Filename: RC1054.TXT
Source: "The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception" by Max Heindel

[PAGE 1952]

     The student should particularly note that it is because of  their  con-
nection with the splendidly organized mechanism of the dense body that these
higher  vehicles become of value at present.   He will thus avoid a  mistake
frequently made by people who,  when they come into the knowledge that there
are  higher bodies,  grow to despise the dense vehicle;  to speak of  it  as
"low"  and "vile"--turning their eyes to heaven and wishing that they  might
soon  be  able  to leave this earthly lump of clay and fly  about  in  their
"higher vehicles."

     These  people generally do not realize the difference between  "higher"
and "perfect."  Certainly, the dense body is the lowest vehicle in the sense
that it is the most unwieldy, correlating man to the world of sense with all
the  limitations  thus implied.   As stated, it has an  enormous  period  of
evolution  back  of it;  is in it fourth state of development  and  has  now
reached a great and marvelous degree of efficiency.  It will, in time, reach
perfection,  but even at present it is the best organized of man's vehicles.
The vital body is in its third stage of evolution, and less completely orga-
nized than the dense body.  The desire body and the mind are,  as yet,  mere
clouds--almost entirely unorganized.  In the very lowest human beings  these
vehicles  are not even definite ovoids;  they are more or less undefined  in
form.

     The  dense body is a wonderfully constructed instrument and  should  be
recognized as such by everyone pretending to have any knowledge of the  con-
stitution of man.   Observe the femur, for instance.   This bone carries the
entire  weight of the body.   On the outside it is built of a thin layer  of
compact  bone,  strengthened  on  the inside by  beams  and  cross-beams  of
cancellated bone, in such a marvelous manner that the most skilled bridge or
construction  engineer could never accomplish the feat of building a  pillar
of equal strength  with  so little weight.  The bones of the skull are built

[PAGE 1953]

in  a  similar manner,  always the least possible material is used  and  the
maximum  of strength obtained.   Consider the wisdom manifested in the  con-
struction  of the heart and then question if this superb mechanism  deserves
to be despised.   The wise man is grateful for his dense body and takes  the
best possible care of it,  because he knows that it is the most valuable  of
his present instruments.

     The animal spirit has in its descent reached only the Desire World.  It
has not yet evolved to the point where it can "enter" a dense body.   There-
fore  the animal has no individual INdwelling spirit,  but  a  group-spirit,
which  directs it FROM WITHOUT.   The animal has the dense body,  the  vital
body and the desire body,  but the group-spirit which directs it is outside.
The vital body and the desire body of an animal are not entirely within  the
dense  body,  especially  where the head is concerned.   For  instance,  the
etheric  head  of a horse projects far beyond and above the  dense  physical
head.   When, as in rare cases it happens, the etheric head of a horse draws
into  the head of the dense body,  that horse can learn to read,  count  and
work examples in elementary arithmetic.  To this peculiarity is also due the
fact that horses, dogs, cats and other domesticated animals sense the Desire
World,  though  not  always  realizing the difference  between  it  and  the
Physical World.   A horse will shy at the sight of a figure invisible to the
driver;  a cat will go through the motions of rubbing itself against  invis-
ible legs.  The cat sees the ghost, however without realizing that it has no
dense legs available for frictional purposes.  The dog,  wiser than a cat or
horse, will often sense that there is something he does not understand about
the  appearance of a dead master whose hands it cannot lick.   It will  howl
mournfully and slink into a corner with its tail between its legs.  The fol-
lowing illustration may perhaps be of service to show the difference between

[PAGE 1954]

the man with his indwelling spirit and the animal with its group-spirit.

     Let  us imagine a room divided by means of a curtain,  one side of  the
curtain representing the Desire World and the other the Physical.  There are
two men in the room,  one in each division; they cannot see each other,  nor
can they get into the same division.  There are,  however,  ten holes in the
curtain and the man who is in the division representing the Desire World can
put his ten fingers through these holes into the other division,  represent-
ing the Physical World.  He now furnishes an excellent representation of the
group-spirit  which  is  in the Desire World.   The  fingers  represent  the
animals belonging to one species.  He is able to move them as he wills,  but
he  cannot  use them freely nor as intelligently as the man who  is  walking
about in the Physical division uses his body.   The latter sees the  fingers
which are thrust through the curtain and he observes that they all move, but
he does not see the connection between them.   To him it appears as if  they
were  all separate and distinct from one another.   He cannot see that  they
are  fingers of the man behind the veil and are governed in their  movements
by  his intelligence.   If he hurts one of the fingers,  it is not only  the
finger that he hurts,  but chiefly the man on the other side of the curtain.
If  an  animal  is  hurt,  it  suffers, but  not  to  the  degree  that  the
group-spirit does.  The finger has no individualized consciousness; it moves
as the man dictates--so do the animals moves as the  group-spirit  dictates.
We hear of "animal instinct" and "blind instinct."   There is no such vague,
indefinite thing as "blind"  instinct.   There is nothing "blind"  about the
way the group-spirit guides  its  members--there  is Wisdom,   spelled  with

[PAGE 1955]

capitals.   The trained clairvoyant,  when functioning in the Desire  World,
can communicate with these spirits of the animal species and finds them much
more intelligent than a large percent of human beings.   He can see the mar-
velous  insight  they  display in marshaling the  animals  which  are  their
physical bodies.

     It is the spirit of the group which gathers its flocks of birds in  the
fall  and compels them to migrate to the south,  neither too early  nor  too
late to escape the winter's chilly blast;  that directs their return in  the
spring,  causing them to fly at just the proper altitude,  which differs for
the different species.

     The  group-spirit  of the beaver teaches it to build its dam  across  a
stream at exactly the proper angle.   It considers the rapidity of the flow,
and all the circumstances, precisely as a skilled engineer would do, showing
that  it  is  as  up-to-date  in every  particular  of  the   craft  as  the
college-bred,   technically-educated  man.    It  is  the  wisdom   of   the
group-spirit  that directs the building of the hexagon cell of the bee  with
such geometrical nicety;  that teaches the snail to fashion its house in  an
accurate,  beautiful  spiral;  that teaches the ocean  mollusk  the  art  of
decorating its iridescent shell.   Wisdom, wisdom everywhere!  So grand,  so
great  that one who looks with an observant eye is filed with amazement  and
reverence.

     At  this  point  the thought will naturally occur that  if  the  animal
group-spirit  is so wise,  considering the short period of evolution of  the
animal as compared with that of man, why does not the latter display  wisdom
to a much greater degree and why must man be taught to build dams and  geom-
etrize, all of which the group spirit does without being taught?

[PAGE 1956]

        The  answer  to  that  question  has  to  do  with  the  descent  of
the Universal Spirit into matter of ever-increasing density.   In the higher
Worlds,  where its vehicles are fewer and finer,  it is in closer touch with
cosmic  wisdom  which  shines out in a manner  inconceivable  in  the  dense
Physical World, but as the spirit descends, the light of wisdom becomes tem-
porarily more and more dimmed, until in the densest of all the Worlds, it is
held almost entirely in abeyance.

     An  illustration will make this clearer.  The hand is man's most  valu-
able servant;  its dexterity enables it to respond to his slightest bidding.
In some vocations,  such as bank teller, the delicate touch of the hand  be-
comes so sensitive, that it is able to distinguish a counterfeit coin from a
genuine in a way so marvelous that one would almost think the hand were  en-
dowed with individual intelligence.

