Power of Karma

Author(s): Alexander Cannon
Publisher: Rider and Co
Catalog link: https://jainqq.org/explore/011106/1

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THE POWER OF KARMA In Relation to Destiny

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THE POWER OF KARMA In Relation to Destiny DR. ALEXANDER CANNON K.C.A., M.D., Ph.D., D.P.M., M.A., Ch.B., F.R.G.S. etc. Astbor of "THE INVISIBLE INFLUENCE", "POWERS THAT BE" "THE SCIENCE OF HYPNOTISM", "HYPNOTISM, SUGGESTION AND FAITH HEALING" Senior Author of "THE PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF PSYCHIATRY" "THE PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF NEUROLOGY" RIDER doo Co. Paternoster House, Paternoster Row, E.C.4

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MADE AND PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN AT GAINSBOROUGH PRESS, ST. ALBANS BY FISHER, KNIGHT AND CO., LTD.,

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In dedicating this volume To My CORRESPONDENTS AND READERS THE WIDE WORLD OVER I wish to acknowledge the kindness and courtesy of the Editor of The Occult Review, the Editor of Light, Mr. Edwin Felstead, and the Secretary General of the Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, Southern Jurisdiction, U.S.A., in granting permission to reproduce extracts from writings already in print, and to Mr. Philip S. Wellby, M.A., for his assistance in preparing the book for the press. ALEXANDER CANNON.

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INTRODUCTORY NOTE As a consequence arising directly out of the publication of my previous works "The Invisible Influence" and "Powers that Be", a mass of material has come into my hands of so remarkable a character that I feel bound to pass it on to my wide circle of readers. From every part of the world letters containing first-hand accounts of unusual phenomena, and records of "marvels" of every kind have poured in on me continuously. The response evoked by the narration of my own experiences has shown me how deep and widespread is the desire for further knowledge as to the capacities of the human race for spiritual development, and as to the working of those unseen forces and influences that direct and govern our lives. I am convinced that in proportion as this knowledge is spread abroad we may with increasing confidence expect to arrive at a greater degree of harmony in our own being and in our relations with others, and thus hasten the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. In "Powers that Be" I outlined the science of the Kingdom of Heaven, that will enable

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12 INTRODUCTORY NOTE knowledge to be added to faith and hope, thus bringing divine wisdom to mankind. Some of the incidents related in this book show that there are evil forces at work in the world, and that to Black Magic may be traced many misfortunes and calamities that occur in the lives of people who are often its unsuspecting victims. This is a further and most powerful argument in favour of the dissemination of the knowledge now available with regard to the unseen world in which we are all living. Every fact placed before my readers emphasizes the truth that simplicity and the desire to help others are not only the foundation of Happiness, but the key to the door of Knowledge and Wisdom. More than 300 years ago Jacob Boehme, "the Godtaught philosopher", wrote: "Herein lies that simple, childlike way to the highest wisdom, which no sharp reason or worldly learning can reach unto; nay, it is foolishness to reason, and therefore so few go the way to find it." Great changes have come to our world in the last fifty years. Greater changes are at hand. From the chaos and strife existing on every side, only those nations, only those individuals, will emerge unscathed who obey the laws on which is based the Science of the Kingdom of Heaven.

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CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE IS I. KARMA . . . 11. REINCARNATION . . . . IT. MAGIC . . . . . . IV. COMMUNICATIONS FROM OTHER PLANES v. VIBRATIONS AND RAYS . . . vI. THE ASTRAL BODY AND THE ETHERIC II2 BODY . . . . . VII. THE RATIONALE OF SPIRITUAL HEALING 130 VIII. THE HERITAGE OF THE ARYAN PEOPLES 141 IX. TAKE YOUR TIME: A NOTE ON YOGA . X. THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE . . 166

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THE POWER OF KARMA: CHAPTER I KARMA The science of developing latent powers in man through tests given by circumstances in various lives EVERYTHING that operates with the laws of suggestion is capable of performing miracles. Not Will, but the power of the imagination, rules our actions. Coue discovered the important fact that every time will is opposed to the imaginative power, the latter, which is supported by auto-suggestion, wins. You do not know the power of your own souls, you do not know the ability for happiness hidden deep in your souls. In my two previous popular works, already mentioned, I have given instances of the powers which act on and in every human being. I have shown that the investigations of Science prove that the Universe is a one-piece whole 15

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16 THE POWER OF KARMA subject in every part and atom to vibrations, which operate universally, and that every unit of life-force in manifestation on the physical, mental, or spiritual planes, whether human, animal, vegetable, mineral, or etheric, acts and reacts on every other unit. From this truth an infinite number of deductions can be drawn, but in this chapter I propose to confine myself to a review of the Eastem teaching known as the Law of Karma. We have found that there are men who surpass the mass of humanity in every attribute of which they partake in common with their brothers--the mental, physical and spiritual capacities. These wonderfully developed members of the human race are known as Adepts, Yogis, or Masters. By these the average man is made aware that he is connected with a realm of higher vibrations than those with which he is familiarthe Kingdom of "power and glory", or, as we term it, the higher planes of being. On the other hand, there are those who have not reached the average standard of development, and again, there are others who have deliberately chosen to accommodate themselves to the reception of the lower vibrations of gross matter which manifest themselves in unrestrained

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KARMA appetites and passions such as greed, lust, envy, and hatred. At one end of the scale is perfect love, an expansion of human capacities, and at the other end confirmed hate, a state of contraction of capacity and outlook. Man thus finds himself occupying a middle position between two extremes of development. All that I have written in my popular books, and the narration of my own experiences, is meant to show that at this very moment in the life of my readers the choice lies before them to proceed towards the development of either range of vibrationsthe higher or the lower. Life is synonymous with motion, and there is no possibility of remaining still. By the law of Karma, every moment, every thought, every action produces its own vibration in ourselves and in the Universe of which we are an integral part. Thus, every vibration determines inevitably the thought and action of the next moment, the next day or year or of any other period of time we can imagine. "The man for whom the hour of misfortune has sounded," says Maeterlinck, "is caught up by an invisible whirlwind, and for years back have these powers been combining the innumerable incidents that must bring him to the necessary moment, to the exact spot where tears be in wait for him" ;

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18 casure, pain pericace wed to realize the emal THE POWER OF KARMA and in a later passage he observes that "scarcely has the disaster befallen us than we have the strange sensation of having obeyed an eternal law".* By observing the operation of this eternal law of Karma we are forced to realize the fact that every experience we encounter, every pleasure, pain, triumph, or disappointmentis the precise result of the cause to which it is due. Voltaire said truly that "Chance is a word devoid of meaning." "There is no such thing as chance," wrote Schiller, "and what seems to us the merest accident springs from the deepest source of destiny." I wish to impress upon my readers that the law of Karma is not a problematical theory, or a matter of speculation, but a truth above the region of controversy. In relating his experiences among the Adepts and Mystics of Hindoostan,t Dr. Hensoldt tells of his meeting and conversations with a venerable Adept named Coomra Sami, and known to the shepherds who lived in the valleys of Kashmir in the neighbourhood of his retreat as Samadhi Munshi, "the man who speaks seldom". From this sage, Dr. Hensoldt received * "The Treasury of the Humble", p. 133. + The Occult Review, Vol. II, Dec. 1905.

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KARMA instruction on many points of Eastem beliefs and knowledge, and especially on the subject of Karma. As the original article to which I refer is out of print, I have asked permission to reproduce part of it for the benefit of my correspondents and readers. Dr. Hensoldt made a long journey to Kashmir from Ceylon, and had great difficulty in finding the Adept, who lived in the seclusion of a remote mountain valley. On his arrival Coomra Sami welcomed him as follows : "You are the white Munshi from Lanka (Ceylon)." "The country of my birth lies farther west," Hensoldt replied, "but I lived two years in Ceylon." Coomra Sami nodded twice, and after an embarrassing pause, said: "Yes, your home is in Frankistan, but the Devas guided you, and you came as a pilgrim to the sacred island." "Not as a pilgrim," the Doctor protested. "My voyage to Ceylon had no religious background." He then took pains to explain to the recluse that, previous to his departure from Europe he had not even been aware of the fact that Ceylon was holy land ; that he was a student of philosophy and natural science, who had

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20 THE POWER OF KARMA accompanied a Sanskrit scholar on a tour of exploration, and that his presence in India was, in great measure, due to accident. "You talk like a true Sutukaran" (man from the West), said Coomra Sami, as he led the way to a tree close by, at the foot of which was a rude bench on which they both sat down. "With you everything is accident; you come into the world by accident, and you are shortsighted enough to imagine the union of your parents was also due to accident. Your whole life is a series of accidents, and, when finally the soul quits the carcass, your death is, in most cases, attributed to accident." "You are mistaken as to the latter point," replied his visitor, impressed by the solemnity and dignity of Coomra's manner. "We only speak of such deaths as due to accident as are entirely unforeseen. For instance, when a person is drowned, shot through misadventure, or killed by lightning, and these, after all, are exceptions." "I have lived among your people," said the Adept thoughtfully, "and I noticed that even in ordinary cases of death through disease they would say: 'Oh, if he had not caught cold on such and such an occasion,' or 'if he had not spent two days in that fever-stricken village,'

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KARMA as if a man held his destiny in his own hands and could act contrary to the decrees of fate." The decrees of fate, according to the Eastem teaching, are neither more nor less than the law of Karma in action. It will be seen that man is truly either master or slave of his fate, since it has its origin in himself. It will also be seen that in the "eternal now", Karma is continuously being realized, and continually giving rise to further realizations. Life is a continual succession of opportunities to be taken advantage of or lost. Every physical process leaves permanent imprints on our souls through the nervous system, and every psychic process leaves permanent imprints on our bodies. Thus Karma enables us to profit by the past by convincing us of the fact that the position in which we find ourselves now, whether as regards health or disease, happiness or misery, must not be attributed to chance, or to planetary influence, or to any other cause than our own efforts or errors; that is, our own defects of will or judgment in trying to withstand the scheme of progress laid down for us by the Lords of Life and recorded in the sacred writings of all peoples and all ages. "With all thy getting, get understanding," says the proverb. Furnished with this talisman of understanding,

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22 THE POWER OF KARMA it only remains for us to put it into action to cffect a magical transformation in ourselves and our environment. To do this is the whole business of life, and in consideration of this problem, it may be useful to draw attention to the nature of will, and will power, for in the application of the power of will lies the secret of achievement. It will be granted that to manifest and exercise any power latent within us, the mind must first be focused on an object. This object must first be clearly envisaged, and in order to effect this we must call upon the mysterious faculty possessed by every unit of the human race, which is imagination. The source of every action can be traced to its powers. Imagination is brought into action primarily by an abstract production of the mind which we call an ideal. At the back of every action lies such a more or less clearly defined ideal, which gives the key to every man's outlook on life as well as to his own individuality. In every man this ideal differs. Take the artist, the sailor, the soldier, the physician, the woman of fashion, the philosopher, the navvy, the publican, the engineer, the dictator, the priest ; any one you will each directs his or her efforts towards a certain end. Without an ideal a human being becomes a

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KARMA 23 mere automaton, one of the masses who surrender their will to that of others because it is not focused even vaguely upon an ideal. In these the mind is undeveloped, and they were termed by Coomra Sami : "Cattle". For what are men better than sheep or goats That nourish a blind life within the brain If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer Both for themselves and those who call them friend? Having, as Tennyson puts it, thus formulated an ideal, it is necessary to call upon the will to manifest and realize this abstraction. So much has been written on the development of will power that it is unnecessary to add further instructions on this subject in general, but it is most necessary to draw attention to one point of supreme importance. To be effective the will must be trained to act continuously and steadfastly. Spasmodic and intermittent use of will power only produces momentary results. These spurts are almost valueless in the fulfilment of any purpose. A strong will is a thing of slow growth and only to be acquired by a sustained and determined effort. Now, it is a matter of experience that in proportion to the strength of the urge that induces

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24 THE POWER OF KARMA us to set our mind on the attainment of any object or the realization of any ideal, so is the amount of effort we are willing to exert towards that end. If we take the case of a man in love with a woman, or a woman in love with a man, we find that such a one is ready to make the greatest effort of which he or she is capable in order to fulfil the demands of the urge called love. From this we see that the full power of the will is only called into action by a definite and overwhelming incitement. This truth furnishes the key to Adeptship. Once we have grasped the meaning and purpose of existence, and have convinced ourselves that the greatest goodthe summum bonum of the old philosophers-is within our reach, "the power and the glory and the Kingdom", then it becomes possible to achieve our purpose by the steadfast exercise of will. And here we come upon a paradox: that the greatest achievement of the will is to subordinate the individual will to the Divine or Universal will. The prayer, "Thy will be done," if sincere, implies a tremendous effort of determination to make our individual Will conform to the ideal we have accepted. This effort has been successfully made by every great Master, and by the host of the Saints triumphant. The

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KARMA most miraculous of all the powers of the Divine Master, Jesus the Nazarene, was the power exerted in the Garden of Gethsemane, when he exclaimed in the hour of agony: "Not as I will, but as Thou wilt." In this saying is expressed the supreme development of the Master's will-power, in which the human becomes the super-human. During the six months that Dr. Hensoldt spent with Coomra Sami, he witnessed many manifestations of the wonderful powers possessed by this great Adept, which are in most respects similar to those I have related in my former works already mentioned. In saying farewell to his student guest, the Master said : "You want to go to Thibet because you are tired of our regime here; the idea is a laudable one, although I can tell you beforehand that you will not find there what you seek. The path lies everywhere and nowhere, and the eternal truth you must seek for within the depths of your own consciousness; there is no royal road to success, and you must climb the Himalayan heights with painful effort. I was once as you are now, and I well remember the impatience and the madness of despair which more than once overwhelmed me as I realized the stupendousness of the task before

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26 THE POWER OF KARMA me; how my heart almost failed me, and how more than once I was on the point of giving up the battle. Wealth, ease, luxury, and the thousand and one delusive pleasures which hold the Bhayla (cattle) in bondage, I had abandoned, and had almost completely subdued and mastered the evil propensities--the curse of a thousand ages of animality-with which our race is afflicted. Yet such is the demon of perversity, all-powerful through the inherited blindness of a benighted and besotted past, that it required all the fierce determination of which I am capable to persist in the upward path. 'Through night to light'-let this be your motto in the course of ascent. The greater the obstacles the greater the triumph; and though seclusion is to be recommended under all circumstances, yet if you are of the right calibre, you will succeed wherever you are. ... We Hindoos are a race immeasurably older in mental culture than the one from which you have sprung: your so-called civilization is but of yesterday, and you are merely engaged in an eternal process of multiplying your wants. You have abnormally developed and stimulated the accumulative instinct, so that you have actually come to look upon life as a mere opportunity of piling up rubbish, in the shape of so-called

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27 KARMA material possessions. What, otherwise, can be the meaning of your saying that--"Time is money'. which would be apt to amuse us if it were not for the saddening thought which underlies it. I say again that what you call your glorious civilization, is, and has been, nothing but a process of multiplying your wants--the luxuries of to-day are the necessities of to-morrow-and the more the horizon of these wants extends, the more you will have to toil in order to gratify them; you are forced to devote an ever-increasing part of your life to the procuring of the means wherewith to gratify artificial wants; you are, indeed, the slaves of your wants, for each new want implies a new sorrow, viz., the sorrow experienced in the deprivation of the means to gratify it. A thousand wants mean a thousand sorrows, a thousand disappointments, a thousand pains. Has the standard of happiness been raised even to the extent of one inch by your much-valued civilization ? I say no: on the contrary, you suffer more than your forefathers did at any given period, because they lived in a simpler and more frugal manner, and their wants were fewer. ... "We Hindoos, on the other hand, after having risen to a certain height of material culture,

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28 THE POWER OF KARMA have paused and reflected, and have begun to reduce our wants to a minimum. We live on rice, and most of us are satisfied with one meal a day. All our immediate wants, if translated into time, would mean less than twenty minutes work per day: we can devote all the remainder of our time to mental cultureto thinking-not to book-study, but to the solution of the world mystery. And we have done a good deal of thinking, as you are prepared to admit; we have developed, during the last fifty centuries, mind-faculties which are a source of constant surprise to you; in fact, while you have been working for the stomach, we have been working for the brain. You Westerners, in fact, are all stomach, and we are all brain." Although this indictment of Western ideals is a trifle severe, it is true in the main. Coomra Sami intimates very clearly how persistent an effort of will must be made to arrive at the end in view. The will being thus steadfastly focused upon and exercised about a clearly defined ideal becomes at last stabilized, and is then no longer subject to the attraction exerted by extraneous and less desirable things that are in conflict with the ideal. The stabilization and fixation of the will reacts on the whole physical organism

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KARMA and results in polarization. In other words, we become positive. The magnetic currents of the polarized human being fall into harmonious adjustment, and the body becomes powerfully charged with a magnetic force which is termed in the New Testament, "Virtue". The original Greek word for this is dunamis, from which we get dynamo, dynamic, etc. One who has developed a powerful and controlled will may be aptly described as a living dynamo. I must refer, in closing this chapter, to the story of a woman, recorded by Mark in Chapter v, as it offers a most interesting example both of the action of Karma and of the will. This woman had an issue of blood twelve years, and had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered but rather grew worse. The reports of the wonderful power of the Master Jesus had fired her imagination, and she had pictured herself as being cured by His power. She envisaged an ideal of a perfect healthy body, and made a persistent effort of the Will to realize her ideal. Concentrating her mind on this end, she pushed through the crowd, and touched the Master. Her steadfast persistence and the output of energy in her demand for healing evoked a response in correspondence with the bettered by that all that shengs of many phy

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0 THE POWER OF KARMA Master's dictum: "Ask and ye shall receive," and she was cured by a withdrawal of magnetic force from the Master, who was immediately aware that this power had been drawn upon. He afterwards acknowledged that the woman's faith had made it possible for her to realize her ideal, and added His approval of her action. "Go in peace," He said, "and be whole of thy plague." Whatever the original cause of her ailment, the Karmic law was at that moment satisfied, and the slate wiped clean as regards that particular cause. The Karmic process was undoubtedly accelerated by her own efforts. By a study of the law of Karma we learn that the way to progress is never barred, and that opportunity is always knocking at the door. This is a truth of the very greatest importance, and, once grasped and accepted, it must have an immediate effect on our lives. Picture in your imagination the success which you wish to achieve, and know that you will achieve it. Do not waste your energy by mourning over the blows of Fate and remembering past unpleasant experiences. Use these instead as an impulse to newer and greater things.

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CHAPTER II REINCARNATION No subject touched upon by my correspondents has evoked more inquiry than Reincarnation. Though accepted almost without exception by the Eastern peoples, only a small proportion of those comprising the Western nations have given their attention to this belief, so widely held in past ages. In France and America are to be found a considerable number of individuals who have endeavoured to satisfy themselves on the question-Do we return at intervals to bodily existence on the earth in order to further our development as human beings? I have already related the investigations made by myself and others with subjects under hypnosis, and have given instances of the recovery of the memory of past lives by those subjects. The total result of these investigations, and the examination of evidence for and against reincarnation on this planet is to the effect that there is not sufficient proof to conclude that reincarnation is universal, but there is adequate

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32 THE POWER OF KARMA evidence that it does occur as regards certain individuals in fulfilment of the Law of Karma. The modern seance-room supplies incontrovertible evidence that we reap on the earthplane in a next life what we sow on the physical, nor does any thinker dispute the fact that cause and effect invariably and inevitably underlie every phenomenon known to science in all its branches. It is admittedly very difficult to establish the truth of reincarnation from facts presented to our notice. As an instance of this, the following case is of interest : A lady who was visiting the State of Minnesota, U.S.A., with her daughter, for the first time, was delayed on the train by the breakdown of the engine. To her surprise the place where the mishap occurred was quite familiar to her, and she even recognized a farmhouse where she said she once lived. As there was plenty of time to spare she walked to the farmhouse and asked the owner to allow her to go over it, and found that the interior was exactly as she had described it to her daughter. This incident she related to her friends as proving the possibility of remembering a former life. One of her friends was sufficiently interested to make inquiries about the farmhouse, and

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REINCARNATION 33 found that it had not been built until after the lady was grown up, and that at the time of her birth there were no houses in that neighbourhood. In this case it would appear that the lady in question had been able to describe the house by means of the sense perception we call psychometry, an extension of normal consciousness. In a series of remarkable communications received by Marjorie Livingstone and published under the title "The New Nuctemeron", it is stated that the spirit returns to earth for reincarnation of its free will, and that this occurrence is not so uncommon as many believe. The motive for this return in some cases is the desire to accomplish certain projects, in others to adjust wrongs done to others previously in earth life, or to gain further experience. "In no case is memory reborn into a new state. Atonement is unconscious, and many there are who cavil at human woes who would be silenced were the tome of the past opened, and the blotted page revealed." Whatever his failings, it appears that man is permitted to atone for them. "Every act, every thought of Man registers upon the ether and even upon the Matter of his surroundings only when an act has been atoned shall permanent knowledge * *

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THE POWER OF KARMA 34 of it reach the evolving Ego. cometh to perfection." A dramatic story which can hardly be explained otherwise than by admitting the probability that the memory of a past life was resuscitated by contact with particular surroundings, appeared in a Budapest journal of repute entitled Az Est. * * . Thus Man It appears that a young lawyer of Budapest had recently married, and set out with his bride on a honeymoon trip up the Danube. "I have never been there yet," she explained; "but I have already been to France and Italy." Everything went well until they reached Passau (Bavaria), where they changed steamers. As they proceeded up the river the young wife grew uneasy, muttering to herself: "How familiar the landscape is." Presently she surprised her husband by clutching his arm excitedly and exclaiming: "I must have spent years in this neighbourhood. I know it! On the other side of that hill is a large meadow. A creek runs across it, and tall old lime-trees border the banks." When this proved to be correct the husband began to wonder what was the matter, especially as his wife felt suddenly indisposed.

