CHAPTER IV - Some Questions Answered - Part 1

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Most questions asked by the neophyte would remain unasked if he had more patience and understood better what he was studying.  Beginners need to await developments in themselves and expand their consciousness normally under instruction.  However, the teacher may invite the asking of questions and for reasons:

1. Because where a group is involved and the members are very intelligent, through their questionings they could make much progress in learning to know and understand each other.  Threads of intercourse could be set up which would link them more closely together.

2. Because through the questions, the teacher himself can enter into a closer rapport with the students' viewpoint.  For example, myself, and the Western point of view as regards the healing art.

Forget not that I am an Oriental in the last analysis, and such is my background and training.  I may know profoundly more about the healing art than you do and about the energies which constitute the human body, but your point of view, your terminologies, and your attitudes of mind are still somewhat foreign to me.  Your questions would help me to understand your background and your limitations, and so enable me to aid you with greater intelligence.

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3. Because asking of intelligent questions is the occult method of focussing the mind, of synthesising knowledge, and of becoming aware of the field of inquiry, and of possible expansions of consciousness.

On the Nature of Congestion.

How can I define congestion for you when the understanding of force and energy and their relation to each other in the human body is still as yet an embryonic study?  To say that congestion is congealed force is misleading; to say that it is static energy means little; to say that it is irregular or non-rhythmic vibration hardly makes sense.  My problem is lack of words and of correct terms in which to carry to you esoteric truth.

Congestion is perhaps best defined as the arresting of the free flow of the force through the centres or centre and throughout the body.  It exists in two forms:

1. That congestion which produces its effect within the centre itself, and therefore and consequently, upon the gland.  It is inhibited, either as it pours into the centre (when it does not affect the gland except in a negative sense), or as it leaves it (when its effect will be positive in some way or another).  When the difficulty takes place as it pours into the centre, then the energy is thrown back upon its originating source—either the astral or mental bodies—and you have a psychological inhibition.  There is no impetus from within to which the allied gland can respond.  When the difficulty is in the outlet into the physical body, you will have no free flow of force, the gland related to the centre will be definitely affected, and either be overstimulated by the nonrhythmic flow or undernourished.  This in turn affects the glandular secretion and later the blood stream.

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2. That congestion which takes place as the energy or the life force flows throughout the physical body, and as it flows finds there certain forms of weakness, various diseased areas and regions where its flow is impeded or too rapidly circulated.  The flow of energy can be arrested in certain areas and can nourish also diseased areas in the body, or can also cure and cleanse them.  A temporary congestion can be of beneficent value as well as a malefic force.  This may surprise you?

Again, I have to repeat how vast is the subject with which we are dealing, and all these earlier instructions and the answers which I give to the questions only serve to show how abstruse the matter is.  But if you will have patience and will be willing to learn by absorption more than by analysis, you will later discover that you know much—intuitively and discriminately.

On Ascertaining the Location of Congestion.

There are three ways whereby the healer can ascertain the presence and the location of congestion and any other form of difficulty-producing objective disease:

1. There is, first of all, clairvoyance which enables the healer to see visually where the difficulty lies.  This form of diagnosis is not always accurate and can be "coloured" by conditions present in the healer himself.

2. There is a form of direct perception, a process of "clear knowing," which is a soul faculty and infallible, once a person has been rightly trained in its use.  It is a blend of mental and spiritual perception and is definite knowledge, or an intuition, if you like, which enables the healer unerringly to put his finger on the place of difficulty and to know its cause, its effect and its end.

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3. There is also a more physical method, which is based on sensitivity in the lower nature, which enables the healer to register in his own body the same difficulty of which the patient is aware.  This is called "occult transference" and should only be employed by those who know how to absorb and to dissipate.  In this case, the healer can also feel the cause of the disease through the pouring in of energy to the etheric counterpart of the physical plane disease, or as an extreme emotionalism or sensitive response in the astral counterpart.

On the Dual Cause of Congestion.

Let me make one or two concise statements and then explain.  First, subjective condition alone cannot cause an outer congestion.  The soul has arranged to express itself through the medium of a body which has certain predispositions.

Second, the subjective is a causative factor when in collaboration with the inherited tendencies of the physical body; therefore, all congestion cannot be avoided, for the subjective life determines the condition and the physical body is predisposed to certain diseases.  This is the will of the soul.  Might I point out that at this stage of human evolution, no subjective conditions are ever right?

