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CHAPTER I - The Psychological Causes of Disease - Part 4

If you were to ask me what, in reality, lies behind all disease, all frustrations, error and lack of divine expression in the three worlds, I would say it was separativeness which produces the major difficulties arising in the etheric body, plus the inability of the outer tangible form to respond adequately to the inner and subtler impulses.  Here is found the cause (the secondary cause, as I pointed out above) of the bulk of the trouble.  The etheric body of the planet does not yet freely transmit and circulate the forces which are seeking entrance into the consciousness and the expression of man upon the physical plane.  These forces emanate from within himself as he functions on the subtler levels of consciousness and from the soul; they come also from associated and contacted groups, from the planetary life, [83] and eventually, in the last analysis, from the entire universe.  Each of the centres can, when fully awakened and consciously and scientifically employed, serve as an open door through which awareness of that which lies beyond the individual human life can enter.  The etheric body is fundamentally the most important response apparatus which man possesses, producing not only the right functioning of the five senses and consequently providing five major points of contact with the tangible world, but it also enables a man to register sensitively the subtler worlds, and, when energised and controlled by the soul, the spiritual realms stand wide open also.

The etheric body is a potent receiver of impressions, which are conveyed to the human consciousness through the medium of the awakened centres.  There is, for instance, no true clairvoyance until either the solar plexus or the ajna centre is awakened.  These transmitted impressions and information become the incentive whereby conscious activity is initiated.  There are many words used to describe these forces and their actuating effects:  such as impulses, incentives, influences, potencies, desires, aspirations, and many such terms which are only synonyms for force or energy and thus convey the same general idea.  All of these words refer to forms of activity of the etheric body, but only as the physical body registers them and acts under their impression.  The whole theme of motivating force is one of great interest.

The vastness of the subject is, however, so real that only little by little can humanity grasp the situation and come to the realisation that man is essentially (through his etheric body) an integral part of a great and vibrant Whole; only in time will he learn that, through the processes of evolution, can he hope to register all the different areas of divine expression.  Only when the etheric body is swept into [84] activity under the influence and through the "impressed forces" of the soul, the mind, and temporarily, of the astral body, can man become aware of all worlds, all phenomena, and all states of consciousness, and so achieve that omniscience which is the birth right of all the sons of God.

But, during the period wherein this state of being is in process of achievement, the lack of development, the failure to register, the life work of awakening and organising the various centres and of then correctly relating them to each other, produces much difficulty.  It is this condition which is the fruitful source of those difficulties which, when carried down into the physical body, produce disease of various kinds, the many tensions and congestions, the overstimulation of the centres in one part of the etheric vehicle and their underdevelopment in another, plus the unequal unfoldment and wrong balance of the centres.

Much is said today in modern medical investigation anent the "imbalance" of the endocrine glands, and many physical difficulties are ascribed to this frequent imbalance.  But behind this condition of the glandular system lies the basic imbalance of the centres themselves.  Only when there is a right understanding of force and its reception and consequent use, will right balance be achieved and the human endocrine system control the physical man in the manner that is intended.

There is much need today for the study of the following problems:

1. The problem of the right reception of force through the appropriate centre.  An instance of this might be found in the correct control of the solar plexus centre as the one in which astral sensitivity can be registered and properly handled.

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2. The problem of the right relation of a particular centre to its related gland, permitting the free play of the force pouring through the centre to the allied glandular correspondence, thus conditioning its peculiar hormone and eventually conditioning the blood stream.  If you grasp this sequence of contact, you will understand more clearly the occult significance of the words in the Old Testament that "the blood is the life."  It is the vitality coming from the etheric body which works through into the blood stream, via the centre which is responsive to one of the seven peculiar types of force, and its allied gland.  It will be apparent, therefore, that there is a close relation between:

a. The etheric body as a transmitter of a vast aggregate of energies and forces.

b. The endocrine system whose various glands are in reality the externalisation or materialisation of the centres, major and minor.

c. The heart, which is the centre of life as the brain is the centre of consciousness.  From the heart, the blood circulates and is controlled.  Thus these three great systems are related.

d. The entire glandular system to the nervous system through the medium of the network of nerves and the "nadis" which underlie this network.  These nadis are the threads of life force which underlie every part of the body and particularly the nervous system in all its aspects.

To these problems and relationships another might be added.  This is the interrelation which must be established between all the centres, permitting the free play of force in correct rhythm throughout the physical vehicle.

