerned,  how-
ever,  the passage from one world to another is but as a removal to  another
city here; he LIVES, unchanged; only his exterior surroundings and condition
are changed.

   The  passage from one world to another is often attended by more or  less
unconsciousness, like sleep, as Wordsworth says, and for the reason our con-
sciousness may be fixed upon the world we have left.  In infancy heaven lies
about  us  in  actual fact;  children are all clairvoyant for  a  longer  or
shorter time after  birth, and whoever passes out at death still beholds the

[PAGE 1346]

material world for some time.   If we pass out in the full vigor of physical
manhood or womanhood, with strong times of family, friends,  or other inter-
ests,  the  dense world will continue to attract our attention  for  a  much
longer time than if death occurred at a "ripe old age," when the earthy ties
have  been  severed before the change we call death.   This is on  the  same
principle  that the seed clings to the flesh of unripe fruit,  while  it  is
easily and cleanly detached from the ripe fruit.   Therefore it is easier to
die at an advanced age than in youth.

   The  unconsciousness  which usually attends the change  of  the  incoming
spirit at birth,  and the outgoing spirit at death,  is due to our inability
to  adjust  our  focus  instantly,  and is  similar  to  the  difficulty  we
experience when passing from a darkened room to the street on a light, sunny
day,  or vice versa.  Under those conditions some time elapses before we can
distinguish  objects about us;  so with the newly born and the  newly  dead,
both have to readjust their viewpoint to their new condition.

   When  the  moment  arrives  which marks the completion  of  life  in  the
physical  world,  the usefulness of the dense body has ended,  and  the  Ego
withdraws from it by way of the head, taking with it the mind and the desire
body,  as it does every night during sleep,  but now the vital body is  use-
less,  so that, too, is withdrawn, and when the silver cord which united the
higher to the lower vehicles snaps it can never be repaired.

   We remember that the vital body is composed of ether,  superimposed  upon
the dense bodies of plant,  animal, and man during life.   Ether is physical
matter, and therefore has weight.  The only reason why the scientists cannot

[PAGE 1347]

weigh  it  is because they are unable to gather a quantity and put it  on  a
scale.   But when it leaves the dense body at death a diminution  in  weight
will take place in every instance, showing that something having weight, yet
invisible, leaves the dense body at that time.

   Physical science knows that whatever the power which moves the heart,  it
does not come from without, but is inside the heart.   The occult scientists
sees  a chamber in the left ventricle, near the apex,  where a  little  atom
swims  in  a sea of the highest ether.   The force in that  atom,  like  the
forces of all other atoms, is THE UNDIFFERENTIATED LIFE OF GOD; without that
force  the mineral could not form matter into crystals,  the plant,  animal,
and human kingdoms would be unable to form their bodies.   The deeper we  go
the  plainer  it becomes to us how fundamentally true it is that in  God  we
live, more, and have our being.

   That atom is called the "seed atom."  The force within it moves the heart
and  keeps the organism alive.   All the other atoms in the whole body  must
vibrate in tune with this atom.   The forces of the seed-atom have been  im-
manent in every dense body every possessed by the particular Ego to whom  it
is attached,  and upon its plastic tablet are inscribed all the  experiences
of  that particular Ego in all its lives.   When we return to God,  when  we
shall  have become one in God once more,  that record,  which is  pecularity
God's record, will still remain, and thus we shall retain our individuality.
Our  experiences we transmute into faculties;  the evil is  transmuted  into
good and the good we retain as power for higher good,  but THE RECORD of the

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experiences is OF God and IN God; in the most intimate sense.

   The "silver cord"  which unites the higher and lower vehicles  terminates
at  the seed atom in the heart.   When material life comes to an end in  the
natural manner the forces in the seed atom disengage themselves,  pass  out-
ward along the pneumogastric nerve,  the back of the head and along the sil-
ver  cord,  together with the higher vehicles.   It is this rupture  in  the
heart  which  marks physical death,  but the connecting silver cord  is  not
broken at once, in some cases not for several days.

                             EFFECTS OF SUICIDE:

   When  the  Ego is coming down to rebirth it descends through  the  Second
Heaven.   There is is helped by the Creative Heirarchies to build an  arche-
type  for its coming body,  and it instills into that archtype a  life  that
will last for a certain number of years.   These archtypes are hollow spaces
and  they have a singing,  vibratory motion which draws the material of  the
Physical  World  into them and sets all the atoms in the body  vibrating  in
tune with a little atom that is in the heart,  called the seed-atom,  which,
like a tuning fork,  gives the pitch to all the rest of the material in  the
body.  At the time when the full life has been lived on the earth the vibra-
tions  in the archetype cease,  the seed-atom is withdrawn,  the dense  body
goes  to decay and the desire body,  wherein the Ego functions in  Purgatory
and in the First Heaven,  takes upon itself the shape of the physical  body.
Then  the man commences his work of expiating his evil habits and  deeds  in
Purgatory and assimilating the good of his life in the First Heaven.