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REINCARNATION 35 "I can't stand it any longer," she declared. "I feel that if we don't get off this boat I shall die." Anxious about his wife's condition, the husband decided to disembark at the next riverside village and take her to a doctor. This was done. On hearing the details the physician with a knowing smile predicted that a day or two's rest would be sufficient to put matters right. But the girl would not hear of it. She steadily grew more excited. "I must see this place at once," she said. "I feel as if I had something to do with it, as if something had happened to me here." Her husband tried to calm her, but in vain. She broke away from his arm and hurried forward eagerly until she met an old peasant woman whom she stopped, and asked : "Isn't there an old castle on that mountain ?" "Yes," was the answer, "but it is unoccupied. If you like I will take you there." "Thank you, but I know the way," came the startling reply, and, followed by her husband, the girl hastened up the narrow mountain path. Having arrived at a dilapidated castle, the couple sought admission, whereupon the caretaker, who saw few strangers, made them welcome. True to type, the old man began his

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THE POWER OF KARMA description there and then. "The last owner built this wing, but for the last fifty or sixty years the castle has been empty," he explained. "I know! I know !" the young lady interrupted irritably. "What I am interested in is the knight's room." The old man was startled. "I could swear you have never been here before. How do you know all this?" he asked the young wife. Heedless of the question, however, the girl pressed forward and herself led the way to the room. She seemed to know her way about the place better than anyone else. "There is a locked room here : show it to us," she demanded. The old caretaker began to grow frightened, and crossed himself. "Quite right !" he admitted, "but it has never been opened since I can remember, and the key has been lost." "Nevertheless I must get in," the girl insisted. "Underneath the old staircase hangs a big bunch of keys. Bring it here. The missing key is among them." Curiosity getting the better of his fear, the old caretaker obeyed, and brought the bunch, from which the girl selected a very old key.

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37 REINCARNATION "This is the one," she declared, and together they went to the room in question. "This door has been kept locked because there are two dead bodies in the room," the girl explained with growing agitation. Fumbling in his excitement, the old man inserted the key and turned it in the lock. The door moved stiffly, the unused hinges grating harshly. Regardless of the foetid atmosphere, the girl rushed in and drew back the heavy curtains from the window. On the bed lay a skeleton, while on the floor, near a rusty dagger, lay a second corpse. Pointing down with trembling finger, the girl exclaimed: "This is the very room in which I was murdered," and collapsed in a faint on the floor. A severe attack of brain-fever followed the shock, but, the report concludes, the doctors at the hospital to which the young wife was removed, believe she will recover, and may perhaps lose all memory of her terrible experience. It is scarcely necessary to add that the medical men were "quite unable to account for the phenomenon". "That this event actually occurred, and in the way narrated," the Az Est correspondent

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38 THE POWER OF KARMA remarks, "is vouched for by the most trustworthy authorities, and the record is therefore made public without further comment, as the incidents are regarded as absolute facts by all who have been brought in contact with them." In "Powers That Be" I described the experiments I made with a subject under hypnosis, suggesting that she was living further and further back in the deeps of Time. The results obtained from these experiments have aroused such keen interest that the following account of the experiments made by Colonel de Rochas, with a view to the recovery of memory of past lives under hypnotism are worth attention. In one of these experiments, M. de Rochas attempted to obtain regression in the case of an orphan who had been reared in Beyrout and whose father had been an engineer in the Orient. At ten years of age she thought herself in Marseilles, where she had indeed been at that age, and M. de Rochas was unaware of this. At eight she was in Beyrout and spoke of her father and friends who came to the house. Asked how "good morning" is said in Turkish, she answered, "Salamalec", a word which in her waking state she had forgotten. At two

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39 REINCARNATION years she was at Cuges in Provence, which was correct; at one year she could no longer speak and replied by signs of the head. But here is where the operation becomes curious. In order to obtain these regressive states, M. de Rochas made longitudinal passes over his subject; and to recall her, transversal passes. In the course of these experiments, he perceived that if he continued the transversal passes, the subject would go beyond her actual age--in other words, was able to see herself in time to come. Here we must beware of the somnambulistic dream, the tendency which a subject always has to satisfy her observer, and the possibility of a change of personality ; the pictures thus obtained are rarely correct. However, in 1904, a subject who had been urged into the future, gave a successful result. In this case the subject was a woman thirtyfive years old. Being put into a state of trance she was required to view herself two years ahead, i.e., in 1906. Responding to this command she manifested all the symptoms of childbirth, and several months afterwards she seemed to be drowning. On being brought back to her normal state she was unaware of these experiences sensed in advance. After-events proved their veracity. She had a child by her

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40 THE POWER OF KARMA lover in 1906, and shortly afterwards threw herself into the river in order to escape from her troubles but was saved by being seized by the leg. This is one of the most curious cases recorded by M. de Rochas. I have already alluded to the possibility of obtaining testimony as to past reincarnations of a subject in the state of hypnotic trance. It is difficult to say how far the declarations of subjects under these conditions can be accepted, but such experiments at least open the mind to possibilities which may be further explored, and a hypothesis may be advanced of a momentary survival of the memories of a mind freed from the body. The functioning of memory in dissociation from the physical vehicle is one of those problems on which we may confidently expect further evidence towards clarification. I submit that, as I am satisfied by the result of my own investigations, there are seven ways of obtaining descriptions of past lives of human beings, viz. : 1. Hypnotize the subject and take the memory back. 2. Allow a spirit to control a hypnotized subject. 3. Allow a medium to go under control.

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REINCARNATION 4. Clairvoyance per Yoga. 5. Clairaudience per Yoga. 6. Personal astral projection (and travelling). 7. Pure spirit communication from the Higher Planes. 41 The most impressive record of reincarnation that I have met with in my reading is contained in "Nyria", by Mrs. Campbell Praed, recently deceased. This book was compiled from details of a former existence remembered by an unlearned young woman whose gift of recollection was discovered by the authoress quite accidentally. This young woman was able to step back into her previous existence as a slave-girl in Rome. Every detail of her description of the locality, the times in which this life was spent, the historic personages and events of that timewere afterwards verified as being correct in every particular. The narrator had never been in Rome, and was without means of access to books on the subject. The unfolding of this story of a bygone epoch is rich in material details of a kind which could not be evolved by the imagination. The story provides the strongest evidence towards establishing reincarnation as a proven fact that I have yet encountered in Western literature.

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42 THE POWER OF KARMA A noted French theosophical writer, Edouard Herrmann, has written convincingly on the subject of reincarnation, and affirms that the soul that has not attained perfection during corporeal life must undergo the trials of a new existence on earth; for although it is partially purified by being transformed into a spiritual being, it remains to be proven that it would remain pure if again subjected to the temptations of matter. "We all have had many existences," he states. "Those who teach the contrary are either ignorant of the fact themselves or they desire to keep you in ignorance." The object of reincarnation is expiation, amelioration and progress. In every new incarnation the soul makes one step in advance, and when it has laid aside all its imperfections there is "no more need for the trials of physical life." ... Our reason approves this teaching, for where is he who, at the end of his life, does not regret that he has acquired too late the experiences of which he can then make no use ? Our belated experiences are not lost; we shall profit by them in another life.... One thing is sure, because it is just: the degree of attainment, alone determining the future reincarnation of every soul. In proportion as we progress mentally, so

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REINCARNATION 43 our bodies will become finer, less gross, less material; and we may very well imagine that there are worlds where the souls are clothed only in astral bodies, and that even this envelope may become so etherealized that for us from our present standpoint, it would seem not to exist. It rests with each soul to advance his progress or to retard it indefinitely. . . Now, if we have a succession of corporeal existences, it follows that the relationship which existed at one time between two souls cannot be entirely broken by death, but may be extended into another life and be manifested in many ways. * The teaching of reincarnation justifies that other great teaching of universal brotherhood, because it shows that in one's neighbour, or servant, or in fact any stranger we may meet, there may be a soul with whom in a former reincarnation we may have been related by ties of blood. Noble souls are often drawn into particular families by reason of sympathy or by previous ties. Parents often transmit to their children physical resemblance, but not morals. The body is always formed according to the capacities of the soul. In this connection the eyes are truly called the mirror of the soul. According to the Eastern teaching Karma

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44 THE POWER OF KARMA and reincarnation act hand in hand towards the purification and exaltation of the ego, the "I" that is each one of us. In the end, whether we find ourselves able to accept reincarnation as a proven fact or not is of minor importance compared to our comprehension of the supreme truth-that outweighs all other considerations. THE SOUL Is IMMORTAL. After the famous journalist and pioneer of spiritualism, W. T. Stead, had been drowned in the disaster to the Titanic in 1912, he communicated constantly with his daughter, Estelle Stead. These communications were afterwards published in the book, "The Blue Island". In this work Mr. Stead states definitely that in the life after death the choice is eventually offered to those who have progressed to a certain stage to return to earth again. In the state or sphere where this occurs, a complete record of the past is exhibited to the spirit's view. If it should happen that this record does not enable the spirit to qualify for choice in the matter, he or she will be directed either to return to earth, or to remain for a further period of sojourn in the spirit spheres. The period necessary to reach this sphere from which spirits return to earth is, as a rule, much longer than the period of mortal life.

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REINCARNATION 45 Some writers have stated that the length of time intervening between one incarnation and another varies greatly. A very remarkable case of alleged reincarnation within a few months of decease was recently reported in the Bombay Chronicle, and is quoted in the February issue (1936) of the French Review L'Astrosophie. It concerns a little girl, eight years old, living in the village of Chirakdana near Delhi. Her name is Shanto Kumari; her father is Mr. Rang Bahadur Mathur. From the time when she first began to speak she continually talked about her former life. Her parents paid little attention to her stories, putting them down to her imagination, but an Englishman who happened to hear some report of the child's strange conversation became sufficiently interested to visit the house where she lived. He was greatly impressed with the detailed account of all that the child remembered, the more SO as her memories were those of a woman and not of a little child. She even gave him the name and address of her husband in her last life on earth. The Englishman wrote down the name in his notebook: it was Pundit Kidar Nath Chaubey, and the address was given as Mutra. He accordingly wrote to Mutra to find out if the address given was that of a place in existence, and if

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46 THE POWER OF KARMA Pundit Chaubey was known to the villagers. On receiving a reply confirming that the Pundit was living at the address given, the Englishman wrote to him asking for information as to whether he had been married, and if his wife was still alive. The Pundit replied that his first wife had died on a certain day, which proved to be nine months before the birth of Shanto Kumari. Following this correspondence, the Pundit wrote to his brother at Delhi asking him to go and see the little girl. The brother did so, and she related to him the story of her life as Pundit Chaubey's wife, giving many details as to the family, and describing the furniture of the house and the books which her "husband" loved, without hesitation or error, the brother being in a position to check the points mentioned. Finally, the child told him that when she was married she had hidden a small sum of money beneath the tiles in one of the rooms at Mutra. The money was found in the place indicated. In consequence of his brother's report, Pundit Kidar Nath Chaubey went to Delhi on November 13 (1935), with his son, the child of his first wife, and accompanied by his second wife. On their arrival at the house of Rang Bahadra Mathur, the little Shanto Kumari recognized

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REINCARNATION 47 her husband and her son immediately, and recalled many incidents of her former life which convinced the Pundit as to the source of her memories. She cried bitterly when she found that she could not resume her place as "mother" of her own son, who was now four years older than herself, and that she could not leave the house of her present parents. The news of this occurrence spread rapidly in Delhi, and the neighbourhood, as the Pundit, his son, and his second wife stayed at Delhi for several weeks to bear witness to this extraordinary case. The house of Rang Bahadur at Chirakhana became a place of pilgrimage, as numbers of people wanted to talk to the little girl who was thus able to prove to nearly all the inhabitants of Delhi the truth of her reincarnation. The English spiritualists in India, in attempting to find a way out of accepting the theory of reincarnation, suggest that the little girl is an unconscious medium en rapport with the discarnate spirit of the Pundit's first wife. This theory is not altogether satisfactory, because there is no indication that Shanto Kumari shows any indication of mediumistic power, nor is subject to trance, or possession. For the present, it would seem that the only explanation of the

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48 THE POWER OF KARMA case is that it is an instance of immediate reincarnation Several writers on this subject have drawn attention to the fact that young children often refer to things that happened to them in the past, or recall memories of past incidents, but little attention is as a rule paid to their remarks, which are attributed to a lively imagination. Under the editorship of the Honble. Ralph Shirley, a number of contributors to The Occult Review wrote in confirmation of the reincarnationist theory, and I would refer my readers to the pages of that journal for further information.* The conditions of life experienced by those reincarnating on earth are such as are calculated to assist their further progress and development. Ultimately, when the attraction and delusions of material life have been overcome, and the Karmic debts paid, it will be no longer necessary to return for further trials, and the spirit obtains final release from the limitations of matter. Thenceforth the way is open for further progress through spheres of unimaginable glory and beauty, which cannot be described in human language. This condition of complete liberation is termed "Nirvana" in the East, but a purely spiritual state of existence is beyond * Vide "THE PROBLEM OF REBIRTH", published by RIDER & Co.

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REINCARNATION 49 the conception of any human, brain, and it is profitless to pursue such inquiries on earth. For this reason much that has been written in explanation of the term Nirvana is practically unintelligible to the Western mind. How deeply rooted in the life of the Tibetans is the belief in reincarnation can be observed in their choice of the spiritual head and ruler of the 300,000 priests of lamaism, the Dalai Lama. It is held that the Dalai Lama is a reincarnation of a Boddhisatva, or emanation in physical form of the "Heavenly Buddha of Measureless Light". When the term of physical existence of the Dalai Lama comes to an end, another reincarnation of a Boddhisatva follows immediately, and the spirit that animated the late ruler is transferred to a new-born child. A search is made throughout the vast country surrounding Lhasa to find an infant born at the exact moment that the old ruler ceased to breathe. The three millions of Tibetan Buddhists offer prayers for the success of those who undertake the search. In July 1934 it was reported that after a search of seven months which had elapsed since the passing of the former sovereign pontiff on December 11th, 1933, a baby had been found in a remote mountain village in whom the

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so THE POWER OF KARMA expected Boddhisatva had reappeared. It is said that on such an occasion the heads of all infants born at the appointed time are examined for certain distinctive marks which indicate the presence of the exalted spiritual being who will eventually assume the title "Patron of the Angels and all living things". In addition to the Dalai Lama, the great explorer Sven Hedin gives an account of an even holier personage known as the Tashi Lama, who is recognized in Tibet as a reincarnation of the Buddha himself. That the belief in reincarnation has a profound influence on the Tibetan's attitude to wealth is evident from his indifference to the purchasing power of the gold in which his country abounds. To those concerned with the issues of this life in its bearing on lives to come the possession of a hoard of metal is of little consequence. The concept by which the Buddhists regulate their lives is one with that held by Pythagoras. It rests on the ancient belief in the cycle of time which at every turn of the wheel brings back to earth fresh souls from the past, "souls ascending and descending the ladder" according as they do well or ill, some mounting, some falling--"Just and sure is the wheel, swerving not a hair."

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REINCARNATION SI Thus men are the arbiters of their own destiny. In the words of Edward Young, author of "Night Thoughts", a poem little read in these days : All should be prophets to themselves; foresee Their future fate ; their future fate foretaste ; This art would waste the bitterness of death. Ye deaf to truth! peruse this parson's page, And trust for once a prophet and a priest ; Men may live fools, but fools they cannot die.

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CHAPTER III MAGIC No kind of Life has ever been explained in terms of Matter As part of my bulky correspondence I have lately received several communications from a friend who belongs to the order of the Magi, who claim to be in possession of many of the secrets of the Ancient Egyptians. There can be little doubt that magic, as the Greek writer Psellus affirmed, "is a thing of a very powerful nature". Magic, he tells us, "investigates the nature, power, and quality of everything sublimary; viz., of the elements, and parts of animals, and various plants and their fruits ; of stones also and herbs; in short, it explores the essence and power of everything; hence, therefore it produces its effects." It should be noted that a name, according to Ancient Egyptian symbology and, later, the Kabalistic system of interpretation, can be regarded as a mathematical formula expressing 52

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53 MAGIC the essence or natural quality inherent in a being or an object. This system links numerology to magic. It was employed in the art of evocation, and provides a key to many of the obscurities of magical rituals. This is a subject which affords scope for profound study. Possessed of this arcane knowledge, Adam, as we read in the Book of Genesis, was able to name every beast of the field, "and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof". From this aspect, the naming of a child at baptism is a matter of great significance, and baptism may be viewed as a magical ceremony. Every name, like a note or chord of music, has its own particular vibration, and its own individual potency. I will offer some further observation on the question of vibrations in a later chapter of this book. I have indicated something of what can be done to-day by Hypnotism, which formed part of the ancient magic, and I will now give some further explanation of the powers which belong to mankind. To do this it is necessary to review briefly the process of the development of life on this planet as confirmed by geology and biology. We find that four kingdoms were manifested in succession, mineral, vegetable, animal, and

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54 THE POWER OF KARMA finally human. Geology provides us with no traces of man in the first ages of the earth, though the debris of the animal kingdom is found in profusion; and we may conclude that man was never included in the animal kingdom. He must accordingly be viewed as a phenomenal manifestation in whom all the inferior kingdoms were comprised, and to whom they were subordinate. Man is thus destined to be the link which unites the superior or divine kingdom with the inferior kingdom of physical matter, the link that completes a chain of communication between all beings. The perfected essence of the kingdoms of nature is united in him. As we may conceive of God as being the centre and circumference of all that which is, so Man is the centre and circumference of the sphere which he inhabits. It is his will-power, freewill's scope, which makes him the living type of the universe, and the image of God himself. That part of the Kabala which treats of magic explains how vibrations act and react between the visible and invisible side of nature, and formulates the character of things and their forms in regard to weight, measure and number. It embodies the knowledge of the laws of harmony which exist throughout the Universe. In the golden age of Atlantis human beings

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MAGIC were possessed of knowledge that enabled them to control the powers of nature. After the Cataclysm which destroyed Atlantis, a few scattered remnants of the race survived in outlying regions. In Egypt some of these survivors perpetuated the ancient knowledge, and 8,000 years ago Egyptian magic was practised by the descendants of these Atlanteans. Mr. Edwin Felstead, in an article which appeared in Light, August 17th, 1934, enumerates some of the magical powers of the Egyptian initiates as follows: 1. Television without machinery; performed by gazing into a darkened pool of water, when an actual objective picture was perceived, not only by the magician, but by others present. 2. The ability to disappear; even when in a locked room with a company of people present; it may be noted that Jesus Christ did this, when threatened with stoning. 3. The ability to project one's astral form to any distance at will, in order to convey any desired message; the form would appear to the desired person, and speak in the Direct Voice. 4. The power of harming one's enemies at a distance ; known as er-tuf khabeb, this power was originally employed only for purposes of self-defence, or to check the progress of fugitive criminals. In the

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56 THE POWER OF KARMA Middle and Late Empires it was used for harming people. s. Levitation without a trance; the pyramids were erected by making use of a form of levitation. The original Masons, the men who designed the Pyramids, possessed these secrets, although before our Middle Ages they were lost. Occasionally one hears of a "master", one of those extremely rare individuals, even to-day, although there are only about ten in the world. Modern Spiritualism, in its purest forms, is a revival of ancient Spiritualism. In regard to Mexico, this ancient magic was also known there, by a class of priests known as the Chotlotecs, a brotherhood swept away when the later Aztecs invaded the country from British Columbia. These northern barbarians knew nought of real magic, only crude witchcraft, and by the time the Spaniards landed in Mexico, all was myth and legend. As far as is known there is not even a single "master" in all America, and even in Egypt and the Soudan there are but four or five. Egyptian priests of the Seb-ten were required to bathe twice daily, to take but two meals a week, to be complete celibates, and to undergo certain operations required to render them able to perform magic. Theosophists know that clairyoyance can be cultivated by developing a gland behind the glabella, and that this gland, far from being vestigial, is actually embryonical. In early Egypt, this gland was developed by piercing it sharply with a thin spike, which operation produced a clot which made

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57 MAGIC the gland grow abnormally. Another method was to cut out other glands, thus bringing all development to a single power of clairvoyance. It is not the author's intention to disclose the methods employed for developing levitation-at-will and vanishing, although it may be said that these powers of clairvoyance and levitation can be attained through fasting, such as is practised in Japan by disciples of Za-Zen, but these methods require too much time, and in many cases are dangerous. This article does not decry the born Medium, but simply outlines the nature of magic as left behind by Atlantis. Many instances of the use of these powers described by Mr. Felstead have been recorded within recent years, and Monsieur G. Mollein, a Frenchman who explored the interior of Africa from the north, gives an account in his book, published in 1820, of a sect called the Almousseri who could control the elements. He relates that a certain native named Boukhari, with whom he made friends, attested on the most solemn oaths, that being in a canoe with one of these men, such a severe rain-storm came on that he refused to start on his journey. However, he yielded to the wishes of the Almousseri and set sail. "Torrents of rain fell on all sides," added Boukhari, "but our bark remained perfectly dry and a favourable wind

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58 THE POWER OF KARMA filled our sails." I asked this Almousseri to explain his secret, but he answered that if he revealed it, his brethren would infallibly destroy him. The power to control the elements is part of what we may call the higher magic. This is wielded only by the great Masters, such as Jesus, the supreme Master of the divine science. The unseen forces of Nature, and the beings that have their existence on the supra-physical planes, are at the command of those who have overcome all the powers hostile to mankind. The power of perfect love is irresistible. In addition to the higher magic, there is a lower magic, black magic, or sorcery. This, too, is a formidable thing of which there is ample evidence. Its power is rooted in knowledge beyond that of the average human being, and is exercised in inducing fear, or dominating the victim's imagination. It employs the lower range of astral entities, and also makes use of material objects, drugs, and potencies of the vegetable and animal kingdom, poisons, germs, and so on. The witch's cauldron is often referred to by writers ancient and modern, and "raising the devil" is an expression that has become familiar to all. Sorcery, or the lower magic, is still

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MAGIC 59 practised deliberately in many parts of the world, and in every big city are those who either consciously or unconsciously make use of the sorcerer's art. A few moment's reflection will convince my readers that this is a true statement. Here is a story, which I have already related elsewhere,* of a well-known sorceress in Algeria who used her power for the benefit of a French soldier dying of malaria : I was too ill to move, and by midday I had sunk into a stupor. In the evening my companion, to quote his own words later, was "Simply waiting for me to peg out." Our guide, who had been busy since dawn cutting brushwood in the dunes, came back at sunset. He felt my pulse and listened to my heart. Then, without saying a word, he mounted one of the riding camels and disappeared into the dusk. About an hour later he returned, accompanied by a very old nomad Arab and his wife. By this time I had regained consciousness, and although too weak to move a finger, my mind was perfectly clear. I must have reached that phase of lucidity which often immediately precedes death. The old woman, who looked queer, came into my large marquee, whilst the old man sat outside. She * Light, May 1935.

