Realms of the Living Dead: A Brief Description of Life After Death

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?ki y t o t ^ , i ^ , -[ o I HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY FROM THE ESTATE OF HANNAH P. KIMBALL OP BOSTON JUNE 33, I Q 3 2

I

Realms of the Living Dead

Realms of the Living Dead A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF LIFE AFTER DEATH Transmitted from the Teacher of the O. C. M. BY HARRIETTE AUGUSTA CURTISS, F.O. IS In Collaboration with F. HOMER CURTISS, B.S., M.D., F.O. IS Founders of The Order of Christian Mystics and the Church of The Wisdom Religion AUTHORS OP "The Voice of Iris,*' "Letter* from the Teacher," "The Key to the Unirewe," "The Philosophy of War," "Genu of Mysticism," "The Soundless Sound,** "The Curtain,*' etc NEW YORK E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 681 FIFTH AVENUE

PUip70fcci ' i ^»yARO C0UE6E USMffY FROhi i lit .. j«AT£ OP HANNAH P. KIMBALL C* JUNE 23, 1022 Copyright, 1917, by F. HOMER CURTISS, M.D. Philadelphia, Pa. Copyright, 1919, x BY E, P. DUTTON & COMPANY All Eights Reserved Printed In the United States of America

TABLE OF CONTENTS Chaptib. Pass. Introduction 9 I. The Reality of the Astral World ... 15 II. The Rivers of Life and Death .... 27 III. The Seven Realms 37 IV. The Realm of Reflection 43 V. The Astral Double 57 VI. The Awakening 67 VII. Astral Helpers 75 VIII. The Ethereal Realm 87 IX. The Vital Realm 99 X. The Desire Realm (Obsessing Entities) . . 109 XI. The Desire Realm (Continued) 129 XII. The Eighth Sphere 145 XIII. The Elementals 157 XTV. The Fairies 165 XV. The Psychic Realms (The Mental Realm) . 179 XVI. Independent Methods of Communion . . . 197 XVII. Subjective Methods 213 XVIII. The Telepathic Method 225 XIX. The Inspirational or Spiritual Realm . . 235 XX. The Divine or Ecstatic Realm 243 Appendix 253

Realms of the Living Dead

INTRODUCTION In presenting this volume the authors do not represent it to be a complete exposition of life in the Astral World, but only an elaboration of their lectures on the subject delivered during their transcontinental lecture tour of 1915-16, together with the lessons on the subject issued by them to the students of The Order of Christian Mystics during 1914-15. To give a detailed description of the Astral World in all its phases would require quite as many volumes as a similar description of life in the Physical World. But owing to the present confused and changing conditions now manifesting on earth, during which thousands upon thousands are seeking satisfactory information on life after death, it has been deemed advisable to give the general outlines in a constructive way without waiting for leisure fully to elaborate the subject. We wish to remind such earnest seekers of the promise of Jesus: "I will not leave you comfortless, I will come unto you. . . . And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of Truth. . . . Howbeit when he, the Spirit of Truth is come, he will guide you into all truth. . . . But the Comforter . • • (9)

10 Introduction he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." Therefore, unless Jesus was a false teacher it must be true that we are intended to have a realization of the truth that life is immortal; that the death of the body does not end all, and that a common-sense and rational understanding of it is ours if j[we will only open our hearts and let in the Spirit of Truth which shall both comfort us and set us free from the bonds of ignorance,' misconception and misunderstanding. For only as we do open our hearts and correlate with the Spirit of Truth can it open our minds, expand our preconceived ideas, dispel our prejudices and guide us into all truth. In so condensed and non-controversial a presentation as this must necessary be, no effort will be made to convince the skeptical or present elaborate arguments as to the reality of life after leaving the physical body. It is assumed that the seeker to whom these teachings will appeal has long since been convinced of the survival of the personal consciousness after death and is desirous of reliable information concerning the varied conditions in which that consciousness functions. The fact of the survival of the personal consciousness, with all its characteristic traits, after leaving the physical body, we consider beyond the stage of argument. It may seem absurd and illogical to the untrained mind to be told that the common fluid known as water is composed of two gases, oxygen

Introduction 11 and hydrogen, in the proportion of 1 to 2. But the subject is not open to argument. It is merely a question of information as to the facts discovered, tested and proved by trained specialists in chemical research. The same is true of the problems of life after death. It is merely a question of information, not only concerning what has been taught on this subject by all great religions, spiritual teachers, philosophers, mystics and saints — the greatest minds of the race — throughout the ages, but also concerning the confirmation of those teachings which has resulted from the investigations of the keenest scientific minds of the day, men whose word is accepted as authority by the scientific world and whose mere opinion is given the greatest consideration. While many of the teachings herein given find confirmation in the several works on psychic phenomena and after death conditions recently published, the scientists who are investigating this subject have not yet discovered all the facts herein explained, because they have no all-inclusive cosmic philosophy to guide them and because they are content to wander aimlessly in the lower regions of the Astral World where the great Spiritual Teachers are seldom if ever found. Their investigations, sincere and honest though they be, are much like laboriously searching through the plebeian sections of a great city for a scientist or professor who could explain the conditions met with, when all that would

12 Introduction be necessary would be to take a taxi through the slums out to the university where hundreds of professors who are authorities on all branches of knowledge are to be found. Indeed, few investigators ask their way to such centers of learning or even realize that such exist in the Astral World. As far as we are aware no previous attempt has been made to classify the various regions of the Astral World on any logical or scientific basis. We therefore endeavor to present the subject in a way that can be readily grasped, not only by students of the occult, but by the average intelligent reader. Although there is no sharp demarcation between the Realms herein described, they are not entirely arbitrary divisions, for they follow and correspond to the seven-fold division of man and nature so well known to students. We are well aware that there is a certain group of mental scientists, such as the followers of Hudson, Warman, etc., who consider all manifestations of the Astral World as due to the subconscious mind, suggestion, auto-suggestion, telepathy from the living, hypnosis, etc. While we cheerfully admit the influence of all these factors, as described herein, they still leave unexplained large gaps in our knowledge of the Astral World and much of the undeniable phenomena unaccounted for. Many such teachers oppose any exposition of the subject for fear that it will instil fear thoughts into the minds of the students, as if giving a traveller

Introduction 13 directions how to pass in safety through die slums of a great city was inculcating in him the fear of entering it! Fear of a subject, condition or experience can be conquered, not by denying its existence or refusing to consider it, but by an accurate knowledge of its most important phases and how to master them. Therefore, while we repeat all former warnings as to the many real dangers of investigating the Astral World without competent guidance, in this work we have endeavored to remove all fear of the astral from the minds of those who will give it serious study, by clearly setting forth the constructive principles whose application will master any condition encountered therein. The teachings herein presented are not the result of psychical research as ordinarily conducted, but are the teachings on this subject given the authors by the teachers of the Order of Christian Mystics from the higher Realms, transmitted through Mrs. Curtiss by the independent method known as theophany while in full waking consciousness, in collaboration with Dr. Curtiss, and verified by their personal psychic experiences in the Astral World. These teachings are therefore not a mediumistic report of the experiences of one person and his deductions therefrom, but form a constructive philosophy derived from Those Who Know, which has been repeatedly tested and proved reliable.

REALMS OF THE LIVING DEAD CHAPTER I THE REALITY OF THE ASTRAL WORLD " Three Halls, O weary Pilgrim, lead to the end of toils, Three Halls, O conquer** of Mara, will bring thee through three states into the fourth, and thence into the seven Worlds, the worlds of Rest Eternal." The Voice of ike Silence, Blavatsky, 5-6. There are so many conflicting teachings among the Christian sects as to after-death conditions and so much has been said of the allurements and dangers of the Astral World from the viewpoints of various schools of occult teaching, that we feel the teachings of The Order of Christian Mystics on this subject should be plainly stated, so its pupils may have a wider outlook and a clearer understanding of the subject than we have seen in the many presentations given elsewhere. To many the very word astral is associated with something uncanny and dangerous, yet its literal meaning is "starry," from the Persian Istar, and it is still used in this sense in astronomy when referring (15)

16 Realms of the Living Dead to the stars. Its technical use in occultism, however, is in the sense of ethereal, finer or more subtle than physical matter. But on account of the frequent warnings, to many the word has become a bugaboo. In fact in some schools of occult teaching there is danger of the whole Astral World with its entities, elementals, "spooks" and its various other inhabitants, occupying in the course of time the position of the oldtime hell, devil, imps, etc. Hence, even in speaking to those who have thrown off the thrall of fear under which the world shivered in the dark for centuries, and who refuse to believe in "his majesty the devil," we must be clear and positive lest we merely continue the same fear, homage and propitiation to the old beliefs under new names. Other schools look upon the astral as the Heaven World, and their highest aim and greatest endeavor seems to be to reach into that world for the purpose of communicating with their loved ones who, having cast off the veil of flesh, are supposed therefore to be clothed with glory and filled with omniscient knowledge and omnipotent power, able to prophesy and infallibly guide and instruct those who still remain struggling with the bonds of matter and the temptations of the flesh. In these pages we will try to show that the position of each of the above schools is correct to a limited extent, yet without a cosmic philosophy which includes and gives its proper place to every phase of the astral, each standing alone is an extreme which

The Reality of the Astral World 17 Is misleading and which is likely to lead its followers into darkness and superstition quite as dense and appalling as that of the Dark Ages. Another school holds that because of the dangers of the astral it is best neither to investigate nor study about it until they have passed beyond it in their spiritual growth and can come back to it with full spiritual enlightenment after leaving the physical. Students who persistently hold such an idea, instead of being wide awake when they reach the astral and learning their lessons and progressing, will remain perhaps for years in a sleeping condition, dreaming about what they have conceived the Higher Realms to be. The teaching of the first school is but substituting one fear-thought for another, while the second leads to propitiation and worship of those who have cast off the dense physical body, but whose character, morals and disposition are no more changed than a man's nature and character is changed by taking off his overcoat. Such should be given the love, honor and respect which would be conceded to them on earth because of their character and ability, but no more. Job tells us: "The thing which I greatfy feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come to me."1 A community swayed either by fearthoughts or by the worship of the departed, naturally becomes intolerant and unbrotherly and such condi1 Job, iii, 25. 2

18 Realms of the Living Dead tions soon lead to persecution. For there is nothing so apt to make a man a bigot and sap from his nature all natural kindliness and love for his fellow man as to dwell in fear. Fear of the Astral World may easily come to occupy the place of the mediaeval fear of the devil which manifested first as a great desire to save man from the thing so greatly feared, as shown in the fiery sermons and impressive admonitions of the early church, then as a feeling of superiority over those who refuse to believe in the doctrine of a literal everlasting hell-fire, thus making a separation between those who were "saved" and those who were "lost," and finally leading by clearly defined steps to the burning of heretics and all the horrors of the Inquisition. While we wonder how such things could be, as we look back at those times, still we can recognize that they took place not because the world was passing through a necessary nightmare of horror, but as a reasonable result of the natural growth of the seeds of fear and prejudice sown in the hearts and minds of mankind by the barbarous gospel of eternal damnation. For if you could bring yourself really to believe that a loved one would be burned forever unless he believed as you were taught he should, you might feel justified in resorting to means revolting to your own nature to save that loved one from such an eternal punishment, even against his will or wish. Hence it is well to pause and consider, not the enormity of the crimes of the Dark Ages, but what

The Reality of the Astral World 19 led to those results, and then search carefully in the teachings of our own day to make sure that we are not cherishing some belief that is the child of fear and whose fruit of intolerance is perhaps even now leading us to condemn those who believe differently, even though that condemnation be but a shake of the head, a pitying look, a shrug, or as is frequently the case, a condemnatory utterance such as: "Those who have developed astral senses are born diseased, and those who communicate with the Astral World are obsessed," etc. It is also a lack of understanding which teaches that no one can communicate with those who have passed on without trifling with terrible dangers; that such communication must necessarily hold the loved ones back in their evolution, etc. While today the ignorance, superstition and consequent persecution does not reach the lengths of thumb-screw and rack, yet it is none the less hard to endure because it is more mental and social than physical. But this must be expected from the uncomprehending masses by the pioneers of every advanced idea. To understand the dangers of the second class of beliefs, i. e., that the astral and its inhabitants is the heaven world, we again have only to glance back over history, for these two extremes of belief are always found side by side. Just as ignorance and fear led to persecution, so the practice of the second belief gradually led to black magic, witchcraft, sorcery and necromancy, A teaching or belief must be

20 Realms of the Living Dead judged by its ultimate results, just as a man must be judged by the life he leads. "By their fruits ye shall know them." The teachings of Christian Mysticism stand midway between these two extremes, for Truth is ever found in the center, never at either extreme. It must be remembered that while evolution is eternal progress, the progress is spiral; also that each Race and sub-race, as evolution pushes it up the spiral Path, must reach a point directly over that at which the departure from the true teachings began, and it is at that point where it must meet the Karma of the past and face similar temptations. As a Race and sub-race we must listen to the voice of the past and learn the lessons from the degradation and suffering which sprang from the departure from the true teachings, and carefully eradicate the karmic seed which will be found sprouting in our midst, just as the seed of a weed which we thought had been killed out during the last season will be found sprouting in the same place the next season. A wise gardener will destroy the tiny shoots ere they have time to choke out the flowers. So it is with the seeds of Karma. At each new cycle we must look for the seeds of the same old weeds with which we struggled in the past and root them out, for to suffer the same things over and over would no more exhaust their Karma than for a gardener to allow the weeds to grow and choke out his crops year after year in the hope that ultimately the weeds would exhaust themselves and the flowers would triumph.

The Reality of the Astral World 21 The Race is now entering upon a new cycle; is now on the spiral of evolution directly over the point where the seeds of fear and intolerance, superstition and witchcraft were planted in the former cycles. Hence the necessity for advanced students, instead of denying the existence of and turning away in fear from all things connected with the Astral World, resolutely to face them and try to gain a reasonable understanding of their many phases; the many compensations as well as the terrors, the helps and hindrances, and the great opportunities to help humanity on the part of those who understand these conditions. In short it should be realized as the Sages have always taught, that the Astral World must be faced and conquered, not in the sense of being destroyed, but in the sense of being annexed, colonized and ruled, just as the Physical World must be conquered, annexed and ruled ere we can truly be called masters of the land. The first principle for the student of this subject to grasp and realize is that the astral is a real and not an imaginary or hypothetical world. As Sir Oliver Lodge tells us: "Though intangible and elusive, we have reason to know that Ether is substantial enough — far more substantial indeed than matter, which turns out to be a rare and filmy insertion in, or modification of the Ether of Space."1 Only that is real to us to which our consciousness responds. Thus when we are unconscious or dreaming 1 Raymond, Lodge, 319.

22 Realms of the Living Dead the Physical World no longer exists to us, for our senses do not respond to its vibrations. In the same way the average man is unconscious of the Astral World because his senses have not yet evolved to the point where they respond to its vibrations and report its conditions to his consciousness, yet is just as real and it exists just as surely as does the Physical World when we are unconscious of it. As man evolves, however, all his senses will gradually and normally become more and more sensitive and respond more and more perfectly to the vibrations of the Astral World, until he is as fully conscious of its various conditions and inhabitants as he is of those of the Physical World. For instance, the early races of mankind had no eyes, but in the course of evolution certain sensitive spots in the face of those primitive beings gradually developed until definite organs of sight (the eyes) were evolved. Thus it is with the opening of the astral eyes. This is the next step after a certain stage in evolution is reached, and everyone must reach it, whether he will or no, in due season. Each one must learn to use his senses in the Astral World and by experience learn to judge the truth or falsity of their reports just as he must learn to use his physical senses and understand their reports of the Physical World, The dangers are real, just as are the dangers of the Physical World, but they are no more to be feared than those of the physical. The Astral World has been defined to include "all those vibrations that lie between the intensest physical

The Reality of the Astral World 23 activity, that is, the atomic-etheric state, and the slowest mental activity, that is, the lowest division of the world of mind." Realize then that the astral is a material world, although composed of matter in much finer and far more ethereal states than we find it in the Physical World; in fact so ethereal that even in its densest expression the physical senses are scarcely able to respond to its vibrations. Nevertheless the astral is a material world which exists above — in the sense of being higher in rate of vibration, the next higher octave, as well as extending far above and beyond the earth's surface — around and within the Physical World, interpenetrating every atom more completely than the air penetrates every building, receptacle or body. "The earth," therefore, as the famous venerable Bede tells us, "is an element placed in the middle of the world, as the yolk is in the middle of an egg." To understand how this finer astral matter penetrates the coarser physical matter think of a sponge lying on the ocean bed. The water (1st) surrounds and penetrates every fiber of the sponge The salts (2nd) in the water also penetrate the sponge. A coloring fluid (3rd) may be added and it also penetrates the sponge. A certain amount of air (4th) is dissolved in the water or the fish could not breathe. This also penetrates the sponge. The light (5th) penetrates the water and illumines the sponge. And finally the water may be heated and the heat (6th) penetrates the sponge. Thus all these outer conditions of various forms and densities of matter

24 Realms of the Living Dead constitute the physical world in* which the life (7th) of the sponge evolves and expresses itself. Just so is our physical body and its life immersed in the sea of the astral and in that sea must evolve and express itself, whether conscious or not of the exact nature and status of each surrounding element. The astral is therefore a locality in space in relation to the Physical World, just as the ocean is a definite locality to the sponge, although completely surrounding and interpenetrating it, and of finer and more plastic matter.1 But it is also a state of matter conditioned by an octave of vibration above the octave within which the Physical World manifests. Indeed its lower Realms are so physical that under certain conditions of condensation their inhabitants can be photographed by the ordinary camera. This is not a mere theory or even a debatable question, for the long and elaborate scientific experiments of Sir William Crooks,2 during which the materialized astral body of Katie King was repeatedly weighed and photographed in his own laboratory, in ample light and with his own instruments, and later the experiments of the Society for Psychical Research (to whose Annual Reports you are referrecf) have long since settled the question both as to the reality and the material nature of the substance of that world. Also an electrical instrument, on the order of a telegraph instrument, devised by David Wilson, M.A., of Cambridge, England, over 1 See diagrams, page 181. » Researches in Spiritualism, Crooks. See also Photographing the invisible, Coates, and Psychical Investigations, Hill.

The Reality of the Astral World 25 which he has received hundreds of independent communications in all languages, using the Morse code from those who have left the Physical World through death, definitely settles the question of the possibility of communication with the departed.1 Therefore since the reality and nature of the Astral World and the possibility of conscious and intelligent communication with it is no longer open to argument, being merely a question of information as to the advances of science, it behooves occult students to be familiar with the main outlines and principles of that World. But to describe it and its inhabitants in a few short chapters is quite as difficult as to describe all phases of the Physical World and its inhabitants within the same limits. It appears as variously and impresses each investigator as differently as does a city, a landscape, the mountains or the sea, and hence is described as variously. Necessarily then only the more important phases and laws can be explained in these pages. 1 See Occult Review for June, 1917, for fuller report.

CHAPTER II THE RIVERS OF LIFE AND DEATH "And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb." Revelation, xarii, 1. Before taking up the detailed description of the various divisions of the Astral World, it will be helpful to note here the general description given in our lesson The Rivers of Life and Death. " One aspect of the Great Mother-force, and perhaps its lowest, is that which is called the Astral World or the astral plane, in which everything is reflected, both from the spiritual Realms above and the earth plane below. The ethereal and ratified matter of the Astral World surrounds both this globe, its humanity in general and each individual Soul just as the amniotic waters do the unborn fetus, separating them from direct contact with the higher worlds. And as the fetus floats in the amniotic waters which protect it yet separate it from direct contact with the mother and the outer world, so humanity floats in the waters of the Astral World, but unconscious of it. The amniotic waters are a secretion of the mother for the protection and nourishment of the fetus; for as they enter the (27)

28 Realms of the Living Dead digestive tract they furnish a large amount of water and nourishing albuminous substances which initiate the activites of the digestive glands and functions. But in the last few months of prenatal life these waters become contaminated with the excretions of the digestive tract and the offscourings of the body, and when absorbed these further stimulate excretion, even some hours after birth. Just so with the astral waters. While they are secreted from the Motherforce and are necessary and nourishing in their higher aspects, they also are filled with the emanations, creations and offscourings of humanity, to breathe in which — as is so often attempted through forcing psychic development before the true spiritual birth — means moral death or insanity just as surely as to breathe in the contaminated amniotic waters would mean physical death to the fetus. But sweeping through these amniotic waters, via the umbilical cord, is a great stream of purified blood flowing from the heart of the mother and carrying to the fetus the currents of life-force and nourishment without which its growth and development would be impossible. So through the muddy waters of the Astral World there is a great stream of spiritual life-force — to which the blood corresponds in the physical plane — direct from the heart of the Divine Mother. And unless we assimilate this force of Divine Love and build it into spiritual growth we will remain forever as spiritually undeveloped and unborn as the fetus would physically did it not assimilate the blood-stream from the mother.

The Rivers of Life and Death 29 "Appreciating the significance of this symbology, we see that we must indeed be 'born of water and of Spirit.' For, just as the fetus is first born into and spends its prenatal life floating in the amniotic waters, so must we be born into and be surrounded by the Astral World and imbibe its lessons — even imbibing the knowledge of some of its lower and unpleasant phases — ere we can be born into the world of Breath or Spirit. And in our undeveloped stage we float blindly, not able to cognize our surroundings and not able to breathe the true spiritual atmosphere. After the fetus has assimilated the Mother-force and reached the last stages of its prenatal development, it must begin to digest and excrete for itself ere its assimilative system is prepared to meet the conditions of individual life which prevail after birth. Just so ere our spiritual birth. We are blindly fed by the spiritual force of the great River of Life which flows through the Astral World, but there comes a time when we must imbibe for ourselves and assimilate that which is good in the waters of the astral and cast out that which we cannot utilize for our upbuilding and ongoing. In other words, our organs of spiritual digestion and elimination must be developed and begin their funtions ere we are ready to meet the conditions of independent individuality in the higher Realms after our mystical new birth. "Among the Greeks the River of Life was symbolized by the river Styx, a river of life and immortality which flowed through Acadia and emptied into the

30 Realms of the Living Dead river Acheron. The river Styx was considered the most sacred of all rivers, so much so that Zeus, the Father of the Gods, ordained that the most solemn oaths of the Gods should be sworn upon it. If such an oath were violated the forsworn had to lie in a trance for a year and then for nine years was debarred from the society of the Gods. The river Acheron, on the other hand, the river into which the Styx flowed, was regarded as the River of Death which separates our manifested existence from the state they called the nether world; the river of the nether regions over which the Souls of the Dead were ferried by the mystical boatman Charon. The reality of this symbology is quite plain once we remember that Acheron, the River of Death, is the great stream of astral force which surrounds mankind like the amniotic waters do the fetus. So there is indeed a real River of Death — as there is a real River of Life — over which the Souls of all who pass out of physical life must cross. But unless they have had their spiritual birth while still in the physical life, they cannot cross at will but are ferried over by the mystical boatman Charon, generally in a state of unconsciousness which lasts for a longer or shorter period according to their development and their knowledge of these conditions. This is why so many who return to* communicate with mortals from that which is called 'the other shore* describe most graphically how they awakened upon the shore of a great dark river whose swift current silently flowed between them and their loved

The Rivers of Life and Death 31 ones, describing also the Angel of Light who bore them across. Those who have had much experience with psychic research and have communicated with those who have 'passed over the river' are amazed at the great mass of testimony which is given concerning this River and its Angel, yet as it is a very real river of force this should not be surprising. Since the litera* ture and religion of man from the most remote ages bear the same testimony, there must be an universal principle back of the symbology, *. e.t the River of Death is the stream of astral force, secreted by the Great Mother, which flows around our universe as the amniotic waters do the fetus. "In one aspect this River of Death is the river Jordan over which the Children of Israel — the Chosen of the Lord — must pass to enter the Promised Land. Physically the Jordan is a rushing, turbulent and very muddy stream, accurately symbolizing its astral counterpart. For the astral, being the great reflector, contains all the mud, debris and offscourings of earth mingled with the pure, clear Waters of Life from the spiritual plane. And those who venture into its muddy, turbulent currents without an Angelic Guide — not a mere disembodied friend or astral entity, but a Master of Light — to bear them safely over, or without the spiritual growth by which they have become consciously united to the great River of Life from their Divine Mother, are apt to be either swept away by the swirling currents or be attacked by the denizens of the Deep. Yet the law is that this River of Death

32 Realms of the Living Dead must be crossed. In other words, though we may be ferried over this River many, many times from the Gate of Death, we can never pass over dry shod and enter the Promised Land until we dare to respond to the call of Joshua, The Christ-man, who commands the waters to divide, and follow Him across. " Many will say at once, 'Have we not been warned of the dangers of entering the Astral World and of developing our psychic faculties?' To which we answer, 'Yes.' We do not advise any effort being made to open such faculties or any attempt made to function in the Astral World until you have become so pure of heart, so true of spirit, so faithful to your Teacher, so kind and loving that you can consciously drink of the crystal waters of the River of Life ere crossing Jordan. For these waters must become 'a well of water springing up within you into everlasting life,' and you must be able consciously to bathe in the Crystal River 'proceeding out of the throne of God,' the place where the Divine in you rules all your conditions, your life and all its activities. For there are many and terrible dangers. There are sunken rocks, covered with slime; quicksands and pools of viscous mud; there are venomous snakes and many unsightly creeping things, and there is all manner of disease and filth in this stream. " Therefore, we repeat all previous warnings and say, Do not attempt to enter or cross this stream until you have the power to say to its waters, ' Divide that I may cross dry shod.' Only as you enter at

The Rivers of Life and Death 33 the command of The Christ-man Joshua can you make all that is good and pure and helpful stand as a wall of protection and helpfulness upon your Right Hand, and all that is evil or impure to flow away on your Left Hand and out of your life, to be swallowed up in the Great Deep. You are then not attempting to cross in your own strength or at the command of curiosity or desire for sensation and psychic experiences, but are following the Ark of the Covenant in obedience to your Divine Guidance. "Just as the intrepid mariner Odessus, who would fain cross this river and penetrate into the nether world, had to steer his ship a middle course lest, on the one hand, the alluring voice of the siren Scylla should charm his sailors (faculties) and one of her seven arms pluck them from the deck to be devoured, and on the other hand, lest his ship be sucked in and engulfed by the roaring maelstrom of Charybdis, so must the advanced student, when he has learned to master his ship of life, sail a middle course between the honeyed voice of Scylla enticing him to develop his psychic faculties and enter the Astral World of glamor and fascination, and the lure of Charybdis which will engulf his life in various forms of astral intoxication and psychic debauchery. For this is a World to be passed through under perfect control, but is not the Father's home. It is the Hall of Learning. In it thy Soul will find the blossoms of life, but under every flower a serpent coiled.1 But to essay the pas1 The Voice of the Silence, Blavatsky, page 6. 3

34 Realms of the Living Dead sage the student must when his ship of life is captained by Odessus. In other words, we will never become truly enlightened or illumined; will never become the mystical 'Sons of God' so often referred to, with our Third Eye open, able both to see and know and understand, until some time in the course of our evolution and training, of our own free will and without waiting for the Angel of Death to carry us, we can walk boldly into Jordan at the command of Joshua and cross over dry shod. In Eastern scriptures the iieophyte who takes this step is referred to as 'He who has entered the stream.' "The first step in conquering this River of Death and crossing into the Promised Land is correlating your consciousness and life, not with Astral World, but with the great spiritual blood stream from the Divine Mother, the River of Water of Life. Once dipped in this stream, as Achilles was dipped in the river Styx by his mother, Thetis, and you become invulnerable to every phase of temptation and evil. And it is only by bathing your life in Divine Love and Compassion that invulnerability and immortality can ever be attained. And it is only the Divine Mother-love that can dip you into this stream of Immortal Life without overlooking the heel — the first part of the foot (understanding) to touch the earth — as did the mother of Achilles, and enable you to conquer death. "Strive therefore, for the Divine Love and Wisdom which shall enable you to learn your lessons out of

The Rivers of Life and Death 35 every psychic or astral experience which the Great Law brings to you in the course of your normal development, but keep ever in mind that you are but marching through these experiences to the Promised Land."

CHAPTER III THE SEVEN REALMS "Without any idea of the future our existence would be purely mechanical and meaningless; with too little eye to the future — a mere living from hand to mouth — it becomes monotonous and dull." Raymond, Lodge, 312. Just as the Physical World is called the "Hall of Ignorance," *. e.t ignorance of our Real or Spiritual Self and our spiritual destiny, so the Astral World is called the "Hall of Learning. " And while the student is warned of its dangers, just as a young man is warned of the dangers of the Physical World as he leaves the shelter of the home, still only as he faces these dangers and learns to conquer them can he reach the "Hall of Wisdom," whether physical or spiritual. In reality the dangers of the astral, although in many respects different, are no greater than the dangers of the Physical World. For instance, in using your sense of sight in the Physical World many dangers are encountered. The babe who is just beginning to use this sense is not allowed to play with hat pins, scissors or other pointed instruments lest he put his . (37)

38 Realms of the Living Dead eyes out ere he learns to use them. His eyes are exposed to many other dangers; a speck of dirt, a cinder, an insect may wound the eye; a condiment such as pepper, mustard, or vinegar may be transferred from hand to eye after eating or the eye may be infected from the handkerchief or bit of dust. Later in life the eyes may witness unpleasant scenes such as filth in the gutter, dirty and disgusting men and women, tramps, drunkards, etc., may witness fights, accidents and disasters; may gaze on pictures or actions which stimulate evil thoughts and animal passions. But because of all these dangers which the eyes must encounter, do we cover the child's eyes with a bandage and refuse to let it develop the function of sight because it is too dangerous? or say that it is better for him to do without seeing until he has grown up and can better judge how to use it? No. Rather do the parents teach the child to understand and judge that which it sees. The same rule of common sense applies to the development of the functions of our senses in the Astral World; for the axiom, "As above so below; as below so above" is an universal rule which applies to all Worlds. To endeavor to skip over this World and avoid its lessons would be to become a hothouse plant and develop the same kind of moral and spiritual fiber as does the young man who is brought up on the "sheltered life" plan, unable to stand alone because ignorant and fearful of the experiences of real life. But just as the child should be trained in the funda 

The Seven Realms 39 mental principles which make for sterling character, if he is to face the dangers and conquer the temptations of the world, so must the student of occultism be trained in the application of the same principles in the higher Realms ; to unswerving trust in the power of God and of The Christ within; to courage, honesty, purity of life and thought, truthfulness and fearlessness of the World he is entering. When so trained he "knows no doubtful hopes, no absurd fears, because he has no irrational beliefs: he is acquainted with the extent of his power; and he can dare without danger."1 It is knowledge of the details of the astral which shall take away the fear of the danger of it, that we desire to expound in these pages. In the previous chapters we found that the astral was a material world, although its higher Realms differ from its lower as much as air differs from earth. We also found that these Realms were not arbitrary divisions or mere classifications, but were separated from each other as naturally as are air, water and earth, although co-existing and intermingled, just as are the different forms of physical matter. Just as the Physical World and man himself is divided by nature into seven subdivisions, according to the various forms and conditions of manifestation of which the World and man are made up, so the Astral World is naturally divided into seven subdivisions — Realms as we shall call them, for they are more than 1 Transcendental Magic, L6vi, 89.

40 Realms of the Living Dead mere sub-planes — corresponding to the seven principles of man, in each subdivision or Realm of which one of the seven Worlds of Manifestation is represented and has its characteristic manifestation. Perhaps we can get a better idea of what these Realms are like if we go back to our simile of a sponge and consider the water, the salt, the coloring matter, the air, the heat, the light and the life, each as corresponding to a separate Realm with its own characteristics. Each Realm is divided into seven Orders and each Order into seven suborders.1 This classification is therefore not an arbitrary one, but is in harmony with the universal seven-fold classification of the universe. It therefore gives us a sound and scientific basis which we may safely follow in our future consideration and discussion of that World. These seven Realms we have classified as follows, giving their correspondence to the Worlds of Manifestation. 1. The Realm of Reflection. Corresponding to the Physical World. 2. The Ethereal or Etheric Realm. Corresponding to the Astral World. 3. The Realm of the Life-force or Vital Realm. Corresponding to the World of the Life-force or Pattern World. 4. The Desire Realm. Corresponding to the Desire World. 1 See The Voice of I sis, Curtiss, Chapter III.

The Seven Realms 41 5. The Mental Realm. Corresponding to the Mental World. 6. The Spiritual or Inspirational Realm. Corresponding to the Spiritual World. 7. The Divine or Ecstatic Realm. Corresponding to the Divine World. If we regard the Astral World as the next higher octave above the physical, its seven Realms will correspond to the same Realms or notes of the Physical World, but in a higher octave, hence will have corresponding characteristics. If this analogy is kept in mind one of the greatest stumbling blocks for the student will be eliminated. One cause for confusion is that many psychics, all who claim to understand life in the Astral World and whose testimony is hard to refute, give out contradictory reports, scarcely any two agreeing. But we would get just as differing reports if we asked a miner who spent his life under ground, a deep sea diver, a sailor, a farmer and an aviator to describe life in the Physical World as he saw it in the Realm in which he worked. The Report depends upon the Realm or Realms to which the psychic vibrates or is attracted. If the psychic reaches but one Realm the others are just as non-existent as are the seven prismatic colors to one who is born color-blind or as are other musical tones to insects which respond to but one. This, together with the further illustrations given under each heading, will explain the discrepancies

42 Realms of the Living Dead and conflicting statements which are so puzzling to the student. To gain a true understanding of the Astral World we must not take the statements of any one psychic, but must study the philosophy of that World under those Great Teachers who have mastered the astral as well as higher Worlds and are able to express their knowledge in a convincing and scientific manner. Since the Astral World as a whole is the World of sensation and desire all its Realms partake of those characteristics, although greatly enhanced and intensified by the far more ethereal conditions of that World. This should be borne in mind as each Realm is studied. It should also be remembered that the World entered through the gate of death includes as many states of consciousness, and even more, than the Physical World, which is entered through the gate of birth, for birth into the Physical World is death to the Astral World, just as death to the Physical World is birth into the Astral World.