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You have, therefore, certain great interlocking directorates which control or fail to control the physical body.  Where there is lack of control it is due to the failure to establish right relations within the body, or to lack of development.  These interlocking groups are:

1. That of the etheric body, which works primarily through its seven major centres but also through many other centres.

2. That of the endocrine system, which works primarily through the seven major glandular groups, but also through many other less important glands.

3. That of the nervous system (the sympathetic and the cerebro-spinal) with a peculiar emphasis laid upon the vagus nerve with its effect upon the heart and consequently upon the blood stream.

All these points have to be considered and correlated in any system of occult healing, and the technical matter to be covered is, in the last analysis, less intricate than the vast system built up by orthodox medicine and surgery.  It is because of the lack of coordination of these three systems that the healing art is at this time failing to achieve all that it desires.  It has done much, but must move another step onto the etheric plane before the real clue to disease and its cure can be ascertained.

For instance, lack of vitality and the common subnormal conditions with which we are so familiar, indicate the inertia of the etheric body and its lack of vitality.  The results of this inertness of the vital body can be both physical and psychological, because the glands in the physical body will not function normally and, as is well known, they condition the physical expression of man as well as his emotional and mental states, in so far as those are able or not able to [87] find expression through the medium of the physical vehicle.  The glands do not condition the inner man or his states of consciousness, but they can and do prevent those inner states finding manifestation outwardly.  In the reverse situation, too powerful an etheric body and the overstimulation of the centres concerned, may put too great a strain upon the nervous system and produce, as a consequence, definite nervous trouble, migraine, mental and emotional imbalance and, in some cases, lead to insanity.

I have elaborated this matter somewhat because the relation of the etheric body to the physical body and its receptivity to the inner energies most decidedly condition the man.  It will be necessary for us to have this ever in mind as we study the causes of the diseases arising in the mental body, or due to the activity of the soul in the life of the disciple, or as we investigate the processes whereby a man is prepared for initiation.  The etheric body must always, and invariably does, act as the transmitting agent of the inner energies to the outer plane, and the physical body has to learn to respond to and recognise that which is transmitted.  The effectiveness of the transmission and the resultant physical activity depend always upon the centres, which, in their turn, condition the glands; these, later, determine the nature and the expressed consciousness of the man.  If the centres are awakened and receptive, there will be found a physical apparatus which will be responsive to the forces flowing through.  If the centres are asleep, and thus little force can be transmitted, you will find a physical apparatus which will be equally slow and unresponsive.  If the centres below the diaphragm are awakened and those above are not, you will have a man whose consciousness will be focussed in the animal and the emotional natures, and much of his physical disease will lie below the diaphragm also.  You will see, therefore, how intricate and complex [88] this whole matter is—so complex that it will only be truly understood when human beings regain the lost power to "see the light" of the etheric body and of its seven major centres and, through a developed sense of touch in the hands and fingers, to ascertain the rate of vibration in the various centres.  When these two means of knowledge are available, the entire subject of the etheric body will take on a new importance and be correctly understood.

3. CAUSES ARISING IN THE MENTAL BODY

I started this section of our study with the causes arising in the astral and etheric bodies because they are the major sources of trouble, owing to the fact that the bulk of humanity is astrally focussed, just as the bulk of the forms in the animal kingdom are etherically focussed.  The forces pouring into the animal kingdom come predominantly from etheric levels and from the dense physical levels of life.  The higher animals, however, owing to the development brought about through their contact with human beings, are becoming susceptible to forces coming from the astral plane, and they thus develop actions and reactions which are not purely instinctual.

Today, owing to the development of the mind in the Aryan race, certain difficulties may arise in the physical body.  Their origin is not basically mental but primarily due to the fact that the mental body is the transmitter (when active and rightly aligned) of soul energy and this soul energy, pouring into the physical body, can produce certain conditions of overstimulation and difficulties connected with the nervous system.  But it is the transmitted energy which causes the trouble and not the factor arising from the mind itself.  I will elaborate this a little later.

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A. Wrong Mental Attitudes.