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60 THE POWER OF KARMA made two fires, one small and one large. In the smaller she burnt some substance that gave off a most offensive odour, after which she sprinkled the embers with some kind of incense. When the fire was little more than a heap of ashes, she poured on to it some yellowy-grey fluid from a small goat-skin flask; and she next commenced to knead the moist ashes into a kind of dough. All the time she kept muttering and crooning to herself. Presently she came over and knelt beside my bed, pricked a vein in my left wrist with the point of a long, thin dagger, and mixed some of my blood in the "dough". Going back to the fires, she continued to croon and knead the paste. Her incantations--for such I presume they were now became more frenzied and quite incoherent. In the end she flung the "dough" into the larger fire. She then took a small pitcher of water and walked round and round the fire, slowly pouring the water on to the embers. When the fire was completely extinguished, she began a new series of incantations over the pitcher, which she suddenly raised above her head and hurled-with amazing strength for so old a woman-against a rock outside the tent. Then, all of a sudden, she quieted down and collapsed, as though in the last stages of fatigue. In less than one hour I was perfectly well again, and sitting at the camp fire eating supper. Stranger still, doctors tell me that there is now.no

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MAGIC trace of malaria in my blood, which was previously thick with the parasite. My company commander, Capitaine Lique, of the 7th Company Etrangere, reported this to the District Commissioner at Beni Abbes, who replied that the woman was a well-known sorceress. In the West we study these strange phenomena with a view to finding out how they occur, but few can offer a satisfactory explanation of the wonderful things which happen before our eyes. Much of the ancient knowledge has been lost to the world at large by the wholesale destruction of the earliest records of mankind contained in the great libraries of antiquity and other depositories of learning; but there is no room for doubt that the secrets of ancient magic have been preserved to this day, and are still possessed by some few who guard them with inviolable fidelity. They are transmitted under such conditions that it is quite impossible for the average student or investigator of mysteries to catch even a whisper of them. The following story sent to me by a friend indicates that the guardians of secret knowledge are ready to admit those on whom their choice falls to a participation in their secrets. Some of those chosen have devoted previous lives to

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THE POWER OF KARMA the search for truth, and thus have become entitled to recover what they gained in bygone ages. This illustrates the working of the Karmic Law to which I have already referred. R- was an infantryman in the American War, 1861-1865. He tells how in the spring of '64, his regiment was quartered at Nashville, Tennessee. One night, when on camp guard duty, he saw a man approaching, who, on being observed, spoke to R-- and saluted. Upon R- returning his salute he came nearer and said: "Your name is R--" "Right," was the reply; "and you were bom on February 22nd, 1844," continued the stranger. "How did you find that out ?" queried R "I do not know you," continued the other, "but have been guided to you. I am a member of an order, which has been lost to public knowledge for many ages; I am a member of the ancient order of the Magi which flourished thousands of years ago. I am about to die, and am bound by the Powers that rule me to convey certain secrets which I hold to another who shall live after me. "You," he continued, "are that successor, and I wish you to come to me at No. Street some evening, and very soon, for I have not long to live." R- 's curiosity being aroused,

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R R MAGIC he promised to visit the stranger, as requested. Upon the fulfilment of his promise, he found the stranger was a Frenchman, tall, thin, hollowcheeked, and eamest and dignified in his speech and demeanour. By this strange individual w as instructed in the secrets of the order, and entrusted with signs and passwords, as to the import of which he had at the time little comprehension. During their conversation, w as assured that he need have no fear of being killed in the war; that he would pass through many battles without injury, and that no bullet would touch him. This afterwards befell as foretold, for though on many occasions R 's clothes were pierced by bullets, he received no bodily hurt. Some of his escapes were so remarkable that he became convinced that he was under the protection of some unseen power. At the close of the war R travelled north and opened a store. In the year 1871 he felt an insistent and unaccountable desire to visit the town of C- , and following this prompting made his way there and went to a private boarding-house. He could assign no reason for going to this particular house, but at the first meal after arriving there, met with a Dr. Hamilton from Charlestown, South Carolina, with whom he immediately

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64 THE POWER OF KARMA formed an attachment. After dinner the two had a cigar together, and his new acquaintance invited R- to his room. There the Doctor showed him his books, including an old volume, which he described as a family heirloom. Upon opening this book R-- was greatly surprised to see some of the mysterious words which had been communicated to him by the Frenchman seven years previously. Being naturally interested in this discovery he ventured to ask his host if he would be willing to sell the book, and if so what value he set upon it. "I have no use for it," said the Doctor; "take it if you want it." R- gratefully accepted the gift, and on taking the volume home found that it cast a flood of light on the studies to which he had been introduced on his initiation by the Frenchman. After eighteen years of assiduous study R- found himself possessed of knowledge of the greatest value to him. As an accepted member of the order of the Magi he was enabled to recover the use of the symbols and articles familiar to the Priests of Isis in the time of the Pharoahs. The emblem of Atlantis, the oldest symbol known on the earth at the present time, is the trident, or threepronged spear of Neptune, originally derived from the form in which the stars composing

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MAGIC the Great Bear, "dipper", or "plough" appeared some 22,000 years ago. It is to the Continent of Atlantis that the order of the Magi traces its origin, the Continent which sank beneath the waves ages and ages before the first page of history begins to record the accurate story of mankind. Since publishing "The Invisible Influence", I have received a great number of stories of people who have suffered the loss of health, and of property-sometimes of life-as the result of sorcery or black magic. Most of these stories are similar to one another in their general characteristics. The power of the witch-doctor amongst uneducated and savage tribes is due to the hypnotic influence exercised by a trained and powerful will upon a passive or fearful victim. The imagination is the seat of the bewitchment, and we have already noticed how great is the power of the imagination over both the mind and the body. An imagination obsessed by fear can even bring about death. Another correspondent has forwarded me the following story of an Arab magician in Algeria. In 1918 a certain Arab living in the district of Ain Sefra was causing considerable uneasiness to the authorities by his uncanny doings.

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66 THE POWER OF KARMA The French do not encourage magicians in their African colonies. The District Commissioner (Chef d'Annexe) decided to put this Arab to the test. In company of two Administrative officers, three members of the Military General Staff, and four priests belonging to the White Fathers, the District Commissioner rode to the magician's gitoun or tent on the banks of the Oued Dzira accompanied by an escort of eight Legionnaires from the Compagnie Montee. On arrival at the wizard's abode, the usual greeting and civilities were exchanged, after which Captain Labriffe explained the object of the visit. The magician a young man in the early twenties-just laughed, and did not seem to mind. The White Fathers insisted that he should be told to do the utterly impossible. At that time of the year, the snow of the Djebel Aissa was thawing and the Oued Dzira was a veritable torrent. Captain Labriffe thereupon ordered the magician to make the river stop flowing, light a fire in the middle of the bed, and cook a meal for the guests! "Is that all?" queried the Arab, in surprise. "I was afraid you would want something difficult I"

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67 MAGIC So saying, he picked up a pebble and mumbled some sort of prayer over it. Then he Aung the stone into the river in the centre of it. As it landed, the water began to form a wall of churning foam. THE RIVER STOPPED FLOWING! The Arab climbed down the bank into the river-bed, lit a fire, and cooked a meal of couscous and partridge, SEEMING TO TAKE THE FUEL AND THE FOOD FROM THE AIR ! In order to convince themselves of the reality of what they had seen, the amazed officers and others forming their escort forced themselves to eat the meal provided. The good fathers were too busy on their knees to care about eating. When the meal was over, at a word from the wizard, the wall of water fell and the river continued its normal course. "That was very simple," remarked the Arab, quietly. "You ought to see what one of our real magicians can do. I'm hardly more than a conjurer." These observations can be verified from : THE ARCHIVES DEPARTMENT, Government of Algeria, Algiers ; LE PERE SUPERIEUR, Les Peres Blancs, Ain Sefra, Sud-Oranais ; LE CAPITAINE CHEF D'ANNEXE, Ain Sefra, Sud-Oranais.

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THE POWER OF KARMA A correspondent from Penang, Straits Settlement, after reading an article concerning me in The Sunday Express, sent me the story given below, under the title: "When Imagination Kills". Although there is no indication that the young planter in this narrative was the victim of a sorcerer's malevolence, it affords an illustration of the power of imagination obsessed with a particular idea, whether implanted by another or by one's self. Over 30 years ago, a young farmer from Aberdeenshire, splendidly built and fit, and with money behind him, came out to Malaya in the sugar-cane days before rubber cultivation. He was a magnificent specimen of home-breeding, and endowed with health and strength and high spirits. For some reason he announced that he had typhoid fever. The sugar estate doctor examined him and said he had nothing of the sort, and was perfectly fit and able to carry on his work. A month or so passed and again the young planter said he had typhoid and again the doctor examined him and denied that there was anything wrong with his health-the planter was absolutely well, the doctor told the estate manager. Again a period went by, with the young planter enjoying life and out at work seemingly sound as a bell, but always talking

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MAGIC of his typhoid and having his leg pulled about it by the other planters. He complained once more to the estate doctor and, this time, to put an end to the delusion, the planter was sent to Penang Government Hospital, where the C.M.O. pronounced "no typhoid". Yet, shortly afterwards, the young planter died of this disease. I knew all parties but cannot recollect exactly how long the planter was subject to his delusion, certainly more than six months before he died of typhoid. He left over PS4,000 sterling, so it was not money troubles that caused the delusion and so far as his work was concerned, he was on horseback or afoot all day going over the sugar-cane fields, as healthy a life as a man could desire. The district was healthy, coastal flat plains and in sugar-cane the planters are under the sun all day, no shade as in rubber. The sun keeps a man very fit-I know, for I have planted out here for nearly 40 years, am perfectly fit myself, not a grey hair on my head and no home leave since 1917; 60 years, but feel like 20. The basic law underlying all magical work is that Energy Follows Thought. In studying the processes or rites used to effect a magical operation we find that the power behind these operations is always the same, imagination controlled

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THE POWER OF KARMA by a trained will, and directed towards a definite end. Incantations, repetitions of words of a particular sound-vibration, rhythmic movements and the concentration of mind-power on a symbol, or on a magnetically-charged object; any and all of these serve to generate a force which is discharged with overwhelming energy at the climax of the rite. Those who are properly called "Masters" have this force always at their disposal without recourse to such practices, for they have attained to the kingdom of power, which is the Kingdom of Heaven.

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CHAPTER IV COMMUNICATIONS FROM OTHER PLANES The road to Happiness must be won by struggle and strife. It is found in the harmony of adaptability, love and self-discipline A GREAT deal of information has been received in communications from those on other planes of being, so it may be as well to give some of the chief facts there is agreement upon as to the conditions on those planes with which everyone will become acquainted after leaving earth life. Sir Oliver Lodge summarized these facts in an article which appeared in The Sunday Express (March 18th, 1934), as follows: Death is separation of soul and body. Death is not extinction, as life is continuous. The condition of the whole universe is unchanged by death, and life goes on under different surroundings. Those who have parted 71

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72 THE POWER OF KARMA company with their physical body find that they have a body made of something else than the physical matter we are accustomed to here, but it is solid and substantial, just as good as their old bodies, and indeed rather better. They have moved on and are happy, and most of them say they would not come back for anything. The universe is great and splendid beyond our imagination. The teachings of the great masters and philosophers are turned into truths for those who have experienced the touch of death ; but it is better for everyone to grasp these truths while still living in the physical body. There can be no possible doubt about this, just as there is no room for doubt in the reality of a spiritual world. "Beyond question," said Socrates, "the soul is immortal and imperishable, and our souls will truly exist in another world." A great number of spiritualists prefer to use the term "etheric body" instead of soul. At death the etheric body, which was united with the physical body, leaves it, and continues its conscious existence in a world of finer matter; and though separated from physical matter, it is possible for the departed to communicate with those still on earth. The Theosophists assert that man has seven sheaths, of which the physical

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COMMUNICATIONS FROM OTHER PLANES 73 body is the most dense and the slowest in its vibrations. All, however, are agreed on the main facts given above. As on earth, it is found that there are many grades of being on other planes, or in other spheres of existence. Numerous descriptions of these spheres have appeared within recent years, and the literature of spiritualism supplies all the information that the most curious inquirer could demand. I will pass on to some communications received from my correspondents that have impressed me as being of special interest. They show that those on other planes are eager to give instruction and assistance to those whom they are able to reach. The communication which follows was received by a correspondent in America. It tells of coming conditions in the earth, and how they should be met. BELOVED BRETHREN IN MORTALITY : We come to you to teach you of portents yet to be realized. We greet you as an order of teachers like ourselves, though asleep as yet in mortal bodies, unawakened as yet to your duties in a world of fleshly creatures. We awaken you to them. We have previously told you that aeons ago a great migration of celestial beings came to this

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THE POWER OF KARMA planet to learn from experience what life on this planet-sphere had to give them. We told of how they acted after they arrived here, of the errors to which they gave themselves, how they prostituted themselves by the misuse of their divine powers, and wrought havoc in the flesh. We told you of the long vassalage they have since served to their higher selves. To-day we tell you of the experiences of the Lesser Brethren, how they have not learned their lessons, and what is their destiny under the mentorship of Jesus, the Christ. ... All over the earth, from Greenland to Cathay, there is a presentiment among earthly peoples that a contest is in prospect, spoken of in Biblical prophecy and attested by markers in stone on your planet. In addition, in every land and among every race, there are spiritual mentors with abnormal senses, who are in direct communication with those in higher spheres, receiving from them specific communications and admonitions regarding the denouement of your times, and the outcome of the antics of those incarnated among you whose earthly sojourns have brought them little profit. We say to you, beloved brethren in Mortality, that all these attestments are not those of alarmists. You WOULD BE AMAZED IF YOU COULD

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COMMUNICATIONS FROM OTHER PLANES 78 KNOW WITH ACCURACY WHAT PROPHETS OF OLD NOW WALK AMONG YOU, WHAT REAL IDENTITIES ARE MANIFESTING IN THOSE OF SUPERNORMAL GIFTS WHO CAUSE YOU TO PONDER ON THE CHANGES AT HAND. Still, that is not the point. We mention it that you may feel what sense of security lies in the statement that even as of old the Fathers expected the reappearance of Elias to lead them out of error, so there have come among you many Eliases who are the souls of the prophets, speaking again with the same authority, but not accredited because the times will not permit it. In the early days of life upon this planet, however, there were races of men who could not measure up to the teachings of mortality. They were not wilfully wrongdoers; there was no special reason why they should have failed in their spiritual achievements. They had something within their natures left over from those long, dark days when they functioned in pure beasthood. It would not permit them to free themselves from the mark of their transgressions and so they carried it with them into spiritual realms during inter-life sojours, to bring it back with them when they made each new descent into flesh. In the order of creation there is a law that

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76 THE POWER OF KARMA like seeks like. Those recalcitrant and undeveloped souls, refusing the light of higher mentorship gradually drew together in what might be called Schools of Transgression. They gathered together time after time, incarnating and reincarnating in certain Eastern races where they found earthly existence better to their liking because of the customs, habits, manners, and worldly viewpoints of those whom they visited cycle after cycle. They had no special fellowship with the rest of the race. They were in a manner of speaking, unsocial. They did not perceive that the greatest spiritual development came from thinking of others instead of oneself. The orders of the earth-world that gave them maximum advantage for thinking of themselves, therefore, attracted them with greatest force and power. After countless cycles they took perverted joy in being classed outside the pale of that portion of the race that was making steady progress in spiritual growth. They gloried in their lack of earthly sociability. They said to one another : We will make a contest of this : We will do as we please, and if those about us do not like it, let them betake themselves off; we are perfectly content with the earth-world as we find it, and mean to stay upon it and be known as its masters.

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COMMUNICATIONS FROM OTHER PLANES 77 Now there are movements in the heavens when certain planetary bodies swing into positions not of common occurrence. These planetary bodies exert stupendous influences on the earthplanet and all life upon it. Sometimes these influences augment spirituality, sometimes they diminish it. We cannot enter here into why this is so. But the systematic movements of the heavenly bodies bring earthly conditions where men's antics in nation-making, in amassments of thought, in general migrations and great undertakings are helped or hindered by stupendous rays impinging on them from out of interstellar space. This being the truest part of truth, we advise and warn you now that men on the earth planet are entering a condition of interstellar conditions wherein events are shaping that could not have occurred in the years of the past. You have in your scriptures many references to a state of social upheaval that is called Armageddon. You have known of old that in due times and seasons events of a terrific nature were coming upon the earth when the hosts of the dark ones were to arise and give battle to hosts of shining presences led by Jesus the Christ. You have wondered how these matters could have been foretold to the day and the hour.

