Karma and Rebirth

Author(s): Christmas Humphereys
Publisher: Albemarle Street London

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KARMA IN ACTION the wicked mind. A man is not responsible for a pure accident unless it was caused by such gross negligence that he must be held to have intended the 'natural and probable consequences of his act. In the same way lunatics, children and persons completely drunk may be incapable of the mens rea which is a necessary ingredient of their responsibility.
This, however, is an over-simplification of an intensely difficult subject, for the latest discoveries in psychology enormously widen the range of the word ' intend. One may, for example,
intend' those acts which seem the very reverse of those apparently intended, and the most fantastic ' accident' may be a deliberate act by the unconscious, though fiercely repudiated by the conscious mind. Many an apparently accidental death, for example, is unconscious suicide, and many an injury caused to another may be deliberate at unconscious levels though unintended by the normal consciousness. The mind of man is a realm of which but a tithe is yet explored, and that but superficially, and the oft-repeated cry from the dock, “I don't know what came over me”, displays, to the trained psychologist, a hidden motive which the victim of his own unconscious genuinely denies.
Onc clue to the mystery may lie in the fact that an act has separate and often different effects on the various planes of consciousness. A millionaire, for example, may build a local hospital at vast expense and offer it to the town. The effect of his generosity will appear on different levels of his being. The outward decd was good, and will produce 'good' Karma, whatever the motive, but the mental effect will vary with the motive. If the reason of the gift was a genuine desire to use his worldly means for the benefit of his fellow men, his mind will be ennobled with the deed. If, on the other hand, his secret motive was the love of applause or, worse, a desire to curry local favour before standing as the town's representative in Parliament, then the effect on his mind will be that of the misuse of a power for selfish ends. This crude illustration will
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