     Its greatest efficiency is perhaps reached in the production of  music.
It is capable of producing the most beautiful, soul-stirring melodies.   The
delicate,  caressing  touch  of the hand elicits the  tenderest  strains  of
soul-speech  from  the instrument,  telling of the sorrows,  the  joys,  the
hopes,  the fears and the longings of the soul in a way that nothing but mu-
sic can do.  It is the language of the heaven world, the spirit's true home,
and comes to the divine spark imprisoned in flesh as a message from its  na-
tive  land.   Music  appeals to all, regardless of  race,  creed,  or  other
worldly  distinction.   The  higher and more spiritual  the  individual  the
plainer does it speak to him and even "the savage breast"  is not unmoved by
it.

     Let us now imagine a master musician putting on thin gloves and  trying
to play his violin.  We note at once that the delicate touch is less subtle;
the soul of the music is gone.  If he puts another and  a  heavier  pair  of

[PAGE 1957]

gloves over the first pair,  his hand is hampered to such an extent that  he
may occasionally create a discord instead of the former harmony.   Should he
at  last put on,  in addition to the two pairs of gloves  already  hampering
him, a pair of still heavier mittens, he would, temporarily, be entirely un-
able to  play,  and one who had not heard him play previously to the time he
put  on the gloves and the mittens, would naturally think that he had  never
been able to do so, especially if ignorant of the hampering of his hands.

     So it is with the Spirit;  every step down,  every descent into coarser
matter is to it what the putting on of a pair of gloves would be to the  mu-
sician.   Every step down limits its power of expression until it has become
accustomed to the limitations and has found its focus,  in the same way that
the  eye must find its focus after we enter a house on a bright summer  day.
The  pupil of the eye contracts to its limit in the glare of the sun and  on
entering the house all seems dark; but, as the pupil expands, and admits the
light, the man is enabled to see as well in the dimmer light of the house as
he did in the sunlight.

     The purpose of man's evolution here is to enable him to find his  focus
in the Physical World,  where at present the light of wisdom seems obscured.
But when in time we have "found the light," the wisdom of man will shine for
forth  in  his  actions,  and  far  surpass  the  wisdom  expressed  by  the
group-spirit of the animal.

     Besides,  a distinction must be made between the group spirit  and  the
virgin  spirits  of  the life wave now expressing itself  as  animals.   The
group-spirit  belongs  to a different evolution and is the guardian  of  the
animal spirits.

     The dense body in which we function is composed of numerous cells, each
having separate cellconsciousness, though of a very low order.   While these
cells from part of our body they  are  subjected  to  an  dominated  by  OUR

[PAGE 1958]

consciousness.  An animal group-spirit functions in a SPIRITUAL BODY,  which
is  its lowest vehicle  This vehicle consists of a varying number of  virgin
spirits   imbued  for  the  time  being  with  the  consciousness   of   the
group-spirit.   The latter directs the vehicles built by the virgin  spirits
in  its charge,  caring for them and helping them to evolve their  vehicles.
As its wards evolve,  the group-spirit also evolves,  undergoing a series of
metamorphoses, in a manner similar to that in which we grow and gain experi-
ence  by taking into our bodies the cells of the food we eat,  thereby  also
raising their consciousness by enduing them with ours for a time.

     Thus while a separate, self-conscious Ego is within each human body and
dominates the actions of its particular vehicle,  the spirit of the separate
animal is not yet individualized and self-conscious,  but forms part of  the
vehicle of a self-conscious entity belonging to a  different  evolution--the
group-spirit.

     The  group-spirit dominates the actions of the animals in harmony  with
cosmic  law,  until  the  virgin spirits in its  charge  shall  have  gained
self-consciousness  and  become human.   Then they will  gradually  manifest
wills of their own,  gaining more and more freedom from the group-spirit and
becoming responsible for their own actions.  The group-spirit will influence
them, however (although in a decreasing degree), as race, tribe,  community,
or family spirit until each individual has become capable of acting in  full
harmony with cosmic law.   Not until that time will the Ego be entirely free
and independent of the group-spirit, which will then enter a higher phase of
evolution.

     The position occupied by the group-spirit in the Desire World  gives to

[PAGE 1959]

the  animal  a consciousness different form that of man,  who has  a  clear,
definite waking consciousness.  Man sees things OUTSIDE of himself in sharp,
distinct outlines.  Owing to the spiral path of evolution, the higher domes-
tic animals,  particularly the dog,  horse, cat and elephant see objects  in
somewhat  the same way,  though perhaps not so clearly defined.   All  other
animals have an internal "picture consciousness"  similar to the dream-state
in man.   When such an animal is confronted by an object,  a picture is  im-
mediately perceived WITHIN,  accompanied by a strong impression that the ob-
ject  is inimical or beneficial to its welfare.   If the feeling is  one  of
fear, it is associated with a suggestion from the group-spirit how to escape
the threatened danger.  This negative state of consciousness renders it easy
for the group-spirit to guide the dense bodies of its charges by suggestion,
as the animals have no will of their own.

     Man is not so easily managed from without,  either with or without  his
consent.  As evolution progresses and man's will develops more and more,  he
will become non-amenable to outside suggestion and free to do as he  pleases
regardless of suggestions from others.  This is the chief difference between
man and the other kingdoms.   They act according to law and the dictates  of
the  group-spirit (which we call instinct), while man is becoming  more  and
more a law unto himself.   We do not ask the mineral whether or not it  will
crystallize,  nor the flower whether it will or will not bloom, nor the lion
whether it will or will not cease to prey.  They are all, in the smallest as
in the greatest matter,  under the absolute domination of the  group-spirit,
being without free will and initiative which, in some degree,  are possessed
by every human being.   All  animals  of the same species look nearly alike,

[PAGE 1960]

because  they emanate from the same group-spirit,  while among  the  fifteen
hundred  millions of human beings who people the Earth no two  look  exactly
alike,  not even twins when adolescent,  because the stamp that is put  upon
each by the indwelling individual Ego makes the difference in appearance  as
well as in character.

     That  all  oxen thrive on grass,  and all lions eat flesh,  while  "one
man's  meat  is  another  man's  poison"  is  another  illustration  of  the
all-inclusive influence of the group-spirit as contrasted with the Ego which
makes  each  human being require a different proportion of food  from  every
other.   Doctors note with perplexity the same peculiarity in  administering
medicine.   Its acts differently upon different individuals,  while the same
medicine will produce identical effects on two animals of the same  species,
owing  to the fact that animals all follow the dictates of the  group-spirit
and Cosmic Law--always act similarly in identical circumstances.  Man  alone
is,  in some measure,  able to follow his own desires within certain limits.
That  his mistakes are many and grievous, is granted,  and to many it  might
seem better if he were forced into the right way, but if this were done,  he
would  never learn to do right.  Lessons of discrimination between good  and
evil  cannot be learned unless he is free to choose his own course  and  has
learned to eschew the wrong as a veritable "womb of pain."   If he did right
only because he had no choice,  and had no chance to do otherwise,  he would
be but an automaton and not an evolving God.   As the builder learns by  his
mistakes,  correcting past errors in future buildings,  so man,  by means of
his blunders, and the pain they cause him, is attaining to a higher (because
self-conscious) wisdom than the animal,  which acts wisely because it is im-
pelled to action by the group-spirit.  In time the animal will become human,

[PAGE 1961]

have  liberty  of choice and will make mistakes and learn by them as  we  do
now.

     Diagram 4 shows that the group-spirit of the plant kingdom has its low-
est vehicle in the Region of Concrete Thought.  It is two steps removed from
its  dense vehicle and consequently the plants have a  consciousness  corre-
sponding  to that of DREAMLESS SLEEP.  The group-spirit  of the mineral  has
it  slowest vehicle in the Region of Abstract Thought and it is,  therefore,
three steps removed from its dense vehicle;  hence it is in a state of  deep
unconsciousness similar to the TRANCE condition.