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THE POWER OF KARMA We instruct you now that it is because the revolutions of heavenly planets are known, calculated to the fraction of a moment in space. It is known which of the planets exert beneficial influences and which detrimental. Thus, when they arrive at certain special formations to the fraction of a minute, it can be foretold ages ahead exactly what will happen. It is the oldest of sciences, and forsooth, the truest. At the present time, we tell you, much of that which is prophesied in the book of Revelation is to come to fruition. You have lived through a devastating world war in which you saw nothing of more consequence than the avarice of nations causing them to take up arms to annihilate one another in the interests of commerce. We tell you that it was but the prelude to a greater tribulation that is now upon you in its fourfold phase. Let that be as it may. We are not here to fill you with alarms, but to warn you solemnly how to behave when the times grow more difficult, and when those will be saved who have the sign upon their foreheads. The gigantic planetary influences that are shortly to be felt, are enhancing the powers of those retrogade souls of which we have told you -there are more of them who have incarnated

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COMMUNICATIONS FROM OTHER PLANES 79 than at any other time in modern world history. They are willing to be led into a test of strength, to challenge the powers of the CHRIST and His followers, to prove that the God-force they pervert in their blundering is as potent to make them supreme on this planet as the God-force as expressed through the CHRIST and His followers is potent to render them supine and harmless. These two great alignments of powers are coming to grips in this generation. Thousands of you have incarnated to be present on the side of Right, to be ministers and instructors for Christ in that time of upheaval. That time is upon you in its opening phases. Presently the times will grow worse, much as we invite criticism for preaching calamity. But it will mark the approaching of the crisis. Men shall say in that day: "The earth is Satan's, let him have it." But CHRIST shall say: "The earth is Mine, and as Mine I take it !" THAT TAKING, TOO, BELOVED BRETHREN, IS IN PROGRESS. The unlearned of the earth are handicapped in interpreting the times in which both dwell, the dark and the Light, the pure and the impure. They profess to see ordinary causes at work, to perceive only the comings and goings of statesmen employed in their affairs as they

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80 THE POWER OF KARMA have always been employed. They know not of great changes taking place beneath the earth, of portents and manifestations, of mighty cataclysms that have been unleashed before, and will occur again. They think that volcanic eruptions are due to the play of blind, natural forces. They think great tidal waves happen by chance. They see in storms only the by-play of elements causing destruction by nature's whim and accident. They do not recall a time when a vast continent sunk beneath the waves because those upon it had disported themselves evilly, even as there are those upon the earth planet disporting themselves in similar fashion anew. But you who are wise in your superior discernments, wrought from psychical wisdom, should perceive that there are gifts and powers not known to the world of ordinary mortals, that forewarn and thus forearm those who have the stamina to exercise them and bring them to a state that renders them effective. The Churches of the world know nothing of this. This is because the great ecclesiastical systems of the world are not the world's saviours. The world will be saved by a goodly band of men and women who have constituted the real Church of old, and who have come into flesh to

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COMMUNICATIONS FROM OTHER PLANES 81 found it anew in the hearts of the races when the purging time has ended. Now we speak to you in matters concerning yourselves. First, take no thought where you shall be or what you shall do to render yourselves immune from the tempest as it rises. Those who have the sign of wisdom on their foreheads have no cause to fear that which impends. But this mark of wisdom needs explanation. It Long ages ago it was a fact in nature that men were created with a Great Third Eye, of which you have small knowledge. The eye was the eye of spirit. It perceived a trillion miles afar, and into the heart of the frailest flower. observed the heavenly planets for what they were, that which they were in interstellar essence, potencies for good or evil, rendering an account of astronomical science in which the most advanced mathematicians of your day are as infant-students. It opened to men the catastrophies of nature in advance; it showed them men's thoughts and how they function. It saw upward; it saw inward. It perceived human souls by their cosmic radiations while still encased in substance. It performed other marvels of which you have no knowledge. As man sank farther and farther into the

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82 THE POWER OF KARMA hardness of his flesh, that eye receded inward, and became as a lodgment of Aesh in the brain. But ever and often it comes to fruition in those of superior attainments in past lives, marking them out for a species of leadership. It results in seership, in clairvoyant gifts, in a type of intellect that perceives the hearts of men, their innermost ambitions, without the necessity for physical speech. AS THE HUMAN SPIRIT LOSES CONSCIOUSNESS OF ITS BODY AS ITS REAL IDENTITY, FORSAKING THE ACKNOWLEDGMENT THAT FLESH IS IDENTITY, THIS EYE AWAKENS AND FUNCTIONS ONCE AGAIN, EVEN AS IT WEAKENED AND BECAME EMASCULATED WITH THE HARDENING OF FLESH UPON, AROUND, AND OVER ITS FUNCTIONING AS THE INTERSTELLAR ORGAN OF SPIRITUAL PERCEPTION. We tell you that those of you who embrace the doctrine that the body is not the spirit, that spirit can divorce itself from body and yet live ; as you dwell upon the fact that you are Christ's in your own rights, of an order of Light that is really angelic, you begin to awaken that dormant Third Eye, and it manifests again as it manifested once when all flesh was spirit. You perceive its workings and wonders. We tell you that it is foreordained that in the day when the planets in their orbits send strange

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COMMUNICATIONS FROM OTHER PLANES 83 rays and powers upon this earth, those rays and powers will augment the spiritual eye that lies dormant in your intellects. YOU HAVE A LITERAL SIGN UPON YOUR FOREHEADS, PLACED BETWEEN YOUR EYEBROWS ! DOUBT IT NOT! WE SPEAK WHEREOF WE KNOW ! NOW, THAT SIGN UPON THE FOREHEAD IS EVER THE MARK OF THE SOUL IN CHRIST. It is ever the mark of those aligned with the great truth of Light. It is the Mark of those who have incarnated to render unto God the things that are God's, and found a new order in the current generation. We tell you that, being creatures of an angelic order, you have this third eye, with its functions lying dormant. And as you take thought and dwell upon the truths that we would teach you, you awaken it dimly. Did not our beloved Lord declare: If thine eye be single thy whole body shall be full of light? You cannot imagine he meant the physical eye, for a oneeyed person is handicapped in sight. But the single third eye is quite another thing. Verily shall the whole body be filled with intellectual light when those who are of Our Company awaken those faculties that restore them to their Godhood. There are in this world at present an order of gross and beastly men, enemies of Christ, who

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THE POWER OF KARMA shall presently declare to the rest of the races : "We are captains of finance and overlords of commerce. We have preserved our assets while you have been wasting. We have possessed ourselves of the increment of earthly wealth, and made ourselves princes in goods of this world. Thereby have we proven that we are omnipotent. We do not admit Christ to reign over us. We will have none of Him, and less of His followers. We are come upon this earth to subdue it and hold it. We hold the powers of life and death in our hands, and at our judgments, for are we not dispensers of foodstuffs that keep the races of men in existence ? Therefore if they bow not down to us and acknowledge us as princes of this earth, we decree that they starve, and who is there to stop us?" That day is close, close following on the heels of world-wide depression. Already the nations of Europe are bankrupt. But what is that bankruptcy? What but decrees of those who sit in high places behind barricades of finance, harassing the race. But men who are not of their order, spurred on by interstellar forces in that moment shall cry aloud, saying: "Who are those who thus dictate to us? Is not the earth God's ? Does not God give us increase ? By what right are

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COMMUNICATIONS FROM OTHER PLANES 85 we beholden to princes of finance, who have shut us away from every goodly gift bestowed by the Father ? Let us seek them out, and slay them." Whereupon shall come a Great Tumult. And you shall see that tumult. When those of the humble rank and file discern with accuracy the devastation wrought, to the end and aim that certain of the races shall be reduced to a vassalage, then those who have done the scheming shall pay with their blood. It is no pretty thing to think about, but you will find it in your Bible. You will find it in the utterances of your modern prophets who nightly commune with those not in flesh. Your beloved relatives on this side speak of it, for they see it in the making far plainer than you dream. You ask if there is nothing you can do to obviate your part in this suffering. WE TELL YOU SOLEMNLY THAT ONLY DO YOU SUFFER AS YOU ELECT TO BE LED BY THOSE WHO WALK IN DARKNESS. A light comes to you presently. As the forces of earth grow darker and darker in their outward manifestations, so does your lamp of understanding shine farther in its radiance ! And what is that radiance ? KNOWING THAT OF WHICH WE HAVE WARNED YOU, WE TELL YOU

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86 THE POWER OF KARMA THAT YOU CAN ESCAPE THAT SUFFERING BY MINISTERING! The time has come to tell you that as you minister, so shall you be saved! As you join the ranks of those who presently walk with the Sign on their foreheads, so are your wants supplied by those who recompense you for the services performed to them and their children. Thousands of you are wondering how you are to persist and carry on in times of great duress, when your larders are lean and specie of no value. We tell you that as you persist in following the old paths of gain, administering to none but yourself and your families, so will you grow leaner in girth and harder to influence in ways of salvation. But as you turn yourselves to accept the teaching that we give you and hand it on to others, so shall you be saved from this hand of starvation. HE WHO FINDS FOOD FOR HIS BROTHER'S MOUTH SHALL FIND MEAT FOR HIS OWN. We tell you that as you neglect these admonitions to take thought of your spiritual selves and understand this darkness descending on the nations you shall in no wise be spared. IT IS THE MARK OF DIVINITY TO SERVE. What can you do to help someone near you who is stressed by the times? How many of

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COMMUNICATIONS FROM OTHER PLANES 87 you can answer that question? How many of you can instruct those in your household, in your street, your neighbourhood, your city, as to causes and reasons for that which is upon you? How many of you are ready and willing to become bearers of the truth? To go out among men and proclaim the new order, when Christ shall sit enthroned over statecraft and commerce, and men shall give heed to his wisdom? We tell you that you have within the centre of your brain a great Third Eye, single in its power, beautiful in purpose. Do you cultivate that eye that it may later serve you. First, dwell upon the fact that this single eye is there. Talk to it consciously. Command that it function. Make it show you pictures when you close your eyes at night. Dwell on those pictures. Each one of you, on falling into slumber, sees phantasmagoria moving hither and yon across the screen of his perceptions. Develop the habit of watching them closely. Distinguish forms and scenes that will quickly come clear as the thought is focused on them. Hold them before you night after night. Think, as you do so, "I am not of my body, I am only in my body. Behold, I can go out and mingle with these objects seen

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88 THE POWER OF KARMA thus with higher senses. I can thus be in my body protecting it against persons who are evil; I can also perceive what is happening at a distance." We tell you of no mysteries that are not matters of constant practice by those who have attained to understanding. As you give of your substance, so do you gain. As you give of your perceptions, so do you obtain vision. As you give of your services, so are you served. The correspondent from whom I received the above script writes that he met a Hindoo, Manilil Parik, of Roykot, Kathiawar, India, who possessed this third eye development. "He could tell," he writes, "by looking at my 'light body' that I had purified my mind by much fasting and prayer." This third eye is depicted on figures of Buddha by a circular knob protruding from the forehead. It is the organ of clairvoyant or spiritual vision, and by its means the inner sensorium is illuminated, and perceives what is hidden from material sight. It reveals the inner nature of outward objects, can see beyond the things of sense which are illusory, to the realm of reality. When in course of time mankind in general has developed the third eye, it will be

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COMMUNICATIONS FROM OTHER PLANES 89 possible to see those who have left this earth, and enjoy their companionship. Another friend sends me an account of a seance at which the medium, in a trance, described a remarkable feat which he said he was watching at the time of the seance. He described a man leaping from an aeroplane and dropping on to the wing of another plane flying beneath him. He gave a picture of the scene where this was taking place, and stated that he was in Mexico. A short time afterwards one of the Sunday newspapers published a picture of this daring feat, and it was found to have been performed at the hour the seance was being held in Birmingham. This clairvoyant faculty is in common use amongst those who have attained to the higher Yoga, of which I have given an extended account in my former work. It proves, among other things, that in the human body are organs which, when developed, can put man in touch with things afar, whether on the material or supra-material plane. The perfection of television as a mechanical device will familiarize people with conceptions which would have been dismissed as incredible a short time ago. The following record of a communication received by myself without the employment of

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THE POWER OF KARMA a medium, or any intermediary, may interest my readers. I was sitting in my room one night, alone. The silence could be felt to an almost uncanny degree. I had just finished preparing a lecture on psychology to be delivered next day. It was nearing the hour of midnight, when I heard a knock on the door of my room : Taptap-tap. Rap-tap-tap-tap. I called out, "Come in," thinking it was one of my colleagues coming to discuss some problem or other. The door opened slowly, but I could see no one. I got up to close the door, when I was startled by a voice : "Don't you trouble, Brother, I'll close it." There was no question of hallucination or a trick of the imagination. I could compare the voice with the loudness of a clock which was ticking in the room. The door closed; then the voice said, "Put those lights out, and you'll see me." I did so, and there before my eyes I clearly saw the form of a sage; whereupon the sage explained that he could control the physical through the astral plane, and recalled an occasion known to me when I was on the Western front. Smiling benevolently on me, he continued, "I am the ghost of the castle; I remember you in the days of the War; you did not see me, but I was the invisible power that lit a light in E- Castle every night when there was not

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COMMUNICATIONS FROM OTHER PLANES 91 going to be an air raid. You recall how the French villagers, in time, noticed that it was only on the nights when the light did not shine that the enemy dropped their deadly bombs on innocent villagers and brave airmen at the aerodrome near by, to which you were attached. You know they thought it was a spy, and you recall how carefully you searched every inch of the castle with Major X, when everyone else was afraid for their lives, but you never found anything. Why? Because there was no spy there, but a friend from the Astral Planes, who lit a great psychic light all could see, except the enemy. You did not know that, Cannon, and yet how often you cursed that light, little knowing its history and the motive behind that phenomenon." I had now found the solution to one of the many little problems I had to face in those terrible haunting days of the War. Then, as I was just going to ask my astral visitor what his motive was in coming to see me all these many years afterwards, he continued : "I have waited for this night when your physical body would have reached that etheric vibration when you could contact the astral world whilst in the waking state. You have written within recent times two books on occult matters, but you have

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92 THE POWER OF KARMA only been the instrument used to write these books, which were really written by the Great White Brotherhood, to whom we both belong. You will have uphill fights, but you will conquer, and be used as a power for good in the bringing about of a new Heaven and a new earth." The face of my venerable visitor was that of a Patriarch, his beard that of a savage, and his clothes those of another generation; he was dressed all in white. He next proceeded to demonstrate his astrophysical powers, telling me to watch the wall of my room. I obeyed, and at first nothing happened. Then the wall became more and more cloudy, and at the same time transparent, and soon I felt a sensation as if I were riding on air. He then said, "Turn round and look down." On doing so, I saw the room beneath me where I had been sitting a few moments ago, and my "sleeping" physical body in the chair. Indicating the body, he said: "That is only a case you use for a time to make yourself visible to men, but I tell you of a truth, the day is not far distant when the astral world will be visible to those on the physical plane, just as the physical world is now visible to the astral." After some further experiences, which it would take too long to record here, I returned to my physical body,

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COMMUNICATIONS FROM OTHER PLANES 93 which was stiff, immovable, and cold. It was many minutes before I could move a limb, and when I did, it was just as if an electric spark of static current passed through it. It was but I a.m., only an hour since I had first met my guide. He faded into etheric space, and was no longer visible to earthly eyes, but his presence is now ever with me. Around me and about me are the everlasting arms."

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CHAPTER V VIBRATIONS AND RAYS EVERY day we hear of some new discovery in connection with rays of one kind or another. Science tells us that we pass our lives in a world of vibrations and rays, of waves and wavelengths. A writer in The Evening News (Sept. 30th, 1935), Mr. W. Shepherd, points out that though we may not all be "little rays of sunshine," every one of us is certainly a little bundle of rays of something. From distant ages astrologers have insisted that planetary rays are accountable for many things which happen to the earth and its inhabitants, for wars and earthquakes, prosperity and adversity, and the incidents and accidents of mortal life. Now we find that even more powerful than any solar, lunar, or planetary rays, are the universal cosmic rays which act upon us continually from the depths of space. The cosmic rays are thirty-six times as powerful as X-rays, and constitute one-tenth of all the radiation which falls on the earth, excepting that 94

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VIBRATIONS AND RAYS 95 received from the sun. They are of so penetrating a character that they pass unimpeded through several yards of lead. On the other hand, we are able to detect and photograph the infinitesimal waves of thought which are discharged by an active brain at the rate of two thousand per second. The apparatus which accomplishes this astonishing feat has recently been perfected at Cambridge University. Many years ago Dr. Baraduc, of Paris, obtained photographic records of the invisible radiations of human thought, and must accordingly be regarded as a pioneer in the detection of thoughtwaves. With regard to the most recent investigations into the properties of rays hitherto unfamiliar to us,* there comes news of the claim of a young Hungarian, Mr. Pibril, that he has discovered a ray which renders objects invisible when they are subjected to its action. To demonstrate this, he placed a chair on the stage of a theatre in Budapest, and on the chair a number of articles. The stage was fully lighted. The chair was coated with a substance upon which the ray had no effect, but the articles were not so treated. The ray being turned on, the articles placed on the chair disappeared from view, the chair * The Evening Standard, December 17, 1935.

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96 THE POWER OF KARMA remaining visible. Similarly, when two women stood beside the chair, they disappeared when the ray was turned upon them, and when the ray was switched off they became visible again, the chair remaining in sight throughout the demonstration. Mr. Pibril states that if a sufficiently powerful ray is thrown on the wall of a room it is possible for one to see through the wall into the adjoining room. This ray was discovered accidentally while Mr. Pibril was attempting to produce a cinema film which would show up in three dimensions. He is at present in this country, and is prepared to demonstrate his discovery. From one of my correspondents, Mr. Clarence Klug, of Los Angeles, I recently received an account of the work of one of the most brilliant scientists of our time, viz., Dr. George Crile, of the Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio. Experiments were made by him with "Heavy Water" in which the atomic structure of water was changed by altering its specific frequencies. My readers are aware that each of the chemical elements has its own specific frequency; many of these have been definitely determined; but the list of these specific frequencies is still incomplete, because the need remains for an instrument capable of measuring the frequencies

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VIBRATIONS AND RAYS 97 of certain substances. Even the Primary Standard of Frequency apparatus of the Western Electricity Co. cannot meet this requirement. My correspondent passes on to a description of one of the most remarkable experiments yet made, which was carried out by the General Electric Company at Schenectady, New York. A one-inch cube of rock was placed between two metal plates, with a one-ounce weight placed on top of the rock. "In stepping up and stepping down the transformers, they reached a frequency whereby the rock lifted itself and the one-ounce weight a number of inches in the air ; perhaps, you would say, levitated the rock. The greatest precautions were taken to prevent any leakage or information as to this event, and the public never heard of it. Again," continues this communication, "last October, a friend of mine in Toronto, Canada, devised an instrument that actually grew gold content in a piece of quartz by extracting the content from the atmosphere. In his own words and those of the Professor of Chemistry at the Collegiate Institute of Toronto, they began with a piece of gold-bearing quartz weighing 8.2, and after treating it with changing frequencies, it weighed 10.6, a gain of 2.4. They presented the device and method to the Prime Minister of Canada as a gift. These things are

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98 THE POWER OF KARMA mentioned," he adds, "merely to convey my interest and belief that frequency or 'vibration' is that which one should learn to control in order to intelligently fit into the scheme of things, or of life. Is it not possible that Love, as meant by Jesus, is that frequency that incorporates all lesser ones, thereby converting lesser or lower things into greater and more splendid things ?" I will quote one more passage from a letter written by Dr. Crile, which has reference to an experiment made upon the brain. "Short-wave radiation can eject electrons from their position and send them along the microscopic lines of conductance that connect the cells of the grey matter with the vast network of patterns of action in the white matter which make up the electric circuits. That is to say, the final effect of the generation of short-wave radiation in the brain-cells is to furnish electric current to the vast network of white matter in the brain, in the spinal cord, in the nerve trunks, and in the sympathetic nervous system which finally connects the billions of cells in the grey matter of the brain with the still greater number of cells constituting muscles and glands and tissue. The billions of cells constituting the grey matter furnish energy in response to the stimulation of the special senses." Radiations from protoplasm are measured by a very intricate method, the details of which will

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99 VIBRATIONS AND RAYS be given in a monograph which we hope will be published during the coming year. In brief, we effect this in two ways, by oxidizing a whole brain and measuring the resultant radiations, and immediately, from the exposed brain by means of a Geiger-Muller Counter, attached to a specially constructed photo-electric cell. The radiations emitted by oxidation of tissue are shown by photography, using quartz and vita-glass filters. Last year, Dr. Crile and his assistants demonstrated before the National Academy of Sciences at Cleveland that brain-tissue gives off a visible radiation, and also infra-red radiations and radiations of wave-lengths beyond the ultraviolet. Chemicals that decrease this radiation are poisonous, and experiments with chloroform and ether indicate that certain radiations of the short infra-red, and of the ultra-violet type, are necessary for the existence of consciousness. Small quantities of alcohol added to the brain increase radiations, while large quantities decrease it. "The brain of animals," Dr. Crile stated, "shines by its own light; the sun shines again in the protoplasm of animals." It seems as though there may be an inexhaustible field for research in the study of these lately-revealed forms of light.* In his "Bi-polar Theory of Living Processes," Scc The New York Times, November 22nd, 1934.

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100 THE POWER OF KARMA Dr. Crile says that the brain is the positive electrical pole of the human organism, and the liver is the negative electrical pole. It follows that there cannot be disease or impairment of the liver without the brain being affected ; and, similarly, the liver must suffer from trouble in the brain. Incidentally, it may be mentioned that, according to astrology, the liver is ruled by Jupiter. The seat of good fortune may thus possibly be traced to a healthy liver, and its beneficial action on the brain, though I only offer this suggestion in passing. In the study of vibrations we acquire knowledge which concerns every activity of the mind and body; of thought, feelings, desires and emotions. It is a matter of common experience that music and perfume directly affect the emotional part of our being. A particular scent will not only reawaken a memory, but restore the emotional mood with which that memory is associated. Though expressions of the intangible and the invisible, such recoveries speak to us in the language of the soul; they set in action certain vibrations which reach to the depths of our being. This region of the emotions is a secret chamber, the key to which varies with cach individual.

