Filename: RC1101.TXT
Source: "The Web of Destiny" by Max Heindel

[PAGE 3639]

                                   FOREWARD:

   The series of seventeen lessons printed in this volume are a part of  the
ninety-nine  monthly lessons sent out by the author to his  students  during
his last years in the body.   The others have been printed in other  volumes
and under various titles.

   These books contain the priceless treasures of the latest  investigations
of this great mystic, and carry a message of Christian love mingled with di-
vine wisdom, which only the Initiate into the deeper mysteries can give.

   We  hope  these lesson may be the means of leading many back to  God  and
strengthening their reverence and love for the Christ.

                             THE WEB OF DESTINY:

                      SPIRITUAL RESEARCH--THE SOUL BODY:

   Although considerable new light and much information was given upon  this
subject in the "Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception" and our subsequent literature,
letters have been coming to Headquarters from students at various times, re-
questing more light upon such subjects as obsession,  mediumship,  insanity,
abnormal conditions of character, etc.  These have given the writer cause to
investigate the subject more deeply than theretofore.  The maxim that "prac-
tice makes perfect"  holds good in research of the spiritual realms as  well
as in physical things.   Therefore it is hoped that the light upon this sub-
ject,  which will be contained in the following pages,  may help the student
to  see more clearly into the causes that are productive of effects in  this
life.

   In order that we may thoroughly understand this subject,  it will be nec-
essary  to  begin at the beginning; to realize that  the  first  fundamental
facts  of  existence  are  the  continuity  of  life  and that action is the

[PAGE 3640]

expression  of life in manifestation.   As soon as the spirit has taken  its
first action,  it has thereby generated a cause which must have its  effect.
This is an absolute necessity in order that the equilibrium of the  universe
may be maintained.   If this action was physical, that is to say,  performed
by  a spirit in a physical body, the reaction must of necessity be  physical
also.   If this be granted,  then it follows as a matter of course  that  we
must take birth in this world from time to time,  for it is a matter of  ob-
servation patent to everyone that we all generate causes in this world  from
day to day which cannot and do not have their adequate reaction,  and if  we
cannot reap what we have sown in this body,  we must certainly come back  to
reap in a new body or else the law is invalidated.   If the law of Cause and
Effect  is true,  periodical rebirth is a matter of absolute logical  neces-
sity.   Thus,  whether we realize it or not and whether we relish it or not,
we are in a circle of necessity, and because of our own past actions,  bound
to  come  back to act and to react until we develop a power which  shall  be
greater  than the one that is now swirling us about.   What this  power  is,
Goethe, the great German mystic, indicated in the few words:

   "From ev'ry power that holds the world in chains,
   Man frees himself when self-control he gains."

   And  as  knowledge  is  power,  it  is evident that the more thorough our

[PAGE 3641]

understanding of the operation of the twin laws of Consequence and  Rebirth,
the easier we shall find the way to liberation,  and also better know how to
help others.

   Science is to be much commended for the ingenuity, the patience,  and the
persistency it displays in the invention of instruments wherewith to  ferret
out  the secrets of nature.   But while it can thus successfully  deal  with
MATTER,  the secrets of spirit and of life are to the savants a closed book,
as  Mephisto says with fine sarcasm to a scholar who knocks at the  door  of
Faust, seeking admission to the college:

   "Who'er would know and treat of aught alive
   Seeks first the living spirit thence to drive.
   Then are the lifeless fragments in his hand,
   He lacks, alas! the vita spirit band."

   There is only one instrument which is adequate to investigate the  things
of the spirit,  and that is the Spirit itself.   Just as it is necessary  to
train a man for scientific research in the physical world, so also is a long
and slow process required to fit oneself for investigation of the  spiritual
world.   As the man of science must pay the price of his knowledge in months
and years of unflinching, unremitting labor, so also the mystic investigator
must give years of his life to understand and be capable of investigating by
methods of the spirit.

[PAGE 3642]

   As  you know,  that which is now THE PHYSICAL BODY was the first  vehicle
acquired  by  man as a thought form; it has undergone an immense  period  of
evolution  and  organization until it is now the splendid  instrument  which
serves him so well here;  but it is hard,  set,  and difficult to act  upon.
The  next vehicle acquired was THE VITAL BODY,  which ha also gone through a
long  period of development and has condensed to the consistency  of  ether.
The third vehicle,  THE DESIRE BODY,  has been comparatively lately acquired
and is in a state of comparative flux.  Lastly, there is the mind,  which is
only as an unformed cloud,  not worthy of the name of vehicle,  being as yet
but a link between the three vehicles of man and the spirit.