   The foregoing describes the ordinary conditions when the course of nature
is undisturbed, but the case of the suicide is different.  He has taken away
the seed-atom, but the hollow archetype still keeps on vibrating.  Therefore
he feels as if he were hollowed out and experiences a gnawing feeling inside

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that can be best likened to the pangs of intense hunger.   Material for  the
building  of a dense body is all around him,  but seeing that he  lacks  the
gauge of the seed atom,  it is impossible for him to assimilate that  matter
and build it into a body.   This dreadful hollowed-out feeling lasts as long
as  his ordinary life should have lasted.  Thus the Law of Cause and  Effect
teaches him that it is wrong to play truant from the school of life and that
it cannot be done with impunity.   Then in the next life,  when difficulties
beset his path,  he will remember the sufferings of the past which  resulted
from  suicide and go through the experience that makes for his soul growth.

   It  is curious that the commission of suicide in one life and the  conse-
quent post-mortem suffering during the time when the archetype still  exists
often  generate in such people a morbid fear of death tin the next life;  so
that  when  the event actually occurs in the ordinary course of  life,  they
seem  frantic  after they leave the body and so anxious to get back  to  the
Physical  World again that they frequently commit the crime of obsession  in
the most foolish and unthinking manner.

[PAGE 1350]

                        CAUSES OF DEATH DURING INFANCY:

   When a man passes out a death,  he takes with him the mind,  desire body,
and  vital body the latter being the storehouse of the pictures of his  past
life.  And during the three and one-half days following death these pictures
are etched into the desire body to form the basis of man's life in Purgatory
and the First Heaven where the evil is expurgated and the good  assimilated.
The  experience of the life itself is forgotten,  as we have  forgotten  the
process of learning to write, but have retained the faculty.  So the cumula-
tive extract of all his experiences,  both during past earth lives and  past
existences in Purgatory and the various heavens, are retained by the man and
form his stock in trade in the next birth.  The pains he has sustained speak
to him as the voice of conscience, the good he had done gives him a more and
more altruistic character.

   Now, when the three and a half days immediately following death are spent
by man under conditions of peace and quiet,  he is able to concentrate  much
more upon the etching of his past life and the imprint upon the desire  body
will be deeper than if he is disturbed by the hysterical lamentations of his
relatives or from other causes.  He will then experience a much keener feel-
ing for either good or bad in Purgatory and in the First Heaven,  and in af-

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ter  lives that keen feeling will speak to him with no  unmistakable  voice;
but  where the lamentations of relatives take away his attention or where  a
man passes out by accident,  perhaps in a crowded street,  in a train wreck,
theatre fire, or under other harrowing circumstances, there will, of course,
be  no opportunity for him to concentrate properly;  neither can he  concen-
trate on a battle field if he is slain there,  and yet it would not be  just
that  he would lose the experience of his life on account of passing out  in
such an untoward manner, so that the Law of Cause and Effect provides a com-
pensation.

   We usually think that when a child is born it is born and that is an  end
to it; but as during the period of gestation the dense body is shielded from
the  impact of the outside world by being placed within the protecting  womb
of  the mother until it has arrived at sufficient maturity to meet the  out-
side  conditions,  so are also the vital body,  desire body,  and mind in  a
state  of gestation and are born at later periods because they have not  had
as long an evolution behind them as the dense body.   Therefore,  it takes a
longer  time for them to arrive at a sufficient state of maturity to  become
individualized.  The vital body is born at the seventh year, when the period
of excessive growth marks its advent.   The desire body is born at the  time
of puberty,  the fourteenth year,  and the mind is born at twenty-one,  when
the child is said to have become a man or woman.....to  have  reached major-
ity.

   That  which has not been quickened cannot die,  and so when a child  dies
before  the birth of the desire body it passes out into the invisible  world
into  the  First  Heaven.  It cannot ascend into the Second and Third Heaven

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because the mind and desire body are not born and will not die, so it simply
waits in the First Heaven until a new opportunity for embodiment offers, and
where it has died in its previous life under the before-mentioned  harrowing
circumstances by accident or upon the battle field or where the lamentations
of relatives rendered it impossible for it to gain as deep an impression  of
evil committed and the good accomplished as would have been the case had  it
died in peace, it is instructed when it has died in the next life as a child
in  the effects of passions and desires so that it learns the  lessons  then
which it should have learned in the purgatorial life had it remained  undis-
turbed.  It is then reborn with the proper development of conscience so that
it may continue its evolution.