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VIBRATIONS AND RAYS 101 It is a general habit of man to overvalue his intellectual world, and to underestimate his emotional life. The inner chamber which is the seat and source of the emotions is a place of silence. As darkness brings relief to the tired eye, so silence provides a sanctuary of rest to the over-burdened ear and restores vitality to the harassed nerves. By retiring into this silent chamber we have access to a finer range of vibrations beyond the din of the outward senses. Here we listen to "The Song that has no sound." The well-known writer, the late Clifford Harrison, has left some verses on this subject which are worth recalling : No thought we feel, yet cannot quite expressNo momentary wish or willingness To make joy purer, or one pain the less, But carries on the "Song that has no sound." See how all colours lose themselves in light, They still are there though they have fled our sight, So Music, at a point, from us takes flight Into the perfect "Song that has no sound." Oh, love of lovers, and all love that lies Twixt souls that on the flame of love arise, What are ye but the far-off melodies That reach us from "The Song that has no sound ?" As I have already pointed out, there is an analogy and a correspondence to be found between

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IO2 THE POWER OF KARMA music and colour; and the seven notes of the scale may be compared to the prismatic colours of the rainbow. The colours emerge from darkness-no light, and the notes may be said to come from silence--no sound. "On the other side of silence," says Mr. Harrison, "are the Spirit's harmonies." By the employment of hypnotism the impressions evoked by various scents on the emotional centres can be studied in some detail, and a remarkable correspondence has been found to exist between certain colours and perfumes. The famous exponent of Transcendental Magic, Eliphas Levi, gives a list of fumigations used as incense, to which various colours are assigned, as under : PURPLE INCENSE, consisting of saffron, cinnamon, and red sanders. GREEN INCENSE, consisting of benzoin, mace, and storax. SCARLET INCENSE, consisting of balm, ambergris, saffron, and grains of paradise. BLUE INCENSE, consisting of violets and roses. Black INCENSE, consisting of sulphur, scammony, alum, and assafoetida. WHITE INCENSE, consisting of camphor, amber, aloes, white sandal, and cucumber seeds.

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VIBRATIONS AND RAYS 103 This interesting catalogue offers a field for experiment to those interested in the subject. Mr. S. Piesse, Mr. P. H. Baslick, and others, found, in the course of experiments, that every perfume has its own effect upon the olfactory nerves, just as a musical note has upon the auditory nerves. Heavy odours of the oriental perfumes correspond in their vibrations to the lower notes, while sharp and delicate scents correspond to the higher notes of the musical scale. I anticipate that by, correlating the testimony of trained sensitives with observations obtained by the employment of hypnosis, it may be possible to assign a definite musical note to particular perfumes, extending over several octaves of sound vibrations. To effect this, an instrument must be perfected which will measure the vibrations of perfumes registered on the olfactory nerves. The Olfactometer designed by H. Zwaardsmaker, marked a step towards this end. We can conclude that colour, music, and perfume, are directly interrelated with one another, and afford a further illustration of the harmony underlying all manifestations that combine to make human perception the measure of all things. The parallels which may be observed between

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104 THE POWER OF KARMA sound and colour have received wide attention, and from a study of these has been developed "colour music". Public demonstrations of this have been given with some success, and the use of colour in scenic effects has been freely adopted in theatres. It is now generally recognized that colour vibrations directly affect the nervous system, and emotional centres. The employment of coloured light for treatment of mental disorders is acknowledged as a useful branch of therapeutics, and I have given special attention to devising a system of treatment on these principles. As I have already stated in my book, "Powers That Be", disease is a vibratory disorder, and when humanity learns that everything that exists is subject to vibration, a great diseaseless future will dawn for the world. The colour rays of the spectrum are manifested in the following order, from lowest to highestred, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. The masters of the various rays are those who form the Great White Lodge. In the following table I give the results of a series of investigations which I have made towards determining the correspondences between colours, sounds, metals, and the planets, in which I was assisted by various psychic subjects.

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Colours RED ORANGE YELLOW GREEN BLUE INDIGO VIOLET : : Symbol Body Soul Spirit (feminine) Planet Earth Sun Mercury Saturn Jupiter Venus Moon Metal : : Iron Gold Mercury Lead Tin Aluminium Copper Silver aot an earthly colour Vamber : Fire and 4 Light Heavenly Power Quality Justice .. Mars, also Strength Wrath Faith Pride Prudence Idleness Temperance Gluttony Love Luxury Hope Avarice Envy VIBRATIONS AND RAYS Mastery Intelligence Perfection Work Inner forces healing Prana life force spiritually associated with the physical state The keynote of the physical planc. The link between nature and supernature Spiritual mind. Spirit-soul higher mind incarnating ego. Human intellect joined to the soul : UNIVERSAL MIND B Piano Keynote .. . c Doh 105 Teh

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106 THE POWER OF KARMA The Red ray is associated with life-force, struggle and mastery. The Orange ray is associated with physical vitality. The Yellow ray with intellectual power, and mental activity. The Green ray with spiritual development and growth on all planes ; a cheerful, energizing colour. The Blue ray with devotion, serene faith, and mental poise. The Indigo ray with the attainment of poise and controlled power, resulting in harmony. The Violet ray with healing, and the utilization of force drawn from higher planes. The RED ray is the Spiritual Life Force (although its complementary colour, green, is good for spiritual development). By working through the RED ray there are those who came out of great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. (Revelation vii, 13-14). MosT REFERENCES IN THE BIBLE AS TO BLOOD REFER TO THE RED RAY. RED is the colour of the life-force, but not of PRANA (orange) (see Ch. 1, "Powers That Be"). RED has the lowest vibration; the lowest aspects of red are, warmth-passion and war. The higher aspects are, strength-courage and love.

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VIBRATIONS AND RAYS 107 MARS corresponds to the red ray, and the metal is IRON. In occult language we are in the IRON AGE. All Bible history and the world from its beginning has been in the RED ray, and all who function in RED are active during this time, and the Ruler is the Master of the RED ray: all the others are functioning, but are complementary to the RED ray. Each individual has his own colour, indicating what he must strive for. The higher up in the spectrum the colour of the individual, the more evolved is the soul. When one colour is attained, he must strive to progress to the next. ORANGE is the colour of Pranic Life Force, which flows in the blood. It is cheerful, forceful, having the Sun as its symbol of life, spirituality, and physical state. RED and ORANGE are masculine colours. The metal of Orange is GOLD. It is the highest metal, and has been debased for barter. GREEN is a feminine colour. It is the middle note in Nature. F-natural, for Fa, in music. Like the green in the spring, it excites a desire to grow, to do, to create, to accomplish. Green indicates the highest point attainable by physical man and nature. It is the keynote of the physical plane. It is the colour of worldly power

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108 THE POWER OF KARMA and the success due to worldly attainments. Its lower aspects are envy and greed. It is the link between nature and supernature. Without it, there could be no stable basis upon which, and through which, the higher forces could act. Its planet is SATURN; the binder, and also the reaper ; he who limits physical manifestation from which is reaped the seed of spiritual attainment. The Saturn force must be faced and conquered upon this planet. Its metal is LEAD. INDIGO is not blue, but a colour by itself. It represents Spiritual Mind: the power of the spiritual plane brought to earth and manifested through man, as contrasted with human mind or intellect. It is human intellect joined to the soul and permeated by the spirit, forming the HIGHER TRIAD or INCARNATING EGO. Whilst green represents the highest point to which physical intellect of man can reach, INDIGO represents this same intellect overshadowed and inspired by something from above-the Divine Mind. It is the power of inspiration higher than the green can give, which enables man to project his consciousness into realms above those capable of being reached by intellect alone. The planet is VENUS, and like her, it has two aspects, whilst it always represents the spiritual mind, it is often submerged and held down to worldly

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VIBRATIONS AND RAYS 109 concerns in spite of its ability to soar into the universal mind, and bring to man Divine thought. All indigo in nature helps to raise man to his super-mind. The metal is COPPER. All colours are produced by certain vibrations, which differ for each individual colour. In numbers, the same law is operative, seven is the number of EVOLUTION, eight connotes WHITE, wherein the vibrations are raised into the higher octave. Nine becomes the number of Black or Initiation. Nine is the highest number; after that follows nought. The same in music : 9 corresponds to the pause or death before the higher phase. Upon earth, this pause seems to be silent, but in reality on the spiritual plane it is a definite tone, and swallows up all tones, just as black swallows up all colours, and is no colour itself. The SEVEN COLOURS are born from the pure white light, or no colour upon the physical plane, which in tum is bom from black. Thus black and white are spiritually the same, and are at the two ends of the spiritual spectrum. PURE WHITE is not known upon this earth, where it is always tinged with blue or yellow, and sometimes violet. To gain some idea of the limitation of the

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110 THE POWER OF KARMA human senses as regards the perception of vibrations, it is instructive to study the most recent tables giving the spectrum of ether vibrations, as already ascertained and measured by scientific methods. They afford a most suggestive and impressive revelation of the magnitude and range of the ultra-physical universe. The insignificance of the human being, and of his capacity as a unit in a scheme of illimitable extension overwhelms the inquirer into the wonders of creation. He is compelled to exclaim with the Psalmist: "Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law." Knowledge, as it increases, must ever lead towards reverence and humility. The power conferred by knowledge is an appreciation of relative values, enabling us to attach importance to that which is in accord with the "laws of God", so far as they are ascertainable. Dr. James Kendall, F.R.S., in his work, "At Home Among the Atoms", has made it clear that as a matter of fact we do not know yet what light waves consist of. They are merely, as Lord Kelvin said, "The nominative of the verb to undulate." According to the Schrodinger theory, the nearest we can come to defining an atom is to call it "an aura surrounding a cavity".

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VIBRATIONS AND RAYS III We may try to envisage the atom as described by Dr. Kendall, but we shall be unable to do so unless we can finally track it to its "spiritual home". We may then fully grasp the fact that "God is spirit."

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CHAPTER VI THE ASTRAL BODY AND THE ETHERIC BODY THE diagrams given below illustrate the relationship of the etheric body to the astral body to the physical body, and what is meant by the etheric double. The ETHERIC BODY is a strip of ether marked A, which may be shown as light streaks when the astral body has been discarded some time after the death of the physical body. The ASTRAL BODY surrounds the etheric body, and is more or less egg-shaped, and is spoken of in the Scriptures as the "golden bowl" because of its shape, and the orange ray emanating from it : I have marked it B in my sketch. The PHYSICAL BODY is indicated by the dotted lines. The ETHERIC DOUBLE is indicated by the radiating lines of force, the short being positive, and the long ones being negative. You will notice that both the astral and etheric bodies are sexless, having no extremities. The etheric double is the connecting link between

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THE ASTRAL BODY AND ETHERIC BODY 113 100 OR AEtheric Body) ETHERIC DOUBLE (Rays From the 1 H HEALTH x B + + The Astral Body linked up with the Etheric Body by the positive and negative vibrations from the Etheric Body (known as the Etheric Double)

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114 THE POWER OF KARMA the etheric and astral bodies and between these bodies and the physical body. When the main positive-negative vibration at the glabella (between the eyes) region of the physical body is + ETNERIC BODY ETHERIC D'OUBLE (Rays from the Erthen The negative rays curl and short-cur. rent with the positive rays 3 DISEASE neutralized, the "silver cord" connecting the physical and astral bodies is said to have broken loose: "When the silver cord becomes unloosened" (or even the silver cord be loosed). The etheric body can send out longer or

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THE ASTRAL BODY AND ETHERIC BODY 115 shorter positive and negative vibrations, and this is why the appearance of those vibrations outside the physical body-line are known as the "etheric double", which is the aura, depending upon the etheric power which the etheric body can send out and the brightness of the golden bowl or astral body, permitting greater ease in the transmission of those rays. The astral body can be used as a mirror to reflect disordered vibrations in the physical body, and this is how mediums and hypnotic subjects diagnose disease, anguish, and the general mental outlook of the individual. Where the vibrations tend to neutralize, the negative long vibrations tend to curve in and contact the positive vibrations, causing "shortcircuiting" and the "aura" is dulled and "spotted" as shown on the Kilner screen. A powerful static current of about 450,000 volts, played on to a metal laid on the body, down the spine and over the solar plexus, which is insulated from the body by effective insulation and earthing, contacts the "aura" or etheric double (which is the "tuning fork" of the body) and by causing the negative vibrations to contract, straightens them, and so prevents the "short-circuiting". This explains the beneficial effects of static treatment, if used properly.

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116 THE POWER OF KARMA The astral body leaves the physical body through the area known as the glabella (between the eyes) which is the strongly positive physical pole, and re-enters through the nape of the neck or the strong negative physical pole of the body, both interlinked with the astral-etheric poles. This proves the truth stated by spiritualist mediums that an "entity" enters by the nape of the neck (actually a little to the left side, because if the etheric body were truly centralized the "entity" could not enter). The static current of 450,000 volts (no amperage) or a good "depossessing medium" can correct this by putting right the "tuning fork" of the body, which is the etheric double. All the chakras are delineated down the etheric streak, and are reflected on to the astral body, and from it on to the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system centres in the physical body. They are the charging centres, and may be likened to powerful accumulators. It will now be observed how an "entity" can get caught up when the negative "hooks", as it were and when the "hooking" of the negative is straightened, no matter by what means be it static current, mediumistic powers, stimulation of the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems by endocrine and other medicinal treat

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THE ASTRAL BODY AND ETHERIC BODY 117 ment, or X treatment--then the "entity" or "possession" of "adverse vibration" must lose hold, but as to whether the result is permanent depends upon how far the "hooks" have been completely straightened out. Epilepsy has an "aura" displaced to the right (as shown by Kilner); then the etheric double is to the right, accompanied with the astral and etheric bodies. In this way "snort-circuiting" occurs, and frequently self-charging to an undue degree, which, when it reaches a certain "voltage" discharges suddenly in the form of a "fit". Herein lies the secret to the cure of epilepsy. By a careful study of the above diagrams and explanations accompanying them, the reader may gain the assurance that he is in possession of facts concerning the astral and etheric bodies. I am aware that innumerable books and articles have been written on these subjects, and a vast amount of information has been offered for public consumption as to the composition and operation of the astral body, its projection and excursions on the astral plane, and so on. I feel bound to state that much of this proffered information is imaginative and misleading. It will be seen that the three bodies, physical, astral, and etheric, are co-existent during earthly life. The vibrations of the astral body differ from

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118 THE POWER OF KARMA those of the physical body, and accordingly the substance of the physical body differs from that of the astral. In order to liberate the activities of the astral body from the bonds of physical matter so that it may freely contact the range of vibrations beyond physical matter, it is necessary to reduce the body to a less assertive state. Fasting, concentration of the mind, and prayer tend to refine the physical vehicle and quicken the astral organism. Under hypnosis and during sleep the astral body has an opportunity of functioning in comparative freedom. It is to be noted that in either case, the astral body is, so far as the average individual is concemed, not completely under control of the individual. This fact is indicated by the confused imagery and shadowy records of most dreams. Astral travelling is a fact, whether people like to believe it or not, and is controlled by two types of vibrations. One is a very rapid vibration known as telepathy, and the other is a fairly slow vibration known as clairvoyance : the former works best in a blue light, and the latter works best in an orange-red vibration. I have demonstrated the truth of this very clearly during the last few months to several scientific friends when I was up north. In sleep, telepathy prevails in the "ordinary"

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THE ASTRAL BODY AND ETHERIC BODY 119 person, whereas in the medium and trained clairvoyant(e) astral travelling is also in evidence. In clairvoyance, speech is unknown, and is in fact unknown in dreams as ordinarily understood ; that auditory hallucination is produced in a more or less unconscious state of the dreamer confirms telepathy. Many phenomena related by spiritualist mediums are accounted for by telepathy, but not all phenomena. A person who sees your grandmother standing beside you in her early Victorian clothes would be giving evidence of an incompetent Deity, if it were true that your grandmother was standing there in the same old clothes. Hypnotic subjects have pointed out that the grandmother was some 29,000,000 or more miles away, but was en rapport with certain etheric vibrations in the unconscious mind at that moment, and was therefore able to form the mental picture in the medium's mind of what she did look like when on earth to reveal her identity. Even the spiritualistic world has quite a mistaken conception of what people are like, what they do, and so forth ; because no medium is completely unconscious in mediumistic trance (which is not the case in hypnotic trance, when consciousness can be completely lost), and as is generally acknowledged, the "entity" or "spirit" uses the material from the mind of the individual.

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120 THE POWER OF KARMA For this reason, some of the views very firmly held in waking life, are revealed in the unconscious state of the medium, which has just that trace of consciousness to spoil a foolproof experiment. On the contrary, in hypnotic trance, controlled by a competent hypnologist, no consciousness is allowed to leak through into the unconscious, as the subconscious mind is completely in abeyance, which is not the case in mediumistic trance. Some of our best mediums have confessed to me in private that they can control to some extent "what comes through". What a confession to make ! Madame Blavatsky, the founder of the Thcosophical Society, made it quite clear that a passive medium has no power of his own, and that it is erroneous to speak of him as having powers developed. The phenomena of mediumship are due to emanations given off by the medium which form an aura. The controlling intelligences temporarily live in or draw life from this aura, and it is the vehicle by which they manifest themselves and display their power. This aura is "an external effect resulting from interior causes. The medium's moral state determines the kind of spirits that come, and the spirits that come reciprocally influence the medium, intellectually, physically, and morally."

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THE ASTRAL BODY AND ETHERIC BODY 121 For this reason it is very important that a medium should be able to live under conditions favourable to a serene condition of mind, and removed from evil influences.* The three states of consciousness with which we are familiar are : waking, sleeping, and trance. The state of trance is usually induced by an operator, though occasionally it may be selfinduced. Both in sleep and in trance the astral body is partially or completely liberated from the enfolding bonds of physical matter, except for the extremely tenuous filament by which contact is preserved with the body of flesh. In Eastem schools of initiation the astral body is withdrawn from the neophyte under the direction and control of the master, and is thus safeguarded from danger to which that of an unguarded medium is subjected. The advantage of this method of gaining experience of the astral plane is obvious, especially as the pupil is enabled to retain the memory of that experience on returning to waking consciousness. We find that many spiritualist mediums are under the protection and guidance of some being on a higher plane, who charges himself with the care of the entranced subject, and we leam that at times this task is one of difficulty owing to the intrusions of lower entities. * Vide Isis Unciled, Vol. 1.

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122 THE POWER OF KARMA The rigorous and prolonged training to which the Oriental student submits himself is voluntarily undertaken by him in order to obtain control of the mind, of desires, and passions. He knows that a strong power of will is essential for the exercise of the faculties with which he explores the unseen. The difference between the astonishing feats performed in public by the fakir and the not less astonishing phenomena of the seance room is that the fakir produces them without loss of consciousness, while the spiritistic medium is semi-conscious and deprived of willpower. Knowledge is power, and the knowledge of the East has been acquired by centuries of effort and experiment. In the West, we are beginning to be aware of the existence of an astral body, and of its interpenetration of the physical body; we have also made some discoveries as to the aura and the etheric body, which are confirmed by clairvoyance. We may look forward to a general recognition soon of those facts with which Eastern teachers have been so long conversant. Many instances can be cited of the unconscious projection of the astral body, while some students in this country have mastered the technique of conscious projection and control of their astral vehicle. The following story affords an interest

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THE ASTRAL BODY AND ETHERIC BODY 123 ing example of the exteriorisation and projection of the astral body under certain conditions. It appeared in a newspaper in the year 1898, and runs thus : Captain Benner of the brig Mohawk can testify that many strange things happen at sea. The Mobawk was engaged in the West Indian trade, and after leaving St. Thomas', homeward bound, she was beating up under short canvas against high winds and heavy seas following on a hurricane. Captain Benner, after a long spell on deck, went below at midnight, having given the first officer directions to keep on the northerly course indicated, and to call him if there was any change for the worse in the weather. He turned in on a sofa in the main cabin, but, as two bells struck, he was aware of the figure of a man, wearing a green sou'wester, standing beside him in the dim light of the cabin lamp. Then he heard the words, "Change your course to the sou'west, Captain." He got up and went on deck, to find that the weather had moderated, and the ship was making better headway. He asked the mate why he had sent down to call him, to which the officer replied that he hadn't done so. The captain, thinking he must have been dreaming, went below again, but was soon afterwards disturbed by a second visit from the man in the green sou'wester, who repeated his previous order, and vanished up the companionway. The captain, thoroughly aroused,

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124 THE POWER OF KARMA jumped up and pursued the retreating figure, but saw no one on deck, except the mate on watch, who insisted that he had not sent any messenger below. Captain Benner returned to the cabin completely mystified by the occurrence, when his strange visitor reappeared for the third time and repeated the order to change the course to sou'west, with the additional warning, "If you do not, it will soon be too late." As before, the stranger then disappeared. The captain hurried on deck and gave the necessary orders to change the ship's course to the south-west. The officers of the brig were not only surprised, but indignant, and after a consultation, decided they might have to seize the captain and put him in irons when, soon after daybreak, the look-out forward reported some object dead ahead. As the vessel drew nearer to this object, it was made out to be a ship's boat, and on bringing it abeam four men were seen lying under the thwarts, one of whom wore a green sou'wester. The Mohawk was hove to, a boat lowered, and the castaways taken aboard. They proved to be the only survivors, the captain and three hands, of a vessel which had gone down in the hurricane, and they had been drifting helplessly without food for five or six days. The rescued captain was wearing the green sou'wester. A few days later, when he had recovered sufficiently to be able to leave his berth, he was sitting in the main cabin with Captain Benner. He suddenly asked his host whether he believed in dreams. "Since I have

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THE ASTRAL BODY AND ETHERIC BODY 125 been here," he continued, "I have been thinking how familiar this cabin looks. I think I have been here before. The night before you picked me up I dreamed that I came to you here in this cabin and told you to change your course to sou'west. The first time you took no notice of me, and I came the second time, in vain ; but the third time you changed your course, and I woke to find your ship alongside of us." Captain Benner then told his own story, and identified his mysterious visitor as the captain in his green sou'wester. This story may be familiar to some of my readers, but it bears repetition for the sake of those to whom it is new. There are several points of interest in this story, particularly as regards the conditions under which the astral body was projected and able to operate effectively to a definite end. The shipwrecked captain, having been adrift for some days without food, was reduced to a condition of physical depletion so great that unconsciousness ensued. The extreme urgency of his plight had impressed itself strongly on his subconscious mind in much the same way as deep concentration produces a nucleus of energy, and with the liberation of the astral body a purposeful direction

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126 THE POWER OF KARMA controlled it in search of relief. The captain of the Mohawk had also been subjected to severe and prolonged strain in battling with the gale, and his physical energy had been also exhausted, so that his astral body was sufficiently receptive to the insistent call of the visitant astral. All the circumstances are found to be in conformity with the principles and practices observed among the trained experimenters of the East. The astral body responds to and registers feeling and emotion, being very susceptible to those vibrations which originate from sounds, colours, and scents. If not under control, it may account for the eccentricity and extravagance in thoughts and emotions which characterize hysteria and various kinds of inordinate passions and preoccupations. This is the reason why self-possession is a vital necessity. A strong ego does not become unbalanced by the invasion of emotion; it builds an astral body which is capable of resisting impulses acting upon it, and deals with joy, fear, and excitement in a discriminating and balanced manner. Such an astral body can only be obtained by effort, just as sound health is obtained by disciplining the mind and body and rejecting what is injurious.

