CHAPTER IV - Some Questions Answered - Part 2
Finally it might be said that the physical apparatus which is the direct result of the inner activity of the centres, network and nadis, is the heart, the endocrine system and the brain. Into this general plan, very sketchily outlined above, all ancient medicine (particularly the Tibetan, the Chinese, and the Hindu), with our modern western science, fits. The correlation of the western and eastern techniques still remains to be made, and much will be gained thereby. Further than this I cannot here enlarge, but the above will suffice to show that the methods which you may discover in your reading (and their name is Legion) can all be brought into relation to this general scheme of energy processes in the human body.
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On Diet.
No set diet could be entirely correct for a group of people on differing rays, of different temperaments and equipment and at various ages. Individuals are every one of them unlike on some points; they require to find out what it is that they, as individuals, need, in what manner their bodily requirements can best be met, and what type of substances can enable them best to serve. Each person must find this out for himself. There is no group diet. No enforced elimination of meat is required or strict vegetarian diet compulsory. There are phases of life and sometimes entire incarnations wherein an aspirant subjects himself to a discipline of food, just as there may be other phases or an entire life wherein a strict celibacy is temporarily enforced. But there are other life cycles and incarnations wherein the disciple's interest and his service lie in other directions. There are later incarnations where there is no constant thought about the physical body, and a man works free of the diet complex and lives without concentration upon the form life, eating that food which is available and upon which he can best sustain his life efficiency. In preparation for certain initiations, a vegetable diet has in the past been deemed essential. But this may not always be the case, and many disciples prematurely regard themselves as in preparation for initiation.
On the Spleen.
The spleen is the most important agent of the life force, but it is the life force inherent in matter itself, independently of form. It is therefore closely related to the planetary physical body. It is the externalisation of a very important centre.
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There are three centres in the body (with allied externalisations) which are basically essential to life.
1. The heart centre and the physical heart itself. In these the life principle (the Spirit aspect) is located. Life and Spirit are one.
2. The head centre and the brain in which the consciousness principle (the Soul aspect) is located.
3. The pranic centre and the spleen, in which the life of matter itself (the Matter aspect) is located.
You must bear in mind that, as H.P.B. points out, the dense physical body is not a principle. It is atomic matter which is held in form by etheric substance, under the control of the soul. It is automatic in its response, and reacts to the outer world of impacts and inner impulses, but has no initiatory life of its own. It is composed of units of energy, as is all else in nature, and has its own individual life; its focus for the distribution of energy for this life is the spleen.
In the spleen, the negative life of matter and the living energy of the positive etheric body, are brought together, and then a "spark," as it is called, is made between the inner living bodies of man (through the medium of the etheric body) and the physical plane. It is a reflection on the lowest rung of the evolutionary ladder, as far as man is concerned, and corresponds to the relation of soul and body or—on a higher turn of the spiral—of spirit and matter.
On the Vagus Nerve.
There are two powerful centres connected with the vagus nerve: the heart centre and the centre at the base of the spine. These two, when brought under the control of the soul, functioning through the head centre (the [336] brahmarandra), produce the raising of the kundalini fire. This, when taking place, swings the entire nervous system into a special form of rhythmic activity and responsiveness, and it is through the stimulation and the control of the vagus nerve that this is accomplished. It is not the vagus nerve which is instrumental in raising the kundalini fire, but the reverse situation. When the head, the heart and the centre at the base of the spine are in magnetic and dynamic rapport, producing a radiatory effect, then they affect the vagus nerve and the fires of the body are unified and raised, producing purification and the "opening of all doors."
On the Eye.
There is a certain school of scientific theorists who are working on the theory that the eye is the declarative factor in the human body and the rule or the key to its right understanding. They have already demonstrated much in connection with its declarative powers, where disease is concerned. They are on right lines. Nevertheless, the science with which they are working is so embryonic as yet that their conclusions are not fully demonstrated nor entirely reliable.
In the immediate future, when our planetary life is somewhat calmer, the whole subject of Vision and the registration by the eye of the inner worlds will receive an enormous impetus, and conditions—hitherto undreamed of—will be revealed. Man will enter into a new life and a higher era of understanding. The teaching concerning the iris of the eye is an indication of this.
Why not read up on the eye a little and note its occult correspondences to the created world, and to the whole problem of light? The eyes and the soul are closely related and—speaking in the language of occultism—the right [337] eye is the representative of the soul, and therefore the agent of buddhi, whilst the left eye is the representative of the personality, and the agent of the lower concrete mind. You will find it interesting to read what can be found in The Secret Doctrine and other books (including mine) on this subject; it will compel the conclusion that here is a field of investigation hitherto unopened and a teaching which will warrant careful study for the sake of the group, if for no other reason.