   As in the past man has been exceedingly warlike and not at all careful of
the  relatives  who passed out at death because of  his  ignorance,  holding
wakes over those who died in bed, which were few, perhaps, compared to those
who died on the battle field,  there must necessarily on that account be  an
enormous amount of infant mortality, but as humanity arrives at a better un-
derstanding and realizes that we never so much our brother's keeper as  when
he is passing out of this life and that we can help him enormously by  being
quiet and prayerful,  so also will infant mortality cease to exist on such a
large scale as at present.

[PAGE 1353]

                         PROPER CARE OF THE DECEASED:

   The  vital body is the vehicle of sense-perception.   As it remains  with
the  body  of feeling (the desire body) and the etheric cord  connects  them
with  the discarded dense body,  it will be evident that until the  cord  is
severed  there  must be a certain amount of feeling experienced by  the  Ego
when its dense body is molested.  Thus, it causes pain when the blood is ex-
tracted  and  embalming  fluid  injected,   when  the  body  is  opened  for
post-mortem examination, and when the body is cremated.

   A case was told the writer in which a surgeon amputated three toes from a
living  person under anesthetics.   He threw the severed toes into a  bright
coal fire,  and immediately the patient commenced to scream,  for the  rapid
disintegration  of the material toes caused an equally rapid  disintegration
of the etheric toes, which were connected with the higher vehicles.  In like
manner  molestations affect the discarnate Spirit from a few hours to  three
and  a half days after death.   Then all connection is severed and the  body
begins to decay.

   Therefore great care should be taken not to cause the passing Spirit dis-
comfort by such measures.   Quiet and prayer are of enormous benefit at that
time, and if we love the departed Spirit wisely we shall be able to earn its

[PAGE  1354]

lasting gratitude by following the above instructions.

   A  word should be spoken in regard to the treatment of dying persons  who
suffer  unspeakable  agony in many cases through the  mistaken  kindness  of
friends.   More suffering is caused by administering stimulants to the dying
than perhaps in any other way.  It is not hard to pass out of the body,  but
stimulants have the effect of throwing the departing Ego back into its  body
with the force of a catapult,  to experience anew the sufferings from  which
it was just escaping.   Departing souls have often complained to  investiga-
tors,  and one such person said that he had not suffered as much in all  his
life as he did while kept from dying for many hours.   The only rational way
is  to leave Nature to take its course when it is seen that the end  is  in-
evitable.

   Another  and more far-reaching sin against the passing Spirit is to  give
vent to loud crying or lamentation in or near the death chamber.   Just sub-
sequent  to its release and from a few hours to a few days  afterwards,  the
Ego is engaged upon a matter of the utmost importance;  a great deal of  the
value of the past life depends upon the attention given to it by the passing
Spirit.   If distracted by the sobs and lamentations of loved ones,  it will
lose much, but if strengthened by prayer and helped by silence,  much future
sorrow to all concerned may be avoided.  We are never so much our  brother's
keeper as when he is passing through this Gethsemane,  and it is one of  our
greatest  opportunities for serving him and laying up heavenly treasure  for
ourselves.

[PAGE 1355]

   We  have studied the phenomenon of birth,  and have evolved a SCIENCE  OF
BIRTH.   We have qualified obstetricians and trained nurses to  minister  in
the best possible manner to both mother and child to make them  comfortable,
but we are sadly,  very sadly, in need of a SCIENCE OF DEATH.   When a child
is coming into the world we bustle about in an intelligent endeavor;  when a
lifelong friend is about to leave us we stand helplessly about,  ignorant of
how to aid;  worse than all, we bungle, and cause suffering instead of help-
ing.

   We  have  stated that the vital body is the storehouse of both  the  con-
science  and subconscious memory;  upon the vital body is branded  indelibly
every  act and experience of the past life,  as the scenery upon an  exposed
photographic plate.  When the Ego has withdrawn it from the dense body,  the
whole life,  as registered by the subconscious memory,  is laid open to  the
eye of the mind.  It is the partial loosening of the vital body which causes
a  drowning person to see his whole past life,  but then it is only  like  a
flash,  preceding unconsciousness; the silver cord remains intact,  or there
could  be no resuscitation.   In the case of a Spirit passing out at  death,
the  movement is slower;  the man stands as a spectator while  the  pictures
succeed  one another from death to birth, so that he sees the first  happen-
ings  just  prior to death then the years of manhood  and  womanhood  unroll
themselves;  youth,  childhood and infancy follow,  until  it terminates  at
birth.  The man, however, has no feeling about them at that time, the object
is merely to etch  the  panorama  into the desire body, which is the seat of