     We have now shown that man is an individual indwelling spirit,  an  Ego
separate  from all other entities,  directing and working in one set of  ve-
hicles from WITHIN ,  and that plants and animals are directed from  WITHOUT
by a group-spirit having jurisdiction over a number of animals or plants  in
our Physical World.  They are separate only in appearance.

     The  relations  of plant,  animal and man to the life currents  in  the
Earth's atmosphere are symbolically represented by the cross.   The  Mineral
Kingdom is not represented,  because as we have seen,  it possesses no indi-
vidual vital body, hence cannot be the vehicle for currents belonging to the
higher realms.   Plato,  who was an Initiate, often gave occult truths.   He
said "The World-Soul is crucified."

     The  lower limb of the cross indicates the plant with its root  in  the
chemical mineral soil.  The group-spirits of plants are at the center of the
Earth.   They are (it will be remembered) in the Region of Concrete Thought,
which inter-penetrates the Earth,  as do all the other Worlds.   From  these
group-spirits flow streams or currents in all directions to the periphery of

[PAGE 1962]

the Earth, passing outward through the length of plant or tree.

     Man is represented by the upper limb;  his is the INVERTED PLANT.   The
plant takes its food through the root.  Man takes his food through the head.
The  plant stretches its generative organs towards the sun.   Man,  the  in-
verted plant,  turns his towards the center of the earth.  The plant is sus-
tained  by the spiritual currents of the group-spirit in the center  of  the
earth,  which enter into it by way of the root.  Later it will be shown that
the highest spiritual influence comes to man from the sun,  which sends  its
rays through man,  the inverted plant, from the head downwards.   The  plant
inhales  the  poisonous  carbon-dioxide  exhales  by  man  and  exhales  the
life-giving oxygen used by him.

     The animal, which is symbolized by the horizontal limb of the cross, is
between  the plant and the man.   Its spine is in a horizontal position  and
through  it play the currents of the animal group-spirit which encircle  the
Earth.   No animal can be made to remain constantly upright, because in that
case the currents of the group-spirit could not guide it, and if it were not
sufficiently individualized to endure the spiritual currents which enter the
vertical human spine,  it would die.  It is necessary that a vehicle for the
expression of an individual Ego shall  have  three things--an upright  walk,
that  it  may come into touch with the currents just mentioned;  an  upright
larynx,  for only such a larynx is capable of speech (parrots and  starlings
are examples of this effect of the upright larynx); and,  owing to the solar
currents,  it must have warm blood.   The latter is of the utmost importance
to the Ego, which will be logically explained and illustrated later.   These
requisites are simply mentioned here as the last words on the status of  the
four kingdoms in relation to each other and to the Worlds.

[PAGE 1963]

                      MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION:

                ACTIVITIES OF LIFE; MEMORY AND SOUL-GROWTH:

    Our study thus far of the seven Worlds or states of matter has shown  us
that each serves a definite purpose in the economy of nature,  and that God,
the  Great Spirit,  in Whom we actually and in fact "live and move and  have
our being," is the Power that permeates and sustains the whole Universe with
Its  Life;  but while that Life flows into and is immanent in every atom  of
the  six  lower  Worlds  and  all  contained  therein, in  the  Seventh--the
highest--the Triune God alone IS.

    The  next highest or sixth realm is the World of Virgin  Spirits.   Here
those  sparks from the divine "Flame: have their being before they  commence
their long pilgrimage through the five denser Worlds for the purpose of  de-
veloping latent potentialities into dynamic powers.  As the seed unfolds its
hidden  possibilities by being buried in the soil,  so these virgin  spirits
will,  in time,  when they have passed through matter (the school of experi-
ence), also become divine "Flames," capable of bringing forth universes from
themselves.

    The five Worlds constitute the field of man's evolution, the three lower
or denser being the scene of the present phase of his development.   We will
now consider his as related to these five Worlds by means of his appropriate
vehicles, remembering the two grand divisions into which two of these Worlds
are  divided,  and  than  man  has  a  vehicle  for each of these divisions.

[PAGE 1964]

                              DIAGRAM 4A:

                   THE SEVENFOLD CONSTITUTION OF MAN:

|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|           WORLD OR REGION:            |       CORRESPONDING VEHICLE:      |
|---------------------------------------|-----------------------------------|
|5] World of Divine Spirit              | Divine Spirit>|                   |
|---------------------------------------|               |    The>>>>>|  The |  
|4] World of Life Spirit                | Life Spirit>>>|> Threefold>|>>    |
|---------------------------------------|               |   Spirit>>>|  Ego |  
|    | World  >|>  Region of Abstract   | Human Spirit>>|                   |
|3]<<|  of    >|>>        Thought       |                                   |
|    |Thought >|>  Region of Concrete   | Mind [The Mind is the mirror      |
|                          Thought      | through which the threefold       |
|                                       | spirit reflects itself in the     |
|                                       | threefold body; the focussing-    |
|                                       | point. See Diagram 1]             |
|---------------------------------------|-----------------------------------|
|2] Desire World                        | Desire Body>|                     |
|---------------------------------------|             |   The Three-fold    |
|1] Physical World:                     |             |>> Body; the Shadow  |
|    Etheric Region                     | Vital Body>>|   of the Three-fold |
|    Chemcial Region                    | Dense Body >|      Spirit.        |
|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|

    In   the   waking  state  these  vehicles  are   all   together.    They
inter-penetrate one another as the blood, the lymph, and other juices of the
body inter-penetrate.  Thus is the Ego enabled to act in the Physical World.

    We ourselves,  as Egos, function directly in the subtle substance of the
Region of Abstract Thought,  which we have specialized within the  periphery
of  our individual aura.   Thence we view the impressions made by the  outer
world upon the vital body through the senses, together with the feelings and
emotions generated by them in the desire body, and mirrored in the mind.

    From  these mental images we form our conclusions,  in the substance  of
the  Region  of Abstract Thought,  concerning the subjects with  which  they
deal.  Those conclusions are ideas.  By the power of will we project an idea
through the mind, where it takes concrete shape as a thought-form by drawing
mind-stuff around itself from the Region of Concrete Thought.

[PAGE 1965]

    The mind is like the projecting lens of a stereopticon.  It projects the
image  in  one of three directions,  according to the will of  the  thinker,
which ensouls the thought-form.

    (1)   It  may  be projected against the desire body in  an  endeavor  to
arouse feeling which will lead to immediate action.

    (a)  If the thought awakens Interest, one of the twin forces, Attraction
or Repulsion, will be stirred up.

    If Attraction, the centripetal force, is aroused, it seizes the thought,
whirls it into the desire body, endows the image with added life and clothes
it with desire-stuff.  Then the thought is able to act on the etheric brain,
and propel the vital force through the appropriate brain centers and  nerves
to the voluntary muscles which perform the necessary action.  Thus the force
in  the thought is expended and the image remains in the ether of the  vital
body as memory of the act and the feeling that caused it.

    (b)   Repulsion is the centrifugal force and if that is aroused  by  the
thought  there will be a struggle between the spiritual force (the  will  of
the man) within the thought-form,  and the desire body.   This is the battle
between  conscience  and  desire,  the higher and  the  lower  nature.   The
spiritual force, in spite of resistance will seek to clothe the thought-form
in the desire-stuff needed to manipulate the brain and muscles.   The  force
of Repulsion will endeavor to scatter the appropriated material and oust the
thought.   If the spiritual energy is strong it may force its way through to
the  brain centers and hold its clothing of desire-stuff while  manipulating
the vital force, thus compelling action, and will then leave upon the memory
a vivid impression of the struggle and the victory.  If the spiritual energy
is exhausted before action has resulted, it will be overcome by the force of

[PAGE 1966]

Repulsion,  and will be stored in the memory, as are all other thought-forms
when they have expended their energy.