Third, an outer condition alone cannot be a causative factor.  If I am right in my major premises (and this the new and coming science will prove), then the observations of the medical world will need to be readjusted to the facts.  The causative factor exists in the meeting of the inner and the outer existing factors.

Let me make the matter a little clearer, for confusion may be caused by the idea that disease is the result of two causes—an inner cause and an outer cause.  The subjective [310] situation is the initiating cause.  Some psychological factor, leading to a wrong use of energy, sets in motion those inner tendencies which find their way out, as vital determining factors, on to the physical plane.  There they come into contact with the physical body or expression which has certain predispositions, certain inherited weaknesses, certain glandular deficiencies—all of which were part of the needed equipment whereby the soul determined that certain needed lessons should he mastered.  The relation established between the outer and the inner forces is the basic cause (expressing itself in two causes) which produces some form of disease.  It is again the negative and the positive aspects brought into a relation which produces a third factor:  the manifestation of some form of disease.

If you speak of perfect physical conditions, I know of no such conditions or of any physical body or physical environment to which such a term could be applied.  There must be both the inner psychological situation and cause, which is the subjective reality (on a tiny scale), and the outer physical condition, manifesting as a weakness or as imperfections; these, in their turn, are a tendency from a previous life, a predisposition, an hereditary lesion or a latent difficulty, based on earlier life interests or malpractice.  Bring these two major determining factors together and—under the law—you will inevitably have some visible manifestation of physical disease or difficulty; this can be serious or relatively unimportant; it can be dangerous to life or capable of providing only temporary discomfort.  No outer condition alone is adequate to produce disease, but the difficulty is that modern medicine does not yet permit the hypothesis of hidden cause except those superficial ones such as, for instance, that worry and intense anxiety can aggravate existing heart trouble.  It does not yet permit of those factors which trace back to an earlier life.  In the case of contagious [311] diseases, the inner cause is of group origin, and has therefore an outer group effect and is an expression of group karma.  The difficulty of the matter is consequently great.

There must be, as you perceive, two existing factors, and these, when related and stimulated, produce the appearance of disease.  It should be remembered that the question of the soul's choosing of a body and the type of vehicle wherein certain types of lessons can be learned and certain educative experiences mastered, is a little-understood theme.  In connection with this, I would remind you that disease is often a mode of clearance and ultimately beneficent in its effects.  It is the working out into manifestation of an inner undesirable factor, and when the inner and the outer causes are brought out into the clear light of day they can be handled, understood and often dissipated and ended through the tribulation of disease and suffering.  But this is a hard saying.

On Certain Types of Disease.

Arthritis and diabetes are both diseases which have their origin in the astral body, but if I might put it so inadequately, arthritis is primarily more objective than diabetes, being the result of the satisfaction of physical desire as it expresses itself through food, either in this life or the previous one.  There would be little or no arthritis if the race ate with correctness and understood the proper food values and effects.  Diabetes is more definitely the result of wrong inner desires, and is not so definitely the result of wrong outer desires.  These may originate in this life, as I have said above, or be inherited from a previous existence.  In this latter case, the incarnating soul chooses a family in which to be born, which will endow it with a body having a tendency or a natural predisposition to this disease.

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There lies here a vast field of investigation; isolation must be made of the types which easily fall a prey to certain group diseases.

Syphilis and arthritis fall into the category of diseases which are largely based upon the satisfaction of physical desire.  Cancer and diabetes are more definitely in the class of diseases which are connected with inner emotional desires and the violent suppressed wish-life of many.  The infectious diseases, such as measles and scarlet fever, smallpox or cholera are, curiously enough, definitely group diseases and are definitely allied with the mental nature.  This will surprise you but so it is.

A student with some insight into occult causes might suppose that when people are changing their focus of attention from the physical nature to the emotional, or from the emotional to the mental, that they become liable to acquire the ancient diseases, such as syphilis and cancer, which the Lemurians acquired.  This is not so.