   These three vehicles,  the physical, vital,  and desire bodies,  together
with  the link of mind,  are the tools of the spirit in its evolution,  and,
contrary to the common conception,  the ability of the spirit to investigate
the higher realms does not depend upon the finest of these bodies as must as
upon the denser.  The proof of this assertion is close at hand,  and indeed,
anyone who has ever seriously tried has had this proof himself.  If not,  he
may  have it forthwith simply by following the directions for  changing  the
condition of his mind.   Let us say that a person has formed certain  habits
of thought which he does not like.  Perhaps after a religious experience  he

[PAGE 3643]

finds  that  in spite of all his desires these habits of  thought  will  not
leave him.   But if he decides to cleanse his mind so that it shall  contain
nothing but pure and good thoughts, he may do this by simply refusing to ad-
mit  impure  thoughts.   He will find that after a week or two his  mind  is
noticeably cleaner than at the commencement of his effort;  that it holds by
preference the religious thoughts he is seeking to generate in it.   Even  a
most  abnormally degenerate mind can be thoroughly cleansed inside of a  few
months.   This is actual knowledge to many who have tried it, and anyone who
wishes and is sufficiently persistent may have the same experience and enjoy
a clean mind in a very short time.

   But  while clean thoughts take us a long step on the path of  attainment,
the  emotions and desires of the desire body are not so easily subdued,  for
that vehicle is already considerably more set than the mind.   While the re-
generate  mind readily agrees to the idea that we should love  our  enemies,
the desire body,  the emotional and passionate nature, aims with every fibre
of its begin to get even,  to get an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
Sometimes,  even years and years after we think that the sleeping serpent is
subdued, that we have at last gained mastery over it, and that it cannot mar
our peace,  it may suddenly rise and overthrow all our hopes,  take the  bit
between  its  teeth,  go  on  a  rampage, and vow vengeance for some real or

[PAGE 3644]

fancied wrong.  Then it takes the whole power of the higher nature to subdue
this rebellious part of our being.  This, the writer thinks, is the thorn in
the  flesh concerning which Paul besought the lord thrice and was given  the
answer:   "My grace is sufficient for thee."  It certainly does need all the
grace  one can command to overcome,  and eternal vigilance is the  price  of
safety, so let us "WATCH AND PRAY."

   It  is  the desire body which is responsible for all our  actions,  good,
bad,  or indifferent, and the oriental philosophers have therefore given di-
rections  to their disciples to KILL OUT OF DESIRE and to abstain  from  ac-
tion,  good or bad,  as much as possible,  in order that they may thus  save
themselves from the wheel of birth and death.  But that temper which is such
a  great menace when it takes control, may be made as effective for  service
under our proper guidance.   We would not for one moment think of taking the
temper our of a knife;  we should then be unable to cut anything  therewith.
The  temper  of  the desire body must be controlled but  not  by  any  means
killed.   For the dynamic power of motion and action in the invisible  world
is stored in this desire body, and unless it is intact,  we cannot expect to
control  ourselves  there  any  more  than an ocean liner whose engines were

[PAGE 3645]

disabled  could buffet the ocean waves.   There are certain societies  which
teach negative methods of development,  and one of their first  instructions
to  the pupil is to drop the jaw and make himself perfectly  negative.   Any
one floated from the physical world toward the spiritual world by such meth-
ods  would certainly find himself as driftwood upon the ocean,  cast  hither
and  thither by the waves,  they prey and the sport of every  current.   And
there are in the inner worlds, as well as here,  beings who are anything but
benevolent,  who  are ready to take advantage of anyone that  ventures  into
their world not fully prepared to protect himself against them.  Thus we see
the  supreme importance of subjecting our desires to the will of the  spirit
HERE  IN THIS WORLD,  of forcing this desire before we attempt to enter  the
inner world.  Here it is, in a very large measure, held in check by the fact
that it is interpolated within the dense body,  and therefore cannot sway us
hither  and yon in the same degree as it can when it has been released  from
the physical prison house.