CHAPTER IV THE REALM OF REFLECTION The Scenery "If freed thou would'st be from karmic chains, seek not for thy Guru in those mayavic regions." The Voice of the Silence, Blavatsky, 7. 41 He who died at Azan sends This to comfort all his friends; Faithful friends! it lies, I know, Pale and white, and cold as snow; And ye say, 'Abdallah's dead!' Weeping at the feet and head. I can see your falling tears, I can hear your sighs and prayers; Yet I smile and whisper this, * I am not the thing you kiss, Cease your tears and let it lie! It was mine, it is not 1/ " After Death in Arabia, Arnold. The first Realm above the Physical World, in rate of vibration, we term the Realm of Reflection. Here we find reflected every object which exists in the Physical World, or to be more accurate, the physical object — man, animal, vegetable as well as all so-called (43)

44 Realms of the Living Dead inanimate things — is the reflection or materialization of its astral duplicate. Here we find the astral pattern of all living things. But everything is seen reversed as in a mirror. For instance a number such as 123 would be seen as 321, etc. This fact caused the editors of Mme. Blavatsky's manuscript for The Secret Doctrine much labor at first when they tried to verify the quotations made by her from books presented by her Teachers to her astral vision, for she frequently forgot to reverse the number of the page. When the editors learned this, if the quotation was not found on the page indicated, it would invariably be found on the page bearing the reversed number. This feature of the astral alone accounts for many of the mistakes of untrained psychics who are not familiar with this law. Day and night are also the reverse of the corresponding periods on earth. Hence it is generally easier for a sensitive to contact the astral at night, although to one who is properly trained it makes little difference; for so-called night exists only in the Realm of Reflection, and Ethereal Realm and the Desire Realm. And even in these it is far from being the same as an earthly night, although the moon and stars are visible. While the scenery of this Realm is the counterpart of the scenery of earth it is much more, for here there is a luminosity and translucence difficult to describe, which makes familiar objects far more brilliant and beautiful and reveals their true nature far more than

The Realm of Reflection 45 does their physical counterpart on earth. While plants, trees, animals and people are all seen here they can also be seen through, just as on earth we can see into and through a glass of water for instance. In the Astral World we can also see all sides at once and not in perspective, and with the glow and colors imparted to everything by the currents of life-force which sweep through them. For the Astral World is a world of four dimensions instead of three. For this reason all attempts to locate the various Realms of this world in space or to limit its phenomena to our three dimensional conceptions, lead to misconception and materialization. Wild animals, snakes, etc., are also encountered in the astral, but only in the localities corresponding to where they would naturally be found on earth. Every animal does not have a conscious life in the Astral World, as it takes many animals of one kind to express the Group Soul of a species. Hence it is only the more advanced animals that are sufficiently individualized to have an astral life. This is most common among those which have had some kind of contact with man and have absorbed more or less of his emanations of individuality. Hence it is common for all domesticated animals to be found in the astral, and even wild animals which have been hunted by man. This is one explanation of the astral tigers, elephants and other wild animals so frequently seen in India and other jungle countries. Another explanation is that the leaders of packs, herds and flocks

46 Realms of the Living Dead are the most advanced, hence are usually individualized enough to have a life in the Astral World. Here also the vegetation follows the seasonal changes of the various countries, but they occur somewhat in advance of their manifestation on earth. For that which is to manifest on earth descends from the higher Worlds into the Astral World and later is embodied on earth. We must not think, however, that it is the physical forms of objects that are thus seen, for this is not the case. As a rule physical objects are not seen from the Astral World, except during the period of dense earth attraction just after leaving the Physical World and while the consciousness is responding to the keynote of the physical more than to the astral. Since love is the greatest attractive power, one in the astral may choose to remain in close physical contact with a loved one on earth for many years. For instance, a mother may remain so close to her children on earth that she would be able to see into their physical conditions throughout their entire lives, although she would gradually tend to see into the conditions in their hearts and minds rather than their physical conditions. There are, however, certain exceptions. By special training, analogous to that required for a mortal to see into the Astral World, one in the astral may be taught to see into the Physical World; for the astral body when purified emanates a form of radiance which under proper conditions can be projected into dense physi 

The Realm of Reflection 47 cal matter and thus make the physical visible. Also the presence of a certain type of physical medium enables the one in the astral to see physical objects and persons. Otherwise the objects of the Physical World are just as non-existent to the dweller in the astral as are the things of the astral to the average dweller in the physical. Those in the astral see the astral bodies of physical objects, animals and people, which are more or less luminous, or more or less foggy or dense, according to their degree of development. But since the consciousness of those dwelling on earth is not functioning in their astral bodies but in the physical, they appear asleep, insensible or unresponsive to those on the astral, except when the consciousness of the earth dweller is responding more or less imperfectly to the Astral World during dreams, visions, trances, etc. The Realm of Reflection being the most objective of the Astral World, may be called the physical aspect of the astral. The astral bodies of the great majority of the lesser evolved humanity who have left the Physical World therefore naturally gravitate to this Realm. Many such so-called "spirits" report through mediums that there is no heaven world or perhaps, since their sensations are far more acute, that they are worse off than when on earth, thus showing that they are living what is little more than an extension of their life on earth, be that life pleasant or unpleasant. For the interests of those dwelling in this Realm of Reflection are largely what they were

48 Realms of the Living Dead on earth and they have similar gatherings and organizations, card-parties, clubs, churches, theatres, recreations, etc., which attract those whose desires affinitize them to such gatherings, each one going just where he or she belongs by affinity. Here also teachers and helpers from the higher Realms descend to help and instruct those who are seeking to understand their changed conditions and surroundings. Many, however, are so absorbed in the earth attractions and in trying to communicate with their friends on earth that they will not listen or pay any attention to such teachers, just as there are thousands on earth who will not listen or pay any attention to such teachings as are set forth in these lessons, although they are accessible to all. One feature of such help should receive special mention. There is an organization in the higher Realms similar to the Red Cross Society which has workers whose duty it is to descend into this lower Realm to aid, care for, comfort and instruct those who are passing out, especially those who know something about the change and are willing to listen and receive instruction. This organization is specially equipped to watch over, help and instruct those who are passing out in great numbers in times of disaster, pestilence and war; indeed many soldiers as soon as they are fully awakened to the astral conditions are enlisted in this astral Ambulance Corps, and most of them eagerly give their services, under the able instruction of appointed teachers, until they can be taught no longer to identify

The Realm of Reflection 49 themselves with earth conditions. Those who will not profit by instruction must be left, just as such must be left on earth, to learn through experience, perhaps by suffering, if they will not learn without it. Those who know of these helpers can therefore be met and be taken care of, students of this Order being met by members of the Order over there acting under the direction of the Teacher of the Order. They can also arrange for their loved ones to be met by a reception committee which will include the dear ones who have gone before, provided they are still interested in those left behind and naturally wish to welcome them. Such a reception is by no means confined to members of the Order of Christian Mystics, for all that is necessary for anyone in any part of the world is to send out a mental wireless call for the invisible helpers and the loved ones will be gathered to greet the newcomer. These facts are the basis for the belief in the efficacy of prayers for the dead — purgatory being simply the lower Realm of the Astral World — also for the belief in the value of baptism for the dead as advocated by St. Paul;1 for not only do such prayers surround the loved one with comforting, helpful and protective thought forces, but they also serve to call the attention of the invisible helpers to their needs. Therefore if in the course of your development you should contact a departed one who needs help, instead of allowing him to throw his condi1 1 Cor., xv, 29.

50 Realms of the Living Dead tion over you or control you, mentally tell him to call for helpers and seek the Light, and that if he desires to communicate with you he must stand some distance away and communicate mentally in the manner we shall describe when we take up the Mental Realm.1 A great work could be done by Spiritualists who attend stances if, instead of seeking merely for personal messages for themselves from those who have passed over, they made a point of explaining to all who visited them from the astral, that a cry for help and Light would at any time bring to them one of the teachers who could and would joyfully help them. There are many earnest and loving persons who do this and aid many Souls in the astral to find help and comfort. But on the other hand at almost every stance there will be one or more wandering Souls seeking aimlessly for their friends and relatives left behind, because they feel they must renew the old relationship, knowing naught of any other. Children are often heard crying for a mother, also mothers seeking their children, and if the relative happens not to be known by the sitters, how often selfish and heartless remarks are made, such, for instance, as "No one here knows your child, so pass on," when one word of help would mean so much. It should be clearly understood that no one is confined to this Realm of Reflection except by the density of his astral body and the earthliness of his thoughts and desires, just as no one is confined to * See page 179.

The Realm of Reflection 51 materialistic thoughts while on earth unless he so desires. For in this Realm a cry or even a strong desire for Light and help will bring it. While the astral body is still dense and heavy with the water vapor, gases and magnetism of earth, the recently deceased person is apt to think he can be transported only by walking, running or riding in conveyances. He therefore walks or rides either in the astral counterpart of such vehicles or in the thought-forms of them created either by himself or collectively by all who think they need such vehicles. Later on they learn that so little energy is required that the astral body can be transported by the will, a strong thought of or desire to be in a certain place transporting it there almost immediately. Although there is usually a sense of a definite journey through the air. During such incredibly swift passages the emanations of their auras stream out behind them and are often mistaken for wings by untrained psychics. Many mortals dream of flying through the air because they remember such journeys made in the astral during sleep or because they remember such experiences during their excarnate existence previous to their present incarnation. The recently deceased thinks he can be nourished only by the same kinds of food which were necessary for his physical body. In fact the glamor of this Realm makes him think that he must carry on life just as he did while on earth and subject to the same laws, and it may be a long time before he learns better. Hence, many of the more ignorant and less advanced, as well

52 Realms of the Living Dead as the "high livers" and the gluttonous are found thronging the kitchens of hotels and restaurants and sucking in the vapors and emanations from the food that is being cooked, as do many others in the kitchens of their former homes. The more intelligent are able to draw to themselves duplicates of their favorite dishes, the creative power of their thought forming them not as mere illusions, but from the astral emanations of the physical substances. For while the astral body still contains so much dense earth magnetism and matter the need is still felt for some form — even if it be only the less material — of physical food. The law of specific gravity obtains here as well as in the Physical World; just as a physical object or body will sink or float according to its density, so the astral body will sink into the denser strata or will float up into the particular stratum and Realm to which it is affinitized. We are told "As a man thinketh in his heart so is he," and in the Astral World this fact becomes very apparent. Here we literally find ourselves in the environment our thoughts had created while on earth, with the same kindred Spuls and living out the true inmost thoughts and desires of our heart which perhaps on earth we had tried to hide, for here there is no cloak to hide our true inner desires. As we think, so are we. Therefore to some it is hell, to some but an extension of earth life, while just as surely to others it seems to be Heaven. Both these regions will be dealt with more fully later on.

The Realm of Reflection 53 The more degraded haunt barrooms and brothels in an effort still to experience the desired sensations. (This phase will be treated more fully when we describe the Desire Realm.) But as the denser atoms fall away and the earth attraction loses its power the person finds that in some mysterious way he is transported through the air wherever in thought he desires or wills to be, and is nourished by currents of force brought to him by the mere thought of food, and still later he forgets all about the necessity for food. While the astral body may remain for a long time in this Realm the consciousness can soar into the higher Realms at any time, provided the desire to reach up is present, just as with those still on earth the consciousness can leave business and household cares and soar into the realms of literature, art, science or spiritual thought. In other words, desire is the governing factor in the Astral World even more fully than on earth. But in this more ethereal World* the desire promptly brings the condition desired, while on earth its attainment is hampered and delayed by the limitations of the more dense and rigid matter which must be overcome ere it can manifest. The substance of the Astral World is so ethereal that it is moulded by thought, hence any entity who understands the mechanism can assume any appearance it desires, even that of an angel of light, as St. Paul tells us.1 For instance, it is quite common for * II Cor., a, 14.

54 Realms of the Living Dead excarnate entities to copy the appearance and ape the manners of some great personage, and to appear to sitters at a stance under high sounding names, generally claiming to be great teachers and endeavoring to gain the confidence of their dupes and ultimate victims through flattery, lust or promises of great attainments or rewards to be granted if they give implicit obedience to them, or more commonly to tell them of some great and important work which they can only accomplish through the help of the entities. Therefore beware of any entity, voice or guide who tells you how great you are, were or are about to become, or who offers you great reward, or who suggests to you that some one is your "soul-mate" and that with this person's help you can do great things, or who fires your imagination and stimulates your passion by giving you vague and insinuating hints of a lover, soul-mate or affinity, or some other romantic relation; for all such are seeking to enter your aura over the line of flattery, greed or desire, that they may sap your vital life-force and use you as an instrument to gratify their own desires. Again, elementals or spirits take possession of a cast-off astral body and animate it with a semblance of life and appear to a sitter as his father, mother or some loved one whom they are impersonating. This fraud can easily be detected, however, for such an one although cunning, has but a modicum of reflected human intelligence and can seldom go further than to repeat events or phrases still pictured in the

The Realm of Reflection 55 brain of the cast-off astral body, or to repeat some catch phrases used by the medium such as, "I am happy and progressing," and if asked: "How is Mary?" will say: "Mary is progressing, good-bye." For it must be remembered that the Astral World is a World of illusion, and just as we find many on earth trying to be something much greater and more important than they really are, so in this World they endeavor to gain importance and a following of dupes on the physical plane by claiming to be other than themselves. It is only dupes in the Physical World, however, whom they deceive, since in the Astral World, as we have explained, it is possible to see through as well as around things and people, hence their true nature is plainly discerned. Such elementals or entities, if given power through recognition, propitiation or obedience, imbibe sufficient human mind stuff from their followers to make themselves more or less intelligent in a cunning sort of way and often acquire great power over their victims. No one need have any fear of such entities, however, for two reasons: First, one will seldom encounter such entities unless he affinitizes with them, hence attracts them to him or unless he seeks them out, just as he would seldom come into contact with drunkards, criminals and degenerates on .earth unless he deliberately entered their habitat. In the astral as in the physical, you seek the association of those with whom you affinitize. Second and most important, no one should fear the entities of the astral

56 Realms of the Living Dead because they can always be controlled or driven away by the invocation of Spiritual Light, either through prayer, a challenge as to their identity " In the Name of the Living Christ" or a determined demand for Truth, such as we will give more fully elsewhere. This does not mean that you should send out a challenge of defiance to everything in the astral, for there are entities of great power and malignance which it would be very foolish to arouse or invite to combat. But it does mean that you have a sure means of protection against anything you may encounter in the course of your normal development. All messages received from the departed must be received with the same good common sense and be judged by the same standards that you would use in dealing with the world; indeed even greater caution must be used since the glamour and delusion of this Realm is more difficult to resist, yet good sense, and a firm trust in the power and protection of the Christ within can make you fearless and able to cope with all its deceptions. "In it thy soul will find blossoms of life, but under every flower a serpent coiled."1 Here also are found the astral graveyards where the discarded astral bodies are gathered.2 1 Voice of the Silence, Blavatsky, 6. * Pupils who are still on eartn sometimes wander into such regions while out in the astral, just as they might wander into a physical graveyard, and are often badly frightened by the ghastly sights encountered, but a strong thought will immediately carry them up through or away from such regions.

CHAPTER V THE ASTRAL DOUBLE " As a man throweth away old garments and putteth on new, even so the dweller in the body, having quitted its old mortal frame, entereth into others which are new." Bhagavad Gita. In the case of both man and the animals their astral pattern is not directly related to the physical body, but projects from itself a shadowy counterpart called the astral double. This double is capable of infinite contraction so as to be contained in the fetus and become the basis of the physical manifestation. The growth of the fetus simply abstracts the physical elements from the mother and builds them into the meshes of the astral double, thus materializing it. This double is not only the model into the meshes of which the physical is built, but it is also the vehicle by means of which the currents of lifeforce from the astral body, which is always in the Astral World, as well as the life-force liberated by the digestion of food and derived from the water and air, reaches and supports the physical body. 14 It is the reservoir or sponge of life, gathering it up (57)

1 58 Realms of the Living Dead from all the natural kingdoms around, and is the intermediary between the kingdoms of Pranic and physical life.1 . . . Life cannot come immediately from the subjective to the objective, for Nature goes gradually through each sphere. Therefore the astral body is the intermediary between the vital world and our physical body, and pumps in the life."* It is also the vehicle by which the vibrations of the Physical World reach the consciousness of man as sensations. The lower kingdoms whose evolution has not as yet built up the body of sensation, or only in a rudimentary way, are more directly connected with the astral double. The above explains why all forms of life cease to grow in size when the astral double has been materialized to its full size, for then no further increase in size can take place. In cases of myxedema or giantism when the body continues to grow enormous feet and hands or to a height of seven or eight feet, the continued growth is due to a defect in or disease of the astral centers governing growth, a condition which can frequently be cured by remedies affecting those centers, especially the thyroid gland, the hypophysis cerebri, etc. Death is therefore simply the withdrawal of this finer astral double and its contained life-force from the physical shell. It is the withdrawal of this definite 'See page 99. *The Secret Doctrine, Blavatsky, iii, 593.

The Astral Double 59 body that gives to the outer body that is left behind the shrunken and cadaverous appearance seen in socalled death. This also accounts for the loss in weight of the physical body immediately after death and before evaporation could account for such loss. Physical scientists who have investigated this subject claim that the ounce or two loss in weight represents the weight of the "soul," whereas it is simply the weight of the dense astral double that is missing. This astral double is attached to the physical body by an astral cord something like an umbilical cord, which does not permit it to withdraw very far from the physical, although in some mediums it can be extruded to a considerable distance and be used as the basis for materializations. Normally at death it should be indrawn into the astral body proper, although it is often left floating near the physical corpse, and in certain atmospheric conditions it can be seen objectively by the physical sight as a wraith or " ghost." Since the astral body is the counterpart of the physical, when it is withdrawn from the physical, it bears the exact likeness of the mortal, with all the distinguishing marks, moles, etc., it possessed at the time of transition. Those who have passed on into the astral are therefore as easily recognized and identified as they would be on earth. For, as we have said repeatedly, after leaving the physical body, there is little more change of appearance than there is in a mortal when he removes his overcoat, except that when a physical limb or part is lost the astral

60 Realms of the Living Dead part will not be lost, unless so shown for purposes of identification. After passing on from a long and exhausting illness, and especially in the case of an old person who is tired of life and no longer clings to it by either thought or desire, it is common for such a one to pass into a deep and restful sleep varying in' duration according to the individual needs, previous ideas, etc. We know, of course, that thought and desire rule the Physical World, but in the Astral World they rule to a far greater degree and far more quickly, for the plastic matter of that World yields very rapidly to the creative and moulding power of thought and will. Therefore a person who for years held the thought that leaving the Physical World ended all, or one who believed that he would sleep until Gabriel blew his trumpet, would naturally pass into a comatose or dense sleeping condition after passing on. This condition would perhaps last for years or even centuries, until the desire or thought force put into the idea was exhausted and he was released from its effects. All these types of sleepers float aimlessly in the Astral World, swept hither and thither by astral currents which, much like the winds of earth, are continually flowing in various directions; for it must be remembered that in this Realm we can see as well as feel these astral winds. And as the astral is the World of Desire and Sensation, we can here see

The Astral Double 61 that many of these winds are but the forces generated by man's restless and disquieting thoughts which form mighty currents plainly seen to be made up of living elementals, tenuous forms even in this Realm, yet passing in great streams and with a moaning cry, much as the wind moans on earth. Again there can be seen mighty storm-winds made up of the embodied evil and malignant thought forces generated by mankind, here seen entitized as demons of destruction sweeping on with tremendous power. Yet always there is blowing here a steady wind from the East, which is the force of blessing sent forth into all the world from the Heart of the Universe. This appears as made up of Angelic Beings who float on with faces radiant, unseeing and unheeding anything through which they pass, intent only on their mission, which is to carry the divine creative love-forces and pour them out on all creation. The sleeping and floating forms are therefore in danger as well as very much in the way, quite as much so as would one be on earth who lay down in a busy thoroughfare and went to sleep. Therefore special attention is given to such, very much as special policemen would prevent a like occurrence on earth; there are those whose business it is to look after such Souls, and to convey them to specially prepared retreats where they are tenderly cared for and protected. This among many other tasks is the work assigned to those students who during sleep on earth have

62 Realms of the Living Dead asked to be put to work in the Astral World. Many of us would be surprised could we remember the tasks we performed during sleep; for we do not spend all our time at the Masters' feet drinking in wisdom, although we do receive teachings according to our needs and desires. Those who sincerely wish to learn are taught through experience the great lesson of humility by learning to perform gladly the most menial tasks, and in time the quantities of sympathy for the helpless, willingness to help without seeming recognition, and the humility needed to do the little things, are inculcated in our Souls and later begin to manifest in our lives. Then, and then only, are we assigned to more important tasks. Those who wake up immediately or soon after passing on, usually have a short period of confusion while they are getting their bearings, much as one is sometimes confused on awaking in a dimly lighted room which seems full of vague shadows until one is fully awake and recognizes things as they are. To many this transitory condition inspires fear, especially if they passed on with a fear of death. But with the help of their loved ones or others duly appointed by the Masters, this fear soon passes and they realize what the change is that has taken place. The thing to impress upon the minds of all is, that the moment a Soul cries out for Light and help, at that moment help is sent. And when one is passing through the change called death, if the friends and relatives send up the prayer of faith that the Soul

The Astral Double 63 shall be met on the threshold of the other world, it will be done. Especially is this true of those who feither belong to this Order or who have friends or loved ones who are about to pass over. If they write to this Center and request help, some of the many in the Astral World who are trained and taught and organized for this purpose will prepare for the coming Soul, much as the birth of an infant on the earth is prepared for. They will also notify the personal friends of the ones passing over to meet them, and will see to it that if such a one sleeps for even a long time, he will nevertheless be watched over and protected, so that when he does awaken there will be some loving face to allay even a momentary pang of loneliness or fear, and to explain to him the nature of the new conditions of life. Many, however, are not welcomed owing to the fear inspired by their false earthly teaching. For instance, we have known a wife who solemnly enjoined her husband as he was passing on, "Don't you dare to come back around me." At her passing on karmic law would not permit him to know of it or to meet her. Those who are not thus met naturally do not know where they are or why they are surrounded by such unfamiliar conditions, or they may for a time think they are dreaming. They may remember that they have been sick but think they have just waked up from a night's sleep. Others when they awaken to the fact that they are not really dead but are as much alive as ever, cannot

64 Realms of the Living Dead believe they have crossed the great river1 and entered another state of existence. As they have considerable physical force and magnetism clinging to them they are naturally in very close relation with the friends they have left behind; can still see them moving about preparing for the funeral of the body of flesh they have so recently quitted, but refusing to speak or pay attention to them. While in this sphere of attraction they are acutely sensitive to the emotions of those to whom they are so closely connected, magnetically as well as mentally. Hence the weeping and display of grief so often indulged in by the mourners causes the departed ones great anguish and suffering, as emotions of grief, sorrow or inharmony cause greater suffering and have a far more depleting and exhausting effect upon the astral body than upon the physical body, great as we know that to be. Especially is this so when the departed ones are unable to make the loved ones understand that they are not dead, only gone on before; cannot make them realize their presence, their love and their solicitude over the conditions and changes transpiring on earth. Therefore as little emotion as possible should be displayed over the passing of a loved one, especially at the time of the passing when everything should be peaceful and calm, and for the first few days afterward while the loved one is still closely enmeshed in earth conditions. Particularly 1 See page 30.

The Astral Double 65 this is true of those who pass out through accident while in the full vigor of life. Such persons still have so much physical life-force and magnetism in their auras that they remain in close touch with earth conditions for long periods, at least as long as they would normally have lived but for the accident. We should say farewell to our loved ones with no more grief than would be natural were they starting on a long journey on which they would be absent a number of years, for we will see them again, when we follow them, just as surely as on earth if we journeyed to their new home. Instead of spending time and force in useless grief and mourning the time should be spent in quiet meditation and in an effort to correlate our consciousness with theirs and assure them of our love and understanding. Mourning clothing should not be worn nor should constant visits be paid to the grave, for all such acts and thoughts tend to hold the departed one down to the discarded body through the law of attraction. The recently deceased is often strongly, even morbidly attracted to the discarded physical body for some time, hence haunts its burial place. But it is thus held only as a result of thought or desire, the desire to see what becomes of the former outer garment it wore while on earth. Cremation is therefore always desirable, not only because more sanitary and less revolting to think of, but because it consumes the physical magnetism and this releases the deceased at once from that source of attraction to the Physical 6

66 Realms of the Living Dead World. But great care should be taken to see that cremation is not carried out until the astral body has had time to withdraw completely from the physical body or considerable suffering to the departed one may result. Several of those whose bodies have thus been cremated somewhat prematurely have complained to us and requested that we give the above warning in our teachings. Another reason for delay is to be sure that the person has really left the body permanently and not temporarily, as in a state of catalepsy, trance, etc. The best indication as to the proper time for cremation is when definite signs of physical disintegration appears. The attending physician should be requested not to sign the death certificate or permit embalming until these signs appear or until a trained and reliable psychic is able definitely to assert that the Soul has completely left the body.

CHAPTER VI THE AWAKENING 11 Sweet friends: what the women lave For the last sleep of the grave, Is a hut which I am quitting, Is a garment no more fitting, Is a cage from which at last, Like a bird, my soul hath passed. Love the inmate not the room, The wearer not the garb — the plume Of eagle, not the bars That kept him from those splendid stars." After Death in Arabia, Arnold. In the case of the majority of persons, the first emotion on awakening in the Astral World is an intense and weird loneliness, a confused consciousness of being surrounded by vague shadowy forms, and of being watched by innumerable eyes, yet without the ability fully to formulate their thoughts or understand by whom or what they are watched. For at this stage the awakened ones have not yet learned to use their astral senses or to discriminate among the strange sights, sounds and feelings. It must be remembered that in the Astral World for a time they are in the same relative position as is a new-born babe when (67)

68 Realms of the Living Dead it first opens its eyes to earth life. Could we enter into the babe's feelings we would find vague memories of the life it had left, a sense of just awakening from a deep sleep (the period of gestation) and a newborn and uncomprehending wonder at the strange sights and sounds surrounding it. If, however, the ones passing over have studied or have had at least some understanding of what they are to expect, the confusion is but momentary. And if they have prepared for the change by having some wise Soul gather together their loved friends and relatives to meet them, it is a joyous reunion. In the case of sudden death, either by accident or in the war, when the mind is filled with the desire for life and the intense excitement of battle, the first awakening often brings the soldiers a sense of being suddenly awakened after having fallen asleep at their posts, and they look around in amazement for the familiar battlefield. The great stillness after the roar of battle strikes terror to their Souls. Then perhaps a bird can be heard singing joyously near them — for physical sounds can be heard in the astral — until its singing melts their hearts and perhaps a flood of tears brings relief. Even those who have passed out in hatred, with the lust for killing strong within them, awaken in this great silence and loneliness only to find no one near them. In both instances this is purposely arranged, so that whatever is good in them may have a chance to awaken. Especially is this true in the case of those who

The Awakening 69 pass out through an explosion or who have been victims of a bursting shell, in which case the astral as well as the physical body has been shattered. In such a case it will take some time ere the attractive and cohesive power of the life-principle can draw the astral atoms around it and reconstruct the bodily form. During this period the Soul remains unconscious. In such a case the feeling on first awakening will be quite similar to the sensations of returning consciousness after an anesthetic, the same feeling of faintness and exhaustion, which, however, soon passes off. Many, after passing through the first period of silence and great loneliness, when they first begin to recognize others around them, even one whom on earth they would have called an enemy, are so glad to find companionship that, be they on their side or the enemy's, they are eagerly sought; for at this stage it is the attitude of the real Inner Man that is apparent, hence those of similar natures and ideals are instinctively attracted, no matter what their positions may have been on earth. Only as they begin to identify themselves with their old earthly conditions, with the old personality, its uniform, equipment, last orders, etc., do they realize the difference in nationality. With some few however, the force of the old hostilities and thoughts may for a time impel them to hunt out and attack the enemy. In such cases they at once, through their strong thought-force, return to the battlefield on the physi 

70 Realms of the Living Dead cal plane, but once there they find conditions greatly changed. When in the flesh it was quite easy to know on which side they were fighting; friend and foe could be distinguished merely by their uniforms, but now all is different, for to the astral sight the real forces back of the war (good and evil) are plainly seen, and the aura of each man who is truly and heroically fighting for principle, even though mistaken, is illumined by the light of his ideals, the light varying in color and brilliancy according to the strength and purity of these ideals. While over each one filled only with cruelty, hatred and the desire to kill — a sort of blood madness — can be seen hosts of the most malignant entitized forces, i. e.t forces manifesting in forms which express the thoughts of evil which generated them. These forms are seen to surround their victims, sometimes like monstrous serpents, which writhe in and out of their bodies, emerging from the heart or solar plexus or again from the mouth or head. And over all may be seen clouds of evil faces; forms of unspeakable cruelty and lasciviousness horribly pictured in living but unearthly shapes. If the Soul belongs to the side of evil he will join his forces with these monsters in orgies of horror and throw himself madly into the fray, becoming in turn, because of his disembodiment, an obsessing demon. If, however, he has in him even a spark of better feeling (and how few are entirely without it) sooner or later he allies himself on the side of good.

The Awakening 71 But there are thousands of helpers on the battle fields and in the trenches trying to help all who will listen, to realize their real condition and what they are really fighting against. They are thus gradually taught that it is not their fellow men they should attack, but the evil forces that are obsessing certain leaders of the Central Powers and trying to obsess the rank and file as well, playing upon and enlarging and driving to extreme expression every animal and brutal instinct and selfish desire which become like open doors through which such forces can manifest. All the lust-forms and demons which are the inciting causes of the war are there seen in their true and hideous form, the personified forms of lust, hate, greed, cruelty, ambition, desire for power, etc. These evil entities are seen to swarm around and mingle in among the fighters on both sides and urge them to give vent to cruelty and their baser passions. But as we have seen, they are successful only with those whose minds are open and receptive to such incitements. Therefore hundreds of thousands of soldiers in the astral, gathered from both sides of the conflict, are fighting side by side to destroy the obsessing demons. In fact, many of the soldiers from the Central Powers, seeing how their former leaders and comrades are obsessed by these swirling vortices of evil force, are the most eager, energetic and courageous of all — for it takes courage of a high moral as well as physical quality to encounter these vaporous, clammy whirlpools of evil

72 Realms of the Living Dead — in their *eflforts to destroy them and free their people from their influence. Especially is this true of those illiterate portions of central Europe where witchcraft and black- magic have been practised for ages, and whose inhabitants are especially susceptible to such influences. Those in the astral who keep trying to fight are only those few who have made themselves channels through which the evil astral forces could express and who would be so filled with hatred and lust of battle that they would desire to continue after passing on, just as it is only the comparative few out of the great mass of mankind who desire to continue their habits of debauchery after passing on. As we said in The Philosophy of War1 the real instigators of this war are the evil astral forces, "the hosts of the accumulated thought-forms of lust, greed, envy, hate, selfishness and unbrotherliness engendered by the wrong-thinking of humanity from the beginning, as well as the results of their evil words and deeds, all of which are ever seeking expression through their creators. . . . During this battle all the stored up evil must have a focus through which it can pour itself out upon the lowest or physical plane where its precipitation will end the cycle of its manifestation, adjust the Karma and permit the good aspect of the forces involved to be extracted." "Germany . . . through ambition, pride and * Page 26-7.

The Awakening 73 lust for power has opened the door to the hordes of evil astral forces which are seeking to obsess humanity and wreck their will upon it. Hence, through giving expression to these forces, Germany has become the instrument through which they are being poured out into the world to the testing of the other nations, just as Judas became the instrument of testing to the other disciples."

CHAPTER VII ASTRAL HELPERS "Death is not a word to fear, any more than birth is. We change our state at birth, and come into the world of air and sense and myriad existence; we change our state at death and enter a region of — what?" Raymond, Lodge. In the Physical World we are able to mould or shape the matter of this world according to our thought, but it requires special instruments such as knives, saws, chisels, etc., or special processes such as dissolving or melting the materials and pouring them into specially prepared moulds, etc. But the material of the Astral World is so plastic that it is moulded by thought-force and will. Hence all that is necessary in that World is to think intently of the thing desired and it will soon appear. It will be perfect and beautiful in proportion as the thought held is clear, definite and perfect, or will be hazy and imperfect as the thought is not clear or is allowed to wander. The thing desired will also appear quickly or slowly according as the will and desire for it is strong or weak. For forms in the Astral (75)

76 Realms of the Living Dead World seem to the astral sight as solid and substantial as do the forms on earth to our physical sight, although we know that the particles of such physical forms are separated by relatively large spaces. A person in the lower Realms of the astral can even pinch himself and feel the substantial flesh or injure himself by being struck by an astral object. In fact the astral body can be wounded, not only by astral weapons, but by physical instruments with sharp points or cutting edges. "When swords are struck at shades, it is the sword itself, not its Astral, that cuts. Sharp instruments alone can penetrate Astral, e. g., under water a blow will not affect you, but a cut will."1 This is one reason why swords crossed above a bed have for ages been considered a protection against astral entities. No blood flows from such wounds, but for a short time the life-force may be seen oozing out as a lavender mist. Astral forms and objects, when seen by the living but untrained clairvoyant, might seem most shadowy and unsubstantial. And were a mortal to try to touch such objects with his physical hand it would pass through them quite as readily as they pass through physical objects. On the other hand, physical objects when seen from the Astral World are quite as shadowy or transparent. Those who lose limbs or other parts of the body through war, accident or surgical operations find them fully restored in the astral, although for a 1 The Secret Doctrine, Blavatsky, III, 589.

Astral Helpers 77 time their old habits of thought may make them seem still lacking if it has been some time since their loss. Long continued thought of the loss of a limb gradually atrophies the astral double, but after passing on, when the thought pressure is removed, the life-force rapidly flows in and the limb soon fills out. When they first pass into the astral the missing limb seems to be but a mist or vapor, hence is not recognized. But this atrophied vapory limb gradually solidifies until the limb is as perfect as the rest of the body. If the limb or organ has only recently been lost its astral double will be quickly recognized. The things created in the astral are thus not mere figments of the imagination or mere thought-forms, but are thought-forms which have descended into the Astral World from the Mental World and have attracted to themselves the emanations of corresponding things on earth. Thus the astral and finer physical substances released and thrown off from their forms by the ever-changing process of life and also by the greater disintegrating process of decay ascend into the astral and are embodied either into corresponding astral forms or are used in giving astral substantiality to other astral creations. Everything is created by thought and desire. For instance, on first passing over the Soul appears in the clothing he last remembered having put on; for the thought-forms of his whole wardrobe are at hand, ready to take on astral substantiality by

78 Realms of the Living Dead the creative power of his thought. There are also shops and factories where anything the person thinks he must have can be obtained. Elementals created by thought and embodied in astral matter are often built up into artificial but powerful tribal deities and worshipped as such by the lower types of savages, and such entities will fight and work for those who serve them. To obtain greater power to accomplish physical results on earth such tribal elementals often require the physical life-force liberated by the shedding of blood, hence demand the blood sacrifice of some animal or even a human being. Such entities are not "spirits" in the sense of angels or the higher spiritual beings usually referred to by that term, nor are they even disembodied mortals, but are entirely non-human except in so far as they have been endowed with low cunning or intellect and other human qualities by the streams of thought-force and other emanations of their devotees. It is the communion with and worship of such non-human entities that constitutes "spiritism" and necromancy as distinguished from "Spiritualism," the latter referring to communion with the human and super human residents of the Astral World. There is nothing spiritual, only devilish, about the first process, while the latter is highly spiritual, in spite of many exceptions among those who seek only for physical phenomena and care little for their own moral and spiritual development. Wherever blood is shed a certain class of elementals v.

Astral Helpers 79 is attracted, for as they are seeking advanced and ultimate human embodiment they seek to imbibe the life-force from the blood of higher forms of life, especially the human. Hence all surgical operations should be preceded by prayer or invocation and the patient should be surrounded by the protecting thoughts of his friends during the operation. When this is not done elementals frequently enter his aura, increasing the liability to infection, through depleting the vitality, and even causing infection through precipitating astral infections into the wound. Or they may attach themselves to him as vampires, sap his vitality and retard or even prevent recovery. In many cases in which these or similar directions have been followed the recovery has been astonishingly rapid and complete, the time required in many cases being less than half the usual. Some surgeons and physicians naturally have this protecting power, hence while no more skillful than others, their percentage of recoveries is much greater than that of their colleagues, especially after having received these instructions from the Order and consciously controlling the conditions. Students of the O. C. M. who are about to undergo serious operations can be met in the Astral World, as they pass out of the body under the anesthetic, by a special band of trained workers and nurses who will take care of them and protect their physical body while it is being operated on, if they will notify the Secretary of the Order in time, either

80 Realms of the Living Dead by letter or telegram and at the same time send out a mental call for the Teacher and helpers of the Order in the higher Realms. If there is no time to notify the Secretary the mental call for help and protection will bring it. Of course such help and protection are not confined to members of the Order but the Order has a special organization for that purpose. We have many letters on the file testifying to the practical nature of such help, both from the surgeons and the patients themselves. If no attempt is made to take care of patients at such a time, they tend to wait around near the body, often remaining so close to the physical that they suffer severe nervous shock, or agonies of fear if they see the operation from the astral. This fear always adds to the dangers, retards recovery and even though apparently forgotten lives in the subconscious mind as a vague horror for the rest of their lives. Hence the importance of being taken care of during the operation and receiving psychic and spiritual help during convalescence. Also at such times it is quite possible for the Soul to be taken far above the physical, even into the presence of the Masters, and to receive helpful instruction which, even though seemingly forgotten on awakening from the anesthetic, will still have its influence on their lives or come to them as a memory at some future day. Since the American Indians are very closely affinitized to the earth it is in this Realm where most of

Astral Helpers 81 them remain and pursue their desires in this "Happy Hunting Ground." The Christian Mystic Philosophy teaches that each human being has its soul-home on the planet from whose spiritual Hierarchy it emanated.1 As the soul-home of the Indians is on this planet they are properly called "earth children." They are so affinitized to the soul of the earth that they can correlate more perfectly with its forces, hence after they pass on they can bring a great deal of vital force and healing magnetism to those in touch with them. This is one of the reasons for the many cures wrought through their aid. Naturally therefore the Indians are usually the first ones to be encountered by one who is beginning to develop his astral senses. We, therefore, find that nearly all subjective mediums who "go under control" have an Indian for a "guide" and have Indians in their "spirit band." These Indians are by no means the lowest dwellers in the Astral World, but are simply the nearest to the Physical World. They are usually kind-hearted and desirous of helping their mediums to the best of their ability and do not know that their method of helping and guiding, *. e.f descending into the medium's body to control it, is a wrong and degenerating method, both to themselves and to the medium. They are in striking contrast to that undesirable and most dangerous class of entities the voodoo workers, sorcerers and black 1 See The Voice of Isis, Curtiss, 187-8. 6

82 Realms of the Living Dead magicians of various savage tribes who have passed into the astral and desire to secure followers and pupils to perpetuate their rites and practices. But as said above, these are not likely to be contacted by the white people of civilized nations unless sought for. In this Realm also wander the "earth-bound spirits" or those who are bound close to earth by some great and overwhelming desire such as revenge for having been murdered; the miser's love for his gold; the youth's desire for physical life, etc. Only when the desire has been satisfied or the person is willing to trust his desire to the Great Law for fulfillment can he be released, for he is bound by his thought and desire and often follows it for hundreds of years, its very force making a wall around him which shuts him away from the higher forces which would otherwise help him to progress out of his condition, as the average person would naturally do. In fact, the Soul remains in each Realm until it learns the lessons of that Realm, realizes wherein it made the mistakes which retarded its growth and unfoldment, and evolves to the point where it is ready to pass on to higher Realms. The earth-bound entities are usually so dense and have so much of earthly conditions attached to them that under certain atmospheric conditions they can appear to the objective sight of mortals — and especially to animals, horses shying at these so-called ghosts in the road, dogs bristling or cringing and whining at them, etc. — as a more or less

Astral Helpers 83 dense, cold, clammy cloud or ghost. It is well known that the proximity of a wraith or ghost brings to mortals a chill and perhaps a shiver of horror. The reason for this is that the dense astral body is so laden with water vapor that it is like a cold dense fog which abstracts heat from the living body it approaches, and this sudden loss of heat, like a cold damp wind, causes the chill. The sense of horror is due to the fact that most of such ghosts passed out under horrible conditions, which horror is communicated to the mortal contacted, although fear of the dead is also a contributing factor. The love of parents which makes them remain close to the children left behind or the love of husband, wife or son for the one left on earth, while it keeps them in close touch with the dear ones, does not hold them in the sense in which the term is generally used, for in such cases they usually progress into the higher realms and in time learn to overshadow the loved ones mentally rather than in their astral bodies, and learn to communicate through telepathy. Just as the dense physical body is left behind when the Soul leaves the realms of physical activity, so is the dense astral body left behind when the Soul dies to the lower realms of the astral. Here, just as there are graveyards for the discarded physical bodies on earth, so are there regions in the Realm of Reflection where the discarded and disintegrating astral bodies are gathered. But in that Realm where

84 Realms of the Living Dead all is exposed to view, the disintegrating bodies cannot be covered up and have flowers and trees planted over them as on earth. Hence pupils who are still on earth sometimes wander into such regions when out in the astral just as they might wander into a physical graveyard, and are often badly frightened by the ghastly sights encountered, but a strong thought will immediately carry them up through or away from such regions. Here again we find an analogous condition to earth, for just as many advanced Souls are teaching on earth the advisability of cremation, so in the astral Realms. Many who are following the higher teachings, invoke the higher potencies of fire and destroy these astral corpses as it were with a breath. This is an important work, for as we have explained many times, a low class of elementals sometimes takes possession of these discarded forms and masquerades as the person, thus deceiving many. When the astral body is cast off, since it is finer and more enduring, it disintegrates much more slowly than the physical body. And under certain circumstances such a discarded astral body or empty shell can be temporarily inhabited by a mischievous or perhaps an evil elemental and so be galvanized into a semblance of the departed one. The memory-pictures still remaining in the astral brain can be stimulated and so the shell may apparently be made to remember names, places, incidents, etc., through which its former tenant had passed.