On Psychological Causes of Disease.
Do "psychological causes of disease" register in brain symptoms before reflexing to other parts of the body? A sentence in The Light of the Soul has a bearing here:
"The brain, for instance, is the 'shadow' or the external organ of the mind, and it will be found by the investigator that the contents of the brain cavity have a correspondence to the aspects of the human mechanism found upon the mental plane."
Bear in mind that the life force works through the heart, utilising the blood stream, whilst the consciousness aspect works through the brain, using the nervous system. This is the first and most important point to grasp.
Psychological causes of disease register in the brain or (if of a very low order) in the solar plexus. They do not, however, make their presence felt as symptoms of disease in these places where they thus register. They are energies or forces which—when brought into contact with the energies of the body—produce, as a result (and not before this point) those conditions to which we give the name of disease. The psychological causes are forms of energy, working out through the appropriate centres in the body, and these, in their turn, condition the glandular system. [338] The secretion or hormone, generated under this esoteric stimulation, finds its way into the blood stream, and the result of all this interaction can be either good health, as it expresses sound psychological causes, or poor health, as it expresses the reverse.
It is the internal relation between the subtler energies, working through certain centres, plus the related endocrine system, with its relation to the blood stream, that constitutes both the possibility of disease and its cure. But this recognition is still academically lacking. Much of the inherent psychology is grasped, but a gap still exists between the physical and the etheric bodies, and little recognition of the etheric body is yet academically accorded. There is yet no real understanding of the relation between the inner psyche and the outer form, via the etheric body. The study of the glands has somewhat helped, but medical science must go a step further and relate the glandular system to the inner centres.
On Problems of Melancholia.
These problems of melancholia are difficult to place and are due to a wide variety of causes. I will list them here, and the list may at some time serve you.
1. A sense of frustration, a thwarted wish-life, or a recognition of a basic life failure.
2. A sense of dramatics, and a desire to figure importantly on the little stage of a person's life. This can often be quite unrealised and have a truly subconscious origin, or it can be a carefully cultivated habit or attitude.
3. A devitalised condition, largely of an etheric nature, which robs life of all joy and desire and presents always a sense of futility. Many women passing through the menopause experience this.
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4. A certain form of breakdown in the cells found in a particular area of the brain.
5. Based on fear of insanity and of death—a baseless fear which has never materialised but which does constitute an idée fixe, so that the person is the victim of a well developed thoughtform.
6. A tuning-in, through oversensitivity, on the suffering and massed pain of the world. Disciples can be temporarily overcome by this.
7. This condition is very seldom brought about by any form of obsession such as "an earthbound entity or a living vampire-like person." A very few such cases have been known, but they are too rare to be considered a factor.
8. Sometimes a person tunes in on a state of massed melancholia, such as can be found in our sanitariums or asylums. The condition has then nothing really to do with him, but being sensitive, he identifies himself with those who are suffering from acute melancholia.
9. Melancholia, as a symptom of disease (not of brain disease) is also fairly frequent and will disappear when the disease is under proper treatment.
A person may be suffering from a combination of such causes, as for instance a combination, let us say of the causes in 1, 2, 6.
On Full Moon and Psychoses.
One of the departments of esoteric medicine in the future will concern itself with the law of cycles, lunar and solar. It will then be demonstrated as a fact, what has always been suspected and is now generally recognised, that the period of the full moon has a definite effect upon unbalanced people, upon the dreaming state and frequently conditions quite [340] drastically, the neurotic and erotic conditions so prevalent at this time.
The tremendous increase in insanity and imbalance today is due to three major causes:
1. The transitional period of today producing a clash between the Aquarian and the Piscean forces, has led to a condition which makes it very difficult for sensitive people to live normally at all. To express the idea in symbol: It is almost as if the race, after habituating itself to live on the earth, had now to accustom itself to live in water. I am talking from the standpoint of the form.
2. The intense spiritual and mental stimulation which is being applied today to the masses by the planetary Hierarchy. The intent is to bring to an end old forms of living, to create new forms through the process of adjustment, and thus bring in a new civilisation based on a more subjective culture. I would ask you to ponder on this last sentence.