    (c)  If the thought-form meets the withering feeling of Indifference  it
depends upon the spiritual energy contained in it whether it will be able to
compel action,  or simply leave a weak impress upon the reflecting ether  of
the vital body after its kinetic energy has been exhausted.

    (2)  Where no immediate action is called for by the mental images of im-
pacts  from  without,  these may be projected directly upon  the  reflecting
ether, together with the thoughts occasioned by them, to be used at some fu-
ture time.   The spirit, working through the mind, has instant access to the
storehouse of conscious memory and may at any time resurrect any of the pic-
tures  found there,  endue them with new spiritual force,  and project  them
upon  the  desire body to compel action.  Each time such a picture  is  thus
used it will gain in vividness, strength and efficiency, and will compel ac-
tion  along  its particular line grooves,  and produces  the  phenomenon  of
thought, "gaining" or "growing" upon us by repetition.

    (3)  A third way of using a thought-form is when the thinker projects it
toward another mind to act as a suggestion, to carry information,  etc.,  as
in  thought-transference,  or it may be directed against the desire body  of
another person to compel action, as in the case of a hypnotist influencing a
victim at a distance.   It will then act in precisely the same manner as  if
it were the victim's own thought.   If in line with his proclivities it will
act as per paragraph 1a.   If contrary to his nature,  as described in 1b or
1c.

    When  the work designed for such a projected thought-form has  been  ac-
complished, or its energy expended in vain attempts to achieve  its  object,

[PAGE 1967]

it gravitates back to its creator,  bearing with it the indelible record  of
the  journey.   It success or failure is imprinted on the negative atoms  of
the reflecting ether of its creator's vital body,  where it forms that  part
of the record of the thinker's life and action which is sometimes called the
sub-conscious mind.

    This record is much more important than the memory to which we have con-
scious  access,  for  the  latter is made up  from  imperfect  and  illusive
sense-perceptions and is the voluntary memory or conscious mind.

    The involuntary memory or sub-conscious mind comes into being in a  dif-
ferent way,  altogether beyond our control at present.  As the ether carries
to the sensitive film in the camera an accurate impression of the  surround-
ing landscape,  taking in the minutest detail regardless of whether the pho-
tographer has observed it or not,  so the ether contained in the air we  in-
spire  carries  with  it  an  accurate  and  detailed  picture  of  all  our
surroundings.  Not only of material things, but also the conditions existing
each moment within our aura.   The slightest thought,  feeling or emotion is
transmitted to the lungs, where it is injected into the blood.  The blood is
one of the highest products of the vital body as it is the carrier of  nour-
ishment to every part of the body,  and the direct vehicle of the Ego.   The
pictures  it  contains are impressed upon the negative atoms  of  the  vital
body, to serve as arbiters of the man's destiny in the POST MORTEM state.

    The  memory (or so-called mind), both conscious and  sub-conscious,  re-
lates WHOLLY to the experiences of this life.  It consists of impressions of
events on the vital body.  These may be changed or even eradicated, as noted
in the explanation concerning the forgiveness of sins which is given  a  few

[PAGE 1968]

pages further on,  which change or eradication depends upon the  elimination
of these impressions from the ether of the vital body.

    There  is also a superconscious memory.  That is the storehouse  of  all
faculties  acquired and knowledge gained in previous lives,  though  perhaps
latent in the present life.   This record is indelibly engraven on the  life
spirit.   It manifests ordinarily,  thought not to the full extent,  as con-
science and character which ensoul all thought-forms,  sometimes as counsel-
lor,  sometimes compelling action with resistless force,  even  contrary  to
reason and desire.

    In  many  women,  in whom the vital body is positive,  and  in  advanced
people of either sex where the vital body has been sensitized by a pure  and
holy life,  by prayer and concentration, this superconscious memory inherent
in the life spirit is occasionally,  to some extent,  above the necessity of
clothing  itself in mind stuff and desire matter in order to compel  action.
It  does not always need to incur the danger of being subjected to and  per-
haps overruled by a process of reasoning.   Sometimes,  in the form of intu-
ition  or teaching from within,  it impresses itself directly upon  the  re-
flecting ether of the vital body.  The more readily we learn to recognize it
and follow its dictates, the oftener it will speak, to our eternal welfare.

    By their activities during waking hours the desire body and the mind are
constantly destroying the dense vehicle.  Every thought and movement  breaks
down tissue.   On the other hand, the vital body faithfully endeavors to re-
store harmony and build up what the other vehicles are tearing down.   It is
not able,  however, to entirely withstand the powerful onslaughts of the im-
pulses and thoughts.  It gradually loses ground and at last  there  comes  a

[PAGE 1969]

time  when it collapses.   Its "points" shrivel-up,  so to say.   The  vital
fluid ceases to flow along the nerves is sufficient quantity;  the body  be-
comes drowsy,  the Thinker is hampered by its drowsiness and forced to with-
draw,  taking the desire body with him.   This withdrawal of the higher  ve-
hicle  leaves  the  dense  body interpenetrated by the  vital  body  in  the
senseless state we call sleep.

    Sleep,  however, is not by any means an inactive state, as people gener-
ally suppose.   If it were,  the body would be no different on awakening  in
the morning from its condition when it went to sleep at night;  its  fatigue
would be just as great.   On the contrary,  sleep is a period of intense ac-
tivity and the more intense it is the greater its value,  for it  eliminates
the  poisons resulting from tissue destroyed by the mental and physical  ac-
tivities  of the day.   The tissues are re-built and the rhythm of the  body
restored.  The more thoroughly this work is done the greater the benefit ac-
cruing from sleep.

    The Desire World is an ocean of wisdom and harmony.   Into this the  Ego
takes the mind and the desire body when the lower vehicles have been left to
sleep.  There the first care of the Ego is the restoration of the rhythm and
harmony of the mind and the desire body.   This restoration is  accomplished
gradually  as  the harmonious vibrations of the Desire  World  flow  through
them.   There is an essence in the Desire World corresponding to  the  vital
fluid which permeates the dense body by means of the vital body.  The higher
vehicles,  as  it  were,  steep themselves in this  elixir  of  life.   When
strengthened,  they commence work on the vital body, which was left with the
sleeping dense body.  Then the vital body begins  to  specialize  the  solar

[PAGE 1970]

energy  anew,  rebuilding the dense body,  using particularly  the  chemical
ether as its medium in the process of restoration.

    It is this activity of the different vehicles during sleep which   forms
the basis for the activity of the following day.   Without that there  would
be  no  awakening,  for the Ego was forced to abandon his  vehicles  because
their weariness rendered them useless.  If the work of removing that fatigue
were  not  done,  the bodies would remain asleep,  as sometimes  happens  in
natural trance.  It is just because of this harmonizing, recuperative activ-
ity that sleep is better than doctor or medicine in preserving health.  Mere
rest is nothing is comparison with sleep.  It is only while the  higher  ve-
hicles are in the Desire World that there is a total suspension of waste and
an influx of restoring force.  It is true that during rest the vital body is
not  hampered in its work by tissue being broken down by active  motion  and
tense muscles,  but still it must contend with the wasting energy of thought
and it does not then receive the OUTSIDE recuperative force from the  desire
body as during sleep.

    It happens,  however, that at times the desire body does not fully with-
draw,  so that part of it remains connected with the vital body, the vehicle
for  sense perception and memory.   The result is that restoration  is  only
partly accomplished and that the senses and actions of the Desire World  are
brought  into the physical consciousness as dreams.   Of course most  dreams
are confused as the axis of perception is askew, because of the improper re-
lation of one body to another.   The memory is also confused by this  incon-
gruous relation of the vehicles and as a result of the loss of the restoring
force, dream-filled sleep is restless and the body feels tired on awakening.