Astral Helpers 85 Such animated shells are not infrequently presented at sfeances and strive to be accepted as a genuine return of the deceased. But such fraud is easily detected and exposed by a challenge or by a determined and insistent desire that nothing shall manifest that is not what it purports to be. In such cases your intuition will warn you that something is wrong and will remind you to challenge the manifestation. It is in this Realm of Reflection that the governing consciousness of plants, also ants, spiders and similar insects, resides. It is also as high as the consciousness of many trance mediums, and also the idiot ascends; for the idiot is often not merely defective, but is simply an human animal in which no human Soul has incarnated, hence is capable of developing only as an animal.

CHAPTER VIII THE ETHEREAL REALM 41 1 am gone before your face A moment's worth, a little space. When ye come where I have stepped — Ye will wonder why ye wept." After Death in Arabia, Arnold. "For people having any acquaintance with scientific history to shut their eyes to facts when definitely announced, and to forbid investigation or report concerning them on pain of ostracism — is to imitate a bygone theological attitude in a spirit of unintended flattery — a flattery which from every point of view is eccentric." Raymond, Lodge, 314. The Ethereal Realm is the Realm into which the astral body rises after it has gotten rid of the densest earth magnetism and the strongest of the earth attractions; in other words, after the person has given up the idea that it is necessary to stay near the earth in order to exist or remain in touch with his loved ones, or that he must still try to influence and control the administration of the affairs he left behind in the Physical World. This Realm is the abode of the majority of intelli(87)

88 Realms of the Living Dead gent persons who have been away from the Physical World long enough to learn the lessons of the lower Realm of Reflection and who are gaining greater freedom from earthly ties and reaching up for a still higher and more spiritual life or who, as often happens, learned many of the lessons of the Realm of Reflection while still on earth, hence passed rapidly through the lower Realms after leaving the physical. This Realm is what was formerly called the "summer land" by the spiritualists of last century. Here there are branches of the great schools of learning which are situated in the higher Realms, established here for the training of those in this Realm who desire to progress and wish to understand the laws and conditions by which their new life is governed. But the majority of the inhabitants of this Realm continue for the most part to pursue activities similar to those which occupied their attention while in the Realm of Reflection, but in a way more suited to their changed conditions. From this Realm, as well as from the lower Realm of Reflection, the departed ones can return and assume physical control of a subjective medium and temporarily incarnate in the medium's body and use it as they please, but in so doing they not only invariably bring back with them and reproduce in the medium the same physical conditions with which they passed out, but they also throw these conditions of suffering, grief, etc., over the loved ones or any sensitive whom they approach; that is, until

The Ethereal Realm 89 they have been taught to communicate not through the subjective control but through the normal and independent method which will be described later on.1 It should therefore be understood as a fundamental law of the Astral World that without special training no person in the astral can come close enough to contact the aura of his friends on earth without unconsciously and automatically bringing with him and imposing on the earthly friend the physical, astral and mental conditions which he suffered from or experienced as he left the body at death. This explains why many sensitive persons soon develop the symptoms of the malady with which a deceased loved one passed out. Such persons suffer just as acutely as though they really had such a physical disease, yet a careful physical examination reveals all the vital organs in a normal condition. These cases are often diagnosed as imagination or "neurosis" or even "hysteria" and insanity by physicians who are not familiar with the results of psychic research or the laws of occultism. Such patients are simply suffering from the astral conditions unwittingly thrown over them by the deceased loved one who is trying to make them recognize him; and the stronger the tie was between them the greater the influence and consequent suffering. This frequently ceases or is "cured" when they recognize its source. If it is not it should be stopped by 1 See page 225.

90 Realms of the Living Dead repeatedly challenging the departed one and demanding that he withdraw from their aura and remain outside it in the future; for such psychic conditions if long continued may act reflexly and set up the actual disease in its physical form. These are the stubborn cases which have "been given up by all doctors," yet are so frequently cured by Christian Science, affirmations, etc., the study, instruction and personal magnetism of the healer and the resulting discussions, making the departed one more or less aware of his responsibility for the conditions and inducing him to withdraw. Such reflex psychic effects are strongest in the case of those who passed out through accident, in war or with acute and short illnesses. But above all they are strongest in the case of the suicide. Since all such persons have not lived out their normal physical life-period nor been prepared for life in the Astral World by a gradual loosening of the bonds of the flesh, they pass out full of physical magnetism, life-force and desire for a continued life in the Physical World, hence have a stronger and more physical force to throw over those left behind. In the former cases the deceased will be met by friends and loved ones on the other side and be taught how best to gain the desired recognition or how best to get along without it, while in the latter they are suddenly projected into the astral unannounced and unexpected and must learn to shift for themselves. With the densest of earth conditions, thoughts and

The Ethereal Realm 91 magnetism eliminated from their astral bodies, the inhabitants of this Realm are no longer such accurate duplicates of their earthly bodies and personalities. While it is possible for those who pass on in childhood or in full vigor of youth, manhood or womanhood, to reincarnate quickly from this Realm without passing on into the higher Realms and higher Worlds to complete their cycle of manifestation, it is by no means common. Those who do reincarnate without entering the higher Realms are less well equipped for their new earth life, just as a child who leaves school before his education is completed is more or less handicapped by his lack of advanced training. Those who do continue onward in their normal cycle through the Realms continue to grow and develop. Never do they grow old, however, but reach a full Soul maturity, and are clothed in a form which expresses the point of evolution and development which their Soul had attained, and remain at that point. Hence there are child Souls who appear as beautiful children and there are mature Souls whose age is shown only by the look of Wisdom, altho they may have left the Physical World in childhood. Those who do, under special conditions, reincarnate immediately merely live out the unexpired term of their former life-period. Hence the new life often ends abruptly. On the other hand those who pass on during old age or after a depleting illness grow younger until the period of the most

92 Realms of the Living Dead perfect state of vigorous maturity or the point of their Soul development is reached. And they remain in this perfected state until they leave behind them the dense astral body and pass on into the higher Realms. Never is there old age in this or higher Realms. Both of the above classes, however, as they return to commune with their friends on earth find it necessary to assume at first the exact appearance by which they were known on earth, lest their friends fail to recognize them in their changed appearance. For instance, a Soul passing on as an infant would always present itself at first as an infant, although in reality it may have attained maturity, while an aged person would present himself with all the marks of age and feebleness, although in reality restored to the full vigor of maturity. The inhabitants of this Realm can see the physical conditions of their mortal friends only when those friends are thinking about them and sending them their magnetism or when the necessary earthly magnetism is furnished by a medium. In all cases communication is easier if the mortals send the departed ones love and sympathy, also if they know something of life after death. Those still in the flesh can therefore be of the greatest help to their loved ones who have passed on, by studying the laws of the higher Realms — not merely dabbling in phenomena— and by familiarizing themselves with the spiritual truths and philosophy such as is promul 

The Ethereal Realm 93 gated by the Order of Christian Mystics. For if a mental call is sent to the loved ones, they will come and study with the mortal and thus rapidly learn the true explanation of the many puzzling problems which confront them in the higher life. Also they can more readily grasp the truth of the teachings and see deeper into their meaning, and in return they can make it easier for the mortal loved one to grasp them. Definite periods for study together can thus be made and such appointments are scrupulously kept by those in the Astral World. It is as impolite for the mortal not to keep an appointment made with an astral friend as it would be to break an engagement with a physical friend. While those in the astral are, as it were, a step above those in the Physical World and can see many events and conditions somewhat before they manifest on earth — just as a person standing on a platform can see over the heads of the crowd and tell them what is approaching — no matter how sincere they may be, they can seldom predict accurately the time of physical manifestation for that which they see. This is because there are so many currents of force, either earthly or karmic, which may intervene between that which seems destined and the time of its physical manifestation, that may either hasten or retard the event. Again there is no time as earth measures it in those Realms, for time there is marked by experience or rather sensation. Therefore, if a mortal felt a very strong desire for an event to come,

94 Realms of the Living Dead which was plainly seen by an excarnate one, it would be described as coming quickly or even to be here, according to the strong sensation of desire sent out by the mortal, or if it were dreaded the excarnate one might see it as far off. While the thing we dread is really drawn to us, yet in this World of Sensation, especially in this Etheric Realm, the greatest sensation is that of love. So when inhabitants of this Realm come to loved ones on earth they are so filled with love for the mortal that, not yet having attained all wisdom, their greatest desire is to comfort them. Hence the thing the loved one longs for is seen quite plainly by the excarnate one and appears very close, while the thing dreaded is pushed back out of vision. This partly accounts for the many serious mistakes made in messages received from the Astral World, the others being due to ignorance or to malice and often intentional and elaborate deception.1 In this Realm the clothing is somewhat different 1For example, "A young American named Dean Bridgemen Conner went to Mexico City in 1894, was employed as electrician in a theatre, became ill with typhoid fever, and in March, 1895, was reported by the Consul to have died at the American Hospital, and to have been buried in the American cemetery. Some months afterward, however, the young man's father had a dream in which his son appeared and informed him that he was alive and in captivity, being held for ransom in Mexico. Mrs. Piper was consulted by friends of the Conners, trance sittings were held, and the controls • • • purported to trace his movements and whereabouts. They confirmed the father's dream, and stated that the missing man was in or near Pueblo,

The Ethereal Realm 95 from that commonly used in the Realm of Reflection, for while many persons wear for some time, even years, costumes similar to those they had been in the habit of wearing on earth, later on most of those belonging to Christian nations don white robes. This is largely the result of the orthodox thoughts held for so many years while on earth, namely, that a white robe is the proper costume for life after death. Hence they are clad in it as naturally as a tree is clad with leaves. Also white represents purity, and since it is in the Ethereal Realm that many of the higher ideals and desires held while on earth are experienced and worked out, those who have learned to value purity are trying to express it in this way. In this Realm there are many of the old philosophers and men of Science who have made for themselves what might be called va little heaven of their own, in which they surround themselves with the thought forces they themselves created when on earth, and these are continually strengthened by the thought forces of all similarily minded persons on earth. Sometimes such an one lives in this mental isolation for centuries, just as they did for years on earth. in a building which they described, guarded by a man whom they described and named. Several investigators went to Mexico, one after the other, and it was finally established by Mr. Philpot, who found the nurse who was with Conner when he died, that the Consul's report was perfectly true, and that the dream and the trance 'information' were, so far as Conner was concerned, entirely wrong." Psychical Investigations, Hill, 222.

96 Realms of the Living Dead Again there are those philanthropists who have built up some Utopian ideal for the betterment of humanity, perhaps have sought to found a colony which has failed on earth. Here they do found the colony and live in it, until the defects which made it fail on earth become so apparent to the founder that he learns his lesson from them. Then the colony likewise is dissolved, all that is good being withdrawn. The mistake lives only as a soul memory, and will be avoided in the next earth life. There are those in this Realm who are laboriously following modes of life which they had built up while on earth as representing their ideal of attainment. Here we find churches of all denominations filled with devout worshipers listening to sermons on their favorite subjects. Here we find monasteries in which devout priests live lives of extreme simplicity and abstemiousness, spending long hours in prayer and fasting and following most conscientiously the highest ideals of the monastic life, as they had always longed to but had never been able to fully express on earth. Here also are societies of devout nuns, sisters of charity, etc., as well as splendid centers for almost every religion, in which all those things the devotees longed for on earth yet never attained are experienced. Here also are model homes, model farms, settlements, tenements, cities, and every dream of the philanthropist apparently fulfilled. For this Realm is where dreams seem to come true, or put it more truthfully, this is the Realm in which all the religious and

The Ethereal Realm 97 Utopian dreams attempted on earth must be experienced to the fullest degree conceived on earth, until the force which put them forth has been exhausted and it is realized that they are still imperfect. This will be only when the Soul has found that it still longs for something greater; that all these perfected material things so longed for on earth still fall far short of perfect bliss. They are enjoyed here for a time just as a child will continue to amuse itself with certain toys until it outgrows them. Ultimately the Soul also outgrows these earthly toys, sooner or later according to how much true unselfishness, true humanitarianism and love is contained in them. But gradually the Soul learns through experience just where all these things fall short, hence is ready to see something higher, at which time it dies to this Realm and passes on to the higher Realms. Many wear robes of red, yellow, blue or other colors, some light and beautiful, others dark and somber, according to their own inner spiritual qualifications. As we have said in a previous chapter, in the lower Realms the emanations from physical things are built into the corresponding astral creations, but as the higher Realms are reached the denser emanations fade out or are left behind, the clothing being built out of the characteristic substance of each Realm of each World. This is the Realm reached in light sleep; during the administration of anesthetics, during certain forms of trance, and in mild delirium. 7

CHAPTER IX THE VITAL REALM OR REALM OF FORMATION "Behold the Hosts of Souls. Watch how they hover o'er the stormy sea of human life, and how, exhausted, bleeding, broken-winged, they drop one after the other on the swelling waves. Tossed by fierce winds, chased by the gale, they drift into the eddies and disappear within the first great vortex." The Voice of the Silence, Blavatsky, 9. The Realm of the life-force or the Vital Realm is the one in which the life-force is taking on forms and animating them. It is the Realm into which the ideals, thought-forms or patterns of all things destined to manifest on earth descend in materialization. That is to say, all that is projected outward as an ideal or idea from the Divine Mind, as well as all that is created by the mind of man, must in the course of its descending arc take on more and more materialized stages of embodiment until its form finally reaches a physical expression. It is in this Vital Realm that the various currents of the life-force flow into and through the pattern or thought-form of the thing to be manifested, carrying with them the (99)

100 Realms of the Living Dead ethereal astral matter and building it into the thought-pattern until the thought-pattern takes on the limitations of matter and becomes an objective astral form, ready to descend one step further into the still denser and still more limited Physical World. The astral model thus formed, in its turn has the inherent tendency to absorb or build matter into itself, and the water vapor in it tends to disintegrate or dissolve physical forms not held coherent by the life-force, as rain dissolves a clod. Hence the forms described in the previous chapter as being created in the Etheric Realm are ultimately dissolved and disintegrated, for, being but the building of astral etheric matter into the ideals or thought-forms created during earth life, when the vital life-force or Spiritual reality is poured into them they are like summer mists dissolved by the sun. It is in this Realm that the ideal pattern of the bodily form desired by the Soul seeking incarnation descends and takes on an astral form or body. It is probably some phase of this Realm which Maeterlinck sensed and so beautifully described in The Blue Bird, where the Souls of many children are represented as hovering over the earth seeking incarnation. There is, however, a difference between Maeterlinck's poetical vision and the reality. For while what seem to be hosts of Souls wait in this Realm for an opportunity to incarnate without leaving the astral and passing on into the higher Worlds of Bliss, rushing downward at every opening of the

The Vital Realm 101 door into incarnation, literally surrounding every expectant mother — the less developed ones fighting for a chance to take possession, the struggle often producing those sudden changes of character, outbreaks of hysteria, etc., exhibited by many mothers during the first few months of the puerperium — yet the great majority of Souls do not incarnate in this way. The majority, after passing through the various Realms of the Astral World pass on into the Higher Worlds where they are united to their Father-inHeaven, their Progenitor. These Souls on returning to incarnation descend into a special division of the Astral World called the Hall of Lethe, where they are specially prepared to take the step earthward. Among these are the advanced ones who have chosen to incarnate to accomplish a certain mission, and who have likewise chosen their parents and their environments. These, after their descent from the Higher Worlds, wait in what might be compared to an ante-room during a period in which they deliberately make preparation, the first step of which is to wean themselves from the memory of the life of bliss in which they have reveled during their existence in the Higher Worlds. During this period they gradually fall into a sort of dreaming sleep in which they forget the life just completed and instead are filled with dreams of great compassion for humanity, great desire to enter earth life to help and comfort or to fill some great mission left incomplete in past lives, or sometimes with only great love

102 Realms of the Living Dead and eagerness to come into touch with a certain mother or family. Such preparation is necessary to advance Souls, for without it the memory of their heaven home would make earth life intolerable to them. Many undeveloped ones simply swarm earthward, drawn by the great attraction of sensation and either entirely ignorant or unmindful of anything else. They have gone no further than the Etheric Realm, hence are driven into incarnation again by desire for more earthly experiences that they may have more sensation. This Realm may therefore be called the "darkroom" or "cabinet" of the earth, for it serves the same purpose as does the cabinet of the materializing medium. All materialization follows the same law, but in this case it is the natural and inevitable materialization of that which is on the positive or downward arc descending into manifestation, while the materialization which takes place in a stance room is an artificial attempt to bring back into physical manifestation those who are on the upward arc of evolution. Since in this practice all the normal currents are reversed, such an attempt must necessarily be abnormal and degenerating. We do not question the phenomena produced at materializations, but we deplore the method generally employed. , In this Realm there are two distinct currents of force, one which is gathering the creative forces from the higher spiritual Realms — the vital lifeforce which is ever flowing downward through the

The Vital Realm 103 lower Astral Realms, and is eternally bringing into formation the true spiritual conceptions of those things which are to manifest on earth — and an upward current which is unfolding and then disintegrating and transmuting all other forms, just as we have said that the ideals of the Etheric Realm are gradually dissolved. We might roughly compare this Realm to the retort of an alchemist into which the base metals are placed while the flames lick up the gases, melt the metals, and ultimately produce new substance (gold). When students occasionally succeed in penetrating into the upper strata of this Realm, they enter a condition of intense darkness in which swirling and often terrifying currents of force like winds are encountered which seem almost to tear them to pieces. These currents produce vortices of force which gyrate with various rates of speed, and since they are continually sucking astral matter into patterns or moulds, they would tend to disintegrate the astral body of one who lingered too long in close proximity to them. This is often confused with the "outer darkness"1 so often referred to in various scriptures, in which state there is "weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth," for the various currents vibrate, purr and sing or wail and howl like so many demons. Here is also heard the wail of the soulless entities whose bodies are being disintegrated. 1 See page 146.

104 Realms of the Living Dead Under certain conditions these currents are strong enough to sweep the astral body of a mortal out of its path of evolution or even out of incarnation, or they could sweep the astral body of a deceased mortal away from its astral companions and all earthly ties. Therefore a student should never seek to penetrate the upper strata of this Vital Realm without a good reason for so doing and without the guidance of One Who Knows and is able to protect him. Again, this current of blackness is the River Acheron which the Soul must cross to reach the higher Realms.1 Hence the prayers to be found in all religions for the safe passage and protection of the departed. While the upper strata of this third Realm are intensely and almost palpably dark and black, its lower strata are intensely vivid and scintillating with a brilliant play of color, full of the most gorgeous flowers, ravishing melodies and intoxicating perfumes. One whose consciousness vibrates to the lower strata of this Realm would seem to be in a mighty kaleidoscope of ever-changing forms, some rising like cloud pictures only to be dissipated, others swirling round or floating aimlessly, yet momentarily taking on new forms. The colors, sounds, perfumes, etc., exist here en masse awaiting embodiment in the various forms to which they are affinitized, much the same as masses of color are poured out on an 1 See Chapter II.

The Vital Realm 105 artist's palette awaiting their embodiment in the picture. Beside the Souls waiting for incarnation, the inhabitants of this Realm are swift flying Angelic Beings, and the higher classes of elementals, which will be treated of in another chapter. Here also the thought-forms of all the inventions, scientific conceptions and philanthropic plans, etc. which have been conceived in the Mental Realm of the Astral World — as a result of the mind of some mortal responding to the ideal of that thing which exists in the Mental World far above the astral — descend to be embodied in astral matter. These astral models do not remain in this Realm, however, but are swept down into the Etheric Realm by the great downpouring Currents of Manifestation. There they remain until some one can give them some form of physical expression. If they are abandoned and not given physical expression, as soon as the creative mental force which conceived them is exhausted they again ascend into the Vital Realm where their form is disintegrated and as much of the ideal as they embodied is released to return to its source in the Mental World. If they are not expressed yet are not abandoned by their conceiver, they remain in the Etheric Realm to greet him when he passes into the astral where he will continue to perfect them. Those which are perfected remain in a special stratum between the Vital and Etheric Realms as perfected models. Here in what might be called the Pattern Museum are the wonderful

106 Realms of the Living Dead inventions of the ancient Adanteans and others, including aeroplanes, etc.# which reached great perfection because they were brought forth by the earlier races under the direct guidance of the Masters, as a child paints a perfect picture with the teacher guiding his hand. All these newly found patterns are phases of the manifestation of the ideals that have just come into concrete expression fresh from the "dark-room" above and before the seeds of Karma have begun to unfold and modify them. The karmic seeds usually modify the perfect expression in the direction of imperfection and further limitation, because by the time astral form is reached, the ideal is embodied in a more or less crude state and its more ideal expression must be achieved through evolution in the Physical World. The mistakes of the past must be substracted from the ideal, hence modify and limit the perfect pattern. For instance, the Soul desiring to incarnate builds up a perfect mental pattern of the kind of a body it desires to have on earth, and this pattern is embodied in astral matter in this Vital Realm. But as soon as this perfect model is fashioned there is* automatically and magnetically attracted to it the Karma of the past life. This Karma may so greatly modify the perfect model that it may be born defective or even crippled or diseased. Such a modified model might be far from the one desired by the Soul, but would be the best it could create in view

The Vital Realm 107 of the causes it had set up in a past life. This model would be further modified by the physical and mental heredity of the family through which the incarnation took place.

CHAPTER X THE DESIRE REALM Obsessing Entities "And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. . . . And Jesus rebuked him, saying: 'Hold thy peace, and come out of him/ And when the unclean spirit had torn him, and cried out with a loud voice, he came out of him." St. Mark, i, 23-5. To make our study of the Astral World complete it is necessary for us to discuss a most unpleasant Realm, but since it is largely the influences from this Realm which give to the astral its terrors and which bring to humanity its greatest horrors and suffering, it is most important that a thorough understanding of the conditions, and a practical method of how to master the influences, be spread abroad as widely as possible among students of the occult and those who are investigating conditions of life after death. Just as the Fourth globe of the Earth Chain1 — our physical planet — is the lowest point in the down1 See The Voice of I sis, Curtiss, 204. (109)

if 110 Realms of the Living Dead ward arc of descent of Spirit into material manifestation, and hence contains the densest form of matter in which the Spirit must learn to express itself, so the fourth Realm of the Astral World is the lowest state in which the consciousness of the departed manifests. The physical body is not the lowest in the sense of the least spiritual vehicle through which the consciousness of man is expressed. It is but the outer shell through which both the animal soul and the Spiritual Soul or Divine Self (Atma, Buddhi and Higher Manas) must manifest in the Physical World. In theosophical terms the animal soul creates the body of desire (Kama Rupa), while the Spiritual Soul creates the soul body or Buddhic Rupa, both of which find earthly expression through the physical body. The great aim of evolution is to make the physical body the earthly expression of the Spiritual Soul or Higher Self to the same degree that it now expresses the animal soul. For it is the Spiritual Soul which is made in the image of God, while alas it is the image of the animal soul which man too often imprints upon his body. The astral bodies, therefore, of those dwelling in this Realm are lower, denser, more material and impure than the bodies of those dwelling in any other Realm of the Astral World. This Realm in many of its aspects overlaps the Realm of Reflection, but while both are dense, close to earth and ruled by earthly desires, the Desire Realm contains the grossest, most impure and degraded desires, the

The Desire Realm 111 persons having sordid, earthly, but not necessarily impure or evil desires occupying the border-land between the two Realms. This, therefore, is the Realm in which we find those who while on earth were murderers, habitual or periodic drunkards, criminals, procurers, profligates, prostitutes, degenerates, drug fiends, etc., together with those who secretly desired to give free rein to their passions and appetites, but who were restrained, not by a desire to be good and pure, but merely because their social, business or political position made it good policy. In this Realm, unhampered by any such considerations, they would find an opportunity for unbridled license and unlimited gratification of all their evil tendencies, provided they could find the necessary means for their expression. A knowledge of the conditions obtaining in this Realm of the Astral World offers a powerful argument against capital punishment; for the execution of a murderer or other criminal merely removes his hampering physical body, which at least limited his evil activities to the Physical World. Executing or destroying the physical body sets him free in the Astral World, embittered against society because of the experiences he has passed through, his heart filled with hatred and revenge, and able to throw his force over any mind which is open to such thoughts. He therefore seeks to wreak his vengeance upon society and gratify his desires by controlling and obsessing as many sensitive persons as possible;

112 Realms of the Living Dead those whose auras are sufficiently open to his influence to permit his entrance into their consciousness. For instance, a sensitive once picked up and handled an axe in a museum and at once came into rapport with the ancient savage who had fashioned and used it. With such contact came the almost overwhelming desire to experience the sensation of delight felt by the savage as his axe crushed through the skull of his enemy. But unless sensitives harbor some thought or trait corresponding to that of the astral entity, which forms a line of affinity over which he can enter their auras, he cannot control them. Once an opening is made, an entrance gained and his influence or control established, he gradually forces his victim to carry out his ideas of revenge, taking as many lives as possible to pay up for society's having taken his life. Thus, while in the physical body he could commit but comparatively few crimes, when set free in the Astral World he can influence dozens or hundreds to commit similar crimes. Murders committed under such obsessipns are those concerning which the mortal executing the crime either remembers nothing about or can give no reason for, except that he acted under an "irresistible impulse" or perhaps says that "God" or a "Voice" told and impelled him to do the deed. Such cases are usually pronounced insane. These are crimes committed under some form of mania, paranoia, etc. While medical science says that such a person is not responsible for his acts,

The Desire Realm 113 occult science says that he is: for he is responsible for opening his mind to such thoughts as will permit the entrance of the obsessing entity; he is responsible for every act, word and deed committed by him, whether willed by him or not, and must pay the karmic penalty. It is true that many who become criminals under such conditions are not inherently criminal nor viciously wicked, but are simply sensitives whose astral centers have been more or less broken down and whose weak wills, negative mental states, and lack of spiritual development makes them an easy prey to obsession. But even for this condition they are strictly responsible, for ignorance of the law is no excuse for its violation. Remember, therefore, that harboring thoughts of anger, hatred, revenge or any form of "getting even" with some one whom you feel has wronged you, opens your aura to those in the Astral World who harbor similar thoughts and who will strive to enter your consciousness over the avenue thus opened and stir up and augment your hatred and urge you to execute a far more terrible form of "getting even" than you would entertain or even think of by yourself. . The practice of forgiving others is therefore enjoined on all occult and spiritual students, for as long as you hold antagonism toward any one you bind yourself to that one with a powerful tie and also open yourself to obsessing forces along that line. The drunkards who have left the Physical World also form a large and important class in the Desire 8

114 Realms of the Living Dead Realm, for they, too, seek to gratify their desires through sensitive mortals. In fact, our long experience with cases of this kind leads us to the conclusion that nearly every case of confirmed and habitual or periodic drunkenness is the result of an obsession. That medical science is already beginning to suspect this truth is shown in an article by Dr. T. D. Crothers connected with "a research foundation organized in Hartford, Conn., to take up this new question, and seek an explanation of the puzzling phenomena of the drink evil and the paradoxical symptoms of the victims.,, This eminent authority tells us, in The Medical Record of January 6, 1917, that: "The laboratories have pointed out the specific action of alcohol on the cells and tissues, and their conclusions have literally revolutionized the theories of the past and opened up a new world, that is only partially discovered. Beyond this, there is another Realm and new country of causes of physiological and psychological forces that are practically unknown. . . . This work starts from the conviction that there are distinct physical and psychical causes preceding the use of alcohol, governing its rise and fall with the certainty of any other phenomena of nature. As examples: What are the causes of periodical drinking? Why do large numbers of most excellent men suddenly use spirits to great excess for a few days or weeks, then stop and resume their normal condition of healthy temperate living? These unexplainable so-called nerve storms occur at

The Desire Realm 115 either regular or irregular periods. In some instances the regularity is pronounced and can be predicted regardless of the efforts of the person to avert it. The free interval between these drink storms is marked by most exemplary living and conduct, and the drink periods are equally prominent in insane and idiotic acts. Persons of this class are seen in all circles of society and very often among the most intellectual brain workers who are respected and are men of affairs . . . Other instances are of men after a half a lifetime of sobriety, temperate work and living, suddenly become users of spirits, in addition resisting, all efforts to correct, and finally culminating in pauperism and death. There is no explanation of the causes which impel men to drink continuously down to death. This begins sometimes at the height of prosperity and achievement or following disaster to property and family . . . Young men in college, brought up under the same conditions and influences, bring out this fact. Without any special causes or reasons one uses spirits to excess and becomes a cripple and dies early . . . "What condition of the brain and nervous system predisposes to and favors the outbreak of a craze for narcotism from spirits is unknown. Apparently they were elation from success and triumphs or despair from loss and disappointment, but evidently there are some other conditions beyond these to account for the trouble. To the casual observer all these are traceable to the one cause — alcohol; but when

116 Realms of the Living Dead tested carefully, this fails. The exceptions are so numerous and complex as to indicate beyond question other causes and forces. In reality the phenomena and symptomatology are only effects, dating from other causes further back." There is but one explanation that covers all the facts and phenomena, and that is the one here presented. To explain how this condition is brought about we cannot do better than to quote from what we have already said in The Voice of Isis:1 "The human body is the Temple of the Living God. Within it are certain vital centers comparable to doors2 which open into inner shrines. Using these centers as points of contact, the life forces from the higher planes flow into the physical body through them as an electrical current flows through a wire. . . . These centers or doors are normally protected by nature with oily coverings or sheaths (composed of both astral and physical matter) which permit the flow of the normal life-forces and protect them from all others. These doors should be opened only by a gradual purification and development of the protecting sheaths. Normally this takes place as a natural growth resulting from a life of mental and bodily purity, and intense spiritual aspiration. It should not be a forced or hothouse growth, for 1 Pages 98-104. * In ancient times a door meant a passage way leading into a chamber and was not used as commonly as now to mean that which closed the passage way.

The Desire Realm 117 each door must be opened and closed under the absolute control .of the will. . . . Once these sheaths are destroyed, the person is no longer able to close the doors and so becomes an easy prey to the denizens of the astral. Such an one becomes a helpless victim to any and all sorts of psychic imposition and deception. . . . There are several abnormal ways in which the oily protecting sheaths can be broken down and the doors thrown open, chief among which are the use of alcohol and narcotic drugs. Chemically speaking, ordinary alcohol is ethyl-hydroxide. The ethyl (the spirit) vibrates to the highest rate reached by mere physical matter, the point where matter transcends the physical and enters the astral, the ethyl actually functioning on both planes.* Narcotic drugs also contain an ethyl element. The ethyl when taken into the body immediately seeks to escape into the astral, and it naturally follows the usual avenues of communication between the two planes. But in escaping it passes through the centers in a reverse direction to the normal currents and gradually burns off the insulating sheaths until in time they are utterly destroyed, just as an electrical insulation might be burned off by interference with the normal flow of the current. "This breakdown may be very rapid, as in the case of an habitual drunkard or a drug fiend, or it may be insidious and not show markedly for several incarnations, but the result is certain and every indulgence in the substances mentioned is a step

118 Realms of the Living Dead toward the end. Ultimately this leaves the doors unguarded and open for all the horrors of the lowest Astral Realm to rush in and take possession of the 'Temple of the Living God* thus desecrated. Buiwer^Lytton gives a realistic description of some of these horrors in his occult novel, Zanoni. In that story the student opened the doors abnormally by the use of drugs, and being unable to close them through fright at the sights that met his gaze, was haunted until his death. ... It is our duty to give our sympathy and help to this class of sorely afflicted ones, for since it took many lives to break down the protective sheaths, it will require a long hard fight to rebuild them. Hence do not let such unfortunate ones become discouraged. No matter how many times they may fall back into the old habits, every effort to conquer aids in the rebuilding. And the very fierceness of the struggle will ultimately strengthen the Soul. . . . These sheaths are not broken down in one incarnation, but since in each incarnation there is a tendency to repeat the same old mistakes until they are conquered, so in each incarnation there is a tendency to increase the weakness brought over from the past until the final break-down comes. The rebuilding must necessarily follow the same law, i. e.f be brought about by gradual accomplishment through determined and persistent constructive effort.' ' Our teachings on this subject have been strikingly corroborated since their first publication in 1912 by

The Desire Realm 119 Judge Hatch in 1914 through Elsa Barker's Letters from a Living Dead Man?- as follows: "Desiring one day to see the particular kind of hell to which a drunkard would be likely to go . . . I put myself in a sympathetic and neutral state, so that I could see into both Realms. ... A young man with restless eyes and a troubled face entered one of these 'gin palaces.' ... He was leaning on the bar drinking. . . . And close to him, taller than he and bending over him, with its repulsive, bloated, ghastly face pressed close to his . . . was one of the most horrible astral beings which I have ever seen. ... It was literally sucking the liquor-soaked life of its victim, absorbing him, using him in the successful attempt to enjoy vicariously the passion which death had intensified. The young man who leaned on the bar in that gilded palace of gin was filled with a nameless horror and sought to leave the place; but the arms of the thing that was now his master clutched him tighter and tighter, the sodden, vaporous cheek was pressed close to his, the desire of the vampire creature aroused an answering desire in its victim, and the young man demanded another glass." Even a moderate drinker gradually breaks down his doors until finally he reaches a point where, without definite training, he can no longer protect his aura from invasion by those who affinitize with 1 Pages 173-4.