3. The pouring in of more light from the astral plane (at present unrecognised) and also the tremendous increase of ordinary physical plane illumination. This produces oversensitivity. The work done by the prevailing use of electric light and the general glare in which humanity now lives, will exact its toll from the race until the human mechanism has adjusted itself to light. Remember that this general use of light is less than one hundred years old and is an occult effect with far reaching results.
I mention these three things because they are responsible for much of the predisposition to sensitivity of an abnormal kind. Occult students well know that at the time of the full moon certain high contacts are easier than at other [341] times, but it is right here, my brother, that the difficulty lies.
At the time of the full moon (over a period of five days) the moon and the planet are the recipients of more reflected light from the sun than at any other time. For this there is a subjective cause. I can only explain it to you by a symbol which may convey truth to you or which may act as a blind. Symbolically speaking, the period of intensest meditation of our planetary Logos comes around at the full moon period each month; just as you have your daily meditation so He in His high place, has His cyclic point of contact. This produces the pouring in of radiance and the entering in of energy both subjective and objective. For all true students, therefore, their work on the mental plane is facilitated; they are enabled then to meditate more successfully and to attain realisation with greater ease. They definitely share in the achievement of the Lord of Shamballa.
The moon, as you know, is a shell, an ancient form through which the planetary Logos at one time sought expression. It is slowly disintegrating physically but not astrally as yet, and is therefore still closely linked with the astral body of the planetary Logos and therefore with the astral bodies of all people. Its influence is consequently more potent at the time of the full moon upon all who are unbalanced. This lack of equilibrium, which it really is, will eventually be found to exist between the astral body, the etheric body and the physical mechanism.
People who are definitely aspirants and people who are definitely mental, can profit by these full moon cycles; those who are definitely unbalanced, positively astral, and emotional, and frequently swept by uncontrolled desire, are hindered, overstimulated, and psychically upset by these same cycles. The veil of illusion is lit up at that time with a consequent result of hallucination, astral visions, [342] psychic urges, and those misinterpretations of life, of overemphasis upon aspects of life which we call phobias, lunacy, etc.
I would like to make a suggestion here, which is not possible for me to prove to you, but which the future will substantiate. The major diseases called mental, seldom have anything to do with the mind itself. They are:
1. Diseases of the brain.
2. Disorders of the solar plexus.
3. Astral domination.
4. Premature clairvoyance and clairaudience.
5. Obsession.
6. Absence of mind.
7. Soullessness.
This is, of course, a wide generalisation and has no reference to that category of diseases in which both mind and brain are involved. The diseases of mystics are also in a different category. These latter diseases involve the brain of course, indicate mental imbalance, produce various types of heart disease and the diverse neurotic tendencies with which the saints of the world were so often afflicted.
One thing I will add, however, for your encouragement. As the race, as a whole, becomes governed by the solar Lord, the sun god, the Soul, then the cycles of the moon will steadily lose their baleful effect and there will be a dying out of the various neurotic complaints and mental diseases today so prevalent. The time is not yet. It is not easy for me to give more information concerning the moon and its phases, as it constitutes one of the major mysteries to be revealed at the third initiation.
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On Distribution of Force; Blood Transfusion.
Instead of two questions, you have several. Let me list them for you so that you will see what I mean, and for clarity in replying. Several of these questions are inferred and not definitely posited, but if I am to deal with them they must be put in the form of questions and even then the subject is so vast that there will not be time.
1. How can a more harmonious distribution of force be accomplished for the benefit of all?
2. Can you give us some more specific instructions and indicate to us some esoteric methods, suitable to our stage of development in connection with this problem of distribution?
3. Has the fact of blood transfusion...any correspondence in some process of the transfusion of subtle energies on the inner planes?
4. Are there some special means, besides what we are already trying to do, by which those of us who are on the second ray could more effectively transfuse our love quality into brothers on the first ray, and vice versa?
5. What is the interrelation and the cooperation among the ray lives and particularly between the first and second ray entities?
6. How can the example of the close cooperation and friendship between the Master M. and the Master K. H. be of practical help and inspiration to us?
You will see from the above how impossible it will be to deal with this wide range of subjects. I will, however, give you the briefest answers to some of them, or indicate the line along which your ideas may flow.
