CHAPTER 16: IRREGULAR PSYCHIC PROGRESS.

Natural born faculties — Mediumship— Psychic faculties unaccompanied by spiritual development — Their dangers — A blessing or a curse — Legitimately earned psychic faculty — The spiritualistic development — Its real promoters.

Natural psychic faculties have been for a long time under observation one way or another, in the ordinary world, but this observation has been carried on in such an irregular, spasmodic, unscientific fashion that none of the many writers who have been concerned in the investigation have arrived at any satisfactory conclusion. Very often psychic faculties have been found in persons afflicted with various physical maladies, and lookers-on have jumped to the entirely erroneous conclusion that in their nature such faculties are associated with diseased conditions of the body. The remarkable case of the Seeress of Prevorst, described by Dr. Kerner, may serve as a typical instance. Frederica Hauffe, the Seeress in question, was born in the first year of the present century, at the little village of Prevorst in Wurtemburg. Her wonderful clairvoyance and remarkable visions connected with other planes of Nature were associated with conditions of extreme bodily suffering, culminating in early death. The strange and little understood nervous condition, vaguely described as hysteria, is again so frequently found in association with the sensitiveness which renders some people available for mesmeric experiments, that such capacity is again set down by virtue of a too hasty generalisation to some obscure disease of the nervous system, and recent medical inquirers in France, out of whose researches has arisen the commonplace view of what is called hypnotism, have been themselves concerned so generally with experiments in hospitals that they have communicated to the world at large the ever-current delusion that psychic faculty is a pathological condition. Again, looking at the subject in another way, commonplace impressions connected with the matter are largely coloured by the estimation in which the world at large holds the ordinary spiritualistic medium. The most entirely ignorant section of the world at large simply regards the medium as an impostor, who practises by conjuring tricks on the credulity of his companions. Those who go a little further into the subject know that however largely imposition is mixed up with the mediumship which is purchasable, so to speak, in the market, even behind much of this, some abnormal faculty or susceptibility is to be found. Many people have the experience of mediumship in private life under conditions which preclude any suspicions of imposture, and thus afford satisfactory evidence that somehow or other, under some ill-comprehended circumstances, communication is possible between beings on this plane of life and those on others which are intangible and invisible.

Mediumship itself is manifested, wherever it is genuine, under so many different aspects that it seems to defy scientific analysis, and where psychic faculty takes the shape of sensitiveness to mesmeric influence, that again runs into all manner of different manifestations, clearly showing for experimentalists along this line that the human creature is psychically a far more complicated organism than it is supposed to be from the physical point of view, though we are left without any clue to a comprehension of the reasons why one sensitive will be able to read in a closed book put at the back of his head, while another quite unable to do this, will have visions of other states of existence, or be enabled to cognise events on the physical plane at a distance. Then it seems quite a matter of chance, as regards individual sensitives, whether their faculties come into play in the waking state or only in the mesmeric trance. Some who develop the so-called psychometric faculty in a high degree, and appear to become acquainted with places, people or circumstances that formerly surrounded any object they may hold, will often be quite insusceptible to mesmeric influence. Then as regards mesmeric influence itself, few experimentalists have been able to do more than record facts out of their own observation, and these, however plainly they may show that a potent influence is at work, are so divergent in their character that they help us very little towards a scientific appreciation of that influence. But difficult as the whole empirical jungle of psychological inquiry may be, all these capricious and irregular workings of the astral senses are intelligible enough from the point of view of students who get above them, so to speak, and contemplate them from a still higher plane of observation. Anyone whom we might imagine seated in the middle of a huge crystal would not be able, from that point of view, to discern its contour, however transparent its substance might be. It is only when we get outside that we can look down on the mass as a whole, and so it is only when psychic faculty, trained to the degree of being enabled to function on the Devachanic plane, looks down from that altitude on to the phenomena of the astral world, that it becomes capable of unravelling all mysteries connected therewith, and of perceiving how very largely, how almost entirely, the miscellaneous faculties which are described as those of the naturally born psychic, are concerned with astral plane phenomena.

But in their nature to begin with, the astral senses which may be partially awakened in the case of the naturally born psychic are not different from the senses which may be cultivated in the case of the regularly taught occultist. Indeed, it may almost be said that every person who may be thought of as available for systematic occult teaching independent of moral development, must have been in the first instance a naturally born psychic, even though his faculties may have existed in the beginning as a potentiality rather than as an actual accomplishment. The Etheric Double must have certain characteristics before the senses of the astral vehicle can connect themselves with the consciousness of the physical brain, and the attributes of the Etheric Double are so largely dependent on the Karma of previous lives, that without something having been done in previous lives towards the growth of psychic faculties, no mere intellectual comprehension of the whole subject, nor even a genuine spiritual aspiration in the direction of higher development, will give rise to these faculties or set them in a condition in which they can function with freedom in the life during which the attempt is first made. The astral senses, like everything else about a man, are his own creation, however little he may be aware of it, or even however little he may have consciously in the beginning set out with the intention of creating them. The aspirations and desires in one life, as we have seen in dealing especially with the problem of Free Will and Necessity, determine the capacity of the next, and if aspirations and desires set strongly in the direction at any given period of a human being's progress of penetrating those mysteries of Nature which can only be observed by means of the psychic senses, then these aspirations, acting as a Karmic force, set up capacity for astral development in the astral body of the person in question on his next return, always supposing that they are not counteracted by Karma of other kinds.