120 Realms of the Living Dead him in a desire for alcoholic stimulation. As such obsessing entities gain more control over the victim, they urge him to greater and greater excesses. The victim's innate goodness, respectability and spiritual guidance usually make him rebel at first and he is filled with shame, remorse and sincere repentance, the force of which may be strong enough to enable him to resist perhaps for months. Then his unconquered self-indulgence and fancied security, his fancied ability to "take a drink or let it alone," leads him again to open the door, and again the obsession takes place. A few instances which have come under our personal observation may serve as concrete illustrations of the disastrous results of this form of obsession. A brilliant young newspaper man in a large Eastern city was an occasional user of the lighter drinks, the so-called "social glass" of beer and wine, but did not care for and could not stand whiskey, brandy, gin, etc. He had an older brother, however, who died suddenly after a prolonged spree. The younger man was of the quick, impressionable, sensitive artistic temperament and somewhat psychic. Soon after his brother's death he complained to us that his brother was coming to him psychically and urging him to drink. Whenever he wanted merely a glass of beer, the brother would throw over him a fierce desire for brandy. Little by little he gradually yielded to this augmented desire, until he finally realized where it was leading him and began to

The Desire Realm 121 resist. He then related to us the terrible battles, lasting sometimes for hours and days, he was having to prevent the brother from completely obsessing him. At last, tired out with the struggle, he would give in "for this once," as he would promise himself. Then he would start in drinking brandy, whiskey, gin, etc., which by this time he had come to loathe. His stomach was so sensitive and rebelled against it so strongly at first that he would often have to drink the third or fourth glass of whiskey or brandy before his stomach would retain it. But the will of the obsessing brother was so strong that the younger was forced to persist until the liquor could be retained, and then continue until the debauch had lasted from several days to a week or two. When he was utterly exhausted and his life-force completely sapped, the brother would leave him for a few weeks until he recovered. Then would come another awful struggle to resist going on another spree. Another most remarkable case of successive obsession was brought to our attention in Chicago. Mr. X. was ordinarily a man of much firmness, determination and strength of will, and while a moderate drinker, had never allowed liquor to overcome him until some four years ago, when he had a long spree. He soon got himself under control again and solemnly promised himself and wife that he would never thenceforth allow himself to become enslaved by his desire for drink. However, he still continued to drink moderately. He was a house painter and

122 Realms of the Living Dead was closely associated with three other painters employed by the same firm, all of the other three being hard drinkers. Three years ago one of these three died from alcoholism, and a year later, almost on the same day, another died. Last January, the third and last of the three, after a long debauch, committed suicide on the anniversary of the second one's death. This last man was the foreman of the gang in which Mr. X. and the others worked, and had devoted all his spare time to drink and the pursuit of women. Mr. X. had been a close friend of his and upon his death was appointed to his position as foreman. Now the direct evidence of the obsession of Mr. X. begins with the death of his friend, the foreman, last January. Mrs. X. states that since that time her husband seems utterly unable to control his desire for liquor and has been getting steadily worse. He has experienced periods of great remorse, during which he would swear never to drink again, but would then go out and drink until his money was gone, being absent from home several days and leaving his family without money for a week at a time. During these sprees he would also visit the same class of women as did his dead foreman and former companion, although previous to this time he had never been a licentious man. Both Mr. X. and his wife are somewhat psychic, and both have seen the departed foreman enter their flat as a dark and chilling spectre, especially one night when they saw him come in from a narrow hall that

The Desire Realm 123 led to a room in which they knew a drunken man was sleeping off his debauch. Here we have a series of obsessions which gradually killed off one after the other of the original group of four, until now only Mr. X. is left. Each departed one naturally returned to the group with which he had been so closely associated and added his craving for drink to that of the ones left behind, driving them to still further excesses. This accumulated force so overwhelmed the foreman that he was driven to suicide to get rid of the obsessing demons, and it bids fair to overwhelm his successor Mr. X., unless he takes most energetic steps to rid himself of their influence. An instance of an unsuccessful attack of a similar kind is the case of a student of this Order, this time a woman, a psychic who had been trained according to these teachings and who understood how to maintain her self-control and protect herself. She was entering the elevator of a large office building when she felt her feather neck-scarf pulled from her neck. But the elevator door had closed ere she could turn around, and she was obliged to go on up to the office where her business errand called her. In the office, while standing near a certain desk, a feeling of intense depression and horror came over her, which made her fear that the man at the desk was contemplating suicide. On descending to the street entrance she asked the elevator starter if he had seen anything of her neck-scarf. "Yes," he said, "I saw you drop

124 Realms of the Living Dead it. You will find it back there in the corner." As she walked back to the darker part of the hallway, a man presented himself to her psychic vision and accosted her. When she asked what he wanted, he said that it was he who caused her scarf to drop off in an effort to attract her attention, as he knew she could communicate with him and he wished her to do him a great favor. He told her that he formerly had the desk near which she had stood in the office she had visited, and a few months ago had committed suicide in his chair at the desk, following a prolonged spree. He said he had not had a drink since passing out, and as he was suffering intensely for one, he begged her to go and take a drink for him so he could get the stimulation of the alcohol by contact with her aura. He even offered to guide her to the "ladies entrance" of a certain high-class cafe of which he knew, where she could drink quite unobserved. This she, of course, refused to do, but said as she was thirsty herself she would go and get a glass of ice cream soda, if that would do him any good. He said he did not want a soda, and grew quite angry and abusive and tried to force her to enter the cafe as she passed by. She resisted, however, but told us that she had never so wanted a drink of whiskey in her life, in fact, never knew before what the craving was. When she bought her soda and tried to drink it, he threw his resentment and disgust over her so strongly that the very sight of the soda nauseated her and she had to leave it

The Desire Realm 125 untouched. The fact of the suicide having been committed at the desk this lady visited was afterward verified by us. The primary cause for giving way to drink in the beginning is selfishness and self-indulgence. Many moderate drinkers are the "good fellows" of the community because they have developed their affections and love-nature to a considerable degree, but without a corresponding gain in wisdom and self-control. Hence the very development of their love-nature tends to further self-indulgence. Many moderate drinkers are quite sensitive to the influence of the Astral World, even though they do not know it or recognize it as such. As they can find no other means of satisfying the inner craving for some form of stimulation— which is really a craving for the spiritual stimulus and thrill of satisfaction which comes only from vibrating in harmony with the spiritual ideals and guidance of the Higher Self, the only real satisfaction in life — they take to alcohol, since it gives them a temporary touch with the astral and a sort of ephemeral, pseudo-satisfaction, but with the inevitable reaction. Others drink in an effort to drown out the inner craving for true satisfaction which is more or less active in every heart; for the satisfaction which comes only from spiritual growth and attainment, but which they either do not understand or refuse to admit and seek. Remember, therefore, that permanently to cure drunkenness, so it will not recur, the tendency to

126 Realms of the Living Dead self-indulgence and irresponsibility for one's actions must be boldly faced and determinedly overcome. The immediate remedy, however, is to impress upon the mind of the victim that the irresistible craving which leads him to the excesses he is so ashamed of, and which he so bitterly repents, is not alone his own depraved desires, but the desire of a discarnate drunkard who is seeking to satisfy himself through obsessing the self-indulgent victim. "Thought arises before desire. The thought acts on the brain, the brain on the organ, and then the desire awakens."1 The following directions, quoted from a letter written by the Teacher of the Order to such a victim, and whose faithful following has entirely cured him and many others, may prove helpful here. "The real cause of your trouble is not with your desire alone, but because you permit a discarnate drinker to enter your aura and create within you an excessive desire for liquor, that he may satisfy his craving at the expense of your body and your lifeforces. If you will earnestly take yourself in hand and follow out our directions exactly \ you can drive this influence away and free yourself from the habit. Repeat to yourself again and again that the desire for drink is not your desire, and that you will not permit anyone to rule and ruin your life. Dwell on this idea continually. Keep saying that you will permit no drunkard thus to obsess and control you. Fix that idea firmly in mind. Repeat the 1 The Secret Doctrine, Blavataky, iii, 573.

The Desire Realm 127 Morning Prayer1 as soon as you awake every morning, and mentally see the Light of the Christ pouring down over you in a flood of pure, white light that shall penetrate every cell of your being and drive out every evil thing as light drives out darkness, and shall then surround you with a wall of living fire, like the shell of an egg, into which no discarnate entity or evil thing can penetrate. Also repeat the Prayer for LighP and recall the vision again and again during the day, especially whenever you feel tempted. "Also when you feel the old desire coming over you, say to yourself: 'In the name of the Living Christ / demand that you leave me and keep away. I will not yield myself to you, and I demand that you begone.' Talk just as earnestly and determinedly as though some old drunkard was before you in the flesh and trying to force you to drink with him. Do not get excited or have the least fear, but talk calmly and with absolute confidence in your power thus to protect yourself and conquer. No matter how hard he pleads, or what plausible arguments he may present — which may at first seem to be your own thoughts, but which will merely be his desire thrown upon your consciousness — as to why you should take 'just one more drink,' absolutely refuse, and keep saying: 'In the name of the Living Christ begone!' In the Astral World the Christforce is a consuming fire, and if you sincerely and 1 See Appendix. * See Appendix.

128 Realms of the Living Dead earnestly invoke it with all your heart and determination, any obsessing entity must depart or be consumed. Get this fact firmly fixed in mind, that the desire for drink is not yours, but that of a departed drunkard. Also that you have the power to protect yourself if you will"1 It is depraved excarnate human beings such as are described in this chapter and the next who are the basis of the many descriptions of evil and lying spirits and demons — demons of drink, gluttony, greed, craft, lust and cruelty — given in the Bible and other scriptures. Some of these creatures are well represented in the stage version of Peer Gynt. It is also just these influences that are responsible for the periodic outbreaks of witchcraft, sorcery and devil worship which sweep whole communities with cyclones of evil. It is also largely the influences from this Realm, together with antagonistic thought-forces from persons still in the flesh, which constitute the "malicious animal magnetism" which Mrs. Eddy and the Christian Scientists so greatly fear, because they do not understand or know how to control. 1 " I think it is a part of my duty to write on behalf of the Christian Mystics, telling the good I have derived from them, both physically and spiritually. In plain words I had tried all sources physically for health, and to stop my vice, drunkenness. And when all others failed me the only place I got relief was the Christian Mystics, as by following their teachings I have completely conquered the drink habit." From a pupil in Kingston, Jamaica.

CHAPTER XI THE DESIRE REALM Obsessing Entities (Continued) 41 Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, As to be hated needs but to be seen; Yet, seen too oft, alas and grown familiar with her face, We first endure, then pity, then embrace." An Essay on Man, Pope. In this dense region of the Desire Realm there is a third great class of obsessing entities, and also swirling currents of perverted thought and creative forces which sweep over humanity like black thunder storms and hurricanes of evil. Therefore, although this is the most disagreeable phase of the Astral World to discuss, nevertheless because of its everpresent dangers through which the evolving Soul must pass on its journey to the Hall of Wisdom, it is our duty to indicate the character of its denizens and forces and how they may be avoided or overcome. This third class comprises those who, while on earth, used their human intellects to enhance and gratify their normal and then their perverted animal desires. Hence in this class lust is the ruling passion instead of drink or crime as in the two classes already described, although both of those classes also seek 9 (129)

130 Realms of the Living Dead this form of gratification as a secondary object. In this Realm such entities must experience the effects of the causes engendered while on earth, for only thus can they truly learn that "the wages of sin is death." The occult student, of course, understands that the suffering endured in this Realm is not eternal punishment for any individual Soul, as the orthodox believe, for the individual is ultimately purged of his evil and passes on into the higher Realms. "For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption."1 The suffering lasts only until the fires of passion and desire have burned themselves out or until the Soul, through sincere repentance, reform, spiritual aspiration and a purification of the mind is able to conquer passion and desire and rise above them. Such conditions of burning and disintegration are eternal in that they will last as long as there is anything false or evil to be consumed. Believing that life consists of sensation and gratified desire, such entities haunt both dens of vice on earth and also those whose impure thoughts give these entities an opening through which to enter the aura and steal the life-force of their victims, that they may prolong what seems to them the only life and thus escape the approaching disintegration that appears to them to be annihilation. The great 1 Psalms, xvi, 10.

Obsessing Entities 131 danger to the living is that this Realm overlaps and is closest to the physical, hence many persons dwell in it much of the time who do not consider themselves impure and who would be horrified and shocked could they realize into what astral company their impure thoughts and uncontrolled desires led them. In many cases of melancholia the mind is dwelling in this Realm. For when such thoughts are entertained they open the aura and the consciousness to the influence, suggestions and forces of the entities in this Realm. Yet the purification and control of thought is even more important in the Astral World than in the Physical World, because of the more immediate and powerful results. For when such thoughts are entertained in the Astral World the corresponding forces rush in and make that person almost immediately the astral embodiment of those loathsome evils. It must be remembered that the spiritual Creative Force is not sex-force, but the Divine life-force which gives sex-force its creative power. That is, it becomes or manifests as sex-force only when a stream or current of it finds expression through the sex centers or is focussed there by thought. If this ever-flowing stream of Creative Force is not utilized in various forms of mental or other creative activity it gradually accumulates, fills the aura and tends to overflow through the sex centers as the points of least resistance. The balance and adjustment of this force should naturally be brought about between man

132 Realms of the Living Dead and wife through normal relations in love and purity. But where this relation cannot be entered into by both in harmony, love and purity of thought — also among those who are unmarried — the remedy is neither its expression through the sex centers nor its suppression, but its diversion into other channels of creative activity, as fully described in our Letters from the Teacher.1 Where this is not done the aura becomes so overcharged with it that it attracts the class of evil astral entities to which we refer in this lesson. These entities once having gained entrance to the aura, usually over the line of ambition, vanity, sex desire, etc., absorb the life-force and sap the vitality to prolong their lives and carry out their evil designs. Having made the contact with the victim they constantly stimulate his sex passions by bringing before his mental vision suggestions, images and thoughts of lust. Response to such thoughts and suggestions makes progressive obsession a fairly easy matter, but resistance to them, with a sincere desire and determined will to conquer, together with a prayer to The Christ-light within for help, makes such obsession impossible; for prayer or spiritual aspiration invokes forces which dissolve evil thought forms as the sunlight dissipates fog. Wherever response to their evil suggestions is found, these entities throw a glamor of illusion over the victim, in many cases presenting themselves as » Pages 203-5.

Obsessing Entities 133 high spiritual teachers or as advanced Souls needing merely the victim's magnetism; perhaps as a husband or wife of a former incarnation; as a Soul-mate or under the guise of some living person with whom the victim is in love or who has attracted his or her attention or who has perhaps innocently aroused thoughts of lust. But no matter how high-sounding the excuse or how plausible the sophistry by which they gain the confidence of the victim and entrance to the aura, the sex idea will ultimately be presented in some form and that force be drawn upon. Sometimes after this has been accomplished, and nearly always upon challenge, the glamor is dispelled and the true nature of the entity is revealed. This usually brings a revulsion of feeling and a sincere remorse which may protect the victim from temptation for a time, but if the creative forces are not diverted from the sex centers and utilized elsewhere, when they again accumulate he is open to a repetition of the same revolting experience, unless in the meantime he has learned to purify and control his thoughts and absolutely close the door of his aura to all such temptations and suggestions. Especially are the above temptations and suggestions apt to be presented to the student who is seeking to lead the higher life; for he has deliberately turned away from the old thoughts, indulgences and habits of life and set a new and higher standard, especially of purity, and his old thought-forms and temptations strive to drag him down to indulge them

134 Realms of the Living Dead again. Also, having set this higher standard he thereby invokes the Great Law to prove his statements; prove whether or not he really means what he says and has the will and has gained the power to resist and overcome. This purifying and testing is well illustrated by the temptations described by Saint Anthony. It is well known that light attracts the creatures of the darkness, like moths around a flame, hence, as the Neophyte's purified aura begins to shine out it attracts the attention of the evil entities. Furthermore his very spiritual advance has made him more sensitive to thought influence and to the Astral World. Therefore, that such temptations should come upon the Neophyte after his period of exaltation and spiritual realization, is not a sign that he is falling away from his ideals and is degenerating, but is an evidence that the growth he has made is being tested as to just how solid and enduring it is. No matter how many times he may be overcome and fail, let him put his failures behind him and determine to try harder next time, remembering the real nature of the entity who seduced him, and also his own power to gather out of the burning the force of The Christ with which to overcome in the future. He should never mourn or even pray over his failures, for to do so is to dwell upon them and strengthen them by his thought-force. Rather let him rouse his slumbering will to the fighting pitch and determine that next

Obsessing Entities 135 time he will conquer, then put the matter entirely out of mind and shut the door upon it. We have used the masculine pronouns in this lesson merely for literary convenience and not because only men are so tempted and obsessed; for we are sorry to say that quite as many, if not more, women are led to indulge their impure thoughts in this way. Hence all we say herein applies equally to women and to men. In fact, being more sensitive to astral influences, women would be more easily seduced by astral entities were it not that their intuition is more developed and is quicker to recognize the nature of the temptations than it is in man. Many, however, who are somewhat psychic plainly see the obsessing entity and call him their "astral lover, spirit-mate or spirithusband," etc., under the delusion that any truly spiritual being in the higher realms needs either physical magnetism or sex-force. It is just such influences as these that inculcate ideas of so-called "sex freedom" which inevitably result in some form of illicit or "free-love." And it is just such ideas and teachings that the teachings of the Order of Christian Mystics most strenuously oppose, even as a philosophic conception, knowing as it does the utter falsity of such doctrines.1 1 See The Voice of Isis, Curtiss, Chapters XVI, XVIII, XIX, XXV. Letters from the Teacher, Curtiss, Chapter IX. The Key to the Universe, Curtiss, pages 345, 282-3, and Appendix.

136 Realms of the Living Dead The compelling influence of this phase of the Desire Realm is not brought about suddenly, but like that of the other Realms is of gradual growth. It begins as a vague desire, then as this desire is yielded to and the person responds to the suggestions of the astral influence, his own desires — which normally he might control — are augmented by the desires of the astral entities, and mere suggestions grow rapidly into definite and overmastering currents of thought. As such lustful thoughts are entertained their power grows stronger until they result in actual expression and gratification and finally in actual obsession and bodily control by the astral entity. These teachings are fully corroborated by Jesus and St. Paul in the Bible, by Paracelsus, Swedenborg, Jacob Boehme and others among the older writers and by the venerable spiritualist, Dr. Peebles — than whom no one is in a better position to know the reality of the horrors of spirit obsession — and many others among living authorities. If any are skeptical as to the reality of these conditions or think we are merely perpetuating superstition, let them read Dr. Hartman's Paracelsus or Dr. Peebles' Spirit Obsessions in which Dr. Peebles says: "Doubtless nineteen- twentieths of all intelligent Spiritualists believe in demoniacal obsessions; that is, psychic influences from evil-disposed spirits. . . . They also follow and if possible co-mingle their psychic emanations with certain mortals, and cling to them as fungus and moss to trees, thus

Obsessing Entities 137 vampire-like, absorbing their vitality."1 We are, therefore, neither spreading superstition nor inculcating fear, for we give plain and simple directions how to prevent such influences or obsessions and also how to conquer and drive them away when present. Our teachings are, therefore, not merely academic and informing, but are vitally constructive and fear eradicating. We see that these conditions result from two chief causes, first the suppression or lack of diversion of the Creative Force into normal channels away from the sex centers, and, second, from entertaining and dwelling upon impure thoughts and lustful desires. No one in everyday life in the world can entirely prevent such suggestive thoughts from being presented to his consciousness, any more than he can prevent unpleasant sights and inharmonious sounds being presented to his eyes and ears while passing through the streets. The point is— and this is most important to realize clearly — they need not be entertained when presented, but can be instantly dismissed. Our glance may present to us the contents of the gutter as we pass, but we do not need to feast our eyes upon it. We can look beyond it and ignore it, or better still, report it and have it removed. We may have to cross the manhole of a sewer, but we do not have to stop and inhale its noxious odors. Our ears may overhear a lewd joke or suggestive 1 Spirit Obsessions, 9, iv.

138 Realms of the Living Dead song, but we do not have to remain where such things are going on, or remember or gloat over them. Just so with the evil thoughts and lewd suggestions and lustful desires presented to our consciousness from either the Astral or Physical Worlds. Impress this idea strongly upon your mind. You do not have to entertain them, give them lodgment and allow them to grow and develop until they force you to express and gratify them. Remember that a fundamental law of psychology tells us that "every thought entertained tends to express itself in terms of action, unless counteracted by a contrary thought of equal power." This law applies to all suggestions either from without or within. Those which are entertained tend to result in action. For instance, the carrying of a revolver suggests the right to kill at your discretion, and the temptation to do so is continually present, only waiting the opportunity for expression. We should, therefore, not only resist temptations to respond to suggestions which we do not wish to execute but should take pains to avoid placing ourselves in positions where such temptations are suggested. It is difficult for many to resist such temptations because through indulgence in past lives they have been born in this life with weakened wills, lack of self-control and with psychopathic tendencies in general, for the parents with whom they have chosen to incarnate furnished them a body which is either more or less defective or which has an unstable i i

Obsessing Entities 139 nervous organism. Those who refuse to learn and refuse to exercise self -discipline in this life will lay the foundation for psychopathic and paranoid conditions in a future life. In this respect at least, universal military training — even if not actual service in war — will do much for the regeneration of the Race. For under such training the Soul will be taught the principles of discipline, *. e., obedience, self-sacrifice for an ideal, respect for an authority and proved talent, consideration for others, personal hygienics, etc., all of which will be a tremendous aid to selfdiscipline after the period of service is over. The so-called cases of dual and multiple personalities which so greatly puzzle our modern day psychologists, in most cases are simply temporary obsessions by various disembodied personalities, although there are certain exceptions too technical to be described here. Rather than admit this simple and almost self-evident fact, recognized throughout the ages, even by Jesus and all the Great Teachers, our modern psychologists — few if any of whom are psychic, have developed any psychic powers or have any personal knowledge of psychic experiences, although they still claim to be psychologists! — have concocted the most elaborate imaginings as to the splitting up of the one personality into various secondary selves, etc., which require a far greater demand upon our credulity than to admit the simple fact of obsession and control by an astral entity. As St. John tells us: "We wrestle not against

140 Realms of the Living Dead flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places (Astral World)."1 In the Desire Realm all these forces are represented, and are gathered together in what may well be called principalities, with their rulers, satraps and servitors, all prepared to rush forth and fight in every way possible to uphold their rule. And it is these concentrated forces of evil against which we must wrestle day and night. Woe to the poor mortal who opens a door, even a tiny crack, to any of the forces thus enumerated. For instance, consider ambition. There is no more powerful principality than the one ruled by ambition. Often a man or woman is working truly and sincerely and following the Christ in humility, when some well meaning friend suggests to them that they are doing great things which are deserving of recognition by the world, or praises them lavishly for doing their duty. At once the door of ambition is unlatched, and as this door hangs ever loose on its hinges, the recipient of the praise may rather enjoy gazing through its portals. But alas, ere they are aware of their danger, an army from the Principality of Ambition rushes through and captures the citadel of their hearts, and they are carried away captive; so it is with all the other principalities when we open the door through harboring or contemplating their characteristic thoughts. 1 Bphesians, vi, 12.

Obsessing Entities 141 Just as there is beauty, sweetness, fragrance and harmony in nature and the world around us, as well as inharmony, disease and decay, so is there beauty, sweetness, love and purity in the Astral World. And these aspects will be presented to our consciousness instead of the evil if we seek for, demand, affinitize ourselves with and entertain them. If we dislike the odors and conditions found in the slums of a city and desire to enjoy pure air, the trees, flowers and birds, we can enjoy them whenever our desire for them is strong enough to cause us to leave the slums and seek the parks, fields or woods. And just as there are obsessing entities who would ruin us to gratify their evil desires, so are there loving friends, spiritual teachers and currents of life-giving spiritual force which will help and uplift us if we correlate with them according to the independent method described later.1 But neither these friends, teachers or forces can reach us while we are surrounded by dark clouds of anger, passion, selfishness or lustful thoughts, nor can they force their way to our side as long as we entertain the crowds of debauched astral entities or perverted teachers which surround us under such conditions. It is for us to choose which class of thoughts and associates we will entertain in the Astral World, just as we choose our associates in the Physical World. The remedy for overcoming such conditions is the 1 See page 225.

142 Realms of the Living Dead same as for obsession by the two classes mentioned in the former chapter, *. e., the fearless and positive Challenge "In the name of The Christ," and the determined invocation of the Divine Fire and Light of The Christ, in the presence of which no thing of darkness or evil can exist. But in addition to the Challenge, in this case you should say to yourself again and again: "I refuse to create! I refuse to create! I refuse to create!" Especially should young persons who are having trouble in controlling their thoughts and desires impress these words upon their subconscious mind just before dropping to sleep; for it is thus possible to train the subconscious mind to wake up and dispel such forces and entities the moment they approach your aura, even while asleep. Also hold the idea of closing a door in your mind and your aura which will shut out all such thoughts and suggestions as soon as they attempt to intrude. For remember, you do not have to entertain them. Another way to protect yourself is to live in such perfect accord with The Christ and dwell so continually in the thoughts of love, purity and unselfishness, and occupy your mind so fully with earnest thoughts of higher things and with study on these subjects that all obscene thoughts or suggestions will be repugnant to you. You will then turn from them as naturally as you would step over a puddle of mud in the street. We cannot be absorbed in two things at once, or as Jesus said, we cannot serve two masters, for we will hold to the one and despise

Obsessing Entities 143 the other. Therefore if the general trend of your mind and desire is for higher things do not be distressed if the thing you despised occasionally sweeps over your consciousness, for if you do not serve it, it can never become your master. If Christ is your Master you will so despise the evil that it can and will make little impression upon your mind. Students who are having special trouble along these lines should immediately put these instructions into practice and if, after a thorough trial, they still have trouble, they may write to the Teacher of the Order of Christian Mystics for more detailed directions. But remember you will never reach a point where vigilance is not necessary. "Guard thou the door of they heart."

CHAPTER XII THE EIGHTH SPHERE "It is better for thee to enter into the Kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." St. Mark, ix, 47-8. Between each of the Realms of the Astral World there is an intermediate state which might be compared to an ante-room of the next succeeding Realm. The same thing exists between the Physical World and the Astral World. This overlapping may be compared to the dark shadow of the earth stealing over the sun during an eclipse. Being the lowest of all, the Desire Realm touches the earth at its darkest point, and this overlapping forms an intermediate region (see diagram on page 181) into which the offscourings of both the Physical and Astral Worlds are gathered. This region therefore contains the blackest thought forces and most of the evil entities and conditions created by man which he has been unable to redeem and which therefore must be purified by the fires of disintegration. Here the atmosphere is formed by the foul odors and noxious gases arising from decay and disintegration in both the Physical and Astral Worlds, as well as the effluvia cast off by mankind. 10 (146)

146 Realms of the Living Dead As we have said elsewhere, "This is the outer darkness into which the unprofitable servant is cast, which simply means that all the matter which should be the servant of its Lord (The Christ), but which fails to respond during one period of manifestation, must pass through a period of outer darkness or lie in the grave until the resurrection or the dawn of the next Manvantara (world period). In many respects the darkness might be compared to a compost heap into which all refuse, effete and unusable matter is cast, there to ferment in darkness until the next springtime when it can be spread upon the earth and its life-force, transmuted by the powers of the elements, can be utilized to bring forth flowers, fruits and grains for the service and sustenance of man. This accumulated mass is darkness because it is composed of dead matter, incapable of reflecting light. . . . Like the darkness of Chaos, it is pregnant with the germs of that which must ultimately come into the light and be redeemed by its creator."1 In the Desire Realm a dim and brooding twilight forms its daylight, and oppressive darkness its night. But in this overlapping ante-chamber its brightest day is a murky and clammy darkness, while its night is a period of dense, impenetrable blackness which is beyond the power of mortals to describe. It is a night beyond earthly conception; indeed, it is well 1 The Voice of Isis, Curtiss, page 323.

The Eighth Sphere 147 described as "the outer darkness." The blackness is so dense and heavy that it surrounds those unfortunate enough to enter it and oppresses them as with the weight of centuries. They feel as though wedged in between mountains, yet all the time there is a sense of being alive and surrounded with horror unspeakable. This answers the question so frequently asked as to why man, although created a pure and perfect being made in the image of God, should be subjected almost from the beginning to the temptation of disobedience and evil. He has to take up and redeem all his creations that have been left over from past world periods. It is the influence of these old creations of his that tempts him to continue their life by repeating the same old mistakes. This temptation in the Bible allegory is called the serpent which was already in the Garden before man appeared, i. e., matter impregnated with his old creations and mistakes awaiting his coming for their redemption. This intervening region is called the Eighth Sphere, both because it is an addition to the seven-fold chain of globes constituting the Earth Chain, and because it is a double four or the point where the foundation of one sphere (earth) is merging into the foundation on which a better and higher planet will be built. For just as the effluvia of decay is transmitted into gas and then into new and useful products, so the deep repentance and realization of mistakes and crimes committed on earth are here made the foun 

n 148 Realms of the Living Dead dation on which a new humanity can be brought forth. In this sphere are found those soulless mortals whose persistent refusal to respond to the guidance of the Higher Self through many lives, or to listen to the voice of conscience, have thereby atrophied the centers and avenues through and over which that guidance reaches the body and impinges upon the consciousness. When the atrophy of these channels of communication is complete the human personality breaks away from the overshadowing Soul or Higher Self and becomes but a soulless, hence conscienceless human animal. Such persons are not "lost souls," for the Soul is immortal and cannot be "lost," but they are lost human animals, for it is the personality only that is lost, not the Soul. These soulless beings are the "Jack the Rippers" — beings without a single redeeming trait — who commit the most atrocious and revolting crimes without a pang of conscience or remorse. They cannot feel remorse for the Soul whose chiding causes the remorse has abandoned them. At death such persons pass into the blackness of this Eighth Sphere where they dwell continually surrounded by their crimes and often continually fleeing defiantly but hopelessly from the retribution they fear, and which they imagine is pursuing them, as in the case of a man with a rope around his neck described in a remarkable communication from the Astral World in 1851.1 1 Letters from EeUt pages 13-14.

The Eighth Sphere 149 A creature is described who "had a rope around its neck, the hands being constantly trying to secure the ends." He is made to say "I am forever trying to escape; there is not a creature but wants to hang me. . . • It is my one aim to prevent people getting hold of them . . . whenever this foolish fear possesses me afresh, I must run, run as though I had a thousand lives to lose." Other dwellers in this region may remain chained in consciousness to their victims. In many cases their crime was the result of obsession, and now that they are freed from that obsession they are brought face to face with the crimes and must realize their responsibility. Here also dwell the soulless monsters of lust who while on earth have persistently and knowingly perverted the currents of Creative Force as it manifests through the sex centers. To correctly understand the condition in which the denizens of this region dwell we must remember that the sex-force is but one manifestation of the Divine Life-essence or the Great Creative Force which is eternally bringing all manifested things into existence and whose unceasing onward and upward urge is the force back of all evolution, forever transmuting matter into Spirit and ever seeking higher forms of expression. This Force is a living unquenchable Divine Fire which should integrate, build up and perfect, but which just as truly consumes the false and impure, that the Life-essence which has been perverted

150 Realms of the Living Dead may be released and used for man's ultimate redemption. It is this Divine Fire of The Christ-force that is referred to so frequently in the New Testament. "He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. . . . And he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." In another place we are told that "The Lord thy God is a consuming fire," etc. This Realm, therefore, bears a close resemblance to the orthodox conceptions of hell so graphically described in Dante's Inferno, "Where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." The "worm" is the continued gnawing of evil desires which in this region have no means of gratification, not even through obsessing sensitive mortals still living in the flesh as do those in the Desire Realm. The "worm" therefore is the continual disappointment, anger and suffering arising from pursuing the tantalus of expectations and fierce desires forever unfulfilled. The unquenchable fire is the Divine Fire of The Christ-force which slowly burns out the dross of impurity and ultimately disintegrates and consumes everything that prevents its manifestation in purity and truth, that the life currents may flow along normal and constructive lines. The entities of this region therefore suffer both because they cannot gratify their fierce desires and also because they realize, even if vaguely, that their astral bodies are being slowly consumed. They

The Eighth Sphere 151 still have sufficient intelligence to realize something of the horror of their condition and the dread of the ultimate destiny which they more or less vaguely sense. Such a state of consciousness is truly all that has been pictured by the orthodox conceptions of hell. It is into this region that suicides precipitate themselves when they refuse to live out their appointed time on earth. "When, through vice, fearful crimes and animal passions, a disembodied spirit has fallen to the Eighth Sphere — the allegorical Hades, and the gehenna of the Bible — the nearest to our earth — he can with the help of that glimpse of reason and consciousness left to him, repent; that is to say, he can, by exercising the remnants of his will-power, strive upward, and like a drowning man, struggle once more to the surface. ... A strong aspiration to retrieve his calamities, a pronounced desire, will draw him once more into the earth's atmosphere. Here he will wander and suffer more or less in dreary solitude. His instincts will make him seek with avidity contact with living persons. These spirits are the invisible but too tangible magnetic vampires; the subjective demons so well known to medieval ecstatics, nuns, and monks, to the 'witches' made so famous in the Witch-Hammer; and to certain sensitive clairvoyants, according to their own confessions. . . . It is because Moses knew so well what they were, and how terrible were the consequences to weak persons who yielded to their influence, that he

152, Realms of the Living Dead enacted the cruel, murderous law against such would-be 'witches;' but Jesus, full of justice and divine love to humanity, healed instead of killing them. Subsequently our clergy, the pretended exemplars of Christian principles, followed the law of Moses, and quietly ignored the law of Him whom they call their 'one living God,' by burning dozens of thousands of such pretended 'witches,'"1 L e.t obsessed mortals. Although they find themselves in this region of the soulless the case of suicides is quite different from that of the entities described above, although they are in a most pitiable condition and suffer most terribly. They pass out in such a depressed, despondent or insane state of mind that the terrible thoughts, gnawing sorrow and despair which caused the deed surround them like a shell or pall of black horror. This envelopes them so completely and is so dense that neither their spirit friends nor the spiritual helpers can reach them with their help until they make an opening in this^ black aura, either by sincere repentance or a definite aspiration for the Christ-light. Had they resisted the impulse to suicide and remained in the body the black mood and darkest despair would have passed away in a few hours or at least in a few days and been outlived and new conditions would have presented themselves, but now since they are continually surrounded by the 1 Isis Unveiled, Blavatsky, ii, 352-3,

The Eighth Sphere 153 same black thoughts which prompted the deed, they are impelled to reenact the scene over and over again, for they continue to live in the moment at which the deed was done. Since there is no division of time in this region, as we have it on earth, the duration of time is marked only by sensation and so long as these sensations endure time stands still and their despair seems endless, for no other moment can be experienced until the old sensations are worked out and exhausted and new sensations can be experienced. Since they have refused to be comforted by time's healing hand, and as the allotted amount of life-force they were originally able to bring with them into incarnation has not been exhausted either by living or used up by sickness, they are not ready to enter the normal astral life. And since they have refused to go on with life in the Physical World they find the door is shut in both directions. And like a child who has run away from its tasks and shut itself in a dark closet, they realize that they are absolutely and terribly alone; that they are not in the Realms with their departed friends, neither can they return to earth, but are shut in with only the memory of their despair and the dreadful deed they have committed. This, however, is not a cruel punishment, for only as they realize to its bitterest extreme what it means to take their own lives, can it be so deeply imprinted on their consciousness that in no future life will they repeat the deed, for when the similar

154 Realms of the Living Dead impulse comes at a corresponding period in the next life — for come it must since the experiences leading up to the deed must be met again and again until conquered — there will be such an inward horror that they will have gained (except in extreme cases) the strength of character to face conditions, resist the impulse and conquer it. But, unlike the case of soulless entities, there is hope; for as soon as the Soul really repents, which is quite different from merely being sorry, a ray of Light will be shown him, and if he follows this it will lead him out of this "outer darkness" into the region of the Astral World to which he is otherwise affinitized. There are organized bands of nurses in the lower Realms who are especially trained to help such cases, for they are too dangerous for the ordinary dweller in the astral to have anything to do with, even if such should penetrate into this outer darkness. Suicides realize that they are absolutely and terribly alone and so seek the companionship of those left behind and naturally throw over them the same pall of depression which overwhelmed them, so that the one whom they approach feels impelled to commit suicide in the same way, although the mere approach of the suicide to his friends tends to throw his condition over them quite unconsciously to himself. We have had several students corroborate this teaching from their own experience. In some cases the loneliness and remorse of the suicide is so terrible that he deliberately obsesses some mortal and tries to

The Eighth Sphere 155 get him to commit suicide, usually in the same manner, hoping thereby to gain his companionship. But even if such an obsession is successful, as it frequently is, the suicide is still disappointed and alone, for he is shut away from his victim more than before. The main thing to be remembered about suicide is that it never relieves the victim from the mental depression and suffering which he seeks to escape, but prolongs and increases it a thousandfold.

CHAPTER XIII. THE ELEMENTALS "Substantial but (for us) invisible beings of an ethereal nature, living in the elements of air, water, earth, or fire. They have no immortal spirits, but . . . are of various grades of intelligence." Paracelsus, Hartman, 44. "Whether the results produced are styled miraculous or not, depends on our knowledge — our knowledge of all the powers latent in nature, and a knowledge of all the intelligences which exist." Raymond, Lodge, 318. It is the intermediate states previously referred to as existing between the various Realms that are the abiding place of most of the kingdoms, races and tribes of tiny beings called Elementals. Matter, force and consciousness is a trinity that is found everywhere in nature inseparably blended. Therefore, not only does every form of matter have a consciousness of its own, but also every force in nature has a form of consciousness in its own Realm. These forces are entitized in various forms of life called by the general term of Elementals. And as few people, even among occult students have a clear idea of what is meant by the term, we will endeavor to make the subject somewhat clearer in these pages. (157)

158 Realms of the Living Dead The Elementals are the various orders of entitized nature forces which, obeying the will of the creative Hierarchies, bring into material manifestation the details of the Grand Plan of the Universe. In other words they are the means by which the Divine Life-essence expresses the ideals in the Divine Mind through form, hence they are the intelligences whose manifestation bring about the normal flow of the earth currents and the activities of nature. There is a wide range between the various manifestations of these forces, but in general they are divided into four great kingdoms, each under the direction of a great Master belonging to one of the creative Hierarchies. These four kingdoms are the Earth, whose elementals are called Gnomes; Water, whose elementals are the Undines; Air, whose elementals are the Sylphs, and the Fire, whose elementals are the Salamanders. Each of these four divisions are broken up into many tribes and races, each with their own characteristics. We find them referred to everywhere in literature under various names; in fact, almost every country and every language has its folk-lore in which these elementals figure under various terms, yet all can be classified under these four main divisions. In each of the four kingdoms there are elementals of varying degrees of consciousness and intelligence, varying from the true Nature Sprites or rulers of their kingdoms, down to the rudimentary lives over which they rule. These rudimentary elemental lives are the very es 

The Elementals 159 sence of the physical substances themselves and their life manifestations give to the various forms of matter their chemical properties. There is almost as great a difference in form and consciousness between the Nature Sprites and the rudimentary elemental lives as there is between man and the insects. While man, being the Lord of Creation, lives in all of the four elements — earth, air, water and solar fire or heat — the elementals live exclusively in one element. The conditions of each element are as normal to its inhabitants as physical conditions are to man. For instance, to the Gnomes the earth is transparent and offers no bar to their progress or activities, while the Salamanders live as naturally in fire as man does in air. Beside the four great classes of elementals, there is a class which although elemental differs widely from those already described. As we have stated in a previous Chapter, there are soulless beings who have broken away from the informing Ego. These beings after a few incarnations on earth,1 exhaust every remnant of the informing Soul's life-force and reach a point where the atoms composing their astral bodies are disintegrated in the Eighth Sphere. After such disintegration, since in the great economy of nature nothing is lost, the elements composing those bodies must again start on the long "cycle of necessity" and pass through all the stages of experience 1 The Voice of Isis, Curtiss, page 99.

160 Realms of the Living Dead as elemental forces in nature, passing through the mineral, vegetable, etc. Hence in this region of the elementals, the forces once composing those bodies have reached a state where they have become elementals, but they differ from Nature Sprites in that the substance of their forms has once existed in human bodies, while the Nature Sprites animate only the elements. This class of elementals are the rudimentary and lowest astral forms of future man. Here in this Realm the monad must evolve through the nature states until taken up and built into the human kingdom as molecules in the lowest form of physical man. The Soul which once broke away from the body must again gather these forces and atoms together and build new bodies which it can inform. All four classes of Nature Sprites are made in the miniature image of man. Some, such as the Gnomes, are often distorted and grotesque, but the Sprites of the other kingdoms are more beautiful, dainty and fairy-like. Indeed they are the fairies themselves. In many cases it is such elementals and mischievous Nature Sprites, especially the Gnomes, who impersonate the departed at a s6ance, for they delight in their power to deceive and play all kinds of pranks on both the medium and the sitter. The Nature Sprites belong to the highest races of each great kingdom, but the subject is so vast that in this work we must confine our few subsequent remarks to the four classes of Nature Sprites only.