I would remind you that people do not incur these diseases because they made a shift in their consciousness, but through misuse of certain God-given powers.  The shift in awareness and the disease are not remotely related to each other.  I would remind you, as well, that today people are a blend of the three states of energy which we call physical, emotional and mental, which are the Lemurian, the Atlantean and the Aryan states of consciousness.  Scarcely anyone today is a pure type, i.e., predominantly one or the other.  They are usually a mixture of all three.  You will find it difficult to find a person or a patient "changing his focus of attention from physical to emotional."  He will be either emotional or mental, and at brief times, and from a purely physiological standpoint, physical.  The clearest lines of demarcation are to be seen in the case of disciples who are definitely and consciously endeavouring to [313] shift their focus of attention on to the mental plane.  Nevertheless, they live predominantly in a region which we call kama-manasic, which means both astral and mental.  It is an intermediate level of consciousness.  Only broad generalisations are therefore possible.  Such a generalisation is that syphilitic conditions are more generally physical in their origin than cancer.  Clear lines of demarcation are not possible, and you must always remember that certain diseases may work out in a particular incarnation which have their origin in a very distant past; the seeds of the condition have lain dormant in the so-called permanent atom for ages.  They may not be rooted in the tenor or quality of the present life at all.  Suddenly they spring to life and influence the present incarnation, and incidentally, proffer opportunity for release.

On Fever.

Fever is simply indication of trouble and is a basic way of purification and of elimination.  It is an indicator and not a disease in itself.  Ponder on this, and apply it on all planes, for physical plane fever has its astral and mental counterparts.  It is overexcessive energy which burns up and, in burning, relieves and cures (either through the subjugation of the germ or group of energies which caused it or by the releasing power of death).  Where possible, and when the physical body is strong enough to stand the strain, it is well to let the fever have its way for a time, for it is nature's cure of certain undesirable conditions.  Fevers not only give warning of the presence of that which causes distress, but have in themselves definite therapeutic value.  But careful watching and balancing will be required—balancing against the energies of the body.  Whilst the fever is rampant, the body is rendered relatively futile, and its normal activities are affected.  As to the cure and the correct [314] treatment of fevers, much is known by the orthodox medical profession, and this knowledge will suffice until such time as the causes of fevers are better understood and physicians can work with the cause and not with the effect.

Over-emotionalism is an astral correspondence of physical fever and indicates a rampant germ of desire which must be dealt with before the fever can subside.  An overactive mind which is ill-regulated, very busy but futile in accomplishment, is the mental correspondence.

On the Cure of Cancer.

In all disease of malignant nature, there is a vital core or a living spot of energy which is absorbing, slowly or quickly, as the case may be, the life force in the man.  In the early stages of such a disease as cancer, the vital core is not found until the malignant condition is established so potently that it is exceedingly difficult to do anything helpful.  Yet the cure is only possible in these early developments and then the cure can be effected, but only again if the will of the patient is invoked.  Little can be done in cancer cases unless there is the intelligent cooperation of the one to be healed, for the only method (which I may later elaborate) is to blend the directed will of the patient and of the healing group together into one functioning unit of force.  When this has been done, then the invoked and concentrated energy will follow thought, under the ancient law, and so stimulate the area surrounding the cancer (that is, the healthy tissue) that the absorption of the weakened, diseased tissue by the stronger tissue can take place.  If the energy is directed to the cancer itself, the cancerous condition will be stimulated and the trouble many times increased.  The curing of cancer in the early stages falls therefore into two parts:

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1. The stimulating of the healthy tissue.

2. The building in of new tissue to replace the diseased tissue which is being gradually absorbed and driven out.

Cancer always makes its appearance before there is transmutation of the emotional force, for the reason that there are few disciples (and therefore still fewer of the ordinary and majority of people) who have so transmuted emotion.  This condition of freedom from emotion is so seldom to be found that—at this stage of the world's history—it may be said that it does not exist.

No one who is an integrated and actively functioning person is ever as prone to such a disease as cancer, or any disease, as is the emotional type; he is far more prone to heart trouble.  A full active life prevents such a disease as cancer, but not always.  As the forces of life run more slowly, as old age creeps on, cancer often appears, proving the truth of my primary contention.  In days such as these, wherein cancer is the second great agent of destruction and mortality (and if I am right that cancer is a planetary disease), then almost anyone is liable to it.  Fear is the great predisposing factor.  Inertia and emotionalism are, likewise.

On Dementia Praecox.

What is dementia praecox?  Does the phenomenon evidence a family group tradition?  Is there any clue in the fact that it first manifests itself in early adolescence?  Is the general practitioner correct in placing it in the category of hopeless cases?  These and similar questions are constantly asked by students and practitioners of healing.

These forms of physical diseases which come under the general head of insanities are far more abstruse than is generally [316] [316] realised.  From the standpoint of the esotericist, they fall into the following relatively simple categories:

1. Those where the difficulty is due to the breaking down of the brain tissue.  Far more of these are definitely syphilitic in origin than is generally admitted, and I would remind you that, occultly speaking, that would naturally be the case, for the physical sex organs are a lower correspondence of the negative-positive relation existing in the brain between the two head centres and the pituitary and pineal glands.