   But even the subjection of the desire body,  difficult as it is to accom-
plish,  will not serve to make a man CONSCIOUS in the invisible worlds,  for
the desire body has not evolved to such a point that it can at as a real in-
strument of consciousness.  It  is  unformed  and  cloud-like  in  the great

[PAGE 3646]

majority of people,  and only a number of vortices are present as sense cen-
ters or centers of consciousness; these are not yet sufficiently unfolded so
that  they can serve the purpose without some other help.   Therefore it  is
necessary  to work upon and educate the vital body in such a manner that  it
may be used in soul-flights.   This vehicle, as we know,  is composed of the
four ethers.   It is by means of this body that we manipulate the densest of
all our vehicles,  the physical body, which we usually think of as the whole
man.   The chemical and life ethers form a matrix for our  physical  bodies.
Each molecule of the physical body is imbedded in a meshwork of ether  which
permeates  and infuses it with life.  Through these ethers the bodily  func-
tions,  such as respiration,  etc., are carried on, and the density and con-
sistency of these matrices of ether determine the state of health.   But the
part of the vita body formed of the two higher ethers,  the light ether  and
the reflecting ether, is what we may term the SOUL BODY; that is to say,  it
is more closely linked with the desire body and the mind and also more  ame-
nable  to the spirit's touch than are the two lower ethers.   It is the  ve-
hicle of intellect, and responsible for all that makes man, man.   Or obser-
vations,  our aspirations,  our character,  etc., are due to the work of the
spirit  in  these  two  higher  ethers,  which  become more or less luminous

[PAGE 3647]

according  to the nature of our character and habits.   Also,  as the  dense
body  assimilates  particles  of food and thus gains in flesh,  so  the  two
higher  ethers  assimilate our good deeds during the life and thus  grow  in
volume  as well.   According to our doings in this present life we thus  in-
crease or decrease that which we brought with us at birth.   If we are  born
with a good character, expressed in these two higher ethers,  it will not be
easy for us to change this because the vital body has become very,  very set
during the myriads of years through which we have evolved it.   On the other
hand, if we have been lax and negligent and indulgent in the habits which we
call evil,  if we have formed a bad character in past lives, then it is dif-
ficult to overcome because of this set nature of the vital body, and it will
require years of constant effort to change its structure.   This is the rea-
son the Western Wisdom Teaching says that ALL MYSTIC DEVELOPMENT BEGINS WITH
THE VITAL BODY.

[PAGE 3648]

                   THE CHRIST WITHIN--THE MEMORY OF NATURE:

   There  are  a great many people who associate spirituality with  a  great
show of emotionalism but as we saw in the last chapter,  this idea has abso-
lutely  no foundation in fact;  on the contrary,  the kind  of  spirituality
which is developed by and associated with the emotional nature of the desire
body is unreliable in the extreme;  this is the variety that is generated in
revival meetings where emotionalism is brought up to a high pitch, causing a
person to make a great splurge of religious fervor which soon spends  itself
and leaves him exactly as he was before, much to the chagrin of the revival-
ists  and other people who are engaged in evangelical work.   But what  else
can  they  expect?   They set out to save souls with drums and  fifes,  with
rhythmic  revival songs,  with appeals made in a voice which is  raised  and
lowered in harmonic waives,  all of which are as powerfully effective on the
desire  body  as  storms  which  stir the sea to fury and then subside.  The

[PAGE 3649]

vital body is much more set, and it is only when conversion affects this ve-
hicle that it sticks and stays with a man or woman for life.  Those who have
the  true spirituality do not feel saved one day,  in the seventh heaven  of
ecstasy,  and the next feel themselves down in the dumps and miserable  sin-
ners  that can never be forgiven;  for their religion is not based upon  the
emotional nature which feels these things,  but is rooted in the vital  body
which is the vehicle of reason,  set and persistent in the path it has  once
chose.   As new forms are propagated through the second ether of  the  vital
body, so the HIGHER SELF, the CHRIST WITHIN, is formed through this same ve-
hicle of generation,  the vital body,  in its higher aspects embodied in the
two upper ethers.

   But as a child that is born into the world requires nourishment,  so also
the Christ that is born WITHIN is a babe and requires to be nourished to the
full stature of manhood.   And as the physical body grows by a continual as-
similation of material from the chemical region,  the solids,  liquids,  and
gases, so also, as the Christ grows, will the two higher ethers grow in vol-
ume and form a luminous cloud around the man or woman sufficiently  discern-
ing to set his or her face heavenward; it will invest the pilgrim with light
so brilliant that he "WALKS IN THE LIGHT,"  as a matter of actual fact.   By
the  exercises  given  in the Western Mystery School of the Rosicrucians, it

[PAGE 3650]

becomes  possible in time to detach the two higher ethers,  and the man  may
then  step away from his physical body, leaving it for a time  invested  and
vitalized only by the two lower ethers; he is then what we call an INVISIBLE
HELPER.