The Elementals 161 Among them we find a vast number of races and tribes varying as widely as do the several races and tribes of mankind. And just as with man, each tribe has its home in a certain locality on earth and is largely confined to that region. For instance, every region of earth, such as mountain, valley, or plain has its own particular tribes of Gnomes which are not found in any other part of the globe. In the same way every form of water, babbling brook, meadow stream, broad river, lake, sea or ocean has its particular tribe of Undines. The air also has its many races of Sylphs. Every type of wind, from the gentle zephyrs of summer and the steady trade winds, the winds of land and sea, to the storm winds and tornados, have their own characteristic tribes. For instance, among the Gnomes there is a race of gold elementals to which belong all the tribes connected with the various deposits of gold in different parts of the world. Another race is composed of all the tribes connected with copper, and so on for each metal, rock and earth. Gold being the highest metal, the tribes of all other metals are subservient to its rulers, the gold Gnomes. There are other tribes belonging to the vegetable kingdoms which guide the elemental lives in building up the grass, the trees, the flowers, etc. It is because the people who live for a long time in one locality imbibe and have built into their bodies, through the food they eat, the water they drink and the air they breathe, etc., the elemental forces of that locality, that they 11

162 Realms of the Living Dead take on the peculiarities of that region and feel at home there. Persons who do not live in one place long have their elemental forces so mixed that they feel no especial attraction for any one locality. While the elemental forces of all four kingdoms are more or less responsive to man's thoughts and desire forces, only the more advanced, such as the Nature Sprites, are sufficiently individualized to communicate with man under certain conditions, as we find witnessed to in the literature, philosophy and religion of all ages and among all peoples. It is not that these Sprites speak to man in English, French, German, Japanese, etc., but rather that certain sensitive mortals are able to attune their consciousness to that of the Sprites and then express that consciousness in the best words their mentality is able to use. It is easiest for man thus to communicate with the Gnomes, as they are closest to man and most easily made friends with, while communion with the Undines and Sylphs is more difficult. It is the most difficult of all for man to communicate with the Salamanders, for with few exceptions they are antagonistic to man unless he has in a measure been able to enter consciously into their kingdom, in which case they will be his obedient servants. In fact, all the elementals obey man when he can prove to them his superiority. But since they obey and recognize forces rather than the mere form of man, the man who would dominate the elementals, either for good or evil, must be forceful; must prove his

The Elementals 163 ability to rule. This is more effectively done, however, through real love and understanding of their true nature than through mere will power. American Indians in the Astral World, being earth children and living so close to nature, are in very close touch with the Gnomes and earth elementals. In fact, those of them who earnestly desire to help in the great work of evolution, and there are many such, use their human intelligence to tutor the rulers of the earth elementals, even lending to them the power of speech so that such rulers may come into contact with those upon the earth plane who could aid them by bringing them in contact with and implanting in them love and brotherhood from the human kingdoms. For the elementals obey man's thought, and work it out in their own kingdom. Evil elementals are but elementals instinctively working out man's evil thoughts, either in a vague way, bringing pestilence and disaster, or in a more definite way if the evil is given forth by a strong mentality, one who attracts these forces strongly and commands them to work out definite evil ends.

CHAPTER XIV THE FAIRIES "And hark, the many-voiced earth, The chanting of the old religious trees, Rustle of far off waters, woven sounds Of small and multitudinous lives awake, Peopling the grasses and the pools with joy, Uttering their meaning to the mystic night." Pyrrha in Moody's Fire Binger. In describing certain regions and Realms of the Astral World we have been obliged to refer to many very disagreeable subjects and conditions, but it should be remembered that such regions and conditions form but a limited portion of that World. That the student may have some realization of the beauties of other regions, and also to show what inspiring ideas may be gained by correlating our human consciousness with the consciousness of the elementals of the higher orders, we give herewith some characteristic communications from them. It is understood, of course, that the Sprites indicated did not say the exact words given. The words are simply the best words the mentality of the authors could find to express both the rhythm and the ideas to which their consciousness responded as they corre(166)

166 Realms of the Living Dead lated with those intelligences. Such communications always have their characteristic weird yet musical rhythm, but no attempt has been made to give them polished literary form. , From our investigations and experience we are convinced that in many cases the descriptions given of the fairies by poets — as for instance those given by Shakespeare in Midsummer Night's Dream, The Tempest, etc. — are simply a reproduction of the consciousness of the various Nature Sprites to which the authors responded, either unconsciously or in many cases consciously. THE FAIRIES' KISS (To each of three persons present at the time) From a Nymph A kiss upon your lips dear Brother that shall make you speak kind words. A kiss on the lips for you dear Sister that shall make you speak pure and beautiful words. A kiss upon the lips of you dear Priestess that shall make you speak for us. For all the Little People shall show to mortals how we are made up; made out of light, sunshine and joy and happiness. When mortals let in our forces then we draw close. And the more light, joy and sunshine and happiness they let in, the more we come and dance in their hearts and shine from out their eyes, till mortals see us dancing in the light, just as you see motes dancing in a sunbeam.

The Fairies 167 Come thou and dance with us. Oh, let us happy be! Mortals with joy be free! Let us now happy be. Come, come with me! From a Salamander A kiss upon the lips for thee, Brother, that thou shall speak fiery words of strength and power. A kiss upon the lips for thee, Sister, that the strength of Love shall fill thee; that thy lips shall smile always. A kiss on the lips for thee, dear Priestess that the Flame shall manifest in thy heart and life, consuming all the dross and purifying the love that humanity lays at thy feet. We have come again Light of the Flame. Joy we bring to thee Out of the Flame. From a Sylph A kiss on the lips for you dear Brother, soft as a zephyr's touch, filling thy heart with tenderness, filling thy life with joy. What a kiss on thy lips dear Sister! Like the wind from Fairyland, Blowing away all doubts and fears. All loneliness throughout the years; Filling thy life with tenderness, Wiping away all tears; Watching near thee ever, ever, Throughout the long, long years.

168 Realms of the Living Dead A kiss on thy lips, dear Priestess. A kiss that takes not gives. A kiss that is filled with sweetness, a kiss on which we live. Oh, breathe out thy Spirit in loving. Oh bind up thy heart in joy. Think only of the joys of giving; thy years full of love employ. Life is full of loving Life is full of joy Whispers the breeze of loving Whispering to girl and boy. Sweet little nestlings are waiting. The springtime draweth near. Open thy heart with loving For the joy of the springtime is here. For the joy of the springtime is here. From a Gnome A kiss of Earth to dear Master I bring you my wealth and my store. I have but a pick o'er my shoulder But I lay all its gifts at thy door. A kiss on thy lips dear Sister And out of the earth comes cheer, Plenty and life-giving forces To save you from sorrow and fear. Out of the darkness of winter. When the snow and the ice are gone. The storehouse of Nature shall fill you. You shall gather her wealth in your barn. A kiss on your lips dear Priestess, Earth's angels are whispering now. Out of its bosom comes healing, Out of its breath comes balm. Balm for a spirit distracted, Life for the flesh ill at ease, Priestess of mercy and goodness The earth brings a blessing to seize.

The Fairies 169 A GNOME EXPLAINS AN ERUPTION Down in the ground where the little fairies are, the Salamanders are lighting the fires, and we fairies see what it all means. There are things in the earth that burn and burn and burn, and there are things that move and move and move. And some day the water drips and drips and drips down into the fiery depths of the earth where the fire burns till it is all white hot, with curling, glowing flames of rosy hue. And there in the depths of this fiery heart the Fire Elementals live. They mysteriously move in the depths of the earth. And all the time they grow and grow and grow, and that which was once a fairy dell where the innocent little wood nymphs play now is in the fiery heart. Some day while the waters drip, a little elemental of water, full of interest and curiosity, peeks down into this chamber to see what is going on. Then her sisters hear her scream and she is swallowed up. Then they all rush in to save her life. The Fire Elementals clap their hands and lo the whole hill explodes. And the trees and grass and insects and birds all go down into the fiery depths of earth. A WIND SPRITE SPEAKS I know the Masters of the World. I helped them build their great and beautiful Temple thousands and millions of years ago. I carried on my magic wings the great stones. I worked by the power that comes

170 Realms of the Living Dead from the eyes of the great Masters of Wisdom. I can lead you, when They give me their permission to do so, into the secret crypts of the Temple. I have watched and waited and obeyed and known what was intended, because I am part of the elemental power that is used and manipulated to bring about the great changes that the Master in his great wisdom and mighty will desires. I can ride upon the whirlwind. I can fulfill the decrees of the great North-wind. When it sweeps across the prairies, when it shakes the windows of your home, it is I who seek admission. ... I can make myself at home in the soft murmurs of your dreams. I can whisper of Iovq and of beauty and of peace. When the Master wants his servants to understand, He sends me forth and I embody His thought and am propelled by His will. And so I come to you direct from the eyes of the Master. CONSECRATION OF THE GOLD By a Gnome You want to know the meaning of my domain? How can I tell to mortals or express in mortal language what is not mortal? How can I make them understand? How can I tell them of Sylphs, Undines, Salamanders and Gnomes? . . . How did it happen? Why Great Thor threw into the middle of an immense sea a monstrous mountain. This mountain he shot out with his right hand. When

The Fairies 171 it fell into the waters the Undines were imprisoned. And when they found their domain thus invaded they were in despair. Then the Sylphs of the air rushed in with a mighty voice through passages which the Gnomes had carefully carved to the relief of the imprisoned Undines. With a mighty voice and song of triumph they rushed through the passages so the imprisoned Spirits in the water could breathe as the air rushed hither and thither. Then the Gnomes, good servants as they are to the Sylphs, followed with their picks and shut and plastered up passages and made other passages here and there. None of them knew what they were creating, they only followed their leaders, and they only knew that the Great God had told them to build and plaster up the passages. Then came the grand army of the Salamanders and gathered together all the chips from our work and pressed them to their fiery hearts and evolved a yellow substance, the soul of the earth, a beautiful yellow substance. It was pure and better in this great mountain than in any other place, because it was created through sacrifice in effort to relieve the imprisoned Undines. And when all the Sylphs, Undines, Gnomes and Salamanders had blended their life forces into one, lo! we had a great mountain piled up with gold. And the seed of it grew and grew. And the great gods came down and looked at our work and pronounced it good, and spake these words, and we engraved them in the heart of the mountain

172 Realms of the Living Dead in all its windings and its passages. Again and again we repeated it. "This gold is not to be desecrated or used for the debasement of mankind. It is dedicated to my holy temple." Some day a grand structure will be erected by another order of beings neither Sylph, Undines, Gnomes or Salamanders, but something that contains them all. And these beings (men) shall be the Lords of Creation and all we "little people" shall obey them when they come with a sacred scroll inscribed with the same sacred characters that we have carved in the passages. When they bring us this scroll — it is not a mountain like ours but just a little piece of parchment, yet these beings have traced figures on it, the exact figures we have, been all these ages learning and carving within the mountain — when we recognize these figures we will know our masters have come and we will obey them. This gold would be a curse to anyone who should use it for any purpose save that for which it was created. It was created to beautify the Temple of the Sim. This Temple shall be covered over with pure gold. Even now in the regions where we work we can lead you to a passage which shall descend by steps carved out of solid gold. This is the only metal fit to be used in certain parts of the great Temple. That is what gold is created for, to impart its magnetic aura to man and focus the sun-force for the worship of the gods. When it is degraded for barter all the powers of the gods who have been thus insulted let it become a curse to all

The Fairies 173 who touch it. Mankind will learn this lesson only after many ages; after he has suffered from the gold fever. Then he will not abuse gold by using it for such degrading purposes. TINKLE BUBBLE A MOUNTAIN WATER SPRITE Take a book and sit by the brook And read of the fairies and sylphs Read of all the beauties you'll find In my murmuring mountain brook. This is the home of Tinkle Bubble Here you will find no trouble Only joy, only joy, joy, joy. O, here you'll find no trouble In the home of Tinkle Bubble. 0 little Brother meet me on the shore, Singing, singing to my home of joy, Come with me little Brother, little Sister Come with Tinkle Bubble and forget your earthly trouble For its joy, joy, joy at the home of Tinkle Bubble, 1 will meet you on the shore in the twinkling of an eye. THE SPIRIT OF THE STORM WIND I am the Spirit of the Storm Wind that blows the waves; that changes the day to night; that saddens the world and lets the rain from the mighty deep pour over the darkened earth until it is engulfed. Blow, blow, blow ye winds. Blow from the West, blow from the North. Let the ocean find itself a new bed, a new bed. What is so beautiful as the breakers on the shore!

174 Realms of the Living Dead AN UNDINE'S PROPHECY (Given in June, 1914) The waters shall cleanse the earth! The dead and dying both alike are carried by the beautiful clear waters of the ocean. The implements of death, misery and suffering are all washed away and the beautiful waters of the ocean with the sunlight on them are moving, moving, so calm and sweet and clean. Breathe in the air, the salt, salt air of the ocean. What is this putrid smell of unburied thousands? Of earth saturated with blood? What is this death that man has made? It is hideous. It smells aloud to heaven. How horrible! Then the beautiful clear waters come with their sweet breath of purity and life, the salt of purity and sweetness. Smell the air! How sweet it is. This is not death, for there is no death, it is only the Divine Law which goes forth and says: "Go back and be washed by the ocean, be covered up; when purified let the dry land appear." All this land will be filled with forces, little seeds of love and life that have been purified by the waters. And they draw to themselves other forces and out of these little flames of life try to embody themselves in trees and grass and flowers. Then they grow stronger and embody themselves into something else. And after a long, long time God says to man: "Go and dwell on the new land I have made for you,"

The Fairies 175 Then man comes and finds all things growing. Then God says: "These are the things you have made. I have sent my ocean to wash away the wickedness you created by your thoughts. But in your spirit the Divine Life centered and has brought forth." THE OCEAN IS KING Onward, onward we go. The ocean is king! The ocean is king! Down, down, down, O, land, underneath the waves. A new day, a new place to play, ye nymphs of the caves! Man, puny creature is gone, and the land where he dwelt and made his proud boast, where is it now? Under the waves! And over it the dolphins dance and play all day. O puny man, where is your kingdom? Would you keep back the great deep? Ha! ha! Onward, onward, over the land. Now it is gone. It is gone. The spray dashes high and the beautiful sun shines through its depths and makes myriads of diamonds and pearls. They are not tears, but pearls of joy, joy, joy, while the dolphins dance and play. For the land is gone, is gone, is gone. A ROGUISH ELF Among all the embodied nature forces there is one who reigns supreme; his name is Love. Oh, he is such a roguish elf! He steals into men's hearts and

176 Realms of the Living Dead pours out such sweet balm. He seldom talks but just expresses himself in a mystic language known alone to the heart. Have you met him child of earth? Or have you merely met his foster brother who talks and talks until you are weary of his chatter? Yes, and betimes he grows so eloquent with his own glowing word pictures that he forgets others and remembers only himself. Poor thing! Then he suffers and cries out at the gross blindness and inhumanity of the children of men. Have you met him? You may find him easily, but you will know him from his brother, because his brother, Love, seldom speaks when you meet him. He gazes in your face with starry misty eyes and smiles, yet the smile and the look shines in your heart all the day through. THE FAIRY'S ENCOURAGEMENT Beloved of Christ keep your Star shining bright Out through the darkness of earth's dreary night. Mid toil and confusion of battle and strife, Send out your message of Love. It is life. O souls who are patiently waiting for day, Be not discouraged; turn not away; For the day that is dawning is gloriously bright; The dreams so appalling will flee with the night. Look on my warriors, fear not the fray. We are the Conquerors; our Voice obey. Sound loud the trumpet blast, happy and free, To tell of the Day Star that is destined to be.

The Fairies 177 Oh! earth that is sobbing, like a child in its sleep. Oh! Brother who suffers with pain fierce and deep. Stand still in the ruin your passions have wrought. Take count of the guerdon greed and sorrow have brought. If your heart sinks despairing in the mystical calm, List to God's choir; its echoes bring balm. The fire but purifies; strife ends in peace. Hosanna! Hosanna! the carnage must cease* Lift up your voices, the day is at hand. No more of sorrow to this happy land. 12

CHAPTER XV THE PSYCHIC REALMS The Mental Realm 14 Thou shalt not let thy senses make a playground of thy mind." The Voice of Silence, Blavatsky. " It is reasonable to suppose that the mind can be more at home, and more directly and more exuberantly active, when the need for such interaction between psychical and physical no longer exists, when the restraining influence of brain and nerve mechanism is removed." Raymond, Lodge, 313. After passing through the experiences and learning the lessons of the four lower Realms, and having purified the body from the denser earth attractions, the Soul dies to the lower Realms, slips off the dense astral body and leaves it behind to disintegrate in the astral graveyards, just as it left the physical body to disintegrate in the tomb. The four lower Realms of dense astral matter which the Soul now leaves are usually what is referred to when the term Astral World is used, for the reason that it is from these Realms that the forces (179)

180 Realms of the Lining Dead and phenomena commonly called astral usually come. But there is almost as great a difference between the four lower Realms and the three higher, into which the Soul now enters, as there is between the states of matter constituting the Physical World and the finer states composing the lower astral. Both the latter are states of matter, but of far different rates of vibration. Just so the three higher Realms are composed of astral substance — as distinguished from the matter of the lower Realms — but of a far higher rate of vibration and finer condition. To make this great difference more clearly realized we shall refer to these three higher Realms as the Psychic Realms, leaving the term astral to apply to the four lower. We use the specific term psychic here because the word itself means Soul and these are truly the Soul Realms, for it is in these Realms that the Soul, freed from the hampering garments of the physical and astral bodies and purified from its lower desires, finds the greatest scope for its most perfect expression in this World. This division may be roughly indicated by the following diagram. Psychic Realms Astral Realms Ecstatic Inspiration Mental Desire Vital Ethereal Reflection

The Psychic Realms 181 %&$£%£""***

182 Realms of the Living Dead It must be remembered, however, that these Realms are all a part of the Astral World and must not be confused with the Higher Worlds beyond, each of which has its seven Realms. Each Astral Realm is astral, yet partakes of the substance of the Higher World to which it is affinitized, hence is the vehicle or door through which the Higher Worlds find expression in the Astral World. The Higher Worlds also have corresponding doors into the Physical World. THE MENTAL REALM Since Mind is the fifth Principle of Man, quite naturally the fifth Realm is the one in which the Principle of Mind has its chief manifestation in the Astral World. In fact, the Mental World so rules this Realm of the Psychic that its "mind stuff" permeates and dominates it. We must, however, be careful to distinguish between this Mental Realm of the Astral World and the Mental World itself; for there is an Astral Realm of the Mental World that is so closely allied as to be almost indistinguishable from the Mental Realm of the Astral World. In the one the astral foundation is permeated by mind stuff, while in the other the mental foundation is permeated by astral stuff. Just as very intellectual persons are said to live in the Mental World while still in the physical body, so after leaving the physical body, having very little

The Psychic Realms 183 interest in the phenomena and life of the lower Realms, they quickly gravitate to the Mental Realm of the astral without spending much time or having much experience in the lower Realms. When this occurs the one thus finding himself surrounded by and breathing and living in mind stuff, is apt to be so well pleased, finding his own mentality so greatly stimulated, that for a long period he revels In Tiis mentality, going over and over his pet hobbies of earth and seeing in them deeper and deeper possibilities. But after a time, according to his Soul development, he finds that he is not gaining new truths or unfolding new avenues of thought, but that only the seed thoughts already sown are sprouting; the avenues already developed are growing deeper and the intellectual acumen pertaining to problems already in his mind is quickening. Here we might say he wears out his old mental experiences and begins to look around him and respond to new ideas, or perhaps enters one of the great schools. But the average person who is not especially intellectual also reaches and functions in this Realm in the course of his astral evolution. First the earth desires, which hold him to the lower and more material Realms already described, must be worked out in those lower Realms and their earth attraction exhausted. As they are worked out and the denser particles of the astral body are excreted or washed out and left behind, the Soul is ultimately clothed in a purified, etherealized and mentalized astral body

184 Realms of the Living Dead of a much finer texture than that used while dwelling in the lower Realms. This we now term the psychic body. This psychic body has been so purified of its earthly elements that it can no longer appear objectively in earth conditions; cannot obsess or become the "control" of a subjective medium or appear in a materializing stance for example, yet it is capable of affecting physical conditions through the power of thought far more powerfully than can those who appear objectively in the lower Realms. It is in a psychic body, therefore, that the Soul dwells in the Psychic Realms of the Astral World. Sitters in spiritualistic stances are frequently told that their friends have descended to them from higher spheres or, on the other hand, that they were about to pass on into a higher state. In many cases, although not all, this simply means that they have risen from the lower Realms into the more rarefied Psychic Realms. In those cases in which they say they are going on into a Realm from which they cannot return to contact or control the medium, it usually means that they are about to die to the astral body and ascend into the Psychic Realms. The Ethereal Realm is usually the highest Realm reached by the average subjective medium, for by the abnormal subjective method they are unable to reach those who have died to the lower Realms and who hence have no dense astral body with which to descend into the lower Realms and make a physical contact with the medium.

\ \ The Psychic Realms 185 As we have already said elsewhere, when this Mental Realm is entered the attractions of either the lower Realms or of the earth no longer hold the Soul, for in consciousness it is dwelling largely in the Mental World. This condition is so much higher than that of the lower Realms that although for a time the Soul can descend into the lower Realms and pass freely back and forth if it so desires, ultimately it may be said to die to the lower astral, after which it cannot return to earth conditions except mentally. When this change takes place the Soul "has passed on into a higher sphere" as the spiritualists express it, in which state it is beyond the reach of the ordinary medium. While the Mental is a higher Realm, yet it too has its dangers, for here the Soul is apt to emphasize what the Hindus call "The great Sin of Separateness." Also here many become so enwrapped in their own intellectuality, that selfishness is engendered. Hence even if they live in this mental heaven for ages, there must come a time of awakening and realization of their own limitation in heart development, which awakens the desire to advance. The result of this desire in many cases is that they willingly send their consciousness down to the higher regions of the Desire Realm and there learn unselfishness by helping others through inspiring their thoughts with higher ideals; for they can only develop the heart nature by unselfishly working for others. In this Realm the Soul completes the working out

t r 186 Realms of the Living Dead and perfecting of his mental conceptions, and the plans begun while on earth and continued while in the lower Realms; for here the Soul is in so much closer touch with the ideals in the Mental World that it can grasp greater conceptions of perfection for its plans. As a rule every scientist, inventor or idealist who has an ideal or invention to perfect for humanity, on passing into the astral finds his project awaiting him in as advanced a stage of perfection as he has been able to create. In the lower Realms he continues to work at, enjoy, test and perfect it, but on his dying to those Realms his invention being then freed from the attraction which brought the idea from the Mental World into manifestation, is drawn into the Vital Realm where it will quickly vanish if it contained no vital germ which the life-force could quicken, or the disintegrating currents will dissolve from it all the mistakes and errors which do not correspond with the ideal. The purified pattern will then ascend into the Mental Realm of the astral where it may be still further perfected by its creator. When so perfected it will then descend into a special region in the lower Realms which might be likened to a museum containing all the wonders of the past and those that are to manifest in the future. There it awaits until some mind responds to the idea it embodies, and gives it physical expression. If it is not perfected, it slowly disintegrates and its germ of truth is indrawn into its ideal in the Mental World* It is here,

The Psychic Realms 187 therefore, that the purified thought-forms of inventions, the creations of art, scientific discoveries, etc., are perfected after their purification from flaws and misconceptions in the Vital Realm. It is here also that the great schools of learning are located, the branches of which we encountered in the lower Realms. Such branches might be compared to the branches of a great university which are located in the slums of a large city and called "Settlement Houses," where university graduates go to live for a time to teach, inspire and uplift the less enlightened of those districts. These great schools are located in this Realm because, being free from the denser astral body and its earth desires, the Soul is able to respond with less effort to the mental environment and give all its attention to intellectual and philosophic pursuits and problems. For here, unhampered by any of the less responsive conditions of the Physical World or of the lower Realms, the mind can easily and quickly grasp and comprehend ideas which only the more advanced Souls, with highly developed and sensitive physical brains, could grasp either while on earth or in the lower Realms. Here it is then that spiritual ideals axe embodied into definite ideas and are so impressed upon the consciousness of the Soul that in its next incarnation they become important factors in the life, even though the physical brain in that incarnation be not sufficiently sensitive and trained to grasp them consciously and fully.

188 Realms of the Living Dead Here it is also that persons who have begun the study of the spiritual philosophy of the Wisdom Religion— and indeed any branch of study or form of religion — continue the more advanced phases of their studies, so that in the next incarnation, the new conceptions are so strongly impressed upon their consciousness that they are born with the conviction of certain truths-such as reincarnation, the persistence of the individual consciousness after so-called death, the possibility of spiritualizing the physical body, etc. — and hence only need to have the attention of their outer consciousness called to such facts to know their truth without argument. Of course such convictions also result from study and advance made before leaving the physical body, but they are greatly strengthened by further study in this Mental Realm of the astral after passing on. Therefore our friends the Spiritualists are quite correct in teaching that the friends who have passed beyond the Physical World and beyond the lower Realms of the astral are "still progressing." In this Realm the schools of philosophy, religion and other branches of learning are quite as various as on earth, and there are many brotherhoods which maintain elaborate organizations for presenting to humanity their conceptions of truth and the principles which they think will be most helpful to mankind. As the race is now entering upon a reincarnation of the period during which the civilization of Atlantis reached its greatest height, the schools

The Psychic Realms 189 of Atlantean philosophy are especially active at this time. Indeed, many famous Atlantean teachers have been waiting all this time to incarnate or represent their perfected teachings to mankind, not having found the dense conditions of previous ages favorable for presenting their advanced teachings or perhaps affording opportunities for more than minor incarnations. Many of these teachers, however, are not even trying to incarnate in this transitional period of the world, but are preparing for a subsequent incarnation by giving out as much of their teachings as possible in advance, through some developed psychic or even through subjective mediums. For while such teachers may not be able to appear in a stance room they can send down their strong thought-currents with such force as to impose them upon subjective mediums and psychics. Such psychics in turn give out the teachings colored, limited and modified by their stage of intellectual development, personal opinions and preconceived ideas. In such cases there is often an astral entity who first catches the current of thought and then impersonates the Atlantean teacher to the medium. This is also why we have so many books and teachings today which claim to be inspired by or given out by old Atlanteans. In many cases these teachings are but a repetition of the fallacies, sophistries and in some cases the pernicious teachings whose logical development resulted in the downfall of the great Atlantean civilization and the submergence of the continent.

190 Realms of the Living Dead Therefore it is most important that students cultivate their discrimination and intuition and carefully scrutinize the principles of any and every teaching from any source, no matter how apparently high, and carefully consider how its logical working out in actual practice will affect humanity. A teaching should not be accepted merely because it is labeled, "Atlantean," "psychic," or "spiritual," or because it comes "from the unseen." The mere label is not sufficient to warrant acceptance, for, as we have seen above, all kinds of teachings, good, bad and indifferent, from the highest inspiration from the Divine World and the Masters of Wisdom down to the platitudes of disembodied orthodox ministers and the selfish and misleading doctrines of the Brothers of the Shadow, on down to the lowest and most pernicious teachings of the Black Brotherhood, all may come from the so-called "Higher Worlds." And those who give out such teachings may be innocent agents who are quite sincere in thinking that their source of information is the highest possible, merely because it comes from out the invisible. Discrimination and intuitive heart-recognition of Truth, together with a clear understanding of the fundamental doctrines of the Wisdom Religion and the laws of the higher Realms, must therefore be the watchwords in regard to any and all teachings claiming to be spiritual. While the Soul gains and perfects experience in all Realms of the Astral World, it is principally because these great Schools of Learning are in the

The Psychic Realms 191 Mental Realm that the Astral World is called the "Hall of Learning." As we have said elsewhere: "The experiences of the Astral World therefore form part of the training through which every Soul must pass at a certain stage of development ere it can master the problems of the Hall of Learning, be entrusted to function alone and enter the Hall of Wisdom. Although many warnings have been given against entering this World unprepared, nevertheless every Soul must pass through its experiences and learn its lessons. The warnings are not so much against entering this World as against lingering amidst its subtle perfumes and wondrous flowers or being misled by the seductive voices or other allurements and fascinations it presents to the inner senses. . . . The Astral World then, is not a region wherein the pupil should seek to dwell and make his home, but merely a country through which he must pass to gain certain necessary Soul-qualities."1 Therefore, there is no "escaping the astral" as some schools teach. What they really mean is that a long stay in the lower Realms can be escaped and progress greatly advanced by purifying the thoughts, desires and life while still on earth; for as we have already said, it is the four lower and dense Realms that are usually referred to as "the astral." The only way really to "escape the astral" is so to develop that we can learn most of its lessons while still in physical incarnation. By following the true 1 See lesson The Great Book, Part I.

192 Realms of the Living Dead spiritual philosophy and under the guidance of a personal Teacher appointed by the Lodge, after we have reached a certain stage of spiritual growth, the main lessons of the Hall of Learning may be acquired and the Hall of Wisdom of the Mental World entered while still functioning in the flesh, although the higher phases of astral life will have to be experienced for a time after leaving the physical. In the Mental Realm of the Mental World each school of philosophy and religion, etc., is represented by a great mass of mind stuff which differs from all others in density and luminosity "as one star differeth from another in glory." These masses of mind stuff, impregnated with the characteristic ideas of the school formulating them, can be appropriated by anyone capable of reaching up to that Realm of the Mental World. And it is through the Mental Realm of the Astral World that most of the advanced teachers reach up and take as much as they can grasp, develop it and pass it on down to their followers in the Physical World. Occasionally here and there there is an especially advanced Soul who can reach directly into the higher Realms of the Mental World and bring down the teachings to which it affinitizes while still in the physical body; but such instances are comparatively rare, as they are the result of long special training and development through many incarnations. Chief in importance of all the schools in this Realm of the Astral is the great School of The Lodge

The Psychic Realms 193 which is maintained and directed by the Masters of Wisdom of the Great White Lodge for the promulgation of the Wisdom Religion. Here the Great Souls who are directly connected with and immediately supervise the spiritual work in the Astral and Physical Worlds do their chief work. These are Great Souls who have won Mastery in their various Races, but still retain a purified and spiritualized psychic body that they may easily keep in touch with the great mass of workers in the Physical World who, while advanced, intuitive and spiritual minded, are not able to reach up directly into the higher and formless Realms and personally grasp the Divine Wisdom in its more abstract state and formulate it for themselves. While many of the more advanced Masters attain a spiritual Nirmanakaya body, still, most of the Masters directly connected with the work in the Physical World, for the sake of helping humanity the better, voluntarily retain the psychic body. Hence they retain all the individual characteristics of the personality and race in which they won Mastery and so can easily be recognized by those who knew them when on earth or who are familiar with their pictures. The Great White Lodge1 is composed of those Great Masters who have attained Mastery through every school of philosophy and religion, and from every race of mankind; for Mastery is reaching per1 See Letters from the Teacher, Curtiss, Chapter II. 13

194 Realms of the Living Dead fection where all truth is seen as one. This is why it is called the Great White Lodge, for truth is like a diamond which while it reflects every ray of the color spectrum, is nevertheless in itself pure white. So this Great Lodge contains in it the best and the truest from all teachings, and has in it Masters from all schools. Therefore every Soul seeking Mastery over the flesh can find among these Great Souls some Teacher who belongs to the same Hierarchy as himself, i. e., who had the same mental traits and tendencies and has met on the Path the same difficulties, hence can meet that student on his own mental platform, understanding perfectly his difficulties and temptations and thus the more readily give him personal help. It is in this great School of The Lodge that the Great Teacher known as Mme. Blavatsky, to whom was given the task of preparing the Western World for the coming of the Avatar of the new sub-race, still directs and carries on that great work as one of the most able lieutenants or assistant professors to the Masters who were her Teachers. It is not as the old human personality of Mme. Blavatsky, however, that that Great Teacher should be thought of by her followers, but as the Great Soul who for a time inhabitated and was hampered and limited by the traits and frailties of that complex personality. Indeed it is far more in accord with the facts of the case to drop the feminine pronoun entirely and simply refer to that Great Soul as the Teacher,

The Psychic Realms 195 instead of imposing upon her the limitations of the last incarnation in a feminine organism. The important fact to remember in this connection is that this Great Teacher still remains in the higher Realms of the Astral and from there inspires, works with and influences, to the degree that each will permit, respond and follow, not only the Society which she founded and all the sects into which it is now split up, but also every group of students throughout the world who are seeking to promulgate any phase or aspect of the Wisdom Religion and who are unprejudiced and open minded enough to respond to the more advanced conceptions of it to which she has now attained. For remember that even that Great Teacher has advanced far beyond anything which could be grasped while still in the flesh, and has cast off with the limitation of the personality, many of the limiting conceptions of truth held while in the flesh and hence must present new aspects and points of view which were not appreciated or perhaps were unknown while on earth. For it is unthinkable that so great a Soul with so great a mission would lay it aside or cease to advance merely because a hampering overcoat or outer garment of flesh had been laid aside. We can, therefore, say from positive personal knowledge and with special authorization that this Great Teacher has not incarnated again, as has been frequently reported, and has no intention of doing so again in this Race or even in this World period. For to do

196 Realms of the Living Dead so would involve the loss of at least twenty or twentyfive years of precious time during the most vital period of this transitional cycle of the Race, while the new brain and the personality of the new body was being trained as a fitting instrument. Incarnation would also limit the activities of that Teacher to a single human personality, whereas by remaining in the higher Realms of the astral the activities are unlimited and can be carried on with an hundred groups of followers as well as with one, each emphasizing some special phase of the Great Work that might not appeal to the other groups and working with people who would not be attracted to the higher life through any other channel. This is another great reason why all schools, societies and workers in this field, while maintaining their own point of view and doing their own work with their own followers, should nevertheless work more closely hand in hand with their fellow workers than heretofore, thus demonstrating that the Brotherhood they all preach is a realimble fact among themselves. Thus they can appear before the world as "Pupils of the same Great Teacher, children of the one sweet mother." The above explains why this Great Teacher appears to many students in a mist of beautiful, clear, rich violet light; for violet is the color of the higher Realms of the Astral World. .. * *

CHAPTER XVI INDEPENDENT METHODS OF COMMUNION "Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said, Nay, Father Abraham; but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead." St. Luke, XVI, 29-31 "If death is not extinction; then on the other side of dissolution mental activity must continue, and must be interacting with other mental activity." Raymond, Lodge, 313. IT is in or through the Mental Realm of the Astral World that we should strive to contact our departed loved ones; for communication with those who have left the Physical World is not only possible — as is now almost universally accepted by scientists who are at all posted as to the investigations of the Society for Psychical Research, to say nothing of the testimony and evidence presented by all the Great Teachers, occultists and mystics throughout (197)

198 Realms of the Living Dead the ages — but such communication is perfectly legitimate when conducted according to the laws of the independent method. It is quite erroneous to think that our friends pass on so quickly and become so engrossed in their own affairs that they pay little attention to those left behind. The fact is that they remain in touch with us and are often as interested now in our affairs as before passing on; indeed, they are usually more so than before for they can now come much closer to us, understand our thoughts and read our hearts in a way that is impossible while inhabitating and limited by the physical body, and requiring the clumsy and often misleading methods of speech or writing to express their ideas and desires. Hence it is just as heartless and cruel, to say nothing of being impolite, to refuse to recognize their presence when felt and to drive them away, as it would be to shut the door in their faces when they came to see us while in the Physical World. Even the more spiritually advanced do not leave their friends and loved ones selfishly to pursue their own spiritual development. Many of them enter the great Schools of The Lodge and work consciously in some capacity to help spread the teachings in both the Astral and Physical Worlds, being especially concerned of course in giving all possible love, help and comfort to those near and dear to them. No Soul who has once vowed allegiance to The Lodge and offered his or her life to its service but

Independent Methods of Communion 199 will give not one but many lives to its work, until they have attained Mastery and the race has been spiritualized and redeemed. To turn away from and refuse to recognize our departed loved ones is usually the result of a fear of the astral inculcated by those teachers who, having had little practical training or experience in properly contacting the Astral World, know nothing but its dangers. The dangers are terrible and very real, as we have explained in detail in previous chapters, and we have no desire to minimize them in the least. But those who have comprehended what we have written thus far should have conquered all fear and should and can learn perfectly how to protect themselves from the undesirable influences. To such, contacting the Astral World should be no more dangerous than crossing a busy city street or passing saloons, dance-halls, brothels, etc. The dangers are all there in every city and are very real, but no one is obliged to enter a saloon or brothel who does not desire to do so. Just so in the Astral World. Just as on earth, you will be drawn to that with which you affinitize and desire. Hence, if the desires are kept normal and the thoughts pure, and when surrounded by the protecting power of The Christ-light, as we shall explain in detail, there need be no danger. As we have already said, the departed ones who have reached the Mental Realm can communicate with us only mentally, and those in the lower Realms

200 Realms of the Living Dead of the astral should be taught how to communicate only through the Independent or Constructive Method. There are several natural branches of the Independent Method, all of which are normal and natural avenues of consciousness, although all belong to stages of evolution beyond the average stage of humanity today. Any method of communication is classed as belonging to the Independent Method which does not involve control of any kind; that is, going into a trance or permitting any other consciousness to control either your body — even your hand to write — your mind or your words. At all times you must be fully conscious of what you are saying or doing and use your own discrimination as to whether or not you are willing to stand back of your words and acts. For we are always responsible for our words and acts, whether they are the result of control or not, and we must choose what we say and do. Therefore the Independent Method is one in which the person retains full consciousness of the Physical World and what is going on around him. Retaining full control of all his senses and mental faculties, he is able to judge of what he experiences and is free to react to those experiences as he may choose. The chief among these methods are telepathy, clairvoyance, clairaudience, clairsentience, inspiration, intuition, theophany and avesha. Each of these demands a book for its proper explanation, but here each can only receive the briefest mention,

Independent Methods of Communion 201 scarcely more than a definition. For further information see special books on each subject. Telepathy is the direct exchange of consciousness and ideas between mind and mind without any physical means of expression such as speech, writing, etc. According to the author who originated the word, telepathy is "the communication of impressions of any kind from one mind to another, independently of the recognized channels of sense."1 This is true thought transference or mind reading. This transfer may take place between two or more persons, both of whom are in the flesh or both in the astral, and also where one is in the astral and one in the flesh. It is a perfectly safe method because the one receiving the thought of the other can judge it and act accordingly. Clairvoyance is simply the development of the ability to see in the Astral World as well as in the Physical. Those who are clairvoyant (clear-visioned) can also see reflected in the Astral that which is transpiring in the Physical World, no matter what the distance. Such persons can also see the symbolic visions projected either by the Higher Self or by the Masters of Wisdom for their instruction, warning or guidance. They can also see the events and thoughts pictured in the aura of a mortal, hence the vogue of clairvoyant "readings." But since the aura of a person is sacred and given each one that 1 Human Personality, Myers, I, xxii.