I would like to deal, first of all, with the basic premise that disease and physical liabilities are not the result of wrong thought.  They are far more likely to be the result of no thought at all, or are caused by the failure to follow those fundamental laws which govern the Mind of God.  One interesting instance of this failure is the fact that man does not follow the basic Law of Rhythm, which governs all the processes of nature, and man is a part of nature.  It is to this failure to work with the Law of Periodicity that we can trace much of the difficulty inherent in the use and the misuse of the sex urge.  Instead of man being governed by the cyclic manifestation of the sex impulse, and his life, therefore, being ruled by a definite rhythm, there exists at this time no such thing, except in the cycles through which the female passes, and little attention is paid to these.  The male, however, is not governed by any such cycles, and has broken in also on the rhythm to which the female body should be subordinated, and which—rightly understood—would determine the use of the sex relationship, including naturally the male impulse also.  This failure to live by the Law of Periodicity and to subordinate the appetites to cyclic control is one of the major causes of disease; and as these laws are given form on the mental plane, one might legitimately say that their infringement has a mental basis.  This might be the case if the race were working mentally, but it is not.  It is in the modern world of today that there is beginning a widespread infringement of these mental laws, particularly of the Law of Cycles, which determines the tides, controls world events and should also condition the individual and so establish rhythmic life habits—one of the major predisposing incentives to good health.

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By breaking this Law of Rhythm, man has disorganised the forces which, rightly used, tend to bring the body into a sound and healthy condition; by so doing, he has laid the foundation for that general debility and those inherent organic tendencies which predispose a man to ill health and which permit entrance into the system of those germs and bacteria which produce the outer forms of malignant disease.  When humanity regains an understanding of the right use of time (which determines the Law of Rhythm on the physical plane), and can determine the proper cycles for the various manifestations of the life force upon the physical plane, then what was earlier an instinctual habit will become the intelligent usage of the future.  This will constitute an entirely new science, and the rhythm of the natural processes and the establishing, as habits, the correct cycles of physical functioning, will bring about a new era of health and of sound physical conditions for the entire race.  I used the word "establishing," for as the focus of racial attention shifts into the region of the higher values the physical vehicle will gain enormously, and good health—through right rhythmic living, plus correct thinking and soul contact—will become permanently established.

There are, therefore, very few ills to which flesh is heir which are mentally based.  It is exceedingly difficult to establish what they are.  There are two reasons for this statistical failure:

1. The fact that very few, relatively speaking of the race are mentally polarised and therefore thinking.

2. The fact that the bulk of diseases are etheric or astral.

Another factor producing this difficulty is that the thinking and the emotional reactions of man are so closely interrelated that it is not easy at this stage in evolution to [91] separate feeling and thought, or to say that such or such ills arise in the astral or the mental body, or that certain ills are due to wrong feeling and others to wrong thinking.  Speaking in terms of the entire human family, the thinking that is done in the world of today, is done by the relatively few.  The rest are occupied with feeling, with sensuous perception and with the many and differing aspects of emotionalism such as irritability, worry, acute anxiety, aspiration towards some desired end or goal, depression, plus the dramatic life of the senses and of the "I in the centre" consciousness.  Few live in the world of thought and fewer still in the world of reality.  When they do, the result is inevitably a better average of health, because there is better integration, and as a result a freer play of the life forces throughout the vehicles of expression.

B. Mental Fanaticism.  The Dominance of Thoughtforms.

I would point out here that the diseases and difficulties which arise from what I have called wrong mental attitudes, fanaticisms and frustrated idealisms and thwarted hopes, fall into three categories, and a study of these will show you that, in the last analysis, they are not of mental origin at all, but primarily are the result of emotionalism entering in.

1. Those incident to the imposed physical plane activity and work which find their incentive in these mental conditions.  They lead, for instance, to furious activity and overwork, due to the determination not to be frustrated but to make the plan work.  The result is frequently the breaking down of the nervous system, which could have been avoided had the mental condition been changed and right rhythm on the physical plane achieved.  But it was the work of a physical nature which caused the trouble far more than the mental condition.

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2. Those brought about by the state of rebellion which colours all the life, and the registering of violent emotional reactions.  These may be based upon a mental realisation of the Plan, for instance, plus a recognition that those plans are not materialising, owing often to the inadequacy of the physical equipment; but the basic cause of the disease is the emotional rebellion, and therefore not the mental condition.  Bitterness, disgust, hatred and a sense of frustration can and do produce many of the prevalent toxic conditions and a state of general poisoning and ill health from which many people habitually suffer.  Their vision is bigger than their accomplishment, and this causes emotional suffering.  The cure for this condition is to be found in the simple word acceptance.  This is not a negative state of settling down to a submissive nonactive life, but it is a positive acceptance (in thought and in practical expression) of a condition which seems at present unavoidable.  This leads to an avoidance of the waste of time in attempting the impossible and to right effort to carry forward that which is possible.

3.  Those difficulties which are caused by the failure of the physical apparatus to measure up to the demands of the thought life of the individual.  These are, naturally and usually, a part of the physical inheritance, and where this is the case there is normally nothing much to do, though where the aspiration is real and persistent, a great deal might be accomplished in bringing about improvement and laying the ground for better functioning in another life cycle.