    During the life the threefold spirit,  the Ego,  works  on  and  in  the

[PAGE 1971]

threefold  body,  to which it is connected by the link of mind.   This  work
brings the threefold soul into being.  The soul is the spiritualized product
of the body.

                                 DIAGRAM 5: 

|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|  >--->THE DIVINE SPIRIT>----->---->----->---->--->THE DENSE BODY>----->   |
| /|\                                                                   |   |
|  |      >-->THE LIFE SPIRIT>-->---->---->---->THE VITAL BODY>-->     \|/  |
| /|\    /|\                                                     |      |   |
|  |      |      >->THE HUMAN SPIRIT>-->THE DESIRE BODY>-->      |      |   |
|  |      |      |                                        |     \|/    \|/  |
|  |     /|\    /|\                                      \|/     |      |   |
|  |      |      |                                        |      |      |   |
| /|\     |      |             |-------------|            |      |     \|/  |
|  |      |      |             |    MIND:    |            |     \|/     |   |
|  |     /|\    /|\            | the link or |           \|/     |      |   |
|  |      |      |             |    focus    |            |      |      |   |
|  |      |      |             |-------------|            |      |     \|/  |
| /|\     |      |                                        |     \|/     |   |
|  |     /|\    /|\                                      \|/     |      |   |
|  |      |      |                                        |      |      |   |
|  |      |      <----<----<THE EMOTIONAL SOUL<-<----<----<     \|/     |   |
|  |      |                                                      |      |   |
| /|\     <-----<----<----<THE INTELLECTUAL SOUL<-<----<----<----<     \|/  |
|  |                                                                    |   |
|  <---<----<----<-----<--<  THE CONSCIOUS SOUL---<----<----<----<----<-<   |
|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|

              Diagram 5 shows the Tenfold Constitution of Man 


   Man is a threefold Spirit, possessing a Mind by means of which he governs a 
threefold Body, which he emanated from  himself  to  gather  experience.  This 
threefold body he transmutes into a threefold Soul, upon  which  he  nourishes 
himslef from impotence to omnipotence. 

The Divine Spirit >|emanates|> The Dense Body  >|extracting|>   Conscious Soul
The Life Spirit   >|  from  |> The Vital Body  >|   as     |>Intellectual Soul
The Human Spirit  >| itself |> The Desire Body >| pabulum  |>   Emotional Soul


   The mirror of Mind also contributes increasingly to spiritual growth as the 
thoughts  which it transmits to and from  the  Spirit  polish  it  to  greater 
brightness, sharpening and intensifying its focus more and more  to  a  single 
point, perfectly flexible and under the control of the Spirit. 

[PAGE 1972]

    As  proper food feeds the body in a material sense,  so the activity  of
the spirit in the dense body,  which results in RIGHT ACTION,  promotes  the
growth of the Conscious Soul.   As the forces from the sun play in the vital
body and nourish it, that it may act on the dense body, so the memory of ac-
tions done in the dense body-the desires,  feelings and emotions of the  de-
sire body and the thoughts and ideas in the mind-cause the growth of the In-
tellectual  Soul.   In like manner the HIGHEST DESIRES and EMOTIONS  of  the
desire body form the Emotional Soul.

    This threefold soul in turn enhances the consciousness of the  threefold
spirit.

    The Emotional Soul, which is the extract of the desire body, adds to the
efficiency  of the Human Spirit,  which is the spiritual counterpart of  the
desire body.

    The Intellectual Soul gives added power to the Life Spirit,  because the
Intellectual  Soul is extracted from the vital body,  which is the  material
counterpart of the Life Spirit.

    The Conscious Soul increases the consciousness of the Divine Spirit  be-
cause it (the Conscious Soul) is the extract of the dense body, which latter
is the counterpart of the Divine Spirit.

                            DEATH AND PURGATORY:

    So  man  builds and sows until the moment of death  arrives.   Then  the
seed-time and the periods of growth and ripening are past.  The harvest time
has  come,  when the skeleton spectre of Death arrives with his  scythe  and
hour-glass.   That is a good symbol.  The skeleton symbolizes the relatively
permanent part of the body.  The scythe represents the fact that this perma-
nent part,  which is about to be harvested by the spirit, is the fruitage of

[PAGE 1973]

the life now drawing to a close.  The hour-glass in his hand indicates  that
the hour does not strike until the full course has been run in harmony  with
unvarying laws.  When that moment arrives a separation of the vehicles takes
place.  As his life in the Physical World is ended for the time being, it is
not necessary for man to retain his dense body.  The vital body, which as we
have explained,  also belongs to the Physical World,  is withdrawn by way of
the head, leaving the dense body inanimate.

    The higher vehicles--vital body, desire body and mind-are seen to  leave
the  dense  body with a spiral movement, taking with them the  SOUL  of  one
dense  atom.   Not the atom itself,  but THE FORCES  that played through  it.
The  results of the experiences passed through in the dense body during  the
life  just ended have been impressed upon this particular atom.   While  all
the other atoms of the dense body have been renewed from time to time,  this
permanent atom has remained.   It has remained stable,  not only through one
life,  but it has been a part of every dense body ever used by a  particular
Ego.   It  is  withdrawn at death only to reawaken at the  dawn  of  another
physical life,  to serve again as the nucleus around which is built the  new
dense  body  to  be  used  by the same Ego.   It  is  therefore  called  the
"Seed-Atom."  During life the seed-atom is situated in the left ventricle of
the  heart,  near the apex.   At death it rises to the brain by way  of  the
pneumogastric nerve,  leaving the dense body,  together with the higher  ve-
hicles, by way of the sutures between the parietal and occipital bones.

    When  the higher vehicles have left the dense body they are  still  con-
nected with it by a slender,  glistening,  silvery cord shaped much like two

[PAGE 1974]

figure sixes reversed, one upright and one horizontally placed, the two con-
nected at the extremities of the hooks.  (See diagram 5 1/2.)

    One  end is fastened to the heart by means of the seed-atom,  and it  is
the rupture of the seed-atom which causes the heart to stop.   The cord  it-
self  is not snapped until the panorama of the past life,  contained in  the
vital body, has been reviewed.

    Care should be taken,  however,  not to cremate or embalm the body until
at least three days after death, for while the vital body is with the higher
vehicles,  and they are still connected with the dense body by means of  the
silver cord,  any POST MORTEM examination or other injury to the dense  body
will be felt, in a measure, by the man.

                          DIAGRAM  NO. 5 1/2: 

                           THE SILVER CORD:

               -------------------------------------|
                                                    |
                    |--------------------------|    |
                    |                          |    |
                    |    -----------------|    |    |
                    |    |                |    |    |
                    |    |   -------|     |    |    |
                    |    |   |      |     |    |    |
POINT OF SEPARATION>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>*-----|    |    |
                    |    |   |                 |    |
                    |    |   |-----------------|    |
                    |    |                          |
                    |    |--------------------------|
                    |    
                    |-------------------------------------

    Cremation  should be particularly avoided in the first three days  after
death, because it tends to disintegrate the vital body, which should be kept
intact  until the panorama of the past life has been etched into the  desire
body.

    The silver cord snaps at the point where the sixes unite, half remaining
with the dense body and the other half with the higher vehicles.   From  the

[PAGE 1975]

time the cord snaps the dense body is quite dead.