202 Realms of the Living/Dead perfect privacy may be enjoyed, it is just as rude and uncouth to enter the aura of a person unasked as it would be to enter the private chamber unasked of one who forgot to lock the door. A Master or refined spiritual helper will always knock at the door and ask permission to enter. Hence do not wonder why the Masters do not read your every thought; you might be sorry if They did — you must invite Them. As the proper interpretation of what is seen is all important, a "reading" by an ignorant and untrained clairvoyant is of little value; indeed, it may be distinctly misleading, even pernicious, especially, if it is accepted as certain truth and unalterable fate. Clairvoyance, therefore, is to be used and accepted only subject to your best judgment. Clairaudience is the ability to hear what is transpiring in the astral or at a distance on earth. The clairaudient (clear-hearing) cannot only hear the voices of departed friends, but also nature sounds, elementals, etc. It is legitimate but must also be subject to good judgment. In fact it cannot be too greatly emphasized that in all advanced spiritual development it is most important to cultivate discrimination, good judgment and common sense. Clair sentience is the power of grasping the reality and truth of things through mere contact. This also includes psychometry. Through this faculty you sense the truth of what you hear, see or feel. It can also be used on earth to sense conditions and

Independent Methods of Communion 203 states of consciousness around you. On entering a room for instance a clairsentient person will know the character of conversation or thought that has been held up to the time he entered or that may have been carried on in it years ago. A phase of this faculty manifests as the homing instinct, whether in birds, animals or men. A person who has this faculty knows what another is going to say almost as soon as, or even before, the first word is spoken, and often knows better than the speaker how it should be expressed. Hence such persons have an almost uncontrollable desire to correct the speaker and are very inattentive and poor listeners. In this phase it overlaps intuition, yet we make a distinction. The danger of this faculty is that the one using it may let personal bias enter into its use, thus making good judgment difficult. Intuition is Soul guidance or tuition from within, from your own Father-in-Heaven. It differs from clairsentience in that in the latter we merely sense the thing, while in intuition our own Divine Higher Self has impressed it upon our consciousness or taught it to us. It also manifests as conscience which discriminates between right and wrong. It is the faculty above all others necessary in dealing with all phases of the Astral World. Inspiration is the breathing into your consciousness of the Spirit. When inspired by a scene or by music the Spirit of that scene or music enters into you and reveals to your consciousness its real sig 

204 Realms of the Living Dead nificance or Soul. You can also be inspired by an astral friend, a Spiritual Teacher, by a Divine Being or by abstract ideals. The degree of your inspiration depends upon how perfectly your mentality can express it. You can be inspired from any Realm or World either to paint, sing, speak, write or any other form of expression. But you must use your own judgment, first as to where the inspiration comes from, and second whether or not you desire to respond to it. This must not be confused with astral control. In the astral control you are a mere puppet or tool, having little or no control over what is said or written or done, even no knowledge of it, while in inspiration you are a conscious messenger of a higher power. Inspiration overlaps telepathy in those cases in which the inspiration comes from some person or Teacher by means of telepathy, but is direct when the consciousness reaches directly to the realities, spiritual verities and ideals in the higher Realms or Worlds which you desire to represent. Theophany is "the direct manifestation of the gods (or Spiritual Teachers) to man by actual appearance." This appearance can be manifested only to a specially trained mortal. Theophany could, therefore come only from a Divine source, never from an astral entity. This is the method by which most of the scriptures of the world, including the Christian, have been transmitted to man. For instance, the Spiritual Teacher appeared to the spiritual vision of St. John and said: "What thou seest, write in a

Independent Methods of Communion 205 book." What was written was not written under "control" or through "automatic writing," but independently, while the transcriber was in full working consciousness. There are many other references to this Independent Method in the Bible, showing that it was the method universally used to give spiritual teachings to mankind. "The surest means of obtaining knowledge of the gods, and of their will, was through their direct personal manifestation in visible theophanies."1 But there is the chance of some astral entity calling himself such a Divine Being and seeking to impress teachings on the unwary, hence you must always demand in the name of The Living Christ who it is, as was done by all inspired writers; for we read of their challenging in the words, "Who art thou Lord ?" so often repeated in the scriptures. Avesha is a peculiar relation between a chosen mortal — trained and perfected for this special relation through many incarnations— and a Divine Being or a more than mortal Spiritual Teacher, for the purpose of presenting to the world a particular truth, message or philosophy. This latter method sums up and includes the other seven methods of Independent Communion, for a true Avesha has all the above faculties developed. There can be no deception here, for by their works are they known. All the above mentioned methods of communica1 Beginnings of Christianity, Fisher, 84.

206 Realms of the Living Dead tion require special conditions and special training for their development, either in this life or in the past, theophany and avesha requiring training of the most advanced and spiritual character through many incarnations devoted almost entirely to the spiritual life and its requirements. Among these methods telepathy is the one which requires the least training and which can most quickly be developed by the average seeker. It is therefore the one we advocate as the most practical and satisfactory for those who are not born with some of their astral senses already partially opened. All these methods are classed as constructive because they all result from the normal unfoldment of the senses of man in the Astral World, and are therefore but a continuation of the constructive processes of life which ever tend toward balance, selfcontrol and perfection. At the risk of being tedious to the many students who have followed our various books and teachings for years, we must repeat in this connection what we have said e'sewhere concerning the difference between the Independent or Constructive Method and the Subjective or Destructive Method.1 "Still another way in which the doors are frequently broken open is by placing yourself in a passive, nonresisting state and making a demand for psychic experiences, or sitting for development as it is called. 1 Voice of Isis, 104-8. Also Letters from the Teacher, 55-6.

Independent Methods of Communion 207 In this practice you are placing yourself in such a negative state that any entity dwelling on the lower astral plane can help you break open the doors. This either destroys the doors or abnormally forces the development of the psychic centers instead of unfolding them as a natural accompaniment of spiritual growth. When results have been thus obtained, since the doors are not under the control of your will, they are open to any entity who desires to obsess you. Even if the obsessing entity is a disembodied friend of good moral character, your condition is not altered, for he must be near you constantly to protect you from fiends.1 This is what takes place in ordinary subjective mediumship." As we said in Letters from the Teacher:2 "The difference between spiritual communication and subjective mediumship is a difference both of vibration and method. The right way to contact the higher planes is to raise the vibrations of your physical and psychic bodies and their centers until they vibrate in harmony with the keynote of the Soul plane, at which pitch 'no evil thing can come nigh thy dwelling/ As we can only become aware of a thing when some part of our organism responds to its vibrations, the psychic must have the proper development to come into harmony with the spiritual plane ere he can contact the Masters or respond to things which touch upon or vibrate within the octave of their keynote. 1 See The Shadow Land, by Hamlin Garland. * Page 118, 3rd edition.

208 Realms of the Living Dead "On the one hand— spiritual communication— the psychic, through spiritual living, loving thoughts and helpful actions in many lives, must build into his or her character enough of the divine principle of Compassion for all humanity to raise the vibrations of all the bodies, either temporarily or continuously, to the note of spiritual love to which the Masters of Compassion naturally vibrate. On the other hand — subjective mediumship — the psychic, through various means, either mentally by stilling the thoughts, or physically by various yoga practices such as gazing at a crystal, a black spot, or sitting in a constrained position, through breathing exercises and many other still more objectionable practices — has gained the power of stilling the physical vibrations and becoming negative; or when through the oily sheaths having become weakened or destroyed the psychic is naturally negative. In such a state the physical atoms, not being held together by the vibratory rhythm to which they naturally respond, slow down and fly off to such an extent that any discarnate entity, clothed in atoms of, and vibrating to the note of, the astral plane, which is next to and in its lower degrees overlaps the earth plane, can gather up and clothe himself in sufficient of the physical atoms thus thrown off to temporarily vibrate to the keynote of the physical plane and become temporarily recognizable on that plane. "In the first instance, the whole desire of the psychic is to uplift humanity; he is filled with Com 

Independent Methods of Communion 209 passion for the race and desires to give himself as a willing sacrifice to bring enlightenment to the world. This is the true spiritual development. The Teachers and Masters whom he contacts do not see the little individual difficulties, or if They do, They understand the Law and know that all is working out for the best, that only wisdom can really help. Given Wisdom, Love and sustaining help, the disciples can, and indeed must work out their own personal problems. As Paul says: 'Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling/ All spiritual communication is uplifting, and the spiritual atoms which the psychic has contacted and drawn into his body will rejuvenate and strengthen the physical, uplift the mental and advance him on the Path of Spiritual Attainment. "In the second instance, by giving up the command over the life-forces and throwing open or breaking down the doors of the sacred centers, the vitality is drawn upon and the atoms thrown off are used to bring to the physical plane the denizens of the astral.1 These may be pure or vile, and are attracted to the medium in exact ratio to the state of the atoms which he or she gives off during the negative 'sitting.' If you understand this, and the fact that most of the entities contacted upon the astral plane are not Spiritual Beings, but merely men and women with their most dense and outer garment (the physical 1 See Letters from a Living Dead Man, Barker, 34, 54. 14

210 Realms of the Living Dead body) removed, you will understand the danger of giving yourself to their use. They can only come to earth as they left it, i. e.t clothed in physical atoms; the fact that to manifest on the physical plane they must steal physical atoms from the medium and sitters is proof positive of this. The first is the Constructive, the second the Destructive method of communication. In no case — unless they are Masters, in which case they will manifest quite differently, as we will explain later — are they different from the people on earth, except that they are functioning in a body composed of finer matter. "You cannot always tell which of the above mentioned methods have been used by the teachings received, for even in subjective mediumship the teaching may be of a higher moral character, just as some friend might give you a highly moral address. But no matter who the entity claims to be, he will not be a Master of Wisdom if the subjective method is used, for no Master of the Right Hand Path ever uses that method. In this case it is not a question of what teachings are given, but how they are given. "One absolute test as to which method a psychic is using and from whence the messages come is the effect on the physical body. In spiritual communication the psychic is clothed upon by spiritual atoms which self-effacement and compassion have drawn to him, and he grows more spiritual. If after the experience his vitality is augmented, and a peaceful, happy and vigorous feeling remains, even for days

Independent Methods of Communion 211 afterward; If life seems fuller, trials easier to bear and love more abundant, you can rest assured that he has risen above earthly things and has been clothed upon by the Spirit, and has brought back lessons for the benefit of humanity. This is the form of communion with the higher planes that should be desired. But do not strive for it; let it come as a natural growth resulting from a life filled with loving, unselfish thoughts and deeds. " In subjective mediumship, however, owing to the loss of physical atoms and vitality, the psychic is depleted and weakened, and soon shows it, not only in bodily health, but also in mental power. His nervous system is enervated his mentality is dulled and a great stumbling block has been placed in his path. If, after communicating, the psychic is exhausted, tired, nervous, cross, fretful, and uneasy, even for days, you can rest assured that he has allowed some astral entity to absorb his vitality and contact him by the second and destructive method." "The student can quickly tell whether he has contacted an advanced Spiritual Teacher or merely a disembodied mortal, by the feeling which results, even if his intuition does not reveal it to him. When the Spiritual Teachers are contacted the spiritual force of their auras will be felt like a fire, so that instead of the chill felt on contacting an astral entity a wave of warmth, life and vitality will seem to well up from within and surround him. This warmth

212 Realms of the Living Dead is often so great as to make the body break out in perspiration and the wave of love-force is so great that the throat chokes with emotion and the eyes fill with tears of joy. This physical reaction is really a protection to the centers in the physical body; for both Divine Love and Divine Life are aspects of fire, and if the love-nature is not sufficiently purified and developed to withstand so great an influx of Divine Fire its centers might be greatly damaged if a physical reaction was possible. "You would hesitate to lend your body to any of your friends on earth to do with as they pleased, and the mere passing over makes no difference whatever; they are able to use their astral faculties which are a little finer than the physical, but that is all. They are just as spiritually advanced as when on earth, know just as much of the laws of of life, but no more. Never give them any form of worship. Simply take such advice as they have to give as you would take their advice when upon earth, *. e., subject to your own good judgment and common-sense . ' ' All these advanced steps bring with them their own dangers and temptations. For no matter how high we climb we can always fall until we, like Jesus, become one with the Father. Yet we can conquer every temptation and forestall every danger if we live in the Divine Consciousness of the One Life and walk humbly hand in hand with The Christ and not let ambition overwhelm us.

CHAPTER XVII SUBJECTIVE METHODS "At first I took only your arm to write with • . . yet I could not do it long at a time without using your own vitality." Letters from a Living Dead Man, Barker, 34-54. "It may be well to give a word of warning to those who find that they possess any unusual power in the psychic direction . . . self-control is more important than any other form of control. . . . To give up your own judgment and depend solely on adventitious aid is a grave blunder, and may in the long run have disastrous consequences." Raymond, Lodge, 225. Although the authors are not spiritualists and this is not a work on spiritualism, it is deemed advisable that the chief subjective methods of communication with the Astral World receive brief mention. Under subjective methods we class all those methods which subject the consciousness, mind or body to the control of the will of another, especially those methods which cause the ones so controlled to be unconscious of what is being said or done through them. It is also a subjective method in which such (2X3)

214 Realms of the Living Dead persons know what is taking place but are powerless to prevent or even alter the procedures, because they have given over the control to another intelligence, either disembodied or embodied (as in hypnosis). While it is true that many worthy persons practice subjective methods who in themselves are honest, earnest, sincere and pure, and much helpful and comforting information may be transmitted through such methods, nevertheless we deplore and strongly discourage the use of such methods for three main reasons, although there are others. Remember we do not deny either the honesty of the medium — although there are many frauds as we shall explain later on— or the correctness of the communication, but we object to the method used. In the first place, putting one's body under the control of another makes such an one an irresponsible puppet, a mere tool to work the will of another and without the power to prevent the most outrageous lies from being told or to decide whether the actions performed or the teachings given by such a control are desirable or not. Such control, instead of expanding the consciousness and developing the intellect and heart qualities of the medium, stultifies mental growth and makes him dependent on his controls or "guides" for understanding and direction, instead of upon his own judgment and the guidance of his own Divine Soul within. This same objection applies to those who continually seek guidance from

Subjective Methods 215 their departed loved ones. Instead of using judgment and common-sense and learning the lessons which life here in the Physical World is meant to teach them, praying for enlightenment and guidance from within when help is needed, such persons rush to the nearest medium and seek advice from their astral friends. This also takes away initiative, undermines judgment and makes the recipient more or less of a puppet, acting not according to his own rational processes, but on the mere dictum of another, an essentially irrational process. In dealing with our departed friends, we should clearly remember, as we explain in Letters from the Teacher,1 that they are not angels or spiritual beings, nor have they suddenly become endowed with wisdom. They are merely men and women with their most dense outer garment or overcoat (the physical body) removed. "Since they are using their astral senses they can see farther ahead than those on the earth plane, but such advice as they have to give should be taken just as you would take their advice while on earth — subject to your own good judgment and common-sense. Often their desire is to help alleviate eartly conditions, but their advice, while valuable in many cases, is still largely in accord with worldly standards. In fact their activity is often like that of a well meaning but over-meddlesome friend on the earth plane. In no 1 Page 55, 3rd edition.

216 Realms of the Living Dead case are they different from the people of earth except that they are functioning in a body composed of finer matter." They have the same desires, habits, modes of thought, tastes, prejudices and friendships that they had before taking off the garment of flesh. In fact their personality is no more altered than is our personality different when we remove a hampering overcoat, except for such changes as may be due to their progress after leaving the Physical World. Therefore a knowledge of the laws of the Astral World, together with common sense, balance, poise and purity of thought are most important for one who attempts to communicate with the Astral World. In the second place, the process of control is essentially a degenerating one. In a normal and independent contact with the Higher Worlds all the currents of magnetism, astral currents and even of consciousness itself, are flowing in the direction of normal evolution and unfoldment, i. e.t outward and upward, from lower worlds to higher, from lower rates of vibration to higher. But in the effort to bring a disembodied entity down from a higher world, from the higher octave of vibration of the Astral World down to the lower octave of the Physical World, as is necessary to control the body of the medium, all the normal currents are reversed. The centers by which the medium contacts the astral, instead of being opened from within outward as in normal development, are now forced open from

Subjective Methods .217 without inward. And the result is similar to that which occurs when a door is forced open the wrong way, i. e.y its fastenings are broken and it swings idly on its hinges, easily pushed open by any passerby. Therefore just as the upward and outward flowing currents are constructive and upbuilding, so their reversal is necessarily destructive and disintegrating. The proof of this is plainly evident in the depleted condition that so universally follows the use of these methods, a condition testified to by all investigators in psychic research. In the third place, the subjective method has a similarly degenerative effect upon the entities thus drawn down from their place in the astral into the dense earth magnetism, earth conditions, and into the earthly body of the medium. This effect is also testified to by many investigators, as for instance Raymond, referring to the difficulties found in controlling a medium says: "He (the astral control) wanted to speak through her, but he found it very difficult. ... He started . . . and then he didn't feel like himself . . . what worries him is that he didn't feel Uke himself.911 Furthermore, such control is a temporary obsession, which frequently becomes more or less permanent. The suffering and torture, the anguish and despair which mediums undergo under such conditions is fully described and substantiated by Dr. J. M. 1 Raymond, Lodge, 241.

218 Realms of the Living Dead Peebles — himself a veteran spiritualist well known in spiritualistic circles around the world — in his book on Spirit Obsessions. Full subjective control is usually preceded by a transitional state called trance, and the two terms control and trance are often used without distinction. There are several other forms of trance however. Two should be distinguished here as not being subjective but independent. One is where the sensitive peraon simply leaves the body in a state of passivity or partially suspended animation, while he or she ascends into the Higher Worlds in search of the information desired. As long as the body or consciousness is not controlled by another, but the body is simply left tenantless, this is not a destructive process. A second form of independent trance is that experienced in true ecstasy. In this condition the Soul has entered into Realms of light and glory where the states of consciousness are so spiritual and exalted that the body and its consciousness is transcended and hence remains apparently lifeless. On the return to normal consciousness after these flights, far from being enervated and depleted by the experience, the sensitive is filled with life and energy, joy and happiness, for he has brought back with him something of the glory and spiritual life-force he experienced in the higher Realms or Worlds. This latter is the condition so frequently referred to in the Bible as being "caught up in the spirit/' When St. John was "in the spirit on the Lord's day" he

Subjective Methods 219 was not under control, nor was Revelation given through automatic writing of any kind. He was simply in an ecstatic condition during which the Lord (or Spiritual Teacher) told him what to write, and he wrote it while in full possession of all his faculties, able to refuse if he wished. The phenomenon of materialization is the most depleting and degenerating of all. In this procedure, the medium goes into a dead trance and allows his physical counterpart to be withdrawn and moulded into the likeness of the departed one who desires to manifest. In the case of the English medium, Mr. Elington, it is reported that "his dense body shrivelled perceptibly; and that the same phenomena has been observed with Mr. Husk, whose dense body became too reduced to fill out his clothes. Mr. Elington's body once was so diminished in size that a materialized form carried it out and presented it for inspection to the sitters — one of the few cases in which both medium and materialized form have been visible together in light sufficient to allow of examination." This method requires so much vitality from the sitters and is so degenerating to the medium that it cannot be too strongly condemned, as it invariably has been in all scriptures and by all great Spiritual Teachers. Another form of communication must be mentioned here as it is usually conducted in a subjective way; that is with the medium either under control or in a dead trance — i. e.f one in which the astral

220 Realms of the Living Dead body is withdrawn for the purpose of performing the phenomena — but is sometimes conducted in an independent method, namely trumpet speaking. In this procedure — usually conducted in the dark, but rarely in the light — through the peculiar development of the medium the departed ones are given sufficient physical magnetism and astral force to enable them to speak audibly through a trumpet or megaphone. This is perhaps the most satisfactory form of message from the lower Realms of the Astral World, for in an honest and properly conducted trumpet stance the seeker can recognize and positively identify the voice and manner of speaking of the departed one. Where this method is used without the medium going under control or into a trance it is legitimate, although not advisable to repeat at frequent intervals; for a certain amount of magnetism, life-force and physical atoms must be drawn from the sitters to reinforce that of the medium to secure satisfactory physical results. Under the head of subjective and destructive methods we must also include the Ouija board, planchette and automatic writing, painting, etc., for they are all forms of more or less partial, and are easily developed into complete, control. That those who are not familiar with it may recognize it, the Ouija board may be described as a small lap-board, such as is sometimes used by ladies, when sewing, on which the letters of the alphabet are arranged in a semicircle along the farther side, with the words

"1 Subjective Methods 221 "yes" and "no" in the two further comers. A small three-legged table about the size of the hand accompanies the board. The board is placed either upon the lap or upon a table and those who are to operate it lightly place the tips of their fingers upon the little three-legged table. Questions are then asked of the invisible entities in the astral. These are answered by those entities controlling the hands of the ones touching the little table to such an extent that it is pushed along the board from letter to letter until it spells out the answer to the question. The planchette is a similar arrangement except that in place of one of the legs the little table contains an upright pencil which writes the words instead of spelling them out. It is quite evident that someone whose fingers touch the little table must be sensitive enough for the astral entity to control his or her arm sufficiently to make the table move in the direction of the letter desired. Manifestly this is a form or first step in the process of control by an astral entity, and as the operator has no means of knowing who or what the control is, he or she is throwing open his or her aura and body to the entrance and control of any obsessing elemental, criminal or demon from any Realm who may chance to be passing or who may be attracted by the force displayed and the desires sent out. We have known this method to be the beginning of terrible obsessions and so advise most strongly against its use. Although it is often

222 Realms of the Living Dead possible for well meaning friends to come into touch with those left behind through these methods, yet owing to the ease with which impersonation and fraud can be introduced and the great difficulty of being sure that the one controlling the board is what he claims to be, it is extremely dangerous.1 Automatic writing is performed by some astral entity taking control of the hand and arm of some sensitive person and using it to write a message, the contents of which may be quite unknown to the person so used. This, of course, is also a form of control, hence is necessarily depleting, as is testified to by nearly all who have had any great experience with 1 A case of gross and wilful deception has recently been investigated by the authors. A student began experimenting with the Ouija board and soon began getting messages purporting to be from his mother, many convincing personal incidents and details being given. For months he was told his only sister would be drowned while on a visit to friends at a summer resort. Upon the advise of the Ouija board he drew a considerable sum of money from the bank and kept it in the house, ready for instant use. Summer plans were changed and business trips cancelled as the fatal day drew near. Finally, in the presence of the authors, the son was told that his sister had been drowned the previous day and was now with the mother in the Astral World, also that a message had been sent him which he failed to get. After two days and nights of the greatest anxiety and suffering on the part of the son and his wife the sister returned home alive and well and without having been in a boat or on the water. No message had been sent, and the communications lasting for months were proved to be the most wilful deceptions and barefaced frauds.

Subjective Methods 223 it,1 although if the control understands the law, the depletion may be partially counteracted and many beautiful and interesting messages given, as in the case of Patience Worth, Letters from a Living Dead Man, etc. It is also possible to write inspirationally, but this must be distinguished from automatic writing. In such a case the sensitive will be fully aware of choosing words and expressions. For instance, the inspired thought may come in language so beautiful that the intellect of the one receiving it cannot do it justice, and he may consciously try to express it in more simple terms. In such a case, although it may be inspired by another, it will not be astral control, hence is legitimate. 1 " Even automatic writing has its risks. . . . Even so apparently harmless a method of communication has led to tragedies in the past, and is calculated, if not carefully handled, to lead to similar tragedies in the future. There is a method of hypnotization which seems to be employed by communicating entities which, if not resisted, may well end in the lunatic asylum."— Editorial, The Occult Review, London, July, 1917. Also see Raymond, Sir Oliver Lodge, 162, 194, 219, and Letters of a Living Dead Man, Barker, 54.

CHAPTER XVIII THE TELEPATHIC METHOD "Believe not every Spirit, but try the Spirits whether they be of God; because many false prophets are gone into the world." I John, iv, 1. "Life and mind and consciousness do not belong to the material region; whatever they are in themselves, they are manifestly something quite distinct from matter and energy, and yet they utilize the material and dominate it." Raymond, Lodge, 317. To develop the telepathic method in the most advantageous way, first repeat some prayer1 or invocation which will focus The Christ-light in your aura that it may fill and surround you and protect you from all forces which cannot vibrate to its Light, Truth and Purity, such prayers for instance as our Prayer for Light, the Healing Prayer, etc.2 Then picture to yourself the face of the loved one you desire to reach and send that one a mental invitation to come and visit you if at liberty to do so. Be 1 "There's a lot in prayer, prayer keeps out evil things, and keeps nice clean conditions; Raymond says, keeps out devils." Raymond, Lodge, 227. 1 See Appendix. 15 (225)

226 Realms of the Living Dead careful, however, not to make a picture of the face as it appeared in sickness or in death. Neither should you hold a sorrowful or lugubrious attitude of mind in which you implore the loved ones to come to you because you are so sad and lonely. Instead prepare a glad countenance and a feeling of joyful anticipation, such as you would feel when welcoming them home from a long journey. In short think more of giving and entertaining than of receiving; for cheerful and happy thoughts of love make an atmosphere about you which attracts your friends, while selfish, sad and depressing thoughts make a pall of fog about you which prevents them from seeing you or coming near you. In the beginning you may write a letter to the loved one just as if he were in the flesh. Explain just what you desire to accomplish, then leave the letter open near your bed or under your pillow when you retire and the answer will be impressed upon you. When a presence is sensed or felt in any way and you become aware of some one near you, the first thing is always to challenge that presence "In the name of The Christ." Later on by holding the determined thought of the protecting power of The Christ and the persistent thought that you will have nothing to do with anything that is not true, pure and helpful, you can so impregnate your aura with this power and this attitude of mind that it becomes a perpetual challenge; for The Christ within will make you intuitively aware of that which is false.

The Telepathic Method 227 As we have said elsewhere: "The right hand is always a symbol of purity and the power of the right to prevail; it also refers to the positive pole or that which is to manifest in expression, while the left hand is the negative or unmanifested pole. When the left hand is applied to manifested or earth conditions it symbolizes the negative or evil aspect of the manifestation in question. Students whose inner faculties are unfolding and who are beginning to have psychic experiences can easily protect themselves from unpleasant experiences and imposture by remembering this symbology, for no false or evil entity can take its stand upon your right hand in response to your command. The rule is first to determine that you will allow no entity or psychic experience come to you that does not come in love and purity for your best good. Make this determination so strong that it will impress even your subconscious mind — the mind of the animal self — so that your very attitude will be a protection in itself, just as a similar attitude will protect you in the Physical World. When you have a psychic experience which penetrates this protecting aura always challenge it. Learn by heart these words and use them: 'In the name of the Living Christ I demand to know who you are and what your mission is. If you come for my good take your stand on my right hand. Reveal yourself and answer truthfully or in the name of The Christ begone.' " If the entity tries to evade the challenge or to cajole

228 Realms of the Living Dead you with such words as 'You know me, dear one; you know I would not harm you, so why should you challenge me?' etc., refuse to reply or have anything to do with it. Permit no argument or excuses, but insist upon a true answer to your challenge. It is a law upon the psychic plane that no entity can withstand this challenge when The Christ-force is truly invoked; it must either reveal its true nature or disappear. As the Bible truly tells us, 'The Lord is a consuming fire' and upon the psychic plane The Christ-force is an actual flame which nothing that does not vibrate to its keynote of truth and purity can resist, no matter how beautiful or glorious it may seem to you. The Masters of Wisdom or Their messengers, also your real friends, will gladly comply with such a challenge. It is the Law, and your challenge proves that you are obeying the Law, for you cannot protect yourself from deception in that world of glamor and illusion until you have learned to test all things with the above challenge in one form or another."1 That this is no new teaching, but a well-known, although little understood Christian teaching, is shown in what is practically the identical method given us by St. John: "Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh (that is, who answers The Christ challenge) is of God. And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is 1 See lesson, The Great Book, Part II.

The Telepathic Method 229 come in the flesh (i. £., who cannot answer to the challenge) is not of God."1 When a spirit answers the challenge given in the name of the Living Christ by obeying you, his obedience is the confession that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, and that the Spirit of Christ is in your flesh. We may also repeat here the quotation at the head of this chapter: "Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they be of God; because many false prophets are gone into the world." Also Paul's injunction: "Prove all things; hold fast to that which is good." If the presence of the entity which you sense near you brings a cold chill or a disagreeable feeling of any kind you will know that the person contacted is not in the Mental Realm but in one of the lower Realms, and the astral body is abstracting heat and vitality from you, as described on page 83. In such a case tell the person quietly but firmly that he must not come so near you, but must stand off at a distance, well outside your aura, and communicate with you through telepathy. Otherwise such an entity will unconsciously throw over you its astral conditions and sap your vitality, something which you by no means desire and should not permit. If, on the other hand, the presence contacted brings a thrill of love and a wave of heat, instead of chill and dread, you will know that the contact has not been made with the astral body, but in one of the higher 1 J John, iv, 3-4,

230 Realms of the Living Dead Realms or perhaps with one of the higher Teachers. When the right kind of contact is made there will be a wave of certainty and confidence and an intuitive recognition that all is well, and until this confidence is attained the challenge should be continued. When the presence has answered the challenge in a way that brings the thrill of love and confidence or by some prearranged sign or signal that is satisfactory to you, such as standing on your right hand, etc., speak to it mentally — or even audibly if you are alone where you cannot be overheard and considered demented — and ask the question you desire. While you may not be able to hear a voice or see a form that you can identify, unless you are clairaudient or clairvoyant, the proof that the presence is really the loved one you believe it to be is that the answers to your questions will seem to flash into your mind, not in the terms you or some other person would naturally employ in expressing themselves, but in the expressions and with all the little peculiarities of speech which are characteristic of that particular loved one. Often while you are busy and thinking of other things, the picture, voice or thought of the loved one will suddenly enter your consciousness in a particularly vivid way. When this occurs at once speak to the one who is thus presented to you and establish communication. These tests, together with the nature of the replies themselves, will positively identify the speaker and will be most convincing. But if, in spite of your

The Telepathic Method 231 challenging, an imposter should attempt to impersonate your loved one there will always be a feeling of doubt, if not actual distrust and even loathing, which will warn you that all is not as it should be. Such an intuitive warning is always received, provided you are not too excited or flattered by the fact of the communion to give heed to it; for once you have sincerely placed your consciousness and your aura in the keeping and under the protection of The Christ you may trust it to warn you. Therefore in case of such doubts or warnings do not attempt to continue the communication at that time. And the next time it is attempted you should send out a mental call either for the Teacher of this Order, or The Christ, to send you a protecting helper until you are thoroughly trained, as much to train the one desiring to communicate with you as to protect yourself. Also tell your loved ones to ask for the workers of this Order to instruct and help them in whatever Realm they may be. But remember that you must learn to rely upon the power of The Christ-light within yourself for protection and guidance. As long as you rely upon some outside agency, no matter how high, you will remain but a babe in the kindergarten of the higher life. A special warning must here be given against trying to communicate with a suicide, for the peculiar conditions in which a suicide is compelled to dwell — described in a previous chapter — are such that he cannot communicate with you without throwing over

232 Realms of the Living Dead you the same black cloud of depression and the same insane impulse which impelled him to take his life. If such an one should be contacted, absolutely refuse to communicate with him or permit him to enter your aura. Instead, direct him to call out for Light and seek for Teachers in the Astral World who are especially trained in nursing such persons and who are qualified to give them all possible help and instruction. Another special case must also be called to your attention and guarded against. Frequently a loved one in the astral will try to gain the attention and come into rapport with a loved one on earth, especially when the mortal is of the opposite sex, by overshadowing some sensitive mortal of his own sex to such an extent that for the moment the sensitive might seem to have taken on the features of the one in the astral. In other cases the overshadowing one may momentarily pour out, through the eyes of the sensitive, his love for the dear one left on earth. In such cases the living person will both see and feel the great wave of love coming through the overshadowed sensitive, and unless properly instructed and warned, may naturally think that the sensitive mortal through whom the departed one is manifesting is himself personally in love with (in this case) her, whereas the sensitive is either entirely, unconscious of what is taking place through him or perhaps feels but a wave of sympathy or friendly feeling. A number of cases have been called to our attention in which this has occurred and caused unnecessary J

The Telepathic Method 233 jealousies and heartaches, if not disaster, before the real state of the case could be explained; hence this Warning. It is just such phenomena as this which have brought misunderstandings, scandals, ill repute and disaster to many psychics, mediums, sensitives and Spiritual Teachers whose love, sympathy and desire to help have placed them in such a receptive, if not actually negative, state that this form of partial and momentary obsession takes place. This is also one explanation of why so many professional psychics cause so much trouble in family relations. The great lesson to be learned from this is that all students who realize that they are sensitive and in more or less conscious touch with the Astral World should take particular pains never to allow themselves to get into a negative state. The teachings of many spiritualists is that the pupils should place themselves in as negative a state as possible, for their object is more easily to permit control or obsession by their astral friends. But the teachings of this Order are that all should impregnate their minds and auras with a positive mental attitude which will not permit such a partial obsession to manifest through them even for the moment. These instructions are not given to stimulate mere curiosity and a desire to dabble in astral conditions — for we again remind you of the terrible dangers recounted in previous chapters, to be encountered by those who are not both ready and properly trained

234 Realms of the Living Dead for such experiments — but are given to help the hundreds of students who are already more or less in touch with astral conditions and who, since their eyes are once opened, must continue in touch with those conditions and learn to function in them, just as a child when once born cannot be thrust back into the womb, but must learn to use its faculties and meet the conditions in which it finds itself. It is therefore most important, instead of merely instilling fear, that the definite, well-tried and proved rules be given out, which when implicitly obeyed will make communication with the Astral World free from danger. It is dangerous to handle instruments in an electrical laboratory or power-house, but those who are to become electricians must learn to work freely with all such instruments, and this they can do without danger only by implicitly obeying the rule^ laid down by electrical science. The same principles apply to using the psychic instruments by which you contact the Astral World.

CHAPTER XIX THE INSPIRATIONAL OR SPIRITUAL REALM "Every mortal has his immortal counterpart or rather his Archetype, in heaven. This means that the former is indissolubly united to the latter in each of his incarnations, and for the duration of the cycle of births." The Secret Doctrine, Blavatsky, ii, 59. "By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God took him; for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God." Hebrews, xi, 5. This is the Realm of the Astral which corresponds to the Spiritual World and to the Spiritual Soul or Buddhic Principle of man. It is therefore the Realm of the ideal, that region of the astral in which there exist the spiritual prototypes of that which is later embodied in the lower Realms and finally manifested in a limited and more or less imperfect way on earth. It is the spiritual and perfect patterns in this Realm and in the Mental World that are the source of creative inspiration. It is in this Realm (235)

236 Realms of the Living Dead that the artist senses the perfect types of form and proportion; where he revels in the wondrous play of exquisite and irridescent hues and shadings of vibrant and living color, compared with which the most vivid pigments of earth, through which they strive to express, seem dull and dead. Hence the disappointment of the inspired artist who tries to reproduce on canvas the beauties his inner vision has glimpsed. In this Realm also the musician hears the ravishing melodies which thrill his Soul and whose message he strives to express in the strains of his aria, rhapsody or symphony. Here, too, the poet senses those pure, high and divine ideals which he endeavors to express in the rhythm and imagery of his verse. From this source also are derived those high and advanced conceptions which burst into manifestation in the flashes of genius which make for the advancement, help and uplift of mankind or whose misunderstanding or perversion works harm or retards evolution. This is the region reached in high spiritual dreams and visions, also the region from which glimpses of past lives are gained. This Realm is the subdivision of the astral in which the Spiritual Beings known as Devas and Kumaras appear when they descend tQ manifest in the Astral World. It is in this Realm also where dwell those Adepts who have reached the degree of Mastery which we call Christhood. Such Masters, having

The Inspirational or Spiritual Realm 237 conquered all earth conditions, no longer need an earthly or physical instrument; in fact, would be greatly hampered by it. Yet their work for humanity is by no means over or completed, for they have not finished the redemption of their earth children, nor severed their connection with them. They are above "even the divine illusion of a Devachani," hence do not allow themselves to enter the joys of the state of Devachan (heaven world), for in it they would be cut off from their touch with humanity for ages. To keep from entering Devachan these Masters must therefore consciously guard their thoughts and not allow the Spiritual Mind (Higher Manas) to become fully united with the Spiritual Soul (Buddhi-Atma). Such Adepts consciously die to or withdraw from the Physical World leaving the physical body behind. Such Masters are not "astral beings" in the ordinary sense of the term, nor 'are they merely disembodied Teachers, but are spiritually advanced Beings who have reached such a state of Mastery over earth conditions and forces as to pass through the gate of death at will and in full consciousness. They voluntarily withdraw from earth life that they may do a higher and more wide-spread work for humanity in these higher Realms, although they do not always confine their work to the astral, for "When an Adept reaches during his lifetime that state of holiness and purity that makes him 'equal to the angels' then at death his apparitional or astral body becomes as solid and tangible as was the late body, and is trans 

238 Realms of the Living Dead formed into the real man. The old physical body, falling off like a cast-off serpent's skin, the body of the 'new' man remains either visible or, at the option of the Adept, disappears from view. ... In this case, after the physical translation of such a saint or Bodhisatva, his astral principles cannot be subjected to a natural dissolution like those of any common mortal. They remain in our sphere and within human attraction and reach. . . . Such an Adept remains in the Astral (invisible) plane connected with our earth, and henceforth moves and lives in the possession of all his principles except the Kama Rupa (body of desire) and the Physical Body."1 There is another class of most spiritual and advanced Beings in this Realm, the Nirmanakayas or Saviors. These are Masters who have reached the highest stage of spiritual evolution possible either on this or other planets without entering Nirvana and losing all touch with the lower worlds of manifestations. These Great Ones voluntarily renounce the bliss of Nirvana and retain "the influence of terrestrial attributes, however spiritualized, clinging to that Self,"* for the purpose of retaining their touch with humanity and becoming its Saviors. Under these conditions "The Adept has the option of renouncing conscious Nirvana and rest, to work on earth for the good of mankind. This he can do in a two-fold way; either, as above stated, by consolidat1 The Secret Doctrine, Blavatsky, iii, 61-2, 372, 446. * Ibid., iii, 420.