   There are various grades of spiritual sight.   One grade enables a man to
see  the ordinarily invisible ether with the myriads of beings  that  invest
that  realm.   Other  and higher variants give him the faculty  to  see  the
desire  world and even the world of thought while remaining in the  physical
body.   But these faculties,  though valuable when exercised under full con-
trol  of the human will,  are not sufficient to read the "MEMORY OF  NATURE"
with absolute accuracy.  To do this and to make the necessary investigations
in  order that one may understand how the "Web of Destiny"  is made and  un-
made,  it is necessary to be able at will to step from the physical body and
function  outside in that soul body which we have spoken of as  composed  of
the two higher ethers, this being also invested with the desire body and the
mind.  Thus the investigator is in full possession of all his faculties,  he
knows all that he knew in the physical world,  and has the ability to  bring
back  into the physical consciousness the things which he has learned  with-

[PAGE 3651]

out. When he as this ability he must  also  learn to balance himself, TO UN-
DERSTAND the  things which he sees outside, for mark this:  It is not enough
to be able to step outside the body  into  another  world  and to see things
there; we do  not by that fact become omniscient any more than we understand
what  everything is used for and how everything works here in this  physical
world because  we live here from day to day and year to  year.   It requires
study and  application to become thoroughly familiar with the  facts  of the
invisible  world  as it does with the facts of the world in which we are  no
living in our physical bodies.  Therefore the book, the "Memory of  Nature,"
is not read  easily at the first attempt or at the second either,  for  just
as  it takes a child time to learn how to read our ordinary books  here, so,
also, it requires time and effort to decipher this wonderful scroll.

   It is a familiar fact to students of science that the history of th earth
is  written in unmistakable characters upon the rocks and by  the  glaciers.
Upon every stone there is found some sing which guides the trained  investi-
gator  in  deciphering its message concerning the development of  the  earth
during  past ages,  and it is wonderful to read in the text books upon  this
subject how well the scientific investigators have been able to make a  con-
nected story out of these  many  clues.  It is also well known that wherever

[PAGE 3652]

we  move individually,  we leave behind us marks which may be traced  though
they are unseen even by ourselves.  The wonderful ingenuity displayed by the
Indians,  as told by Fenimore Cooper and others, in tracing their friends or
their foes through the virgin forest guided by broken twigs,  etc.,  is  far
exceeded by scientists today,  who trace the criminal by his finger  prints.
The seemingly fantastic exploits of Sherlock Holmes are duplicated by actual
experience in criminal detection.   The actions of men now living may be re-
produced  by the moving picture camera a hundred years hence when  the  real
actors have long moldered in the grave;  and so we can by the light of these
later  discoveries prepare our minds for the belief that there is  an  auto-
matic  record of every human life and of the lives of communities,  kept  in
what  we may call,  for want of a better name,  the Memory of Nature.   This
shows the stages in evolution attained by all living things,  and gives  the
ministers of God,  the Recording Angels, the needed perspective in order  to
aid us in our attainment of wisdom, knowledge,  and power;  the clue to what
lessons  are  needed  to  carry  us further on the  Path.   So  far  as  the
individual is concerned,  this record starts at the moment when he draws the
first breath and continues until the last respiration has emptied the arter-
ies of blood.  We know that the  whole  universe  is vibrant with life, that

[PAGE 3653]

each  object constantly emits from itself vibratory waves which  reveal  its
nature  and presence.   We also know that when a child takes its first  com-
plete breath, the physiological conditions in the heart are changed, the fo-
ramen ovale is closed,  and the blood forced to circulate through  the heart
and lungs.   There is meets the air charged with a picture of the  surround-
ings.  Thus the blood, which is the vehicle of the Ego, absorbs in the lungs
a  complete picture of the outside world.   When it rushes through the  left
ventricle  of  the heart,  it leaves an impress upon the  little  seed  atom
situated  at the apex and which corresponds to the film of the  camera,  nor
should it be an obstacle to belief in this idea that a large number of  pic-
tures  must be imprinted upon a very small surface.   When we consider  that
the  picture  of  the  Moon which we see in the  retina  is  less  than  one
two-hundredth  part  of one inch in diameter, we can see that a  very  small
picture can be very distinct,  for even within that small space we note upon
the Moon a number of mountains and valleys with the naked eye.   The picture
of  a man at a distance of a hundred feet or so is not one-twentieth  of  an
inch in size,  according to an authority upon this subject,  yet we  distin-
guish in that minute picture the expression of the face,  the pattern of the
clothing, etc.  Similarly, there is upon this minute  seed atom a picture of