1. A harmonious distribution of forces varies in its arrangement and consequently in its outer effect not only [344] according to ray types but according to the age of the soul, and the individual status upon the Path. There is a difference in this arrangement in the subtle bodies of the probationary disciple and of the accepting disciple, and of the accepted disciple and for each grade upon the path of initiation. This arrangement is brought about in three ways or is subject to three forms of developing influences.
a. Through the life of aspiration, as registered in the physical brain consciousness.
b. Through the spontaneous awakening of the centres and in their right geometrical progression. This I have referred to in some of my books, but more cannot be given as it is one of the secrets of the first initiation. The rearranging and the readjustment proceeds during the whole period of the Path, technically understood.
c. Through the decentralisation of the whole inner conscious life. The server becomes:
1. The mystical extrovert.
2. The "one who steps aside from the centre."
3. The "one who lives upon the periphery of the heart."
4. The "one who hovers over the central lotus."
5. The "distant one who sees from far away, yet lives within the form of all that is."
A study of these descriptive phrases may give you the clue to the right distribution of energy.
2. The second question is somewhat answered in the above brief statement. I am doing what I can in my personal instructions [vii]* to all of you to bring about two things:
a. Clear the field of the personality life so that the higher energies can have freer play.
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b. Bring about those conditions and orientations which will produce harmony within, and consequently and equally, harmonious relations without. I would remind you, however, that the inner harmony of one brother in a group may not be adequate to produce harmony in another brother or in the group.
3. Blood transfusion is symbolic of two things: First, that the blood is the life, and secondly, that there is but one Life permeating all forms, and therefore transferable under right conditions. It is also a synthetic act of service. Ponder on this.
4. Your question gives me an opportunity to point out that even an understanding of, and interest in, the ray types (as represented for instance in a group) may itself lead to a subtle separative attitude. There is no necessity for any Son of God in incarnation upon the physical plane or in the three worlds to "transfuse" his ray quality into his brother. These ray qualities are shared by all alike, and a brother's own soul—differing in no way from another soul—will effect the needed transmutation or transfusion into the personality life. One may facilitate the process by providing those conditions of harmony and peace wherein a brother is faced with as few contrary attitudes as possible, and where the interplay of love may produce an effective stimulation. But this is not transfusion. What exists in you exists in all, and the love quality (above all other qualities) is the dominant characteristic of all rays.
5. This question is not only one of the mysteries of the occult sciences, but it is of far too vast a nature in its implications and too complicated a problem for me to deal with in this place.
6. The relationship of the two Masters you mention can be studied in two ways:
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a. Through a consideration of the effective working relation which exists between the groups of disciples working under Them.
b. Through a study of those people (and they are many) who have a first ray personality and a second ray ego, or vice versa.
In the last analysis, my brother, we bring about the correct distribution of force, leading to harmonious relations, when we seek to live selflessly. For the probationer, this means an imposed selfless activity upon the physical plane. For the accepted disciple, it involves a life free from all selfish, self-centered emotion, and of these self-pity and self-dramatisation are outstanding examples; for the initiate it means a mental attitude which is devoid of selfish thought, and free from the dramatisations in thought of the ego.
On Suffering.
Suffering, in the last analysis, is only possible when the soul is identified with the body, or rather, when the spiritual aspect of the soul (in the body) is identified with the animal soul, which informs and vitalises the form and constitutes its temporary life. During unconsciousness, the animal soul is aware of pain and suffering, and those who nurse and watch know this well, but there is no real pain or true distress because the real man, the spiritual soul, has been driven away either by excessive pain (as in true unconsciousness) or by narcotics.
The suffering of the soul, when the personality goes astray, is only a symbolic form of words. There is no pain or true suffering, and frequently no knowledge of the happening, for the vibration is not high enough to penetrate into that high plane where dwells the soul. Where, however, [347] there is such knowledge, the soul experiences, if I might so express it, a sense of lost opportunity, and therefore a sense of frustration, but it is not more than that, for the patience of the soul, as of the Hierarchy, is illimitable. Just because we speak symbolically and say the soul suffers, you must not interpret it in ordinary terms.
The suffering of Christ or of the planetary Logos or of God Himself, is not comprehensible in terms of personality reaction. We use the words, but they really mean "detached and isolated identification." Does that convey aught to you, my brother?
Wrong identification is the cause of pain and leads to suffering, distress and various effects. Right identification leads to understanding and comprehension of the psychological attitudes of the sufferer, but to no true pain or distress as we normally understand it.
On Planetary Energy.