2. Those where the difficulty is due to the overstimulation of the brain cells by some forms of energy which overbalance other forms and produce certain serious forms of insanity.

3. Those where there is no real physical difficulty, no lesions or diseased tissues, but simply a loose connection between the etheric body and the dense physical vehicle.  Then obsession or possession can occur.  Such cases are frequently (I might say, usually) regarded by the orthodox psychiatrist and medical man as forms of insanity; yet they are not truly so.  If the afflicted person can be put again "in possession of himself" by some understanding psychologist, and this is entirely possible, then the trouble is ended.  There is a pronounced tendency among the most forward-looking psychologists today, to handle these cases on the hypothesis which I have posited, and that is a definite improvement.

4. Those wherein certain hereditary forms of mental imbalance occur.  These forms of imbalance are caused by happenings in other lives and are in the nature of punishment or retributive karma.  To bring this about, the soul deliberately chooses for a physical vehicle that form which will have in it certain inherited taints, driven [317] thereto by the Lords of Karma when the soul is unable to grip its vehicle—as is the case in the unevolved; or with purpose and intent, when the body can be under soul direction because highly evolved.  I am not listing these different forms of insanity or imbalance under the various headings, as the theme is too complicated, and often there are several predisposing factors, and often only indications of trouble which may never come to anything serious.  I am only giving the categories, leaving to the research scholar the task of eventually listing symptoms and assigning due cause, after much experimental work.  That time is only just arriving.

5. Those in which the mind is unduly fixed and static and controls the brain so unreasonably that there seems only one point of view, one attitude to life, and no fluidity and capability of adjustment.  Such individuals may suffer, for instance, from what is called idée fixe, or they may be completely the victim of some obsessing mental thought.  Such mental obsessions can range all the way from a mild fanaticism to religious mania, with its accompanying characteristics of sadism, ruthlessness and general morbidity.

Dementia praecox comes under the first and the fourth groupings and is a blend, usually, of the factors descriptive of both.  It is inherited in every case and, if not apparently physically so, is then based on inherited astral conditions, which in their turn aid in determining the physical condition.  It is syphilitic in origin (often carried over from another life) and is, in this particular life, quite incurable.

Its sexual basis is demonstrated by the fact that it manifests itself in early adolescence.  The patient can, however, be greatly helped, in the early stages, if the symptoms are duly recognised and his thought life directed, and the [318] dynamic effectiveness of new interests is employed.  A spiritual motivation and like interests can sometimes retard the development of the disease; where this is the case and the matter is handled from early life onwards, the worst climaxes can be obviated.  To the extent that the patient intelligently tries to help himself, and is protected also by the intelligent care of the physician, he can offset the trouble a great deal, and particularly as far as its repetition in another life is concerned.

Many of these problems are intrinsically tied up with the past, and until the laws which govern rebirth are given to the world it is difficult for me even to explain the processes governing physical inheritance, karmic results, and also what is called retributive karma.  The recognition of the subtler forms of disease, and the aid of the psychologist in collaboration with orthodox medicine (which undoubtedly has its place, as, for instance, in the administration of glandular correctives), plus right hygienic handling from childhood onward, will accomplish much and gradually stamp out the mental and brain diseases which are today so numerous and so distressing.

On Euthanasia.

Some students are concerned over the organised effort to legalise euthanasia, and wonder about the placing of power of life and death in the hands of the physician.  At the same time, they are aware that there is involved also the humane factor, in cases where no surcease can be given to prolonged suffering.  To them I would say:

The problem which a consideration of the proposed practice of euthanasia involves will not exist when continuity of consciousness (which negates death) is achieved.  That means that the time will come, in the racial development, when the soul will know that its term of physical [319] life is over and will prepare itself to withdraw, in full consciousness, from the form.  It will know that the service of the form is no longer required and that it must be discarded.  It will know that its sense of awareness, being focussed in the mind nature, is strong enough and vital enough to carry it through the process and the episode of abstraction.  When that consciousness has been developed in man, and the process has come to be recognised by the medical profession and the scientific students of the human mechanism, then the whole attitude to death and its processes, involving as they do pain and suffering, will be altered materially.  Then the man whose time has come to die may avail himself of certain methods of release which, from the average point of view, might be regarded as involving euthanasia.  Modes of abstraction will be studied and applied when death is near, and the process will be regarded as soul withdrawal, as a process of liberation and release.  That time is not so far away as you might think.

