MAMA RA'AB RAMPA

THE TESTAMENT OF RAMPA

(Edition: 19/06/2021)

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

THE EARTH

Formation and origin

(The Origin of the World)

CONFIGURATION

The Earth is hollow / origin of U.F.O.s

Organisation ‘The Manus’ of the world

Parallel worlds — The fourth dimension

The different civilisations

This is the World of Illusion

Life is like a school

MAN

Nature of man

What is Life?

Human potential

Conscious, unconscious, subconscious

Imagination

Human relations

Love — affection

Mariage — couple

Man and his ‘partners’ on Earth

The cats

The role of animals in relation to humans

The plants

Ecological considerations

Metaphysical problems

Existence of God

Need for religion

Faith

Hell

Purgatory

Guardian angels guides …

Prayer

Meditation

The human condition

The ageing process

Fear

Suffering

Drugs

Alcohol

Insanity

Suicide

THE MESSAGE FROM RAMPA

The third eye

The aura

The Colours of the Aura

Reading an aura

The silver cord

Astral travel

The karma

The Akashic Record

Thought Forms

Hypnotism

Psychometry

Telepathy

Clairvoyance

‘Seers’

The Middle Way and its laws

(The Laws and Steps of the Middle Way)

Death

The different levels of the astral

Reincarnation

Reincarnation — a new birth

Rampa's Predictions

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INTRODUCTION

The idea of an anthology of Rampa's works came to us when we realized that we would not have enough of a lifetime to answer the letters that Lobsang Rampa's readers were sending us.

Often the same requests for information come back to us, to clarify certain themes or to know which book by Lobsang Rampa to choose in order to better achieve everyone's personal objectives.

Together with our publisher, the decision was therefore taken to bring together in a single book the most significant writings from the immense work of Dr Lobsang Rampa. The following pages represent the quintessence of the teaching of my late husband. They constitute in a way his TESTAMENT. The legacy he wanted to make to his countless friends around the world. Of course, these are only excerpts and for those who would like to deepen the thought of Lobsang Rampa we suggest reading his complete works which are generally available in several collections and about which one will find all the necessary information here.

Finally, I would like to point out that anyone interested in acquiring better knowledge and a certain flexibility in their research could also read my book recently published by Les Éditions Internationales Alain Stanké, entitled ‘Lumière et Sagesse’.

May the reading of Rampa's teaching serve as a guide for you in your personal development.

San Ra-AbRampa

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THE EARTH

Formation and origin

(Extracts from Doctor from Lhasa — 1959)

(The Origin of the World)

“In the days of long, long ago earth was a very different place. It revolved much nearer the sun, and in the opposite direction, and there was another planet nearby, a twin of the earth. Days were shorter, and so man seemed to have a longer life. Man seemed to live for hundreds of years. The climate was hotter, and flora was both tropical and luxurious. Fauna grew to huge size and in many diverse forms. The force of gravity was much less than it is at present because of the different rate of rotation of the earth, and man was perhaps twice as large as he is now, but even he was a pigmy compared to another race who lived with him. For upon the earth lived those of a different system who were super-intellectuals. They supervised the earth, and taught men much. Man then was as a colony, a class that is being taught by a kindly teacher. These huge giants taught him much. Often they would get strange craft of gleaming metal and would sweep across the sky. Man, poor ignorant man, still upon the threshold of dawning reason, could not understand it at all, for his intellect was hardly greater than that of the apes.

“For countless ages life on earth followed a placid path. There was peace and harmony between all creatures. Men could converse without speech, by telepathy. They used speech only for local conversations. Then the super-intellectuals, who were so much larger than man, quarrelled. Dissentient forces rose up among them. They could not agree on certain issues just as races now cannot agree. One group went off to another part of the world, and tried to rule. There was strife. Some of the super-men killed each other, and they waged fierce wars, and brought much destruction to each other. Man, eager to learn, learned the arts of war; man learned to kill. So the earth which before had been a peaceful place became a troubled spot. For some time, for some years, the super-men worked in secret, one half of them against the other half. One day there was a tremendous explosion, and the whole earth seemed to shake and veer in its course. Lurid flames shot across the sky, and the earth was wreathed in smoke. Eventually the uproar died down, but after many months strange signs were seen in the sky, signs that filled the people of earth with terror. A planet was approaching, and rapidly growing bigger and bigger. It was obvious that it was going to strike the earth. Great tides arose, and the winds with it, and the days and nights were filled with a howling tempestuous fury. A planet appeared to fill the whole sky until at last it seemed that it must crash straight onto the earth. As the planet got closer and closer, immense tidal waves arose and drowned whole tracts of land. Earthquakes shivered the surface of the globe, and continents were swallowed in the twinkling of an eye. The race of supermen forgot the quarrels; they hastened to their gleaming machines, and rose up into the sky, and sped away from the trouble besetting the earth. But on the earth itself earthquakes continued; mountains rose up, and the sea-bed rose with them; lands sank and were inundated with water; people of that time fled in terror, crazed with fear at what they thought was the end of the world, and all the time the winds grew fiercer, and the uproar and the clamour harder to bear, uproar and clamour which seemed to shatter the nerves and drive men to frenzy.

“The invading planet grew closer and larger, until at last it approached to within a certain distance and there was a tremendous crash, and a vivid electric spark shot from it. The skies flamed with continuous discharges, and soot-black clouds formed and turned the days into a continuous night of fearful terror. It seemed that the sun itself stood still with horror at the calamity, for, according to the records, for many, many days the red ball of the sun stood still, blood-red with great tongues of flame shooting from it. Then eventually the black clouds closed, and all was night. The winds grew cold, then hot; thousands died with the change of temperature, and the change again. Food of the Gods, which some called manna, fell from the sky. Without it the people of the earth, and the animals of the world, would have starved through the destruction of the crops, through the deprivation of all other food.

“Men and women wandered from place to place looking for shelter, looking for anywhere where they could rest their weary bodies wracked by the storm, tortured by turmoil; praying for quiet, hoping to be saved. But the earth shook and shivered, the rains poured down, and all the time from the outer space came the splashes and discharges of electricity. With the passage of time, as the heavy black clouds rolled away, the sun was seen to be becoming smaller, and smaller. It seemed to be receding, and the people of the world cried out in fear. They thought the Sun God, the Giver of Life, was running away from them. But stranger still the sun now moved across the sky from east to west, instead of from west to east as before.

“Man had lost all track of time. With the obscuring of the sun there was no method with which they could tell its passage; not even the wisest men knew how long ago these events had taken place. Another strange thing was seen in the sky; a world, quite a large world, yellow, gibbous, which seemed as if it too was going to fall upon the earth. This which we now know as the moon appeared at this time as a relic from the collision of the two planets. Later races were to find a great depression in the earth, in Siberia where perhaps the surface of the earth had been damaged by the close proximity of another world, or even a spot from whence the moon had been wrenched.

“Before the collision there had been cities and tall buildings housing much knowledge of the Greater Race. They had been toppled in the turmoil, and they were just mounds of rubble, concealing all that hidden knowledge. The wise men of the tribes knew that within the mounds were canisters containing specimens and books of engraved metal. They knew that all the knowledge in the world reposed within those piles of rubbish, and so they set to work to dig, and dig, to see what could be saved in the records, so that they could increase their own power by making use of the knowledge of the Greater Race.

“Throughout the years to come the days became longer and longer, until they were almost twice as long as before the calamity, and then the earth settled in its new orbit, accompanied by its moon, the moon, a product of a collision. But still the earth shook and rumbled, and mountains rose and spewed out flames and rocks, and destruction. Great rivers of lava rushed down the mountain sides without warning, destroying all that lay in their path, but often enclosing monuments and sources of knowledge, for the hard metal upon which many of the records had been written was not melted by the lava, but merely protected by it, preserved in a casing of stone, porous stone which in the course of time eroded away, so that the records contained within would be revealed and would fall into the hands of those who would make use of them. But that was not for a long time yet. Gradually, as the earth became more settled in its new orbit, cold crept upon the world, and animals died or moved to the warmer areas. The mammoth and the brontosaurus died for they could not adapt to the new ways of life. Ice fell from the sky, and the winds grew bitter. Now there were many clouds, whereas before there had been almost none. The world was a very different place; the sea had tides; before they had been placid lakes, unruffled except by the passing breeze. Now great waves lashed up at the sky, and for years the tides were immense and threatened to engulf the land and drown the people. The heavens looked different too. At night strange stars were seen in place of the familiar ones and the moon was very close. New religions sprouted as the priests of that time tried to maintain their power and account for the happenings. They forgot much about the Greater Race, they thought only of their own power, of their own importance. But—they could not say how this occurred, or how that happened. They put it down to the wrath of God, and taught that all man was born in sin.

“With the passage of time, with the earth settled in its new orbit, and as the weather became more tranquil, people grew smaller and shorter. The centuries rolled by and lands became more stable. Many races appeared as if experimentally, struggled, failed, and disappeared, to be replaced by others. At last a stronger type evolved, and civilisation began anew, civilisation which carried from its earliest days a racial memory of some dire calamity, and some of the stronger intellects made search to find out what had really happened. By now the wind and the rain had done their work. The old records were beginning to appear from the crumbling lava stone, and the higher intellect of humans now upon the earth were able to gather these and place them before their wise men, who at long last, with much struggle, were able to decipher some of the writings. As little of the records became legible, and as the scientists of the day began to understand them, they set about frantic searches for other records with which to piece together the complete instructions, and to bridge the gaps. Great excavations were undertaken, and much of interest came to light. Then indeed the new civilisation sprouted. Towns and cities were built, and science started its rush to destroy. The emphasis always on destruction, upon gaining power for little groups. It was completely overlooked that man could live in peace and that the lack of peace had caused the calamity before.

“For many centuries science held sway. The priests set up as scientists, and they outlawed all those scientists who were not also priests. They increased their power; they worshipped science, they did all they could to keep power in their own hands, and to crush the ordinary man and stop him from thinking. They set themselves up as Gods; no work could be done without the sanction of the priests. What the priests wanted they took: without hindrance, without opposition, and all the time they were increasing their power until upon earth they were absolutely omnipotent, forgetting that for humans absolute power corrupts.

“Great crafts sailed through the air without wings, without sound, sailed through the air, or hovered motionless as not even the birds could hover. The scientists had discovered the secret of mastering gravity, and anti-gravity, and harnessing it to their power. Immense blocks of stone were manoeuvred into position where wanted by one man and a very small device which could be held in the palm of one hand. No work was too hard, because man merely manipulated his machines without effort to himself. Huge engines clattered across the surface of the earth, but nothing moved upon the surface of the sea except for pleasure, because travel by sea was too slow except for those who wanted the enjoyment of the combination of wind and the waves. Everything travelled by air, or for shorter journeys across the earth. People moved out to different lands, and set up colonies. But now they had lost their telepathic power through the calamity of the collision. Now they no longer spoke a common language; the dialects became more and more acute, until in the end they were completely different, and to each other incomprehensible, languages.

“With the lack of communication, and the failure to understand each other and each other's view points, races quarrelled, and began wars. Fearsome weapons were invented. Battles raged everywhere. Men and women were becoming maimed, and the terrible rays which were being produced were making many mutations in the human race. Years rolled by, and the struggle became more intense, and the carnage more terrible. Inventors everywhere, spurred on by their rulers, strove to produce more deadly weapons. Scientists worked to devise even more ghastly devices of offence. Disease germs were bred, and dropped upon the enemy from high-flying aircraft. Bombs wrecked the sewage and plagues raged through the earth blighting people, animals and plants. The earth was set on destruction.

“In a remote district far from all the strife, a group of far-seeing priests who had not been contaminated by the search for power, took thin plates of gold, and engraved upon them the history of their times, engraved upon them maps of the heavens and of the lands. Upon them they revealed the innermost secrets of their science, and gave grave warnings of the dangers which would befall those who misused this knowledge. Years passed during which time these plates were prepared and then, with specimens of the actual weapons, tools, books, and all useful things, they were concealed in stone and were hidden in various places so that those who came after them would know of the past and would, it was hoped, profit from it. For the priests knew of the course of humanity; they knew what was to happen, and as predicted the expected did happen. A fresh weapon was made, and tried. A fantastic cloud swirled up into the stratosphere, and the earth shook, and reeled again, and seemed to rock on its axis. Immense walls of water surged over the land, and swept away many of the races of man. Once again mountains sank beneath the seas, and others rose up to take their place. Some men, women and animals, who had been warned by these priests were saved by being afloat in ships, afloat and sealed against the poisonous gases and germs which ravaged the earth. Other men and women were carried high into the air as the lands upon which they dwelt rose up; others, not so fortunate, were carried down, perhaps beneath the water, perhaps down as the mountains closed over their heads.

“Flood and flames and lethal rays killed people in millions, and very few people only were left on earth now isolated from each other by vagaries of the catastrophe. These were half-crazed by the disaster, shaken out of their senses by the tremendous noise and commotion. For many years they hid in caves and in thick forests. They forgot all the culture, and they went back to the wild stages, in the earliest days of mankind, covering themselves with skin and with the juice of berries, and carrying clubs studded with flint in their hands.

“Eventually new tribes were formed, and they wandered over the new face of the world. Some settled in what is now Egypt, others in China, but those of the pleasant low-lying seaside resort, which had been much favoured by the super-race, suddenly found themselves many thousands feet above the sea, ringed by the eternal mountains, and with the land fast cooling. Thousands died in the bitter rarefied air. Others who survived became the founders of the modern, hardy Tibetan of the land which is now Tibet. That had been the place in which the group of far-seeing priests had taken their thin plates of gold, and engraved upon them all their secrets. Those plates, and all the specimens of their arts and crafts, had been hidden deep in a cavern in a mountain to become accessible to a later race of priests. Others were hidden in a great city which is now in the Chang Tang Highlands of Tibet.

“All culture was not quite extinct, however, although mankind was back in the savage state, in the Black Ages. But there were isolated spots throughout the earth's surface where little groups of men and women struggled on to keep knowledge alive, to keep alight the flickering flame of human intellect, a little group struggling on blindly in the stygian darkness of savagery. Throughout the centuries which followed there were many states of religion, many attempts to find the truth of what had happened, and all the time hidden away in Tibet in deep caves was knowledge. Engraved upon plates of imperishable gold, permanent, incorruptible, waiting for those who could find them, and decipher them.

“Gradually man developed once again. The gloom of ignorance began to dissipate. Savagery turned to semi-civilisation. There was actually progress of a sort. Again cities were built and machines flew in the sky. Once more mountains were no bar, man travelled throughout the world, across the seas and over the land. As before, with the increase of knowledge and power, they became arrogant and oppressed weaker peoples. There was unrest, hatred, persecution, and secret research. The stronger people oppressed the weak. The weaker peoples developed machines, and there were wars, wars again lasting years. Ever there were fresh and more terrible weapons being produced. Each side sought to find the most terrible weapons of all, and all the time in caves in Tibet knowledge was lying. All the time in the Chang Tang Highlands a great city lay desolate, unguarded, containing the most precious knowledge in the world, waiting for those who would enter and see, lying, just waiting . . .”

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CONFIGURATION

The Earth is hollow / origin of U.F.O.s

(Extracts from Twilight — 1975)

But, to get back to basics again, according to the Buddhist religious books there were vast convulsions upon the Earth and the climates of the countries of the Earth changed and changed and changed, and as they changed tribes of people were driven from cold zones into warmer zones and during one such excursion—about 25,000 years ago—a tribe of people emerged on to what would now be called the North Pole. They kept on walking and walking and eventually they found that they had the sun always ahead of them, never behind, never rising or setting. Eventually in course of time they found that they were inside the Earth, they found that the Earth was hollow and they settled there. It is thought, too—I should have put this in brackets!—that all the Gypsies came from inside the Earth.

I have heard many people discussing a hollow Earth and the opponents of the theory always say “Well, if there is a hollow Earth how is it that commercial airlines which fly over the North Pole do not see the opening; commercial planes nowadays do indeed fly over the North Pole and perhaps the South Pole, too, and if there was a big opening in the Earth then obviously the pilots would see such an opening.”

That is not true, you know. Commercial airlines do not fly over the North Pole, nor do they fly over the South Pole; they fly quite a distance away for the simple reason that if they did indeed fly over the Poles it would interfere very seriously with their navigational instruments, and so commercial flights are always routed so that the mythical North or South Pole is avoided by many many miles and thus interference with the compasses also is obviated.

Then there are others who say, “Well, all these explorers who have been to the North Pole or to the South Pole, if there had been a hole in the Earth they would have found that hole.” But then again, no, it's not true, no one has been to the North Pole, no one has been to the South Pole. We get reports of people who have got somewhere near such-and-such a Pole and have gone on for many miles, in other words they have been more or less lost. Ancient history, and modern history too, teaches us that often sailors will spot debris floating from the Poles (I use ‘Poles’ just to conform and make the location obvious). There are also floating animals or birds. Now, everyone knows that you don't get birds and insects flying at the North Pole or the South Pole, you don't get green leaves floating, so where do they come from? From inside the Earth, of course.

I believe this; supposing one had a vehicle and one could journey from here—wherever you are at the moment is ‘here’—to the North Pole you would go on and on and you would reach what you would believe to be the location of the North Pole, and then you would continue on and eventually you would find yourself with a different sort of sun above you. The sun being an atomic sort of thing occurring naturally not merely in the centre of this Earth but in many other worlds as well. Astronomers have found that on the Moon, for instance, there are strange lights seen at times about the Poles. You might say, “Oh yes, but men have been to the Moon.” Sure they have, but they have been to a very limited spot on the Moon, a spot, a circle, of about five miles radius. Oh no, they haven't explored the Moon, and they haven't explored this Earth. There is quite a lot of this Earth which still has to be explored.

If you are interested and if you go to your Public Library I am sure you can find many books dealing with an inner Earth and stories of people who have been lost and then have sailed on into a strange world, and eventually they have found themselves just inside the inner world. Better than the Library, buy some books at a good bookstore.

People have asked me to explain whatever such a world could look like, how can there be a world which is hollow inside? The best way I can explain it is like this:—

Imagine you have a coconut. The outside of the coconut is the outer Earth. And remember this, that if your hands are hot the moisture which you have deposited on the outside of the coconut in merely touching it is equal to the depth of the deepest sea on this, the full size Earth. That's a thought worth bearing in mind.

Anyway, you've got your coconut and you are looking at the outer side of it. That represents our conventional Earth. Now, make a hole in the part known as the eyes, and make another hole in the part right opposite the eyes. You can liken these to the North and the South Poles. You should make the hole about an inch in diameter and let out all the milk. Then you have the outer hard shell which is the crust of the Earth, and inside you have the white flesh of the coconut which represents the inner world surface. Right in the middle of the coconut you have to somehow fix a flashlight bulb to represent the ever-burning inner sun.

Now—the hard shell which is the crust and the softer inner side which provides footing for inner worlders provides, also, the source of gravity which keeps people feet down, on the upper surface and feet down on the inner surface. There is no evidence whatever that the inner surface of the Earth is molten gas or molten iron or molten rock or molten anything else. That has just been a supposition of ‘scientists’ who have made many other false suppositions like when they said that if a man travelled at more than 30 miles an hour his lungs would burst with the air pressure. And like when they said that it would be impossible for any spaceship to land on the Moon because it would sink right into the impalpable dust. Oh no, scientists are merely guessers with a University education. Often they are worse guessers than people without a University education because scientists are taught that if this person or that person says a thing is impossible then it is indeed impossible, and so instead of being taught to think they are just being taught to think that Author so-and-so is infallible and if he says a thing is impossible then indeed it is.

I believe that people inside the Earth are very very highly evolved people indeed who are remnants from Lemuria, Mu, Atlantis, and many even older civilisations. The Earth has been wracked by cataclysms, storms, meteors and all the rest of it, and often people on the surface have been decimated yet inside life goes on serenely, untroubled by things that are happening outside and so spirituality and scientific knowledge has progressed.

You may not be aware that the Chileans, who have a great interest in the South Pole areas, have photographed U.F.O.s rising out of that territory. Most interesting pictures were taken by a geophysical team of Chilean scientists. Unfortunately, under considerable pressure, those photographs were turned over to the U.S.A. authorities . . . and that is the last that has been heard of them.

U.F.O.s are of different types, but one type comes from inside the Earth, and there are many U.F.O.s seen nowadays because the Inner People are greatly worried by the atomic explosions taking part on the outer surface of the Earth. After all, if the explosion is big enough then perhaps the crust of the Earth will be cracked even worse than it is at present and the whole Earth will perish. That is why the Inner People are so concerned, why they are trying to control atomic research on this world.

Have you really studied the journeys of explorers who claim they have been to the North Pole or to the South Pole? Without any exception they report that they found the temperature rising as they travelled north, they found more open seas than they expected, they found many things which were completely at variance with the North Pole or South Pole theory where things got colder and colder as the Poles were approached. Actually the Poles do not exist except as some mythical symbol up in the air, perhaps in the centre of the opening leading into the Earth.

The aurora borealis could easily be the reflections from the inner sun when conditions are suitable, or they could even be radiations from the nuclear life within your world.

But someone is sure to say all this is impossible, of course there is no hole leading into the Earth, the idea is absurd—ridiculous. If there was a whacking great hole at the North Pole and another at the South Pole then obviously air pilots would have seen them, astronauts would have seen the holes also, and in fact anyone looking would be able to see right through the Earth just the same as one can see daylight through the other end of a blown egg. No, someone is sure to say, this author has gone round the bend at last . . . if he didn't go round years ago.

That attitude is all wrong, you know. It shows that the person doesn't know the facts. How many of you have been to the North Pole? How many of you have been to the South Pole? How many of you know climatic conditions there? What about cloud coverage, for example? What about viewing conditions? No, Critical Reader, I haven't gone round the bend—you have if you think that all this is impossible; if you think all this is impossible then you are not merely around the bend, you are cantering along the home straight which is a darn sight worse.

Think how in well populated areas great caves have remained hidden for hundreds or thousands of years. Look at the cave in which the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. That cave was only found completely by accident.

Look at Canada. Great areas of Quebec have not been explored. And supposing a plane flew over certain of these areas in Quebec which would be covered with ice most of the year, then photographs might show reflections precisely as it should show reflections from snow and ice. Or the photographs may show dark patches precisely as they could show dark patches of snow and ice. Ice can be of many different colours, you know, it is not all white and tinselly like you put on Christmas trees. You can even get red snow in certain areas; I know that because I have seen it. But the whole point is that a photograph taken over the approximate location of the North Pole or the South Pole might show strange shadows, but if people had no reason to investigate the shadows then they wouldn't go there and probe, would they? It takes a lot of money too to mount an expedition to the mythical North Pole or the equally mythical South Pole. It takes a lot of money, it takes a special breed of man, it takes a lot of back-up supplies, and it takes a big bank account to pay the insurance!

But back to Canada; many, many areas in the Northern Territories have not been explored. Some areas have never even been seen by humans. How do you know what holes there are in the Northern Territories when no one has been there? It is stupid to say these things are impossible until you know all the facts, until you are an expert in photography, until you are an expert in geology.

Think of astronauts or cosmonauts, or whatever the current term for them is; well, then they are taking off and are reasonably close to the Earth presumably they have something else to do besides look for a hole where the North pole or South Pole should be, and in the Polar regions the viewing is often horribly unsatisfactory, fogs, snow-storms, confusing reflections from snow, ice and water. It's worth noticing also that when astronauts are in orbit they have specific tasks to do, taking a peep at the Russians, taking an even harder look at the Chinese. Are there telltale shadows which indicate that silos have been erected which could be the starting point of intercontinental ballistic missiles? And if so, in which direction are the silos inclined? By knowing things like this the Americans can tell if the war lords of Pekin have rockets aimed at New York or Los Angeles, or somewhere else. They have to take into account the degree of inclination and the rotation of the Earth so that they can then forecast to within just a few miles the target area of the I.C.B.M.s (InterContinental Ballistic Missiles—Ed.). The Americans are much more interested in knowing what the Russians, the Poles, the Chinese and the Czechs are doing than finding out something about a hole in the Earth. Some of the Americans, for instance, would be more interested in checking a hole in the head than a hole in the Earth!

So you can take it that unless there are very special conditions and very special circumstances these particular openings in the Earth would not be photographed, and as for thinking that you could look in one end and see out through the other just as you would through a straight railway tunnel—well, that idea is crazy. You couldn't do it. Think of a railway tunnel absolutely dead straight. You look in one end and if you are very very careful you might possibly see a little dot of light at the other end, and that railway tunnel may be not even half a mile long. We, if we were looking through a hole in the Earth, would have to look at something which was nearly eight thousand miles long. That is, the tunnel through which you would be looking (through the Earth) would be so long that you just wouldn't see any light at the other end. Not only that but even if you had such good sight that you could see all the way through and distinguish a small hole, then you would still be looking at darkness because unless the sun was opposite you would have no light-reflection, would you?

If you are going to deny the POSSIBILITY of there being a hollow Earth then you are just as bad as the people who think that the world is flat! In passing I wonder how the ‘Flat-Earth Society’ in London, England, explains some of the astronauts' photographs now. As far as I am aware there is still a society in England who swear on a stack of comics (must be comics!) that the world is flat and all the photographs have been faked. I read something about it and had a good laugh, and I wish I could remember where I read the article. Anyway, if you are not sure why not keep an open mind then you won't be caught short when the proof is forthcoming?

There is another thing you have to consider; the Governments of the world, or rather the Governments of the super powers, are nearly killing themselves to hush up everything about U.F.O.s. Why? Millions of people have seen U.F.O.s. I was reading an article only yesterday in which it was said that statistics prove that 15 million Americans have seen U.F.O.s. So if 15 million in one country alone have seen them then it's a sure thing that there must be something like U.F.O.s. Argentina, Chile, and other sensible countries acknowledge the existence of U.F.O.s. They don't necessarily understand what they are or why they are, but they acknowledge them and that is a big step forward.

The Governments hush up and conceal all the truth about U.F.O.s; now—supposing the American Government, for example, had photographs of U.F.O.s entering or leaving the Earth, supposing they had definite proof that the Earth was hollow and that there was a high civilisation within, then quite without a doubt the Governments would try to conceal knowledge of the truth or people would panic, start looting, commit suicide, and do all the strange things that humans do when they panic. We have only to remember the Orson Welles—Raiders from Mars—radio broadcast of a few years ago when Americans really did most thoroughly panic in spite of being told by the announcers that it was only a play.

So—the Governments conceal the truth because they are afraid of panic. But perhaps in the not too distant future they will have to admit the truth, the truth being that there is a hollow Earth and a highly intelligent race within that hollow Earth, and that one form of U.F.O. comes from inside the hollow Earth. Mind you there is more than one type of U.F.O. One type comes from ‘outer space’, another type comes from ‘inner space’, that is, the inner side of the Earth.

But again, supposing you say, “I still say the fellow's crazy because there wouldn't be any room for a civilisation inside the Earth.” Well sir or madam, as the case may be, that implies that YOU haven't done your homework. Let's have a look at some figures. I am not going to quote exact figures or someone is sure to say, “Oh look at him, now we know that he's a fraud, he's 6 inches short in the diameter of the world!” Oh yes, Loving Reader, people do write and say such things, and they think themselves very clever. But anyway, let's have some rough figures.

Now, the diameter of the Earth is roughly seven thousand nine hundred and twenty-seven miles. Now, supposing we say (we've got to give some figures, haven't we?) that the thickness of the crust of the Earth on the Earth side and the thickness of the ‘soil’ side of the inner Earth comes to eight hundred miles. Well, if you add those two eight hundred's together you get one thousand six hundred, and if you subtract that from seven thousand nine hundred and twenty-seven you get six thousand three hundred and twenty-seven miles. That, then, we can say is very very approximately the diameter of the world inside this world.

That means that the inner world is (again roughly) 2.9 times larger than the Moon, so that if somehow you could get the Moon inside the Earth the poor wretched thing would rattle around like the pea inside a referee's whistle. The diameter of the Moon, remember, is roughly two thousand one hundred and sixty miles, and the estimated diameter of the world inside this Earth is, we decided, six thousand three hundred and twenty-seven miles. So now YOU do some arithmetic for a change. I'm right, aren't I?

Another point of interest is this; only an eighth of the surface of the world is land, seven-eighths is water—seas, oceans, lakes, and all that, so it could easily be that there is more land INSIDE the world than outside, and if there is more land inside then there could be more people inside. Or if they regularly take ‘the Pill’ they may have bred for quality rather than quantity.