[PAGE 3654]

every action ever performed, of every scene in which we have ever found our-
selves,  during the whole time from birth to death.   George du Maurier  and
Jack  London  describe in "Peter ibbetson"  and in "The Star Rover,"  how  a
prisoners  in  the flesh may live over again the scenes  of  his  childhood,
where he sees himself,  his playmates,  his parents,  his whole environment,
effectively reproduced from the etheric record of his child life or even  of
past  lives.   Any one who knows the secret of how to put himself  in  touch
with  these pictures may find and read the lives of the people with whom  he
comes  in contact,  as proved by mediums.   But while fresh or  contemporary
records may be read with comparative ease, it becomes increasingly difficult
to read as we go backwards,  for the records which are made in the ether are
fruit  compared with the ones in the next higher realms and fade gradually.

   When  a seer examines one who is about to become ill,  he will find  that
the vital body is actually becoming more attenuated, and when it has reached
a  point  of tenuity where it can no longer support the physical  body,  the
latter  commences  to manifest signs of what we call disease.   Again,  some
time before we see physical recovery, the vital body gradually becomes  more
dense in structure; then the period of convalescence commences.   It is also
patent  to  all who have to do with victims of accidents  that  they  do not

[PAGE 3655]

suffer as keenly just after the accident as later; this is because the vital
body  at  the time of the accident is uninjured,  and  therefore  the  whole
effect of the accident is not felt until this vehicle has become  attenuated
and  unable  to support the vital processes.   Thus we see  that  there  are
changes in the ether of a human being;  and according to they mystic  axiom,
"As above,  so below,"  and vice-versa,  there are also changes in the plan-
etary  ether which constitutes the vital body of the Earth Spirit.   As  the
conscious  memory  of  recent  events which is strong  in  the  human  being
gradually fades,  so also the etheric record,  which is the lowest aspect of
the Memory of Nature, fades in time.

   In  the highest sub-division of the Region of Concrete Thought,  just  on
the  border line between pure spirit and matter,  an impress is made of  the
things  and events in this world which is relatively much clearer  and  more
lasting than the etheric record, for while events inscribed upon the etheric
record fade away in spots in a few hundred years,  and even important events
may  last only one or two thousand years,  the record found in  the  highest
sub-division  of the Region of Concrete Thought lasts for the Earth  Period.
While  the  records made on the reflecting ether may be read  by  the  unin-
structed  who  have  just  a little spiritual sight, several initiations are

[PAGE 3656]

required  before it is possible for any one to read the records kept in  the
higher region noted above.  You will readily understand the relation of this
record  to the one made in the ether,  and also to the absolutely  permanent
record  which  is  inscribed in the World of Life  Spirit,  if  you  examine
diagram No.  1 on page 52 of the Cosmo.  Paracelsus calls the record made in
the ether,  Sidereal Light; and Eliphas Levi, the great Kabalist,  speaks of
these  records as being kept in the Astral light.   This is in a sense  cor-
rect,  for though they have nothing to do with the stars,  as the name would
seem to imply,  they are found in the Etheric Region outside the earth's at-
mosphere.   The  medium or hypnotic victim who leaves the body  by  negative
processes under outside control, levitates towards these realms as naturally
as our physical body gravitates towards the earth.

   As stated in the Cosmo in connection with the constitution of our planet,
the path of initiation goes through the earth from circumference to  center,
one stratum at a time,  and though our physical bodies are drawn that way by
the force of gravitation,  their density prevents trespass as effectually as
the  force of levitation which repels the uninstructed class spoken of  from
sacred precincts.  Only when by the power of our own spirit we have left our
dense  body,  instructed by and because of right living, are we able to read

[PAGE 3657]

the  etheric record to best advantage.   At a farther point of progress  the
"water stratum"  in the earth is opened to the Initiate, and he is then in a
position to read the record of past events permanently engraved in the  liv-
ing substance of the Region of Archetypal Forces,  where duration and  space
are practically non-existent, and where all is an eternal Here and Now.