Today, grave dangers attend the process of hastening withdrawal, and the legal safeguards will require most careful working out, and even then grave and serious issues might develop.  But some hastening of the processes of death is in order and must be worked out.  Primarily, however, the will-to-die of the patient is not based at this time on knowledge and on mental polarisation, or upon an achieved continuity of consciousness, but on emotional reactions and a shrinking from pain and from fear.

Where, however, there is terrible suffering and absolutely no hope of real help or of recovery, and where the patient is willing (or if too ill, the family is willing), then, under proper safeguards, something should be done.  But this arranging of the time to go will not be based on emotion and upon compassion, but on the spiritual sciences and [320] upon a right understanding of the spiritual possibilities of death.

On Germs.

How inadequately do words meet the need of truth.  We use the word "germ" to indicate the source of some disease or the origin of some form.  We talk of a germ or seed of life; we refer to the germ of an idea; we indicate that intangible point of energy which results later in some kind of manifested form.  It may be a thoughtform, a human being, or a disease, yet the same word has to suffice for all three.  How oft have I told you that all is energy and there is naught else.  A germ is a point of energy having within it certain living potentialities, causing certain effects upon the surrounding field of energy, and producing certain forms of expression which are recognisable upon the physical plane.  But all that is referred to is, in the last analysis, some form of active energy that forms part of the energy available upon and within and around the planet Earth.

In relation to disease, a germ still remains a point of energy, but it might be regarded as energy which is not functioning correctly in relation to the particular form which has become susceptible to its activity or aware of its presence.

Germs are the first effect of an original cause.  Some few form a part of the planetary evil, which means that they have a deep-seated and mental origin and one of such magnitude that the finite minds of men cannot yet grasp them.  Such causes, for instance, may have their effects as a fierce and fiery and hot devotion to an idea or a person, or they may work out as an equally fierce and fiery fever in the physical body, and to this fever, according to its symptoms, a technical name will be given by the medical [321] profession.  The originating cause is the same, and the effects in the personality will differ according to the focus of the attention or where the emphasis of the life is laid.  Ponder on this for I have given a hint here of real importance.

When I used these words, "the focus of attention," I did not refer to any mental attitude or to an attentive mind, but to the impact of life force in any given direction, any locality and any aspect of the human body, where the directed life energy goes.  Germs are living organisms, great or small.  They find their way into the human mechanism through the medium of the life force which, in its turn, uses the heart and the blood stream as its agents of distribution.  In the same way, the energy of consciousness uses the nervous system and the brain as its distributing agency.  Where there is inherent or inherited weakness, there the life force is not properly focussed, and there will be found some form of congestion, or some form of arrested development, or some form of predisposition to disease.  When this is the case, germs can find a fruitful place in which to display their malignant activity.  When the vitality is great and the life force has free and unimpeded circulation, then there will not be these predispositions, the germ cannot find a lodging, and there will not be the risk of infection.

For instance, scarlet fever is contagious, but not all those exposed to it succumb.  The ability to throw off infection and immunity from contagious diseases is largely a matter of vitality (perhaps vitality in particular areas of the body where the focus of the attention and the emphasis of the life force may be found).  It can also be based upon the activity of the blood corpuscles, which serves to keep the blood stream in good condition.

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This focus and emphasis is the same in connection with animals, for it is not the focus of the mind but of the life energy within the physical body.  This, when present and positive, protects.  When it is negative and weak, it leaves the physical body (human and animal) open to the dangers of infection.

I cannot explain more fully than this, for the problem of origin and method remains an insoluble problem just as long as man remains equipped with his present mental approach and emotional reaction to pain and disease, and just as long as he places the same exaggerated emphasis upon form life.  When a better sense of proportion has been developed, and men are beginning to think in terms of the soul and purposes and destiny, then disease, as we know it, will fall into two major categories:

1. Those which produce purification and necessitate a period of retuning and of rest for the body, preparatory to continued life on earth.

2. Those which produce the withdrawal or abstraction of the soul in its two aspects—livingness and consciousness.

On Inoculations.

"What is the standing or value of inoculation or vaccination from an occult or esoteric standpoint?"  This question is often in the minds of healers as they ask the further question which is the real basis of their interest, "Does it affect the subtler bodies?  How?"