I believe all this, you know, I have believed it for years, and I have studied it very very thoroughly. I have read all I could about it, and if you do the same then without a doubt you will come to the same conclusion that I have which is that there is another world inside this Earth of ours, that it is 2.9 times the size of the Moon, and that it is populated by a very intelligent race.

Another thing of interest is this; look at all the explorers who have been ‘to the Pole’. None of them has ever PROVED that he got there. Think of Admiral Peary, think of Wilkinson, Amundsen, Shackleton, Scott, etc., etc. All these men who, in theory went there by water or went there on foot or who flew to the area—not one of them ever truly, demonstrably proved that he had reached the Pole itself. I believe they couldn't because ‘the Pole’ is a remote area somewhere in space above the surface, and, as has been proved, the location varies quite a lot.

*          *          *

Organisation ‘The Manus’ of the world

(Extracts from Feeding the Flame — 1971)

Each world has a Manu in charge of the world. You can say that the Manu is like one of the Gods on Olympus so thoroughly described in Greek legends. Or if you wanted to be more up to date you can say that the Manu is like the General Manager of the branch of a big firm. Under the General Manager of that branch—because this world is only a branch, after all—we have departmental managers who, in our terms, would be called the Manus of different continents and of different countries. These under managers are responsible for running, let us say, the U.S.A. or Germany or Argentina, and so on, and just as human managers have different temperaments so do the Manus, and so the country concerned gets a different national characteristic. The Germans, for example, are quite different from the Italians, and the Italians are quite different from the Chinese. That is because the ‘Manager’ of that department happens to be different.

The Manus, no matter how glorious they seem to be, are just puppets of the Great Entity or Overself which makes up ‘God’. That Great Overself uses Manus as puppets in much the same way as the human Overself may use a whole bunch of humans in order to gain experience.

The next one asks, “How do the Manus of nations supervise the affairs of their nation? Do they work through the United Nations Representatives, through the heads of nations, their cabinets and advisers, or how?”

If the United Nations was as had been hoped, that would have been the way for a Manu to work, but here is something that you have to consider very seriously, it may be distasteful to you, it may even be thoroughly shocking to you, but nevertheless it is actual fact.

This particular world is not a very advanced world, actually it is a penitentiary world, a hell, a hard school—call it what you will—and many of the Manus in charge of this world are themselves learning! As they gain experience and as they become successful, then, just like a departmental manager, they get promoted, and if the General Manager can make a success of things in his small branch then he might well be promoted to a much larger branch.

It really is necessary to look at things with an open mind and to remember that when on the Other Side in the astral one does not sit on a cloud and strum a banjo or pluck the strings of a harp; one has to work.

If you are in the kindergarten class at school you might think that the great big ‘grown-ups’ of twelve years of age in a class higher are real Gods who do nothing except tell the teachers where to go, and these twelve and fourteen year olds might think that the sixth-formers or thirteenth graders, or whatever you want to call them, are truly Gods of Creation. But these Gods of Creation still have to do homework, still have to attend classes, still have to gain experience. All right, people come to this Earth to gain experience, Manus look after this world (more or less) in order to gain experience, and if there are a few fights between countries, well, it's teaching humans and it's teaching Manus as well.

In higher states, that is, with much more advanced worlds, Manus can get together and discuss things amicably so that there are no wars and no particular crimes, but that is much too advanced for the hoodlums of the Earth. The Earth people are here to learn the hard way because they won't learn in the soft way, the kind way. If a chap comes along and takes a swipe at you with a club or shows an earnest desire to bonk you on the noggin and lay you out, well, it's useless to say, “I pray, my dear fellow, that you will kindly desist from these unwelcome attentions.” Instead if you are wise you will kick him where it will do most harm, and then let out a hoot for the police.

So the Manus of this world are learners. They are learning things just as you are, and when they have learnt to straighten up things a bit they will move on to something better. But, cheer up, you have to stay only about seventy years or so to a lifetime, the poor Manus have a longer sentence than that by far.

*          *          *

Parallel worlds — The fourth dimension

(Extracts from Chapters of Life — 1967)

There are such things as parallel worlds because everything must have its counterpart in a reversed state, just the same as you cannot have a battery which is only positive or only negative; there must be positive and negative. But that is a matter to be discussed in our next chapter, now we have parallel worlds.

Unfortunately, ‘scientists’ who have been afraid of losing face or something, or sinking into matters beyond their depth, have confused the issue because they will not face up to the thought of having genuine research. Yet in India the Adepts of years gone by referred to their ‘Linga Sharira’, which means the part of the body which is in a different dimension—beyond the three dimensions of this world—and so cannot be perceived normally by a person existing in this three-dimensional world. We have to remember that upon this world we are confined to three dimensions, for this is wholly a three-dimensional world and to the average person who has not studied anything about metaphysics the fourth dimension is something to laugh about or to read about in some remarkable science fiction.

Not merely is there a fourth dimension, but beyond the world of the fourth there are the fifth, the sixth, the seventh, the eighth, and the ninth. In the ninth, for example, one attains realisation and is able to comprehend the nature of things, one is able to comprehend the origin of Life, the origin of the Soul, how things started and what part mankind plays in the evolution of the Cosmos. In the ninth dimension, also, Man—still a puppet of the Overself—is able to converse face to face with his Overself.

One of the greatest difficulties is the unfortunate fact that ‘scientists’ have set up all sorts of extraordinary and arbitrary rules and if one dares to contradict anything that these ‘scientists’ say, then one is really ostracised. An example of that may be found in the way in which the medical profession was completely crippled for hundreds of years because of the works of Aristotle, it was considered to be a great crime to do any investigation into the human body because Aristotle had taught all there was to know—ever. So, until the medical profession could escape from the dead hand of Aristotle, they could do no dissections and no post-mortems, and they could do no research.

Certain astronomers had much the same difficulty when they taught that Earth was not the centre of creation because some early Wonderful Man had taught that the Sun revolved round the Earth, and that everything existed for the comfort of mankind!

But now we have to get on with our dimensions. Here on this Earth we deal with that which is commonly known as three dimensions. We see a thing and we feel a thing, and it appears solid and real to us. But suppose we had to deal with an extra dimension, the first thing would be—well, what is this extra dimension? Possibly we could not quite comprehend it. What could be a fourth dimension? Worse, what would be a fifth? And then go on up to the ninth, or even beyond the ninth.

The best thing is to consider first an ordinary tape-recorder because most people have access to a tape-recorder or have seen one. We have a tape-recorder running at a very slow, slow speed, less than an inch a second. At such a slow speed one could have a tape message last for an hour. But supposing we made that tape play back at, for example, a foot a second; then the speech would be quite unintelligible to us, the message upon the tape would not have altered in any way, the words would be the same, but in effect we would have moved our speech to another dimension and so we could not comprehend the speech. Before we could comprehend that which was upon the tape we should have to play the tape at the same speed as that employed in recording it.

Man is nine-tenths subconscious and one-tenth conscious. You have probably read quite a lot about it because the whole science of psychology is devoted to the various facets and idiosyncrasies of Man's subconscious. Remembering that Man is so little ‘conscious’ does it not occur to you what a shocking waste of time it is for a powerful, powerful Overself, gifted with all manner of abilities and talents, pulsing with the power of a more vibrant world and of a different way of life, who comes to this world laden with troubles and obstacles, and then to function at, at most, one-tenth of its ability? Supposing you had a motor-car, oh, let us say an eight-cylinder car because there do not seem to be any ten-cylinder cars to make the allusion more exact—let us say we have an eight-cylinder car, then, just for the purpose of this illustration.

We have this eight-cylinder car, but we find that it is working on one cylinder alone, seven cylinders are not in any way contributing towards the function of the car, they are in fact holding it back even more because of the inertia. The performance is deplorable. But think of it in terms of human existence; mankind is like a ten cylinder car only one cylinder of which works, the other nine are ‘subconscious’. Wasteful, isn't it?

The Overself of a human—or any other creature either, for that matter—does not waste energy; the Overself of a human has a number of tasks which must be accomplished. Supposing we have an evolved Overself who is anxious to progress to other planes of existence, one who is anxious to go up and up and up to different dimensions. In that case the Overself might devote one-tenth of its ability to dealing with the body on Earth, and the rest of its abilities might go to dealing with bodies on other planets, or other planes of existence. Or it might even be without puppet bodies on other planes of existence and be moving in what one might term, pure spirit, instead. But if the Overself is not that far evolved or has a different scheme of operations, it might do things in a different way.

Supposing our Overself is more or less of a beginner, then you can say that it is the same as a student in secondary school. The student has to attend a number of classes instead of having to learn just one subject, often this means that the student has to walk to different classes or to different centres, and that really does waste a lot of time and energy.

The Overself is in a far more satisfactory position. It is the puppet master. Upon this world which we call Earth there is a puppet which is the Earth body, and which functions with one tenth of the Overself's attention. Upon a parallel world in another dimension the Overself could have another puppet, or perhaps two or three, or more puppets, and it would then be able to manipulate these between various tasks. To go back to our student, one might say that this is like a student who can remain aloof in his private room and send his deputies to the different classrooms so that he can gain all the experience required through these different sources and 'connect them up' later.

Let us assume that the Overself is having to rush things somewhat in order to catch up with the cycle of evolution. Supposing the Overself has been a bit slow or a bit lazy, and has had various setbacks, and this Overself does not want to be left in the same class or state after the others have passed on, so he has to take, in effect, a cramming course the same as a child or older student takes extra lessons in order that he may keep up with others who are more advanced, and so remain in close touch with them.

The Overself may have a person living one life in Australia and may have yet another person doing something else in Africa. Perhaps there will be another one in South America or Canada, or England; there may be more than three, there may be five or six or seven. These people might never meet on Earth and they would still be very much in affinity with each other, they may have telepathic rapport without in any way understanding why, but then occasionally they would meet in the astral just as travelling salesmen sometimes meet in the sales manager's office.

The poor wretched Overself with seven or eight or nine puppets would really have to get a move on to manipulate them all at once and avoid ‘crossing the wires’. This is one explanation of some curious dreams because frequently when two compatible puppets are asleep their Silver Cords might touch, and would produce an effect similar to those crossed telephone lines wherein you hear pieces of others' conversations but, sadly, sadly, and to one's immense regret, we miss all the most interesting bits.

But what is the purpose of all this, you might ask. Well, that's easy to answer: By having a number of puppets the Overself can have vast experience and can live ten lives in just one lifetime. The Overself can experience riches and poverty at the same time, and so weigh them in the balance of experience. One puppet in one country could be a beggar making a miserable living, hardly existing, in fact, while in some other country the next puppet could be a prince gaining experience of how to handle men and how to shape a nation's policy. The beggar would be gaining experience of misery and suffering so that when his lifetime of experience was blended to that of the prince-puppet the Overself would know of the seamier side of life, and would know that there are at least two sides to every question.

In the normal course of events people would perhaps come as a prince and then wait for another life to come as a beggar, or the other way about, but when they are rushed for time, when any given cycle of evolution is nearing its end as is the present case, then heroic methods have to be adopted in order that those who are slower may yet keep up with the rest.

*          *          *

The different civilisations

(Extracts from Chapters of Life — 1967)

Many people have the quite mistaken idea that this world was but recently populated and history is complete. That is far from being accurate.

For millions of years there have been different civilisations upon this Earth. This Earth is like a school building to which various classes come. As in the case of classes, one can be exceptionally good, another can be exceptionally bad.

Presumably the same thing happens in the case of wines where wines of a certain ‘vintage’ are especially prized. In the case of the Earth crop, which, of course, is humans, there are fairly set cycles. For example: The Hindus believe that each world period is divided into four classes, or stages, or cycles, each of which is 864,000 years. The first cycle of 864,000 years is a very good one, people try, people have faith in each other and in the essential goodness of mankind. They try to help and there are no wars, not even rumours of wars. But unalloyed bliss is not a good thing because people ‘go to seed’. An example of that can be found in the great civilisations of India, China, and Egypt; these were great civilisations indeed, but through excess power, through lack of suitable opposition and competition the civilisations degenerated. One can see the same thing in the history of Rome of many years ago.

The second cycle is that in which people, or rather, the rulers of the world, realise that they have to introduce a ‘snake’ into ‘Eden’, and so the second cycle has some difficulties and controversies in order that it may be ascertained how much people can think for themselves and overcome opposition.

Presumably at the close of the second cycle the ‘school reports’ of those who have taken part in that particular class is not considered very satisfactory, and so the third class, or period, of 864,000 years which is then starting is a bit more severe. People have wars, they go out to conquer others, but even so their particular wars are not the sadistic, barbarous affairs which are present in this cycle. People were not treacherous in the third cycle, they had wars certainly, but it was more in the way of a game in the same way as two small boys will get busy with their fists and each try to alter the features of the other, but that does not mean to say that either would want to kill the other—just make a few structural alterations! However, wars are infectious and it was found that by introducing a few judicious stabs in the back and assorted treachery, one could win a battle before it really started.

Things in the third cycle go from bad to worse, and get very much out of hand. It is like a forest fire which is not checked in time. If some moron drops a lighted cigarette end and sets the undergrowth on fire an observant person can soon extinguish the conflagration. But if the fire is not noticed in time it will really get a hold, and get out of hand, and then many lives will be lost, much property will be ruined before the fire can be brought under control. Life is like that; if evil be allowed to grow and flourish unchecked, it will become more and more, and become stronger and stronger, and like weeds choking the life out of a beautiful cultivated flower, evil will crush out what faint instincts for good Man originally had.

At the end of the third cycle conditions were very much out of hand. One can say that the rowdy elements in the classrooms which were the countries of the Earth stood up to the teachers, and abused them and would not obey their orders. So the fourth cycle came into being, the fourth cycle which is known (from the Hindu) as the Age of Kali.

The Age of Kali is that in which people suffer. If you wish you can think of it as the Age when men and women are tortured in the fires of war that they may be purified, and so that the dross may be burned out to prepare them for the next and better Round, for life goes on and on, people grow better in the natural course of evolution, they get more experience, and if they do not make a success of their life in one stage of evolution they come back to that stage as a schoolboy who cannot pass the end-of-term exam often has to go back to the same classroom, or same grade, instead of being promoted.

In ‘You—Forever!’, which certainly has gone around a bit, I refer to the Jews on page 109 of that book. I said, “The Jewish people are a race who, in a previous existence, could not make progress at all.” This has produced some very friendly correspondence with Jewish readers throughout the world, and in particular some very erudite ladies in Tel Aviv have asked me to give more details about Jews. This request has been supported by Jewish people in Argentina, Mexico, Australia, and Germany. So, let us go a little more deeply into ‘the Jewish question’. May I at this stage say that I have quite a number of friends who are Jewish and I have a sincere admiration for them, for they are an old, old race who have knowledge which is the envy of those less gifted.

First of all we might ask, “What are Jews?” The general idea is a complete misconception, for ‘Jew’ in its present form is a misnomer. Actually, this word ‘Jew’ has not been in use for very long.

If you asked the average person who was the Father of the Jews, you would undoubtedly be told, “Why, Abraham of course!” But as history proves conclusively, this just is not so because in the true sense of the word Abraham was not a Jew!

If you study your ancient history, either by going to a public library, or, more conveniently, by getting at the Akashic Record, you will find that Abraham was actually a native of the place called Ur of the Chaldees. Many places have two names nowadays, so if it will help you, Ur was also known as Ur Kasdim which was in Babylonia. That brings us to the interesting point that Abraham, far from being a Jew, was a Babylonian, and his actual name had no corresponding name or counterpart in Hebrew. The original name of Abraham was Abram.

Abraham lived 2,300 years before the birth of Christ, at a time when the word ‘Jew’ was not even thought of, but about 1,800 years after Abraham had gone to his ‘just reward’ the word ‘Jew’ referred to people who lived in the Kingdom of Juda, and that was in the South of Palestine.

Those of you who are sufficiently interested can look in your Bible, in Kings II.16. 6. Here you will find words written 600 years before Christ, and the word for Jew in those days was Jahudi.

Back to your Bible again, this time to Ester II. 5. Here you will find that Jew is mentioned for the first time, and remember, also, that the Book of Ester was not written until some 2,400 years after the death of Abraham, that is, in the first century A.D. So—we find that Jahudi is that which we now call ‘Jew’.

In each cycle there have been twelve ‘Saviours’ or ‘Messiahs’ or ‘World Leaders’. So when we refer to ‘The Second Coming’ we are rather behind the times; we can refer to Abraham, Moses, Buddha, Christ, and many others, but the whole point is that in every cycle of world existence there has to be a World Leader of a different Zodiacal sign. There are twelve signs of the Zodiac, and a Leader comes first in one sign, then another, then another, until in all there have been twelve Leaders. On this particular cycle of Kali we are now approaching the eleventh, and after—there will be one more before this actual Age ends and we are really into the Golden Age.

Naturally, with each World Leader there have to be those who can support Him—disciples, if you like, or assistants, or ministers, call them what you like. But there have to be these men who are born specially to be of service to the world.

In 1941 the first of the disciples was born, and others have been born since. The actual 'Saviour' will be born early in 1985, and in the interim the disciples will be preparing the Way.

The ‘Saviour’ or ‘World Leader’—whichever you prefer—will have very special education and training, and in the year 2005, when he is twenty years of age, he will do much to confound godless people who do not believe in Gods, Saviours, etc., etc.

Again, there will be a case of transmigration. If those of you who know the Bible well will study it with an open mind you will find that the body of Jesus was taken over by ‘the Spirit of God—the Christ’. In much the same way, the body of the new World Leader will be taken over by a very high Personage indeed, and during the few years after that there will be remarkable events, and the world will be led along those essential steps which will prepare it for the start of a new cycle.

For some 2,000 years the world will make progress by following the precepts of the church to be founded by the new Leader, but at the end of that 2,000 years yet another Leader shall arise—the twelfth of the cycle, completing the destiny of the Zodiac traversal. Conditions shall improve, and so, gently, in the due course of time, people shall be led into a new Age where they have different abilities from those now existing. There shall be clairvoyance and telepathy as there was before the so-called, mis-called, Tower of Babel, in which through abuse of special powers mankind lost their telepathic abilities for the time being. The whole story is given in the Bible, but it is in the form of a story. Actually, Man was able to communicate with fellow Man and with the animals, too, but through treachery to the animal world mankind was deprived of telepathic communication and so there was the utter confusion of people trying to converse in what were local dialects, and which in time became the languages of the world.

This world can now be likened to a train. The train has been going through various stages of scenery, it has been traversing pleasant sunlit lands which can correspond to stage 1, lands in which there was beautiful scenery and amiable fellow passengers. But then we come to stage 2, when the passengers all changed, and this new lot were not so friendly, nor was the journey so pleasant because there was an uneven track with many clattering switchpoints, and the journey continued through depressingly gloomy terrain where the smoke of various factories belched vile chemicals into the atmosphere. Here the passengers were quarrelling and almost coming to blows, but worse was to come. At the third stage the passengers changed again and a lot of bandits got aboard, bandits who tried to rob other passengers, there was much stabbing, much sadistic action. The train, too, rocked along the edge of narrow gorges where landslides made travel precarious. All the time there was discordant noise and the continual quarrelling of the unhappy passengers.

Again the train stopped and took on fresh passengers. This time conditions were even worse, the new passengers were almost wrecking their train, damaging the fittings, torturing, swindling, and engaging in all those activities which the decent person finds abominable.

The train went through increasingly difficult land, with badly laid rails, with many detours and obstructions. At last there came a long and gloomy tunnel; the train plunged in and there appeared to be no lights anywhere in the train. The passengers were in darkness, like the people of the world itself, leaderless. The gloom became gloomier, and the atmosphere more dismal, until the train was pitching and tossing in absolute darkness, with a darkness that comes in a passage through the heart of a mountain. But our train is now in its darkest phase, it cannot get darker, therefore it must get lighter.

As the train goes rocketing along it will get lighter and lighter, and eventually, as a New Age approaches, the train will burst forth from the mountainside, and below the passengers will see a fair and pleasant land with sparkling waters, herds of cattle grazing peacefully. The sun will be shining, and as the train goes on and on, ever changing passengers, they will find that conditions become better and better, where men respect the rights of others, where there is no longer terrorism, sadism, and torture. But much has to be done at the present time because before the Golden Age shall come there will be much more hardship and suffering on this world. Prediction is dealt with in another Chapter of this book, but possibly it would not be amiss to say something here.

According to the age-old art of astrology many sad events are going to take place on this Earth. Round about the year 1981 there will be a very substantial and unexpected increase in the world's heat, with a reduction in rainfall and a drying up of crops, and fruit and other plants will wither up before they can be gathered. This great heatwave could easily be the result of an atom bomb dropped by the Chinese; the Chinese are making haste to develop a super bomb, and the present-day Chinese are like mad dogs, without thought for the rest of the world, because the rest of the world keeps them in virtual seclusion and they do not know what is happening elsewhere, and it is a sad fact that one always fears the person one does not know. Thus, the Chinese, in their xenophobic state of mind, are ready to lash out at that which they do not understand.

One also has to bear in mind that it was bad enough when only the United States had the atom bomb, but now the Russians, the French, the Chinese, and perhaps others have this device. Conditions have reached a most precarious pass.

Much preliminary work has to be done before the advent of the New Leader. Certain people have to be given hints of what is happening, when, and how. But certain other people have to be excluded from getting much knowledge.

In addition to the disciples who are now born and who are still but children, there are those much older people with special knowledge who have to write about such things so that the knowledge will be disseminated, and who will thus ‘pave the way’. These older people will not, of course, be upon the Earth at the time of the New Coming, but like those who are to come after, these forerunners will have done their task by taking upon themselves the hatred and the suspicions which always come to the innovator.

People fear that which they do not understand, and so if it is said that a person has changed bodies with another, then he is automatically the subject of much persecution. But it is necessary that there be incidents of changing bodies to bring it into the public consciousness so that when the New Leader comes people will be able to accept the truth of transmigration of souls and the changing of bodies. Thus, while those who are undergoing the scorn and ridicule and active persecution of an ill-informed Press at present, they will know in the fullness of time that their suffering and misery has been justified.

Often people will say, “Oh, but if these people have such great powers why do they live in poverty? If they were truly what they say they are, they would have all the money they wanted.” This is utterly ridiculous because a person who comes to this Earth under different conditions is something like a splinter in the body of the world, and if you have a splinter in your thumb you agitate, and fidget, and you mess about until eventually you get that splinter dislodged, and you spare no liking for that splinter! In the same way, people who come to this world, and change bodies, and try to prepare a way for another, they too are like a splinter, the world finds them strange, people may be uncomfortable in the presence of such a being. Rather than blame their own lack of development they always try to put the blame on the other person—“Oh, he is queer, he makes me have such an uncanny feeling when he touches me.”

So, the old world goes rolling along full of trouble, but the darkest hour is before the dawn, and when things are at their blackest there is the happy thought that any change can be for the better. And this world and the peoples of this world, after their blackest hour, will go on and on into the light when mankind shall be tolerant of mankind, and when the little people of the animal world shall be understood instead of misunderstood, feared, and tormented as they are at present. So, beginning with the year 2000, the world shall have pleasures, and a Golden Age shall dawn.

*          *          *

This is the World of Illusion

(Extracts from The Cave of the Ancients — 1963)

“This is the World of Illusion,” said my Guide, “Wherefore we call to souls to hear us, for they alone are in the World of Reality. We say, as you well know, Hear the Voices of our Souls, we do not say Hear our Physical Voices. Listen to me, and do not interrupt, for this is the basis of our Inner Belief. As I shall explain later, people not sufficiently evolved must first have a belief which sustains them, makes them feel that a benevolent Father or Mother is watching over them. Only when one has evolved to the appropriate stage can one accept this which I shall now tell you.” I gazed at my Guide, thinking that he was the whole world to me, wishing we could be always together.

“We are creatures of the Spirit,” he said, “we are like electric charges endowed with intelligence. This world, this life, is Hell, it is the testing place wherein our Spirit is purified by the suffering of learning to control our gross flesh body. Just as a puppet is controlled by strings manipulated by the Puppet Master, so is our flesh body controlled by strings of electric force from our Overself, our Spirit. A good Puppet Master can create the illusion that the wooden puppets are alive, that they act of their own volition. In the same way we, until we learn better, consider that our flesh body is the only thing that matters. In the spirit-strangling atmosphere of the Earth we forget the Soul that truly controls us, we think that we do things of our own free will and are answerable only to our ‘conscience’. So, Lobsang, we have the first Illusion, the illusion that the puppet, the flesh body, is the one that matters.” He stopped at the sight of my puzzled expression. “Well?” he asked, “and what troubles you?”

“Sir!” I said, “where are my strings of electric force? I cannot see anything connecting me to my Overself!” He laughed as he replied, “Can you see air, Lobsang? Not while you are in the flesh body.” Leaning forward he grasped my robe, nearly scaring the life out of me as I stared into his penetrating eyes. “Lobsang!” he said sternly, “have all your brains evaporated? Are you really bone from the neck up? Have you forgotten the Silver Cord, that collection of lines of electric force linking you—here—with your soul? Truly, Lobsang, you are in the World of Illusion!” I felt my face grow red. Of course I knew about the Silver Cord, that cord of bluish light which connects the physical body to the spirit body. Many times, when astral travelling, I had watched the Cord shimmering and pulsing with light and life. It was like the umbilical cord which connects the mother and the new-born child, only the ‘child’ which was the physical body could not exist for a moment if the Silver Cord was severed.

I looked up, my Guide was ready to continue after my interruption. “When we are in the physical world we tend to think that only the physical world matters. That is one of the safety devices of the Overself; if we remembered the Spirit World with its happiness we would be able to remain here only by a strong effort of will. If we remembered past lives when, perhaps, we were more important than in this life, we should not have the necessary humility.

*          *          *

Life is like a school

(Extracts from The Cave of the Ancients — 1963)

“Life is like a school. When we are beyond this life in the astral world, before we come down into a woman's body, we discuss with others what we are going to learn. Sometime ago I told you a story about Old Seng, the Chinaman. I told you that we would use a Chinese name because you, being you, would try to associate any Tibetan name with a Tibetan of your acquaintance. Let us say that Old Seng who died and saw all his past decided that he had certain lessons to learn. Then, the people who were helping him would look about to find parents, or, rather, prospective parents, who were living in the circumstances and in the conditions which would enable the soul which had been Old Seng to learn the desired lessons.” My Guide looked at me and said, “It is much the same as a boy who is going to become a monk, if he wants to become a medical monk he comes to the Chakpori. If he wants to do perhaps domestic work, then no doubt he can get into the Potala for they always seem to have a shortage of domestic monks there! We choose our school according to what we want to learn.” I nodded, because that was quite clear to me. My own parents had made arrangements for me to get into the Chakpori provided I had the necessary staying power to pass the initial test of endurance.

My Guide, the Lama Mingyar Dondup continued, “A person who is going to be born already has everything arranged; the person is going to come down and be born of a certain woman who lives in a certain district and who is married to a certain class of man. It is thought that that will give the baby to be born the opportunities for gaining the experience and knowledge previously planned. Eventually, in the fullness of time, the baby is born. First the baby has to learn to feed, it has to learn how to control certain parts of its physical body—it has to learn how to speak and how to listen. At first, you know, a baby cannot focus its eyes, it has to learn how to see. It is at school.” He looked at me and there was a smile on his face as he said, “None of us like school, some of us have to come, but others of us do not have to come. We plan to come—not for kharma—but to learn other things. The baby grows up and becomes a boy and then goes to a classroom where often he gets treated rather roughly by his teacher, but there is nothing wrong in that, Lobsang. No one has ever been harmed by discipline. Discipline is the difference between an army and a rabble. You cannot have a cultured man unless that man has been disciplined. Many times now you will think that you are ill-treated, that the teacher is harsh, and cruel, but—whatever you think now—you particularly arranged to come to this earth in these conditions.” “Well Honourable Lama,” I exclaimed excitedly, “if I arranged to come down here, then I think that I should have my brains examined. And if I arranged to come down here, why do I know nothing at all about it?”

My Guide looked at me and laughed—laughed outright. “I know just how you feel, Lobsang, today,” he replied, “but really there is nothing that you should worry about. You came to this earth first to learn certain things. Then, having learned those certain things, you are going out into the greater world beyond our borders to learn other things. The Way will not be easy; but you will succeed in the end, and I do not want you to be despondent. Every person, no matter his station in life, has come down to earth from the astral planes in order that he may learn and, in learning, progress. You will agree with me, Lobsang, that if you want to progress in the Lamasery you study and pass examinations. You would not think much of a boy who was suddenly placed over you and by favouritism alone became a lama or an abbot. So long as there are proper examinations then you know that you are not being passed over at some superior person's whim or fancies or favouritisms.” I could see that too, yes, when it was explained, it was quite a simple matter.