The Inspirational or Spiritual Realm 239 ing his astral body into physical appearance, he can reassume the self -same personality; or he can avail himself of an entirely new physical body . . . as Shankarachraya is reported to have done."1 f A true Nirmanakaya body, however, although manifesting in the Astral World, is not an astral or even a psychic body at all, but a spiritual body which is born in the heart of the Adept while still in the flesh, and which takes the form of the personality by first growing out through the marrow of the bones and later extending out beyond them until it permeates the entire body of flesh and ultimately spiritualizes all its atoms. This process requires many, many incarnations, but ultimately the body thus spiritualized becomes no longer a mere physical body, nor even a purified astral body like that of the Adept of the degree described above, but is a redeemed and spiritual body in which its Master can appear in any Realm or in any World at will. For instance, by raising its vibrations above the octave of the Physical World he would disappear from physical sight and manifest in the astral, or by again slowing down its vibration*-a process comparable to reducing the vibrations of water vapor until they manifest as solid ice — he could again appear on earth in a body which to all appearances would be a physical body, but which would not be so in sober fact. This is the real meaning of the doctrine of 1 The Secret Doctrine, Blavatsky, iii, 61-2.

240 Realms of the Living Dead the redemption (spiritualization) of the flesh. And it is in such a spiritual body and by an analogous process that an Avatar appears in the Physical World.1 The ability of the Divine Teachers thus to appear on earth in either of the two previously mentioned bodies or voluntarily to leave the Physical World at will — the one through the gate of conscious death, the other through translation — is so well known that allusions to it are found in all scriptures and in many of the hero-myths of the gods founding nations, giving mankind an alphabet, a numerical system, teaching him the use of fire, etc., and then withdrawing to the heights of some Olympus, Hemavat, Fujiyama or to the heaven world as the case may be. Teachers who have built up a Nirmanakaya body do not have to wait for death to release them. For instance, we are told that "Enoch walked with God; and he was not; for God took him." The word Enoch is a generic term used to designate all who have reached the stage of Mastery in which they can withdraw from the Physical World yet live and work in the higher Realms of the astral. The Greek word "Enoichion," from which our word Enoch is derived, means "the 'Inner Eye' or the Seer; in Hebrew, with the help of the Masoretic points, it means the ' Initiator' and ' Instructor. "*2 The story of Elijah who "went up by a whirlwind into heaven" in a chariot 1 See The Voice of I sis, Curtiss, Chapter X. * The Secret Doctrine, Blavataky, ii, 559.

The Inspirational or Spiritual Realm 241 of fire alludes to the same fact. St. Paul also alludes to it when he says: "He shall not see death." The same phenomena was again referred to when Jesus said: "He that believeth on me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die."1 1 St. John, xi, 25-26, 16

CHAPTER XX THE DIVINE OR ECSTATIC REALM "Light is Cold Flame, and Flame is Fire, and Fire produces Heat, which yields Water — the Water of Life in the Great Mother. FatherMother spin a Web, whose upper end is fastened to Spirit, the Light of the One Darkness, and the lower one to its shadowy end, Matter; and this Web is the Universe spun out of the two Substances made in One, which is Svabhavat." Stanzas of Dzyan, iii, 9-10. This Realm corresponds to the Divine or Formless World and to the seventh Principle (Atma) in man. As we have said elsewhere in describing the seven Principles of man,1 Atma "is not a Principle of Man, but a Ray of pure Spirit from the Absolute." We therefore expect this Realm to be almost beyond the comprehension of the ordinary student, for its vibrations reach man through the heart and not through the brain. They are too high to be registered by the physical brain. In fact, as we have, said of Atma, "It can contact the human body only as the higher astral centers are consciously awakened and 1 The Key to the Universe, Curtiss, J, 266. (243)

244 Realms of the Living Dead then made subservient to reaching into the higher Realms where the Divine holds sway." Yet it forever pours its forces upon man so that in it he "lives and moves and has his being," although he is not conscious of it. This is the Realm which, because it corresponds to the Divine or Formless World, is in very close touch with it. Hence the undifferentiated Astral Light, which in the Divine World is the first Light of Creation, touching this Divine World when "God said let there be light," enters into the Astral World through this Divine Realm. Therefore in this Realm of the Astral we find this Magical Agent par excellence, as we might say, at work. Since the Divine World or Astral Light is often called the Sea of Fire, primordial Ether, Akasia, Cosmic Electricity etc., in the Divine Astral Realm this same astral light might more fittingly be called "the fiery serpent;' for here the pure undifferentiated Light, which is both positive and negative, is beginning to "Spin the Web" which will ultimately be the Universe. Therefore in its writhings and contortions it is allegorically represented by the Hindus as the "Churning of the Ocean by the Gods" and by other people as the Great Serpent churning the ocean with its tail. This idea of the Divine Light as a Serpent can readily be understood when we realize that it is the One Life or the Creative Magical Agent by which the Cosmos came into being. This Fiery Serpent is indeed the basis for the belief in both Heaven

The Divine or Ecstatic Realm 245 and Hell, for it is the Light sent forth in the beginning out of which was created the cosmos; it is the One Life, hence is both creative, preservative and destructive. At its higher end it is joined to pure Spirit, the out-going Breath of Brahm, while at its lower end it manifests as the force which makes the trees grow and put forth blossoms, fruit to ripen and decay and all nature to respond to its force. In man it is his creative power, known in its lower aspect as sex-force, which is so little understood, and so sadly abused that from it man has indeed created all the hells in which his Soul has ever dwelt, yet out of a better understanding of it, when he becomes as the Gods knowing good as well as evil, he must create all the heavens to which his consciousness can respond. "Beginning with the pure Spiritual plane, it becomes, grosser as it descends, until it becomes Maya or the tempting and deceitful Serpent on our plane."1 This Divine Realm may also be called the Mysterious Center in which this pure Divine Radiant Essence is broken up into duality to animate the grosser astral force; for in the Divine World it is but "the Shoreless Sea of Fire," while here it is the Fiery Serpent. A rather crude similie would be that this Realm is to the Cosmos what the stomach is to man, while the Fiery Serpent is like the intestine, i. e.t like the stomach it takes the Divine Sub1 The Secret Doctrine, i, 103.

246 Realms of the Living Dead stance (astral light) given it by the gods and churns and digests it, until it has been differentiated into its constituents and is passed on into the Fiery Serpent (intestine) to be assimilated by the lesser lives it is to nourish. "Thus this light, finally, is of the nature of fire, the intelligent use of which warms and vivifies, and the excess of which, on the contrary, dissolves and annihilates. . . . This Light, therefore, inasmuch as it is devouring, revengeful and fatal, would thus really be hell-fire, the serpent of the legend; the tormented errors of which it is full, the tears and the gnashing of teeth of the abortive beings it devours, the phantom of life that escapes them, and seems to mock and insult their agony,1 all this would be the Devil or Satan indeed."2 This light might also be called the splendor of the Divine Spiritual Sun going forth into manifestation, a ray of which is caught and imprisoned in the highest substance of this most Spiritual Realm of the Astral World where it begins its magical work of creation; for the Astral Light is the Father-Mother of all light. The sphere from which this radiant energy or Astral Light comes is the Soul of the Universe and the Life Principle of every living thing, from the higher spiritual beings, down to man and the lower kingdoms, just as we say the Higher Self is the Soul of man. And just as the Higher Self sends 1 As it manifests in the lower Realms, especially the Vital. * The Secret Doctrine, Blavatsky, ii, 538.

The Divine or Ecstatic Realm 247 down a ray of itself into matter and clothes itself with a personality, so does the Astral Light send down a ray of itself and clothes it with the Substance of a Cosmos. It is "the matrix of the Universe, the Mysterium Magnum from which all that exists is born by separation ... it is the cause of existence; it fills all the infinite Space, is Space itself."1 When the Elohim said, "Let there be light," the great homegeneous but positrv^ Father Ray was projected, and this Great Ray contained within itself the potencies of all the god-power that was to manifest in the Chaos and its resulting Cosmos. This ray, while relatively undifferentiated, was nevertheless dual. Hence as it came down into the realms of differentiation it necessarily manifested its two lower poles. The positive pole was active Divine Will and Wisdom (Life), its negative pole passive Divine Love and Compassion (Substance), which latter is the force of differentiation, since it is only through its feminine aspect that the ray could bring forth in the worlds of form. It is in the Astral Light, as it is reflected from the Divine World into this Realm of the astral that the Soul of man receives its first differentiation in form as it descends into physical manifestation. "Because through, and in, the human form they (the Souls) will become progressive beings, whereas the nature 1 The Secret Doctrine, Blavatsky, ii, 538.

248 Realms of the Living Dead of the Angel is purely intransitive; therefore Man has in him the potency of transcending the faculties of the Angels. . . . Finally, it is shown in every ancient scripture and cosmogony that man evolved primarily as a luminous incorporeal form, over which, like molten brass poured into the model of the sculptor, the physical frame of his body was built by, through and from, the lower forms and types of animal terrestrial life."1 Much that pertains to this Realm, because it is a reflection of the Divine World, is hidden in deep mystery, and like the Divine World itself with which it is often confused, it is expressed in scriptural and occult literature only in glyph, parable and symbol. For instance, the Astral Light, as it manifests here, is called the Dragon and the Seven-headed Serpent, the heads being the seven Realms of the Astral World. "And has been symbolized by every nation as a Fiery Serpent breathing fire and light upon the primeval water. . . . The Prince of the Air, of St. Paul, is not the Devil, but the effect of the Astral Light, as feliphas L6vi correctly explains."2 The Serpent is the universal symbol of the Astral Light in its first differentiation, because its undulating movements correspond to the vibratory motion of the Astral Light in this Realm. . This is one of the esoteric reasons back of all sacred dances, especially the Egyptian and Chaldean, in which the hands and 1 The Secret Doctrine, Blavatsky, ii, 118. * Ibid., ii, 509.

The Divine or Ecstatic Realm 249 arms are made to undulate to simulate a serpent In fact, the undulations of the arms and entire body had a mystic meaning and a magical effect, for these rhythmic motions when properly performed brought the devotees into rapport with vibrations of the Astral Light and thus tended to develop the psychic faculties and enabled them to see visions, etc. For it is by this light that all things in all Realms are brought into being. SuJi sacred dances have been practised in a more or less crude way in all religions and in all lands, notably among the Dervishes of Arabia, and the Indians of America, in both of whom they produced ecstasy, prophecy and sometimes trance and coma. The Astral Light is the medium of magic par excellence. As described by filiphas L6vi: "This ambient and all-penetrating fluid, this ray detached from the (Central or Spiritual) Sun's splendor . . . fixed by the weight of the atmosphere (?) and the power of external attraction . . . the Astral Light, this electro-magnetic ether, this vital and luminous caloric, is represented on ancient monuments by the girdle of Isis, which twines round two poles . . • and in ancient theogonies by the serpent devouring its own tail, emblem of prudence and of Saturn (emblem of infinity, immortality, and Cronos — Time — not the God Saturn or the planet). It is the winged dragon of Medea, the double serpent of Cacuceus, and the tempter of Genesis; but it is also the brazen snake of Moses

250 Realms of the Living Dead encircling the Tau . . . lastly, it is the devil of exoteric dogmatism, and is really tke blind force (it is not blind, and L6vi knew it) which souls must conquer, in order to detach themselves from the chains of Earth; for if they should not, they will be absorbed by the same power which first produced them, and will return to the central and eternal fire."1 This utterance, while very cryptic, is nevertheless quite simple if we bear in mind that the Astral Light is Divine Creative Substance. Hence, to conquer it the Souls which were formed from this Divine Creative Substance must learn to manifest it in the flesh and permeate the physical matter of their bodies with it. In other words, they must learn to let their Light shine before men, and also be perfect even as their Father-in-heaven (in this sense the Astral Light from which the Soul is differentiated) is perfect. If we refuse to do this and so intensify the density of the physical body that the Light cannot illuminate it, then that Light (which is the life of the Soul) will be withdrawn and once more enter the Divine Worlds as undifferentiated Spiritual Light or be indrawn into the bosom of the Father of Light or will be broken up and return to the "central fire" from whence it came. This fire is central in that, being the highest Realm of the Astral World, it stands between the Physical and the Divine Worlds. 1 The Secret Doctrine, Blavatsky, i, 275.

The Divine or Ecstatic Realm 251 "If the student bears in mind that there is but one Universal Element, which is infinite, unborn and undying, and that all the rest — as in the world of phenomena — are but so many various differentiated aspects and transformations (correlations, they are now called) of that One, from macrocosmical down to microcosmical effects, from super-human down to human and sub-human beings, the totality in short of objective existence — then the first and chief difficulty will disappear and Occult Cosmology may be mastered."1 The Astral Light, being the radiance of the Spiritual Sun which, like the Physical Sun, while in the heavens yet prevades all forms of life and fills all space, is the one medium of Spirit and Life in all. Hence the art of Divine or White Magic consists in the ability to find this Light, first within yourself, then in all mankind, in all nature and in all substances, and correlate your consciousness with it. Since it is the inner essence of all things it is possible to perceive the essence of all things in this Light, which is therefore sometimes called the Light of Nature. But this can be done only through the use of the Soul powers. No being, astral or otherwise, can do this for you. Your Teacher may point out the way and lay down the rules, but your own consciousness must dwell in the Light and be one with this great and magic Agent. Then all Divine Magic is 1 The Secret Doctrine, Blavatsky, i, 104.

252 Realms of the Living Dead possible. "Such processes take place according to law. You will learn the law by which these things are accomplished, if you learn to know yourself. You will know it by the power of the spirit that is in yourself, and accomplish it by mixing your spirit with the essence which comes out of yourself. If you wish to succeed in such a work you must know how to separate spirit and life in nature, and, moreover, to separate the Astral Soul in yourself and make it tangible, and then the substance of the Soul will appear visibly and tangibly, rendered objective by the power of the spirit."1 1 The Secret Doctrine, Blavatsky, footnote to 538.

CHAPTER XXI INDEPENDENT COMMUNICATIONS An Aviator's Great Adventure The Annunciation Author's Note. Since the publication of the First Edition many readers have asked for further examples of Independent Communications. The following specimens will serve to show the possibilities and range of such communications, varying as they do from the Young Aviator, who could not be convinced that he had left the physical body, to the high intelligence of the great Angel of the planet Saturn. These communications are all given practically in the wording received and without the intellectual revision, elaboration and polishing which most literary efforts receive before publication. All were received by Mrs. Curtiss while in full consciousness and often while busy with household or other affairs, as for example, the message from the Young Aviator which was received while riding in an automobile. This shows that it is the state of consciousness that is essential, not the time or place, although these may often be helpful in placing the mind of the recipient (358)

254 Realms of the Living Dead in a tranquil state in which it can the more easily respond to the higher states of consciousness and to the Intelligences of the higher worlds. An Aviator's Great Adventure The following incident well illustrates the great difficulty many who pass out of the body suddenly have in realizing their real condition. It also illustrates the Independent Method of communion with those who are not in the physical body. The message was from a young aviator of great prominence whose aeroplane was shot down during a fight with a number of German machines. The message was received on July 18th, 1918, before his death had been officially corroborated. While traveling twenty-five miles an hour in an automobile between Philadelphia and New York a young man whom she had never seen before suddenly presented himself to the inner vision of Mrs. Curtiss, dressed in full aviation costume. Although Mrs. Curtiss had never seen his picture she was able to identify it positively when it was shown her later. The dialogue which follows was written down from memory soon after and as accurately as possible, so that the essence of the conversation can be vouched for even though the exact wording cannot. The initials Y.A. will represent the young aviator and Dr. C. will stand for Dr. Curtiss who carried on the conversation, Mrs. Curtiss repeating the questions and answers from one to the other in full consciousness while the automobile was speeding along without stop. ■ " ' *"■-■ mm

Independent Communications 255 As soon as the name of the young man was given to Mrs. Curtiss, Dr. Curtiss challenged him as follows : Dr. C. "Are you ... in very truth?" The young man stood before Mrs. C. with a bright cheery smile and in answer to the challenge as to his identity took his aviator's bonnet in his right hand and made a sweeping bow that was particularly graceful, yet boyish and unstudied. Y.A. " Yes I am ... at your service." Dr. C. " We are glad to meet you. Is there anything we can do for you ? " Y.A. "Thank you, no. I am meeting with so many strange adventures I like to talk them over." Dr. C. " How did you come to meet with us ? " Y.A. "Oh, I just met up with you and felt attracted." Dr. C. " Then you have really passed over ? " Y.A. in surprise. " Passed over what? " Dr. C. " Passed out of your physical body. You are now in what many people would call heaven." Y.A. quickly. " Heaven nothing ! And I know I'm not in the other place ! " Dr. C. " Of course you are not dead, but you have left your physical body." Y.A. " Oh, no. I have just had a wonderful adventure, that's all. I've discovered a country that's not on the map and I mean to spend some time here and study it. Then when I've got the facts I'll come back and tell the boys."

256 Realms of the Living Dead Dr. C. letting the point pass. " Tell us how you got there." Y.A. "Well, I was flying and we got into a bit of a row with the Bodies and I felt a sting in my head and my machine began to fall/' Dr. C " What did you do then ? * Y.A. " Why, I jumped out. I always felt I could fly myself. Only instead of falling down I flew up here." Dr. C. " How do you explain that? " Y.A. "Well, there are lots of strange things happen to an aviator. I had always felt I could fly. Ever since I was a small boy I had dreams of flying through the air and since I joined the flying corps the feeling came back so strong that I had hard work to keep from stepping out of the machine and trying it. So when I saw I had lost control of the machine I jumped out as I had planned, and, just as I expected, I could fly and went straight up until I landed here safe and sound." Dr. C. "Of course it is only your body that is dead, not you." Y.A. " But my body is not dead. If I had struck the earth of course I would have been smashed, but I never struck the earth. I came up here." Dr. C. " While you are not dead, for there is no death, nevertheless you have put off your body of flesh and are now living in a finer, more ethereal body just like the physical." Y.A. "Atta-boy! Stop trying to kid me ! I never

Independent Communications 257 was a good one to kid. I've got my body just as substantial as ever. I've got on my aviator's uniform and I fill it out all round. You couldn't put a uniform on a ghost, could you ? " Dr. C " Well, if you will read our book on the subject along with your father you will find it all explained." Y.A. " Well, when you make your point I'll admit it. But you've got to prove it." Dr. C. " Were you at all afraid when you began to fall?" Y. A. " Afraid nothing ! I never knew what fear was. I've proved there was nothing to fear." Dr. C. " What do you eat up there ? " Y.A. " Come to think of it I haven't eaten since I've been here. But then I often go without eating for quite a while and don't mind it. Now you mention it I do feel hungry. Guess I'll go and get some chow right now." Y.A. after a lapse of a few minutes reopens the conversation. "Well, here I am again, and I've proved it." Dr. C. "Proved what?" Y.A. " Why, that I'm not dead. I've not only had a swell meal, but I've met up with an old chum who is in the service and we both had a fine chow. Now where is a ghost going to put a big meal like that? Does a ghost have a stomach ? Ha ! Ha ! And my chum is just as alive as I am. I pinched him to see and he hollered ' Ouch ' ! What do you say to that ? "

258 Realms of the Living Dead Dr. C. " Did you pay for your meal ? " Y.A. " Sure I did." Dr. C. " Where did you get the money? " Y.A. " I don't know. I didn't have my purse in my uniform and yet somehow I paid for the meal. Look here, Doctor, I'm willing to play this game fair. If you can prove to me that I'm a ghost I'll admit it, but if I can prove that I'm alive you must admit it too." Dr. C. " I did not say you were dead or that you had no body, only that you had lost your physical body." Y.A. "Well, there are a lot of strange things happen to an aviator. Any of the boys will tell you that. I believe that I have simply had a wonderful adventure, and those who have had any experience in the air will agree that there are more wonderful things happen than you could ever dream of on the earth. I've simply found a new way to escape being wrecked and as soon as I study it out I'm coming back and tell the boys how to do it, so they can fly without their machines too, and so save millions in equipment." Dr. C. " Have you been home to see your father yet?" Y.A. " No. I'm going to take a little furlough and explore the country up here before I go home. I don't want to go home to my father with any fairy tales. He will want facts and I'd rather wait until I can talk sense and prove it than simply repeat what you tell me."

Independent Communications 259 Dr. C. " Where do we seem to be now ? " Y.A. surprised. " Why, you are up here with me. You belong in this country/' Dr. C. " No. You are mistaken. We are simply with you in consciousness. Physically we are in our auto traveling toward New York at twenty-five miles an hour." Y.A. "Well, I'll have to be going if you don't stop trying to kid me." Dr. C. " Did you feel much pain when you were hit?" Y.A. " No. Just a sort of a sting. I've often had more pain in my head when the cold wind was blowing in my ears." Dr. C. " Well, any time we can be of help to you we would be glad to have you come again." Y.A. " Thanks. I'm going to look into the matter. But I'm not going home just yet. My father would want me to be doing my duty and finding out this new invention of how we can fly without our machines so I can give it to the government. My mother wouldn't want me to come home just to be petted. This is my chance. And I'm not going back until I've found things out. Because I might not be able to find my way back here again. So long." Note. Some days later. We are told that the Y.A. will soon return (incarnate), possibly within twenty or thirty years, to complete his life-cycle, as his one great desire is to perfect the aeroplane for the benefit of his country. Because of his unselfish eagerness to

260 Realms of the Living Dead be of use to his country and to mankind, without a thought of benefit to himself, he will soon be led into the Pattern Museum1 where he will study the perfected aeroplanes of the ancient Atlanteans, so that when he returns he may help to perfect the dynaspheric motor which will draw continuous and unlimited power directly from the etheric forces of the air. The Annunciation Reach out your hands, blessings are falling. Open your ears, the angels are calling. Open your hearts, O children of earth! Wake ! For today comes the heavenly birth. Over this land there is centered a star That reaches to earth its rays from afar. Lift up your brows and a diadem weave Out of the star-dust, sorrow's reprieve. Onward courageously walk through your task, Only the guerdon of Love shall you ask. For unto you this day is it given To sit at meat with your Father-in-Heaven, 1 See page 105. * A

CHAPTER XXII INDEPENDENT COMMUNICATIONS (Continued) A Message from Lincoln A Prophecy of the Aquarian Age A Vision of the Coming A Message from Lincoln A Call to America (Note. The following message, first published in Azoth Magazine of May, 1917, and reprinted here with their permission, we feel to have been not only a prophecy of what America was soon to face and accomplish, but was an indication that the great soul of Abraham Lincoln was bringing to bear upon the leaders of our beloved country the same influence which this message expresses, and through that influence had much to do in guiding the nation and awakening in our broad land the old time enthusiasm and determination to fight, not only for Liberty, but to sustain in the world at large all the high ideals for which Americanism stands. Of course this was before America entered the war and while pacifism and Pro-Germanism were rampant The Authors.) Out of the great mass of omens which occurred just prior to the present Great War the following striking ones may be called to mind. " At the celebration of Sedan Day (September 1) at the Saxon town of (861)

262 Realms of the Living Dead Artern, in 191 1, hundreds of the inhabitants had gathered in the large square which has Bismarck's statue in the center, when suddenly the sword which the figure of the maker of modern Germany holds extended at length, dropped from the statue's hand and fell noisily to the ground. The fall of the sword was immediately followed by that of the sword arm of the Imperial Chancellor. In the next year, 191 2, the Balkan War broke out, which was the precursor of the present crisis. About the same time, or shortly after, as one of the results of an earthquake, which took place that autumn on the Continent of Europe, a colossal statue of Germania was overthrown at Constance. Another even more significant result of this earthquake, in the eyes of the superstitious, was the rending of the solid masonry towers of the Burg Hohenzollern, the ancestral castle of the reigning house. A further omen of disaster, to Belgium, was the cracking of the famous Rouland bell in the belfry of Ghent, which has been held to symbolize for many centuries past the spirit of Flemish liberty. On July 22 of the year 1914 it cracked and broke when ringing. This incident was regarded at the time as a dire omen of evil." 1 In view of the above incidents, the damage which our own Statue of Liberty sustained from the missiles which rained upon it after the explosion of several barges of ammunition which blew up in New York harbor on the night of July 30, 191 6, may fairly be 1 See Prophecies and Omens of the Great War, Shirley, 50, 51. ■ 11 .- ".ill -M-l

Independent Communications 263 considered a serious omen for America, in view of the laws underlying such phenomena revealed in the following message, and especially in view of the fact that the missiles were fashioned by her own sons. There were three of us seated before the glowing logs of the fireplace on the evening of Tuesday, February 2J9 1917, and we had been quietly discussing present world conditions when suddenly the glowing fire seemed to fade away or be obscured by a thick chilling fog. Wondering at this strange phenomenon, and shivering as we continued to peer into its thick gray depths, two of those present, while in full waking consciousness, began to see the faint outlines of the Statue of Liberty appear through the fog, but corroded, bedraggled and forlorn. Instead of the heartthrill that had invariably marked our sight of that great symbol of our country's ideals, this vision brought with it the most depressing sense of impending disaster. And as we continued to gaze spellbound at the singular scene, the familiar figure of Abraham Lincoln seemed to emerge from the fog above the statue. His head was bowed in sorrow. His face was wan and haggard as from carrying a great burden of care and anxiety, and in his eyes was the deep heart-sorrow and suffering of a consuming sadness as of one whose highest ideals had been scorned and trampled under foot by those he loved best. Observing our attention, he raised his head, and with right arm uplifted, his lips began to move and we seemed to hear his voice, in tones of tragic sadness

264 Realms of the Living Dead whose pathos seemed^ to melt our hearts, giving us the following message which he begged us to transmit to his beloved people. " America can retain the freedom of the seas and her place among the nations only through a recognition of the necessity of building a Statue of Liberty, not only in the harbor of her greatest city, but by lifting up a Statue of Liberty in its true sense in the hearts of her people. Only thus can she ever take her true place. " The proud boast of America that she is * the Land of Liberty and the Home of the Free ' is symbolized in her great Statue of Liberty in New York harbor. It is most significant that in this age and day America is losing her high ideals as the land of liberty and the home of the brave. No longer does she hold up the torch of Liberty to enlighten the world, but crouches behind her own bulwarks crying * Peace ! Peace ! ' when there is no peace, drawing her garment before her face as her sisters and brothers pass by in their misery and agony, saying : * It is nothing to me. We are the land of the free/ " Almost at the beginning of the crisis in the affairs of our beloved country, for which we weep, a most untoward accident seemed to befall our Statue of Liberty. You will doubtless recall the fire which caused the explosion of the barges laden with ammunition along the New Jersey shore. To one who pays attention to the events of life ; who realizes that every great national event, such as the erection of a

Independent Communications 265 great statue which symbolizes the ideals of the nation, marks an epoch in its history, such an accident has a profound significance. For all the forces of the air, of the elements and of nature combine to respect that symbol and force those who have erected it to live up to its ideals. And when these ideals are belittled the elements combine to show to man that something is vitally wrong. Therefore this bombardment and damage to the Statue of Liberty should have been a significant omen of that which occurred in the higher realms. "O America! Thou beloved of my soul! Thou for whom the blood of the brave and the true has been shed ! Thou for whose ideals great souls have struggled and perished and attained! Where is thy Liberty? Where is thy Freedom? Like the mist upon the harbor such a little thing serves to blot out from your eyes the wonderful Statue of Liberty! O decadent nation, wrapped in thy slumber of sophistry! lulled into a distracted sleep by man's greed, dissension and the machinations of thine enemies! How long think you this condition can endure? " Brave sons are awakening in this great day and are already turning their eyes to your Flag of Freedom, crying out for a leader. Where is the Man of Destiny who shall recognize his right to be the deciding factor in this world's confused day of reckoning? Where is the brave and great Leader who shall call out the Sons of America to uphold the institutions of Divine Liberty and Protection and Freedom ?

266 Realms of the Living Dead "O cringing nation! I know you not. O effeminate and degenerate rulers ! I recognize you not ! " Souls of America, ARISE ! A WAKE ! Throw off this slothful death-gripping insomnia of unrest ! " Look into the eyes of the true Statue of Liberty ! that which exists in the higher realms ; that which is the Mother who gave thee birth and suckled thee at her breasts. Look deep into her eyes. See her gazing far out and away from your own land into the distant corners of the world. Then look around her feet See the many of her seeming own, the poor, the hungry, the suffering, and the lost of all lands, clinging for protection beneath her skirts! " How your hearts thrilled when she sheltered in her arms the negro slave and said : ' He shall be free ! ' Yet look yonder. See the slaves! Hear the cries! Listen to the agony of your brothers and sisters across the sea! Where is the strong arm that can protect? Where is the mother-love than can shelter ? " O America ! America ! No longer, no longer the Land of the Free, but the land of greed and selfishness, of sophistry, of dissension among yourselves. Who shall save you? To whom shall we look for succor? Shall we tear down our Statue of Liberty ? Shall we allow the elements to destroy it? Yes. Yes. It cannot stand unless the land it guards be true to its ideals. " Children of unrest! Children of unrest! Would to God that the cannon's roar might wake you from your slothful sleep and self-seeking. Would to God some great call should come to you. Yet I would

Independent Communications 267 not that the call should be ' Save yourselves/ Oh no ! Save your brothers, your sisters, the world! Stop this carnage like the strong giant that you are. Take your stand for principle and for right. And strike with the strength of the great Powers that are back of you; the Powers that won freedom for you from the tyranny of the old world. Everywhere you are answered : ' Know your strength ! Win freedom for the world/ " Can you not see the great forces gathered on the higher planes which are seeking to send into your hearts, Oh children of men, the old-time cry of FREEDOM ? " O God, send us the Man of Destiny ! Send us the Man of Destiny ! " Has the scroll been obliterated ? the great scroll on which it has been written by the hand of Divine Law that this nation is destined to become the leader of the world ! No hand but the hand of its own sons could obliterate it. " Leaders are not made by money, by greed, avarice, dissension, deception and underhanded dealings. " The Spirit of America lies crushed and bleeding. The cannons that have roared on the fields of battle have gone through her heart. The torpedoes that have sunk brave ships without warning have entered into her bosom and have sunk her beneath the waves of life. But is there no life left in this corpse? Cry out to the Lord of Battles for strength, for understanding and for truth. Let go the childish cry for

268 Realms of the Living Dead Peace, Peace, when there is no peace. Can you be saved and hear the whole world groan? Can you be great and all the rest annihilated? Is this greatness the greatness of saving your own skin? or is it the greatness to Dare, to Do and to Die? And greater still, to come forth in the strength and power of the Lord of Hosts, knowing your destiny ; recognizing that for which you were born in blood in a fight for Liberty, and declare yourself for Liberty and the Enlightening of the World ! " O America ! America ! Thou art the Man ! Thou art the Nation of Destiny ! Dare you deny it ? Dare you hide when cannons roar? Dare you cringe when blood flows? Dare you doubt your high destiny? " O America ! America ! Nation of my love ! Art thou fallen ! Art thou fallen ? " A Prophecy of the Aquarian Age The Moon, a pure, cold, chaste goddess, was wooed and won by the Sun God. He was warm and ardent and his embraces were irresistible. From their union was born the wonderful goddess Urania. She is more beautiful and more chaste than her mother, yet more warm and ardent than her father. Her force is so great that the Children of Earth are not able to greet her, for they cannot endure the light of her countenance.1 1 Uranus affects the horoscopes of mortals largely through her effect on other planets, for she is a Ruler among ruling planets.

Independent Communications 269 All through the ages she has walked in darkness. A thick veil covers her face and thick clouds compass her about. She is enshrouded in mystery. Even the Sun God her father can scarce find her. From time to time as she walks her appointed path she crosses the paths of the other gods (planets).1 And as she walks the heavens her footprints become centers of force. And along and within their radiations blossoms of wondrous potency spring into being. Although she is invisible the gods feel her approach and are thrilled with expectant love. The chords of their hearts are moved with a mighty force, prophetic and inspiring. Even the far-off Children of Earth catch the vibrations of that thrill and in every heart attuned to love's higher chords there awakens an answering wave of joy from whence unknown. And in every Soul who has sacrificed on love's altar, who has suffered and lost, there is born with that cosmic thrill a new conception of Love Divine. Clothed in impenetrable mystery, bold indeed is the mortal who dares to lift even a corner of her veil. Yet the time * draws quickly nigh when her cloak will drop from her shoulders and she will no longer be shrouded in mystery. The veil will be lifted from her 1 These terms refer to the ruling Planetary Deities, the great spiritual entities who have charge of the various planets, " The seven angels that stand before the throne." * The Aquarian Age which we have now just entered, during which Uranus is the esoteric ruler.

270 Realms of the Living Dead face and mankind will marvel at her wondrous beauty. Even now on earth there is found one here and there who boldly climbs to the seat of the Sun God and lights his Torch of Truth in those golden rays. As torch after torch flames out into the darkness the dank mists of ignorance will melt and chill darkness will die in the embrace of Light. Then will mankind seek out the goddess Urania in her hidden ways and daring to lift her veil will bask unharmed in the unspeakable loveliness of her smile. Then all who have given up the great gift of love for duty or conscience's sake will find it again, purified and sanctified by her potent force ; grown sweet and fragrant under her cloak. Then will their own come to them, whom none can take away. The time will come when the world shall see this goddess sitting upon the golden throne of her father the Sun God, with the silver scepter of her mother in her right hand. Behind her will stand her faithful henchman Neptune, with his Rod of three-fold Power in his hand, ready to defend her or to punish any mortal over-bold. On her right hand will stand the god Jupiter, and on her left hand Saturn, while prone at her feet will lie the beautiful Venus who has yielded up her life only to find it in more abundance in the smile of her elder sister Urania. And as Venus' valiant lover Mars stoops to lift her, he places his arms around her and draws her close to his heart. With the tears of passion dried from out their eyes so shall they stand, like two innocent love-children, all smiles

Independent Communications 271 and beguilings, in the pure radiant Light of the goddess Urania. A Vision of the Coming The following is the description of a vision of the coming Avatar recently seen by Mrs. Curtiss.1 It is written down verbatim as it was realized by her consciousness with no attempt to put it into literary form, although an exoteric version rendered into verse by Dr. Curtiss will no doubt appear later in one of the occult magazines. This original form is reproduced just as it was received, for every expression has a special creative potency : — The word is spoken. The sable curtains of the darkness part He who dwells in everlasting radiance comes forth. With Him, rank on rank, angelic Beings move in ever-widening circles. Transcendent, ever-changing hues of Light with blinding radiance intoxicate the air. From angelic ffarps rich melody rolls onward. The very echoes of yon planet, earth, tremble with ecstasy And with delirious joy sink into silence profound and awesome. What bodes it me, an humble child of earth, that I behind the veil may glimpse? Who art Thou, Lord? whom to Thy shepherds thus appeareth? 1 First issued to The Order of Christian Mystics in June, 1917,

272 Realms of the Living Dead I dare not look. My weary world-worn eyes I cannot lift Yet rests thy crown of glory on my brow. "Light of the World, forever shining, Though streaming tears thy radiance hide. Sun of my Soul, forever near Lift up my heart in adoration And there abide for aye. Deep in my empty heart enfring; All Love Divine and Wisdom centring, My Savior, Lord, I'm lost in Thee. Empty Thine arms, with blessings laden, Grant me the boon to bear them on." Thus spake my Soul. From out the Silence, rolling thunder. And many Voices cried Amen ! Amen ! The heavenly hosts are stilled as Thou draw'st near. Aye! E'en the harmony divine in silence dies when Thou appear'st Grant me to rest in Thy bright shining. Forth from the hosts angelic a Being speaks : " Still, O earth, thy heart ! The Lord Christ cometh. He passeth by; and thrills the farthest region Where waves of death beat earth's dismal shore. The darkness flees, by glory vanquished. The day of blood and steel and death is o'er." Silent, still and empty. Naught of earth remaining. Only Thy joy and peace and love abiding. Sun of my Soul, shine on ! Shine on !