There is no occult standard or value in inoculation, any more than there is an occult standard or value in giving a hypodermic injection.  The entire question concerning serums and inoculations has been tremendously overemphasised by the so-called occult students.  The human body, at [323] the present time, is the recipient of such a vast amount of substance, extraneously precipitated into the interior of the body, that the whole subject is of vaster import, yet of lesser importance, than men think.  Such is the paradox which I present to you.  Wrong food of every kind, the inhalation of smoke down the centuries, the breathing in of tainted air, the taking of medicines and pills and tablets of every possible description, the rifling of the vegetable and mineral kingdoms in search of their ingredients, and the injection of mineral substances, of drugs and of serums, till one wonders sometimes at the remarkable assimilative powers of the human frame.

In all fairness, however, I would remind you that, as far as the physical well-being of man is concerned, these methods and techniques of the West have resulted in the production of a healthier race than in the East, in a very definite prolongation of human life, and in the elimination of many dire physical scourges which used to take their toll of man.  This I, an Oriental, do admit.  I have stated the situation thus in order to expand your view from the specific to the whole.

In relation to disease and inoculation, I would remind you that there are three groups of diseases which are not peculiar to man, but which are indigenous in the planet itself.  These diseases are found in widely differing forms, in all the kingdoms in nature.  These three families or groups of diseases are:

1. The great cancer group of diseases.

2. The syphilitic group.

3. Tuberculosis.

Most of the objections made by doctors with occult tendencies are based unconsciously on a feeling that there [324] should be higher methods of controlling diseases in man than by injecting into the human body substance taken from the bodies of animals.  That is most surely and definitely correct, and some day it will be demonstrated.  Another reaction on their part is one of sensitive disgust, again largely unrecognised.  A more vital objection should be based on the suffering entailed on the animals providing the vaccine and other substances.

The effect on the inner bodies is practically nil, and far less than the diseases themselves.  Herein lies for the future a most interesting question.  How far do diseased conditions in the human body carry through and affect the inner bodies from the structural angle?  It is a question I do not intend to answer.  The controlling of modern disease is being handled by modern medicine primarily in three ways:  through the science of sanitation, through preventive medicine, and through inoculation.  These are the lower correspondences to methods of activity emanating from the astral plane, from the etheric levels, and from the earth itself.

The science of sanitation, the use of water, and the growing knowledge of hydrotherapy are the precipitation on earth of certain inner activities on the astral plane of a most definite nature.  From the angle of the aspirant, these methods are called purification.

The science of prevention (both of diseases and of death) is the precipitation on earth of certain modes of procedure on the etheric plane whereby forces are correctly used and certain destructive agencies are controlled and prevented from going the destructive way.

The science of inoculation is purely physical in origin and concerns only the animal body.  This latter science will shortly be superseded by a higher technique, but the time is not yet.

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On Glands.

"Is it possible by certain types of meditation to stimulate either one of the post or ante lobes of the pituitary body, when there is a minus functioning?  Will a meditation designed to integrate the personality automatically adjust the trouble and bring about proper pituitary activity?  Will this also adjust and balance the activity of the other important glands?"

You have here several questions; the whole matter is too vast for proper handling within the available time and limits.

I would say, however, very briefly, that the stimulation of either lobe of the pituitary body, and equally the stimulation of any of the glands by meditation, undertaken by neophytes, is a most dangerous undertaking.  It can be done, but it is not an advisable proceeding except under the expert supervision of some of those who know more than you know and who can see more than you can see.  The glands are the result of the activity or the inactivity of the centres or chakras in the body, and parallel their development.  This development is dependent upon the ray and the point in evolution.  The subject is vast and difficult, and I would have you all remember that constant dwelling upon the physical factors to be found in the personality equipment is not the way of the disciple.  He must aim, as you suggest, at personality integration and at the goal of being a pure channel for the soul.  Such an integration is the result, normally achieved, of

1. Character-building.

2. Soul contact through meditation.

3. Life expression through service.

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The practice of these three, over a long period of years, will inevitably produce the desired results as far as the glandular equipment is concerned, and as far as the total mechanism can stand the pressure of the soul requirements, as they must be met in each specific life.

On the Vital Body.

"What are the principal factors that can be complied with in order to build a strong healthy vital body?  Is it possible for a person with a rather weak vital body to strengthen it?  May not a so-called weak vital body be a healthy one at the same time, the weakness manifesting in non-staying power and a slowness in recovery from fatigue?"

This question is concise and can be briefly answered.  In fact it must be, or otherwise a long discussion will be necessary upon the subject of the vital body, and that is too vast a one with which to deal here, and the implications are too many.  I have given you much in the various books I have written.