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THE ASTRAL BODY AND ETHERIC BODY 127 The chief danger of passive mediumship is that it lays the medium open to invasions from the astral plane without the subject having acquired the poise and stability which enable him or her to control such invasions. The advice to cultivate mediumistic capacities so often advocated by spiritualists, should not be followed by those who are ignorant of the nature of the astral body and its liability to contact forces and influences which may prove disastrous to its owner. The poet who directs his thoughts and aspirations to lofty ideals, the devout worshipper, of whatever sect or faith, the soldier whose activities are centred on his conception of duty, the physician devoted to the service of his fellows, will develop an astral body of sufficient stability to resist the wandering hordes of the astral plane. Such strength and stability are an adequate protection at all times, even in times of panic and universal distraction. Physical life on earth demands that our energies should be directed to the work which, by the law of Karma, falls to our lot. In due course, such capacities and latent powers as we possess will be developed in orderly progression. At death the astral and etheric bodies withdraw from their association with the physical body,

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128 THE POWER OF KARMA and enter upon a new phase of development and expansion. The range of vibrations with which the ego is brought into contact is then extended immeasurably, and the orderly progression which is observable throughout the Universe will be continued under these unfamiliar conditions of life. From this point of view, there is no need to hurry in the desire to explore the supraphysical regions, while our work here demands our attention. It must not be inferred from this statement that I deprecate psychical research and inquiry into the Unseen, but I submit that such studies are not essential to progress, as some writers seem to imply. The opportunity to acquire such knowledge will arrive for all in due time. So much has been written on these subjects that it is, I suppose, a matter of common knowledge that the astral body reveals the character of its owner in every detail, and that it constitutes a record of thoughts, actions, and inclinations, of loves and hates, and aspirations. At the end of life on earth this record determines the place of the liberated soul on entering the next stage of existence. It will find itself in the company of those with whom it has affinity, or, in other words, goes to its own place. This fact disposes of many theories and arguments about

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THE ASTRAL BODY AND ETHERIC BODY 129 Heaven and Hell. No sermon ever delivered has contained a more powerful message than this simple statement of fact. We may draw the conclusion that if the Kingdom of Heaven is not within us, we shall not find it awaiting us at the moment of death.

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CHAPTER VII THE RATIONALE OF SPIRITUAL HEALING Much attention has, of recent years, been centred upon various methods of psychic healing, and faith healing, and I dealt with this subject in Chapter IV of "Powers That Be". The following letter was recently received from a correspondent in Los Angeles, and as it presents ideas which are worthy of the careful consideration of my readers, I pass it on to them as I received it, without comment. 729 So. Bonnie Brae, Los Angeles, California. June 29, 1935. Alexander Cannon, M.D., c/o Rider & Company, Paternoster House, E.C., London, England. Dear Sir, Having appreciated the work entailed in presenting your "Invisible Influence", I pass on an idea that may prove of interest to you. 130

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RATIONALE OF SPIRITUAL HEALING 131 That the cures wrought by Jesus were effected by the application of certain fixed principles, which, when properly formulated, constitute an intelligible transcendental mode or science of cure, there can be little doubt. His practical metaphysics are not an impenetrable and incommunicable secret. The knowledge of its leading principles is attainable by the spiritually enlightened mind to-day, and that knowledge will invest us with the power to do the works that he did. It was the practical application of the Messianic method of cure, described in symbolic language in the Kabala. In the Sohar, or Book of Light, of Rabbi Simon Ben Jochai, it is said : "In the garden of Eden (which was in the lower region of the spiritual world, corresponding to the soul region in man) there is one palace which is called the palace of the sick. The Messiah goes into this palace and invokes all the sufferings, and pains, and afflictions of Israel to come upon Him, and they all came upon Him. Now if He did not remove them thus, and take them upon Himself, no man could endure the sufferings of Israel, due as a punishment for transgressing the Law: as it is written, 'Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows'." (Isa. liu, 4). (See Ginsburg's KABALA). This remarkable passage from the Kabala gives no foundation for the current doctrine of vicarious atonement, which was wholly foreign to the Jewish mind, but gives the key to a method of healing practised by Jesus, and perhaps also by the mystic

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132 THE POWER OF KARMA Pythagorean sect of Jews called Essenes, and also in Egypt by Therapeuta or Healers, to which sect Jesus Himself unquestionably belonged. Through the sympathetic or psychometric sense, which may be defined as the susceptibility to being affected by the states of others, and which detects with unerring accuracy the mental condition of the patient, which is the spiritual cause of his disease, we take it on ourselves, at least so far as to have a clear conception of it. This wonderful "soul-measuring" power is represented by the golden reed in the hand of the apocalyptic angel, by which he took the measure of man, i.e., detected the quality of a person. By it we take up into ourselves the condition of the patient, not to permanently carry it, but temporarily take it up intellectually and in idea, in order to loosen its hold upon him and to remove it from him. It is as if we should find a man by the wayside prostrate on the ground, with a rock which has fallen upon him holding him down. We lift the rock from him, not in order to carry it ourselves, but only to remove it from him. So it is said of Jesus that He fulfilled the saying of the Book of the prophet Isaiah, "Himself took up (or assumed to Himself) our infirmities, and bore away (or removed) our diseases." (Mat. viii, 17). We turn toward the patient the psychometric or "soul-measuring" sense, or the receptive side of human nature, which may become acutely developed in us, in order to receive into our minds the idea, the mental image, the living psychic germ of the disease. This

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RATIONALE OF SPIRITUAL HEALING 133 is the spiritual side, the immaterial counterpart of the malady. This we take up, as it were, into ourselves, only in a slight degree sensationally, but rather intellectually, in order that as a cause of the disease, it may be remitted or borne away from the patient. Space is filled with the psychic germs or embryos of things. These are identical with the atoms of Democritus. The general current of the world-life is crowded with the soul-germs of disease, which in their essence are morbid ideas and fallacious beliefs. These are the latent causes, a sort of spiritual bacteria, that may, under certain conditions, find lodgment in men's souls, and germinate, as it were, in the prima materia of the brain, and be thus the fruitful seed of disease, and develop into actuality in the physical body. These morbid ideas, which are the true interior life of disease, are to be taken up, as said before, and borne away from the patient. So when the evil, the morbid idea, the "sin", that lies at the root of the malady is removed, a vacuum is, as it were, formed, which God and nature are said to abhor, and the opposite good or truth, from a fixed divine law, fow in. A living, life-giving truth cannot be received until the error, the illusion, the "sin" which occupies the mind is removed. Healing, saving truth does not crowd out error or a false belief from the mind, nor neutralize it as an acid combines with an alkali to make. a salt. But when the error or sin is removed, truth spontaneously flows in; when an evil is put

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134 THE POWER OF KARMA away and ejected from the mind, we come into the opposite good. This is in accord with an established divine order. When we take up into our intellectual consciousness the morbid idea in the mind of the patient, or take upon ourselves intellectually, but not sensationally, his spiritual condition, we vicariously represent him in our own person, and bear that condition away from him, and prepare the soil of his soul for the reception of the seed of healing and saving truth. Thus did Jesus. He bore, or represented in His own person the sins of men. (1 Pet. ii, 24.) He affirms that His works can be repeated by his followers. (John xiv, 12.) In the case of the cure of the paralytic, mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew, there are many valuable hints which can be taken advantage of in the psychological method of cure. One is that the remission of sin, or the banishment from the mind of a patient of the error or false idea, of which the disease is the physical counterpart or material expression, is equivalent to the cure of the malady. It is also affirmed that God has given to the "Son of man"-a purely Kabalistic expression for man, as to his soul-principle -power to do this. The spirit is the real man and Son of God. The soul, as being generated by the spirit, is the son or offspring of the real man. This, when pervaded by the life of the spirit, has power on earth to bear away from the mind of another a false idea or sin. This is clearly taught in that remarkable passage in the Gospel of John, which contains a

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RATIONALE OF SPIRITUAL HEALING 135 great truth and principle of Christianity which has been dropped out of the life of the Church and forgotten. After the appearance of Jesus as a spirit to His disciples or scholars, He said to them, "As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. Whose soever sins ye remit (that is, banish, bear or send away), they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained." (John XX, 21, 23.) The term sin is here used in its radical sense, of an "aberration from the truth", or the divine reality of things, an error, a falsity, an illusion, and not in its corrupted theological signification. In this sense sin is the psychic germ of disease, the idea or living image of it, and that alone from which it can exist. The disciples of Jesus in all ages, through the coming to them of the Paraclete as the spirit and power of truth from him, and as the inward Word, which was to be inspired into them by his spiritual presence, were to be endowed with power to remit or put away sin, as being the cause of every physical malady, from the minds and life of men. How this is to be done in harmony with the laws of the mind has been shown above. We take up into ourself the morbid condition of the patient, and assume the psychic embryo of the disease, so that we vicariously represent him, and "bear it in our body up to the tree" (1 Pet. ii, 24) - profound Kabalistic expression. We take up into ourself his condition in order that we may form a clear idea of it, and this idea of it is the real disease, the ding an sich, or thing in itself.

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136 THE POWER OF KARMA Thus we are able to remit it or put it away from him. This leaves in his mind a "peaceful vacancy", which the Universal Divine Life and Light make haste to fill. This is the Messianic method of cure, and our skill and facility in doing this will prove to the world the curative efficiency of the psycho-therapeutic system of Jesus. There is a power in this psychological and transcendental method which few are prepared to admit. It may aid us in understanding the deep philosophy of this method of cure, if we bear in mind that ideas are the only immediate objects of consciousness. It is a doctrine older than Plato, that ideas are the only real things. All real things belong to the "unseen world", or lie beyond the grasp of the senses. "Things seen," says Paul, "are temporal," are transient, evanescent, and unreal; "but things unseen (by the outward sense) are eternal." (2 Cor. iv, 18.) Kant somewhere says that "the rose which we see is not the thing in itself, the ding an sich, but a phenomenon or appearance." The same is true of all the objects of nature and of man. You do not see the realities of things with the eye. I do not see my friend, but only what hides him from my sight. Man is always invisible to sense. I close my eyes and think of an absent friend, and I perceive a mental image of him, a living idea of him. This is the real man, the spiritual entity, the ding an sich, the thing in itself. This is the true doctrine of Platonic love, of which men speak without knowing what it means. Says Plotinus,

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RATIONALE OF SPIRITUAL HEALING 137 "As long as someone is conversant with that figure only which is manifest to the eyes, he does not yet love the object which he sees; but when departing from it, he generates in himself, in his impartible (indivisible) soul, a form which is not an object of sense, then love springs forth." (Plotinus, translated by Thomas Taylor, p. 92.) That is the love of the real person or thing. It is only by closing the eyes, or by freeing the soul from the trammels of the physical senses, that we see, in the interior light, things in themselves. Perhaps blind persons see more realities than we see, for the reason that what we call vision is but a veil drawn over our real sight. Jesus, the Christ, refers to this, when he says of the sensuous Jewish rabble, "that having eyes, they saw not, and having ears they heard not." The understandingthe intellectual soul-principle--is the true organ of vision. It is that which lies back of the eye, and is represented by the eye. "The light of the body," says Jesus, "is the eye" (intellect), if thine eye is simple, or not compound, that is, if we see with the intellect alone without the external organ, our whole body, or soul, is full of light. The whole soul becomes an organ of vision, and all the five senses are reduced to a unity, an indefinable perception of ideas, the spiritual and real side of things. What men call disease has a spiritual side to it, an ideal reality. The external is the apparent and phenomenal, the shadow and not the substance. If the spiritual idea of it is the real side of it, and if we can

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138 THE POWER OF KARMA take this up into ourselves, and bear it away from the mind of the patient, it is easy to see that he would be redeemed from it. But it must be kept in mind that this method of cure which was practised by Jesus implies in the patient a desire to be saved, and a predisposition to believe. Where these exist, the cure is easy. Where they do not exist, little can be done, and it is a waste of time and energy to undertake impossibilities. We often witness the efficiency of this ideal method of cure where it is instinctively employed without an intelligent comprehension of its principles. How often does the mother, when her child has fallen down and inflicted upon himself a slight bruise, lift him gently up, pass her hand over the place, take up the idea of it into herself, and by dispersive movements of the hand put it away, as it were, saying to the child, "Now it is all gone," and telling him to jump up and run. That is quite frequently the last ever heard about it; the cure is complete. But in this whole transaction there lies concealed a deeper philosophy than the world in general has ever recognized. Every person is surrounded by an emanative sphere of his life. This is represented by the aura or nimbus around the heads of saints and divinities in pictures and medals. Especially is this seen in the pictures of Jesus. This is a circle or disc of rays invisible to our crude senses, but plainly perceptible to our inner vision, and is by no means a mere creation of fancy having no substantial reality, but represents what

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RATIONALE OF SPIRITUAL HEALING 139 actually exists in every person-an emanative sphere of our thoughts and feelings ; in other words, of our life. It is different in different persons, and in the same person at different times, as it is always in correspondence with our inward states. In all depressing mental conditions, as, for instance, in melancholy, this nimbus or sombre exhalation is to be removed by dispersive passes, which is one of the most effectual ways of changing the morbid mental condition of a patient, and of expunging from his mind the idea and misbelief which constitute the invisible side of his malady. This is the teaching of the ancient arcane science of magnetism, and the experience of many of thousands of years had placed it among established principles and demonstrated its efficiency. By removing the dark cloud or the odyllic emanation that surrounds the brain and it is as easily done as you can quench the flame of a candle with a sweep of the hand-you prepare the way for the reception of a higher and better influx. Just as when you brush away the air around your face with a fan, fresh air immediately flows in to take its place. The principle is given with an actual experimental knowledge of its practical value, though to the modern materialistic science of medicine, it may seem of no importance. It has been said by someone that Jesus cured disease by purifying the atmosphere both within and without the patient." This He could do by the power of the inner Word and the Spirit, and

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140 THE POWER OF KARMA by these divine agencies we may learn in our feebler way to do the same. A knowledge of the science of magnetism is of great advantage to the practitioner of the mental cure system. It must be borne in mind that the most efficient and successful use of the principle of magnetism does not imply contact with a person. The establishment of this principle is one of the things done for the science by the celebrated and worldrenowned Baron Du Potet, one who was worthy to be named with Pythagoras, with Apollonius of Tyana, and with Paracelsus, and Van Helmont. Magnetism in the old spiritual science is identical with the universal life-principle, and is the medium through which our minds influence the minds of others, and a thought and will impulse are transferable. Should this prove of interest to you, I shall be happy to pass on to you whatever further notes are encountered. Respectfully yours, CLARENCE KLUG.

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CHAPTER VIII THE HERITAGE OF THE ARYAN PEOPLES THE history of Thought and its expression must be regarded as a branch of inquiry that surpasses all others in interest. It includes those conceptions of religion and philosophy by which the human race has been moulded, and even the history of language by which those conceptions have been transmitted. The oldest records of human thought in the world are the Vedas produced by our Aryan forefathers in that part of the world we call the cradle of the human race. Of this remote region in midmost Asia Ernest Renan has written in an eloquent passage: Let us salute these sacred summits where the great races which bore in their bosom the future of Humanity for the first time contemplated the Infinite, and inaugurated the two facts which have changed the face of the world, morality and reason. When the Aryan race shall have become, after thousands of years of effort, mistress of the planet which it inhabits, its first duty will be to explore this mysterious region 141

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142 THE POWER OF KARMA of Bokhara and Little Thibet, which perhaps conccals from science revelations so precious. With what lights will not the origin of language be illuminated on the day when we shall find ourselves face to face with those places where were uttered for the first time the sounds that we still use, and where were created the intellectual categories which govern the exercise of our faculties. Even as the years of complete maturity do not equal in fruitful curiosity the first months during which the consciousness of the child awakes, so no place in the world has played a part comparable to that of a mountain or a valley without a name, where man awoke to a knowledge of himself. ... It was our Aryan progenitors, those austere patriarchs who, in the bosom of their chaste and submissive families, thanks to their pride of character, to their worship of the light, to their attachment to their customs, to their modesty, laid the foundations of the future. Their ideas, their words, were to become the law of the moral and intellectual world. They created those eternal words which after many changing shades were to become honour, goodness, virtue and duty. The lofty mountain ranges of the Bolur Tagh and the towering peaks of the Hindu Kush looked down upon this simple and valiant race, and to their influence may be traced many of those qualities which have ever distinguished a victorious people.

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THE HERITAGE OF ARYAN PEOPLES 143 In his work on Oriental religions, Samuel Johnson gives a picture of the highlands in which this early race had its home. "Those" (he writes) "who have penetrated into these mountain ranges, report that the silent abysses of the midnight sky, with its intensely burning stars, and the colossal peaks lifting their white masses beyond storms, impress the imagination with such a sense of fathomless mystery and eternal repose as no other region on earth can suggest. The mean altitude of these summits of Himalayas, the Home of Snow, is loftier than that of any other mountain system in the world, and their mighty faces, unapproachable by man, overlook vast belts of forest which he has not ventured to explore. From one point, Hooker saw twenty snow-peaks, each over twenty thousand feet in height, whose white ridge of frosted silver stretched over the whole horizon for one hundred and six degrees. Here are splendours and glooms, unutterable powers, impenetrable reserves, correspondent to the spiritual nature in whose earlier education they bore an essential part. ... The dawn and the decline of day, and the starlit night that united in its splendour an unseen sun returning on a path behind a veil, and fire in all its mysterious forms from the spark that lighted the simple oblation and the flame that rose from the domestic hearth, to that central orb in which the prescience of their active instinct saw, so long ago, an all-productive Cosmic

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144 THE POWER OF KARMA energy, was everywhere one and the same, alike mysterious, alike divine." descendears before Chrisquntains, from In such a pageantry of nature was framed the worship of our Aryan forefathers. From this region north of the gigantic range of the Hindu Kush mountains, from 7,000 to 10,000 years before Christ, our Aryan progenitors descended into the neighbouring countries, India, Media, Persia, and Bactria, and conquered the peoples inhabiting them. Spreading farther afield into Europe and the North, we find their descendants in the Celts of Britain, the Norsemen of Norway, Sweden and Denmark, the Goths and Germans of Central Europe, the Sclavs and Lithuanians, the Greeks and the Romans. The original identity of all these races has been established beyond doubt by comparative philology, and nothing is more curious and interesting than the discoveries and demonstrations of this branch of study. Professor Max Muller, in his work, "The Languages of The Seat of War in the East", writes : "That the Sanskrit, the ancient language of India, the very existence of which was unknown to Greeks and Romans before Alexander, and the sound of which had never reached a European ear till the close

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THE HERITAGE OF ARYAN PEOPLES 145 of the last century, that this language should be a scion of the same stem whose branches overshadowed the civilized world of Europe, no one would have ventured to affirm before the rise of comparative philology. It was the generally received opinion that if Greek, Latin and German came from the East --they must be derived from the Hebrew ... an opinion for which, at the present day, not a single advocate could be found. ... There is not an English jury nowadays which, after examining the hoary documents of language, would repel the claims of a common descent and a legitimate relationship between Hindu, Greek and Teuton. ... Though the historian may shake his head, though the physiologist may doubt, and the poet scorn the idea, all must yield before the facts furnished by language. There was a time when the ancestors of the Celts, the Germans, the Sclavs, the Greeks and Italians, the Persians and Hindus, were living together beneath the same roof." The original Aryan stock, in its migrations from the high valleys of Central Asia, eventually separated into two branches of the Irano-Aryans and the Indo-Aryans, the former establishing themselves in Bactria, Parthia, and Media, and advancing towards the Persian Gulf; the latter crossing the Hindu Kush range and occupying Kabul and the Indus country towards the Ganges,

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146 THE POWER OF KARMA and the Indian Ocean. From this separation of the original Aryan race resulted the two ancient languages Zend, or Bactrian, and Sanskrit. As it is pointed out by the renowned scholar Albert Pike, to whose studies we owe so much of our knowledge of this subject, a long period of time must have elapsed before these two languages became fixed and permanent. Philology, he says, cannot measure the periods required for effecting these changes in their development from the ancient common language. Be that as it may, in the Zend-Aresta, and the Rig Veda we have the oldest literary monuments in the world, and it is to these we must turn in our search for the beginnings of the History of Thought. "The science of language proves to us, by the greater number of words owned in common by the Greek and Latin and the Sanskrit and Zend, and the identity of their grammatical forms, that the emigrations from the home of their fathers of those who colonised Greece and Italy were much later in time than those of the streams that flowed into Northern Europe, and became the Celtic, Gothic, Germanic and Sclavonic races. The Celts were evidently the earliest outflow of the race," says Albert Pike, "and there is good reason for Baron Bunsen's opinion that their departure from the cradle of the race took place at least 10,000 years before Christ."