                       "THE DWELLER ON THE THRESHOLD"

                             EARTH-BOUND SPIRITS:

   While we are studying "The Web of Destiny,  How Made and Unmade,"  it  is
expedient that we devote some time to the mysterious "Dweller on the Thresh-
old," a subject that is quite misunderstood.  Our investigations of the pre-
vious  lives of a number of people who have applied to the Fellowship  head-
quarters for relief from so-called obsession, have proved that their trouble
is due to one phase of what has been mistakenly called by previous  investi-
gators,  "The Dweller on the Threshold."  When cases are examined merely  by
the use of spiritual sight or by reading in the etheric record,  such a mis-
take  may  very easily be made as to confuse that apparition with  the  true
Dweller on the Threshold.  But as soon as we look the cases up in the imper-
ishable records contained in the Region of Archetypal Forces,  the matter is
at  once cleared up and the facts developed in these investigations  may  be
summed up as follows:

[PAGE 3658]

   At the moment of death when the seed atom in the heart is ruptured  which
contains  all  the experience of the past life in a panoramic  picture,  the
spirit  leaves its physical body taking with it the finer bodies.   It  then
hovers  over the dense body which is now dead,  as we call it,  for  a  time
varying from a number of hours to three and one half days.   The determining
factor as to the time is the strength of the vital body,  the vehicle  which
constitutes the soul body spoken of in the Bible.  There is then a pictorial
reproduction of the life,  a panorama in reverse order from death to  birth,
and  the pictures are etched upon the desire body through the medium of  the
reflecting ether in this vital body.  During this time the consciousness  of
the Spirit is concentrated in the vital body, or at least it should be,  and
it  has  therefore no feeling about this matter.   The picture that  is  im-
pressed upon the vehicle of feeling and emotion, the desire body, is the ba-
sis of subsequent suffering in the life in Purgatory for evil deeds,  and of
enjoyment in the first Heaven on account of the good done in the past life.

   These were the main facts which the writer was able to personally observe
about death at the time when the teachings were first given to him and  when
he was introduced by the help of the Teacher to the panoramic  reproductions
of  life when persons were going through the gate of death, but the investi-

[PAGE 3659]

gations  of later years have revealed the additional fact that there is  an-
other  process  going  on during these important days  following  death.   A
cleavage  takes place in the vital body similar to that made by the  process
of  initiation.   So much of this vehicle as can be terms "soul,"  coalesces
with the higher vehicles and is the basis of consciousness in the  invisible
worlds  after death.   The lower part, which is discarded,  returns  to  the
physical  body and hovers over the grave in the great majority of cases,  as
stated in the Cosmo.  This cleavage of the vital body is not the same in all
person  but depends upon the nature of the life lived and the  character  of
the person that is passing out.   In extreme cases this division varies very
much  from normal.   This important point was brought out in many  cases  of
supposed spirit obsession which have been investigated from headquarters; in
fact it was these cases which developed the far-reaching and astounding dis-
coveries  brought out by our most recent researches into the nature  of  the
obsession from which the people who appealed to us were suffering.  As might
be expected,  of course,  the division in these cases showed a preponderance
of evil,  and efforts were then made to find out if there were not also  an-
other  class  of people where a different division with a  preponderance  of
good takes  place.  It is a pleasure to record that this was found to be the

[PAGE 3660]

case,  and after weighing the facts discovered,  balancing one with another,
the following seems to be a correct description of the conditions and  their
reason:

   The vital body aims to build the physical,  whereas our desires and  emo-
tions tear down.   It is the struggle between the vital body and the  desire
body which produces consciousness in the physical world,  and which  hardens
the  tissue so that the soft body of the child gradually becomes  tough  and
shrunken in old age,  followed by death.   The morality or immorality of our
desire and emotions acts in a similar manner on the vital body.  Where devo-
tion to high ideals is the mainspring of action, where the devotional nature
has been allowed for years to express itself freely and frequently, and par-
ticularly where this has been accompanied by the scientific exercises  given
probationers in the Rosicrucian Fellowship, the quantity of the chemical and
life ethers gradually diminishes as the animal appetites vanish,  and an in-
creased  amount of the light and reflecting ether takes their place.   As  a
consequence,  physical health is not as robust among people who  follow  the
higher  path as among people whose indulgence of the lower  nature  attracts
the  chemical  and life ethers,  in proportion to the extent and  nature  of
their vice, to the partial or total exclusion of the two higher ethers.

[PAGE 3661]

   Several  very  important consequences connected with  death  follow  this
fact.   As it is the chemical ether which cements the molecules of the  body
in  their places and keeps them there during life,  when only a  minimum  of
this material is present, disintegration of the physical vehicle after death
must be very rapid.   This the writer has not been able to verify because it
is  difficult to find me of high spiritual proclivities who have passed  out
recently,  but it would seem that this is so from the fact recorded  in  the
Bible that the body of Christ was not found in the tomb when the people came
to  look  for it.   As we have said before in relation to this  matter,  the
Christ spiritualized the body of Jesus so highly,  made it so vibrant,  that
it was almost impossible to keep the particles in place during his ministry.
This  was a fact known to the writer by the teachings of the Elder  Brothers
and  by what investigation he has made of the subject in the memory  of  Na-
ture, but the bearing of this fact upon the general subject of death and the
after-existence was not know until lately.