The sumtotal of energy remains the same for as long as a planet persists, with its forms and life expression. It is part of the great storehouse of energy. It is the use and the effect of this energy, as it is appropriated by a form or forms of some kind, which we note as it is attracted from its own place to a place where normally it would not be functioning. There it creates situations and produces difficulties which are closely connected with a man's karma and destiny. There is a great abstracting energy which we call Death, whose influence at a given time proves more potent than the united influences of the body atoms and cells. It produces the tendency to withdraw and finally to abstract the soul energy which avails itself of these potencies in the process of discarding a vehicle on some plane or another. It might be said that the seeds of death (the germ of death) are latent in the planet and in the forms. [348] When powerful enough to be recognised, we call them germs, but this connotes a definite stage of almost tangible proof. When unduly potent, they produce acute disease and consequent death; when more feeble in effect, we call them illness and note their purificatory effect. These contaminations (as they can be called, though it is by no means a good name) are only such when that aggregate of energies which we call a man is brought in contact with these contaminating influences or types of ancient energies, and the reaction or the response is, from the angle of the comfort of the physical body, bad.
On Transmutation of Desire.
The point to be borne in mind is that desire dominates and controls action when the life force is focussed in the desire nature, as it predominantly is with the majority of people. But planned mental control is only possible when the life is focussed on the mental plane. When this is the case, desire will not require suppression, because the power of the focussed attention will be elsewhere and there will consequently be no furious desire to suppress. Suppression is an effort by the man focussed in the astral body to bring in the will aspect of the mind. But this he seldom does. The desire may pass off through the intense effort the man is making to achieve some mental consciousness, but no suppression takes place really, nor is the will evoked. When a man's life is run and controlled by the mind from mental levels, then transmutation does take place; transmutation (whereby the astral nature is changed and altered) may be of a spiritual nature or simply of an expedient nature. Desire may be transmuted into spiritual aspiration or into an attitude which is in conformity to the will of the mind which is expressing it. Hence the necessity for careful analysis of motive and of objectives.
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On Karma.
I have already suggested to you that the entire question of karma is as yet imperfectly comprehended. A great Law of Cause and Effect exists, but one particular aspect of it has never been emphasised, and the knowledge of humanity on the subject of karma is very elementary. Karma has always been interpreted in terms of disaster, and consequences that are painful, of error, of penalty, and of evil happenings, both for the individual and for the group. Yet, such is the beauty of human nature, and much that is done is of such a fine quality and so selfless and so happily oriented, that the evil is frequently offset by the good. There is everywhere, little as it may be realised, an abundance of good karma of a potency (under the same Law) equal to that which is regarded as bad. Of this, small mention is ever made. This good karma brings into activity forces which may work out as healing energies in any specific case. Upon these energies for good, which have been earned and are operating, the healer can always count. This is my first point. Ponder upon it.
Karma is a determining factor, but unless a healer is an advanced initiate and so able to work effectively and intelligently on the causal levels whereon souls dwell, it is impossible for him to decide whether any specific case will yield to healing treatment or not. Therefore, the healer or practising disciple assumes in his mind the possibility of cure (which may be possible or not) and of the patient's good karma, and proceeds to apply all possible aid. This is my second point.
My third point is to suggest to you and to all engaged in the healing art that much of the so-called disaster, involved in disease and in death (particularly the latter) is to be found in a wrong attitude toward death, and to an [350] overestimation of the beneficence of form life. The release of a soul through disease and death is not necessarily an unhappy occurrence. A new and better attitude to the phenomenon of death is essential, is possible and near. Upon this I need not here enlarge. But I do seek to give you a new slant on the subject of sickness and of death.
Will you be astonished also if I state that under the Law it is quite possible to "interfere with karma"? The great Laws can be transcended and frequently have been in the past, and increasingly will be in the future. The Law of Gravitation is frequently offset and daily transcended when an aeroplane is in flight. The energy of faith can set in motion superior energies which can negate or retard disease. The whole subject of faith, and its vital significance and potency, is as little understood as is the Law of Karma. This is a tremendous subject, and I cannot further enlarge upon it. But I have said enough to offer you food for thought.
As regards the lengthening of the span of life during the past century of scientific attainment, I would point out that true techniques and the possibilities of organised soul action are always parodied and falsely demonstrated on the physical plane by the earlier scientific activities which are right in motive but which are only a symbol, on the outer sphere of life, of coming and usually future soul action. The life span will eventually be shortened or lengthened at will by souls who consciously serve, and use the mechanism of the body as the instrument whereby the Plan is served. Frequently, today, lives are preserved in form—both in old age and in infancy—that could be well permitted liberation. They serve no useful purpose and cause much pain and suffering to forms which nature (left to herself) would not long use, and would extinguish. Note that word. Through our overemphasis on the value of form [351] life, and through the universal fear of death—that great transition which we must all face—and through our uncertainty as to the fact of immortality, and also through our deep attachment to form, we arrest the natural processes and hold the life, which is struggling to be free, confined to bodies quite unfitted to the purposes of the soul. Misunderstand me not. I desire to say naught that could place a premium on suicide. But I do say, and I say with emphasis, that the Law of Karma is oft set aside when forms are preserved in coherent expression which should be discarded, for they serve no useful purpose. This preservation is, in the majority of cases, enforced by the subject's group and not by the subject himself—frequently an unconscious invalid, an old person whose response apparatus of contact and response is imperfect, or a baby who is not normal. These cases constitute definite instances of an offsetting of the Law of Karma.