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THE HERITAGE OF ARYAN PEOPLES 147 The ancient bards of the Gaels and Kymry were the brethren of the Rishis, to whom we trace the hymns of the Rig Veda. These hymns, for countless generations before they were written down, had been handed down orally in the families of those wandering bands of warriors and herdsmen who at a later date spread their domain to the south-east and south-west by conquest of the indigenous races around them. In the Zend Avesta we may read how Zarathrusta, who lived some 6,000 years before Christ, asks the Divine Ahura Mazda, creator of the world of living things, "to whom among men were given the first teachings of the Ahurian faith ?" Ahura Mazda replies that it was to Yima the Fortunate, who undertook to protect and defend the people of Ahura, and to extend their boundaries by conquest. Directing his course by the stars, Yima (the first name in history) led the people towards the south, towards the way of the South, and founded the great Aryan empire by successive emigrations from the cold and mountainous country, whence they originally descended. At the time of the earliest emigration, both those whom Yima led southwards and those that remained, spoke the same language. It follows that the Vedic hymns and the Zend Avesta were the products

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148 THE POWER OF KARMA of a far later time, when Sanskrit and Zend had been developed by the slow process of change and the separation of the ancient race. Both in the Veda and Zend Avesta we find Vayu, Flame, invoked in adoration, and it is not surprising to find that in the earliest records of the expression of the human mind it was to the sun shining in the sky and the visible luminaries of the vault of heaven that men turned their attention in wonder and veneration. That glorious luminary, the sun, the source of Fire and Light and of the invigorating and vitalizing influences which it sheds from on high, its orderly progress, marking times and seasons, and its unparalleled magnificence amongst all the phenomena of Nature, called forth a spontaneous emotion of worship and adoration. By the time that the Rig Veda came to be written in Sanskrit we find that the Aryan folk had already reached an advanced stage of civilization. We find accounts of vast numbers of cattle and horses possessed by wealthy chiefs, and also of chariots, and gold and elegantly adorned female slaves. At that time the prosperity of the employer was also the good fortune of the labourer and the herdsman. The religious conceptions of the race were simple, the hymns of the Veda are entirely

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THE HERITAGE OF ARYAN PEOPLES 149 poetic and devotional and there is a noticeable absence of moral precepts in them, though we find that in the Rig Veda charity is extolled in the following passage : "The Devas have not ordained that hunger shall be our death: even those who are amply fed are overtaken by diverse deaths. The prosperity of the liberal man never decays, while the illiberal finds no comforter. ... Let the powerful man be generous to the suppliant. Let him look down the long path. For riches revolve like the wheels of a chariot, they come now to one, now to another. Bountiful men neither fail nor fall into calamity; they suffer neither wrong nor pain." In the Vedic hymns, in the invocation of their Deities, and figurative expressions employed, we find the origin of much of the Grecian and Latin mythology. The Greek Zeus, and the Latin Deus are the same as the Sanskrit Dyaus, the Sky. In the Rig Veda we find, according to Max Muller, "ancient thought expressed in ancient language. The highest authority for the religion of the Brahmans is the Veda," he says. "All other works--the Laws of Manu, the six orthodox systems of philosophy, the Puranas or legendary histories of India-all derive their authority from their agreement

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150 THE POWER OF KARMA with the Veda. The Veda alone is called revelation. The Brahmans maintain that it existed before all time, that it was revealed by Brahma and seen by divine sages, who themselves were free from the taint of humanity." General Albert Pike tells us that the divine sages referred to were seven of the ancient Rishis, sons of a Rishi, and these are mentioned in the Veda as having been translated to the sky, becoming there the seven stars of Ursa Major, the Great Bear, ever after known as the Seven Rishis. These seven stars, always visible at night, and always circling round the north star, are eternal witnesses to the divine origin of the Veda. The Rishis were simply sages or bards, and not necessarily priests. Some families of these were greatly distinguished and some of the hymns are assigned to five successive generations of Rishis. Sanctified by sacrifice and gifts, some of these are said to have attained the companionship of Indra (the Light) and immortality, i.e., to have ascended to the sky, the abode of light, and as stars to have become immortal. It would appear that the most ancient Vedic hymns were, in the words of Bunsen, "the outpourings of the free natural inspiration flowing out of the whole of material life, and the great events of the poet's own

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THE HERITAGE OF ARYAN PEOPLES 151 time". It is remarkable that there is hardly a word about love or women, or in praise of beauty in the whole of the Veda, no descriptions of scenery or of domestic joys. The strong religious spirit of that early race only preserved those poems that were of a devotional character. Light and Fire, Indra and Agni--these were foremost among the Vedic deities. The powers and names of all lower deities are ascribed to Agni, and Indra is declared to be greater than all. It sometimes appears that precedence of one deity over another is not defined, for Varuna is said to be Lord of all, of Heaven and Earth, King of all, both Gods and Men. With regard to Agni it is said in the Atharva-veda, "Agni becomes Varuna (the evening star) in the evening; rising in the morning he is Mitra (the morning star); becoming Savriti (the moon) he moves through the air ; becoming Indra, he glows in the middle of the sky." Indra and Agni are often associated together; Indra is the light that flows forth through the sun, the lord of light, the purest of the elements. In later times the Hindus ascribed the powers of Indra to Brahma, as we find in the following: "Brahma, through whom all things are illumined, who with his light lets the sun and the

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IS2 THE POWER OF KARMA stars shine, but who is not revealed by their light." Similarly, in the later Persian scriptures we find the supreme deity Ahura Mazda worshipped above all the early Vedic deities : "When I made the wide-ruling Mithra, I created him just like myself in divine nature and dignity, I who am Ahura Mazda. Go up shining sun, with thy swift horses, rise above Mount Berezsiti, and shine to the creatures on the way which Ahura Mazda has made in the air." The supreme creator of all that lives was not conceived of by the bards who composed the Vedic hymns. Their deities were visible in light and fire, in the rushing winds, in the moon and stars, in the flame that consumed the forest and mounted into the air from the place of sacrifice and even in Soma, the sacred drink which fired the blood and imparted courage and strength to the warrior. "Whatever was apparent to their senses" (to quote again from General Pike's work), "visible, tangible, or audible, was real, and nothing else was so. In everything that was real, they saw life, and knew no difference between their own life, and that of all Nature around them. ... It may be that they were wiser than we are. ... Our modern faith need not smile contemptuously at the ideas of these ancients, in regard either to Nature or the Deity. ... Our

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THE HERITAGE OF ARYAN PEOPLES 153 world was very large to them, engaging the whole attention of the Deities. To us, it is smaller than a grain of sand, compared to the whole Universe ; and God is not exclusively engaged with our affairs. But we are as ignorant as they were of what God and matter, and light and heat, and the other forces of Nature ate. Of electricity, heat and light, in their essence, we know nothing at all, and, after all, in God we only worship either an infinite human intellect, or a force of a nature utterly unknown to us, to which we ascribe two human faculties, will and intelligence, as our ancestors ascribed them to fire." Admitting this as true, it may be conceded that in the course of the ages that have passed since the Vedic hymns were chanted or recited, the Aryan mind has so far widened its horizon to include an immense realm lying beyond what is visible and tangible. The primitive worship of the earliest races passed from change to change as time went on, until we reach the worship of the Creator of all that is and can be known, and all that lies behind what is known. This is exemplified in the hymn of prayer, the "Japji", repeated daily by every Sikh, of which an extract is given : There is but one God, whose name is true, the Creator, the all-pervading, devoid of fear and enmity, immortal, unborn, self-begotten.

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154 THE POWER OF KARMA By His order inanimate forms were produced ; His order cannot be described ; by His order animate things exist; by His order greatness is obtained; by His order men are high or low ; by His order they obtain pre-ordained pain or pleasure. Who can sing His power? Who has power to sing it? Who can sing His gifts, or know His signs ? Who can sing His attributes, His greatness, and His deeds ? By obeying Him man's path is not obstructed. By obeying Him man departs with honour and distinction. By obeying Him man proceeds in ecstasy on his way. By obeying Him man forms an alliance with virtue. So pure is God's name. Whoever obeys God knows the pleasure of it in his own heart." Praisers praise God, but have not acquired a knowledge of Him. As rivers and streams fall into the sea, but do not know its extent, as the sea is the king of streams, so is God the monarch of men. Hail, Hail to Him, the primal, the pure, without beginning, the indestructible, the same in every age. (See The Asiatic Quarterly Review, April, 1898). This worship of a supreme Deity is the root of every modern religion, and in our own age Emerson has written :

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THE HERITAGE OF ARYAN PEOPLES 155 "The heart which abandons itself to the Supreme Mind finds itself related to all its works, and will travel a royal road to particular knowledges and powers. ... When we have broken our god of tradition, and ceased from our god of rhetoric, then may God fire the heart with His presence." Amongst those same mountain fastnesses of Thibet which witnessed the beginnings of human thought are those who, by centuries of study, experiment, and meditation, have probed the secrets of the life of man. Leaf by leaf they have turned the book of life, and the knowledge they have gained is this, that man on earth is possessed of an immortal principle which contacts other states of being beyond what the eye can see or the ear can hear. Is it a vain chimera to suggest that it is to that original cradle of the race we shall eventually retum for instruction in the things that are yet to come, the recognition of our universal brotherhood, the federation of the nations, and the reign of Love?

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CHAPTER IX TAKE YOUR TIME A note on Yoga, and the Way of Attainment In reviewing the inquiries and experiences of my correspondents on the subjects of Karma, Reincarnation, and the powers that act upon and influence us, it occurs to me that the solution of many problems may be found by my readers for themselves, if they will give time to their consideration. I will offer some suggestions in this chapter as to how they may set to work. The word "time" itself affords a clue to the method I propose. Our conception of time and our attitude towards it largely determines the extent to which we may benefit from the experiences of life. All our conscious activities are conditioned and regulated by time. Let us give this matter some attention. If it is important that you should catch a particular train, it is equally important that you should take sufficient time to catch it. If you 156

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TAKE YOUR TIME : A NOTE ON YOGA 157 are a person with many engagements, plan that you can take your time to fulfil them. The Moslem always takes time for his daily prayers under all circumstances. Every process of Nature takes time ; every form of growth and development. The planets pursue their course according to an unvarying time-table. Man alone introduces haste and confusion, because he has not grasped the fact that to everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven. It has taken thousands of years to arrive at the moment of time in which you now find yourself. Thousands of years lie ahead of you. Arrange your life that you may enjoy the full knowledge of this valuable possession-time. Do not waste, misuse, or "kill" it. Use it and enjoy it. Only the most unfortunate and afflicted will deny that life is worth living or that it is as well to make the most of life. It is a platitude that life is short, and yet there are tens of thousands who appear to do their best to shorten it. I say to all my readers : Take your time ; don't hurry. Mr. Hore Belisha will endorse this advice. Haste is an enemy to life. It is as true to say that Time is health, as to say that Time is money. Over-pressure exhausts the nerves, impairs the digestion, and strains the heart, as every

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158 THE POWER OF KARMA psychologist and every physician can testify. I recall the sound though cynical advice of a man of experience : "Never run after a bus or a woman ; there'll be another one along presently." During the last fifty years the toll of haste amongst those who made up their minds to get rich quick has been heavy. Numbers have finished by "doing" time, or have robbed themselves of the time allotted to them. Innumerable proverbs attest the fact that this subject has always held a prominent place in the human mind. That the Eastern view of time is widely separated from that of the West is a matter of common observation. It is a difficult thing to make the Oriental believe that there is any necessity for hurry, and even in our own tongue we have the saying: "Time was made for slaves." Once we have probed the cause of the feverish haste which characterizes Western civilization, it will be found to have its source in a false conception of life. The consideration of time in relation to our own existence, and in relation to the Universe, leads to the consideration of the purpose of our existence so far as we can discover it. If we accept the truth of the Power of Karma in our affairs and on our character ; if we accept the truth of survival, and the corol

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TAKE YOUR TIME: A NOTE ON YOGA 159 ary of pre-existence, we expand our idea of time to include such conceptions as are indicated by the terms "from time immemorial" and "for ever". We then arrive at such simple conclusions as these: LIFE IS, TIME IS. Whatever illusions are inseparable from our limited mental capacities, it is well to make a start by formulating such scraps of knowledge as these. The study of mathematics is a very useful aid in this direction, as it helps us to detach ourselves from the insistent pressure of ephemeral distractions. The most baffling words ever written are "In the beginning". every process of thought we are brought to a point beyond which the human mind cannot penetrate. The long spectacle of history, so far as it is open to our view, provides sufficient matter for reflection; it helps us to place ourselves in perspective, as units in the vast panorama. This is a step towards understanding the position of the ego as conditioned by time in relation to environment. As regards the beginning and the unknown Source of Life, and the supreme Directing Power of the Universe we exclaim: "A thousand ages in Thy sight are like an evening gone". We are forced to the admission that "We are puppets, Man in his pride, and Beauty

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160 THE POWER OF KARMA in her flower." But this is not the only conclusion we arrive at. Our reflections persuade us to accept the outstanding fact that the stream of life on which we are borne fows onwards continuously and irresistibly, and at every point in its course we are confronted with the law of cause and effect, the law of Karma. We find that each race in turn has been subjected to the operation of this law, that every nation, every institution, every individual, provides its own Karma whereby it rises or falls. This discovery furnishes us with a key to the fluctuation of fortunes and the sequence of events. From a prolonged examination of the operation of this law, there emerges the certitude that a spiritual principle is ever at work, and that Karma is progressive. It appears that the scheme of things is one of compulsory progress. Fail at your peril is the command inscribed on the roll of history. Every omission to observe this command, every error which is contrary to progression entails an inevitable penalty. "Take what you will, but pay the price." In this saying we have a definition of human liberty and its limitations. To a superficial observer it may appear that it is possible to infringe this precept and get away with it, but this is a fallacy and a delusion, and he who liberty amazing we na will, but

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TAKE YOUR TIME: A NOTE ON YOGA 161 cherishes it is an optimistic fool. Having reached this conclusion at a comparatively early stage of civilization, the Eastern teachers adjusted their attitude towards life in relation to time. "How long," they asked themselves, "shall we be content to struggle painfully with the burdens our errors have loaded us with? If there is a way of escape, a possibility of liberation from the ever-recurring sorrows and frustrations of mortal life, let us find it." The greatest minds amongst them concentrated on a way of attainment and it was to this they devoted their time. They envisaged a state of existence which comprised the perfection of Man in all his attributes, an expansion of faculties by which knowledge is acquired, and an intensification of the joys associated with exuberant vital force and unbroken happiness. It was to realize this ideal that the various systems of Yoga came into being, which found their ultimate expression in that spiritual science of the Kingdom of Heaven expounded by the Divine Master Jesus Christ. In a small volume entitled "Janardana", published in 1905, the story is told of the princess Radha, who attaches herself to a famous Guru for instruction. As the two sat in the shelter of a wayside temple to await the passing of the

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162 THE POWER OF KARMA midday heat, the Guru pointed to a pool where the lotus blossoms bloomed, and said to her : "Mud, water, sunshine, and lo, the miracle of the lotus Canst thou read me the riddle, O Chela ?" "If I have rightly heard thy teaching, Master," she replied, "man is the flower of light growing upwards through the mud of the body and the water of the soul, into the sunlit ether of the spirit; and only when he attains the third and perfect state will he know that flower and stalk and root are one eternal substance." "Thou hast well answered. ... Let it be granted that wise men represent the stalk in the lotus of humanity, and they must yearn with all their might from the mud of the root if mankind is ever to pass beyond the swaying of the shadowy waters, and know the glory of the light." "And has this lotus never bloomed ?" "Once, in Christ." "What of his brethren, who went before ?" "They were as the ever-growing fullness of the bud, whose sweetness in Sakhya Muni thrilled the world, but the Christ was the open flower, the perfect cup, for He only conquered death, and realized in His own flesh the unity of the spirit, which is the resurrection and the life of the body." This story annuls the statement that Life is short, and substitutes for it, "Life is eternal".

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TAKE YOUR TIME : A NOTE ON YOGA 163 In the Yoga Vashistha are enumerated the qualifications of those who desire deliverance. Vashistha, in one passage, speaks thus to his followers : "Many are the times we have all been together in the past, as also separately, and so again shall it be in the future. Even as a heap of grain removed from granary to granary ever assumes new order grain arrangement, new combinations, so do the Jivas (nomads) in the Universe. The man who has attained to inward peace, passes unfretting through the rearrangement. ... Spare not effort. Think not anything of Fate. All is within the reach of everyone in all this Universe, if only due endeavour shall be made, and the seeker not turn back, losing heart half-way. ... Two are the kinds of effort: the effort of the past and the effort of to-day. Of these two the latter will prevail over the former, and well-directed effort will achieve its object. Even as light brings out the difference of colours. Man always gets only as he endeavours, and his convergent previous Karma is only his Daiva-fate. There is no other fate than this, and like two rams they fight, these two, the present Karma and the past, and now the one prevails and now the other, and the stronger wins at last. Therefore, let the man call up his energies, and, setting his teeth together, let him conquer the past with his present effort. The past may be long-gathered, but the present can be carried longer still into the future.

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164 THE POWER OF KARMA C The common cry, "Tis fate !' of men after defeat is nothing but the cry, 'Oh, misery,' that men will utter after suffering. It only expresses the fact that the past evil Karma has prevailed in that one instance. How does it forbid, or make impossible, all future effort? "Then let the man tread under foot relentlessly the thought that his past fate is driving him. It is not stronger than his present feeling of ability to resist. Let him labour hard to gain deliverance from his bonds. Let him look always on his house of flesh as something that will pass away some day. And let him therefore strenuously avoid the actions and indulgences that mark the beast, and strive to live the life that marks him man. Let him not delay, saying, 'I will do so later,' for the chance may not come soon again. Let him associate with the good, and study hard, and let him never fear his labour will be vain, for there are great examples that have gone before him. So shall he free himself from helpless births and deaths, and so attain the endless joy of peace, wherein all things are equal, which the Wise Ones say is the highest end of human effort. . . So should the earnest seeker, when the mood of grace is on him, take advantage of it to the utmost; and when the evil mood asserts itself, then let him battle strongly with it as he can, and so attend unto the Science of Deliverance that I expound to thee, as it was given of yore to me by Brahm." [Translated by General Pike. Published by the Supreme Council of ...

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TAKE YOUR TIME : A NOTE ON YOGA 165 the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, U.S.A.] I know of no more logical or practical instruction than this in all the literature of the East or West. As I now write these words, and as you now read them, my concluding message to you, my reader, is that whoever you are, whatever your position, your plans or aspirations, now is the time, the only time over which you have control. Take possession of that which is yours. Take your time, and use it. When you have achieved all that your mind sets before you now; when in time to come you have fathomed the secrets of Yoga, and realized what the Universe holds for you, you will be able to exclaim: "Thine, and therefore mine, is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever."