[PAGE 1356]

feeling, and from that impress the feeling will be realized when the Ego en-
ters the Desire World,  but we may note there that THE INTENSITY OF  FEELING
REALIZED DEPENDS UPON THE LENGTH OF TIME CONSUMED IN THE PROCESS OF ETCHING,
AND  THE ATTENTION GIVEN THERETO BY THE MAN.   IF HE WAS UNDISTURBED  FOR  A
LONG PERIOD, A DEEP CLEAR-CUT IMPRESS WILL BE MADE UPON THE DESIRE BODY.  HE
WILL FEEL THE WRONG HE DID MORE KEENLY IN PURGATORY,  AND BE MORE ABUNDANTLY
STRENGTHENED IN HIS GOOD QUALITIES IN HEAVEN, and though the experience will
be  lost in a future life,  THE FEELINGS WILL REMAIN,  as the  "still  small
voice."  Where the feelings have been strongly indented upon the desire body
of an Ego,  this voice will speak in no vague and uncertain terms.   It will
impel  him beyond gainsaying,  forcing him to desist from that which  caused
him  pain in the life before and compel him to yield to that which is  good.
Therefore the panorama passed BACKWARDS,  so that the Ego sees first the ef-
fects, and then the underlying causes.

   When the body is buried,  the vital body disintegrates slowly at the same
time as the dense body,  so that when,  for instance,  an arm has decayed in
the  grave,  the etheric arm of the vital body which hovers over  the  grave
also disappears, and so on until the last vestige of the body is gone.   But
where  cremation is performed the vital body disintegrates at once,  and  as
that  is the storehouse of the pictures of the past life,  which  are  being
etched  upon the desire body to form the basis of life in Purgatory and  the
First  Heaven,  this would be a great calamity where cremation is  performed
before  the  three  and a half days are passed.  Unless help were given, the

[PAGE 1357]

passing  Spirit  could not hold it together.  And that is part of  the  work
that is done by the Invisible Helpers for humanity.   Sometimes they are as-
sisted by nature spirits and others detailed by the Creative Hierarchies  or
leaders of humanity.   There is also a loss where one is cremated before the
silver cord has been broken naturally,  the imprint upon the desire body  is
never as deep as it would otherwise have been,  and this has an effect  upon
future  lives,  for the deeper the imprint of the last life upon the  desire
body,  the keener the sufferings in Purgatory for the ill committed and  the
keener  also  the pleasure in the First Heaven which results from  the  good
deeds of the last life.   It is these pains and pleasures of our past  lives
that are what we call conscience, so that where we have lost in suffering we
lose also the realization of wrong which is to deter us in future lives from
committing the same mistakes again.  Therefore, the effects of the premature
cremation are very far reaching.

   As to what determines the length of the panorama, we remember that it was
the collapse of the vital body which forced the higher vehicles to withdraw,
so after death, when the vital body collapses, the Ego has to withdraw,  and
thus  the panorama comes to an end.   The duration of the panorama  depends,
therefore,  upon the time the person could remain awake if necessary.   Some
people can remain awake only a few hours,  others can endure for a few days,
depending upon the strength of their vital body.

   When the Ego has left the vital body,  the latter gravitates back to  the
dense body,  remaining  hovering above the grave, decaying as the dense body

[PAGE 1358]

does,  and it is indeed a noisome sight to the clairvoyant to pass through a
cemetery and behold all those vital bodies whose state of decay clearly  in-
dicates  the state of decomposition of the remains in the grave.   If  there
were more clairvoyants,  incineration would soon be adopted as a measure  of
protection to our feelings, if not for sanitary reasons.

   As the interest and belief in a life after death becomes more  universal,
the necessity for a scientific method for the care of those who are  passing
into  the higher life will be impressed upon the people,  and we shall  then
have nurses,  doctors,  and ministers who are versed in the science of death
as well as in the science of birth.   The Spirit will then be surrounded  by
love  and  peace at the time of passing.   It will also have  a  deeper  and
clearer record with which to begin its life work in its new state.

[PAGE 1359]

                    HOW TO HELP THOSE WHO HAVE PASSED ON:

   When  the Ego comes into the Physical World,  it is in one sense a  cause
for rejoicing, as we rejoice at the birth of a child, for this world affords
us  experience  and material for soul growth.   Looking at if  from  another
point of view,  however,  when the Ego comes into this world and enters  the
prison house of the dense body,  it is in the most limited condition imagin-
able,  and  to rejoice at the time the child is born and lament when  it  is
liberated  by death,  is in reality analogous to rejoicing when a friend  is
put in jail and giving way to hysterical lamentation when he is liberated.