The soul, through alignment, enters into a right use of time; or rather the brain, which is the only time-conscious factor in man, is no longer the dominant attribute; the mind, as the agent of the soul (whose consciousness is inclusive of the past, present, and the future), sees life and experience as it truly is. Death, therefore, is referred to as an episode, and as a transitional point in a vast series of transitions. When this attitude of the soul is grasped, our entire technique of living, and incidentally of dying, is utterly altered.
In conclusion, however, and in apparent but no real negation of all that I have said above, let me repeat that the healer will give of his best to the one he seeks to heal. Having no clairvoyant power in the majority of cases, and being time-conscious and under the influence of karma, he will do his utmost along the lines of his own training and in accordance with the instructions given in this treatise [352] on healing. I suggest that you grasp that the objective before any healer at this time and at this given point in the evolutionary unfoldment of the race is the need, when so asked, to aid in the bringing about of health to the body and its sustained experience in life. You need also to realise that much that is believed, accepted and taught by the metaphysicians today is based on wrong premises, such as the nature of matter, the time equation, the value of form existence, and the fear of death. Seek to eliminate these attitudes from your consciousness, and you will arrive at a truer perspective as to the healing art.
Later, in a few years' time, we can probably begin to deal with specific cases. I seek, however, at this time to hold you to wide generalisations, and to basic laws and propositions, and not to cloud the issues with purely physical plane occurrences, temporary or chronic, or with death and destiny.
No request for real aid must ever be refused, however. A deaf ear must not be turned to trouble, either physical, mental or psychological. But I would call to your attention the fact that success in healing may not always mean release from disease and the so-called physical cure of the patient. It might simply involve, if physically successful, the postponement of the plan of the soul for the person. Success might mean the correction of wrong inner attitudes, of erroneous lines of thought, and at the same time leave the physical body as it was. It might mean the placing of the patient (through wise teaching and patience) en rapport with his soul and the consequent reorienting of the life to the eternal verities. It might consist in the proper preparation of the person for the tremendous purpose which we call Death, and thus bring about the relief of pain in this way.
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The whole science of healing will shift eventually and increasingly into the realm of preventive medicine and the psychological adjustment of the individual within his group, and the providing of right living conditions, correct dieting and housing for the peoples. That, however, takes much time, and whilst the race is on its way to the newer modes of living, with their resultant effects of better health and a more correct comprehension of the laws of health, all who stand in the world as magnetic centres must proceed, according to the light that is in them, to work with people, in order to help them, to heal them, and to aid them in making needed adjustments. Nothing should stop your service along this line, not even the realisation of limitation and of ignorance. Do all you can to encourage and to sympathise, to point out undesirable attitudes, to end wrong ways of living, and change poor modes of psychological expression as far as you see them and to the best of your ability. Remember, nevertheless, that your best way may be far short of your future capacities, and remain ready ever to change your point of view when a higher and a better way is presented to you. Above everything else in life, give to all who seek your aid the fullest measure of love, for love releases, love adjusts and interprets, and love heals, on all three planes.
On Group Illnesses.
In the last analysis, most of the ills of the body are rooted in some response to group activity. It will be necessary for us to grasp the fact that the phrase "group life and activity" must include not only past heredity, or inherited group tendencies, but also may indicate present world contacts, which weaken or increase resistance far more than is generally believed possible. One of the causes of cancer, which was not so prevalent in the earlier and more leisured [354] days of the racial life—for then the HERD instinct was not so powerful as it is today—is due to the increased stimulation of the body. This stimulation is caused by our close contact in our daily lives with each other through our massed group existence, particularly in our urban centres. If cells are living organisms (which they are), they respond to group life, to massed cell emanation and radiation. This constant stream of energy pouring from the aggregate of bodily cells in massed humanity may produce in certain types of people an overstimulation in some part of bodily cell structure. This usually occurs where there is a weakness in the etheric or vital body, which means that cell defenses are impaired and the result is frequently a cancer or a general cancerous condition. This is the fundamental cause, though modern investigation is occupied with secondary causes and effects of this etheric weakness. I shall consider this later in more detail. It will be obvious to you that when we begin to deal with the vital body and to consider it with greater understanding and knowledge, we shall be able to handle such diseases as cancer far more effectively.