“We come to earth to learn things, and no matter how hard nor how bitter the lessons which we learn on this earth, they are lessons for which we have enrolled before we came here. When we leave this earth we have our vacation for a time in the Other World, and then if we want to make progress we move on. We may return to this earth under different conditions, or we may move on to a completely different stage of existence. Often when we are in school we think that there is going to be no end to the day, we think that there is going to be no end to the harshness of the teacher. Life on earth is like that, if everything went smoothly for us, if we had everything that we wanted we should not be learning a lesson, we should just be drifting along on the stream of life. It is a sad fact that we only learn with pain and suffering.” “Well then, Honourable Lama,” I said, “why is it that some boys, and some lamas too, have such an easy time? It always appears to me that I get hardships, bad prophecies, and beatings-up by an irritable teacher when I really have done my best.” “But, Lobsang, some of these people who apparently are very self-satisfied—are you sure that they are so self-satisfied? Are you sure that conditions are so easy for them, after all? Until you know what they planned to do before they came to the earth you are not in a position to judge. Every person coming to this earth comes with a prepared plan, a plan of what they want to learn, what they propose to do, and what they aspire to be when they leave this earth after sojourning in its school. And you say that you tried really hard at class today. Are you sure? Were you not rather complacent, thinking that you knew all there was to know about the lesson? Did you not, by your rather superior attitude, make the Teacher feel rather bad?” He looked at me somewhat accusingly, and I felt my cheeks grow somewhat red. Yes, he really knew something! My Guide had the most unhappy knack of putting his hand on a spot which was tender. Yes, I had been complacent, I had thought that this time the Teacher would not be able to find the slightest fault with me. My own superior attitude had, of course, in no small measure contributed toward the exasperation of that Teacher. I nodded in agreement, “Yes Honourable Lama, I am as much to blame as anyone.” My Guide looked at me, smiled, and nodded in approval.

“Later, Lobsang, you will be going to Chungking in China, as you know,” said the Lama Mingyar Dondup. I nodded, dumbly, not liking even to think of the time when I should have to leave. He continued, “Before you leave Tibet we shall send to various colleges and universities for details about their instruction. We shall receive all particulars and we shall then decide which college or university will offer you exactly the type of training which you will need in this life. In a similar manner, before a person in the astral world even thinks of coming down to earth he weighs up what he proposes to do, what he wants to learn, and what he finally wants to achieve. Then, as I have already told you, suitable parents are discovered. That is the same as looking for a suitable school.”

The more I thought about this school idea the more I disliked it. “Honourable Lama!” I said, “why do some people have so much illness so much misfortune, what does that teach them?” My Guide said, “But you must remember that a person who comes down to this world has much to learn, it is not just a matter of learning to carve, not just a matter of learning a language or reciting from Sacred Books. The person has to learn things which are going to be of use in the astral world after leaving the earth. As I have told you, this is The World of Illusion, and it is extremely well suited to teach us hardship and in suffering hardship, we should learn to understand the difficulties and the problems of others.”

****************************************************

MAN

Nature of man

(Extracts from You—Forever — 1965)

Before we attempt to understand the nature of the Overself or deal with any ‘occult’ matter we must be sure that first we comprehend the nature of Man. In this Course we shall use the term ‘Man’ to indicate man and woman. Let us at the outset state definitely that woman is at least the equal of man in all matters relating to the occult and extra-sensory perceptions. Woman, in fact, often has a brighter aura and a greater capacity for appreciation of the various facets of metaphysics.

What is Life?

Actually, everything that exists is ‘life’. Even a creature which we normally term ‘dead’ is alive. The normal form of its life may have ceased—as it would have done for us to term it dead—but with the cessation of that ‘life’ a fresh form of life took over. The process of dissolution creates life of its own!

Everything that is vibrates. Everything consists of molecules in constant motion. We will use ‘molecules’ instead of atoms, neutrons, protons, etc., because this is a Course on Metaphysics, not a Course of Chemistry or Physics. We are trying to ‘paint a general picture’ rather than go into microscopic detail on irrelevant matters.

Perhaps we should say a few words about molecules and atoms first in order to appease the purists who otherwise would write in and give us knowledge which we already possess! Molecules are small, VERY small, but they can be seen by the use of the electron microscope and by those who are trained in metaphysical arts. According to the dictionary, a molecule is the smallest portion of a substance capable of independent existence while retaining the properties of that substance. Small though molecules are, they are composed of even smaller particles known as ‘atoms’.

An atom is like a miniature solar system. The nucleus of the atom represents the Sun in our own solar system. Around this ‘sun’ rotate electrons in much the same way as our solar-system planets revolve around our Sun. As in the Solar-system, the atom unit is mostly empty space! Here, in Figure One, is how the carbon atom—the ‘brick’ of our own Universe—appears when greatly magnified. Figure Two shows our Solar-system. Every substance has a different number of electrons around its nucleus ‘sun’. Uranium, for example, has ninety-two electrons. Carbon has only six. Two close to the nucleus, and four orbiting at a greater distance. But we are going to forget about atoms and refer only to molecules . . .

Fig. 1: Carbon Atom

Fig. 2: The Solar System

Man is a mass of rapidly rotating molecules. Man appears to be solid; it is not easy to push a finger through flesh and bone. Yet this solidity is an illusion forced upon us because we too are Mankind. Consider a creature of infinite smallness who can stand at a distance from a human body and look at it. The creature would see whirling suns, spiral nebulae, and streams akin to the Milky Way. In the soft parts of the body—the flesh—the molecules would be widely dispersed. In the hard substances, the bones, the molecules would be dense, bunched together and giving the appearance of a great cluster of stars.

Imagine yourself standing on the top of a mountain on some clear night. You are alone, far from the lights of any city which, reflecting into the night sky, causes refraction from suspended moisture-drops and makes the heavens appear dim. (This is why observatories are always built in remote districts.) You are on your own mountain-top . . . above you the stars shine clear and brilliant. You gaze at them as they wheel in endless array before your wondering eyes. Great galaxies stretch before you. Clusters of stars adorn the blackness of the night sky. Across the heavens the band known as the Milky Way appears as a vast and smoky trail. Stars, worlds, planets. Molecules. So would the microscopic creature see YOU!

The stars in the heavens above appear as points of light with incredible spaces between them. Billions, trillions of stars there are, yet compared to the great empty space they seem few indeed. Given a space ship one could move between stars without touching any. Supposing you could close up the spaces between the stars, the molecules, WHAT WOULD YOU SEE? That microscopic creature who is viewing you from afar, is he—it—wondering that also? WE know that all those molecules which the creature sees is US. What, then, is the final shape of the star formations in the heavens? Each Man is a Universe, a Universe in which planets—molecules—spin around a central sun. Every rock, twig, or drop of water is composed of molecules in constant, un-ending motion.

Man is composed of molecules in motion. That motion generates a form of electricity which, uniting with the ‘electricity’ delivered by the Overself, gives sentient Life. Around the poles of the Earth magnetic storms flare and glow, giving rise to the Aurora Borealis with all its coloured lights. Around ALL planets—and molecules!—magnetic radiations interplay and interact with other radiations emanating from nearby worlds and molecules. “No Man is a world unto himself!” No world or molecules can exist without other worlds or molecules. Every creature, world or molecule depends upon the existence of other creatures, worlds or molecules that its own existence may continue.

It must also be appreciated that molecule groups are of different densities, they are, in fact, like clusters of stars swinging in space. In some parts of the Universe there are areas populated by very few stars or planets, or worlds—whichever you like to call them—but elsewhere there is a considerable density of planets, as for example, in the Milky Way. In much the same manner rock can represent a very dense constellation or galaxy. Air is much more thinly populated by molecules. Air, in fact, goes through us and actually passes through the capillaries of our lungs and into our blood stream. Beyond air there is space where there are clusters of hydrogen molecules widely dispersed. Space is not emptiness as people used to imagine, but is a collection of wildly oscillating hydrogen molecules and, of course, the stars and planets and worlds formed from the hydrogen molecules.

It is clear that if one has a substantial collection of molecular groups, then it is quite a difficult matter for any other creature to pass through the groups, but a so-called ‘ghost’ which has its molecules widely spaced can easily pass through a brick wall. Think of the brick wall as it is; a collection of molecules something like a cloud of dust in suspension in the air. Improbable though it may seem, there is space between every molecule just as there is space between different stars, and if some other creatures were small enough, or if their molecules were dispersed enough, then they could pass between the molecules of, say, a brick wall without touching any. This enables us to appreciate how a ‘ghost’ can appear within a closed room, and how it can walk through a seemingly solid wall. Everything is relative, a wall which is solid to you may not be solid to a ghost or to a creature from the astral. But we shall deal with such things later.

*          *          *

Human potential

Conscious, unconscious, subconscious

(Extracts from Feeding the Flame — 1971)

If we are going down into basics again, like this, then we have to say that the sub-conscious is neither intelligent nor unintelligent because it doesn't have intelligence, it's a different sort of thing altogether. The sub-conscious is just a repository of knowledge, good knowledge, bad knowledge. It's just a filing system. It contains all you have ever heard, all you have ever seen, all you have ever experienced. It reminds your automatic responses when to breathe in and when to breathe out. It reminds part of you to wriggle and screech if you are tickled, etc. It's just an automatic reminder.

Would you say that a librarian is intelligent? Well, that's a matter of opinion, of course. I know I tried to deal with those silly librarians at a famous Library in London, the ones who put down details, and I tried to tell these people that the details they were putting down about me were utterly and incontrovertibly incorrect, but it's such a job convincing some of them, and I am left with the indelible opinion that the Record Library librarians at that famous Library are not intelligent. Anyway, that's a matter of opinion, but let us make that query again just for the sake of answering this question:

Would you consider that a librarian was a genius? Would you consider that a librarian could answer any question about anything and say what any person has said before? Well, of course you couldn't, not even if you were a librarian yourself could you make such claims. Instead you would say, quite correctly, that—no, there is no such knowledge in a conscious human, but a librarian knows where to find certain information. The best librarians are those who can find the information fastest.

You and I could go to a library and fumble our way through certain filing cabinets in search of a book title containing matter on the subject of interest. Then we would find we had to refer to something else, then we would find that the book was out of print or out of circulation or out of the Library. We would waste half a day or more, yet by asking a librarian there is a second during which he has an absolutely blank expression, and then the penny seems to drop with a clank, and he or she gets into motion and produces the book with the desired information.

If he or she is good at the work, they recommend many more books.

The sub-conscious is like that. As soon as the thinking ‘we’ desires to know something, then the sub-conscious tries to come up with the answer. That is not intelligence, that is entirely automatic, and as it's automatic it can be trained.

Trained for what? Well, the answer is simple. Your sub-conscious is your memory. If you have a poor memory it means that your conscious one-tenth is not getting through to your sub-conscious nine-tenths. If you have a poor memory it means that the sub-conscious is falling down on the job of providing you the information which you demand.

Supposing you want to know what Gladstone really said back in the year 18-something-or-other. Well, you've probably heard it, you've probably read of it, so it's in your memory and if your sub-conscious cannot bring it out it means that there is a fault in a relay somewhere.

Some people can reel off a terrible lot of stuff about football or baseball teams, and give all the winners or whatever they are called for years back, but that is because they are interested in the subject, and people cannot remember things in which they are not interested. Never having seen a football match or a baseball match, and not wanting to, I haven't the vaguest idea about it. I thought that a baseball diamond, for instance, was a thing given to prize winners; no doubt somebody will write in to tell me differently.

If you want to cultivate a good memory, then you have to cultivate your sub-conscious. You have to be interested in a subject, until you are interested the sub-conscious cannot ‘tag on.’ Many of our lady readers will know all about the male film star, how many times he has been married, how many times he has been divorced, and how many times he has chased his beloved-for-the-moment around the world. That's easy, they can do that, but just ask them to go and get a standard fine thread from a local shop, perhaps a three-sixteenth standard fine thread, and they'll come back looking blanker than usual.

To train your memory, that is, to train your sub-conscious, you should think clearly about things and assume an interest in those things. If men are sent shopping for women's things, well, they come back without a single thought in their heads, but if they took an interest in things then their memory would improve. One can take an interest by asking oneself why a woman wants this, or that, or something else, and the woman can ask herself why a man should want, for instance, a three-sixteenth bolt of fine thread. If she can get a definite interest, then he or she can remember.

If you are trying to remember something specific such as a telephone number, then try to imagine the person to whom the telephone number belongs, or if you do not know the person or cannot visualise him or her, then look at the telephone number—is it a series of circles or a lot of strokes? For example, 6's, 9's, 0's become circles, as do 3's and 2's. But strokes would be 1's, 7's, etc.—and, of course, 4's. So if you can visualise a number by circles or strokes, you can remember it. The best way is to use our old system of threes.

Repeat the telephone number three times while holding the sincere conviction that you will always remember that number. You can, you know, it's quite easy, nothing difficult in it.

*          *          *

Imagination

(Extracts from You—Forever — 1965)

We are not going to talk about old mistresses, nor old masters, but it seemed an appropriate form of example because we are going to talk in this Lesson about another word, the meaning of which has become distorted throughout the years.

Imagination is a word which now is in sore disgrace. Years ago a man of imagination was a man of sensitive ideas, one who could write, one who could compose music or poetry. It was, in fact, absolutely essential for a gentleman to be possessed of imagination. Nowadays it appears that ‘imagination’ indicates some poor frustrated woman suffering from hysteria or on the verge of a mental breakdown. People brush off experiences—which they would far better study!—with the exclamation, “Oh, it's all your imagination! Don't be so silly!”

Imagination, then, is a word that is in poor repute today, but controlled imagination is a key which can unlock many experiences which are at present locked in the veil of mystery which surrounds most people when they refer to occult matters. It is well to remember time and time again that in any battle between the imagination and the will it is always the imagination which wins. People pride themselves upon their will power, upon their indomitable courage, upon the fact that nothing frightens them. They assure bored listeners that with their will power they can do anything at all. The whole truth of the matter is that with their will power they can do nothing unless the imagination agrees to permit it. These people of much-vaunted will power are actually those who have managed somehow (usually by accident) to let the imagination believe that a good dose of ‘will power’ would be useful in this particular instance. We repeat, and any competent authority will agree with us, that in the matter of imagination and will power it is without exception imagination that wins. There is no greater power.

Do you still doubt that you can will yourself to do things when your imagination does not want you to? Consider this; let us pose a hypothetical problem because that appears to be the modern way of doing things!

We have before us a street devoid of traffic. There is no traffic about, there are no curious sightseers, so we have the whole street to ourselves. Let us paint a path some two feet wide—or three feet, if you prefer—from one side-walk to the other. Undisturbed by the thought of avoiding traffic, or unperturbed by the serious stares of onlookers, you would have not the slightest difficulty nor hesitation in stepping off one sidewalk onto your two or three feet wide path and walk sedately across the road to the other sidewalk. This would not cause your breath rate to increase, it would not cause your heart to flutter, it would be one of the simplest things you had ever been called upon to do. Will you agree with us so far?

You can walk along the painted pathway without a thought of fear because you know that the ground is not going to give way beneath you, you know that except in the case of an earthquake or a building falling over on top of you, you are quite safe, and if by some singular misfortune you should trip and fall to the ground no great harm would be done because you cannot fall further than your own height.

Now let us alter the pictures somewhat. Let us say that we are still in the street, and we move to a building which is about twenty stories high. We will get into the elevator and move upwards, up to the beautifully flat roof. As we stand on the roof and we look across the street, we observe that we are quite level with another building twenty stories high just across from us. If we look over the wall and down at the roadway beneath we can just see the painted line that we made. Now—now, we are going to have a board two or three feet wide, in other words, a board precisely as wide as was our painted line. We will stretch it across the street twenty stories high across the street, and we will anchor it so firmly that it cannot move; we will anchor it so securely that it cannot sway or bounce, we will examine it most carefully to see that there is nothing at all which could trip you or make your footsteps uncertain.

You have the same width of pathway as you did on ground level. Can you walk across that plank which is fixed securely twenty stories above the street, and reach the other side of the street—reach the roof of the other building? If your imagination says you can, then indeed you can and without any great trouble. But if your imagination is not so complaisant then your pulse will race at the mere thought of it, you will feel ‘butterflies in the stomach’, you might even feel worse than that! But why? You have already walked across the road, so why can you not walk across this beautifully firm board? The answer is, of course, that your imagination starts working, your imagination tells you that here is danger, that if you slip, if you falter, you will step off the edge of the board you will fall twenty stories down to destruction. It does not matter how much one tries to reassure you, unless your imagination can be assured no amount of will power can help. If you try to assert your will power you might have a nervous breakdown, you will start to tremble, you will turn pale and your breath will come in stertorous gasps.

We have certain mechanisms built into us which protect us from danger, certain automatic safeguards are built into the human mechanism so that a human cannot normally run into foolish danger. Imagination makes it almost impossible for a person to walk the plank, and no amount of telling would enable a person to realise that it really was perfectly safe, you need to imagine that you can do it. Until you really can ‘imagine’ yourself stepping up to the plank, getting onto it, and walking firmly and confidently across, then you cannot do it.

If one WILLS oneself to do a thing when the imagination says “NO,” then one does indeed risk a nervous breakdown, for we are going to repeat once again that in any battle between the imagination and the will power, the imagination always wins. Forcing ourselves to do something when all the alarm signals are clanging within us can wreck one's nerves, wreck one's health.

Some people are desperately afraid of passing a graveyard on a lonely road at midnight. If the occasion arises when they have to pass a cemetery at night they feel their scalp tingle, their hair stands on end, their palms begin to perspire, and every perception is heightened, every impression is exaggerated, and they are indeed keyed up to make a prodigious leap to safety should the appearance of a ghost apparently call for escape.

People who do not like their work and have to force themselves to do their work, often bring into use an escape mechanism. Some of these ‘escape mechanisms’ lead to rather weird results, they may be blessings in disguise because if warnings are not heeded mental breakdowns can occur. We are going to relate an actual instance which is well known to us, we know the instance, we know the man, and we know the result. Here it is:—

This man of our acquaintance did a lot of standing. He stood at one of those tall desks and entered figures in a ledger. His work was such that he had to stand, the work could not be done easily sitting down. The man was competent at his job, he was good at these figures, but he had a phobia; he was truly desperately afraid that someday, somehow he would make a mistake and perhaps be accused of embezzling a sum of money from his employers. Actually the man was painfully honest, he was one of those rare individuals who make hard work of honesty, one of those individuals who would not even take a packet of book matches from a hotel or would not even keep a newspaper which he found on a bus seat. But even so he was afraid that his employers did not know of his honesty, and that made him feel very bad indeed about his work.

For a number of years he went about the work becoming more and more unhappy, more and more preoccupied. He discussed a change of work with his wife, but she had no sympathy with him, and so he kept to the same job. But the imagination got to work also; first the man got gastric ulcers. With careful attention and diet those ulcers were cured, and he returned to work—returned to standing at a desk. It occurred to him one day that if he did not have the ability to stand then he would not have the ability to keep that job.

Some weeks later an ulcer appeared on his foot. For a few days he hobbled to work and endured great pain, but the ulcer got worse, and he had to remain in bed for a time. Being in bed—being away from his office, his recovery was quite speedy, and then he went back to work. All the time his sub-conscious mind was nagging him. It reasoned, one supposed, something like this; “Well, I got out of that horrible job by having a foot complaint, they cured me too quickly so let me have a worse foot complaint.”

A few months after the man's return, presumably cured, he got another ulcer, this time on the ankle. It was such a bad ulcer that he could not move his ankle. Eventually he was taken to hospital, and as the ulcer became worse and worse he had to have an operation. After this he was discharged cured, and went back to his job.

Now the hatred of the job was growing on him. Soon another ulcer appeared, this time between the ankle and the knee, this time it was so bad—resisting all efforts to cure it—that he had to have his leg amputated at the knee. This time to his great joy the employer would not have him back, saying that he would not have a cripple around, a cripple who was always falling sick!

The doctors at the hospital knew quite a lot about this case, and so they arranged for the man to do some other work, work for which he had shown considerable aptitude while in hospital. It was a form of handicraft instruction. He liked the work and had much success at it. There was now no fear that he would go to prison for some mistake which would cause him to be accused of embezzling, so his health improved, and, so far as is known at the present time, he is carrying on this work and making a success at it.

This is rather an extreme case, true, but every day we see high-pressure businessmen who are in fear of their jobs, in fear of their employer, or in fear of ‘losing face’, working at high internal pressures and then seeking to escape by way of gastric ulcers, gastric ulcers, in fact, are known as the executives' complaint.

Imagination can topple an empire, imagination can build an empire as well, remember. If you will cultivate your imagination and control it, you can have whatever you want. It is not possible to dictate to your imagination, not possible to tell it what it shall do because Friend Imagination is something like Friend Mule; you can lead a mule but you cannot drive him, and so you can lead your imagination but you cannot drive it. It needs practice, but it can be done.

Well, how are you going to set about controlling your imagination? It is only a matter of faith, of practice. Think of some situation which excites your fear or your distaste, and then overcome it by faith, by persuading your imagination that YOU can do a thing no matter what others can or cannot do. Persuade yourself that you are some special sort of being, if you like, it does not matter what method you adopt to yourself so long as you get your imagination working on your behalf. Let us revert to our original illustration about crossing the street, let us decide that we can easily cross the street on a two foot plank resting across the roadway. Then, by faith, by thinking that we are not as others, we can persuade our imagination that we can cross the plank even though it be elevated twenty stories above the ground.

Think of this:— Tell yourself that even a more or less brainless monkey can cross that plank with no fear at all. Who is better, you or a brainless monkey? If a brainless monkey or a person who is almost an idiot can cross that plank, then surely you, a much better person, can do so also. It is merely a question of practice, of having faith. In the past there have been famous tightrope walkers such as Blondin, who crossed a rope many times over the Niagara Falls. Blondin was just an ordinary man who had faith in his abilities, he had faith that he could cross where other men could not. He knew that the only thing to be afraid of was of being afraid, he knew that if he was confident of going across, then he could cross no matter if he was pushing a wheelbarrow or if he was blindfolded.

We all get the same sort of experience. We climb up a long ladder, and as long as we look up we experience no fear. But as soon as we look down the thought occurs to us that we would make an awfully bad mess if we fell off the ladder and then crashed. Our imagination then pictures ourselves falling, pictures us being smeared many many feet below, our imagination might picture us clinging so tightly to that ladder that we cannot free ourselves. Steeplejacks have had that type of experience!

If you control your imagination by building up faith in your own abilities, you can do anything. You cannot succeed in overcoming your imagination by force, exercising your will power will not overcome your imagination, it will instead build up a neurosis within you. Remember, once again, that you must at all times lead your imagination, control your imagination. If you try to drive your imagination you will fail. If you will lead your imagination you will be able to do all those things which you thought would be impossible for you. First of all, though, believe that there is no such thing as ‘impossible’.

*          *          *

Human relations

Love — affection

(Extracts from Chapters of Life — 1967)

Probably almost everyone has heard of ‘twin souls’. There are such things, you know, but upon the Earth plane the meeting of twin souls is a very rare occurrence. You see, if you are going to get down to basics and you consider the world of anti-matter, you will appreciate that to be a complete battery there must be a positive and a negative. So if you are going to have a twin soul which forms one complete entity, you have to get a person in our system of the astral and a person of the corresponding system of the anti-matter astral, and these people have to be completely compatible.

What usually happens here, however, is that in the astral there are two Overselves who are highly compatible, and they send down to Earth a puppet from each and the puppet from each is completely compatible with the other, they fit in, and if they come into close proximity with each other there is an immediate feeling of rapport, of ‘belonging’. One will say, ‘I know I have met that person before!’ In such cases a very true friendship can develop, but as already stated, such instances are rather rare upon the Earth. Instead there is often a very great degree of compatibility between two people, and because they are so compatible, because they complement each other, they consider that they are twin souls. They may get each other's thoughts, they may know just what the other is going to say seconds before it is said.

One gets much the same sort of affair between identical twins, which of course is two people from the one egg. These two will be very much in sympathy with each other, and even while miles apart will experience the emotions of the other, and they may even get married at the same time.

A man can be very much in love with a woman; they may fancy that they are twin souls, but if they are twin souls then they will have similar interests. For example, the man could not be, let us say, a confirmed atheist while the woman had very strong religious beliefs. The dissimilarity in their beliefs would cause some dissonance, some disharmony, some friction between them, and so instead of drawing closer together they would drift farther apart.

The most that can be hoped for on this world is that two highly compatible people can live together, and by their purity of thought and by their actions, draw each closer to the other. But this is difficult of attainment at the present time because it requires such utter sacrifice and selflessness. It is useless for a man to give in and give all to the woman thinking that he is doing right, just as it is useless for the woman to give all to the man and think that she is doing right. It is not enough that each give everything to the other, instead each must give exactly what the other needs, otherwise they will drift apart.

Many people think that they have met their twin soul when they meet a person who astrologically is compatible and who lives upon the same ‘ray’. They can live in harmony, and they will live in harmony, but it still is not perfect harmony, it still is not a fusion of two souls to make one entity. In fact, if people were so perfect as that, they could not stay upon this imperfect world any more than a piece of ice can exist when tossed into the flames of a raging furnace. Thus, humans—Man and Woman—must try to live with each other exercising tolerance, patience, and selflessness.

Quite a number of people are brought together to work out kharmic links, and the working out of these kharmic ties makes it necessary that people shall come in close contact with each other for good or for bad. If a man and a woman are brought together through kharmic ties and, for example, the man falls in love with the woman and the woman falls in love with the man, then a very great bond of love is formed which can have the effect of cancelling out many bad kharmic aspects, because no matter what we think down here, good will prevail in the end.

If one person loves another, and the other person hates the former, then a kharmic bond will still be formed, but it will be an unsatisfactory bond and they will have to come together until the hate is eradicated and love forms. It should be understood that only complete and utter indifference can possibly prevent any kharmic link being formed. If you like a person you form a kharmic tie, if you dislike a person you form a kharmic tie, if you couldn't care less about the person no link is formed. So—any reaction to any other person starts the chain which causes kharma. For example, there can be a relationship between a teacher and a student, in that case a bond of some sort is formed. It could be a lasting bond, or it may be just a temporary bond which is over almost in a flash and can then be attributed to the burning out of some kharmic link.

The worst state is that in which great love is severed by death. If a woman loses her husband while she is still in love with him she has no outlet for her love, and so that love is stored up until they come together again in some future incarnation and the conditions are right for the expression of that love. So if anyone tells you that he or she has met their twin soul, smile understandingly and hold your peace.

*          *          *

Mariage — couple

(Extracts from The Cave of the Ancients — 1963)

“Sir!” I said, “why are people who marry so unfriendly to each other? I looked at the aura of those two Ragyab last night, and it seemed to me that they really hated each other; if they hated each other why did they marry?” The Lama looked really sad for a few moments, and then he said, “People forget, Lobsang, that they come down to this earth in order to learn lessons. Before a person is born, while a person is still on the other side of life, arrangements are going ahead deciding what sort, what type, of marriage partner will be chosen. You should understand that a lot of people get married in what one might term the heat of passion. When passion spends itself, then the newness, the strangeness, wears off and familiarity breeds contempt!”

‘Familiarity breeds contempt’. I thought about it and thought about it. Why, then, did people get married? Obviously people got married in order that the race might continue. But why could not people get together the same as animals did? I raised my head and asked that question of my Guide. He looked at me and said, “Why, Lobsang! You surprise me, you should know as well as anyone that the so-called animals often mate for life. Many animals mate for life, many birds mate for life, certainly the more evolved ones do. If people got together, as you say, just for the purpose of increasing the race, then the resulting children would be almost soulless people, the same in fact as those creatures who are born by what is known as artificial insemination. There must be love in intercourse, there must be love between the parents if the best type of child is to be born, otherwise it is much the same as just a factory-made article!”