   Furthermore,  our duties to our dear ones who have passed away  from  the
earth life are not ended when they have severed the physical ties.   We have
a responsibility to them beyond the grave.   Our attitude after the death of
our loved ones continues to affect them, for they do not usually leave their
accustomed places right away.  Many stay in or near the home for a number of
months after they have left the body and can feel conditions there even more
keenly than when in earth life.   If we sigh,  mourn,  and groan for them we
transfer to them the gloom we ourselves carry about us or else we bind  them
to  home  in  efforts  to cheer us.  In either case we are a hindrance and a

[PAGE 1360]

stumbling black in the way of their spiritual progress,  and while this  may
be  forgiven  in  those who are ignorant of the facts  concerning  life  and
death,  people who have studied the Rosicrucian Philosophy or kindred teach-
ings  are  incurring a very grave responsibility when they indulge  in  such
practices.

   We are well aware that custom used to demand the wearing of mourning  and
that  people were not considered respectable if they did not put on a  sable
garb as a token of their grief.  Fortunately,  times are changing and a more
enlightened view is being taken of the matter.   The transition to the other
world  is quite serious enough in itself, involving as it does a process  of
adjustment to strange conditions all around, and the passing spirit is  fur-
ther  hampered by the sorrow and anguish of the dear ones whom it  continues
to  see  about itself,  when it finds them surrounded by a  cloud  of  black
gloom,  clothed in garments of the same color and nursing their  sorrow  for
months or years, the effect cannot be anything but depressing.

   How  much better the attitude of those who have learned  the  Rosicrucian
Teachings and have taken them to heart.   Their attitude is cheerful,  help-
ful,  hopeful, and encouraging.  The selfish grief at the loss is suppressed
in order that the passing spirit may receive all the encouragement possible.
Usually  the  survivors in the family dress in white at the  funeral  and  a
cheerful,  genial spirit prevails throughout.  The thought of the  survivors
is  not,  "What shall I do now that I have lost him?   All the  world  seems
empty for me."  It is, "I hope that he may find himself rights under the new
conditions as quickly as possible and that he will not grieve at the thought

[PAGE 1361]

of  leaving us behind."   We pray earnestly for his welfare and that he  may
learn  the lessons of this life thoroughly in his experiences  in  Purgatory
and the First Heaven.

   Thus,  by the good will, intelligence, unselfishness, and love of the re-
maining  friends the passing Spirit is enabled to enter the  new  conditions
under  much more favorable circumstances,  and we cannot do better  than  to
spread this teaching as widely as possible.   It is our loss if we are blind
to the superphysical realms,  but to all who will take the trouble to awaken
their latent faculties,  the opening of the proper sense is but a matter  of
time.   When that time comes we shall see the so-called "dead" are all about
us,  and that,  in fact,  "there is no death,"  as John McCreery says in the
following beautiful poem:

         There is no death.  The stars go down
            To rise upon another shore,
         And bright in heaven's jeweled crown
            They shine forevermore.

         There is no death.  The forest leaves
            Convert to life the viewless air;
         The rocks disorganize to feed
            The hungry moss they bear.

         There is no death.  The dust we tread
            Shall change beneath the summer showers
         To golden grain or mellow fruit,
            Or rainbow-tinted flowers.

         There is no death.  The leaves may fall,
            The flowers may fade and pass away--
         They only wait through wintry hours
            The warm, sweet breath of May.

         There is no death, although we grieve
            When beautiful familiar forms
         That we have learned to love are torn
            From our embracing arms.

[PAGE 1362]

         Although with bowed and breaking heart,
            With sable garb and silent tread
         We bear their senseless dust to rest
            And say that they are dead--

         They are not dead.  They have but passed
            Beyond the mists that blind us here
         Into the new and larger life
            Of that serener sphere.

         They have but dropped their robe of clay
            To put a shining raiment on;
         They have not wandered far away,
            They are not `lost' or `gone.'

         Though unseen to the mortal eye,
            They still are here and love us yet;
         The dear ones they have left behind
            They never do forget.

         Sometimes upon our fevered brow
            We feel their touch, a breath of balm;
         Our spirit sees them, and our hearts
            Grow comforted and calm.

         Yes, even near us, though unseen,
            Our dear, immortal spirits tread--
         For all God's boundless Universe
            Is Life--there are no dead.

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