It is necessary here that I should deal, as briefly as possible, with the problem of mental healing and with the teaching that all disease is the product of wrong thought.  You are starting out to work, and I would have clear thinking on this point.  The two problems which I have posited [93] are closely related.  We could express them in the form of two questions:

1. Is disease the result of thought?

2. Can the power of thought produce healing effects when used by an individual or a group?

In view of the fact that many diseases are, as I have told you, latent in the very material of the planet itself, it is obvious that human thought is not responsible for disease.  It antedates the arrival of humanity upon the planet.  There is disease in the mineral world, in the vegetable kingdom, and also among animals, even in their wild states and in their natural habitat, uncontaminated by man.  Hence, man cannot be held responsible for this, nor is it the result of human wrong thinking.  It provides no answer to the question to say that it must therefore be due to the wrong thinking of the planetary Logos or of the solar Logos.  This is only a begging of the question and an evasion of the issue.

I would here remind you of the two definitions of the causes of disease which I earlier gave.  Let me call them to your careful attention:

"All disease is the result of inhibited soul life.  This is true of all forms in all kingdoms."

"Disease is the product of and subject to three influences.  First, a man's past wherein he pays the price of ancient error.  Second, his inheritance wherein he shares with all mankind those tainted streams of energy which are of group origin.  Thirdly, he shares with all the natural forms that which the Lord of Life imposes on those forms.  Those three influences are called the Ancient Law of evil Sharing.  This must give place some day to that new Law of Ancient Dominating Good.  This law will be brought into activity by the spiritual will of man."

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If you analyse the four causes of disease here given, you will note that disease will eventually be controlled by the release of the soul in all forms, and that this will be done by the active use by man of his spiritual will.  We could word this otherwise and say that when soul energy and the right use of the will (which in the individual is the reflection and the agent of the will energy of the soul) is released and rightly directed by the mind, then disease can be handled and brought eventually to an end.  It is therefore by the imposition of a higher energy and of a higher rhythm upon the lower forces that disease can be controlled.  Disease is therefore the result in the physical body of the failure to bring in these higher energies and rhythms, and that, in its turn, is dependent upon the point in evolution.

It is the dim sensing of this failure and the realisation of these facts that has brought so many groups to believe in the cure of disease by thought power and to ascribe the appearance of disease to wrong thinking.  But in reality, humanity must some day learn that it is only the higher consciousness of the soul, working through the mind, that can finally solve this difficult problem.

We cannot consequently affirm that disease, as a general rule, has any relation to thought.  It is simply the misuse of the forces of the etheric, the astral and of the dense physical levels.  The majority of people are helpless to do anything about it, as the forces which constitute the physical body, for instance, and which pass through and play upon it, are inherited from a very ancient past, are a constituent part of the environment and of the group life into which they are integrated and which they share with all their fellowmen.  Such force-matter is coloured with the results of ancient wrong rhythms, misused forces and inherited qualities.  Soul energy, expressed through right thinking, can cure diseases to which man is prone.  It is failure to think and to register [95] and express the higher states of consciousness which leads to wrong rhythms.  Consequently, I repeat that disease is not the result of thought.

C. Frustrated Idealism.

There are, however, certain diseases which appear in the physical mechanism and which are definitely rooted in the fact that activity (which is the result of thinking specifically) has been coloured and conditioned by the emotional life of the individual, and the emotional life is a fruitful source of disease and of establishing wrong rhythms.  It is therefore the predominance of the astral force, and not of the mental energy, which really causes the physical trouble.  I am not referring here to the diseases of the nervous system and of the brain, which are the result of overstimulation and of the impact of energy (often from the mind and the soul) upon an instrument unfitted to handle it.  These we will consider later.  I refer simply to the following sequence of events in the psychological life and the consequent resultant activities:

Disease is a form of activity.

1. Mental activity and energy produces (through the power of thought) certain registration of plans, idealisms and ambitions.

2. This energy, blended with astral energy, becomes dominated and controlled by astral reactions of an undesirable kind, such as worry over non-accomplishment, the failure to materialise the plans, etc.  The life becomes consequently embittered.

3. Disease then appears in the physical body, according to the predisposing tendencies of the body and its inherent, inherited weaknesses.