This business of husband and wife really puzzled me. I thought of my own parents, my Mother had been a domineering woman, and my Father had been really harsh to us, his children. I could not summon up much filial affection when I thought of either my Mother or my Father. I said to my Guide, “But why do people get married in the heat of passion? Why do they not get married as a business proposition?” “Lobsang!” said my Guide, “that is often the way of the Chinese and of the Japanese too. Their marriages are often arranged, and I must admit that Chinese and Japanese marriages are far far more successful than marriages in the Western world. The Chinese themselves liken it to a kettle. They do not marry in passion because they say it is like a kettle boiling and cooling off. They marry coolly and allow the mythical kettle to come up to the boil, and in that way it stays hot longer!” He looked at me to see if I was following—to see if the matter was clear to me. “But I cannot see, Sir, why people are so unhappy together.” “Lobsang, people come to earth as to a classroom, they come to learn things, and if the average husband and wife were ideally happy together then they would not learn, for there would be nothing to learn. They come to this earth to be together and to get on together—that is part of the lesson—they have to learn to give and to take. People have rough edges, edges or idiosyncrasies which jar and grate on the other partner. The grating partner must learn to subdue and perhaps end the annoying trait, while the partner who is annoyed must learn tolerance and forbearance. Almost any couple could live together successfully provided they learned this matter of give and take.”

“Sir!” I said, “how would husband and wife be advised to live together?” “Husband and wife, Lobsang, should wait for a favourable moment, and should then kindly, courteously, and calmly say what is causing them distress. If a husband and a wife would discuss things together, then they would be more happy in their marriage.” I thought about this, and I wondered how my Father and my Mother would get on if they tried to discuss anything together! To me they seemed to be fire and water, with each one being as antipathetic to the other. My Guide obviously knew what I was thinking for he continued, “There must be some give and take, because if these people are going to learn anything at all, then they should be sufficiently aware to know that there is something wrong with them.” “But how is it,” I asked, “that one person falls in love with another, or feels attracted to another? If they are attracted to each other at one stage why do they so soon cool off?” “Lobsang, you will well know that if one sees the aura one can tell about another person. The average person does not see the aura, but instead many people have a feeling, they can say that they like this person, or that they dislike that person. Most times they cannot say why they like or dislike, but they will agree that one person pleases them and another person displeases them.” “Well, Sir,” I exclaimed, "how can they suddenly like a person and then suddenly dislike a person?” “When people are at a certain stage, when they feel that they are in love, their vibrations are increased, and it may well be that when these two people, some man and some woman, have heightened vibrations they would be compatible. Unfortunately they do not always let it remain heightened. The wife will become dowdy, perhaps she will refuse the husband what is undeniably his right. The husband will then go out after some other woman, and gradually they will drift apart. Gradually their etheric vibrations will alter so that they are no longer compatible, so that they are completely antipathetic.”

*          *          *

Man and his ‘partners’ on Earth

The cats

(Extracts from As it was! — 1976)

One tutor in particular was intrigued by my love of cats and the cats' obvious love for me. The tutor knew full well that cats and I conversed telepathically. One day after school hours he was in a very good mood indeed, and he saw me lying on the ground with four or five of our temple cats sitting on me. He laughed at the sight and bade me accompany him to his room, which I did with some apprehension because in those days a summons to a lama's quarters usually meant a reprimand for something done or not done, or extra tasks to be accomplished. So I followed him at a respectful distance, and once in his rooms he told me to sit down while he talked to me about cats.

“Cats,” he said, “are now small creatures, and they cannot speak in the human tongue but only by telepathy. Many, many years ago, before this particular Round of Existence, cats populated the Earth. They were bigger, they were almost as big as our ponies, they talked to each other, they could do things with their forepaws, which then they called hands. They engaged in horticulture and they were largely vegetarian cats. They lived among the trees and their houses were in the great trees. Some of the trees were very different from those we now know upon the Earth, some of them, in fact, had great hollows in them like caves, and in those hollows, or caves, the cats made their homes. They were warm, they were protected by the living entity of the tree, and altogether they were a very congenial community. But one cannot have perfection with any species because unless there is some competition, unless there is some dissatisfaction to spur one on, then the creature having such euphoria degenerates.”

He smiled at the cats who had followed me and who were now sitting around me, and then he went on, “Such happened to our brothers and sisters Cat. They were too happy, too contented, they had nothing to spur their ambition, nothing to drive them on to greater heights. They had no thought except that they were happy. They were like those poor people we saw recently who were bereft of sanity, they were content just to lie beneath the trees and let the affairs of the day take care of themselves. They were static, and so being static they were a failure. As such the Gardeners of the Earth rooted them out as though they were weeds and the earth was allowed to lie fallow for a time. And in the course of time the Earth had reached such a stage of ripeness that again it could be restocked with a different type of entity. But the cats—well, their fault had been that they had done nothing, neither good nor bad. They had existed and that alone—existed. And so they were sent down again as small creatures like those we see here, they were sent to learn a lesson, they were sent with the inner knowledge that THEY had once been the dominant species, so they were reserved, very careful to whom they gave their friendship. They were sent to do a task, the task of watching humans and reporting the progress or the failures of humans so that when the next Round came much information would have been provided by cats. Cats can go anywhere, they can see anything, they can hear anything, and, not being able to tell a lie, they would record everything precisely as it occurred.”

I know that I was quite frightened for the time being! I wondered what the cats were reporting about me. But then one old tom, a champion of many a fight, gave a ‘Rrrr’ and jumped on my shoulders and butted his head against mine, so I knew everything was all right and they would not report me too badly.

*          *          *

The role of animals in relation to humans

(Extracts from Feeding the Flame — 1971)

There came a light tap at the door and Friendly Neighbour came in and plonked a solid behind with a resounding ‘thwack’ upon a seat which seemed inadequate to contain such bulk. “Love your cats, don't you Guv?” said Friendly Neighbour with a smile.

“Love them? Good gracious, yes! I regard them as my children, and as remarkably intelligent children at that. These cats do more for me than humans.”

By now Tadalinka was alert, sitting up ready to growl, ready to attack if necessary because both little cats can be very very fierce indeed in defence of what they regard as their responsibilities. At one apartment a man had tried to enter at night. Both cats had rushed to the door and nearly scared ten years of growth on to the poor fellow, because a Siamese cat in a fury is quite a frightening sight. They puff out, every hair of their fur stands straight out at right angles to the body, their tails fluff out, they stand on tiptoe and they look like something out of the inferno. They should not be called cats really because they are unlike cats. They roar, growl and fume, and nothing is too dangerous for a Siamese cat protecting a person or property. There are many legends about protecting by Siamese cats, many legends originating in the East about how this or that Siamese cat protected important people or sick people. But—enough. No one else tried to enter our apartment without our knowledge, the story of ‘the fierce Rampa cats’ went the round, and people are more frightened of wild Siamese cats than they are of mad dogs, it seems.

So it was, or, should it be, now it is, that now with the Old Man so disabled the two little cats are ever alert to rush to his defence.

Oh yes, among our questions, here is a question from a lady who asks about animals. Where is it now? Ah, here! “Can you tell us what happens to our pets when they leave this Earth? Are they utterly destroyed, or do they eventually reincarnate as humans? The Bible tells us that only humans go to Heaven. What have you to say about it?”

Madam, I have a lot to say about it. The Bible was written a long time after the events related happened, the Bible is not the original Writings either. It is a translation of a translation of a translation of another translation which had been re-translated to suit some king or some political power, or something else. Think of the King James Edition, or this Edition or that Edition. A lot of things written in the Bible are bunk. No doubt there was a lot of truth in the original Scriptures, but a lot of things in the Bible now are no more truth than the truth of the press, and anyone knows what a lot of bilge that is.

The Bible seems to teach humans that they are the Lords of Creation, that the whole world was made for Man. Well, Man has made an awful mess of the world, hasn't he? Where are there not wars, or rumours of wars, where is there no sadism, no terror, no persecution? You will have to move off this Earth if you want an answer to that. But we are dealing with animals and what happens to them.

In the first case there are many different species of creatures. Humans are animals, whether you like it or not humans are animals, horrid, uncouth, unfriendly animals, more savage than any of the Nature type animals.

Because humans have a thumb and fingers they have been able to develop along certain lines because they can use their hands to fabricate things, and that animals cannot do. Man lives in a very material world and only believes that which he can grasp between his fingers and his thumb. Animals, not having thumbs and not being able to grasp a thing in two hands, have had to evolve spiritually, and most animals are spiritual, they do not kill unless for the absolute necessity of eating, and if a cat ‘terrorises and tortures’ a mouse—well that is an illusion of the human; the mouse is quite oblivious of it because it is hypnotised and feels no pain. Do you like that?

Under stress a person's sensations are anaesthetised, so in times of war, for example, a man can have an arm shot off and apart from a very dim numbness, he will not feel it until loss of blood makes him weak. Or a person piloting a plane, for instance, can be shot through the shoulder but he will go on piloting his plane and bring it down safely and only when the excitement has ended will he feel pain. In the case of our mouse by that time the mouse doesn't feel anything anymore.

Horses do not reincarnate as daffodils. Marmosets do not reincarnate as maggots or vice versa. There are different groups of Nature people, each one in a separate isolated ‘shell’ which does not impinge upon the spiritual or astral existence of others. What that really means is that a monkey never reincarnates as a man, a man never reincarnates as a mouse although, admittedly, many men are mouse-like in their lack of intestinal fortitude which is a very polite way of explaining—well, you know what.

It is a definite statement of fact that no animal reincarnates as a human. I know humans are animals as well, but I am using the accepted, the commonly accepted term. One refers to humans and one refers to animals because humans like to be buttered up a bit, and so one pretends that they are not animals but a special form of creature, one of God's chosen—humans. So—the human animal never never reincarnates as a canine animal or feline animal, or equine animal. And, again, our old friend vice versa.

The human animal has one type of evolution which he must follow, the—which shall we say?—has a different, and not necessarily parallel, form of evolution to follow. So they are not inter-changeable entities.

Many Buddhist Scriptures refer to humans coming back as spiders or tigers or something else, but of course that is not believed by the educated Buddhist, that started as a misunderstanding many centuries ago in much the same way as there is a misunderstanding about Father Christmas, or about little girls being made of sugar and spice and all things nice. You and I know that all little girls are not nice; some of them are very nice, some of them are proper stinkers, but, of course, you and I, we only know the nice ones, don't we?

When a human dies the human goes to the astral plane about which we shall say more later, and when an animal dies it, too, goes to an astral plane where it is met by its own kind, where there is perfect understanding, where there is perfect rapport between them. As in the case of humans, animals cannot be bothered by those with whom they are incompatible, and now study this carefully; when a person who loves an animal dies and goes to the astral world, that person can be in contact with the loved animal, they can be together if there is absolute love between them. Further, if humans were more telepathic, if they were more believing, if they would open their minds and receive, then loved animals who had passed over could keep in touch with the humans even before the humans passed over.

Let me tell you something; I have a number of little people who have passed over, and I am still very definitely, very much in contact with them. There is one little Siamese cat, Cindy, with whom I am in daily contact, and Cindy has helped me enormously. On Earth she had a very bad time indeed. Now she is helping, helping, always helping. She is doing absolutely as much as anyone on the Other Side can do for anyone on this Side.

Those who truly love their so-called ‘pets’ can be sure that when this life has ended for both, then they can come together again, but it's not the same.

When humans are on the Earth they are a disbelieving crew, cynical, hard, blasé and all the rest. When they get to the Other Side they get a shake or two which enables them to realise that they are not the Lords of Creation they thought they were, but just part of a Divine Plan. On the Other Side they realise that others have rights as well, when they get to the Other Side they find that they can talk with utmost clarity to animals who are also on the Other Side, and animals will answer them in any language they care to use. It is a limitation on humans that most of them while on Earth are not telepathic, most of them, while on Earth, are not aware of the character and ability and powers of so-called ‘animals’. But when they pass over it all comes clear to them, and humans then are like a person born blind who suddenly can see.

Yes, animals go to Heaven, not the Christian Heaven, of course, but that is no loss. Animals have a real Heaven, no angels with goose feathers for wings, it's a real Heaven, and they have a Manu, or God, who looks after them. Whatever Man can obtain or attain on the Other Side, so can an animal—peace, learning, advancement—anything and everything.

Upon the Earth man is in the position of being the dominant species, dominant because of the fearful weapons he has. Unarmed a man would be no match for a determined dog; armed with some artificial method such as a gun, a man can dominate a whole pack of dogs, and it is only through Man's viciousness that the telepathic power of communication with animals has been lost; that is the real story of the Tower of Babel, you know. Mankind was telepathic for general use, and mankind used speech only in local dialects for communicating with members of the family when they did not want the community as a whole to know what was being said. But then Man lured animals into traps by false telepathy, by false promises. As a result mankind lost the telepathic power as a punishment, and now only a few people on this Earth are telepathic, and for those of us who are it is like being a sighted person in the country of the blind.

Well, madam, to answer the question in your letter briefly—No, humans do not reincarnate as animals, animals do not reincarnate as humans. Yes, animals go to Heaven, and if you truly love your pet then you can be together after you pass over IF your love is truly love and not just selfish, senseless desire to dominate or possess. And, finally on this subject, animals are not an inferior species. Humans can do a vast number of things that animals cannot, animals can do a vast number of things that humans cannot. They are different, and that's all there is to it—they are different, but not inferior.

Now, Miss Cleo, resting so comfortably, looked up with those limpid blue eyes and sent a telepathic message: “To work, we have to work or we do not eat.” So saying she rose gracefully and most delicately walked off. The Old Man, with a sigh, turned to another letter and another question.

“Are there Mantras for sending dying animals to higher realms, and, if so, what are such Mantras?”

One doesn't need Mantras from humans to animals; just as humans have their own helpers waiting on the Other Side of life to help the dying human to be reborn back into the astral, so animals have their own helpers. And so there are no Mantras necessary to help dying animals enter the astral world. Anyhow animals know by instinct, or by pre-knowledge, far more about such things than do humans.

One should not wait until an animal is dying before one is ready to help. The best way to help an animal is while it is alive and well on this Earth because animals are beautiful creatures, and there are no bad or vicious animals unless they have been made bad and vicious by the ill-treatment, conscious or otherwise, of humans. I have known many cats, and I have never known a cat who was naturally vicious or bad tempered. If a cat has been tormented by humans, or by human children most likely, then of course it does adopt a protective fierceness, but soon with a little kindness all that goes, and one has a gentle, devoted animal again.

You know, a lot of people are scared stiff about Siamese cats, saying how fierce they are, how destructive, how everything bad. It isn't true, there isn't a word of truth in it, not a word. Miss Cleopatra and Miss Tadalinka never, never do anything to annoy us. If something irritates us, then we just say, “Oh, don't do that, Cleo!” and she doesn't do it again. Our cats do not tear up furniture or draperies because we have a pact with them; we provide a very easily made scratching post, actually we have two. They are sturdy posts, strongly mounted on a square base, both are covered with heavy carpet, not old scruffy carpet on which one has upset the garbage pail, but new carpet, actually off-cuts. Well, this carpeting has been securely fixed to the posts and on top of the posts there is room for a cat to sit.

Several times a day Cleopatra and Tadalinka go to their scratch posts, and they have such a long beautiful stretch that it makes one feel better just to watch. Sometimes they will walk up the post instead of jumping to the top, and that is very good for their muscles and very good for their claws. So, we provide the scratch posts and they provide the tranquillity because we do not have to fear for any furniture or any draperies.

Once I thought of writing a book about Cat Legends and the real story of cats. I'd love to, but increasing decrepitude makes it improbable that I ever shall. I would like to tell, for instance, how, on another world, in another system, far removed from the solar system, there was a high civilisation of cats. In those days they could use their ‘thumbs’ as humans could, but, just as humans are doing now, they fell from grace and they had a choice of starting a Round all over again or going to another system to help a race not yet born.

Cats are kind creatures and understanding creatures, and so the whole race of cats and the Manu of cats decided to come to the planet we call Earth. They came to watch humans and report to other spheres on the behaviour of humans, something like having a television camera watching all the time, but they watch and report not to harm humans, but to help them. In the better regions people do not report things to cause harm but only so that defects may be overcome.

Cats came to be naturally independent so they would not be swayed by affection. They came as small creatures so that humans could treat them kindly or treat them harshly, according to the nature of the humans.

Cats are benign, a good influence on Earth. Cats are a direct extension of a Great Overself of this world, a source of information where much information is distorted by world conditions.

Be friendly with cats, treat them kindly, have faith in them knowing that no cat has ever willingly harmed a human, but very very many cats have died to help humans.

Well, Miss Tadalinka has just rushed in with a telepathic message, “Hey, Guv, guess what? There's seventy-eight letters for you today!” Seventy-eight letters! It's about time I got down to answering some which are waiting.

*          *          *

The plants

(Extracts from Feeding the Flame — 1971)

Science, cynical and sceptical though it be, has now discovered that plants have feelings, plants will grow better when they are tended by people who are sympathetic to them. Plants respond to music. There are instruments which can indicate how much pain a plant is enduring. You may not hear a cabbage shriek when you tear off its outside leaves—no, because it has no vocal chords and yet there are instruments which can record that shriek of pain as a burst of static.

This is not fairy tale stuff, it's actual fact, it's stuff that has been investigated and proved and proved again. In research laboratories in Russia, England and the U.S.A. it has been proved.

When you pick some berries and stuff them in your mouth, well how about the feelings of the plant? You don't go and tear a lump off a cow and stuff it in your mouth do you? If you tried to the cow would soon object, but because a plant cannot make its pain known you think you are a jolly wonderful humanitarian when you eat plants instead of meat which cannot feel the pain of being eaten.

Quite frankly I believe that vegetarians are a lot of cranks and crackpots, and if they would only come off their stupid attitude and remember that the Gardeners of the Earth designed their bodies for certain food, then they would be a lot better in their mental health.

If you have a car you wouldn't drain the sump and fill it up with water, would you, and say you couldn't possibly use oil because it might come from the Earth somewhere and hurt somebody underground. If you try to run your body on food for which it is not designed you are being just the same as a person who won't use oil in the sump of his car but instead uses salt water.

If we are going to be logical and if we are going to say that vegetarianism is good, then how about the practice of using cut flowers in one's rooms? Plants are living entities, and when you cut flowers you are cutting off the sex organs of the plants and sticking them in vases, and actually humans would be shockingly unhappy if their sex organs were cut off and stuck in vases for some different race to enjoy.

Let me digress here to say that when I was in hospital I received a very pleasant surprise. A group of very kind ladies as far away as the Pacific coast of the U.S.A. had wired to a florist in the city of Saint John to have some plants delivered to me at the hospital. I appreciated it very much indeed. The ladies did not give any address but I was able to locate them!

A personal choice—I do not like cut flowers. It seems to me such a pity to cut them off. Instead I very much prefer a complete plant, here one has a living thing which is growing and not just dying. I often think people who send great bunches of cut flowers—well, why not cut off the heads of small children and impale them on sticks and put those in a room!

Have you ever thought of the state this old Earth of ours is in? It's quite a mess, you know. Compare it to a garden. Now, if the garden is properly maintained there are no weeds or anything like that, all pests are kept in check, there is no blight on the trees and the fruits are full and healthy.

Plants have to be thinned out, the sickly ones have to be removed. Every so often fruit trees have to be pruned, sometimes there are grafts taken. It is necessary to carefully supervise the garden and to prevent cross-pollination between undesirable species. If the garden is maintained as it should be it becomes a thing of beauty.

But let the gardeners go away, let the garden remain idle for a year or two. Weeds will grow and will choke and kill off the more delicate plants, unchecked pests will come, and blight will appear on the trees. No longer will there be round, film fruits, but soon they will be shrivelled, wrinkled up with all sorts of brown spots. A sadly neglected garden is a tragic sight.

*          *          *

Ecological considerations

(Extracts from The Thirteenth Candle — 1972)

“With the population explosion there is increased pressure on the wild-life and wild places of the world—will these survive or will Man ruin his environment forever?”

Many animals, birds, and fish, will die and their species will be eliminated for all time from this Earth. Mankind is insatiable and voracious. Mankind has no thought for the people of the wilds, but only for putting a few more bucks in his pocket. As this is being written there is a scheme here in the Province of Quebec whereby millions of acres of land is going to be denuded of its trees to go into the papermaking industry because from some of these paper products newspapers are printed, artificial leather is made, and many other products which Man now finds indispensable to his existence for some reason.

With the felling of the trees there will be no insects, no birds; no places for the birds to nest, no food for them, and so they will starve. Animals without shelter and without food will starve also.

Man is committing suicide and ruining his world fast. With the removal of the trees there will be different thermo currents. The temperature of the trees caused air to rise and rain to fall, so without the trees there will be a climatic change. It could become a desert area in Quebec where the trees are being felled by the millions.

The roots of trees reach out into the soil and keep it together in a solid mass. When the trees are felled and the roots pulled up there will be nothing holding the soil together, so the winds will come and blow the light soil into the air leaving desert areas reminiscent of the Dust Bowl of America.

Mankind is ruining his world because of his quite insatiable money-grabbing. If people would only live more naturally without some of these synthetic compounds then they would be happier. As things are now, with all the developments of mankind, there is more and more pollution of the air and of the water and the soil, and soon there will come the point of no return when the earth will become barren and uninhabitable. Many people in high places out of this Earth, out of this world, are working hard to influence mankind so that this insensate destruction of the wild places of life shall be stopped, and so that Nature shall be afforded an opportunity of restoring the ecology to that which is most suitable for Man's continuance and for Man's evolution.

*          *          *

Metaphysical problems

Existence of God

(Extracts from Feeding the Flame — 1971)

Earth is the school of wayward humans. So, we are in a shaken condition, and most people fear death, they fear the pain, they fear the mystery, they fear because they do not know what is to happen. They fear they are going to face some wrathful God who will stick a hay-fork into some part of their anatomy and toss them straight down to old Satan who will have the branding irons all ready.

But all that is rubbish. There is no such thing as a wrathful God. If we are to love God then we have to love a kind and understanding God. Talk of fearing God is nonsense, it is criminal. Why should we fear one who loves us? Do you fear a really kind and understanding father? Do you fear a really kind and understanding mother? Not if you are sane. Then why fear God? There is a God, very definitely there is a God, a kind God.

*          *          *

Need for religion

(Extracts from You—Forever — 1965)

Religion, true religion, is a joyous thing. It promises us life beyond this Earth, it promises reward for all that we have striven for, it promises us that there is no death, nothing about which to worry, nothing of which to be afraid. There is a fear of death ingrained in most humans. That is because if one remembered the joys of the after-life one might be tempted to end this life and go on to happiness. That would be the same as a boy escaping from the classroom and playing truant, which does not lead to progress!

Religion, if we really believe in it, promises us that when we go beyond the confines of this world we shall no longer be in the company of those who truly afflict us, we shall no longer meet those who grate upon our nerves, who sour our soul! Rejoice in religion, for if you have the true religion it is indeed a thing of joy, and a thing about which one must rejoice.

We must confess, with great sadness, that many people who study occultism or metaphysics are among the worst offenders. There is one cult—oh no, we do not give names!—who are perfectly sure that they, and they only, are the Chosen; they, and they only, will be saved to populate their own little heaven. The rest of us—poor sinning mortals no doubt—are going to be destroyed in various heartily unpleasant methods. We do not subscribe to this theory at all, we believe that so long as one BELIEVES that is all that matters. It does not matter if one believes in religion or in occultism, one must BELIEVE.

Occultism is no more mysterious or complicated than the multiplication tables or an excursion into history. It is just learning of different things, learning of things which are not of the physical. We should not go into raptures if we suddenly discovered how a nerve worked a muscle or how we could twitch a big toe, they would be just ordinary physical matters. So why should we go into raptures and think that the spirits are sitting all around us if we know how we can pass etheric energy from one person to another? Please note that we say here ‘etheric energy’ which is good English instead of ‘prana’ or any other Eastern terms; we prefer when writing a Course in a language to adhere to that language!

Rejoice! The more you learn about occultism and about religion the more you will be convinced of the truth of the Greater Life which lies ahead of all of us beyond the grave. When we pass the grave we merely leave our body behind us in much the same way as one can leave an old suit of clothes to be collected by the garbage man. There is nothing whatever to fear in metaphysical knowledge, nor is there anything to fear in religion, for if you have the right religion the more you learn about it the more convinced you will be that it is THE religion. Those religions who promise hellfire and damnation if you fall off the straight and narrow path are not doing their adherents a good service. In the old days, when people were more or less savages, it was possibly permissible to wield the Big Stick and try to frighten some sense into people, but now the outlook should be different.

Any parent will agree that it is much easier to control children by kindness than by constant threats. Those parents who keep threatening to call in a policeman or the bogeyman or to sell their children are the ones who cause a neurosis in the child and, later, in the race. But those parents who can control by firmness and kindness, and have their children living in joy, they are the ones who produce good citizens. We wholeheartedly subscribe to the view that one must have kindness and discipline; discipline should never mean harshness or sadism.

Again, let us rejoice in religion, let us be the ‘children’ of the ‘parents’ who teach with love, with compassion, and with understanding. Let us do away with all the falseness, all the baseness of terror and punishment and eternal damnation. There is no such thing as ‘eternal damnation’, no one is ever discarded, there is no such thing as a person being banished from the Spirit World! Every single person can be saved no matter how bad he or she has been; no one has to be rejected. The Akashic Record, with which we shall deal later, tells us that if a person is so terribly terribly bad that nothing can be done with him for the moment he is merely delayed in his evolution, and is later given another chance to come along with ‘another round of existence’ in much the same way as a child who played about in class, and should not pass the end of term examinations, does not move up to a higher grade with his fellows but is kept back to study the curriculum all over again.

One would not say that a child is toasted over a slow fire or tossed to hungry devils for mastication because he skipped some of his lesson work or played truant a few times. The teachers assigned to him might talk to him rather more firmly than he liked, but apart from that no harm would come to him, and if he were expelled from that particular school he would soon have to enter another or be in trouble with the truant officer! So with the humans on Earth. If you mess up this chance, don't be too disheartened, you will always get another. God is not sadistic, God is not out to destroy us but to help us. We do God a grave disservice when we think that He is always on the lookout to tear us to pieces or toss us to the waiting devils. If we believe in God let us believe in mercy, because in believing in mercy we shall have mercy, but let us also show mercy to others!

*          *          *

Faith

(Extracts from You—Forever — 1965)

Faith is a definite thing which can and must be cultivated in much the same way as a habit or a hothouse plant must be cultivated. Faith is not as hardy as a weed, it is indeed more like a hothouse plant. It must be pampered, must be fed, must be looked after. To obtain faith we must repeat, and repeat, and repeat our affirmation of faith so that the knowledge of it is driven into our sub-conscious. This sub-conscious is nine-tenths of us, that is, by far the greater part of us. We often liken it unto a lazy old man who just does not want to be disturbed. The old man is reading his newspapers, perhaps he has his pipe in his mouth and his feet are encased in comfortable slippers. He is really tired of all the racket, all the noise, all the distraction constantly going on around him. Through years of experience he has learned to shield himself from all except the most insistent interruptions and distractions. Like an old man who is partly deaf he doesn't hear when he is called the first time. The second time he is called he doesn't hear because he doesn't want to hear, because he thinks it might be work for him, or some interruption of his lazy leisure. The third time he starts to get irritable because the caller is disturbing his trend of thoughts while he is perhaps more anxious to read the racing results than to do anything which requires effort. Keep on and on repeating your faith and then the ‘old man’ will come to life with a jerk, and when the knowledge is implanted in your sub-conscious then you will have automatic faith. We must make it clear here that faith is not belief; you can say “I believe that tomorrow is Monday,” and that means a certain thing. You would not say “I have faith that tomorrow is Monday” because that would mean a completely different thing. Faith is something which usually grows up with us. We become a Christian, or a Buddhist, or a Jew because, usually, our parents were Christians, Buddhists, or Jews. We have faith in our parents—we believe that what our parents believed was correct—and so our ‘faith’ became the same as our parents'. Certain things which cannot definitely be proved while upon the Earth require faith, other things which can be proved can be believed or disbelieved. There is a distinction, and one should become aware of that distinction.