On Using the Mind and the Imagination to Develop Group Consciousness.
When a member of a group, such as a group for healing, speaks of developing group consciousness, he refers to his particular group of brothers, and to his group as a unit of several souls. Forget not that such a unit is in itself a separative concept from the angle of the greater whole, but it serves a useful purpose in training the group members to think in those wider terms. It serves as a stepping stone away from the consciousness of the isolated personality.
If you can indeed feel, think and function as one complete unit—several personalities and one soul—it will then be relatively easy to extend the concept to a broader inclusiveness, [355] to broaden your horizon and thus become inclusive in a much wider sense.
The using of the mind to this end involves an aptitude to learn the distinction between analysis and criticism. This is a hard and well-nigh impossible thing for many to learn. Traces of illumination of this subject will show themselves if the group persists in all earnestness. The members have to learn to respond, as a group, to the same spiritual, mental and human ideas, and thus swing—as a "telepathic unit"—into one united train of thought. They have, as a group, to be preoccupied with the same things which are indicated by the soul of the group, and not by one person in the group, as is apt to be the case. They have to learn, as a group, to hold the mind steady in the light—the group mind, and not their individual minds.
In using the imagination to this end, you have to cultivate the power to ignore the outer forms and to concentrate on the inner lines of light which unite brother to brother, group to group, and kingdom to kingdom in the expression of the Life of God Himself. It is the creative use of the imagination which produces an integrated group etheric body and which enables you to see this group body of force and light as one complete form and as one expression of the group intelligence, will and purpose—but not the will or purpose of the dominant mind or minds in the group. Thus these can work out on the physical plane in right expression. However, when the group members are primarily occupied with their own ideas, their plans, their problems, and how they can use whatever light and knowledge may be received, they negate any possibility of such creative use of the united imagination. To become entirely free from this will take much careful cultivation and self-surrender to the soul.
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On Healing Energy.
The question is sometimes asked by beginners: "Can we clearly distinguish between the healing energy, as expressed by the soul and by the personality? Can we have some understanding of the part that love has to play in the art of healing?" I can answer with brevity.
When we come to work as a group with individuals whom we shall seek to aid, we shall then learn to use the various types of energy according to the need of the individual to be healed. It would serve a real group purpose if all of you would study what is said by Rama Prasad in his book, Nature's Finer Forces, and by Patanjali in The Light of the Soul on the subject of the pranas with which and within which we work; you should be somewhat familiar with the matter.
To answer the question specifically: An initiate or even a low-grade clairvoyant can easily distinguish between soul and personality healing energies, but the average intelligent aspirant as yet cannot. The initiate knows the source from which any type of healing energy may come. He senses its vibration and can follow it to its emanating source by an effort of the will, directed by the intuition. The clairvoyant can see the centre from which the healing energy can flow, and the centre then indicates the type and quality of the projected force. All energy is from the soul in the secondary instance, but in the primary sense all energy is simply life, functioning under direction of some kind.
As to the part love has to play in the healing process: Love is the life expression of God Himself; love is the coherent force which makes all things whole (I would have you ponder upon this phrase), and love is all that is. The main characteristic of the distinction between soul energy and personality force, as applied to healing, lies in [357] [357] the region of the application and the expression of love. Personality force is emotional, full of feeling, and—when in use—the personality is either conscious of itself as the healer, and is the dramatic centre of the stage upon which are two players, the healer and the one to be healed. Soul energy functions unconsciously and is wielded by those who are in contact with their souls and who are consequently decentralised; they are "off the stage" themselves, if I might use that expression, and they are completely occupied with group love, group activity and group purpose.
Why then is it so extremely difficult, if not altogether impossible, for earnest would-be healers to work together, as a group, with the sacred science of healing? Because as individuals and as a group they are predominantly personal in their individual and inter-group relations. This may show itself in intense criticism of each other, or of oneself; in a vivid sureness of personal rectitude and sound judgment which does not permit those who hold it to see that there is perhaps a chance that they are not as correct in their ideas as they deem themselves to be; it may show itself in a deep satisfaction over personal subjective contacts. Any or all the above hindrances may be present and make the group demonstration a personality demonstration which negates constructive work, and any attempt only intensifies personality reactions and would greatly (and adversely) affect the personalities of those they might seek to help.