CHAPTER XXIII INDEPENDENT COMMUNICATIONS (Continued) A Message from Saturn The Garden of Prayers A Message from Saturn I am the first and the last. I am the beginning and the end. I am the dread Guardian of the Threshold. I come to you with gaunt and pallid face, cold and lifeless as the dead. I stretch out my arms as a barrier to stop your onward journey. Come, look into my dead and lusterless eyes. Look upon my ghastly countenance if ye dare! Look me in the face and recognize me for what I am; for until ye can meet me face to face and know and conquer me ye cannot pass. I am the Great Initiator. I stand upon the Threshold. I am the Great Tester, the glass which mirrors back each mortal's own creations, his Dweller which each Neophyte must face and recognize before I let him pass. I am Saturn the great Reaper. I am he who binds, who congeals, who solidifies. I am he that seemeth (378)

274 Realms of the Living Dead like a corpse; for I am all that is dead and lifeless. Look! Look in my dead face and recognize me! What do I mean? I am the sadness and the darkness and the coldness of death, the fear of which each Neophyte must face and overcome. The planetary forces that gave ye life push ye ever onward and outward on the great Spiral of Life.1 Day after day ye are urged farther and farther away, onward and outward, until ye reach my domain. Here I stretch out my grizzled arms and bid ye halt; for I am he that saith: "Thus far shalt thou go and no farther." Not even the forces of the gods can pass my domain unchallenged. Each planetary force hath carried ye a space and given ye of its guerdon of power and wisdom and truth until the confines of the Spiral of Life are reached. And I, what have I to give? I give ye naught. I bid ye face thyself. Here do I meet ye and say, " Thus far shalt thou go." Stand and look me in the face! Can ye stand still while thy vitals are frozen by my icy breath? For I am the wintertime when all is cold and dead. And I must be met and passed before the spring can come. Out of this ordeal must ye gather the power that binds together into an entity all the forces ye have received from the planetary gods. Are ye proof against my frozen breath? Can ye bear to have thine ideals shattered, thine advance retarded, all that seemed good and true filched from thy 1 See lesson Spiral of Life, Curtiss.

Independent Communications 275 grasp ? Can ye meet these tests undaunted, seize them and turn defeat into victory, discouragement into power? Can ye be still and reach my stage of calm contemplation while all that ye loved and believed in seems to wither and die in thy sight? Not until ye have seized from me my weapons and gained my power can ye pass this point (Initiation) and go onward. Think ye there is no reason why I, Saturn, stand at the Threshold ? at the outpost of life and evolution ? In the foundation of the universe it was I who made the cosmic center and gave the stability and inertia upon which the other planetary forces might act. Mine was the force sent out in the beginning and mine shall be the last to return ; the power of holding still, of being fixed and immovable. I am the dot that expanded into the circle x which contained and circumscribed all that could come forth in a cosmic manifestation ; the aura of a man ; that which limits and confines his life-forces and prevents them from being dissipated ; the measure of a man. In the solar system the planets are ever sending their forces outward into space, and were it not for me they would go onward beyond the confines of this system and be dissipated. But when they reach my domain I stop them and say : " So far shalt thou go." I build a wall about the universe and turn back the separate forces and blend them into one. This wall creates form and number. 1 See The Key to the Universe, Curtiss, Chapter 5.

276 Realms of the Living Dead I am he that bindeth and that is bound with the three bands.1 I hold the three forces that bind body, soul and spirit. The force of this calm that can bind and hold ye must learn; for as long as anything can upset and disturb thy calm ye cannot pass on. For I, Saturn, am the Guardian of the Portals. The planetary gods lead ye down the Spiral of Life until the last round is reached and there stand I. If it were not for my outstretched arms ye might be pushed over the edge of the Spiral into the Great Abyss and be lost in the Outer Darkness.2 Yet ye must face this Abyss and calmly contemplate its depths and lose not thy balance ere ye have strength to turn and walk upward inside the Spiral. Then thy path is no longer outward but ever inward where ye shall feed on the inner Essence of Life. The Soul who has dared to meet and face me and wrest from me my power and walk upward within the Spiral, for him do I gather up all the planetary forces and send them back to him as helpers, as the dot expands into the circle. "As above, so below." As in the cosmos, so in man. For him shall I no longer be Saturn the Reaper, but will be crowned as Cronus, God of Time; for he who has reached this step is ruler over time. But ye must see the outward face of Death the Reaper ere ye can recognize my true face. Then do I become benign and my power is the power 1 The three Rings of Saturn. * The dead region where the forces of one planet end and ere those of another begin.

Independent Communications 277 of wisdom. But ye must be able to correlate with my force before ye can climb the Inner Path. Ye cannot pass on until ye have culled from me the lesson of stability and the wisdom Cronus alone can teach. Then shall ye conquer through discernment. I am the melancholia of the world which if not conquered leads on to insanity and death. Ye must face the world with death, pallid and stark, standing at thine elbow. Ye must become as dead to the changing tides of the world and of man's changing affairs as though in the grave. O sons of earth, like Saturn ye are bound with three rings, hand and foot; body, Soul and Spirit. These rings are the three days in the tomb.1 These ye must break through, and conquer the force that binds ye, a day for a ring. These binding conditions must hold ye until the very force which bound ye is turned into the stability of the indomitable will of undaunted courage and unquenchable faith; the faith that has touched the confines of life and has penetrated its Mysteries. And when I am conquered ye will find me Lucifer the brilliant Angel of Light, the bright Star of the Morning who shall make all things plain unto thee. But to know me ye must meet me face to face. Ye must see my gaunt arms reaching out for ye and boldly walk into those ghastly limbs and tear the mask from my dead and frozen face; must warm my cold heart with the warmth of thy breasts. Come to 1 See lesson Three Days in the Tomb, Curtiss.

278 Realms of the Living Dead me and wrench from me the power of Silence; of quiet contemplation; of standing still. To know me ye must study me and find out my secret. I come not to give ye my force. I cannot. Ye must wrest it from me in battle. I am the dread God of the Threshold guarding all Wisdom ! How dare ye pass me? I am placed here at the end of things to weigh and measure ye all. After ye pass me there is no other. Ye are free to pass onward and inward toward the Fount of all Light and Wisdom. No more can the forces assail ye nor the terrors of the Abyss draw ye down; for ye have passed the edge and are inside the Spiral and turn back only of thine own free will. But ye dare not pass me until ye meet me ; until ye feel the grip of my grizzly hands at thy throat shutting off thy life's breath ; until ye feel my icy breath on thy cheek. Thus must ye wrestle. If I conquer, down into the Abyss ye go, to begin over again thy Cycle of Manifestation. But if ye conquer I am thy Servant and Savior. I am he who was sent out in the beginning, hence I am called Lucifer, Star of the Morning. I am he of whom it was said, " I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven." x I am the angel of Revelation who goeth forth to weigh and take the measure of all men. For no man is a MAN until he has been measured; until he has cognized my force and has gained its stability. 1 St. Luke x, 18.

Independent Communications 279 The Garden of Prayers Invocation. Evening Prayer. O divine and loving* Father, as we rest through the darkness on thy breast, help us to draw close to thee in love, and to realize the almighty power of thy divine Son filling and comforting us. For as the earth and air retain the magnetic and life-giving forces of the sun to bring forth for the new day as it withdraws each night, so may we retain in our Souls through the darkness the light and warmth of his shining, knowing that as the sun rises for the new day we too shall rise stronger, truer, sweeter and more beautiful because we have rested in thy love in abiding faith and trust. In the fair Fields of Asphodel prayers grow like flowers. Some are prayers of anguish from hearts that are breaking. And, oh, they are crimson red! Yet out of the center of each a golden stamen points upward, bringing down the Divine Radiance into the very heart of passion or sorrow, stilling them. There are the prayers that are lisped by baby lips, " God bless mama and papa." These are tiny violets and daisies, so sweet and pure and beautiful, nodding their little heads in hundreds of thousands all over the grass. Then there are stately lilies, so pure and white. They are the prayers of the saints whose hearts have been purified from all earth desires. There are beautiful roses too. These are the prayers of those passionate lovers who have learned to know and to dwell

280 Realms of the Living Dead in beautiful love. They pour out their hearts in adoration like the perfume of the rose. Oh ! How beautiful are these fields ! Prayers for success are grand and stately flowers with long stalks standing up straight and high, with flowers all down the sides, many, many flowers. Some are white with golden centers. And some are purple and blue and crimson according to their ideal. But the most beautiful are those that have within their hearts little golden stamens. And every time the Winds of Heaven blow the bright dust of their golden pollen showers down upon mankind. Why, you ask? Because these are the prayers that have asked success and blessing for all the world. So the showers of golden dust fall upon all. And where'er they fall and find lodgment they bring happiness and success. Selfish prayers for mere worldly success are not allowed to grow in these fields. We call them weeds. We go out and pull them up and cast them back to earth and say to the children of earth : " Take back your prayers, they are not worthy of place in this Garden. They come back to you to be readjusted. Gather them up. They belong only in the soil of earth. Readjust them." For only when so readjusted can such prayers grow into beautiful flowers in the Fields of Asphodel. Sometimes selfish prayers force success, like hothouse flowers of untimely bloom. These the angels pluck and throw back to earth. Such success as may thus be gained is but of the earth and only for the

Independent Communications 281 moment : only while the flowers thus plucked endure. They have no root in heaven. The prayers that demand and demand and insist upon their fulfillment without saying, " Not my will, but thine be done," are also weeds, bitter weeds and rank. Their answer seems to come because they grow a little, but their flowers soon fall and give place to bitter fruit which often purges those who planted and must eat. The prayers that the Great Gardener loves are those which create the beautiful Flowers of Immortality. They are prayers of gratitude and thankfulness; the recognition of what you really are; the accepting of all your blessings with joy. Those are the greatest prayers of all, the prayers of thankfulness and joy; when you accept your blessings and realize how your Father loves you and how glad he is to see that you understand and permit him to help you. Take then your blessings and laugh back into his face like glad flowers nodding joyously back to the sun. Say, " O my Father ! I am so happy because you love me and give me that which you know is best for me, except when I demand for self alone."

CHAPTER XXIV INDEPENDENT COMMUNICATIONS (Continued) The Message of the Sphinx The Curtain The Message of the Sphinx One evening while sitting around a blazing wood fire there was placed in the hands of Mrs. Curtiss a small stone image of the sphinx which had been brought to her direct from a royal tomb in Egypt. Holding it lightly and unthinkingly in her hands and while conversing about Egypt, suddenly the following psychometric message poured into her consciousness and was written down verbatim as it fell from her lips.1 Out of the distant past when the forces of the world were gathered into a mighty storm there was a message, a mighty message, given to humanity and embodied in imperishable symbols. All the kingdoms of the earth gave to this Great Mystery something of their forces and experience. Out of the Earth rose great animals, strong and 1 Also see lesson The Message of the Sphinx, Curtiss. (288)

284 Realms of the Living Dead mighty to labor. They lived and died and while forgotten they left behind a force which was Strength and Power and Endurance. This formed the hind part of the Great Mystery. Upon this, like a mighty thing it crouches, lying down in patience, resting in powerful strength; subject to the mighty dictates of the Law of Time ; waiting for the hour to strike when the power and strength and patience shall be utilized. That mighty Image of Eternal Creation shall arise. On its shoulders powerful wings are spread; for out of the Air, like great birds soaring in the heavens, comes the force which we know as the awful longing to penetrate beyond the clouds ; to explore the heights ; to bring back an answer from the invisible Portals of Eternity. It is this unanswerable longing that is forever expressed in the outstretched wings. On its forepart are breasts as of a woman, symbol of the force which goes ever on and on, ever feeding, ever bringing forth; patiently giving and waiting; waiting for the end when these creatures she has suckled shall become the Lords of Creation. And the cry goes forth: O the force of Mother-love! O Eternal Nourisher who hath poured forth a never-ending stream of Life, feeding the children of men, how long, how long shall it endure until man awakens and stands upon his feet? This Great Mystery has the head of a lion, and in its eyes the light of daring and fortitude. The eyes

Independent Communications 285 are those of an human Soul looking out ; searching the four quarters of the earth ; looking, waiting, watching. Today the same as yesterday; the same puny creatures calling themselves men and women, with the same selfish traits, the same animal instincts to kill and rend and tear. And forever the same godlike forces struggling for birth within them! Yet the eternal patience waits. O generations of pygmies! How long shall it be ere I trample ye with my lion's feet, and with my lion's mouth rend ye limb from limb ? Eternal Justice demands your extinction, O bestial creatures who call yourselves kings of earth ! And yet, back of it all and crowning its head is the kingly Cap, the Ureus, the diadem of the King of Kings ! In those eyes so strong and fixed is the look of unutterable Love and Hope and Cheer. Looking always into the future, seeing innumerable suns rise and go down in blood-red fire, yet always waiting for the coming day. O Love Divine! How long must ye wait? How many hearts must break with longing ere thy force conquers the evil in the world? This is thy message to the children of men : Too long has the world groaned under perverted falsehoods calling themselves religions. Too long has priestcraft held mankind by the throat with lion's claws and lapped their blood. Draw near to the Fount of Life.

286 Realms of the Living Dead, Drink from the paps of Mother-love. Draw great nourishing drafts of Life and be not discouraged. Ye are not a stone image blindly crying out age after age the great story of man's redemption. Ye forget that ye are living, breathing vital forces with the power to act Ye too have stood on Egypt's sands and have given up your lives for the Great Cause; have been born again and again, struggled, hoped, despaired, and laid down your lives with trust in the Great Law. Yet always as life departed the vision of Reality is held before you. There is an end to all things mundane; an end to long-continued waiting. I have waited through the ages and I crumble not, neither decay, because I symbolize to man this Eternal Waiting for the fullness of time, ever looking toward the Light and knowing that it will come. Help mankind to see the Light. Help them to shake off the shackles of superstition and priestcraft. Help them to stand alone in the desert of human existence and look only toward the Rising Sun. All things manifest in cycles, and it has been borne in on my stony heart that the Time is almost come; the great Cycle of Time has almost run its course. There is a sacred scroll on which are the calculations of the incarnations which must be passed ere the deliverance comes. And since in ancient Egypt the

Independent Communications 287 first recognition of the Great Mystery was recorded in imperishable stone, so shall it there be fulfilled. And She who came and went shall come again. And the Spirit of Truth shall once more be taught. The night is almost done and Egypt shall once more live in all her splendor and greatness as of yore. Not an earthly greatness, but a spiritual illumination through the manifestation of the eternal truths. The Curtain1 A Child of Light came down as a brooding Spirit, and was buried in the heart of the darkness. It parted the curtain of darkness with tiny hands of Flame. Then it became a glowing Eye. And the Eye smiled. And the Eye sent thrilling, life-giving forces through the darkness of the heart that was being born. O little Flame, within the dense darkness of my undeveloped heart! Help me to fix my gaze upon Thee. Help me to see the tiny flames which are thy hands pushing back the darkness of ignorance, glowing, brightening, illumining, shining, shining behind the Curtain that hides the Other Side. O little flaming Spirit of Light ! As I sit and gaze the Curtain thins, opens, and I see thine Eye. And the Eye begins to smile at me through the Curtain. Love, Love, O Love Divine, where art Thou ? What lA vision seen by Harriette A. Curtiss, March 13, 1917. Transcribed and edited by F. Homer Curtiss, M.D., Secretary of the Order of Christian Mystics. Reprinted by permission from Azoth Magazine, July, 1917.

288 Realms of the Living Dead, is this dark Curtain that hides thee from my gaze? A still small Voice replies : "The Curtain is the love of self. And into its meshes are woven the dark threads of personal opinion. Its warp and woof, woven in and out by the Loom of Time, are made up of so many, many threads." Yet back of it I see the little Flame playing, lighting and illumining. Must my tired fingers unravel thread by thread all this heavy Curtain? It has taken me so many weary ages to weave it Look! Look! Into it I have woven so many beautiful pictures of the past; pictures of ambition, of desire for adulation, yea and many efforts to uplift humanity. Must these too be unravelled? See! If I rip out these threads my heart's blood will flow; for with them I see so cunningly devised all that I hold most dear. My intellect ! What scintillating beams of light, like jewels, it has woven into the Curtain. Beloved Child of the Flame, canst thou not look through the Curtain of my life and let thy beams illumine it into brightness? It is so great, so strong, so beautiful ! And I love it ! I love it ! Come from behind its folds that I may see thee, bright shining Child. Be to it a beacon of Fire that the beauty of this my Curtain may shine forth more perfectly. Let thy Light make this my Curtain that I have woven through the ages more illumined and bright, that the world may see its beauty; for it hangs before the Holy of Holies. It drapes the Altar of the Most High.

} Independent Communications 289 i O Holy Flame! Why dost thou flicker and die? Why dost thou cease thy brilliant shining? Come back! Come back! For without thy shining my Tapestry of Life fades into darkness. See its brilliant colorings ! See its wondrous designs ! O little Flame of Life ! Shine upon it with thy brightness ! Bless it with thy presence. No ! No ! Thy Light grows dim. Thy brilliant Eye looks sad. Thy presence seems to recede deeper into the blackness of night. Ah me! I must watch and wait. I must pray before the Altar night and day. Then sometime thou wilt come back. Sometime thy bright shining will again appear. O Flame of Love Divine! O Eye of Infinity! Once I caught a glimpse of thy bright shining, and now thou art gone ! Why should this be ? Where is my beautiful Tapestry? How can I see its glorious jewels and its wondrous colorings? How can the world discern it? It seems lost in the darkness of eternal night. Is this Divine Justice? that I should work and strive and weave and toil and hang before the Altar of the Most High this Tapestry of my life only to have the darkness hide it? O Love Divine! One little spark of thy shining! One little thrill of thy coming! Without thy Light all I have done is lost. Without thy shining all is dark. Methinks I slept and dreamed. And behold, in my dream I no longer saw the wondrous Curtain of my weaving. Instead I saw an Altar built of precious

290 Realms of the Living Dead jewels. And beside it stood One all glory and brightness. And as I knelt before His feet I cried out with very ecstasy of joy. And then slowly my Curtain fell between us. But what is this? What is this? Again the little Child of Light springs up. It is the Jewel of Fire whose tiny hands of Flame are reaching out. There is the glowing Eye that laughs in my face, yet it wears a countenance of plaintive joy. And now I see it reach out its arms of Flame and touch the folds of my Tapestry. How beautifully it is illumined! The flames grasp it in their arms and hug it close. How they twist and shout and laugh for joy as they lick up and consume this my Curtain that I wrought so cunningly ! Let it burn ! Let it burn ! For it is the Flame of Love Divine that consumes it. O Love Divine! O radiant Presence! Thou art still there. My curtain that I made, that I, even I, toiled and contrived and wove and builded is gone! The Flame of Love has consumed it. Only Thy Presence, now left undimmed and clear. Only That remains.

Independent Communications 291 THE YOUNG AVIATOR RETURNS x By Dr. and Mrs. F. Homer Curtiss During our interview with the Young Aviator which was published in Azoth for September, 1918, he promised to play fair, and if he found we were correct in telling him that there was no death to the immortal Soul and that the change called death is but the taking off of a dense outer garment of flesh, he would return and admit that we were right. And he has kept his word. Although that article was not presented as being evidential from the strictly scientific standpoint, but merely as an amusing and interesting incident, it was nevertheless severely criticized in a certain little sheet because it contained nothing but its own internal evidence as to being veridical. The criticism was unfair and bitter in its sarcasm and ridicule, especially in reference to the statement that the Young Aviator expected to study the models of the ancient Atlantean aeroplanes in the "Pattern Museum of the astral world" and endeavor through this study to help his country to win the supremacy of the air. Although this statement was ridiculed as the raving of unbalanced imagination on the part of the authors we had not deemed it worthy of reply, but on Sunday afternoon, January 5th, 1919, the Young Aviator again appeared to Mrs. Curtiss, this time in a highly indignant frame of mind. He insisted that he was the one whose veracity had been impugned and whose powers of ac1 Reprinted by permission from Axeth for February* 1919.

292 Realms of the Living Dead curate observation had been slurred, hence he wished to vindicate the criticized statement. We therefore give herewith the substance of our talk with him, lasting from 5 p. m. until nearly 6 p. m., as reported by Mrs. Curtiss while in full waking consciousness according to the Independent or Telepathic method. It is not presented as scientifically evidential, but it was intensely interesting to us and we think it will be to most readers of Azoth. They are at perfect liberty not to take our word as to its source, if the message itself is not sufficient evidence, and we will not be offended if those who cannot respond to its truth lay it to our disordered imagination. We simply comply with the Young Aviator's request to transmit the message as he gave it to us. "How do you do, Dr. Curtiss ? I have been to see you a number of times, but you have always been in such a rush of work that I didn't like to butt in. I have also attended a number of your lectures and have also studied over here and have learned a lot since I first met you. My, but I was ignorant then! But I'm glad you have time to listen now because this is important. I especially want you to tell that Critic that all you said in that last article is true ; for I have not only been admitted to that Pattern Museum and have studied the Atlantean aeroplane models, but I have come back and 'put across' what I have learned, although not in the way I then expected. And the U. S. Government is to-day building new types of aeroplanes embodying the new ideas I've been able to grasp and transmit. Already a plane has been announced that made 145 miles an hour on its trial

Independent Communications 293 flight, and another that carries sixty people. A Thanksgiving dinner was served to five people on another while 2,000 feet up. And soon you will hear of improvements far beyond anything known when I was down there, both as regards war-planes and especially planes which will make regular passenger travel as safe and commonplace as Pullman cars. "You see, I've found out that when a man thinks definitely along a certain line there's a stream of force goes out from his brain that makes a pathway out into space. If he thinks clearly the path leads up through the realms and worlds — for I've found that there are many worlds over here beside the astral world in which I'm working — up to the ideal or pattern that his thought is reaching out toward. I've followed up lots of these paths since I've been over here just to see where they would lead, and although many of them start out bright and clear, nearly all just end in a jungle or are only blind alleys that get you nowhere. But the paths that go out from the minds of trained thinkers do lead to definite ends and bring back to those minds definite realizations or attainments. Once in a while I've found a mind like whose path seems to go straight on upward, on and on through all the worlds as far as I can see, and in each world it seems to spread out and make connections and make itself at home. Such a mind can bring back to its brain truth from every world it contacts, for I've followed it far enough to know that what you've said about life over here is true. "My father's got a mind like that, too. Oh, the path

294 Realms of the Living Dead that goes out from his brain is big and broad and clear and light I certainly have a wonderful Dad ! It's not occupied with philosophy and symbols and religious things like yours, but it's full of wonderful ways of helping humanity, of uplifting the people and improving conditions so they'll be better citizens. And he's got wonderful plans for our country, too ; for making it the greatest and best and most helpful and wonderful country in the whole world. These paths are all bright and clear, but they only go a little ways, for back of each one there seems to stand a shrouded figure with a sickle in its hand and it cuts them off before they're finished. Poor Dad ! I'm afraid he'll not last to see his great ideas fulfilled, for he's a broken man. He's like a great lion that's been put in a cage and beaten and prodded and half starved. His spirit is not broken, but his body is, so all he can do is to roar defiance. The fact is that Dad spends almost as much time over here with me now as he does with you down there, and every time I can get off from my work I go to him and tell him all about it "You said, Doctor, that more than a year ago your Teacher — O, yes, I've met your Teacher over here, but I don't get much time to study those things just now — told you that my Dad was going to sit with the Peace Council and have great influence in shaping its policies. When he wasn't appointed you thought perhaps you'd got things twisted or there had been some mistake. But you were told then that even though he wasn't officially appointed they couldn't keep him away, and it did look like it when he planned to visit the place where they

Independent Communications 295 buried my body over in France. But I want to tell you that your Teacher was right after all. He'll be at the Peace Conference all right ! But he may not be there in just the way you thought ! I can see that he's not going to be with you long,1 but I don't want you to mention this as long as he is there, for that thought in the minds of a lot of people would tend to push him over here a little sooner. And when he comes over here . . . "But I started out to tell that Critic how I 'put across* the new ideas I get from my studies up here in the Museum. In the first place everyone is not admitted to it, any more than everyone is admitted to the Masonic Library in Washington ; only those qualified. The Boche aviators over here want to get in too, but as they never invented much of anything, only copied others, and as they are still working for 'Deutschland fiber Alles' they are not permitted near the place. Also those who are merely curious are barred. In fact there's just two classes who are admitted, those of us over here who are interested in making flying safer and more useful for mankind and those on earth whose thought-stream makes a straight clear path right up to those patterns. And I'm told — although I don't know this myself — that even so they would be prevented from entering until the hour had struck when human evolution had reached a point where it would be best for it to have such inventions, and many more wonderful things are waiting for the years to 1 Editor's Note : This message was received about 5 P. M. on Sunday, the 5th of January. Colonel Roosevelt died about twelve hours later.

296 Realms of the Living Dead come. Until then Those Who Have Charge up here keep the doors closed. "Now there's a bunch of us boys up here who've given up our lives to the perfecting of flying, not merely given them up down there, but up here too ; for we are devoting ourselves to it for the good of mankind. And having lost our lives in your world because of their deficiencies, we're going to find out how to make them safer. So when we learn something new about them we have to go to SQme of the inventors whose minds are sending out steady streams of thought toward flying. You see, I couldn't explain an improvement in the engine to Mrs. Curtiss. Even if I showed her every part and exactly how they worked she couldn't explain to a machinist how to make it. She hasn't that kind of mind ; her pathways of light don't run toward the idea of flying. "So we have to find those who are studying flying, and if they're sensitive enough we suggest the new improvement to them by impressing our idea upon them. And some of them get the idea more or less clearly, at least they make some changes in the old type. Of course they don't know they are being given the idea by us. They just think they 'thought it out' by themselves or they say 'It suddenly came to me/ etc., although some are conscious that they got help from somewhere in some way. With others we just put a picture or a model of the improvement in their thought pathway and let their thought-stream play all over it, and pretty soon they say, 'I see it! I've got the idea now.' And so they have. Some of them see it while over here in

Independent Communications 297 sleep and think they dreamed it all, but anyway we are getting the improvements 'over* as fast as the minds of the inventors can grasp them. Tell the Critic that I haven't been able to understand the engine that gets its power from the air yet, but I'm studying it, and when I get it I'll 'put that over* too. "By the way, Doctor, I may not be telling you anything new, but I've found that there are places over here where they keep other kinds of ideas. There's one where they keep all the laws man ha? ever made and where all the plans of the great statesmen for the betterment of humanity and the improvement of its institutions and conditions are perfected and then stored up until some mind can reach up and grasp them, and the time is ripe to bring them down to earth. I don't know as you would call this a Museum, but it's some kind of a place like a State House or Forum or Academy or something like that. And only the great statesmen and rulers of the past can go in there, also the minds of the great statesmen on earth to-day which make straight paths into it. "You know when my Dad comes over here he'll walk right in. Because he belongs there. My Dad certainly is a wonder ! You know he used to be Julius Caesar in a past life, but when he comes over here they're not going to call him that any more. They're going to call him ... as he's called on earth now, because they say over here that his present incarnation is a greater one than that as Caesar, so they are going to call him. . . . Who was I in those days? Well, I'm ashamed to tell

298 Realms of the Living Dead you. Just call me my father's son. . . . But since Mrs. Curtiss has guessed it, you can see that what I did to him in that life, that I might rule in his stead, has prevented me from succeeding him in this life, and I thought I was doing the right thing then too. It was 'not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.' "And as he knows all the great statesmen on earth to-day, when he gets over here, just as he could hammer home fundamental truths and principles and 'put them over* on earth, so when he gets here he will be able to hammer into the minds of all the living statesmen, whose minds are all open to his suggestions, the perfected ideas for the good of mankind which he will find ready in this Statesmen's Hall. So you see he may be a powerful influence at the Peace Conference after all ! "Well, so long. I must run over and see how Dad is getting along, but be sure to tell that Critic that we are 'putting across* things of practical value to mankind all the time. The trouble with him is that he's not able to recognize them or understand where they come from, because his mind-path doesn't run in the right direction."

INDEX Achilles, 34 Adepts, 237 Aeroplanes, 106, 260, 291-2-6 Age, Aquarian. 268; in astral, 91 Alcohol, effect of, 1x6, 125 Ambition, stimulated, 140 Angels, 248, 278 Anger, 141 Annunciation, the, 260 Arnold, Sir Edwin, quoted, 43. 6>. 87 Asleep, when, 47 Astral, activities in, 48, 51; advice, 2x5; age in. 91; animals in* 45. 57; avoid cannot, 38; beautv of, 141; body dies, 83, 184; body intermediary, 58: body, looks of, 59. 9*; body of mediums, 59; body modified, xo6; body, radiance of, 46; born into, 29, 67; chill, 229; classified, 12; clothing, 77 1 95' 7. 257; colors, 104; conflicting reports, 41; currents, 60, 104; day and night in, 44; double, 57; eating, 51-3, 257; entities, 54-6, 70-1-9, 109, 129, 134-6, 149, X50-9, 2x5-17, 230; faced, 21; glamor, 130-3, 228; includes, 22-3 ; interpenetrates, 23; journeys in, 5X-3; life in, 47; light in, 146; lusts, 129; location of, 24; material is, 23, 39; meaning of, 15; not subconscious, 12; objects in, 45, 76; odors, 104; protection in, 56, 79, 127; radiance of. 46; reality of. 21; Realms of, 37, 40- x; Red Cross in, 48; scenery, 43; schools, 88, 187; sheaths, 116; shells, 54-5; sleep in, 60-1; things reversed, 44; time in, 93-4; water in body, 51; weapons cut, 76J winds, 61 Atma, 243 Avatar, 240, 271 Avesha, 205 Aviators, Great Adventure, 253; Returns, 29 x Awakening, 62-7 Baptism, for the dead, 49 Birth, gate of, 42; into astral, 29, 67-8 Black, Brotherhood, 190; wearing* 65-6 Blavatsky, Mmc, 44; still working, 194 Blood, astral lavender, 76; attracts elementals, 79; in operations, 79 Body, astral, 46, 51-8, 83, 106; psychic, 184; spiritual, 239 Cabinet, materializing, 102 Caduceus, 249 Caesar, Julius, 297 Challenge, everything, 227; the Christ, 127, 142, 226 Charon, 30 Charybdis, 33 Chill, astral, 229 Christhood, 236 Clairaudience, 202 Clair sentience, 202 Clairvoyance, 20 x Clothing, astral. 77-8, 95-7, 257 Colors, 104, 196 Communication, by telegraph instrument, 24; described, 197; examples of independent, 253; independent used, 13; justified, 198; methods of, 200; subjective methods, 213; telepathic method, 225; unquestionable, 25 Cord, unbilical, 28 Creations, thought, 70-2-5-7, 99, 133; must redeem, 147 Cremation, 65 Cross, Red. 48 Curtain, The, 287 Dances, 248 Dangers, real, 13, **, $*7, 7«» 199 299

300 Index Darkness, outer. 103. 146, 276 Death, a withdrawal, 58; Angel of, 34; condition after, 215; fighting after, 69; gate of, 42; in disasters, 48, 69; on battlefields, 68-9; realize no, 63-4; sudden, 68 Deception, easy, 53, 117, 132, 190; example of, 94, 222 Deities, Planetary, 269 Demon, obsessing, 70 Desire, controls, 50-1-3, 60-5, 82, 136; Realm, 60 Devas, 236 Disease, psychic, 89 Dreams, 47 Drunkards, xn-3; cause of, 114, 125; cure of, 126 Dying, help for those, 48 East, wind from, 61 Elementals, 54; described, 157, 165-177; tribal, 78 Elijah, 240 Embalming, 66 Emotion, narmful, 64-5 Enoch, symbolizes, 240 Entities, attracted, 79, 234; controlled, 56; flattering, 54; not angels, 215: obsessing, 70-1, 109, 129, 136, 217; recognizing, 230; soulless, 149, 159; suffer, „ 150 Environment, varies. 52-3 Evolution, spiral, 20 Eyes, evolution of, 22; use of, 38 Eye, smiled, 287; Third, 34 Faculties, forcing, 32 Fairies, messages from the, 265*77 Fear, eradicating, 13, 17, 39; of astral, 63; of Christian Scientists, 128; of ghosts, 83 Fetus, growth of, 57; simile of, .27 Fire, central, 250; cold, 243; consumes magnetism. 65; Divine, 142, 212, 228; hell, 18, 247; invoke, 84; purifies, 84, 142-5-9: sea of, 244-5 F attery, 54 Flying,, sense of, 51-3, 256 Food, in astral, 51-3, 257 rorces, entitized, 70-1 Funerals, conducting, 64 Future, oredicting the, §3 Gabriel, 60 Germany, 72-3 Ghost, 59; animals see, 82; Holy, ISO God, planetary, 276; Sons of, 34; the Sun, 270 Graveyards, 56, 83-4 Growth, how attained, 58 Guide, angelic, 31; Indian, 81 Hall, of Ignorance, 37; of Learning, 33-7, 191; of Wisdom, 37. 129, 192 Hand, symbol of, 33, 227 Hatred, expressing, x 13-142 Healingt instant, 90 Hell, Fire, created by man, 245; doctrine of, 18 Helpers, 48-9, 75; angelic, 61; c?H, 79, 93t 230; during operations, 79; in studying, 93; on battlefields, 71 Hysteria, 89 Incarnation, of Soul, 102, 247 Indians, 80-1, 263, 249 Interpenetrate, realms, 23 Inspiration, 203; of artist, 236 Intuition, 203 Inventions, astral, 105, 296 Karma, adjust, 72; recurs, 20 King, Katie, 24 Knives, cut astral, 76 Kumaras, 236 Learning Hall of, 33-7, 291 Lethe, Hall of, iox Liberty, Statue of, 263-4 Life, extension of earth, 47; spiral of, 274 Limb, loss of, 59, 76 Lincoln, message from, 262 Lodge, Great White, 193 Love, attracts in, 46; Divine, 269, 287; free, 135 Lusts, stimulated, 129 Magnetism, malicious a^im^l, 128 j of earth, 51, 64, 87 Materialization, 102; example* 219 Mediums, and Indians, 81; astral body, 59; controlled, 88; messages, 50-6; scandals of, 233; spirits and, 47; subjective, 208 Melancholia, 231, 277 Memory-pictures, 84 Messages, 50; judged, $6 Mind, currents from the, 293-4 Mourning, harmful, 65 Murders, 222

Index 801 Museum, astral, 105, *6o, 292-5 Myxedema, 58 Necromancy, 78 Nirmanakayas, 238 Odessus, 33 Omens, 262 Operations, surgical protected, 79 Ouija Board, 220 Peace Conference, 295, *97 Personality, dual, 139; retained, 51-9, 63, 21S, 255 n Plants, consciousness, 85 Powers, the Central obsessed, 71 Prayer, Evening, 279; for Light, Appendix; for the dead, 49; Healing, Appendix; of the O.C.M., Appendix; protects, 132, 225; selfish, 280; The Garden of, 279 Prevision, 93 Prophecy, of Aquarian Age. 268 Protection, method of, 50, 79, 127, 132 Psychic, not diseased, 19; Realms, 180 Punishment, capital, zix; no eternal, 130 Radiance, of astral body, 46 Real, that is, 22 Realm, diagram of, 181; ecstatic, 243; ethereal, 87; inspirational, 235; mental, 179; of desire, 42, 60, 109, 129; of reflection, 43; of sensation, 42, 60, 94; psychic, 179; vital, 99 Realms, classification, 39, 40-1, 180 Reception, for dying, 49, 62-3 Reflection, Realm of, 43-5 River, Acheron, 30; crossing the, 30-1; Jordan, 31-2; of Life, 29, 34; Styx, 29 Roosevelt, message from Quentin, 253, 291 Saturn, 249, 270-7; message from, Saviors, 238 Schools, in astral, 88, 187 Scylla, 33 Seances, 50-4 Seeing, into earth-life* 46 Sex, Breath of Brahm, 245; control of, 132-7, 142, 149; deceptions, 232; force creates, 131 Shells, astral, 54-5-6, 83-4 Shiver, astral, 83. 220 Sleep, after death, 60-1; dreams during, 47; work during, 62 Soldiers, in astral, 71 Soul, astral, 252; creates body, no; Group, 45; Higher Self, 246; mate, 54, 133; permeates matter, 250; Spiritual, no, 235; weight of, 59 Sounds, heard in astral, 68 Sphere, eighth, 145 Sphinx, message of the, 283 Spiritism, vs. spiritualism, 78 Spirits, believe not every, 225-9; bring their conditions, 88; earth-bound, 82; not earthbound, 83; of Light, 287 Storms, astral, 61 Suicide, fate of, 151-2; warning against, 23 1 Sun, spiritual, 246-9, 251; God, 270 Swords, protect, 76 Teachers, appear at will, 239-40; Atlantean, 189; descend, 48, 14 1, 189; point way, 251; spiritual, 21 z; of O. C. M., 294 Telepathy, 201, 225, 296 Theophany, described, 204; used, 13 Thoughts, control, 53, 60-5, 82, 96-7, 112; create, 75-7, 183-67; express in action, 138; purification of, 130-7; streams 293-4 Thought-forms, evil, 70-2-7, 99, 133, 235 Trance, 218-19 Trumpet seance, 220 Truth, in middle, 20 Uranus, 269 Vibration, higher octave, 23, 41 Vision, of the Coming, 271 War, instigators of the, 72 Warnings, special, 231; we repeat, 13, 32 Water, in astral body, 51 Waters, amniotic, 27; of Life, 31-4 jht ot soul, 59 Witchcraft, 72; Moses and, 15s Weight of Soul, 5< World, Divine, 247, 250; the founders, 244 Writing, automatic,

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