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You will note that, in reality, the mental body, and the power of thought, have in no case been the cause of trouble.  It has been caused by the obliteration of the original thought and its stepping down to the level of emotionalism.  When this stepping down and eventual control by astral forces does not take place, and the thought remains clear and untouched upon the mental plane, there may be trouble of another kind, due to a failure to "carry through" the thought into effective action upon the physical plane.  This failure produces not only the cleavage in the personality so well known to the practicing psychologist, but also a cutting off of a much needed stream of energy.  As a consequence, the physical body is devitalised and falls heir to bad health.  When the thought can be carried through to the physical brain and there becomes a directing agent of the life force, you will usually have a condition of good health, and this has proved true whether the individual thought has been good or bad, rightly motivated or wrongly oriented.  It is simply the effect of integration, because saints and sinners, the selfish and the unselfish and all kinds of people, can achieve integration and a thought-directed life.

The second question asks whether an individual or a group can heal by thought power.

Most certainly the generalisation can be made that an individual and a group can heal and that thought can play its potent part in the healing process, but not thought alone and unaided.  Thought can be the directing agency of forces and energies which can disrupt and dispel disease, but the process must be aided by the power to visualise, by an ability to work with particular forces as is deemed advisable, by an understanding of the rays and their types of energies, and also by a capacity to handle light substance, as it is called.  To these powers must be added the ability to be en rapport with the one to be healed, plus a loving heart.  In [97] fact, once these conditions are met, too much use of the thinking faculty and too potent a use of the mind processes can arrest and hinder the healing work.  Thought has to condition the initial incentive, bringing the intelligence of the man to bear upon the problem of healing and a comprehension of the nature of the one to be healed; but once it has aided in focussing the attention of the healer and the healing group, it should become a steady but subconscious directive agent and nothing more than that.

The healing is accomplished, when possible, by the use of energy rightly directed and by detailed visualisation; love also plays a great part, as does the mind in the early stage.  Perhaps I should say that a loving heart is one of the most potent of all the energies employed.

I have brought these two questions to your attention because I am anxious for your minds to be clear upon these problems before you start any group work in healing.

Thought neither cures disease nor causes it.  Thought must be employed in the processes, but it is not the sole or the most important agent.  It is on this point that many groups and healers go astray.  The mind can direct energy and this energy can, in its turn, produce overstimulation of the brain and of the body cells and so cause nervous trouble and sometimes brain disease, but the mind itself and thinking, per se, cannot cause disease and trouble in the physical body.  As the race learns to think clearly and definitely, and as the laws of thought begin to control the racial consciousness, disease—as we now know it—will be greatly lessened and more and more people will achieve integration.  Where there is integration there is the free play of force and of energy throughout the material body.  The problems of stimulation will, however, steadily increase with the growing sensitivity of the physical man and the developing focus of his consciousness in the mind nature.  This will go on until [98] man learns how to handle the higher energies and to recognise the need for a rhythmic life, paying attention to the Law of Periodicity.

In healing work, certain rules should be mastered and followed by the healer.  I have given three important rules already.  Briefly they are as follows, and I am dividing the first one into its component parts for the sake of clarity.

1. a. The healer must seek to link his soul, his heart, his brain, and his hands.  Thus can he pour the vital force with healing power upon his patient.  This is magnetic work.

b. The healer must seek to link his soul, his brain, his heart and auric emanation.  Thus can his presence feed the soul life of the patient.  This is the work of radiation.  The hands are needed not.  The soul displays its power.

2. The healer must achieve magnetic purity, through purity of life.  He must achieve that dispelling radiance which shows itself in every man once he has linked the centres in the head.  When this magnetic field has been established, the radiance then goes forth.

3. Let the healer train himself to know the inner stage of thought or of desire of the one who seeks his help.  He can thereby know the source from which the trouble comes.  Let him relate the cause and the effect, and know the point exact through which relief must come.

I would here give you, as a group, another rule, making four major rules:

RULE FOUR

The healer and the healing group must keep the will in leash.  It is not will that must be used, but love.

This last rule is of great importance.  The concentrated will of any individual and the directed will of a united group [99] should never be employed.  The free will of the individual must never be subjected to the impact of a powerfully focussed group or individual; it is far too dangerous a procedure to be permitted.  Will energy (particularly that of a number of people simultaneously playing upon the subtle and physical bodies of the one to be healed) can greatly increase the trouble instead of curing it.  It can stimulate the disease itself to dangerous proportions and disrupt instead of cooperating with nature's healing forces, and can even eventually kill the person concerned by so increasing the disease that the patient's normal resistance can prove futile.  I would ask you, therefore, in any group work of healing, to keep the will (and even keen desire) in abeyance.  Only initiates of high degree are permitted to cure by the power of the will, focussed in the WORD OF POWER, and this only because they can test the capacity of the patient, the tension of the disease, and know also whether or no it is the will of the soul that the disease should be cured.