   The  real "Dweller on the Threshold"  is the composite  elemental  entity
created  on the invisible planes by all our untransmuted evil  thoughts  and
acts  during all the past period of our evolution.   This  "dweller"  stands
guard  at the entrance to the invisible worlds and challenges our  right  to
enter therein.  This  entity  must be redeemed or transmuted eventually.  We

[PAGE 3662]

must generate poise and will power sufficient to face and command it  before
we can consciously enter the super-physical worlds.

   As  before stated,  a worldly life increases the proportion of the  lower
ethers  in  the vital body to that of the higher.   Where,  in  addition,  a
so-called "clean life" is lived and excesses avoided, the health during life
is  more  robust than that of the aspirant to the higher life,  because  the
latter's  attitude to life builds a vital body composed principally  of  the
higher ethers.   He loves "the bread of life" more than physical sustenance,
and therefore his instrument become increasingly high-strung,  nervous,  and
delicate,  a sensitive condition which greatly furthers the objects  of  the
spirit, but which is a hardship from the physical viewpoint.

   In  the great majority of mankind there is such a preponderance of  self-
ishness  and a desire to get the most out of life as they view that  matter,
that  either  they are busy keeping the wolf from the door  or  accumulating
possessions and taking care of them, and hence they have very little time or
inclination  to undertake the soul culture so necessary to true  success  in
life.  The writer has often heard them contend that if they pay the minister
to  study  the  Bible  during  the  six days and give them on the seventh an

[PAGE 3663]

epitome of what he has found,  that should be all that is required to get  a
ticket to heaven.  They subscribe to the church and to the things ordinarily
called for in life as honorable and upright; for the rest, they have "a good
time."   Therefore there is so little that persists in each life of the  ma-
jority  and evolution is so frightfully slow that until one is able  to  vie
the  act of death from the higher regions of the World of  Concrete  Thought
and, so to say, look downwards, it does not appear that anything is saved of
the vital body.  This body seems to return complete to the physical body and
to hover over the grave,  there it disintegrate simultaneously with the lat-
ter.  As a matter of fact, an increasing part cleaves to the higher vehicles
and goes with them into the desire world,  there to be a basis of conscious-
ness  in,  and to live through, the purgatorial and heaven lives,  generally
persisting  until  man enters the second heaven and unites with  the  nature
forces  there  in his efforts to create for himself a new  environment.   By
that time, it has been absorbed by the spirit or almost so, and whatever may
remain of a material nature will quickly fade away.  Thus the personality of
the  past life has vanished and the spirit will not meet with it in the  fu-
ture lives upon this earth.

   But there are some people who are of such an evil nature that they  ENJOY
a  life  spent  in  vice  and  degenerate  practices, a brutal life, and who

[PAGE 3664]

delight in giving pain.   Sometimes they even cultivate the occult arts  for
evil  purposes  so that they may have a greater power  over  their  victims.
Then their fiendish, immoral practices result in hardening their vital body.

   In  such extreme cases where the animal nature has been paramount,  where
there has been no soul expression in the preceding earth life,  the division
in the vital body spoken of before cannot take place at death,  for there is
no dividing line.   In such a case, if the vital body should gravitate  back
to  the dense body and there gradually disintegrate,  the effect of  a  very
evil life would not be so far-reaching,  but unfortunately there is in  such
cases  an  interlocking grip of the vital and desire bodies  which  prevents
separation.   We have seen that where a man lives mostly in the  higher  na-
ture,  his spiritual vehicles are nourished to the detriment of  the  lower.
Conversely,  where his consciousness is centered in the lower  vehicles,  he
strengthens them immeasurably.  It should be understood that the life of the
desire body is not terminated by the departure of the spirit;  it has a  re-
sidual life and consciousness.   The vital body is also able to sense things
in a slight measure for a few days after death in ordinary cases (hence  the
suffering  caused by embalming, postmortem examinations,  etc.,  immediately
after death), but where a low life has  hardened  and  endued  it with great

[PAGE 3665]

strength, it has a tenacious hold on life and an ability to feed on odors of
foods and liquors.  Sometimes, as a parasite, it even vampirizes people with
whom it comes in contact.

   Thus an evil man may life for many,  many years unseen in our very midst,
yet so close that he is nearer than hands and feet.   He is far more danger-
ous than the physical criminal for he is able to prompt others of a  similar
bent  to criminal or degenerate practices without fear of detection or  pun-
ishment by law.