When you say a weak vital body I presume you mean one which is loosely coordinated with the physical vehicle and loosely connected, and which has therefore a weak hold upon the outer form, for it is the close integration of the etheric body with the physical form which is the cause of all its staying power.  You are right in your belief that one can be perfectly healthy but have little resistance to fatigue.

The principal factors in re-establishing or making a better etheric control are:

1. Sunshine.

2. Careful diet, with the emphasis upon the proteins and vitamins.

3. The avoidance of fatigue and worry.

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Against all the above, at this time, climate, world conditions, environment and our civilisation militate, and the individual has therefore to resign himself to a state of affairs which lies outside his individual control.

A normal, sane, regulated life is the best means for establishing a better measure of vitality.  This is, I presume, what you mean.  You need to remember, however, that where there is a devitalised etheric body, and conditions are such that a re-establishment of a vital control seems difficult or impossible, there must be recognition of karmic limitations and a willingness to submit to them and leave affairs to work themselves out.  This particular life is not the only one there is.  Frequently, therefore, in any particular incarnation, conditions cannot be changed, and are prolonged by inner rebellion and revolt.  A disciple has to learn the lesson of going on, as the expression is, in spite of and not because of circumstances.

On Prana.

You can discover much on the nature of prana if you use the books which you possess and should possess.  In my book A Treatise on Cosmic Fire and in A.A.B.'s book The Light of the Soul, ^[v]* the whole subject is considered.

Suffice it to say that:

1. There is nothing in manifestation except energy, taking form, using and actuating forms and dissipating forms.

2. This energy is divided into three types of so-called electrical phenomena, called in The Secret Doctrine and in A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, fire by friction, solar fire, and electrical fire.

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3. Prana is the name given to the energy which is drawn upon the physical plane from the etheric aspect of all phenomenal life.  That etheric aspect of the divine energy is a synthesis of energies.  If the energy in which an individual primarily lives and moves and has the focus of his being is, for instance, predominantly astral, then the major expression of energy in his equipment will be astral or emotional feeling energy.  He will react all the time to physical energy or prana and to astral energy or the many sentient emotional forces.  These work out pre-eminently through the spleen, the solar plexus and the throat, and affect in different ways the physical spleen, the stomach and the thyroid gland.

4. Interest in these two types of energy, when evidenced by an individual, is based on the fact that they are the two in which he himself is habitually immersed and to which he most easily and normally responds.

5. The current of energy used in healing will be a synthesis of the energies with which the healer normally works, with that type of energy predominating which is, for him, the paramount energy of his life.  The average unintelligent healer is usually simply a transmitter of prana itself, which is the energy of the planet.  This combines with the etheric physical energies of the patient, passing through the healer's body.  These stimulate the patient sufficiently so that he is enabled to throw off the enfeebling disease.  Some healers can work with that type of force and with emotional energy blended, and produce activity, therefore, not only in the patient's physical body but also in his astral body.  This brings about serious difficulties at times and often hinders true physical healing, on account of the astral turmoil produced.  On this matter, I cannot here enlarge, and there is no time for a longer elucidation at this time. [329] Mental healers (true mental healers who are rare indeed) blend soul energy with the two above mentioned forces and this produces a synthesis of the personality forces.  Carried forward intelligently, this synthesis brings about the healing of the person through the production of definite organisation and alignment.

Soul healing supersedes the three above mentioned methods, and produces the pouring into and through the mechanism of the patient of pure soul energy.  It was in this way that Christ worked, and there are few today to work this way.  It must be held before you, however, as an objective.

Physical healing by prana is very common.  It is often temporarily effective, but it concerns and deals only with effects and never touches causes.  The disease can therefore be abated, but never cured.  The power to heal mentally is on the increase and produces relatively permanent effects.  But astral healing is rare and very seldom successful.  The potency of the astral nature of the healer and also of the patient, and its usually unregulated condition, is too great for effective work, owing to the polarisation of humanity at this time and to the lack of correct emotional poise and control.

On Oriental and Occidental Bodies.

The question is also often in the minds of some healers whether there is a difference in the causes of disease and the effects as experienced in oriental or occidental bodies.  To them I would say:

Humanity is one and the same all over the world, and both eastern and western bodies are prone to the same diseases and manifest the same symptoms; all suffer from tuberculosis, from cancer and the sexual taints; all die frequently [330] from pneumonia and influenza.  Through sanitation and other curative methods, carried out on a large scale, ancient diseases (inherited from old Atlantis) such as bubonic plague and cholera, are being slowly stamped out.  They still crop out in the East owing to the strength of the ancient civilisations, the lack of food, of sanitation, and the dense crowding.  They are also climatic diseases and perish in the colder air of the north.  Certain diseases are the result of wrong diet, used over unnumbered centuries.