We have covered much ground of importance in this section and it will warrant your careful study.  In the next one we will take up the peculiar problems of the disciple; I would ask you, in preparation for this, to study with attention, the teaching which I gave earlier on the diseases of the mystics. [iii]*  Much said there need not be repeated by me, but should be incorporated in our teachings on healing.  I suggest that you read them and know something of the problems themselves, both theoretically and from an understanding of yourself.  You should be aware of some of these difficulties in your own experience, at least to some degree.

The Sacred Art of Healing

I do not intend, in this treatise, to deal with the pathology of disease, with its systems and their maleficent indications. [100] These are fully covered in any ordinary medical treatise and textbook and I, my brothers, am no trained physician or medical authority, nor have I the time to be engrossed with the technicalities.  What I am concerned with is to give the world some idea of the true and occult causes of disease and their hidden origins, and with the work of healing, as it is carried on and sanctioned by the Great White Lodge.

The work is, in reality, that of the judicious use of energy, applied with love and science.  All that I tell you is the result of experiment.  Such healing falls into two categories:

1. In magnetic healing, the healer, or the healing group, does two things:

a. He attracts to the healing centre that type of energy which will counteract the disease.

This is necessarily a vast subject and one of deep scientific import.  Certain types of ray force can be used with certain types of disease, necessitating the use of certain specific centres for the distribution.  These we shall consider and outline when we come to the section entitled The Seven Modes of Healing.

b. He attracts to himself and absorbs those forces which are producing the disease, drawing it forth from the patient.

This latter process necessitates a careful guarding of the healer from all contamination by the disease, so that the forces can find no place in his body.  There must also be the supplying of fresh energy to the patient, in order to take the place of that which has been withdrawn.  This process sets up a definite interplay between the healer and the patient.  There is consequently some real [101] danger in this work of occult healing, and for this reason the healers in training should bear in mind that they will work as a group and not as individuals.  The free circulation of force produces good health in the individual or group.  The free circulation of force between a healer or a healing group and the person to be healed can produce the cure of disease, provided it is the destiny of the man to be healed at any given time and his cooperation is given when possible, though this is not really essential.  It facilitates more rapid results in many cases.  In others, the patient's anxiety can negate the desired effects.

2. In radiatory healing, the process is simpler and safer for the healer simply gathers power into himself and then radiates it out on to the patient in the form of a steadily outflowing stream of radiant energy.  This stream of energy should be directed to the centre nearest to the location of the disease.

In this work there is no risk to the healer, but if the element of will enters into his thought or the stream of energy projected is too strong, there may be danger to the patient.  The impact of the force which is being radiated upon him may not only produce nervous tension, but may lead to an increase in the power of the disease and its intensification by stimulating the atoms and cells involved in the activity of the force responsible for the trouble.  For this reason beginners must avoid any concentration upon the disease itself or the area in the physical body involved and carefully keep all thought in abeyance, once the preliminary work has been done, for energy ever follows thought and goes where the thought  is focussed.

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The healers have to determine the effectiveness of what they are attempting and the potency of their united group work and of the force which they can wield.  They have also to discover their ability to keep the will in the background and to send the healing radiance out upon a stream of love-energy.  Have ever in mind that love is energy and that it is a substance as real as dense matter.  That substance can be used to drive out diseased tissue and provide a healthy substitute in place of the diseased material which has been eliminated.

They will, therefore, in the first cycle of work, attempt the radiatory method.  It is simpler and far more easily mastered.  Later, they can experiment with the method of magnetic healing.

You will now see the purpose of the rules anent the modes of healing which I gave early in this series of instructions.  You will realise why, in this radiatory work, the linking process involves the soul, the brain and the entire aura or the magnetic field of individual or group activity.  The mind is not mentioned or involved, and the brain acts solely as the focussing point of the love and the healing force to be projected into the stream of energy which issues from the ajna centre.

The healer will, therefore, keep all the forces focussed in the head, and his attention must be concentrated there also.  The heart will be automatically involved, as he will be using the energy of love—at first entirely.