   Such beings are therefore one of the greatest menaces to society  imagin-
able.   They  have sent countless victims to prison,  broken  up  homes  and
caused an unbelievable amount of unhappiness.   They always leave their vic-
tims  when  the latter have come into the clutches of the law.   They  gloat
over their victims' sorrow and distress, this being a part of their fiendish
scheme.   There  are other classes which delight in posing  as  "angels"  in
spiritualistic seances.  They also find victims there and teach them immoral
practices.  The so-called "Poltergeist" which enjoys breaking dishes, upset-
ting  tables,  knocking hats over the heads of the delighted  audience,  and
similar horseplay,  is also in this class.   The strength and density of the
vital body of such beings makes it easier for them to give physical manifes-
tations than for those who have passed beyond into the desire world; in fact

[PAGE 3666]

the vital bodies of this class of spirits are so dense that they are  nearly
physical,  and it has been a mystery to the writer that some of  the  people
who are taken in by such entities cannot see them.  Were  they  once discov-
ered, one look at their evil sneering faces would very soon dispel the delu-
sion that they are angels.

   There is another class of spirits belonging to this same category who ap-
peal  to  person seeking spiritual development  outside  the  spiritualistic
line,  by  posing to them as INDIVIDUAL TEACHERS and giving them  a  lot  of
goody-goody nonsense.  They also play upon the credulity of their victims in
an almost unbelievable manner, and even though for years they may keep their
intentions secret, sometime or other they will show themselves in their true
colors.   Therefore it cannot be reiterated too often that no one should ac-
cept  from  any  one else,  either visible or invisible,  teachings  in  the
slightest  degree contrary to his own highest conception of ethics.   It  is
dangerous to trust absolutely to people in this world and admit them to  our
full confidence; we know this by experience and act accordingly.   We ought,
naturally, to be much more careful when the question comes to matters of the
soul,  and  not  trust  that  most  important  of all matters, our spiritual

[PAGE 3667]

welfare,  in the hands of some one we cannot at least see and judge  accord-
ingly.   There are many spirits, of course, who have not the wits to do any-
thing  very evil with their victims,  and who just lead them around  by  the
nose for years and years without any particularly harmful results.  But SELF
RELIANCE  is the most essential virtue to be cultivated by us at this  stage
of our evolution; the mystic maxim, "If thou art Christ,  help thyself,"  is
always  sounded  in the ears of those who endeavor to tread the  true  path.
Hence we ought to guide ourselves without fear or favor from any spirit.

   It is amazing when one searches the Memory of Nature of the past to  find
how prevalent this interlocking condition of the desire and vital bodies was
in former centuries and millenniums.  We realize, of course, in a sort of an
abstract way,  that the further we go back into the history of men the  more
savage  we  find them,  but that in our own historical times  this  savagery
should  have been so common and so brutal an that might was the  measure  of
right absolutely and beyond dispute, was, to say the least, quite a shock to
the writer.   It has been taught that selfishness and desire were  purposely
fostered under the regime of Jehovah to give incentive to action.   This  in
the course of time had so hardened the desire  body  that when the advent of

[PAGE 3668]

Christ  took place,  there was almost no heaven life among the  people  then
living;  but the writer,  personally,  never realized what this fact implied
until the recent investigations of "The Web of Destiny" were commenced.

   Nor  were these ancient people content to do all the evil they  could  in
life  and then get away,  but they must even have their war  horses  killed,
their weapons laid down in their coffins,  and everything else possible done
to keep them here,  for the ether in those things which had belonged to them
during  life had an attraction for them, and was a means to further  keeping
them within the earth's sphere.  It enabled them to haunt, for they actually
did haunt,  their castles for years and years, and of course it was not only
the  rich or the warrior classes but also others.   In cases of blood  feuds
where people were slain,  the ghosts incited their relatives to avenge  them
by  remaining  about and helping them to carry out the bloody  deeds.   Thus
they  perpetuated evil and kept the world in a turmoil of blood and  strife;
nor is this condition entirely broker in what we call modern days.  Wherever
a person dies who has fostered malice and hatred in his heart,  these inter-
lock  the desire and vital bodies and make him a more serious menace to  the
community  than  anyone  can  imagine who has not investigated this subject.
Therefore, if for no other reason, capital punishment should be abolished so
that  we may not let loose upon the community such dangerous  characters  to
incite the morally weak to follow in their footsteps.

Continued with file "RC1102.TXT"

End of File