How, then, should they proceed? I would point out that any group member who, as an individual, is free from the above frailties of the personality and from these attitudes, nevertheless knows (and rightly rejoices) that he participates, as a group member, in the group quality. That is one of the incidental difficulties of group work. To participate and yet stand free from weakness; to recognise that [358] the achievements or failures of the individual group members are entirely their own affair; to share and yet not be dominated by the powerful thoughts and ideas of the more potent members in the group is ever a problem. I point this out because, in this coming Age wherein group work will be greatly developed, it will be of value to understand group situations and problems, and then to go forward to the group work together with those who are yours to work with. You will then be the better and wiser for past experiences, and fused as a group through shared suffering and limitations and the gained ability of failure rightly met.
So let true love, silent, uncomplaining, non-critical and steadfast, be your goal and the quality of your group life. Then, when there is some definite work to do, you will work as a unit with hearts and minds as one.
On Instantaneous Healing.
Instantaneous healing may be of various kinds. We might cite the following from among several possibilities which account for the happening:
1. The healing which is the result of a definite practice, conscious or unconscious, of Hatha Yoga. This is brought about by a projection of purely physical magnetism, which, added to the quota of available physical magnetism at the patient's disposal within his own physical body, suffices to effect an immediate cure. The magnetism in the body of the patient, instead of being outgoing and radiating, becomes inverted and turns inward to make its contribution to the reservoir of physical force held in a static condition within the body. The more low grade human types produce this kind of healing with facility. This is equally so in relation to the patient and the healer. The case cited is a case in point. The healing was more easily brought about [359] by the "sheik" concerned because the wound (a bite in the arm—A.A.B.) was self-inflicted and before inflicting it, the patient (if I may so call him) held the outgoing force in abeyance by an act of the will, thus creating a reservoir of energy which was available to supplement that of the sheik which was, in its turn, released by a mantram. This is definitely not spiritual healing.
2. There is also that form of healing which can be instantaneous because the disease is largely psychological and hallucinatory. The healer is then in the position to enable the patient to throw off illusion and so stand free. The will of the healer when added to that of the patient, aids in the breaking of the illusion and of the glamorous thoughtform and the patient then stands free. This is a psychological healing and only one illustration of it.
3. Then there is a type of healing which is brought about in two ways, and this is the true spiritual healing:
When the patient makes a sudden and frequently unexpected contact with his soul, and in which the soul energy is so great and so potent that it sweeps through the vehicles and definitely produces effects. Thus cures are brought about in some vehicle or another and frequently in the physical vehicle. The physical condition or disease retains, so oft, the undivided attention of the consciousness of the human being involved, and the soul pours through to the point of concentrated attention. In this thought lies, for many of you, a clear hint.
b. When the patient's evil physical karma is exhausted, and physical plane illness is not, at this particular time, his destiny. Then the healer can begin to bear upon the situation, if he is spiritual and full of wisdom, enough spiritual energy to ensure a cure.
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I trust you will find these answers suggestive. Ponder deeply upon the implications.
On the Use of the Lord's Image.
Here we touch upon a point of real interest. The use of the Lord's image is frequently of vital importance, but—and it is here that I seek to lay the emphasis—it must be the image arrived at by oneself through the medium of the expansion of the Christ consciousness in one's own life, and by arriving at the stage of conscious discipleship. At that particular stage when a man is definitely linked with a Master and His group, he is then, automatically and as an individual, linked with the Master of all Masters. He can then, via his own soul and the soul of his particular group, draw on the force of Maitreya Buddha. Why, think you, is there no good and true picture of the Blessed One? There are only a few speculations by the devotees of the early church and none by those who knew Him. The reason is a definite one. There is no true image of Him because it must be upon our hearts and not upon our canvases. We arrive at knowledge of Him because He is ours, as we are His. Do you understand that whereof I speak? He is the world Healer and Saviour. He works because He is the embodied soul of all Reality. He works today, as He worked in Palestine two thousand years ago, through groups. There He worked through the three beloved disciples, through the twelve apostles, through the chosen seventy, and the interested five hundred. Ponder on this fact, little emphasised. Now He works through His Masters and Their groups, and thereby greatly intensifies His efforts. He can and will work through all groups just in so far as they fit themselves for planned service, for the distribution of love, and come into conscious alignment with the greater potency of the inner groups.