    In the beginning of 1906 Dr.  McDougall made a series of experiments  in
the Massachusetts General Hospital, to determine, if possible,  whether any-
thing  not ordinarily visible left the body at death.   For this purpose  he
constructed a pair of scales capable of registering differences of one-tenth
of an ounce.

    The dying person and his bed were placed on one of the platforms of  the
scale,  which was then balanced by weights placed on the opposite  platform.
In  every  instance it was noted that at the precise moment when  the  dying
person  drew the last breath,  the platform containing the  weights  dropped
with startling suddenness,  lifting the bed and the body,  thus showing that
something invisible,  but having weight,  had left the body.   Thereupon the
newspapers  all  over the country announced in glaring  headlines  that  Dr.
McDougall had "weighed the soul."

    Occultism hails with joy the discoveries of modern science,  as they in-
variably corroborate what occult science has long taught.   The  experiments
of  Dr.  McDougall showed conclusively that something invisible to  ordinary
sight left the body at death,  as trained clairvoyants had seen,  and as had
been  stated  in  lectures and literature for many  years  previous  to  Dr.
McDougall's discovery.

    But this invisible "something"  is not the soul.   There is a great dif-
ference.   The reporters jump at conclusions when they state that the scien-
tists have "weighed the soul."    The soul belongs to higher realms and  can
never be weighed on physical scales,  even though they registered variations
of one-millionth part of a grain instead of one-tenth of an ounce.

[PAGE 1976]

    IT WAS THE VITAL BODY WHICH THE SCIENTIST WEIGHED.   It is formed of the
four ethers and they belong to the Physical World.

    As we have seen,  a certain amount of this ether is "superimposed"  upon
the  ether  which envelops the particles of the human body and  is  confined
there during physical life,  adding in a slight degree to the weight of  the
dense body of plant, animal and man.  In death it escapes; hence the diminu-
tion  in weight noticed by Dr.  McDougall when the persons with whom he  ex-
perimented expired.

    Dr.  McDougall  also  tried his scales in weighing  dying  animals.   No
diminution was found here, though one of the animals was a St.  Bernard dog.
That was taken to indicate that animals have no souls.  A little later, how-
ever,  Professor La V.  Twining,  head of the Science Department of the  Los
Angeles Polytechnic School, experimented with mice and kittens, which he en-
closed in hermetically sealed glass flasks.  His scales were the most sensi-
tive  procurable and were enclosed in a glass case from which  all  moisture
had been removed.  It was found that all the animals observed lost weight at
death.   A good sized mouse,  weighing 12.886 grams,  suddenly lost 3.1 mil-
ligrams at death.

    A  kitten used in another experiment lost one hundred  milligrams  while
dying and at its last gasp it suddenly lost an additional sixty  milligrams.
After that it lost weight slowly, due to evaporation.

    Thus the teaching of occult science in regard to the possession of vital
bodies  by  animals was also vindicated when sufficiently fine  scales  were
used,  and the case where the rather insensitive scales did not show diminu-
tion  in the weight of the St.  Bernard dog shows that the vital  bodies  of
animals are proportionately lighter than in man.

[PAGE 1977]

    When the "silver cord"  is loosened in the heart,  and man has been  re-
leased from his dense body,  a moment of the highest importance comes to the
Ego,  and it cannot be too seriously impressed upon the relatives of a dying
person  that it is a great crime against the departing soul to give  expres-
sion to loud grief and lamentations, for it is just then engaged in a matter
of supreme importance and a great deal of the value of the past life depends
upon how much attention the soul can give to this matter.  This will be made
clearer when we come to the description of man's life in the Desire World.

    It is also a crime against the dying to administer stimulants which have
the  effect of forcing the higher vehicles back into the dense body  with  a
jerk,  thus imparting a great shock to the man.   It is not torture to  pass
out, but it is torture to be dragged back to endure further suffering.  Some
who have passed out have told investigators that they had, in that way, been
kept  dying for hours and had prayed that their relatives would cease  their
mistaken kindness and let them die.

    When the man is freed from the dense body,  which was the heaviest  clog
upon his spiritual power (like the heavy mitten on the hand of the  musician
in our previous illustration),  his spiritual power comes back in some  mea-
sure,  and he is able to read the pictures in the negative pole of  the  re-
flecting  ether of his vital body,  which is the seat of  the  sub-conscious
memory.

    The whole of his past life passes before his sight like a panorama,  the
events being presented IN REVERSE ORDER.  The incidents of the days  immedi-
ately preceding death come first and so on back through manhood or womanhood
to youth, childhood and infancy.  Everything is remembered.

[PAGE 1978]

    The man stands as a spectator before this panorama of his past life.  He
sees  the pictures as they pass and they impress themselves upon his  higher
vehicles,  but he has no feeling about them at this time.   That is reserved
until the time when he enters into the Desire World,  which is the world  of
feeling  and emotion.   At present he is only in the Etheric Region  of  the
Physical World.

    This panorama lasts from a few hours to several days, depending upon the
length of time the man could keep awake, if necessary.  Some people can keep
awake only twelve hours, or even less; others can do so, upon occasion,  for
a  number  of days,  but as long as the man can remain awake,  the  panorama
lasts.

    This  feature  of life after death is similar to that with  takes  place
when one is drowning or falling from a height.  In such cases the vital body
also leaves the dense body and the man sees his life in a flash,  because he
loses consciousness at once.  Of course the "silver cord" is not broken,  or
there could be no resuscitation.

    When the endurance of the vital body has reached its limit, it collapses
in the way described when we were considering the phenomenon of sleep.  Dur-
ing physical life, when the Ego controls its vehicles,  this collapse termi-
nates  the waking hours;  after death the collapse of the vital body  termi-
nates  the  panorama and forces the man to withdraw into the  Desire  World.
The  silver  cord breaks at the point where the sixes unite (see  diagram  5
1/2), and the same division is made as during sleep, but with this important
difference,  that  thought the vital body returns to the dense body,  it  no
longer interpenetrates it,  but simply hovers over it.   It remains floating
over the grave,  decaying synchronously with the dense vehicle.   Hence,  to
the trained clairvoyant, a graveyard is a nauseating sight and if only  more

[PAGE 1979]

people could see it as he does, little argument would be necessary to induce
them  to change from the present unsanitary method of disposing of the  dead
to  the more rational method of cremation,  which restores the  elements  to
their  primordial condition without the objectionable features  incident  to
the process of slow decay.

    In leaving the vital body the process is much the same as when the dense
body is discarded.   The life forces of one atom are taken,  to be used as a
nucleus for the vital body of a future embodiment.  Thus,  upon his entrance
into the Desire World the man has the seed-atoms of the dense and the  vital
bodies, in addition to the desire body and the mind.

    If the dying man could leave all desires behind,  the desire body  would
very quickly fall away from him, leaving him free to proceed into the heaven
world,  but that is not generally the case. Most people,  especially if they
die in the prime of life, have many ties and much interest in life on earth.
They  have not altered their desires because they have lost  their  physical
bodies.   In fact often their desires are even augmented by a  very  intense
longing to return.  This acts in such a manner as to bind them to the Desire
World in a very unpleasant way, although unfortunately,  they do not realize
it.   On the other hand, old and decrepit persons and those who are weakened
by long illness and are tired of life, pass on very quickly.

    The matter may be illustrated by the ease with which the seed falls  out
of  the ripe fruit,  no particle of the flesh clinging to it,  while in  the
unripe fruit the seed clings to the flesh with the greatest tenacity.   Thus
it  is especially hard for people to die who were taken out of their  bodies
by  accident while at the height of their physical health and strength,  en-
gaged in numerous ways in the activities of physical life;  held by the ties

[PAGE 1980]

of wife, family, relatives, friends, pursuits of business and pleasure.