But, first of all, what do you want to believe, what is it that requires your faith? Decide what it is that needs faith, think of it from all angles. Is it faith in a religion, faith in an ability? Think of it from as many angles as you can, and then, making sure that you think of it in a positive way, affirm—state—to yourself that you can do this or that, or that you will do this or that, or that you firmly believe in this or that. You must keep on affirming it. Unless you do so affirm you will never have ‘faith’. Great religions have faithful followers. Those faithful followers are ones who have been to church, or chapel, or synagogue, or temple, and by repeated prayers, not merely on their own behalf but by others also, their sub-conscious has become aware that there are some things which must be ‘a faith’. In the Far East there are such things as mantras. A person will say a certain thing—a mantra—and say it again and again, and repeat it time after time. Possibly the person will not even know what the mantra is about! That does not matter because the founders of the religion who composed the mantra will have arranged it in such a way that the vibrations engendered in repeating the mantra knock into the sub-conscious the thing desired. Soon, even though the person does not fully understand the mantra, it becomes part of the person's sub-conscious, and the faith then is purely automatic. In much the same way, if you repeat prayers time after time you begin to believe them. It is all a matter of getting your sub-conscious to understand and to co-operate, and once you have faith then you do not have to bother anymore because your sub-conscious will always remind you that you have this faith, and that you can do those certain things.

Repeat to yourself time after time that you are going to see an aura, that you are going to be telepathic, that you are going to do this or that, whatever it is that you particularly want to do. Then in time you will do this. All successful men, all those who become millionaires or inventors are people who have faith in themselves, they have faith that they can do what they set out to do, because believing in themselves first, believing in their own powers and abilities, they then generated the faith which made that belief come true. If you keep on telling yourself that you are going to succeed, you will succeed, but you will only succeed if you keep on with your affirmation of success and not let doubt (the negative of faith) intrude. Try this affirmation of success, and the results will truly astonish you.

*          *          *

Hell

(Extracts from Three Lives — 1977)

“Doc,” he asked, “is there any truth in it that people who are real holy Joes get a front seat in heaven?”

The doctor laughed outright and said, “Oh dear, oh dear, so many people have that crazy idea. No, there is no truth at all in it. People are not judged on which religion they follow, but they are judged on the inner workings of their mind. Do they do good to try to do good or do they do good as a sort of insurance for when they die to the Earth? Well, that's a question one has to be able to answer. When people pass over, at first they see and experience what they expect to see and what they expect to experience. For instance, if an ardent Catholic has been brought up on a diet of angels, heavenly music, and a lot of saints playing harps then that is what they will see when they pass over. But when they do realise that all that is sham—hallucination—then they see the True Reality and the sooner they see it the better for them.” He stopped and looked very seriously at Molygruber before going on, “There is one good thing to be said for people like you; they have no false ideas about what they are going to see. Many of the people of your type keep an open mind; that is, they neither believe nor disbelieve and that is a lot better than being too slavish in the following of any particular discipline.”

Molygruber sat very still, his face puckered in a frown so deep that his eyebrows almost met, and then he said, “I was scared out of my pants when I was a younker. I was always being told that if I didn't do what I was told I would go to hell, and a lot of devils would prod me—well, YOU know where, with red-hot toasting forks and I would suffer a lot of pain. How come if God is so great, if God is our kind benevolent Father, then how come that He wants to torture us forever and a day? That's what I can't understand!”

The doctor sighed deeply, deeply, and then after some slight pause he said, “Yes, that's one of the biggest difficulties we have, people have been given false values, they have been told false things, they have been told that you will go to hell and will suffer eternal damnation. Now, there isn't a word of truth in that; hell is the Earth. Entities go to Earth to experience, mainly through hardship, and learn, again mainly through hardship, all the various things which they have to learn. Earth is usually a place of suffering. If a person has a low state of evolution then usually he or she doesn't have enough of what we call karma to have to suffer in order to learn. They stay on Earth to gain some experience by watching others, and then later they come back for their hardships. But there is no hell after the life on Earth, that is illusion, that is false teaching.”

Molygruber said, “Well then, how did so much about hell get in the Good Book?”

“Because,” responded the doctor, “in the time of Christ there was a village named Hell. It was a village on the outskirts of very high land, and outside the village there was a quaking bog which was smoking hot and with a continual stench of sulphur fumes and brimstone. If a person was accused of something he was brought to the village of Hell so that he could endure the ordeal of passing through Hell—passing through the smoking bog of sulphur and brimstone—in the belief that if he was guilty the heat would overcome him and he would fall to the ground and be burned up by the heat of the bog. But if he was innocent, or if he had enough money to bribe the priests in charge of the place so that they could put a coating on his feet, then he could go all the way through the bog and emerge safely on the other side, then he would be considered as an innocent man. We get the same thing now, don't we, with the way justice is often bought and the innocent get imprisoned while the guilty go free.”

*          *          *

Purgatory

(Extracts from Chapters of Life — 1967)

Supposing we try to look into the matter of the average medium. Let us say that the woman has some gifts in mediumistic work and she can obtain rapport with people who have passed over, but let us remember that these people who have just passed over are still in the lower astral, they are in what we might term purgatory, they are in the intermediate stage, they are in the waiting-room waiting for directions as to what to do and where to go.

Suppose you look upon these people as patients in a hospital, because it is a fact that many of these people do have to undergo certain spirit therapy to overcome the shocks of their Earth experience. So let us say that we are in contact with one of these people who is as a patient in a hospital; the patient is in bed and thus his only knowledge of his surroundings is that limited to the small area visible from his bed, he cannot see the whole work of the hospital, and if he can see other scenery, then possibly it is only that which he can see from the window.

Supposing you get a report from one of the Guides or some spirit whose special task is to assist those who are about to pass over or who have actually passed over. If they speak that is much the same as getting a report from some inexperienced little nurse or ward-maid at the hospital, and not even if you can go to a lecture of the hospital committee can you realise the full scope of what is going on, you can only make an evaluation by leaving the hospital and touring, as one might say, the town.

When one leaves this world which we call Earth one goes to the lower astral, which the Bible terms purgatory, and that may, as we have stated, be regarded as a hospital for sick souls where they are cured of many of the shocks which they endured or sustained upon this crude, crude Earth.

Unfortunately the lower astral would better be compared to a mental home, in which patients are received and their cases considered, just as a psychiatrist may sometimes discuss things with a patient so that he himself can state his faults and ailments, so in the lower astral can the newly arrived soul see what he did wrong on the Earth and see what he has to do about it to atone. Then for a short time the soul rests and recuperates, and perhaps walks in pleasant parkland, all the time receiving medication and treatment to assist him or her to carry on with the next phase of existence.

*          *          *

Guardian angels guides …

(Extracts from The Thirteenth Candle — 1972)

There is a God, a good God, a fair God. But of course God is not the same as a human and it is useless to attempt to comprehend what IS God when most people cannot even comprehend their own Overself. Just as you cannot comprehend your Overself, nor can you comprehend the God of your Overself.

Here is a question which already has been answered in previous books, but still comes up regularly, with monotonous regularity, in fact:

People want to know about their Guide, their Master, their Keeper, their Guardian Angel, etc. A person writes and says, “Oh, I have an old Red Indian as my Guide. I wish I could see him. I know he is a Red Indian because he is so wise. How can I see him?”

Now, let us get this straight once and for all; people do not have Red Indians, Black Indians, White Indians, or Tibetans dead or alive as Guides. Actually there would not be enough Tibetans, for instance, to go round. It's like everyone saying, “Oh, I was Cleopatra in my last life!” There is no word of truth in it. Actually the alleged Guide is just the Overself who really is our Guide. It is like sitting in a car; YOU are the car's Overself. You stamp on the pedal and, if you are lucky and don't have a new American car, the car will go. You stamp on another pedal and the car stops and if you pull a certain thing and if you are watching what you are doing you won't run into anything. But no one else but you is driving that car. In the same way you control yourself, you and your Overself.

Many people have the idea that those who have passed from the Earth are just bubbling over with enthusiasm to just sit at somebody's shoulder and guide them throughout the days of their life, prevent them from falling by the roadside, telling them what to do, and all the rest of it. But just think for yourself; you have neighbours, possibly you get on with those neighbours, possibly you don't, but anyway the time has come, you are going to move to the other side of the world. If you are in England you are going to move to Australia. If you are in North America you are going to move to, let us say, Siberia. Well, you move, you are busy with your moving, you are busy settling in to your new address, you are busy with your work at your new location, you are busy making fresh contacts. Do you really stop to telephone Tom, Dick, and Harry, and Mary, Martha, and Matilda, or whatever their names may be? You don't, you know. You have forgotten all about them. And so do people on the Other Side.

People who have left this Earth are not just sitting on clouds playing their harps and plucking feathers out of wings etc., etc. They have a job to do; they leave this Earth, they have a period of recuperation and then they get busy on something else. Quite frankly they do not have time to be Spirit Guides and all that rubbish.

*          *          *

Prayer

(Extracts from The Rampa Story — 1960)

“All religions believe in the power of prayer, but few people understand the mechanics of the process, few understand why prayers work for some and seemingly not for others. Most Westerners believe that people of the East either pray to a graven image or do not pray at all. Both statements are untrue, and I am going to tell you now how you can remove prayer from the realm of mysticism and superstition and use it to help others, for prayer is a very real thing indeed. It is one of the greatest forces on this Earth when used as it was intended to be used.

“Most religions have a belief that each person has a Guardian Angel or someone who looks after him. That also is true, but the Guardian Angel is oneself, the other self, the other self which is at the other side of life. Very, very few people can see this angel, this Guardian of theirs, while they are on the Earth, but those who can are able to describe it in detail.

“This Guardian (we must call it something, so let us call it a Guardian) has not a material body such as we have on Earth. It appears to be ghostly; sometimes a clairvoyant will see it as a blue scintillating figure larger than life-size and connected to the flesh body by what is known as the Silver Cord, that Cord which pulses and glistens with life as it conveys messages from one to the other. This Guardian has not a body such as that of Earth, but it is still able to do things which the Earth body can do, with the addition that it can do very many more things which the Earth body cannot. For example, the Guardian can go to any part of the world in a flash. It is the Guardian which does astral travelling and relays back to the body through the Silver Cord that which is needed.

“When you pray, you pray to yourself, to your other self, to your Greater Self. If we knew properly how to pray we should send those prayers through the Silver Cord, because the telephone line we use is a very faulty sort of instrument indeed, and we have to repeat ourselves in order to make sure that the message gets through. So when you pray, speak as you would speak through a very long distance telephone line, speak with absolute clarity, and actually think of what you are saying. The fault, I should add, lies with us here on this world, lies with the imperfect body we have on this world, the fault is not in our Guardian. Pray in simple language making sure that your requests are always positive and never negative.

“Having framed your prayer to be absolutely positive and to be absolutely clear of any possibility of misunderstanding, repeat that prayer perhaps three times. Let us take an example; suppose, for instance, that you have a person who is ill and suffering, and you want to do something about it—you should pray for the relief of that person's suffering. You should pray three times saying exactly the same thing each time. You should visualise that shadowy figure, that insubstantial figure, actually going to the house of the other person, following the route which you would follow yourself, entering the house and laying hands on that person and so effecting a cure. I will return to this particular theme in a moment, but first let me say—repeat that as many times as are necessary, and, if you really believe, then there will be an improvement.

“This matter of a complete cure; well, if a person has a leg amputated, no amount of prayer will replace that leg. But if a person has cancer or any other grave disease, then that can be halted. Obviously the less the seriousness of the complaint, the easier it is to effect a cure. Everyone knows of the records of miracle cures throughout the history of the world. Lourdes and many other places are famed for their cures, and these cures are effected by the other self, by the Guardian of the person concerned in association with the fame of the locality. Lourdes, for example, is known throughout the world as a place for miracle cures so people go there utterly confident that they will be cured, and very often that confidence is passed on to the Guardian of the person and so a cure is effected very, very easily. Some people like to think that there is a saint or angel, or some ancient relic of a saint, that does the cure, but in reality each person cures himself, and if a healer gets in touch with a person with the intention of curing that sick person, then a cure is effected only through the Guardian of that sick person. It all comes down, as I told you before, to yourself, the real self which you are when you leave this, the shadow life, and enter the Greater Reality. While upon Earth we all tend to think that this is the only thing that matters, but Earth, this world—no, this is the World of Illusion, the world of hardship, where we come to learn lessons not so easily learned in the kinder, more generous world to which we return.

“You may yourself have some disability, you may be ill, or you may lack the desired esoteric power. That can be cured, it can be overcome, if you believe it and if you really want it. Suppose you have a great desire, a burning desire, to help others; you may want to be a healer. Then pray in the seclusion of your private room, perhaps your bedroom. You should rest in the most relaxed position that you can find, preferably with your feet together and with your fingers interlinked, not in the usual attitude of prayer, but with your fingers interlinked. In that way you preserve and amplify the magnetic circuit of the body, and the aura becomes stronger, and the Silver Cord is able to convey messages more accurately. Then, having got yourself in the right position and in the right frame of mind, you should pray.

“You could pray, for example: ‘Give me healing power that I may heal others. Give me healing power that I may heal others. Give me healing power that I may heal others.’ Then have a few moments while you remain in your relaxed position, and picture yourself encompassed in the shadowy outline of your own body.

“As I told you before, you must visualise the route you would take to the sick person's house, and then make that body travel in your imagination to the home of that person you desire to heal. Picture yourself, your Overself, arrived at the house, arrived in the presence of the person you desire to help. Picture yourself putting out your arm, your hand, and touching that person. Imagine a flow of life-giving energy going along your arm, through your fingers, into that other person like a vivid blue light. Imagine that the person is gradually becoming cured. With faith, with a little practice, it can be done, it is being done, daily, in the Far East.

“It is useful to place one hand in imagination on the back of the person's neck, and the other hand on or over the afflicted part. You will have to pray to yourself in groups of three prayers a number of times each day until you get the desired results. Again, if you believe, you will get results. But let me issue a grave, grave warning. You cannot increase your own fortune in this way. There is a very ancient occult law which stops one from profiting from prayers for self gain. You cannot do it for yourself unless it is to help others, and unless you sincerely believe that it will help others. I know of an actual case wherein a man who had a moderate income and was fairly comfortably off, thought that if he won the Irish Sweepstake he would help others; he would be a great benefactor of mankind.

“Knowing a little, but not enough, of esoteric matters, he made great plans of what he would do. He set out with a carefully prepared program of prayers. He prayed along the lines set out in this chapter for two months; he prayed that he would pick the winner of the Irish Sweepstake. For two months he prayed in groups of three prayers, three times a day—nine prayers in all during the day. As he fully anticipated, he won the Irish Sweepstake, and he won one of the biggest prizes of them all.

“Eventually he had the money and it went to his head. He forgot all about his good intentions, all about his promises. He forgot all about everything except that he had this vast sum of money and he could now do exactly as he wanted to do. He devoted the money to his own self-gratification. For a very few months he had a wonderful time, during which he became harder and harder, and then the inexorable law came into force, and instead of keeping that money and helping others, he lost everything that he had gained, and everything that he had before. In the end he died and was buried in a pauper's grave.

“I say to you that if you use the power of prayer properly, without thought of self gain, without thought of self-aggrandisement, then you have tapped one of the greatest powers on Earth, a force so great that if just a few genuine people got together and prayed for peace, then there would be peace, and wars and thoughts of wars would be no more.”

*          *          *

Meditation

(Extracts from Chapters of Life — 1967)

Much later in the day, as the hot Sun poured down its waves of heat, the old Monk ended his long meditation and partook of a frugal breakfast. Turning to the elder of the Assistants, he said, “It is time you learned the art of meditation, my son, for I have observed you well and your time of instruction has come.”

“But is it so difficult to meditate, Master? Cannot ANYONE do it?” asked the younger.

“No, my son,” replied the old man. “Some people never meditate because they are not worthy, and some, who are worthy, do not meditate because they do not know how. Meditation is an art which must be imparted, it is an art which can lift one's ego to sublime heights.” He paused in thought for a moment, then said to the younger, “Today you travel alone to seek out food. I must instruct your senior. In time, if you are worthy, your opportunity will come.”

*          *          *          *          *

So many people say that they are ‘going to meditate’, but of course most of these people have not the faintest idea of what real meditation means. They think that it is some mystical thing whereas, as in the case of most metaphysical matters, meditation is simple and is just a means to an end, a method whereby one can obtain certain results.

The discipline of meditation is essential if one is to make any real progress in spiritual attainment. Just as an army would be useless without discipline and without drill, so the human psyche becomes as a member of a rabble without the discipline and training of meditation correctly applied.

It is useless to try to practice meditation by reading a book which has been written by a person who cannot himself meditate. So many occult books are just indigestible conglomerations of misunderstood Eastern parables; books which are written by people who really do not know the first thing about meditation, for it is clear that unless one can meditate oneself one cannot tell other people how to meditate!

It should be remembered that in many countries of the world—non-Christian countries, that is—attendants at a temple would meditate before entering the temple, they would meditate so that their mind was clear and opened ready to receive, what one might term in Western parlance, Divine Revelation and Instruction. It is quite useless to pray, for example, if one is just giving a babble of instruction to one's God. It is useless to pray that one shall win the beauty contest, or that one shall win the Irish Sweepstake. The process of praying should always be commenced by a period of meditation which clears the mind of the garbage of thought, and makes one ready to receive information from higher planes. To repeat—too many people flap down on their knees and start ordering their God to ‘deliver the goods’, then they say that prayer never works. Well, let them try meditation first. Meditation actually has four different parts:

l. The first part is that meditational practice which assists in the development of the true personality of the meditator, and if one can meditate and develop one's personality then one obtains a happier and more successful life. One becomes happier in the personal aspects of life and one becomes more successful in association with one's fellows, that is, in work. Successful meditation here also increases the mental capacity.

2. The second stage of meditation is that which almost automatically follows from successful completion of the first stage. The second stage of meditation is that which brings the physical body in rapport with the Overself and brings the Overself in rapport with the Manu of the nation. Before one can meditate to this, and higher standards, it is essential that one has a pure and lust-free life.

3. The next stage of meditation is that which gives one all the benefits of stage 1 and stage 2, but which enables one in addition to have full occult understanding. That is, when one reaches the third stage of meditation one is able to comprehend and apperceive.

Apperceive, of course, is different from perceive. Apperceive is the mind's perception of itself (all that which enables the Overself to improve its own spiritual condition).

4. Lastly, there is the mystical meditation, so called because it is so far removed from earthly concepts that it is rather beyond the understanding of those who have not succeeded in reaching that stage. The fourth stage of meditation takes us by way of the Silver Cord up to our Overself, and then by way of the Golden Cord of our Overself into the presence of that Great Entity which, for want of a better term down here, we call ‘God’. But the first two stages of meditation are the essential steps and you should concentrate on them first.

*          *          *

The human condition

The ageing process

(Extracts from As it Was! — 1976)

Let us look at the process of aging, and then I hope you will see what I mean.”

He said, “A child is born and follows a certain pattern of growth. At a varying age, it varies according to each person, real development is stated to have stopped, real worthwhile growth has stopped, and from then on there is what is known as the degeneration of old age where we get a tall man becoming shorter as his bones shrink”. He looked about to see if we were following, and when he saw my particular interest he nodded and smiled most amiably. He continued:—

“A person has to be rebuilt cell by cell so that if we get a cut, part of the brain has to remember the pattern of the flesh before the cut, and then must supply identical, or near-identical, cells to repair the defect. Now, every time we move we cause cells to wear out, and all those cells have to be rebuilt, replaced. Without an exact memory we should not be able to rebuild the body as it was.”

He looked about again, then pursed his lips, and said, “If the body, or rather, if the brain forgets the precise pattern then the cells may grow wild, they grow according to no previous pattern and thus those wild cells are called cancer cells. It means that they are cells which have escaped from the control of that part of the brain which should regulate their precise pattern. Thus it is, you get a person with great growths on his body. That is caused by cells growing in haphazard fashion and which have escaped from the brain's control.”

He stopped to take a sip of water, and then continued, “Like most of us the growth and replacing centre of the brain has a faulty memory. After reproducing cells for a few thousand times it forgets the precise pattern and with each succeeding growth of cells there is a difference so eventually we have that which we call aging. Now, if we could remind the brain constantly of the exact shape and size of each cell to be replaced then the body would always appear to be of the same age, always appear to be the same condition. In short, we would have immortality, immortality except in the case of total destruction of the body or damage to the cells.”

*          *          *

Fear

(Extracts from You—Forever — 1965)

Yes, that is quite an interesting problem! Fear—fear is the only thing that can hold one back. Shall we have a look at it? Sit down a moment, let us discuss this problem of fear.

All of us have certain fears. Some people are afraid of the dark, others are afraid of spiders or of snakes, and some of us may be aware of our fears, that is, we have fears which are in our consciousness. But—wait a moment!—our consciousness is only a tenth of us, nine tenths of us are sub-conscious, so what happens if the fear is in our sub-conscious?

Often we will do things under some hidden compulsion, or we will refrain from doing something because of a hidden compulsion. We do not know why we do a certain thing, we do not know why we cannot do a certain thing. There is nothing on the surface, there is nothing that we can ‘pin down’. We act irrationally and if we went to a psychologist and we lay on that couch for long, long hours, at last it may be dragged out of our sub-conscious that we had a fear because of something that happened when we were small babies. The fear would be hidden, hidden from our awareness, working at us, nagging at us from our sub-conscious, it would be like termites attacking a wooden framed building. The building to all cursory inspections would appear to be sound, flawless, and then, almost overnight, it would collapse under the influence of those termites. The same happens in the matter of fear. Fear does not have to be conscious to be active, it is most active when it is sub-conscious because then we do not know that it is there, and, not knowing that it is there, there is nothing we can do about it.

Throughout the lifetime of all of us we have been subjected to certain conditioning influences. A person who has been brought up as a Christian will have been taught that certain things are ‘not done’, certain things are distinctly forbidden. Yet people of a different religion, brought up differently, are permitted to do such things. So in looking into the question of fear we have to examine what has been our racial and family background.

Are you afraid of seeing a ghost? Why? If Aunt Matilda was kindhearted and generous, and loved you dearly during her lifetime there is no reason whatever to suppose that she is going to love you less when she has left this life and has gone on to a far better stage of existence. So why fear the ghost of Aunt Matilda? We fear the ghost because it is something alien to many of us, we fear a ghost because it may have been taught in our religion that there are no such things, and that one cannot see a ghost unless one is a saint or an associate of saints, or something. We fear that which we do not understand, and it is worth thought that if there were no passports, no language difficulties, there would be less wars because we are afraid of the Russians, or the Turks, or the Afghanis, or something else because we do not understand them, we do not know what ‘makes them tick’, or what they are going to do against us.

Fear is a terrible thing, it is a disease, it is a scourge, it is a thing that corrodes our intellect. If we have certain reservations about a thing, then we must dig down and find out why. For instance, why do certain religions teach that there is no such thing as reincarnation? One obvious example is this; in the days of long ago the priests had utter power and they ruled people by terror, by the thought of eternal damnation. Everyone was taught that they had to make the best of this life because there would be no other opportunity. It was known that if people were taught of reincarnation they might tend to slack in this life and pay for it in the next. In connection with this, it used to be perfectly permissible in the China of long ago to contract a debt in this life to be paid in the next! It is also worth remarking that China became decadent because the people believed so much in reincarnation that they did not bother much in this life, instead they just sat around taking their canaries out in cages under the trees at night, and deciding that they would make up for it in the next life, this one would be more or less of a vacation! Well it did not work that way, and so the whole Chinese culture became decadent.

Once again, examine yourself, your intellect, your imagination. Give yourself ‘deep analysis’ and find out what it is that your sub-conscious is trying to bottle up, what it is that is making you so afraid, so worried, so ‘jittery’ about certain things. When you dig that out you will find that there are no more fears. It is fear which stops people from doing astral travelling. Actually as we well know, astral travelling is remarkably simple, there is no effort to it, it is as simple as breathing and yet most people fear it. Sleep is almost death, sleep is a reminder of death, a reminder that eventually we shall go off into a deep sleep, and we wonder what will happen to us when death, instead of sleep, claims us. We wonder if during our sleep someone will sever our Silver Cord and we will be off. That cannot happen, there is no danger in astral travelling, there is only danger in fear, in fear that you know and more danger in fear that you do not know. We suggest again, and again, get down to this problem of fear. That which you know and understand is not fearsome, so get to know and understand what it is that you now fear.

*          *          *

Suffering

(Extracts from The Saffron Robe — 1966)

“Gautama in his wanderings had thought a lot. For six years he had wandered, spending most of his time searching for Truth, seeking for Truth, seeking the purpose behind life. As he wandered he suffered hardships, suffered privation, hunger, and one of his first questions was ‘Why am I unhappy?’

“Gautama pondered the question incessantly, and the answer came to him when the creatures of Nature were assisting him, the snails cooling his head, the birds fanning his brow, and all the others keeping quiet that he should not be disturbed. He decided that there were Four Great Truths, which he called The Four Noble Truths, which were the laws of Man's stay on Earth.

“Birth is suffering, said the Buddha. A baby is born to its mother, causing pain to the mother and pain to the baby, only through pain can one be born to this Earth, and the act of being born causes pain and suffering to others. Decay is suffering; as a man gets older and his body cells are not able to replenish along the familiar pattern, decay sets in, organs no longer function correctly, change takes place, and there is suffering. One cannot grow old without suffering. Illness is suffering; with the failure of an organ to operate correctly there is pain, suffering, as the organ compels the body to readjust to the new condition. Wherefore it is that illness causes pain and suffering. Death is the end of illness; death causes suffering, not the act of dying itself, but the conditions which bring about death are in themselves painful. Therefore, again, we are unhappy.

“Suffering is caused by the presence of objects which we hate. We are kept in tension, in frustration, by the presence of those we dislike. We are made unhappy by the separation from objects we love; when we are parted from a dear one, perhaps with no knowledge of when we are going to be with that person again, then we suffer pain, we suffer frustration, wherefore we are unhappy.

“To desire, and not to obtain that which we desire, that is the cause of suffering, that is the cause of loss of happiness, the cause of misery. Wherefore it is that as we desire and do not obtain, then instead we suffer and are unhappy.

*          *          *          *          *

The Indian Teacher looked at us, and said, “The Buddha, our Blessed Gautama, was not pessimistic but realistic. Gautama realised that until one can accept facts one cannot banish suffering. Until one can understand why there is suffering one cannot progress along the Middle Way.”

The Teachings stressed a lot about suffering, I thought, but I remembered what my own dear Guide, the Lama Mingyar Dondup had said to me. He said, “Let us, Lobsang, consider what Gautama really did say. He did not say that everything causes suffering. No matter what the Scriptures say, no matter what the Great Teachers say, Gautama at no time stated that everything is suffering. He really said that everything holds the POSSIBILITY of suffering, from which it is clear that every incident of life can result in pain or discomfort or disharmony. CAN! It is nowhere stated that everything MUST cause pain.”

There is so much misunderstanding about what Great Men did or did not say: Gautama had the belief that suffering, pain, went far beyond mere physical suffering, mere physical pain. He emphasised at all times that the sufferings of the mind through the dysfunction of the emotions was a greater suffering, a greater disharmony, than any mere physical pain or unhappiness could cause. Gautama taught “If I am unhappy it is because I am not living happily, because I am not living in harmony with nature. If I am not living harmoniously it is because I have not learned to accept the world as it is, with all its disadvantages and POSSIBILITIES of suffering. I can only attain happiness by realising the causes of unhappiness and avoiding those causes.”

*          *          *

Drugs

(Extracts from Feeding the Flame — 1971)

Quite a number of young people write to me and tell me I am an old fuddy-duddy because I do not approve of drugs. Now these young people, sixteen, seventeen or eighteen years of age, they think they know all, they think the whole fount of knowledge is open to them instead of realising that they have hardly started to live, instead of realising that they are hardly out of the egg.

I am definitely, utterly, and irrevocably opposed to drugs of any kind unless they are administered according to strict medical supervision.

If a person goes and chucks a dollop of acid in the face of another person, then the results are apparent, the flesh peels away, the eyes burn out, acid scores deep grooves in the chin and runs down to the chest, and the result is generally horrible. But that is a kindly act compared to what happens when people become drug addicts.

Drugs wrongly used, and all drugs used without medical supervision are wrongly used, can sear the astral body just as acid can sear the physical body.

A drug addict who dies and passes over to the astral world has a truly horrible time. He has to go to what is in effect an astral mental hospital because his astral body is warped and distorted, and it may take a long, long time before the most skilled attention that he can receive can restore that astral body to anything like a workable condition.

People rave about this entirely evil drug L.S.D. Think of the number of suicides there have been, the ones that are reported, and think of the ones that have not been reported, think of the harm that has been caused in terms of insanity and violence. L.S.D., marijuana, heroin, all those things, they are all devilishly evil. Unfortunately young people do not seem able to accept the advice of older people, people who have the experience.