Let us now tabulate the rules under which all healing groups must work.  I would like to interpolate here that it is not always necessary or possible to meet and work together in group formation.  This work can be carried forward efficiently and potently, if the members work as a subjective group; each should then follow the instructions each day [103] and as if he were working in his group in tangible form.  This real linking is brought about by imagining himself as in the presence of his brothers.  If they were to meet as a group upon the physical plane, it would be hard to prevent the dissipation of force through discussion, through the ordinary pleasantries of meeting, and through the physical interplay between personalities.  It would be inevitable that there would be too much conversation, and the work done would not be adequately effective.  From the physical standpoint, they work alone; from the true inner standpoint, they work in the closest cooperation.

Here are the first rules which I would have the student master:

Preliminary Rules for Radiatory Healing

1. By an act of the will, after making your own quick, conscious alignment, link up as a soul with the souls of your group brothers.  Then link up with their minds, and then with their emotional natures.  Do this by the use of the imagination, realising that energy follows thought and that the linking process is inevitable, if correctly done.  You can then function as a group.  Then forget about the group relation and concentrate upon the work to be done.

2.  Within yourself, then, link soul and brain and gather together the forces of love that are to be found in your aura and focus yourself and all that you have to offer within the head, picturing yourself as a radiant centre of energy or a point of vivid light.  This light is to be projected upon the patient through the ajna centre between the eyes.

3. Then say the following group mantram:

"With purity of motive, inspired by a loving heart, we offer ourselves for this work of healing.  This offer we make as a group and to the one we seek to heal."

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As you do this, visualise the linking process going on.  See it as moving lines of living light substance, linking you to your brothers on the one hand, and to the patient on the other.  See these lines going out from you to the heart centre of the group and to the patient.  But work ever from the ajna centre until instructed to do differently.  In this way, the ajna centre and the heart centre of all the persons involved will be closely interrelated.  You see here where the value of visualisation comes in.  It is in reality the etheric externalisation of the creative imagination.  Think this last sentence out.

4. Then use thought, directed thought, for a brief moment and think of the one you seek to heal, linking up with him, and focussing your attention on him so that he becomes a reality in your consciousness and close to you.  When you are aware what the physical difficulty is, then simply recall it to your mind and then dismiss it.  Forget now the details of the work, such as the group, yourself and the difficulty of the patient, and concentrate upon the type of force you are going to handle, which is, in this case and for the present, second ray force, the force of love.  What I am here giving out is an adaptation of the second ray method of healing, arranged for beginners.

5. Feel a deep love pouring into you.  Regard it as substantial light which you can and will manipulate.  Then send it out as a stream of radiant light from the ajna centre and direct it through the medium of your hands to the patient.  In doing this, hold the hands before the eyes, palms outward and with the hacks of the hands next to the eyes and about six inches away from the face.  In this way, the stream which is issuing from the ajna centre, becomes divided into two and pours out through the two hands.  It is thus directed on to the patient.  Visualise it as pouring out [105] and sense the patient receiving it.  As you do this, say aloud in a low voice:

"May the love of the One Soul, focussed in this group, radiate upon you, my brother, and permeate every part of your body—healing, soothing, strengthening; and dissipating all that hinders service and good health."

Say this slowly and deliberately, believing in the results.  See that no thought-power or will-power enters into the stream of healing energy, but only a concentrated radiating love.  The use of the visualising faculty and of the creative imagination, plus a sense of deep and steadfast love, will keep the mind and the will in abeyance.

I would emphasise the urgent necessity for complete silence and reticence in relation to all healing work.  Never let it be known by anyone that you are working in this manner, and never mention to anyone the names of those you are seeking to aid.  Do not discuss the patient under treatment even among yourselves.  If this basic rule of silence is not kept, it will indicate that you are not yet ready for this work and should discontinue it.  This injunction is far more important than you can realise; for speech and discussion not only tend to deflect and dissipate force, but violate a fundamental rule which all healers are trained to keep, and even the medical profession on the physical plane follows the same general procedure.

Three Major Laws of Health

There are three major laws of health and seven minor laws.  These work out in the three worlds, which is all that concerns you at this time.  In all teaching to be given in the immediate future, the main emphasis will eventually be laid upon the technique of the etheric body, for that is the next step forward.  The three major laws are:

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1. The law controlling the will to live, a manifestation of the first aspect of the Logos, will or power.

2. The law controlling equality of rhythm, a manifestation of the second aspect of the Logos, love or wisdom.

3. The law controlling crystallisation, a manifestation of the third aspect of the Logos, the activity or foundational aspect.

These three governing factors or laws manifest themselves through the three major divisions of the human entity.

1. The will aspect manifests through the organs of respiration.  Another of its expressions is the faculty of sleep.  In both of these you have a repetition or an analogy in the microcosm of Logoic manifestation and Logoic pralaya.