Now I have shown in the whole course of this treatise that the loftiest kind of spiritual development is attained along the surest road by virtue of aspirations which, in the first instance, set out with a nobler purpose than that of merely penetrating the mysteries of Nature for the sake of knowledge, and that the growth of moral qualities engendered by the desire to take part in the service of the Divine Idea governing the evolution of the world is provocative in the long run of far higher achievements even on the psychic plane than those which can be attained directly by specific effort in that direction. The spiritual occultist, who seeks to assimilate himself with the elder brethren of mankind that he may the better perform his part in connexion with the mighty task of helping on the race at large, will at the fitting time be guided by those into whose companionship his aspirations will have drawn him, to take the necessary steps which will engender the psychic faculties he will then require to fulfil the purposes of his loftier nature. But at the same time causes produce results, whether they are set in motion with lofty or ignoble purpose, and people who are filled with an ardent curiosity concerning the mysteries of Nature as such, and are constantly making whatever efforts lie within their range to penetrate these mysteries, will Karmically engender an improved capacity to do this in the future, and will find themselves endowed in some life or other with the abnormal characteristics we may loosely describe as psychic faculty. They will begin to see visions that are invisible to those around them, and by thus bringing the astral plane to a certain extent within the range of their own cognisance, they will bring themselves within the cognisance of beings natural to the astral plane, and so will perhaps become mediums through which these beings exert forces on the Physical plane, the effects of which become obvious to all bystanders in the shape of spiritualistic phenomena. Assuming these dawning attributes to be quite unaccompanied by moral or ethical development, to be animated solely by a thirst of knowledge as a personal acquisition to be highly enjoyed, then such an unhappy psychic may become serviceable to mischievous agencies functioning on the astral plane, who may be simply persons like himself, a good deal further advanced, who may have acquired the power not merely of cognising the astral plane with the astral senses, but of getting clear of the body and functioning on that plane in the appropriate vehicle, gathering there whatever they think they require for themselves. Such persons, commonly spoken of in occult writings as Black Magicians, are ever on the look-out for those whom they may impress into their service, and the wholly ignorant, untrained psychic, unprotected by affinity with spiritual influences from above, becomes their ready prey, with results, very often as regards the Karma of the person so entangled, that reach over terrible periods of time, and may entangle the victim for a long series of lives in succession, with grievous miseries of a complicated sort.

Just as often indeed the naturally-born psychic faculty may be due to aspirations which have been largely mingled with genuine, though often uncultivated spiritual longings. Then the possessor is, by the very purity of his or her nature, shielded from the Black Magician's attack, and ready, with a little help, even though up to that time such help may not have been earned, to get on to the right path of true occult development. It is necessary to be thus as much on our guard against under-rating as against over-rating the naturally born psychic capacity. It may be a blessing or a curse entirely in accordance with the circumstances just referred to; or if it may be regarded as in equilibrium between the two influences, then above all things it becomes desirable to shield its exercise by the earnest cultivation of a lofty purpose and by a specific intellectual appreciation of the course of evolution leading to the sublime heights of spiritual development. I take it that cases are extremely rare in which the naturally born psychic faculty can be thought of as functioning on any region above the astral plane. Of course the Higher Self of every human being is akin in its nature to the Arupa level of Devachan, and in the infinite variety of human characteristics that we have to deal with, cases may arise in which by the continued feeding of the Higher Self with the essence, as it were, of many good and spiritually inspired lives, the Higher Self may have become so individually conscious on its own natural plane as to be able in some measure to reflect that consciousness back to its physical manifestation during sleep, or rather, when it has returned to the body after sleep. Such a person may thus have true touch with the Devachanic planes of consciousness, and even in this way in some cases with Devachanic opportunities for acquiring knowledge. Such an unusual condition of development might account for some of the more important prophetic dreams which sometimes constitute so curious an enigma for the psychic inquirer, but it could not often happen that such development as I am here thinking of would be unaccompanied altogether by occult knowledge, for no one who is qualified to assimilate that knowledge in a useful way is left by Karma wholly without any hints which may set him on the true path. The hints or opportunities may come in one shape or another, but they come, we are assured, for all who are qualified to avail themselves of them, and though they may sometimes be uncultivated through a failure to appreciate their meaning correctly and thus quite blamelessly, it is not likely that they would be repeated in many successive lives without giving rise to the required enlightenment of the whole thinking soul. leaving unusual possibilities out of account, however, the most interesting variety of psychic facility we have to deal with is that which is engendered as the fruit of some anterior attempts at occult development. In some past life the person in question may have had an opportunity of the particular kind I have just been referring to. He may have availed himself of that opportunity up to the limitations of his development, as it then stood, which may have been associated with such aspirations as would engender the growth of the astral senses, and then he gets launched on a life the Karma of which is probably favourable to his further progress, although in the beginning he fails to appreciate its significance. His dawning faculties are full of interest for him; there are spiritual forces in his nature which render such visions as he may have far more attractive than alarming. As soon as opportunity serves he assimilates on the intellectual side with marvellous facility all teaching pointing in the true direction of occult progress, and such a man may become, not merely a psychic, not merely an earnest devotee of Theosophical philosophy, but one of those open-eyed disciples whose consciousness has been trained to work freely on the spiritual levels above the astral, and whose beautiful privilege it is to inaugurate their long career of higher usefulness in subsequent lives by constituting themselves a link between the great Masters and the awakening enthusiasm of the many students still on the ordinary plane of life, who are thus enabled, in advance of their own development, to acquire such specific knowledge concerning the occult world that their own evolution in the next life as open-eyed disciples in their turn becomes surely guaranteed.