It is true that, for example, L.S.D. will get the astral body separated from the physical body, but all too often, unfortunately, the astral body goes down to one of the lower hells, one of the weirdy astral planes, and when it comes back the sub-conscious itself is seared with the horrors it has undergone. So, young people who should be reading this, stay away from drugs, never mind if you do think drug X or drug Y is harmless, if they are taken without medical supervision, YOU might have some idiosyncrasy which will make you particularly susceptible to those drugs and very quickly you will be hooked beyond hope of recovery.

Remember, all these drugs are harmful, and although by some remote chance it might not show on your physical for the time being, yet it will show very definitely upon your astral and on your aura.

By the way, if people do take drugs and they damage their astral bodies, then they come under the same category as do suicides, and if a person commits suicide then he or she has to come back to this Earth to finish his or her sentence, which is one way of looking at it, or to complete his or her lessons, which is another way of looking at it. Whichever way you look at it there are no drop-outs from the Heavenly Fields, no drop-outs from this Earth either. If you gum up the works this time and do not learn the things which you came here to learn, then you come back and back and back again until you do learn your lessons. So this drug business is a very serious thing indeed and no action taken by the government can be in any way too severe to deal with the drug problem. The best way to deal with it is for each and every one of us to decide that we will not take drugs. In that way we shall not be spiritual suicides, and we shall not have to come back to this Earth into steadily worsening conditions.

*          *          *

Alcohol

(Extracts from Doctor from Lhasa — 1959)

In our belief there is nothing worse than these intoxicating drinks, nothing worse than drunkenness. Drunkenness, we consider, is the most vicious sin of all because when the body is sodden with drink the astral vehicle—the more spiritual part of one—is driven out of the physical and has to leave it as prey to any prowling entities. This is not the only life; the physical body is just one particular manifestation, the lowest manifestation, and the more one drinks, the more one harms one’s body in other planes of existence. It is well known that drunkards see ‘pink elephants’ and curious things which have no parallel in the physical world. These, we believe, are the manifestations of some evil entity, some entity who is trying to make the physical body do some harm. It is well known that those who are drunk are not ‘in possession of their right senses’. So—I have not at any time touched intoxicating drinks, not even corn spirit, not even rice wine.

*          *          *

Insanity

(Extracts from The Cave of the Ancients — 1963)

“Kenji Tekeuchi,” said my Guide, “is—was—a very versatile man. A well travelled one. Throughout his life (he is now over seventy) he has wandered the world in search of what he calls ‘Truth’. Truth is within him yet he knows it not. Instead he has wandered, and wandered again. Always he has been studying religious beliefs, always he has been reading the books of many lands in pursuit of this search, this obsession. Now, at long last, he has been sent to us. He has read so much of a conflicting nature that his aura is contaminated. He has read so much and understood so little that most of the time he is insane. He is a human sponge, mopping up all knowledge and digesting very little.” “Then, Sir!” I exclaimed “you are opposed to book-study?” “Not at all, Lobsang,” replied the Lama, “I am opposed, as are all thinking men, to those who obtain the brochures, the pamphlets, and the books written about strange cults, about so-called occultism. These people poison their soul, they make further progress impossible for them until they have shed all the false knowledge and become as a little child.”

“Honourable Lama,” I asked, “how does one become Insane? how does wrong reading sometimes lead to confusion?” “That is quite a long story”, replied the Lama Mingyar Dondup. “First we have to deal with some fundamentals. Possess yourself in patience and listen! Upon Earth we are as puppets, puppets made of vibrating molecules surrounded by an electric charge. Our Overself vibrates at a very much higher rate, and has a very much higher electric charge. There is a definite relationship between our rate of vibration and that of our Overself. One can liken the process of communication between each one of us on this Earth and our Overself elsewhere to a new process on this world, the process whereby radio waves are sent across continents and seas, thus enabling a person in one country to communicate with a person in a far distant land. Our brains are similar to radio receivers in that they receive the ‘high frequency’ messages, orders and instructions, from the Overself and turn them into low frequency impulses which control our actions. The brain is the electro-mechanical-chemical device which makes us useful on Earth. Chemical reactions cause our brain to function in a faulty manner by perhaps blocking part of a message, for rarely, on Earth, do we receive the exact message ‘broadcast’ by the Overself. The Mind is capable of limited action without reference to the Overself. The Mind is able to accept certain responsibilities, form certain opinions, and attempts to bridge the gap between the ‘ideal’ conditions of the Overself and the difficult ones of Earth.”

“But do Western people accept the theory of electricity in the brain?” I asked. “Yes,” replied my Guide, “in certain hospitals the brain waves of patients are charted, and it has been found that certain mental disorders have a characteristic brain-wave pattern. Thus, from the brain waves it can be stated that a person does or does not suffer from some mental disease or illness. Often an illness of the body will send certain chemicals to the brain, contaminate its wave-form, and thus give symptoms of insanity.” “Is the Japanese very mad?” I asked. “Come! We will see him now, he has one of his lucid spells.” The Lama Mingyar Dondup rose to his feet and hurried from the room. I jumped to my feet and sped after him. He led the way on down the corridor, down to another level, and to a distant wing where lodged those undergoing medical treatment. In a little alcove, overlooking the Khati Linga, the Japanese monk sat looking moodily outwards. At the approach of the Lama Mingyar Dondup he rose to his feet, clasped his hands and bowed low. “Be seated,” said my Guide. “I have brought a young man to you that he may listen to your words. He is under special instruction by order of the Inmost One.” The Lama bowed, turned and left the alcove. For some moments the Japanese stared at me, then motioned for me to sit. I sat—at a discreet distance as I did not know when he would become violent!

“Do not cram your head with all the occult stuff you can read, boy!” said the Japanese monk. “It is indigestible matter which will impede your spiritual progress. I studied all the Religions. I studied all the metaphysical cults which I could find. It poisoned me, clouded my outlook, led me to believe that I was a Specially Chosen One. Now my brain is impaired and at times I lose control of myself—escape from the direction of my Overself.” “But Sir!” I exclaimed, “how may one learn if one may not read? What possible harm can come of the printed word?” “Boy!” said the Japanese monk, “certainly one may read, but choose with care what you read and make sure that you quite understand that which you are reading. There is no danger in the printed word, but there is danger in the thoughts which those words may cause. One should not eat everything, mixing the compatible with the incompatible; nor should one read things which contradict or oppose others, nor should one read things which promise occult powers. It is easily possible to make a Thought-form which one cannot control, as I did, and then the Form injures one.”

*          *          *

Suicide

(Extracts from Feeding the Flame — 1971)

If a person has wilfully ended his or her life on Earth before the allotted number of years, then that person has to return to Earth as fast as possible in order to serve out the unexpired time, just as if they were a convict who had escaped and had been recaptured, and had had a bit tacked on as an extra punishment.

A suicide gets into the astral world. He is met, received, just as if he were an ordinary legitimate person coming back, no recriminations, nothing of that type at all. He is treated precisely the same as other entrants. He is allowed a reasonable time in which to recover from the shock of leaving the physical body probably violently, and entering the astral.

When he has recovered sufficiently he has to go to the Hall of Memories, and there he sees all that has ever happened to him, he sees the flaws which really made him commit suicide. And so he is left with the awful feeling—the awful knowledge would be a better term—that he has to get back to Earth and live out the unexpired term.

Possibly the suicide is a person of poor spiritual calibre, possibly he lacks the intestinal fortitude to go back on Earth, and he thinks he is just jolly well going to stay in the astral and nobody can do anything about it. Well, he is wrong there because it is a law that a suicide has to return to Earth; and if he will not return of his own free will, then he is compelled to go.

If he is willing to return, then, at a meeting with special counsellors, he is advised of how many days or years there are remaining to him on his Earth ‘sentence’. He has to live out all that time on Earth, he also has to live out all the time that has elapsed since he committed suicide and before returning to Earth again. So, perhaps it took a year to straighten him out and get him to decide that he had to go back to Earth, thus he gets a year added to his life on Earth.

Conditions are found on Earth so that he can return and encounter substantially the same type of conditions which caused him to take his life before, and then at the appointed time he is put to sleep and awakens to the act of being born.

If he proves recalcitrant and just will make no move to go back to Earth, then the counsellors decide for him on conditions which would meet his case. If he will not go freely then the conditions are a bit tougher than if he did go freely. Then, again at the appointed time, he is put to sleep without him having any choice whatever in the matter, he is put to sleep and when he wakes up he is back on Earth.

It is often the case that a baby who is born and dies perhaps a month or two after is the reincarnation of a person who committed suicide rather than perhaps face two or three months of agony when they were dying from incurable, inoperable cancer. The sufferer may have taken his own life two or three, or perhaps six months or a year before he would naturally have died. But he still has to come back and serve out all the time which he tried to short-circuit.

It is sometimes thought that pain is a useless thing, suffering is a useless thing. It is sometimes thought that it is good to kill off a human who is incurable, but do these people who advocate such a course really know what the sufferer is trying to learn? His very suffering, the very nature of his illness may be something about which he desired to learn.

It is definitely wrong, then, to commit suicide. You are just postponing the day when you can be free of Earth legitimately, you've got to come back like an escaped convict who has been recaptured, and you are hurting no one but yourself, and it's yourself you think about, isn't it? That's one of the things that has to be overcome, too.

****************************************************

THE MESSAGE FROM RAMPA

The third eye

(Extracts from The Third Eye — 1956)

With the death of the day the evening was born, and I went to the little room where I was to stay. There came the murmur of soft felt boots on the stone floor outside, and into the room came three lamas of high degree. They put a herbal compress to my head and bound it tightly in place. In the evening the three came again, and one was the Lama Mingyar Dondup. Carefully the compress was removed, and my forehead wiped clean and dry. A strong-looking lama sat behind me and took my head between his knees. The second lama opened a box and removed an instrument made of shining steel. It resembled a bradawl except that instead of having a round shaft this one was ‘U’-shaped, and in place of a point there were little teeth around the edge of the ‘U’. For some moments the lama looked at the instrument, and then passed it through the flame of a lamp to sterilise it. The Lama Mingyar Dondup took my hands and said, “This is quite painful, Lobsang, and it can only be done while you are fully conscious. It will not take very long, so try to keep as still as you can.” I could see various instruments laid out, and a collection of herbal lotions, and I thought to myself: “Well, Lobsang, my boy, they will finish you one way or the other and there is nothing you can do about it—except keep quiet!”

The lama with the instrument looked round to the others, and said: “All ready? Let us start now, the sun has just set.” He pressed the instrument to the centre of my forehead and rotated the handle. For a moment there was a sensation as if someone was pricking me with thorns. To me it seemed that time stood still. There was no particular pain as it penetrated the skin and flesh, but there was a little jolt as the end hit the bone. He applied more pressure, rocking the instrument slightly so that the little teeth would fret through the frontal bone. The pain was not sharp at all, just a pressure and a dull ache. I did not move with the Lama Mingyar Dondup looking on; I would rather have died than make a move or outcry. He had faith in me, as I in him, and I knew that what he did or said was right. He was watching most closely, with a little pucker of muscles in tension at the corners of his mouth. Suddenly there was a little ‘scrunch’ and the instrument penetrated the bone. Instantly its motion was arrested by the very alert operator. He held the handle of the instrument firmly while the Lama Mingyar Dondup passed him a very hard, very clean sliver of wood which had been treated by fire and herbs to make it as hard as steel. This sliver was inserted in the ‘U’ of the instrument and slid down so that it just entered the hole in my head. The lama operating moved slightly to one side so that the Lama Mingyar Dondup could also stand in front of me. Then, at a nod from the latter, the operator, with infinite caution, slid the sliver farther and farther. Suddenly I felt a stinging, tickling sensation apparently in the bridge of my nose. It subsided, and I became aware of subtle scents which I could not identify. That, too, passed away and was replaced by a feeling as if I was pushing, or being pushed, against a resilient veil. Suddenly there was a blinding flash, and at that instant the Lama Mingyar Dondup said “Stop”. For a moment the pain was intense, like a searing white flame. It diminished, died and was replace by spirals of colour, and globules of incandescent smoke. The metal instrument was carefully removed. The sliver of wood remained, it would stay in place for two or three weeks and until it was removed I would have to stay in this little room almost in darkness. No one would see me except these three lamas, who would continue my instruction day by day. Until the sliver was removed I would have only the barest necessities to eat and drink. As the projecting sliver was being bound in place so that it could not move, the Lama Mingyar Dondup turned to me and said: “You are now one of us, Lobsang. For the rest of your life you will see people as they are and not as they pretend to be.” It was a very strange experience to see these men apparently enveloped in golden flame. Not until later did I realise that their auras were golden because of the pure life they led, and that most people would look very different indeed.

As my new-found sense developed under the skilful ministrations of the lamas I was able to observe that there were other emanations extending beyond the innermost aura. In time I was able to determine the state of a person's health by the colour and intensity of the aura. I was also able to know when they were speaking the truth, or otherwise, by the way the colours fluctuated. But it was not only the human body which was the subject of my clairvoyance. I was given a crystal, which I still have, and in its use I had much practice. There is nothing at all magical in crystals. They are merely instruments. Just as a microscope, or telescope, can bring normally invisible objects into view by using natural laws, so can a gazing-crystal. It merely serves as a focus for the Third Eye, with which one can penetrate any person's subconscious and retain the memory of facts gleaned. The crystal must be suited to the individual user. Some persons work best with a rock crystal, others prefer a ball of glass. Yet others use a bowl of water or a pure black disc. No matter what they use, the principles involved are the same.

For the first week the room was kept in almost complete darkness. The following week just a glimmer of light was admitted, the amount increasing as the end of the week drew close. On the seventeenth day the room was in full light, and the three lamas came together to remove the sliver. It was very simple. The night before my forehead had been painted with a herbal lotion. In the morning the lamas came and, as before, one took my head between his knees. The operator took hold of the projecting end of the wood with an instrument. There was a sudden sharp jerk—and that is all there was to it. The sliver was out. The Lama Mingyar Dondup put a pad of herbs over the very small spot left, and showed me the sliver of wood. It had turned as black as ebony while in my head. The operator lama turned to a little brazier and placed the wood upon it together with some incense of various kinds. As the combined smoke wafted to the ceiling, so was the first stage of my initiation completed. That night I fell asleep with my head in a whirl; what would Tzu look like now that I saw differently? Father, mother, how would they appear? But there was no answer to such questions yet.

In the morning the lamas came again and examined me carefully. They said that I could now go out with the others, but told me that half my time would be spent with the Lama Mingyar Dondup, who would teach me by intensive methods. The other half of my time would be spent attending classes and services, not so much for the educational side, but to give me a balanced outlook by mixing. A little later I would be taught by hypnotic methods as well. For the moment I was mainly interested in food. For the past eighteen days I had been kept on a very small allowance, now I intended to make up for it. Out of the door I hurried, intent only on that thought. Approaching me was a figure smothered in blue smoke, shot through with flecks of angry red. I uttered a squeak of alarm and dashed back into the room. The others looked up at my horrified expression. “There's a man on fire in the corridor,” I said. The Lama Mingyar Dondup hurried out and came back smiling. “Lobsang, that is a cleaner in a temper. His aura is smoky-blue as he is not evolved, and the flecks of red are the temper impulses showing. Now you can again go in search of that food you want so much.”

It was fascinating meeting the boys I knew so well, yet had not known at all. Now I could look at them and get the impression of their true thoughts, the genuine liking for me, the jealousy from some, and the indifference from others. It was not just a matter of seeing colours and knowing all; I had to be trained to understand what those colours meant. My Guide and I sat in a secluded alcove where we could watch those who entered the main gates. The Lama Mingyar Dondup would say: “The one coming, Lobsang, do you see that thread of colour vibrating above his heart? That shade and vibration indicates that he has a pulmonary disease”, or, perhaps at an approaching trader: “Look at this one, look at those shifting bands, those intermittent flecks. Our Brother of Business is thinking that he may be able to delude the stupid monks, Lobsang, he is remembering that he did so once before. To what petty meannesses men will stoop for money!” As an aged monk approached, the Lama said: “Watch this one carefully, Lobsang. Here is a truly holy man, but one who believes in the literal word-for-word accuracy of our Scriptures. You observe those discolorations in the yellow of the nimbus? It indicates that he has not yet evolved far enough to reason for himself.” So it went on, day after day. Particularly with the sick we used the power of the Third Eye, for those who were sick in the flesh or sick in the spirit. One evening the Lama said: “Later we shall show you how to shut the Third Eye at will, for you will not want to watch people's failings all the time, it would be an intolerable burden. For the moment use it all the time, as you do your physical eyes. Then we will train you to shut it and open it at will as you can the other eyes.”

Many years ago, according to our legends, all men and women could use the Third Eye. In those days the gods walked upon the earth and mixed with men. Mankind had visions of replacing the gods and tried to kill them, forgetting that what Man could see the gods could see better. As a punishment, the Third Eye of Man was closed. Throughout the ages a few people have been born with the ability to see clairvoyantly; those who have it naturally can have its power increased a thousand fold by appropriate treatment, as I had. As a special talent it had to be treated with care and respect. The Lord Abbot sent for me one day and said: “My son, you now have this ability, an ability denied to most. Use it only for good, never for self gain. As you wander in other countries you will meet those who would have you behave as a conjurer in a fair. ‘Prove us this, prove us that’, they will say. But I say, my son, that this must not be. The talent is to enable you to help others, not to enrich self. Whatever you see by clairvoyance—and you will see much!—do not disclose it if it will harm others or affect their Path through Life. For Man must choose his own Path, my son, tell him what you will, he will still go his own way. Help in sickness, in suffering, yes, but do not say that which may alter a man's Path.”

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The aura

(Extracts from You—Forever — 1965)

One can state that the aura shows the colours of the Overself. It shows whether a person is spiritual or carnal. It shows also if a person is of good health, or poor health, or is actually diseased. Everything is reflected in the aura, it is the indicator of the Overself, or, if you prefer, of the soul. The Overself and the soul, of course, are the same thing.

In this aura we can see sickness and health, dejection and success, love and hatred. It is perhaps fortunate that not so many people can see the auras at the present time, for nowadays it seems to be the common thing to take advantage of one, to seek the upper hand, and the aura betrays every thought as it should do, reflecting as it does the colours and the vibrations of the Overself. It is a fact that when a person is desperately ill the aura begins to fade, and in certain cases the aura actually fades out before a person dies. If a person has had a long illness then the aura does actually fade out before death, leaving only the etheric. On the other hand, a person who is killed accidentally while in good health possesses the aura up to, and for some moments after, clinical death.

It might be well here to interpose certain remarks about death, because death is not like switching off a current or emptying a bucket. Death is a rather long drawn-out affair. No matter how a person dies, no matter if a person is beheaded even, death does not take place for some moments after. The brain, as we have seen, is a storage cell generating electric current. The blood supplies the chemicals, the moisture and the metallic ores, and inevitably those ingredients become stored in the tissue of the brain. Thus the brain can continue to function for from three to five minutes after clinical death!

It is said by some people that this or that form of execution is instantaneous, but that, of course, is ridiculous. As we have stated, even if the head be completely severed from the body the brain can still function for from three to five minutes. There is a case which was actually witnessed and carefully chronicled in the days of the French Revolution. A so-called ‘traitor’ had been beheaded and the executioner reached down and lifted up the head by the hair saying as he did so, “This is the head of a traitor.” People in the audience—executions in those days were public and also a public holiday!—were alarmed when the lips formed the soundless words, “That is a lie.” That can actually be seen in the records of the French Government. Any doctor or surgeon will tell you that if the blood supply be interrupted the brain becomes impaired after three minutes, that is why if a heart stops there are such frantic efforts to start the flow of the blood again. We have digressed here to show that death is not instantaneous, nor is the fading of the aura. It is medical fact, by the way, known to coroners and pathologists that the body dies at various rates; the brain dies, and then organs die one by one. About the last to die are the hair and the nails.

As the body does not die instantly, traces of the aura may linger on. Thus it is that a person who is clairvoyant can see in the aura of a dead person why that person expired. The etheric is of a different nature from the aura, and the etheric may continue for some time as a detached phantom, especially if a person has died violently, suddenly. A person in good health who meets a violent end has his ‘batteries fully charged’, and so the etheric is at full strength. With the death of the body the etheric becomes detached and floats away. By magnetic attraction it will undoubtedly visit its former haunts, and if a clairvoyant person is about or a person who is highly excited (i.e. has his vibrations increased), then that person will be able to see the etheric and will exclaim “Oh! The ghost of so-and-so!”

The aura is of much finer material than the comparatively crude etheric. The aura, in fact, is as much finer to the etheric as the etheric is to the physical body. The etheric ‘flows’ over the body like a complete covering following the contours of the body, but the aura extends to form an egg-shaped shell around the body (Fig. 4). It might be, for instance, seven feet or more in height, and about four feet in width at its broadest part. It tapers down so that the narrow end of the ‘egg’ is at the bottom, that is, where the feet are. The aura consists of the radiations in brilliant colour from the various centres of the body to other centres of the body. The old Chinese used to say that “One picture is worth a thousand words.” So, to save a few thousand words, we will insert here in this lesson a sketch of a person standing full face, and side view, and on these sketches we will indicate the lines of force of the aura to and from the various centres, and the general outline of the egg-shape.

Fig. 4: Main Lines of Aura

We must make it clear also that the aura really does exist even if you cannot see it for the moment. As you will appreciate, you cannot see the air which you breathe, and we doubt if a fish can see the water in which it swims! The aura, then, is a real vital force. It exists even though most untrained people cannot see it. It is possible to see an aura by using various equipment, there are, for example, various types of goggles which can be used over the eyes, but all the information which we have been able to gather on the subject indicates that these goggles are extremely injurious to the sight; they try the eyes, they force the eyes to act in an unnatural manner, and we cannot recommend for one moment goggles purporting to enable one to see the aura, nor those various screens consisting of two sheets of glass with a water-tight space between which one fills with a special and usually highly expensive dye. We can only suggest that you practice and practice, and then with a little faith and a little help you should be able to see. The biggest difficulty in seeing the aura is that most people do not believe that they can see it!

The aura, as we have stated, is of various colours, but we would point out that what we refer to as colours is merely a special part of the spectrum. In other words, although we use the word ‘colour’ we could just as well quote the frequency of that wave which we call ‘red’ or ‘blue’. Red, by the way, is one of the easiest colours to see. Blue is not so easy. There are some people who cannot see blue, there are others who cannot see red. If you are in the presence of a person who can see the aura, by the way, be careful not to say something which is untrue, because if you do tell an untruth the aura-seer will betray you! Normally a person has a ‘halo’ which is either a bluish or a yellowish colour. If a lie is told then a greenish yellow shoots through the halo. It is a difficult colour to explain, but once seen the colour is never forgotten. So—to tell a lie is to betray oneself immediately by the greenish-yellow flare which shoots through the halo which is at the top of the aura.

One can say that the aura extends basically up to the eyes, and then you get a radiant layer of yellow or blue which is the halo or nimbus. Then, at the very topmost part of the aura, you get a sort of fountain of light which in the East is known as The Flowering Lotus, because it does actually look like that. It is an interchange of colours and to the imaginative it reminds one irresistibly of the opening of the seven-petalled lotus.

The greater one's spirituality, the more saffron-yellow is the nimbus or halo. If a person has dubious thoughts, then that particular portion of the aura turns an unpleasant muddy brown, fringed by this bile-coloured yellowish-green which betokens falsehoods.

We are of the belief that more people see auras than seems apparent. We believe that many people see or sense the aura and do not know what they are seeing. It is quite a common thing for a person to say that she must have this or that colour, she cannot wear such-and-such a colour, because instinctively she thinks that it would clash with her aura. You may have noticed a person who wears clothing which is quite utterly impossible according to your own estimation. You may not ‘see’ the aura, but you—being possibly more perceptive than your unsuitably clad friend—will know that such colours clash completely with her aura. Many people, then, sense, experience, or are aware of the human aura but because from early childhood they have been taught that it is nonsense to see this, or nonsense to see that, they have hypnotised themselves into believing that THEY could not possibly see such a thing.

It is also a fact that one can influence one's health by wearing clothing of certain colours. If you wear a colour which clashes with your aura, then you will undoubtedly be ill at ease or self-conscious, you may even be indisposed until you take that unsuitable colour off. You may find that a particular colour in a room irritates you or soothes you. Colours, after all, are merely different names for vibrations. Red is one vibration, green is another vibration, and black is yet another. Just as the vibration which we call sound can clash and make disharmony, so can ‘soundless’ vibrations which we call colours clash and make a Spiritual disharmony.

The Colours of the Aura

Every musical note is a combination of harmonic vibrations which depends upon being compatible with its neighbours. Any LACK of compatibility causes a ‘sour’ note, a note which is not pleasant to hear. Musicians strive to produce only notes which please.

As in music, so in colours, for colours also are vibrations, although they are on a slightly different part of the ‘Human-perception Spectrum’. One can have pure colours, colours which please and uplift one. Or one can have colours which jar, which jangle the nerves. In the human aura there are many many different colours and shades of colours. Some of them are beyond the range of vision of the UNTRAINED observer and so, for those colours we have no universally accepted name.

There is, as you know, a ‘silent’ dog whistle. That is, it resonates on a band of vibrations which human ears cannot hear but which a dog can. At the other end of the scale, a human can hear deeper sounds than can a dog; low sounds are inaudible to dogs. Suppose we move the range of human hearing up—then we should hear as a dog does and would hear the high notes of the dog whistle. So, if we can raise or shift our sight range up we shall be able to see the human aura. Unless we do it carefully, though, we shall then lose the ability to see black or deep purple!

It would be unreasonable to list innumerable colours. Let us deal with only the most common, the strongest, colours. The basic colours change according to the progress of the person in whose aura they are seen. As the person improves in spirituality, so the colour improves. If a person is unfortunate enough to slip back on the ladder of progress, then his basic colours may alter completely or change in shade. The basic colours (which we mention below) show the ‘basic’ person. The innumerable pastel shades indicate the thoughts and intentions as well as the degree of spirituality. The aura swirls and flows like a particularly intricate rainbow. Colours race round the body in increasing spirals, and also pour down from the head to the feet. But these colours are many more than ever appeared in a rainbow; a rainbow is merely refraction from water crystals—simple things—the aura is life itself.

Here are some notes on a very few colours, ‘very few’ because there is no point in dealing with others until you can see these listed!

RED.  In its good form red indicates sound driving force. Good Generals and leaders of men have a lot of clear red in their aura. A particularly clear form of red with clear yellow edges indicates a person who is a ‘Crusader’—one who is always striving to help others. Do NOT confuse this with the ordinary meddler; his ‘red’ would be ‘brown’! Clear red bands or flashes emanating from the site of an organ indicates that the organ is in very good health. Some of the world leaders have a lot of clear red in their make-up. Unfortunately, in too many instances, it is contaminated with debasing shades.

A bad red, one that is muddy or too dark, indicates bad or vicious temper. The person is unreliable, quarrelsome, treacherous, a self seeker at the expense of others. Dull reds invariably show nervous excitation. A person with ‘bad’ red may be physically strong. Unfortunately he will also be strong at wrong-doing. Murderers always have degraded red in their auras. The lighter the red (LIGHTER, not ‘clearer’) the more nervous and unstable the person. Such a person is very active—jittery even—and cannot keep still for more than a few seconds at a time. Of course such a person is very self-centred indeed. Reds around the organs indicate their state. A dull red, brownish red even, slowly pulsing over the site of an organ indicates cancer. One can tell if the cancer is there OR IF IT IS INCIPIENT! The aura indicates what illnesses are going to afflict the body later, unless curative steps are taken. This is going to be one of the greatest uses of ‘Aura Therapy’ in later years.

A speckled, flashing red from the jaws indicates toothache; a dull brown pulsing in time from the nimbus indicates fright at the thought of a visit to a dentist. Scarlet is usually ‘worn’ by those who are too sure of themselves; it indicates that a person is altogether too fond of himself. It is the colour of false pride—pride without a foundation. But—Scarlet also shows most clearly around the hips of those ladies who sell ‘love’ for coins of the realm! They are indeed ‘Scarlet Women’! Such women are usually not at all interested in the sex act as such; to them it is merely a means of earning a living. So, the over-conceited person and the prostitute share the same colours in the aura. It is worth a thought that these old sayings, such as ‘scarlet woman’, ‘blue mood’, ‘red rage’, ‘black with temper’ and ‘green with envy’ do indeed accurately indicate the aura of a person afflicted with such a mood! The people who originated such sayings obviously consciously or unconsciously saw the aura.