2. The love aspect shows itself through the heart, the circulatory system and the nervous system.  This is in many ways most important for you to understand, for it controls paramountly the etheric body and its assimilation of prana or vitality.  This prana works through both the blood and the nerves, for the life force uses the blood stream and psychic force works through the nervous system.  These two departments of the human organism are those which cause the greatest amount of trouble at this time and will even more in the future.  The race learns through suffering, and only dire need drives man to seek solution and relief.  From the present standpoint of healing, man forms again a lesser trinity of importance:

a. The dense physical body, of which science and medicine know much.

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b. The etheric body, which is the next field of endeavour, of experiment and of discovery.

c. The astral body which, simultaneously with the etheric, is the next object for scientific control.  The science of psychology will work here.

3. The activity aspect, which manifests primarily through the organs of assimilation and elimination.  I seek here to emphasise one point.  Just as our solar system is developing the love aspect, which is the second aspect, and just as the human being is polarised in the astral body, which is the reflection of that second aspect, so the second of the three above mentioned departments of the human organism, the etheric, is the one of paramount importance.  Up to date it has been the transmitter primarily of astral energy to the physical body.  This is now in process of changing.

The whole trend of medical science should now be awake to the concrete facts of the dense physical body and moving towards the study of vitalisation and circulation, for these two are closely related.  The nervous system is controlled principally today from the astral body, via the etheric, and the basis of all nervous trouble lies hidden in the emotional body wherein humanity at this time is polarised.  The circulatory system of the physical body is controlled principally from the etheric body.  When you have an etheric body that is not functioning properly and does not transmit prana sufficiently, and when you have an astral or emotional body that is not adequately or properly controlled, you have in these two the source of the majority of the diseases and nervous and mental conditions that are annually increasing.  The reflex action of inadequate circulation upon the physical brain (again due to the etheric body) leads to mental strain and eventual collapse.  From this you can see the importance of the etheric vehicle.

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The first aspect, which has for its expression and field of control the organs of respiration and the faculty of sleep, when not functioning properly, produces death, insanity and some of the diseases of the brain.

The third aspect, when not functioning properly, causes stomach troubles, bowel complaints and the various diseases that are located beneath and below the solar plexus in the abdomen.

You see, therefore, how medical science must eventually seek solution in a simplification of methods and a return from a complexity of drugs and operations to an understanding of the right use of the energies which pour through from the inner man, via the etheric body, to the physical.

The following suggestions may help:

1. By the development of goodwill, which is the will of good intention and motive, will come the healing of diseases of the respiratory tract, lungs and throat, the stabilising of the cells of the brain, the cure of insanities and obsessions, and an attainment of equilibrium and of rhythm.  Longevity will ensue, for death should be the recognition by the soul of work consummated and pralaya earned.  It will only take place later at long and separated periods, and will be controlled by the will of the man.  He will cease to breathe when he has finished his work, and then will send the atoms of his body into pralaya.  That is the sleep of the physical, the end of manifestation, and the occult significance of this is not yet comprehended.

2. By a comprehension of the laws of vitality—and in this phrase are comprehended the laws governing prana, radiation and magnetism—will come the healing of the diseases in the blood, of the arteries and veins, of certain nervous complaints, lack of vitality, senile decay, poor circulation and similar ills.  This too will result in the [109] prolongation of life.  The laws of electrical energy will also be better understood in this connection.

3. By the understanding of right methods of assimilation and elimination will come the healing of diseases connected with the bodily tissues, the stomach and bowels and the male and female organs of generation.  It will some day be understood that these latter are only another system of assimilation and elimination, centred this time in the feminine aspect or woman, for again remember that this is the second or love system.  The order is thus:

a. The first system was masculine.

b. The present system, the second, is feminine.

c. The third system will be hermaphroditic.

E'en though the evolving human Hierarchy is masculine or positive, yet that is no guarantee that all that is found in the present system is masculine too.  The fact is that the negative faculty or the feminine aspect dominates, even though this may be unrecognised by you.  Let me demonstrate and give some indication by figures of this hypothesis:

1. In the first solar system there was one dominant evolution, and it consisted of one hundred thousand million monads.

2. In the present system, the second, there are two dominant evolutions, the human and the deva; there are—as earlier stated—sixty thousand million human monads.  Add to this the feminine evolution of the devas, consisting of 140 thousand million, and you have the necessary two hundred thousand million.  This elucidates my statement anent this being a feminine system.

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3.  In the third solar system, the total number in evolution will be the needed three hundred thousand million that perfection requires of the threefold Logos.