    The suicide, who tries to get away from life, only to find that he is as
much  alive as ever,  is in the most pitiable plight.   He is able to  watch
those whom he has,  perhaps, disgraced by his act, and worst of all,  he has
an unspeakable feeling of being "hollowed out."   The part in the ovoid aura
where  the dense body used to be is empty and although the desire  body  has
taken  the form of the discarded dense body,  it feels like an empty  shell,
because the creative archetype of the body in the Region of Concrete Thought
persists  as an empty mold,  so to speak,  as long as the dense body  should
properly have lived.  When a person meets a natural death, even in the prime
of life,  the activity of the archetype ceases,  and the desire body adjusts
itself  so as to occupy the whole of the form,  but in the case  of  suicide
that awful feeling of "emptiness" remains until the time comes when,  in the
natural course of events, his death would have occurred.

    As  long as the man entertains the desires connected with earth life  he
must stay in his desire body and as the progress of the individual  requires
that  he pass on to higher Regions, the existence in the Desire  World  must
necessarily  become purgative,  tending to purify him from his  binding  de-
sires.  How this is done is best seen by taking some radical instances.

    The miser who loved his gold in earth life loves it just as dearly after
death;  but in the first place he cannot acquire any more, because he has no
longer a dense body wherewith to grasp it and worst of all,  he cannot  even
keep what he hoarded during life.  He will, perhaps,  go and sit by his safe
and watch the cherished gold or bonds; but the heirs appear and with, it may
be, a stinging jeer at the "stingy old fool" (whom they do not see,  but who

[PAGE 1981]

both  sees  and hears them),  will open his safe,  and though he  may  throw
himself over his gold to protect it, they will put their hands through  him,
neither knowing nor caring that he is there,  and will then proceed to spend
his hoard, while he suffers in sorrow and impotent rage.

    He will suffer keenly,  his sufferings all the more terrible on  account
of  being entirely mental,  because the dense body dulls even  suffering  to
some extent.   In the Desire World, however, these sufferings have full sway
and  the  man  suffers until he learns that gold may be a  curse.   Thus  he
gradually  becomes contented with his lot and at last is freed from his  de-
sire body and is ready to go on.

    Or take the case of the drunkard.  He is just as fond of intoxicants af-
ter death as he was before.  It is not the dense body that craves drink.  It
is made sick by alcohol and would rather be without it.   It vainly protests
in different ways,  but the desire body of the drunkard craves the drink and
forces the dense body to take it,  that the desire body may have the  sensa-
tion  of pleasure resulting from the increased vibration.   That desire  re-
mains after the death of the dense body,  but the drunkard has in his desire
body neither mouth to drink not stomach to contain physical liquor.   He may
and does get into saloons,  where he interpolates his body into to bodies of
the drinkers to get a little of their vibrations by induction,  but that  is
too weak to give him much satisfaction.  He may and also does sometimes  get
inside a whiskey cask,  but that is of no avail either for there are in  the
cask  no such fumes as are generated in the digestive organs of  a  tippler.
It has no effect upon him and he is like a man in an open boat on the ocean.
"Water,  water everywhere, but not a drop to drink;" consequently he suffers

[PAGE 1982]

intensely.  In time, however, he learns the uselessness of longing for drink 
which  he cannot obtain.   As with so many of our desires in the Earth life,  
all desires in the Desire World die for want of opportunity to gratify them.  
When the  drunkard  has been purged,  he is ready,  so far as this habit  is  
concerned, to leave  this  state  of  "purgatory" and ascend into the heaven 
world. 

    Thus  we  see that it is not an avenging Deity that makes  purgatory  or
hell for us, but our own individual evil habits and acts.   According to the
intensity  of our desires will be the time and suffering entailed  in  their
expurgation.   In the cases mentioned it would have been no suffering to the
drunkard to lose his worldly possessions.   If he had any,  he did not cling
to them.   Neither would it have caused the miser any paid to have been  de-
prived  of intoxicants.   It is safe to say that he would not have cared  if
there  were not a drop of liquor in the world.   But he did care  about  his
gold, and the drunkard cared about his drink and so the unerring law gave to
each  that which was needed to purge him of his unhallowed desires and  evil
habits.

    This  is the law that is symbolized in the scythe of the reaper,  Death;
the law that says,  "whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."   It
is the law of cause and effect,  which rules all things in the three Worlds,
in every realm of nature--physical, moral and mental.   Everywhere it  works
inexorably,  adjusting all things,  restoring the equilibrium wherever  even
the  slightest action has brought about a disturbance,  as all action  must.
The  result may be manifested immediately or it may be delayed for years  or
for lives, but sometime, somewhere, just and equal retribution will be made.
The student should particularly note that its work is absolutely impersonal.

[PAGE 1983]

There is in the universe neither reward nor punishment.   All is the  result
of invariable law.   The action of this law will be more fully elucidated in
the next chapter,  where we shall find it associated with another Great  Law
of the Cosmos,  which also operates in the evolution of man.  The law we are
now considering is called the law of Consequence.

    In the Desire World it operates in purging man of the baser desires  and
the  correction  of the weaknesses and vices which hinder his  progress,  by
making  him suffer in the manner best adapted to that purpose.   If  he  had
made others suffer, or has dealt unjustly with them, he will be made to suf-
fer in that identical way.   Be it noted, however, that if a person has been
subject to vices,  or has done wrong to others,  but has overcome his vices,
or repented and, as far as possible, made right the wrong done,  such repen-
tance,  reform  and restitution have purged him of those special  vices  and
evil acts.   The equilibrium has been restored and the lesson learned during
that embodiment, and therefore will not b a cause of suffering after death.

    In the Desire World life is lived about three times as rapidly as in the
Physical  World.   A  man  who has lived to be fifty years  of  age  in  the
Physical  World would live through the same life events in the Desire  World
in about sixteen years.   This is, of course,  only a general gauge.   There
are  persons who remain in the Desire World much longer than their  term  of
physical  life.   Others again,  who have led lives with few gross  desires,
pass  through in a much shorter period, but the measure above given is  very
nearly correct for the average man of present day.

[PAGE 1984]

    It  will be remembered that as the man leaves the dense body  at  death,
his  past  life passes before him in pictures;  but at that time he  has  no
feeling concerning them.

    During his life in the Desire World also these life pictures roll  back-
wards,  as before;  but not the man has all the feelings that it is possible
for him to have as, one by one, the scenes pass before him.   Every incident
in his past life is now lived over again.  When he comes to a point where he
has  injured someone,  he himself feels the pain as the injured person  felt
it.   He lives through all the sorrow and suffering he has caused to  others
and  learns just how painful is the hurt and how hard to bear is the  sorrow
he  has caused.   In addition there is the fact already mentioned  that  the
suffering  is  much keener because he has no dense body to  dull  the  pain.
Perhaps that is why the speed of life there is tripled--that  the  suffering
may lose in duration what it gains in sharpness.  Nature's measures are won-
derfully just and true.

    There  is another characteristic peculiar to this phase of  post  mortem
existence which intimately connected with the fact (already mentioned)  that
distance is almost annihilated in the Desire World.  When a man dies,  he at
once  seems to swell out in his vital body;  he appears to himself  to  grow
into  immense proportions.   This feeling is due to the fact,  not that  the
body really grows, but that the perceptive faculties receive so many impres-
sions from various sources,  all seeming to be close at hand.   The same  is
true  of the desire body.   The man seems to be present with all the  people
with  whom on earth he had relations of a nature which  require  correction.
If he has injured one man in San Francisco and another in New York,  he will
feel as if part of him were in each place.   This gives him a peculiar feel-
ing of being cut to pieces.