For the correct appreciation, meanwhile, of the whole entangled problem which has to do with natural born psychic faculty it is necessary to consider the vast stratum of intervening cases lying between those by which some inquisitive explorer of the astral plane falls into the clutches of the Black Magician, and those, on the other hand, where the loftily inspired aspirant gains, through "the expansion of his psychic powers, conscious touch with those who may lead him to the sublimest heights. Ever since the human race has come of age, so to speak, since the middle period, that is to say, of the Atlantean Race during this present world period, there have been people governed by the desire for occult knowledge and progress in all possible varieties, so to speak, of purity, as regards their motives. I suppose it may be assumed that Karmic influences, in the very loftiest examples of such aspiration, would guide the inquirer into the path leading directly to the supreme Adept organisation which merges, as regards its higher levels, as I endeavoured to show in the chapter on the Path of Initiation, in the governing hierarchy of this stupendous system, and so in the immeasurable spiritual grandeur of the cosmic hierarchy. But at the same time it has come to pass, at various periods, that other associations or lodges of occult inquirers have been founded, the character and purpose of which has been very admirable indeed, and with which great numbers of people have been associated, greatly to their own advantage and to that of others. The fact appears to be that all such subordinate lodges of occultism merge themselves sooner or later into the main stream, but following the bent of their own individual characteristics some people, gravitating upwards, may move for a long time in the almost exclusive companionship of their own original associates, and may in this way attain to positions of influence on the superphysical planes of Nature, from which they will be doing their best to help on the spiritual progress of others by the light of their own convictions. Now the movement which is known as modern spiritualism has been largely fostered and was practically set on foot in the beginning, by just an independent lodge of occult initiates of the kind I have -been describing. Eventually the whole system acquired such momentum that it entirely outran the original design in one way, though in another — in reference to the effort to show mankind at large that forces independent of the physical plane are at work around us — it *has attained a very imperfect success. There is much in the actual condition of the movement at present to discountenance the idea that good and intelligent beings of a high order are at the back of all that goes on. But persons who are familiar with some developments in spiritualism will feel sure that the powers concerned have been, in definite cases, good and intelligent, and highly advanced in spiritual knowledge. No doubt in such instances the lofty occult influences I speak of have been at work. In the Allan Kardec development, for instance, instruction was given that directly points to that conclusion. Re-incarnation is the leading idea of the Allan Kardec development. As I have already said, information concerning that all-important law of Nature has not often till recently come from beings on the astral plane. Spiritualists have thus been reluctant to accept the teaching their spirit friends have repudiated, and for those who have made no study of occult science it seems not unreasonable to assume that people actually enjoying the life of the next world ought to know more about it than those who merely study the subject from the physical plane point of view. But at all events, the tone of astral communications has latterly been undergoing a change. By familiar spiritualistic methods I have within recent years come into touch with friends on " the other side " who are fully instructed in the principles of re-incarnation, and indeed in those of human evolution generally as defined in Theosophical literature. The Theosophical movement is, in fact, in progress on the astral, as well as on the physical plane.

And although no information from the astral plane can cover the whole area of Nature with which Theosophical research is concerned, the spiritualist is an inquirer with whom, it seems to me, the true Theosophist must necessarily sympathise to a very considerable degree. Both classes share many important beliefs in common, and are differentiated together, by these beliefs, from the commonplace materialistic crowd, as also from the large number of persons who are precluded, by their own ignorance of all but the physical plane, from even comprehending the dogmas of their own religion. There ought to be a better feeling than that which at present exists between the two bodies, and this may spring up by degrees, if misunderstandings are cleared away on both sides. . The Theosophist must be very far advanced as an occult student if the experiences of spiritualism do not give him abundant food for reflection, and admirable exercises in Theosophical thinking concerning the conditions of human progress after death are to be found in attempts to explain spiritualistic phenomena, as bearing on the life after death, in all their complicated varieties.

Meanwhile the spiritualist will be enabled to realise from the explanation I have given as to the origin of modern spiritualism, that true Theosophists cannot look with hostility, or with the contempt they have sometimes been supposed to entertain, on a movement that has been supported by advanced initiates who, in setting it on foot, were undoubtedly actuated by sincere devotion to the spiritual welfare of mankind.

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