Still on with the ‘red’ group—pink (it is more of a coral, really) shows immaturity. Teenagers show pink instead of any other red. In the case of an adult, pink is an indicator of childishness and insecurity. A red-brown, something like raw liver, indicates a very nasty person indeed. One who should be avoided, for he will bring trouble. When seen over an organ it shows that the organ is very diseased indeed and the person who has such a colour over a vital organ will soon die.

All people with RED showing at the end of the breastbone (end of the sternum) have nerve trouble. They should learn to control their activities and live more sedately if they want to live long and happily.

ORANGE.  Orange is really a branch of red, but we are paying it the compliment of giving it a classification of its own because some religions of the far East used to regard orange as the colour of the sun and paid homage to it. That is why there are so many orange colours in the far East. On the other hand, just to show the two sides of the coin, yet other religions held the belief that blue was the colour of the sun. It does not matter to which opinion you subscribe, orange is basically a good colour, and people with a suitable shade of orange in their aura are those who show much consideration for other people, they are humanitarians, people who do their best to help others not so fortunately endowed. A yellow-orange is to be desired because it shows self-control, and has many virtues.

Brownish-orange indicates a repressed lazy person who ‘couldn't care less’! A brownish-orange also indicates kidney trouble. If it is located over the kidneys and has a jagged grey blur in it, it shows the presence of kidney stones.

An orange which is tinged with green indicates a person who loves to quarrel just for the sake of quarrelling, and when you progress to the point when you can see the shades within the shades within the colours, then be wise and avoid arguing with those who have a green amid the orange because they can see ‘only black and white’, they lack imagination, they lack the perception and the discernment to realise that there are shades of knowledge, shades of opinion, and shades of colour. The person afflicted with a greenish-orange argues endlessly just for the sake of argument and without really caring whether his arguments are right or wrong; to such people the argument is the thing.

YELLOW.  A golden yellow indicates that its possessor is of a very spiritual nature. All the great saints had golden halos around their heads. The greater the spirituality the brighter glowed the golden yellow. To digress let us state here that those of the very highest spirituality also have indigo, but we are dealing with yellow! Those who have a yellow in the aura always are in good spiritual and moral health. They are well upon the Path, and according to the exact shade of yellow they have little of which to be afraid. A person with a bright yellow in the aura can be completely trusted. A person with a degraded yellow (the colour of bad Cheddar cheese!) is of a cowardly nature, and that is why people say, “Oh, he is yellow!” It used to be far more common that one could see the aura, and presumably most of these sayings came into the different languages at that time. But a bad yellow shows a bad person, one who is really frightened of everything. A reddish-yellow is not at all favourable because it indicates mental, moral and physical timidity, and with it absolute weakness of spiritual outlook and conviction. People with a reddish-yellow will change from one religion to another, always seeking for something which is not obtainable in five minutes. They lack staying power, they cannot stick at a thing for more than a few moments. A person who has a red-yellow and brown-red in the aura is always chasing after the opposite sex—and getting nowhere! It is noteworthy that if a person has red hair (or ginger) and has red-yellow in the aura, that person will be very pugnacious, very offensive, and very ready to misconstrue any remark into a personal slight. This refers particularly to those who have red hair and reddish, perhaps freckled, skin. Some of the redder yellows indicate that the person possessing these shades has a great inferiority complex. The redder the red in the yellow, the greater the degree of inferiority. A brownish-yellow shows very impure thoughts indeed and poor spiritual development. Presumably most people know about Skid Row, the vale to which all drunks, deadbeats, and derelicts eventually drift on this Earth. Many of the people in that class, or condition, have this red-brown yellow, and if they are particularly bad they have an unpleasant form of lime green speckling the aura. These people can rarely be saved from their own folly.

A brownish-yellow indicates impure thoughts and that the person concerned does not always keep to the straight and narrow path. In the health line a green-yellow shows liver complaints. As the greenish-yellow turns to brownish-reddish-yellow it shows that the complaints are more in the nature of social diseases. A person with a social disease invariably has a dark brown, dark yellow band around the hips. It is often speckled with what looks to be red dust. With the brown becoming more and more pronounced in the yellow, and perhaps showing jagged bands, it indicates mental afflictions. A person who is a dual personality (in the psychiatric sense) will often show one half of the aura as a bluish-yellow and the other half as a brownish or greenish-yellow. It is a thoroughly unpleasant combination.

The pure golden yellow with which we commenced this heading of ‘Yellow’ should always be cultivated. It can be attained by keeping one's thoughts and one's intentions pure. Every one of us has to go along through the brighter yellow before we get far along the path of evolution.

GREEN.  Green is the colour of healing, the colour of teaching, and the colour of physical growth. Great doctors and surgeons have a lot of green in their aura; they also have a lot of red, and, curiously enough, the two colours blend most harmoniously and there is no discord between them. Red and green when seen together in materials often clash and offend, but when they are seen in the aura they please. Green with a suitable red indicates a brilliant surgeon, a most competent man. Green alone without the red indicates a most eminent physician, one who knows his job, or it might indicate a nurse whose vocation is both her career and her love. Green mixed with a suitable blue indicates success at teaching. Some of the greater teachers had green in their auras and bands, or striations, of swirling blue, a form of electric blue, and often between the blue and the green there would be narrow bands of golden yellow which would indicate that the teacher was one who had the welfare of his students at heart and had the necessary high spiritual perceptions in order to teach the best subjects.

All those who are concerned with the health of people and animals have much green in their auric make-up. They may not be high ranking surgeons or physicians, but all people, no matter who they are, if they are dealing with health either of animals or humans or plants, they all have a certain amount of green in their aura. It seems to be almost their badge of office! Green is not a dominant colour, though, it is nearly always subservient to some other colour. It is a helpful colour and indicates that one who has much green in the aura is of a friendly, compassionate, considerate nature. If the person has a yellowish-green, however, then that person cannot be trusted, and the more the mixture of unpleasant yellow to unpleasant green, the more untrustworthy, the more unreliable the person. Confidence tricksters have a yellow-green—the type of people who talk nicely to a person and then swindle them out of their money—these have a sort of lime green to which their yellow is added. As the green turns to blue—usually a pleasant sky blue or electric blue—the more trustworthy a person is.

BLUE.  This colour is often referred to as the colour of the spirit world. It also shows intellectual ability as apart from spirituality, but of course it has to be of the right shade of blue; with the right shade it is a very favourable colour indeed. The etheric is of a bluish tinge, a blue somewhat similar to non-inhaled cigarette smoke, or the blue of a wood fire. The brighter the blue, the healthier and the more vigorous in health is the person. Pale blue is the colour of a person who vacillates a lot, a person who cannot make up his mind, a person who has to be pushed in order to get any worthwhile decision from him. A darker blue is that of a person who is making progress, a person who is trying. If the blue is darker still it shows one who is keen on the tasks of life and who has found some satisfaction in it. These darker blues are often found in missionaries who are missionaries because they have definitely had ‘A Call’. It is not found in missionaries who just desire a job perhaps travelling round the world with all expenses paid. One can always judge of a person by the vigour of the yellow and the darkness of the blue.

INDIGO.  We are going to class indigo and violet as being under the same heading because one shades imperceptibly into the other, and it is very much a case of one being quite dependent upon the other. People with indigo showing to a marked extent in their aura are people of deep religious convictions, not merely those who profess to be religious. There is a great deal of difference; some people say that they are religious, some people believe they are religious, but until one can actually see the aura one cannot say for sure; indigo proves it conclusively. If a person has a pinkish tinge in the indigo the possessor of such a marked aura will be touchy and unpleasant, particularly to those who are under the control of the afflicted person. The pinkish tinge in the indigo is a degrading touch, it robs the aura of its purity. Incidentally, people with indigo or violet or purple in their auras suffer from heart trouble and stomach disorders. They are the type of people who should have no fried food and very little fat food.

GREY.  Grey is a modifier of the colours of the aura. It does not signify anything of itself unless the person is most unevolved. If the person at whom you are looking is unevolved, then there will be great bands and splotches of grey, but you normally would not be looking at the nude body of an unevolved person. Grey in a colour shows a weakness of character and a general poorness of health. If a person has grey bands over a particular organ it shows that the organ is in danger of breaking down, IS breaking down, and medical attention should be sought immediately. A person with a dull throbbing headache will have a grey smoky cloud going through the halo or nimbus, and no matter what colour the halo, grey bands going through it will pulsate in time with the throb of the headache.

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Reading an aura

(Extracts from The Cave of the Ancients — 1963)

“Now, boy!” said the great deep voice, like rolling thunder among the distant mountains. “I have heard much of you. Your Illustrious Guide, the Lama Mingyar Dondup claims that you are a prodigy, that your para-normal abilities are immense. We shall see!” I sat and quaked. “You see me? What do you see?” he asked. I quaked even more as I said the first thing that entered my mind; “I see such a big man, Holy Medical Lama, that I thought it was a mountain when I came here first.” His boisterous laugh caused such a gale of wind that I half feared that it would blow my robe off. “Look at me, boy, look at my aura and tell me what you see!” he commanded. Then, “Tell me what you see of the aura and what it means to you.” I looked at him, not directly, not staring, for that often dims the aura of a clothed figure; I looked toward him, but not exactly ‘at’ him.

“Sir!” I said, “I see first the physical outline of your body, dimly as it would be without a robe. Then, very close to you I see a faint bluish light the colour of fresh wood smoke. It tells me that you have been working too hard; that you have had sleepless nights of late and your etheric energy is low.” He looked at me with eyes somewhat wider than normal, and nodded in satisfaction. “Go on!” he said.

“Sir!” I continued, “your aura extends from you a distance of about nine feet on either side. The colours are in layers both vertical and horizontal. You have the yellow of high spirituality. At present you are marvelling that one of my age can tell you so much and you are thinking that my Guide the Lama Mingyar Dondup knows something after all. You are thinking that you will have to apologise to him for your expressed doubts as to my capabilities.” I was interrupted by a great shout of laughter. “You are right, boy, you are right!” he said delightedly, “Go on!”

“Sir!” (this was child's play to me!) “You recently had some mishap and sustained a blow over your liver. It hurts when you laugh too hard and you wonder if you should take some tatura herb and have deep massage while under its anaesthetic influence. You are thinking that it is Fate which decided that of more than six thousand herbs, tatura should be in short supply.” He was not laughing now, he was looking at me with undisguised respect. I added, “It is further indicated in your aura, Sir, that in a short time you will be the most important Medical Abbot of Tibet.”

He gazed at me with some apprehension. “My boy,” he said, “You have great power—you will go far. Never never abuse the power within you. It can be dangerous. Now let us discuss the aura as equals. But let us discuss over tea.” He raised the small silver bell and shook it so violently that I feared it would fly from his hand. Within seconds a young monk hastened in with tea and—oh, joy of joys!—some of the luxuries of Mother India! As we sat there I reflected that all these high lamas had comfortable quarters. Below us I could see the great parks of Lhasa, the Dodpal and the Khati were—so it appeared—within reach of my extended arm. More to the left the Chorten of our area, the Kesar Lhakhang, stood like a sentinel, while across the road, further north, my favourite spot, the Pargo Kaling (Western Gate) towered aloft.

“What causes the aura, Sir?” I asked. “As your respected Guide, the Lama Mingyar Dondup has told you,” he commenced, “the brain receives messages from the Overself. Electric currents are generated in the brain. The whole of Life is electric. The aura is a manifestation of electric power. About one's head, as you so well know, there is a halo or nimbus. Old paintings always show a Saint or God with such a ‘Golden Bowl’ around the back of the head.” “Why do so few people see the aura and the halo, Sir?” I asked. “Some people disbelieve the existence of the aura because they can not see it. They forget that they can not see air either, and without air they would not manage very well! Some—a very very few—people see auras. Others do not. Some people can hear higher frequencies, or lower frequencies than others. It has nothing to do with the degree of spirituality of the observer, any more than the ability to walk on stilts indicates a necessarily spiritual person.” He smiled at me and added, “I used to walk on stilts almost as well as you. Now my figure is not suited for it.” I smiled too, thinking that he would need a pair of tree trunks as stilts.

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The silver cord

(Extracts from You—Forever — 1965)

The brain is, of course, a form of receiving station for the messages which are transmitted by the Overself, and the human brain in its turn can transmit messages, such as lessons learned, experiences gained, etc., to the Overself. These messages are conveyed by means of the ‘Silver Cord’, a mass of high velocity molecules which vibrate and rotate at an extremely divergent range of frequencies, and connects the human body and the human Overself.

The body here on Earth is something like a vehicle operating by remote control. The driver is the Overself. You may have seen a child's toy car which is connected to the child by a long flexible cable. The child can press a button and make the car go forward, or make it stop or go back, and by turning a wheel on this flexible cable the car can be steered. The human body may be likened very very roughly to that, for the Overself which cannot come down to the Earth to gain experiences sends down this body which is US on Earth. Everything that we experience, everything that we do or think or hear travels upwards to be stored in the memory of the Overself.

Very highly intelligent men who get ‘inspiration’ often obtain a message directly—consciously—from the Overself by way of the Silver Cord. Leonardo da Vinci was one of those who was most constantly in touch with his Overself, and so he rated as a genius in almost everything that he did. Great artists or great musicians are those in touch with their Overself on perhaps one or two particular ‘lines’, and so they come back and compose ‘by inspiration’ music or paintings which have been more or less dictated to them by the Greater Powers which control us.

This Silver Cord connects us to our Overself in much the same way as the umbilical cord connects a baby to its mother. The umbilical cord is a very intricate devise, a very complex affair indeed, but it is as a piece of string compared to the complexity of the Silver Cord. This Cord is a mass of molecules rotating over an extremely wide range of frequencies, but it is an intangible thing so far as the human body on Earth is concerned. The molecules are too widely dispersed for the average human sight to see it. Many animals can see it because animals see on a different range of frequencies and hear on a different range of frequencies than humans. Dogs, as you know, can be called by a ‘silent’ dog whistle, silent because a human cannot hear it but a dog easily can. In the same way, animals can see the Silver Cord and the aura because both these vibrate on a frequency which is just within the receptivity of an animal's sight. With practice it is quite easily possible for a human to extend the band of receptivity of their sight in much the same way as a weak man, by practice and by exercise, can lift a weight which normally would be far far beyond his physical capabilities.

The Silver Cord is a mass of molecules, a mass of vibrations. One can liken it to the tight beam of radio waves which scientists bounce off the Moon. Scientists trying to measure the distance of the Moon, broadcast on a very narrow beam a wave form to the surface of the Moon. That is much the same as the Silver Cord between the human body and the human Overself; it is the method whereby the Overself communicates with the body on Earth.

Everything we do is known to the Overself. People strive to become spiritual if they are on ‘the right Path’. Basically, in striving for spirituality they strive to increase their own rate of vibration on Earth, and by way of the Silver Cord to increase the rate of vibration of the Overself. The Overself sends down a part of itself into a human body in order that lessons may be learned and experiences gained. Every good deed we do increases our Earth and our astral rate of vibration, but if we do an evil deed to some person that decreases and subtracts from our rate of spiritual vibration. Thus, when we do an ill turn to another we put ourselves at least one step DOWN on the ladder of evolution, and every good deed we do increases our own personal vibration by a like amount. Thus it is that it is so essential to adhere to the old Buddhist formula which exhorts one to “return good for evil and to fear no man, and to fear no man's deed, for in returning good for evil, and giving good at all times, we progress upwards and never downwards.”

Everyone knows of a person who is ‘a low sort of fellow’. Some of our metaphysical knowledge leaks over into common usage in much the same way as we say a person is in a ‘black mood’, or a ‘blue mood’. It is all a matter of vibration, all a matter of what the body transmits by way of the Silver Cord to the Overself, and what the Overself sends back again by way of the Silver Cord to the body.

Many people cannot understand their inability to consciously contact their Overself. It is quite a difficult matter without long training. Supposing you are in South America and you want to telephone someone in Russia, perhaps in Siberia. First of all you have to make sure that there is a telephone line available, then you have to take into consideration the difference in time between the two countries. Next you have to make sure that the person you want to telephone is available and can speak your language, and after all that you have to see if the authorities will permit of such a telephone message! It is better at this stage of evolution not to bother too much about trying to contact one's Overself consciously, because no Course, no information, will give you in a few written pages what it might take ten years of practice to accomplish. Most people expect too much; they expect that they can read a Course and immediately go and do everything that the Masters can do, and the Masters may have studied a lifetime, and many lifetimes before that! Read this Course, study it, ponder upon it, and if you will open your mind you may be granted enlightenment. We have known many cases where people (most often women) received certain information and they then could actually see the etheric or the aura or the Silver Cord. We have many such experiences to fortify us in our statement that you, too, can do this—if you will permit yourself to believe!

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Astral travel

(Extracts from You—Forever — 1965)

When we go to sleep our astral body gradually separates from the physical body and drifts up from the reclining physical. With the separation of the two bodies the mind is indeed separated. In the physical body there is all the mechanism in much the same way as one can have a broadcasting station, but when the announcer goes off then there is no one left to send messages. The astral body, now floating above the physical, ruminates for some moments deciding where to go and what to do. As soon as a decision has been reached the astral body tilts feet foremost and settles down usually at the end of the bed. Then like a bird leaving a twig, the body gives a little leap upwards and is gone, soaring away at the end of the Silver Cord.

Most people, in the West particularly, are not aware of the actual occurrences of their astral travelling, they are not aware of any particular incident, but when they return they may have a warm feeling of friendship, or they may say, “Oh, I dreamed of so-and-so last night, he DID look well!” In all probability the person actually did visit ‘so-and-so’, or whoever it was, because such travel is one of the simplest and most frequently undertaken; for some peculiar reason we always seem to gravitate to old haunts, we seem to like to go places where we have visited before, in fact the police have a statement to the effect that criminals always return to the scene of their crimes!

There is nothing at all remarkable in us visiting friends because we all leave the physical body, we all do astral journeying and we must go somewhere. Until one is ‘educated’ to the subject one does not roam in astral realms, but instead clings tenaciously to known places on the surface of the Earth. People who have not been taught about astral travelling may visit friends overseas, or a person with a very great desire to see some particular shop or location will go and see the shop or location, but upon their return to the flesh and to awakeness they think—if they think at all!—that they have had a dream.

Do you know why you dream? We all have experiences which are excursions into reality. Our ‘dreams’ are as real as a journey from England to New York by plane or ship, or from Aden to Accra by similar means, yet we term them ‘dreams’. Before delving further into the subjects of dreams let us remind one that since the Convention of Constantinople in the Year 60, when the leaders of the Christian Church decided what was to be embodied in ‘Christianity’, much of the teachings of the Great Masters have been distorted or suppressed. We could add some very pungent comments on all this from information which we have obtained from the Akashic Record, but our purpose in preparing this Course is to help people to know themselves, not to tread on anyone's corns no matter how fallacious those ‘corns’ of belief may be! Let us content ourselves with stating that in the Western hemisphere for several centuries past people quite definitely have not been taught anything about astral travelling because it does not fall into any portion of organised religion. Incidentally, let us remind you that we say here ‘organised religion’!

Again, in the Western hemisphere most people do not believe in fairies nor in Nature Spirits, and children who see fairies and Nature Spirits, and who undoubtedly play with such entities, are laughed at or scolded by adults who really should know better, for in this, as in many other cases, the child is far cleverer and far more awake than is the adult. Even the Christian Bible states that “Unless ye be as a little child you cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.” We could state this differently and say, “If you have the belief of a child uncontaminated by adult disbelief you can go anywhere at any time.”

Children, being scoffed at, learn to disguise what they really see. Unfortunately they soon lose the ability to see other entities because of this need of concealing their real abilities. It is much the same in the case of dreams. People have experiences when their physical body is asleep, for of course the astral body never sleeps, and when the latter returns to the former there may be a conflict between the two; the astral knows the truth and the physical is contaminated and clogged by preconceived notions inculcated from childhood up to adulthood. Through conditioning adults will not face up to the truth, so there arises a conflict; the astral body has been off and done things, experienced things, seen things, but the physical must not believe in this because the whole teaching of Western people is to disbelieve anything that cannot be held in the two hands and pulled to pieces to see how it works. Westerners want proof, more proof, and still more proof, and all the time they try to prove that the proof is wrong. Thus we have the conflict between the physical and the astral, and that leads to a need for rationalisation. In this case the dreams—so-called—are rationalised into some sort of experience, frequently with the weirdest results imaginable!

Let us go into it again; we could have all sorts of unusual experiences when astral travelling. Our astral body would like us to wake up with a clear memory of all these experiences, but again, the physical body cannot permit it so there is a conflict between the two bodies, and some truly amazingly distorted pictures come back into our memories, things which could not possibly happen. Whenever anything happens in the astral which is contrary to the physical laws of the physical Earth there is conflict, and so fantasy sets in and we get nightmares or the most unusual happenings which one can imagine. In the astral state one can levitate, float upwards, travel anywhere and see anyone, and visit any of the centres of the world. In the physical it is not possible to move across the rooftop, and thus it is, we repeat, that in the conflict between the physical body and the astral body there are such extremely distorted renderings of our astral travelling experiences which really nullify any benefit which is trying to be sent down by the astral. We get so-called dreams which do not make sense to us, we dream all sorts of rubbish, or so we say when we are in the physical, but the things which are rubbish in the physical are commonplace in the astral.

Let us return to our original remarks about walking down the street without a stitch of clothing on. Quite a number of people have had this highly embarrassing experience apparently in a dream, but, of course, it is not a dream at all! It arises from the fact that when one goes astral travelling one may forget all about wearing astral clothes! If a person does not ‘imagine’ the necessary covering then we have the spectacle of someone travelling in the astral completely nude. Many times a person will leave the physical body and soar upwards and outwards in a great hurry, in great excitement at having got free of the cloying flesh. Getting out of the body was the prime achievement leaving no opportunity for thinking about other things.

The natural body, we must remind you, is a body without clothing for clothing is a purely man-made convention which has no point in reality. We might digress here for a moment to tell you something else which possibly will intrigue you.

In the days of long ago man and woman could see the astral of each other. Thoughts then were plain to all; one's motives were absolutely open, and, we tell you again, that the colours of the aura flare most vividly and most strongly around those areas which people now keep covered! Mankind, and especially womankind, keeps certain areas covered because they do not want others to read their thoughts and their motives which may not be always desirable. But this, as we said, is quite a digression and has little bearing on dreams, it is a point, though, which may cause you to ponder on clothing.

When one is doing astral travelling one usually ‘imagines’ the type of clothing which one would normally wear in the daytime. If this ‘imagining’ is omitted a clairvoyant receiving an astral visitor may receive that person and find that he or she has not a stitch of clothing on. We have had people call on us in the astral and they were wearing either nothing or perhaps a pyjama jacket, or some other quite ‘out of this world’ garment which defies description and possibly would not be found in any lingerie catalogue of the present day. It is a fact also that people who are over-clothes-conscious will often imagine themselves—dream themselves up—clothing which they would not at all wear when in the physical body. But all this does not matter, because we again state that clothing is merely a convention of humanity and we do not suppose that when we got to heaven we shall be wearing clothing such as there is upon this Earth.

Dreams, then, are a rationalisation of actual living events which occur in the astral world, and as we have previously stated, when one is in the astral one sees with a far greater range of colours and with far, far greater clarity. Everything is brighter, everything is ‘larger than life’, one can see the most minute details, the colours are of a range far surpassing anything that can be upon this Earth. Let us give an example here.

We wandered out in our astral form far across the land and over the sea to a distant country. The day was brilliant with a vivid blue sky, and the sea beneath us had gentle white topped waves flicking up at us, but, of course, not touching us. We sank down upon a golden sand and stopped to examine the wondrous diamond-like structure. Every point of sand glittered like gems in the sunlight. We moved along gently over waving fronds of seaweed, we were amazed at the delicate browns and greens and the air bladders which seemed to be turning golden-pink. To our right was a rock of greenish tinge, it looked for a moment as if of the purest jade. We could see part way through the outer surface, we could see the veins and the striations, and we could see also some minute fossil-like creatures which had been embedded in the rock millions of years before. As we moved around we looked about us with eyes that seemed to be new, with eyes that saw as never before. We could see what appeared to be transparent globes of colour floating in the atmosphere, globes which were indeed the living force of the air. The colours were marvellous, intense, varying and our acuity of vision was such that we could see as far away as the curvature of the Earth would permit without causing us to lose any detail whatsoever.

Upon this poor old Earth of ours, while encased in flesh, we are comparatively blind, we have a limited range of colours and a poor perception of the shades of colours. We suffer from myopia, astigmatism, and other defects which make it impossible for us to see things as they really are. Here we are almost bereft of senses and perceptions, we are poor things indeed upon this Earth encased as we are in a sheath of clay, loaded down with lusts and grudges and clogged with the wrong type of food, but when we get out into the free world of the astral we can see—see with the greatest clarity—see colours such as we never saw upon the Earth itself.

If you have a ‘dream’ in which you see with startling clarity, and in which you are delighted by the amazing array of colours, then you can know that you have not had an ordinary common dream, but are rationalising a genuine astral travelling experience.

There is another matter which prevents many people from remembering their pleasures in the astral. It is this: When one is in the astral one is vibrating at a far, far higher rate than when one is encased in the body. It is an easy matter when leaving the body, because the difference in vibrations matters not at all when one is going ‘out’, the obstacles occur when we return to our body, and if we know what those obstacles are now we can consciously dwell upon them and help astral and physical vehicles to reach some sort of arrangement.

Let us imagine that we are in the astral, our flesh body is below us. It is vibrating at a certain speed, ‘ticking over’ almost, while the astral body is a-quiver with life, with vitality, for you are not bogged down with illness or with suffering in the astral! Perhaps it will help us if we put things in terms of the Earth. Let us consider that we are dealing with the problems of a person in a bus; the bus is travelling at, maybe, twenty or thirty miles an hour, and the passenger urgently desires to leave the bus, which, unfortunately, cannot be stopped. So the problem is that the passenger has to jump off the bus in such a manner that he alights in the roadway without hurting himself in any way at all. If he is careless he gets badly damaged, but if he knows how, it can be done easily for one often sees bus personnel doing it. We have to learn by experience how to get off the bus when the vehicle is moving, we also have to learn how to get into the body when the speeds of the two vehicles are different!

When we return from astral travelling experiences our problem is to get into the body. Again, we are vibrating in the astral at a much higher rate than we are in the physical, and as we cannot slow down the one nor speed up the other more than a very very limited amount, we have to wait until we can ‘synchronise a harmonic’ between the two. With practice we can do that, we can slightly speed up the physical body and slightly slow down the astral body so that while they are still at widely dissimilar vibrations, there is a fundamental harmonic—a compatibility of vibration—between the two, and that enables us to ‘get in’ safely. It is a matter of practice, instinctive, racial-memory practice, and when we can do that we can get all our memories intact.

Do you find this difficult to realise? Then let us imagine that your astral body is a phonograph pick-up. Your physical body is a phonograph record turning at—what speed shall we say?—45 r.p.m.? Our problem is to put the needle onto the rotating record so that we hit upon one particular word or one particular musical note. If you think of the difficulties of putting this phonograph pick-up in contact with the record so that the previously determined word or musical note is chosen, then you will appreciate how difficult it is (without practice) to come back from the astral with memories intact.

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The karma

(Extracts from You—Forever — 1965)

If you are going to sow bad deeds you will reap a bad future either in the next life, or the next, or the one after that. If in this life you sow good, if you show goodness and kindness and compassion to those in need, then when your own turn comes to have misfortune, someone—somewhere—will show you kindness and consideration and compassion.

Make no mistake about this; if a person is suffering hardship now it may not be because that person is evil, it may be to see how the person reacts under hardship, under suffering, it may be a process of refining to drive away by suffering some of the impurities, some of the selfishness of humanity. Everyone, be he prince or beggar, travels along what we call the Wheel of Life, the circle of endless existence. A man may be a king in one life, but in the next he may be a beggar travelling afoot from city to city perhaps trying to get work and failing, or perhaps just drifting along like a leaf blowing before a gale.

There are some people who are exempt from the laws of kharma, so it is useless for you to say, “Oh, what a terrible life that person has had, he must have been a terrible sinner in a previous life!” The higher entities (whom we call ‘Avatars’) come down to Earth in order that certain tasks may be accomplished. The Hindus, for instance, believe that the God Vishnu descends onto Earth at various times in order to bring to mankind once again the truths of religion which mankind is so prone to forget. This Avatar, or Advanced Being, will often come to live, perhaps, as an example of poverty, but to show what can be done in the way of compassion, in the way of what seems to be immunity to suffering. Nothing could be further from the truth about this ‘immunity to suffering’, for the Avatar, being of finer material, suffers the more acutely.