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CHAPTER X THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE Noble Auctors, men of glorious fame, Called our stone Microcosmus by name. THOMAS NORTON. Not many centuries ago the search for The Philosopher's Stone engaged the attention of the keenest intellects, and attracted those who in their day were accounted the foremost among philosophers, physicians and divines. Of scientists, as the term is now understood, there were few, but mention may be made of Roger Bacon, the "father of science", as one who was a firm supporter of Alchemy and a believer in The Philosopher's Stone. "The one process necessary for the preparation of the Stone," he wrote in The Mirror of Alchemy, "is continual concoction in the fire, which is the method that God hath given to Nature." What is The Philosopher's Stone-the goal of achievement of the quest of the Alchemist? It is, we read, "a skilful perfect equation of all the elements, a right commingling of natural 166

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THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE - 167 forces, a most particular union of spiritual virtues, an indissoluble uniting of body and soul. It is the purest and noblest substance of an indestructible body, which cannot be destroyed nor harmed by the elements, and is produced by art." By its possession it was held that a man might "transmute into perfect gold and silver all the imperfect metals that are in the whole world, make precious stones and gems such as cannot be paralleled in Nature for goodness and greatness", and prepare "a universal medicine", or elixir, both for the curing of all diseases, the prolonging of life in perfect health, and even the restoration to youth of the aged and infirm. A comprehensive and heedful study of Hermetic literature has confirmed many students in the belief that certain of the Hermetic philosophers who may be described as the great Masters of Alchemy did in truth actually attain to the discovery and perfection of the Philosopher's Stone. It was consequent on this discovery that the most famous treatises on the subject were written. Consumed with an ardent desire that others should share in their joy and benefit by their labours, those who possessed the Stone felt compelled to assist their fellows in their search and declared that the Creator of

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168 THE POWER OF KARMA all things, in His love for that which He had created, desired that all men should possess it. "Whoever," writes Basil Valentine, "gains possession of this Stone, should let his whole life be an expression of his gratitude towards God in practical kindness towards his suffering brethren. That after obtaining God's greatest earthly gift, he may hereafter inherit eternal life. Praise be unto God everlastingly for this, His inestimable gift." Another Master, recognized as such by his contemporaries, and other alchemists, namely, Heinrich Khunrath, writes in his work, "Amphitheatrum Sapientiae Aeternae", "I write no fables : with thy hands thou shalt touch, and with thine eyes shalt thou behold Azoth, The Universal, which alone combining the internal and external fire in harmonious sympathy with the Olympic Fire is sufficient for thee, by inevitable necessity physico-chemically united for the consummation of the Philosopher's Stone." The incredulity aroused by the statements and affirmations made by these adepts corresponds in its nature to that expressed with regard to such phenomena as the "miraculous" cures effected at Lourdes, or the astounding records of magic to which I have referred. The limits

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THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE 169 of credulity would have been taxed if our grandfathers had been given a description of our radio wireless telegraphy, and air-liners. It must further be remembered that these adepts, like those of the present day, were few and far between. It is not surprising that the majority of those who sought to solve the secret of transmutation failed in their endeavours. Among the great names of the world of science, there are few Curies, Edisons, or Marconis. Such individuals pursue their own studies indifferent to the applause of the crowd. The results of their labour can only be confirmed and utilized by those who are qualified to confirm and apply them. There is one other point which cannot be overlooked: it is stated simply by Elias Ashmole in his preface to the "Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum, containing a collection of the works of our famous English philosophers, who have written of the Hermetique Mysteries in their own ancient language." The passage is as follows: "Gold, I confess, is a delicious object, a goodly Light, which we admire and gaze upon ut Pueri in Junonis avem ; but, as to make gold (saith an incomparable author) is the cheapest intent of the Alchimists, so was it scarce any intent of the ancient Philosophers, and the lowest use the Adepti made of this Materia.

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170 THE POWER OF KARMA "For they, being lovers of Wisdom more than worldly wealtb, drove at higher and more Excellent Operations : and certainly He to whom the whole course of Nature lyes open, rejoyceth not so much that he can make Gold or Silver, or the Divells to become subject to him, as that he sees the Heavens open, the Angells of God Ascending and Descending, and that his own Name is fairely written in The Book of Life." This should convince us that the adept masters were not working exclusively with material substances of the physical plane, and in this respect lies the difference existing between Alchemy and modern Chemistry. The Hermetic Mysteries were Divine Mysteries, as was indicated by the Supreme Master Jesus Christ, when he said : "Unto you it is given to know the Mysteries of the Kingdom of God, but to others in parables, that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand." To one who is in continuous and actively conscious sympathy with astral life, the physical plane appears an odd illusion with regard to such a quality as solidity; and those who have contacted the Spiritual state cannot find words in which to convey an adequate description of their experiences, nor can those experiences be understood by those who are restricted to the

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to their inte of my Icof the great, collec THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE 171 life of the physical senses. The Arcana of Hermetic Philosophy were thus of necessity conveyed in symbolical terms, which could only be interpreted by those who acquired the key to their interpretation. To those of my readers who wish to study the works of some of the great alchemists at first hand, I recommend the small collection of treatises made available to English readers by that profound scholar, mystic, and mason, A. E. Waite, entitled, "The Hermetic Museum". In one of these works, "The Water-Stone of the Wise", the author makes it clear that the discovery of the Earthly Stone is a gift from God, descending by the clemency of the Celestial Stone, and that "he on whom the Most High has conferred the knowledge of this Mystery esteems mere money and earthly riches as lightly as the dirt in the streets." To Jacob Bohme, "the Stone is Christ, the son of the Living God, which discovereth itself in all those that seek and find it." As to the possibility of the preparation of the Philosopher's Stone, the secret of secrets lay in a knowledge of the first matter. This was called by many names, and the difficulty the seeker encounters is at once indicated when it is stated that this secret has never been divulged

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172 THE POWER OF KARMA in such a manner as to be understood without the help of a Master, and unless by a process of divine illumination it never will be discovered by anyone unassisted. Yet it is constantly affirmed by those who have attained this knowledge that none need despair of success. Keeping this in mind, I suggest that the search for The Philosopher's Stone is to be regarded as part and parcel of what I have called the New Science --the science of the Kingdom of God. It is towards an investigation of the Universal Mind that I would again draw the reader's attention. One of the most famous of the old alchemists, Amold di Villanova, stated that, "there abides in Nature a certain pure matter, which, being discovered and brought by art to perfection, converts to itself proportionately all imperfect bodies that it touches". To the alchemist, the one-ness of the Universe was a reality, and a knowledge of Nature showed him that there was one law prevailing throughout the Universe, one scheme to which everything contributed, and embracing all. This knowledge was only obtained by revelation, or by the instruction of a Master, which in its turn was conditioned by reverence, and labour sustained by faith and inspired by prayer. Nature in its material manifestations was approached in this attitude.

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THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE 173 In the "Magical Writings of Thomas Vaughan" edited by A. E. Waite, the problem is put in the clearest terms. First it must be granted : "That God is the Principal and Sole Author of all things, who by His Word and Spirit hath formed and manifested those things we see, and even those things which at present we cannot see. As for the matter whereof he formed them, it being a substance preexistent, not only to us, but to the world itself, most men may think the knowledge of it impossible, for how shall we know a thing that was so long before us, and which is not now extant with us, nor ever was in their opinion) since the creation ? To this objection, which at first sight may seem invincible, we shall return an answer that shall break it; for we will show how and by what means we came to know this matter, and not only to know it, but after long labours, to see it, handle it, and taste it." It will be seen that the alchemist's problem was the same as that of the scientist of to-day in regard to matter. Matter devoid of form is indescribable in the ordinary terms of our language. We may invent such a term as "Protyle" for the sake of defining a mental concept. We may posit it as a theory that Nature, though diverse in forms of manifestation, hides an essence which is one, and that the Visible Universe is Unity manifesting in diversity. "All

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174 THE POWER OF KARMA sub-celestial bodies," writes the author of "A Tract of Great Price concerning the Philosophical Stone" ("The Hermetic Museum"), "consist of Matter and Form. Now the first Matter having nothing contrary to it, cannot by the force of Nature be destroyed; and being created immediately by God, it cannot be abolished by any inferior agent. And as for the forms of natural bodies, no sooner doth any one abandon the matter it informed, but another instantly steps into the place thereof so that no proportion of the matter is, or at any time can be, altogether void and empty." From this passage it is obvious that the indestructability of matter was known to the alchemist of the seventeenth century. The art of alchemy consisted in carrying Nature to a higher perfection than she herself attains, by means of a regenerative agent which they called the Philosopher's Stone. The philosopher Kant came to the decision that no knowledge that does not refer to phenomena can be acquired except by revelation through inspiration. It has been proved that in deep trance access to knowledge not available to one in waking consciousness is possible. It has been also proved in the seance-room that matter of a kind unfamiliar to the majority of men is seen and handled. From what we know of the * * *

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THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE 175 possibilities suggested by the phenomena of trance we may infer that the operations of the alchemist were not confined to matter on the physical plane, but that they extended to the astral and spiritual planes of being. That the great work reached its conclusion on the spiritual plane is, I believe, hardly open to doubt. It is the old story told once again: the path to adeptship is the hard path of unremitting effort, untiring patience and unshakable devotion to a great ideal. Listen to the initial dedication of one of the Alchemical Treatises referred to above: "To the Illustrious, Venerable, Saintly and Blessed Men, Adepts of the True Philosophy, Lovers of Virtue, Lords of Fortune, Despisers of the World, whose life is Holiness in Holiness, Knowledge in Knowledge, and whose Work consists in the Relieving of the Sick and Poor." Of such men as these the glorious Company of the Alchemists was formed. On such men descended the Light of the Logos, that mighty spiritual force whose presence is felt as it penetrates the soul and body of the worshipper in moments of spiritual exaltation. To them the secret of secrets is laid open, and the world of Nature appears as an external visible manifestation of an internal invisible power. They

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176 THE POWER OF KARMA can read the signatures of created things, decipher their character, and cognize their essence. They can harmonize and blend the four elements of carth, air, fire, and water into the one quintessence combining all in perfect equilibrium. They live in love and unity, for they are at one with the Principle of Love, and they have entered the Kingdom of God. "With that, this HERMITE tooke me by the hand and ledd me to his cell ; Loe here (quoth he) could'st thou but stay, and truly understand what thou now scest, thou know'st this Mystery. I stayd, I saw, I tryde, and understood, A Heav'n on Earth, an everlasting good." THE HERMIT'S TALE,

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A MESSAGE FROM ARUNACHALA Paul Brunton Author of "A Search in Secret India", "The Secret Path", "A Search in Secret Egypt", etc. Arunachala Hill, in South India, has a high status in Indian sacred tradition, and Tamil legends hold that it is far more ancient than the Himalayas, which known to be of later origin. At the base of Arunachala (which is Sanskrit for "Red Mount" or "Hill of Light'') abides the last of the Maharishees of India, of whom we heard much in A Search in Secret India. This book is due indirectly to his inspiration, and endeavours to give the Western world some inkling of the soulconsciousness that may be achieved by those who are prepared to follow "The Secret Path" outlined in the author's work of that name. The larger part of the present volume is critical and denunciatory of the shams and falsehoods of Western civilization. The second half is constructive in the best and most spiritual sense. The author offers vital hints and suggestions for the true way out of the world's difficulties, a way which would lead to a finer and serener life for mankind. Crown 8vo. 223 pages. 5s. THE SCIENCE OF HYPNOTISM Dr. Alexander Cannon, Ch.B., Ph.D., etc. Author of "The Invisible influence" (14th Imp.) The uses of hypnotism in Therapy, its place in Science, Christian Science, Spiritualism, Faith Healing, Occultism, Clairvoyance, Crystal Gazing, etc. Also a chapter devoted to Colour Therapy. "A book well worth reading." -Medical Times. "A very good account of the various methods employed by the hypnotist."-Medical World. Crown 8vo. 126 pages. 3s. 6d.

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A MESSAGE FROM THE SPHINX Enel "Enel" hides the identity of a great scholar in Cabala and ancient culture. Numerous books by him on these subjects in French have had a great sale. "Such a book as this does not appear once in a score of years," says our reader. "From this work it is possible, perhaps for the first time, to arrive at a fairly definite conception of what is implied by the term, 'The Wisdom of the Egyptians." In this book are elucidated the esoteric teachings hidden in the hieroglyphic system, and the "Mysteries" of the Egyptian religion and Ancient Magic are brought into the light of day. The book contains nearly thirty pages of plates and tables calculated to show the extent of the knowledge among Ancient Egyptians of Cabalistic and Magic lore. It is a book that all students of Occultism will wish to possess. Demy 8vo. 288 pages. 34 illustrations. 12s. 6d. THE PROBLEM OF REBIRTH The Hon. Ralph Shirley Author of "A Short Life of Abraham Lincoln" Does scientific evidence exist for the theory of reincarnation? The time has arrived when it should be examined from a scientific standpoint. This book fulfils this requirement, citing first the viewpoint of many notable thinkers, poets, and philosophers who have argued in its favour, and then recounting numerous striking incidents in support of the thesis. It deals with the bearing of the question on the latest theories of evolution and heredity, and explains how the subject has been approached by hypnotic, psychological, and psychic experiment. A very comprehensive study of the question. Crown 8vo. 192 pages. 5s.

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ISIS UNVEILED H. P. Blavatsky In the Series "The Complete Works of H. P. Blavatsky". Facsimilo Edition, two volumes in one, incorporating also "Theories of Reincarnation and Spirits" and "My Books", with copious index This, the first of Madame Blavatsky's great works on Oriental Philosophy, Magic, Occultism, and Science, has always been considered indispensable by all competent students. Readers of The Mahatma Letters are well aware of the evidence for stating that a large part of Isis Unveiled was directly inspired by the Teachers of H. P. Blavatsky. In issuing this edition at so low a price, the publishers feel that they have achieved one of the publishing events of the decade. The first edition appeared in 1877, and this new edition, which has been greatly enlarged, is an exact photographic facsimile of the 1877 edition. This fact is of considerable importance, since it gives the reader and student the assurance that the volume contains Madame Blavatsky's original text, without alterations or abridgement. Large Demy. 1351 pages + 89 pages Index. 15s. TWIXT EARTH AND HEAVEN Mrs. Annie Brittain With a Foreword by SIR OLIVER LODGE A record of a well-known medium's many unusual experiences, which show that she has remarkable powers of contacting the unseen world which lies open to the true psychic. The chapters dealing with her early years will have great interest to all who have studied mediums and their faculties. The story is told without any effort to create an impression, and this adds to its charm and appearance of veracity. Crown 8vo. 192 pages. 2 illus. 5s.

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SOME ASPECTS OF PSYCHOLOGY Beatrice Rosling This is an attempt to bring together separate parts of psychology, and to find a synthesis between the chief psychological and psycho-therapeutical hypotheses, with special reference to Freud, Jung, and Adler. As a serious and critical survey, the book may be warmly recommended. An outstanding feature is the discussion of the religious sense. "My main task," the author declares, "is to try to show religion apart from orthodoxy." She regards the religious sense as a biological necessity, but does not exclude faith or creed. In following up this view she endeavours to trace three types of expression of the religious sense : 1. The aspiration of the mystic expressing itself in worship. 2. Personal altruism and philanthropy. 3. Public welfare activities, social and legal. This gives the term "religion" a much broader connotation than that generally accepted, but she argues that it is the function of psychology to show that religion is in fact a universal' trend. Demy 8vo. 288 pages. 10s. 6d. HEROD'S COURTESAN J. H. Symons Tells of the discovery of a strange, ancient Papyrus, and of the story written thereon A novel of the time of Christ, with an Eastern setting of glamour and mystery, the personalities of ruthless Herod, of the lovely woman, his courtesan, of John the Baptizer, of the savage Roman soldiery... and of that amazing Figure which has since dominated the world. Crown 8vo. 288 pages. 7s. 6d.

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THE PHENOMENA OF THE SEANCE-ROOM Dr. Edwin F. Bowers Do the dead live? The author has had some of the most remarkable of seance-room experiences of modern times, equalling those of Sir William Crookes with Florence Cook and D.D. Home. Dr. Bowers, as a medical man, has made a stethoscopic examination of a fully materialized spirit which possessed a full set of teeth. He has also duplicated Crookes' experiment of cutting a lock of hair from a materialized form. His book abounds in what must be regarded as scientific thrills, and in many ways is one of the most convincing that has yet appeared on this absorbing subject. Crown 8vo. 288 pages. 7s.6d. HYPNOTIC POWER Its Cultivation, Use, and Application to Psychotherapy Colin Bennett Author of "What is Astrology ?" This book tells you how to hypnotize with safety. Hypnotism may be a great power for good. You can have it at your finger-tips, to cure neurosis, to overcome inferiority-complex, nervousness, and even to take away pain and to cure disease. This excellent manual gives accurate information that cannot be bettered. "You had better copy 'Hypnotic Power'."-Daily Express. "How to become a Hypnotist."-Daily Mirror. "The best and most informative treatise on the subject that we have read for a long time. It is a book that we have read with a great deal of pleasure.... A book we can heartily recommend."-Two Worlds. Crown 8vo. 158 pages. 3s. 6d.

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PSYCHICS AND MEDIUMS Gertrude Ogden Tubby The author of this book was for 17 years Assistant Secretary and Secretary of the American Society for Psychical Research. She has personally conducted and recorded verbatim more than 4000 mediu mistic seances. From this wealth of experience she has written Psychics and Mediums, a scientific approach to psychic research in all its varied phases and types of development. Miss Tubby has reduced to order the vast body of material on the subject, defining terms, citing cases, and indicating criteria for future research into the subject. Crown 8vo. 192 pages. 5s. AFTER LIFE Dr. William Wilson Dr. Wilson's ambition in writing this work was to collate in a short volume all the available evidencebiological, physical, psychological, and psychical. This is definitely a book for the thinking man. "It is seldom that an author deals with the subject strictly from a reasoned point of view and within the orbit of science. That is why Dr. William Wilson's 'After Life' is notable, for here he seeks to bring together all the scientific evidence in favour of survival, and the case he builds up is a strong one."--Manchester Evening Nows. "A remarkable contribution towards the efforts to solve the problem of life after death."-Mancbester Evening Chronicle. Crown 8vo. 192 pages. 5s. FROM HEAVENLY SPHERES May Hughes A series of psychic messages signed by the late William Morris, containing much helpful information regarding the Other World. Crown 8vo. 154 pages. 3s. 6d. 6

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SELF MASTERY Through Psycho-Analysis Basil Hogarth Author of "Perfect Memory" (2nd Imp.) Hitherto, Psycho-Analysis has been the expensive luxury of the rich. It has been rendered vaguely mysterious, too, by an elaborate glossary of technical terms. Of these this volume is entirely free. It gives, in simple language, a complete exposition of the new science of Psycho-Analysis. "Basil Hogarth might have called the book 'Psycho-Analysis debunked'.- Cambridge Daily Nows. "It is an interesting book."-Sunday Mercury. "A clear and popular exposition of a subject that is so much talked of today."-Birmingham Post. "Claims to bring Psycho-Analysis within the means of the poor."-Daily Express. Crown 8vo. 160 pages. 3s. 6d. THE POWER OF KARMA Dr. Alexander Cannon, Ch.B., Ph.D., etc. Author of "The Invisible Influence" (141b Imp.), "The Science of Hypnotism" (2nd Imp.) The interest aroused by Dr. Alexander Cannon's world-famous book The Invisible Influence has led the author to supplement the information given in that work, as to the powers latent in man, by this book. Here Dr. Cannon replies to questions received by him from correspondents in every quarter of the globe on such subjects as Karma, Reincarnation, and Magic, ancient and modern. He shows that the secrets preserved from ancient times by those we call adepts are not lost, and that the powers they are reputed to possess are not fictitious, but are capable of demonstration, and goes far towards establishing the truth of the Pythagorean maxim that "man is the measure of all things". Crown 8vo. 192 pages. 5s.

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Recent RIDER Successes A SEARCH IN SECRET EGYPT Paul Brunton "Paul Brunton, who knows more about Yoga than any living Englishman, and whose life is one continuous research in Occult and Eastern Magic ... Extraordinary experiences among the fakirs, snake-charmers and magicians of modern Egypt."-Daily Sketcb. (3rd Impression in 2 months.) 75 Illus. 18s. MIRACLES AND ADVENTURES M. A. St. Clair Stobart "A woman of amazing courage and strength of character."Evening News. "One of the most remarkable of living English women, Mrs. Stobart tells simply her wonderful story."- aily Sketch. (and Impression in 2 months.) 31 Illus. 185. "IS THIS THEOSOPHY ...?" Ernest Egerton Wood "An autobiography, and a very good one ... it is in Mr. Wood's rare gleams of humour that he most nearly approaches charm." -New Statesman. 4 Illus. 165. RECOVERING THE ANCIENT MAGIC Max Freedom Long "The book can be recommended, if only for the accounts of "fire-magic' which it contains."'-Listener. "Mr. Long, in this volume, tells of fire-walkers, of the drinking of boiling water, the eating of glowing charcoal, and of a man who introduced a welding torch flame into his mouth, among other strange feats." Sunday Chronicle. 12 Illus. 12s. 6d.

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