One of the main reasons for the apparent difference (if there is any) may lie also in the greater age of the oriental races.  The diseases of old age, and those of youth or middle age, have their variations, and Asia and its peoples are very, very old.  The body stock is wearing out fast.  Yet the Japanese show no sign of that old age.  India is far older than Europe, but the Chinese and Japanese stock is older still, yet they demonstrate no such sign of effete old age.  The reason for this lies in the very different type of emotional body as found in the Aryan or Atlantean.  The whole question is incalculably difficult.

I might answer your question, however, very briefly, by saying that there is no difference whatever in the basic causes of disease in the East and the West.  They are the same for the whole human family.

On the Nervous System.

In the right understanding of the relationship of the etheric or vital body (with its major and minor centres and its network of nadis) to the nervous system of the human body, two great aspects of soul activity can be grasped.

First, that aspect of soul life which enables the soul to motivate and force into incarnation and activity the physical [331] mechanism, the body, through the galvanising activity of what we call Life.

Second, that aspect of soul life which preserves the physical vehicle in health through the free play of the pranic currents.  The above is an attempt to express a great truth in as simple a fashion as possible.  The true significance of the above statement embodies the next great step in the field of true psychology and of healing.  The whole subject is profoundly interesting.  Some of it I have dealt with in the pages of A Treatise on White Magic ^[vi]* and you would find it of value to study the matter there outlined.

The general situation in this connection might be outlined very briefly as follows:

A human being is a combination of various types of force.  There is the force or energy of matter itself which might be regarded as the energy aspect, in its totality, of the cells or atoms of the body.  The word "cell" itself suggests, in its usual connotation, an imprisoned life, and life and energy are, for the esotericist, synonymous terms.  This is the third aspect of divinity, expressing itself in humanity.  There is also the dual energy which the soul embodies or transmits; this might be likened to two streams of energy, which merge and blend to form one stream when detached from the body, and which divide into two when they enter into matter and form.  They bring to matter, or to the aggregated cell lives, the contribution of quality—consciousness and pure life.  It might be stated also that:

a. The stream of life-energy finds its way to the heart, the physical heart, and there (via the physical permanent atom) it energises coherently the entire physical body, using the blood stream as its major agency and channel of contact and communication between this central powerhouse [332] of life and the periphery.  As we well know, the blood is the life.  This life activity is the factor which gathers together and holds in form all the living atoms and cells of the body.  When that life thread is withdrawn by the soul at death, the living atoms separate, the body falls apart and disintegration ensues, with the atomic lives returning to the reservoir of power, to the bosom of living matter from whence they came.

b. The stream of energy which conveys the soul quality of intelligence, plus love-wisdom, and which constitutes what we understand as the consciousness, with its powers to contact, to sense and to rationalise, only penetrates as far as the physical brain.  There this second aspect concentrates itself or anchors itself in the region of the pineal gland.  From there in ever increasing potency, as the processes of incarnation and experience are pursued, the soul begins to control, galvanise into purposeful activity, and to use the physical body.  Remember that, to the soul, the body is only its response apparatus on the physical plane and a medium of expression.

It might also be pointed out, as a third necessary statement, that the soul pours its consciously directed energy into the dense physical body through the medium of the etheric or vital body.  This instrument is composed of:

1. Seven major centres of force and forty-nine minor centres.  The major centres are found in the head and up the spinal column.  The minor centres are to be found scattered all over the body.

2. The etheric network which is composed of streams of energy, connects all the centres into two systems—one major and one minor—and radiates out from these centres all over the entire body.

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3. The nadis are infinitesimally small threads of energy or force fibres which radiate out from every part of the network and underlie every part of the triple nervous system.  They are found in their millions, and produce the sensitive response apparatus through which we work and of which the mechanism of the five senses is one of the externalisations.

The controlling power station will be found to vary according to the point in evolution reached:

1. Low-grade humanity uses the solar plexus as the point where the basic energy is localised temporarily.  There will also be found a slight activity in the ajna centre.

2. Average humanity works partly through the solar plexus centre but largely through the ajna centre and the throat centre.

3. High-grade human beings, the intelligentsia and world aspirants use the head centre, plus the ajna centre, the throat, heart, and solar plexus.