[PAGE 1985]

    The  student will now understand the importance of the panorama  of  the
past life during the purgative existence, where this panorama is realized in
definite  feelings.   If it lasted long and the man  were  undisturbed,  the
full,  deep, clear impression etched into the desire body would make life in
the  Desire World more vivid and conscious and the purgation  more  thorough
than if,  because of distress at the loud outbursts of grief on the part  of
his relatives,  at the death bed and during the three-day period  previously
mentioned  the man had only vague impression of his past life.   The  spirit
which  has etched a deep clear record into its desire body will realize  the
mistakes  of the past life so much more clearly and definitely than  if  the
pictures  were  blurred on account of the individual's attention  being  di-
verted  by the suffering and grief around him.   His feeling concerning  the
things  which cause his present suffering in the Desire World will  be  much
more definite if they are drawn from a distinct panoramic impression than if
the duration of the process were short.

    This sharp,  clear-cut feeling is of immense value in future lives.   It
stamps  upon the seed-atom of the desire body an ineffaceable impression  of
itself.   THE  EXPERIENCES WILL BE FORGOTTEN IN SUCCEEDING  LIVES,  BUT  THE
FEELING  REMAINS.   When opportunities occur to repeat the  error  in  later
lives,  this Feeling will speak to us clearly and unmistakably.   It is  the
"still,  small voice"  which warns us,  though we do not know why;  but  the
clearer and more definite the panoramas of past lives has been, the oftener,
stronger and clearer shall we hear this voice.  Thus we see how important it
is  that we leave the passing spirit in absolute quietness after death.   By
so doing we help it to reap the greatest possible benefit from the life just
ended and to avoid perpetuating the same mistakes in future lives, while our

[PAGE 1986]

selfish,  hysterical lamentations may deprive it of much of the value of the
life it has just concluded.

    The mission of purgatory is to eradicate the injurious habits by  making
their  gratification impossible.   The individual suffers exactly as he  has
made others suffer through his dishonesty,  cruelty,  intolerance,  or  what
not.   Because of this suffering he learns to act kindly, honestly, and with
forbearance toward others in future.  Thus,  in consequence of the existence
of this beneficent state,  man learns virtue and right action.   When he  is
reborn he is free from evil habits, at least every evil act committed is one
of free will.   The tendencies to repeat the evil of past lives remain,  for
we  must learn to do right consciously and of our own will.   Upon  occasion
these  tendencies tempt us,  thereby affording us an opportunity of  ranging
ourselves on the side of mercy and virtue as against vice and cruelty.   But
to indicate right action and to help us resist the snares and wiles of temp-
tation,  we have the feeling resulting from the expurgation of  evil  habits
and the expiation of the wrong acts of past lives.   If we heed that feeling
and  abstain from the particular evil involved,  the temptation will  cease.
We have freed ourselves from it for all time.   If we yield we shall experi-
ence  keener suffering than before until at last we have learned to live  by
the Golden Rule, because the way of the transgressor is hard.   Even then we
have not reached the ultimate.  To good to others because we want them to do
good to us is essentially selfish.  In time we must learn to do good REGARD-
LESS of how we are treated by others; as Christ said,  we must love even our
enemies.

    There  is an inestimable benefit in knowing about the method and  object
of this purgation, because we are thus enabled to forestall it by living our

[PAGE 1987]

purgatory  here and now day by day,  thus advancing much faster  than  would
otherwise  be  possible.   An exercise is given in the latter part  of  this
work,  the object of which is purification as an aid to the  development  of
spiritual sight.  It consists of thinking over the happenings of the day af-
ter retiring at night.   We review each incident of the day,  in reverse or-
der,  taking  particular note of the moral aspect,  considering  whether  we
acted  rightly or wrongly in each particular case regarding actions,  mental
attitude and actions, mental attitude and habits.  By thus judging ourselves
day by day, endeavoring to correct mistakes and wrong actions,  we shall ma-
terially  shorten or perhaps even eliminate the necessity for purgatory  and
be able to pass to the first heaven directly after death.   If in this  man-
ner,  we consciously overcome our weaknesses, we also make a  very  material
advance in the school of evolution.  Even if we fail to correct our actions,
we derive an immense benefit from judging ourselves,  thereby generating as-
pirations toward good, which in time will surely bear fruit in right action.

    In  reviewing the day's happenings and blaming ourselves for  wrong,  we
should  not forget to impersonally approve of the good we have done and  de-
termine to do still better.   In this way we enhance the good by approval as
much as we abjure the evil by blame.

    Repentance and reform are also powerful factors in shortening the purga-
torial existence, for nature never wastes effort in useless processes.  When
we realize the wrong of certain habits or acts in our past life,  and deter-
mine to eradicate the habit and to redress the wrong committed,  we are  ex-
punging the pictures of them from the sub-conscious memory and they will not
be there to judge us after death.  Even though  we  are  not  able  to  make

[PAGE 1988]

restitution for a wrong,  the sincerity of our regret will suffice.   Nature
does not aim to "get even," or to take revenge.   Recompense may be given to
our victim in other ways.

    Much  progress ordinarily reserved for future lives will be made by  the
man  who thus takes time by the forelock,  judging himself  and  eradicating
vice  by reforming his character.  This practice is  earnestly  recommended.
It is perhaps the most important teaching in the present work.

                              THE BORDERLAND:

    Purgatory  occupies  the three lower Regions of the Desire  World.   The
first  heaven  is in the upper Regions.  The central Regions is  a  sort  of
borderland--neither heaven nor hell.  In this Region we find people who  are
honest and upright; who wronged no one, but were deeply immersed in business
and  thought  nothing of the higher life.  For them the Desire  World  is  a
state  of the most indescribable monotony.  There is no "business"  in  that
world  nor is there,  for a man of that kind,  anything that will  take  its
place.   He has a very hard time until he learns to think of  higher  things
than  ledgers and drafts.   The men who thought of the problem of  life  and
came to the conclusion that "death ends it all;" who denied the existence of
things outside the material-sense world--these men also feel  this  dreadful
monotony.   They had expected annihilation of consciousness,  but instead of
that they find themselves with an augmented perception of persons and things
about them.   They had been accustomed to denying these things so vehemently
that they often fancy the Desire World an hallucination,  and may frequently
be heard exclaiming in the deepest despair, "When will it end?  When will it
end?"

[PAGE 1989]

    Such people are really in a pitiable state.   They are generally  beyond
the  reach  of any help whatever and suffer much longer than  almost  anyone
else.   Besides, they have scarcely any life in the Heaven world,  where the
building of bodies for future use is taught,  so they put all their crystal-
lizing thoughts into whatsoever body they build for a future life,  and thus
a body is built that has the hardening tendencies we see,  for instance,  in
consumption.   Sometimes the suffering incident to such decrepit bodies will
turn the thoughts of the entities ensouling them to God, and their evolution
can proceed;  but in the materialistic mind lies the greatest danger of los-
ing  touch  with the spirit and becoming an outcast.   Therefore  the  Elder
Brothers  have been very seriously concerned for the last century  regarding
the  fate of the Western World and were it not for their special  beneficent
action  in its behalf,  we should have had a social cataclysm compared  with
which the French Revolution were child's play.   The trained clairvoyant can
see  how narrowly humanity has escaped disasters of a nature so  devastating
that continents would have been swept into the sea.   The  reader  will find 
below a more extended and thorough exposition of the connection of material-
ism  with   volcanic  outbursts  where   the   list   of  the  eruptions  of
Vesuvius  would seem to corroborate the statement of such a connection,  un-
less  it  is credited to "coincidence," as the sceptic generally  does  when
confronted with facts and figures he cannot explain.

Continued with file "RC1055.TXT"

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