The Avatar is not born because he has to be, he is not born that he may work out his kharma. Instead he comes to Earth as an embodied soul, his birth is the result of free choice, or under certain conditions he may not even be born, he may take over the body of another. We do not want to tread on anyone's ‘corns’ in the matter of religious beliefs, but if one will read the Christian Bible closely, one will understand that Jesus, the man, was born of Joseph and Mary, but in the fullness of time and when Jesus was a grown man, Jesus wandered into the Wilderness and the Spirit of Christ—the Spirit of God—descended and filled the body of Jesus. In other words, it was a case that another soul came and possessed the willing body of Jesus, the son of Joseph and Mary.

We mention this, though, because we do not like to think that some people are being blamed for misfortunes and poverty when actually they come to help others by showing what may be accomplished by misfortune and poverty.

Everything we do results in some action. Thought is a very real force indeed. As you think, so you are. Thus, if you think of pure things you become pure, if you think of lust then you become lustful and contaminated, and you have to come back to Earth time after time until ‘desire’ withers within you under the onslaught of purity and good thinking.

No person is ever destroyed, no person is ever so bad that they are condemned to everlasting punishment. The ‘Everlasting Punishment’ was a device started by the priests of old who wanted to maintain discipline over their somewhat unruly flock. Christ never taught eternal suffering, eternal damnation. Christ taught that if a person repented and tried, then a person would be ‘saved’ from his own folly and given a chance and a chance again.

Kharma, then, is the process whereby we incur debts and we pay off those debts. If you go into a store and you order certain goods, then you are incurring certain debts which have to be paid for in coin of the realm. Until you have paid for those goods you are a debtor, and if you do not pay for the articles you can, in some countries, be arrested to be made a bankrupt. Everything has to be paid for by the ordinary man, woman and child upon the Earth, only the Avatar is immune from the laws of kharma. So those who are not Avatars had better try to lead a good life so that they may cut short their sojourn on this Earth, for there is much better on other planets and on other planes of existence.

We should forgive those that trespass against us, and we should seek the forgiveness of those against whom we trespass. We should always remember that the surest way to a good kharma is to do to others as we would have them do to us.

Kharma is a matter which few of us can escape. We make a debt, we have to pay it, we do good to others, they must pay us back and do good to us. It is much better for us to receive good, so let us show good, compassion and kindness to all creatures, no matter what their species, remembering that in the eyes of God all men are equal, and in the eyes of Great God all creatures are equal whether they be cats, horses—what will you call them?

God, it is stated, works in a mysterious way His wonders to perform. It is not for us to question the ways of God, but it is for us to work out the problems allotted to us, for only in working out our problems and bringing them to a satisfactory conclusion can we pay off kharma. Some people have a sick relative with whom they must live, some people have this sick relative living with them and they think, “Oh, how tiresome! Why cannot he die and be out of his misery?” The answer is, of course, that both are working out a planned life span, working out a planned form of existence. The person who is looking after the sick one may have planned to come just for that purpose.

We should at all times show great care, great concern, great understanding for those who are ill or sorrowing or are afflicted, for it may be that our task is to show such care and such understanding. It is too easy to brush off a tiresome person with an impatient gesture, but those who are sick are most frequently very highly sensitive, they feel their disabilities, they feel very keenly that they are in the way, not wanted. We would again remind you that as things are on Earth at present every person who is truly occult, every person who can do the major occult arts has some physical disability. Thus, in spurning, in rudely brushing off an appeal for help from some sick person you may be brushing off a person who is far, far more gifted than you can ever imagine.

We have no interest in football or any of those strenuous sports, but we do want to ask you this question. Have you ever heard of a strong, rugged sportsman or sportswoman who was clairvoyant or could even spell the word? The process of some physical disability is often a process of refining a gross human body so that it can receive vibrations of a higher frequency than can the average human. So—show consideration to those who are sick, will you? Do not be impatient with a sick person, for the sick person has many problems with which you are unacquainted. There is a selfish side to it too! The sick person may be far more evolved than you who are healthy, and in helping that sick person you could indeed help yourself immensely.

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The Akashic Record

(Extracts from You—Forever — 1965)

We have from time to time mentioned the Akashic Record. Now let us discuss this most fascinating subject, for the Akashic Record is something which concerns every person and every creature who has ever lived. With the Akashic Record we can travel back along history, we can see all that has happened, not merely upon this world but upon other worlds also, for the scientist is now coming to realise what occultists have always known, that other worlds are occupied by other persons not necessarily human but sentient beings nonetheless.

Before we can say much about the Akashic Record we have to know something about the nature of energy or matter. Matter, we are told, is indestructible, it goes on for ever. Waves, electric waves, are indestructible. Scientists have recently found that if a current is induced in a coil of copper wire, the temperature of which is reduced to as near absolute zero as possible, the induced current carries on and on and on, and never grows less. We all know that at normal temperatures the current would soon diminish and die out because of various resistances. So—science has found a new medium; science has found that if a copper conductor be reduced sufficiently in temperature a current continues to flow and remain the same without any outside source of energy. In time scientists will discover that Man has other senses, other abilities, but that will not be discovered yet for the scientist proceeds slowly and not always surely!

We said that waves are indestructible. Let us look at the behaviour of light waves. Light reaches us from far far distant planets in universes remote from our own. Great telescopes on this Earth are probing out into space, in other words, they are gathering light from vastly distant places. Some of the planets from which we receive light sent out that light long before this world, or even this universe, came into existence. Light is a very fast thing indeed, the speed of light is so fast that we can hardly imagine it but that is because we are in human bodies and are greatly bogged down with all sorts of physical limitations. What we consider to be ‘fast’ here has a different meaning in a different plane of existence. By way of illustration let us say that a round of existence for a human is seventy-two thousand years. During that round a person comes again and again to different worlds, to different bodies. The seventy-two thousand years, then, is the length of our ‘school term’.

When we refer to ‘light’ instead of radio or electric waves or other waves, we do so merely because light can be observed without any equipment, a radio wave cannot. We can see the light of the sun, the light of the moon, and if we have a good telescope or a powerful pair of binoculars we can see the light of the far distant stars which started out before Earth was even a cloud of hydrogen molecules floating in space.

Light is also used as a measure of time or distance. Astronomers refer to ‘light years’, and we are going to tell you again that light coming from a far distant world may still be travelling after that world has ceased to exist, from which it is clear that we may be getting a picture from something which is no longer there, something which died years ago. If you find that difficult to understand, look at it in this way; we have a star out in the remote fastnesses of space. For years, for centuries, that star has been reflecting light waves down to Earth. The light waves may take a thousand, ten thousand, or a million years to reach Earth, because a star, the source of the light, is so very distant. One day the star is in collision with another star, there may be a great flash of light or there may be extinction. For our purpose let us say that there is total extinction. So the light is gone, but for a thousand or ten thousand, or a million years after the light is gone, light still reaches us because it takes all that time to cover the distance between the original source of light and ourselves. Thus, we should be seeing light after its source ceases to exist.

Let us assume something which is utterly impossible while we are in the physical body, but which is quite easy and commonplace when out of the body. Let us assume that we can travel faster than thought. We need to travel faster than thought because thought has a very definite speed as any doctor can tell you. It is actually known how quickly a person reacts to any given situation, how quickly or how slowly a person can put on the brakes of a car, or move the wheel to swerve aside. It is known how quickly thought impulses travel from head to toe. We, for the purpose of this discussion, want to travel instantly. Let us imagine that we can go instantly to a planet which is receiving light which was emitted from the Earth three thousand years ago. So we upon this distant planet will be receiving light sent from the Earth three thousand years ago. Supposing we have a telescope of quite unimagined type with which we can see the surface of the Earth, or interpret the rays of light reaching us, then this light sent out three thousand years ago would show us scenes of the world enacted at that time. We should see life as it was in ancient Egypt, we would see the barbarous Western world where people ran about covered in woad or less, and in China we should find quite a high civilisation—so much different from what is there at the present time!

If we could instantly travel closer, we should see quite different pictures. Let us move to a planet which is so distant from the Earth that light takes a thousand years for it to travel between that planet and Earth. Then we should see scenes of Earth as they were enacted a thousand years ago, we should see a high civilisation in India, we should see the spread of Christianity throughout the Western world, and perhaps some of the invasions of South America. The world would also look somewhat different from its present appearance because all the time a coast line is altering, land is rising from the sea, shores are being eroded. In a lifetime not much difference is noted, but a thousand years would give us a chance to see and appreciate the difference.

At present we are upon a world which has most remarkable limitations, we are able to perceive and to receive impressions on only a very limited range of frequencies. If we could see some of our ‘out of the body’ abilities to the full as we can in the astral world, we should see things in a very different light, we should perceive that all matter is indeed indestructible, every experience that ever has been on the world is still radiating outward in the form of waves. With special abilities we should intercept those waves in much the same way as we can intercept waves of light. Take as a simple example of this an ordinary slide projector; you switch on your slide projector in a darkened room and you put a slide in the appropriate place. If you put a screen—a white screen for preference—in front of the lens of the projector at a certain distance from it, and you focus the light on the screen, you see a picture. But if you have your projector projecting its picture out of the window and into the darkness beyond, you see just a faint beam of light with no picture. It follows that the light must be intercepted, must be reflecting on something before it can be fully perceived and appreciated. Take a searchlight on a clear and cloudless night; you might see a faint tracery of light, but only when the searchlight impinges on a cloud or upon an aeroplane do you actually see it as it is.

It has long been the dream of Man to have a thing called ‘time travel’. This, obviously, is a fantastic conception while one is in the flesh and upon the Earth, because here in the flesh we are sadly limited, our bodies are most imperfect instruments, and as we are here to learn we have implanted in us much doubt, much indecision, and before we can be convinced we want ‘proof’—the ability to pull a thing to pieces to see how it works and to make sure it does not work again. When we get beyond the Earth and into the astral, or even beyond the astral, time travel is as simple as upon Earth is a visit to a cinema or a theatre.

The Akashic Record, then, is a form of vibration, not necessarily light vibrations because it also embraces sound. It is a form of vibration which upon Earth has no term which can describe it. The nearest one can do is to liken it to a radio wave. We have about us at all times radio waves coming in from all parts of the world; every one of them brings in a different program, different languages, different music, different times. It is possible that waves are coming in from one part of the world which contains a program which, to us, is being broadcast tomorrow! All these waves are coming to us constantly, but we are oblivious to them, and not until we have some mechanical device which we call a radio set can we receive those waves and slow them down so that they become audible and comprehensible to us. Here, with a mechanical or electrical device, we slow down radio frequency waves and convert them to audio frequency waves. In much the same way, if, on Earth, we could slow down the wave of the Akashic Record we should undoubtedly be able to put authentic historical scenes on the television screen, and then the historians would throw a fit when they saw that the history as printed in books is completely, completely wrong!

The Akashic Record is the indestructible vibrations consisting of the sum total of human knowledge which emanates from the world in much the same way as the radio program is broadcast, it goes on and on. Everything that has happened on this Earth still exists in vibration form. When we get out of the body we do not use a special device to understand these waves; we use nothing to slow them down, instead, in getting out of the body, our own ‘wave receptors’ are speeded up so that, with practice, with training, we can receive that which we term the Akashic Record.

Let us get back to this problem of outstripping light. It will be easier if we forget about light for the moment, and deal instead with sound because sound is slower and we do not have to have such vast distances before getting results. Supposing you are standing out in the open and you suddenly hear a very fast moving jet plane. You hear the sound but it is useless to look up to that point from whence the sound appears to be coming because the jet plane is going faster than the sound, and so will be ahead of the sound itself. In World War 2 great rockets were sent from enslaved Europe to cause destruction in England. The rockets crashed down on houses, wrecking them and killing people. The first warning that people had that these rockets were about was the noise of the explosion and the crashing of falling stones, and the screams of the injured. Later, when the dust was subsiding somewhat, came the sound of the rocket arriving! This quite weird experience was caused by the fact that the rocket travelled so very much faster than the sound it made. Hence it was that the rocket did all its destruction before its sound arrived!

One can stand on a hilltop and look at a gun placed perhaps upon another hilltop. One cannot hear the shell from the gun when it is exactly over one, but the sound comes shortly after when the shell is still speeding off into the distance. No person has ever been killed by a shell which he heard, for the shell arrives first and the sound later. That is why it is so amusing when people in wars used to duck at the sound of a shell passing overhead. Actually, if they could hear the sound it meant that the shell had passed by. Sound is slow compared to sight or light. Standing again upon this hilltop we can look at a gun being fired, we can see the flash from the muzzle, and much later—the time depending upon the distance we are from the gun—we hear the sound of the shell passing overhead. You might have watched a man chopping a tree; the man would be some distance away, you would actually see the axe hitting the tree trunk, and then a short time after you would hear the ‘thunk-thunk’ of the sound. This is an experience which most of us have had.

The Akashic Record contains the knowledge of everything that has happened on this world. Worlds elsewhere have their own Akashic Records in much the same way as countries outside our own have their own radio programs. Those who know how can tune into the Akashic Record of any world, not merely of one's own, and one can then see events of history, one can see how the history books have been falsified. But there is more to the Akashic Record than just satisfying idle curiosity—one can look into this Record and see what went wrong with one's own plans. When we die to the Earth we go to another plane of existence where every single one of us has to face up to what we did, or what we did not do; we see the whole of our past life with the speed of thought, we see it through the Akashic Record, see it not just from the time that we were born but from the time that we planned how and where we would be born. Then, having that knowledge, having seen our errors, we plan again and try once more just like a child at school seeing what went wrong with answers to the examination papers, and taking the examination all over again.

Naturally enough, it takes a long long training before one can see the Akashic Record, but with training, with practice and faith it can be done and is indeed being done constantly. Do you think, maybe, we should pause a moment and discuss this thing called ‘faith’?

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Thought Forms

(Extracts from The Rampa Story — 1960)

“The priests of Egypt had a science which had been lost to the present-day world, the science of creating Thought Forms to do tasks which are beyond the skill of the human body. But that science need not have been lost, because anyone with a little practice, with a little perseverance, can make a thought form which will act for good or for bad.

“Who was the poet who wrote: ‘I am the captain of my soul’? That man uttered a great truth, perhaps greater than he knew, for Man is indeed the captain of his soul. Western people have contemplated material things, mechanical things, anything to do with the mundane world. They have tried to explore Space, but they have failed to explore the deepest mystery of all—the sub-consciousness of Man, for Man is nine-tenths sub-conscious, which means that only one-tenth of Man is conscious. Only one-tenth of man's potential is subject to his volitional commands. If a man can be one and one-half tenths conscious, then that man is a genius, but geniuses upon Earth are geniuses in one direction only. Often they are very deficient in other lines.

“The Egyptians in the days of the Pharaohs well knew the power of the sub-conscious. They buried their Pharaohs in deep tombs, and with their arts, with their knowledge of humanity, they made spells. They made Thought Forms which guarded the tombs of the dead Pharaohs and prevented intruders from entering, under penalty of dire disease.

“But you can make Thought Forms which will do good, but make sure they are for good because a Thought Form cannot tell good from evil. It will do either but the evil Thought Form in the end will wreak vengeance on its creator.

“The story of Aladdin is actually the story of a Thought Form which was conjured up. It is based upon one of the old Chinese legends, legends which are literally true.

“Imagination is the greatest force upon Earth. Imagination, unfortunately, is badly named. If one uses the word ‘imagination’ one automatically thinks of a frustrated person given to neurotic tendencies, and yet nothing could be further from the truth. All great artists, all great painters, great writers too, have to have a brilliant, controlled imagination, otherwise they could not visualise the finished thing that they are attempting to create.

“If we in everyday life would harness imagination, then we could achieve what we now regard as miracles. We may, for example, have a loved one who is suffering from some illness, some illness for which as yet medical science has no cure. That person can be cured if one makes a Thought Form which will get in touch with the Overself of the sick person, and help that Overself to materialise to create new parts. Thus, a person who is suffering from a diabetic condition could, with proper help, re-create the damaged parts of the pancreas which caused the disease.

“How can we create a Thought Form? Well, it is easy. We will go into that now. One must first decide what one wants to accomplish, and be sure that it is for good. Then one must call the imagination into play, one must visualise exactly the result which one wants to achieve. Supposing a person is ill with an organ invaded by disease. If we are going to make a Thought Form which will help, we must exactly visualise that person standing before us. We must try to visualise the afflicted organ. Having the afflicted organ pictorially before us, we must visualise it gradually healing, and we must impart a positive affirmation. So, we make this Thought Form by visualising the person, we imagine the Thought Form standing beside the afflicted person and with super-normal powers reaching inside the body of that sick person, and with a healing touch causing the disease to disappear.

“At all times we must speak to the Thought Form which we have created in a firm, positive voice. There must not at any time be any suspicion of negativeness, nor of indecision. We must speak in the simplest possible language and in the most direct manner possible. We must speak to it as we would speak to a very backward child, because this Thought Form has no reason and can accept only a direct command or a simple statement.

“There may be a sore on some organ, and we must say to that Thought Form: ‘You will now heal such-and-such an organ. The tissue is knitting together.’ You would have to repeat that several times daily, and if you visualise your Thought Form actually going to work, then it will indeed go to work. It worked with the Egyptians, and it can work with present-day people.

“There are many authenticated instances of tombs being haunted by a shadowy figure. That is because either the dead persons, or others, have thought so hard that they have actually made a figure of ectoplasm. The Egyptians in the days of the Pharaohs buried the embalmed body of the Pharaoh, but they adopted extreme measures so that their Thought Forms would be vivified even after thousands of years. They slew slaves slowly, painfully, telling the slaves that they would get relief from pain in the after-world if in dying they provided the necessary substance with which to make a substantial Thought Form. Archaeological records have long substantiated hauntings and curses in tombs, and all these things are merely the outcome of absolutely natural, absolutely normal laws.

“Thought Forms can be made by anyone at all with just a little practice, but you must first at all times concentrate upon good in your Thought Forms because if you try to make an evil form, then assuredly that Thought Form will turn upon you and cause you the gravest harm perhaps in the physical, in the mental, or in the astral state.”

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Hypnotism

(Extracts from You—Forever — 1965)

The sub-conscious mind has no power of discrimination, no power of reasoning, no power of logic, so if we can force a suggestion through the screen which normally exists between the conscious and the sub-conscious, we can cause the sub-conscious to behave as we want it to! If we concentrate conscious attention upon a single thought, then we increase the suggestibility. If we put the thought to a person that they will be hypnotised, and they believe that they will be hypnotised then they will be, because that screen is then lowered. Many people boast that they cannot be hypnotised, but they boast about it rather too volubly. In denying their susceptibility to hypnosis they are merely intensifying their susceptibility, because, again, in any battle between the imagination and the will, the imagination always wins. People may will themselves not to be hypnotised. It is then as though the imagination rises up in wrath and says, “You jolly well WILL be hypnotised!” And the subject ‘goes under’ almost before he knows that anything has happened.

Of course you know how one becomes hypnotised. It will not harm us, though, to go into it again. The first thing to do is to have some method of attracting a person's attention so that the conscious mind, which can hold one thought only at a time, is held captive and then suggestions can creep into the sub-conscious.

Usually the hypnotist has a bright button or a piece of glass, or some other gimmick, and he asks his subjects to consciously focus the attention upon that glittering object, and to focus the attention unwaveringly upon that object. The whole purpose of this, we repeat, is to so engage the conscious mind that it cannot perceive that certain workings are taking place behind its back!

The hypnotist will hold an object just above eye-level because in looking up to that level a person's eyes are put in an unnatural position of strain. It strains the muscles of the eyes and the eyelids as well, and the eyelid muscles are quite definitely the weakest muscles in the human body, and tire more quickly than does any other muscle.

A few seconds, and the eyes tire, they begin to water. It is a simple matter then for the hypnotist to state that the eyes are tired and that the person wants to sleep. Of course he wants to close his eyes because the hypnotist has just thoroughly tired those muscles! Deadly monotony in repeating that the eyes are tired bores the subject, and knocks down the guard—the awareness—of the subject. Frankly he is thoroughly bored with the whole affair, and feels that he would gladly sleep to have something different to do!

When this has been done a few times the suggestibility of the subject has been increased, that is, he is forming the habit of becoming hypnotically influenced. So, when a person—the hypnotist—says that the subject's eyes are becoming tired, the subject accepts that without the slightest hesitation because previous experiences have proved that the eyes did become tired under those conditions. Thus, the subject places more and more faith in the statements of the hypnotist.

The sub-conscious mind is quite uncritical, it is not able to discriminate, so if the conscious mind can accept the proposition that eyes become tired when the hypnotist says so, then the sub-conscious will also agree that there shall be no pain when the hypnotist says so. In that case, a hypnotist who knows his job, can see that a woman has completely painless childbirth, or can see a patient has a dental extraction without any pain or any discomfort even. It is a simple matter indeed, and it needs merely slight practice.

The whole thing is, then, that a person who is going to be hypnotised has accepted the statements of the hypnotist. In other words, the subject was told that his eyes were becoming tired. His own experience proved to him that his eyes were becoming tired. He was told by the hypnotist that he would feel much ease if he closed his eyes, and when he did close his eyes he did feel ease.

A hypnotist always has to make sure that his statements are thoroughly believed by the person being hypnotised. It is useless to tell a person that he is standing up when obviously he is lying down. Most hypnotists only tell the subject of a certain thing after the thing has been proved. For instance:—

The hypnotist may tell the subject to stretch out his arm at full length. He will repeat it in a monotonous voice for some time, and then when he sees that the subject's arm is becoming tired he will say, “Your arm is becoming tired, your arm is feeling heavy, your arm is becoming tired.” The subject can readily agree to that remark because it is self-evident that he is becoming tired, but in the light trance state he is not in a position to say to the hypnotist, “Well, you idiot! Of course it is tired as I am keeping it out like this!” Instead he just believes that the hypnotist has some certain power, some certain ability which can make him do whatever is ordered.

In the future it will be that doctors and surgeons will resort more and more to hypnotic methods, because there is no after-effect with hypnotism, nothing painful, nothing at all disturbing. Hypnotism is natural and almost every person is susceptible to hypnotic commands. The more a person asserts that he or she cannot be hypnotised, the more easy it is to hypnotise that person.

We are not concerned with hypnotising other people, however, because unless in highly trained hands that can be a highly dangerous and evil thing. We are concerned in helping you to hypnotise yourself, because if you hypnotise yourself you can get away from bad habits, you can cure yourself of weaknesses, you can raise your temperature in cold weather, and do a lot of useful things like that.

We are not going to teach you how to hypnotise others because we consider it to be dangerous unless one has years of experience. There are certain factors about hypnotism which we are going to mention, though, and in the next Lesson we will deal with self or auto-hypnotism.

It is said in the West that no person can be hypnotised instantly. That is incorrect. Any person can be hypnotised instantly by one who has been trained in certain Eastern methods. Fortunately few Westerners have been so trained.

It is also stated that no person can be hypnotised and compelled to do a thing in opposition to their own moral code. Here again, this is false, it is absolutely false.

One could not go up to a righteous, good living man, hypnotise him, and say “Now you go out and rob a bank!” The subject would not do it, he would just wake up instead. But a skilful hypnotist can so phrase his commands and his words that the hypnotised subject believes that he is taking part in a play or in a game.

It is possible, for instance, for a hypnotist to do very wrong things to another person. All he has to do is, by suitably chosen words and suggestions, to persuade the subject that he or she is with perhaps a loved one, a trusted one, or again, is playing. We do not propose to deal any more with this particular aspect of it because hypnotism is truly a shockingly dangerous thing in unscrupulous hands, and in untrained hands. We suggest that you have nothing whatever to do with hypnotism unless it be treatment under the care of a reputable, highly experienced, highly trained medical practitioner.

In dealing with auto or self hypnotism, if you follow our instructions you cannot harm yourself and you cannot harm anyone else. On the contrary, you can do a lot of good for yourself and perhaps for other people too.

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Psychometry

(Extracts from You—Forever — 1965)

Psychometry can be termed ‘seeing through the fingers’. Everyone has had some form of this experience, for instance, take a heap of coins and get some other person to hold just one of the coins for a few minutes. Then if that coin is put back with the others you will be able to pick the coin because it will be warmer than the rest. This, of course, is just an elementary little thing which has no place off the stage.

By psychometry we mean the ability to pick up an article and to know its origin, what has happened to it, who has had it and the person's state of mind. You can often get a sort of psychometry when you feel that an article has been in happy surroundings or in unpleasant surroundings.

You can practice psychometry by enlisting the aid of a sympathetic friend. This is how you should set about it.

Assuming that your friend is sympathetic to you and wants to see you progress, we suggest that you get him to wash his hands and then pick up a stone or pebble. That also should be washed with soap and water and well rinsed. Then your friend should carefully dry his hands and the stone, and then, holding the stone in his left hand, he should think strongly for about a minute, he should think of one thing—it can be of the colour black, or white, or good temper, or bad temper—it does not matter what he thinks as long as he thinks strongly of one subject for about a minute. Having done that, he should wrap the stone in a clean handkerchief or a paper handkerchief, and hand it to you. You should not unwrap it then but wait until you are alone in your ‘contemplation room’. We are going to digress again!

We said ‘with the left hand’ and let us first explain the reason. Under esoteric lore the right hand is supposed to be the practical hand, the hand devoted to the things of the world. The left hand is the spiritual hand, that which is devoted to metaphysical things. Provided that you are normally right handed, then you will get greater results by using your left ‘esoteric’ hand for psychometry. If you are one of those who are left handed, then you will use your right hand in the metaphysical sense. It is to be observed that you can often get results with the left hand when you cannot with the right hand.

When you are in your room of contemplation, you will need to wash your hands very carefully, and then rinse them before drying them because if you do not do that you will have other impressions on your hands, and you want one impression only for this experiment. Lie down, make yourself comfortable, and in this case it doesn't matter how much or how little light there is, you can have every light on or you can be in complete darkness. Then unwrap the stone or whatever it was, and pick it up with your left hand, see that it rolls into the centre of your left palm. Do not think about it, do not bother about it, just try to let your mind go blank, think about nothing. You will next experience a very slight tingling in the left hand, and then you will get an impression, probably what your friend was trying to put over to you. You might also pick up the impression that he really thinks you are engaging upon a crackpot stunt! If you practice this you will find that provided you are tranquil you can pick up most interesting impressions. When your friend is tired of assisting you do it on your own, go out somewhere, get hold of a pebble which has not been touched by man so far as you know. This is easy if you are by a seashore, or you can dig up a stone from the earth. By practicing you will have truly remarkable results, you can, for example, pick up a pebble and know about the time when it was part of a mountain, how it was swept down by a river and out into the sea. The information that one can pick up by psychometry is truly amazing, but again, it needs a lot of practice, and you must keep your mind tranquil.

It is possible to pick up a letter which is still in an envelope and to be aware of the general trend of the contents. It is also possible to pick up a letter written in a foreign language, and by running the finger tips of the left hand lightly over the surface you will pick up the meaning of the letter even though you do not understand the individual words. This is quite infallible with practice, but never do it just to prove that you can do such a thing for the benefit of other people.

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Telepathy

(Extracts from You—Forever — 1965)

When we are tranquil we can pick up all sorts of impressions. They are merely the radio waves of other people coming in and being absorbed by our own receptive brain. You will agree that most people have ‘hunches’. Most people at some time or other have had a most strange impression that something was going to happen, or that they should take some specific course of action. People who know no better call it ‘a hunch’. Actually it is merely unconscious, or sub-conscious, telepathy, that is, the person with the ‘hunch’ was picking up a telepathic message sent out consciously or unconsciously by another person.

Intuition is the same type of thing; it is stated—correctly—that women possess more intuition than men. Women could be greater telepaths than the average man if women would not talk so much! The female brain is stated to be smaller than that of the male, but of course that does not matter in the slightest. A lot of rubbish has been written about the size of brains affecting the size of intelligence. On the same basis, we suppose, an elephant should be a genius compared to human standards! The female brain can ‘resonate’ in harmony with incoming messages, and, again in radio terms, the female brain is a radio set which can be tuned in to a station more easily than can the male brain. It is a matter of simplicity if you prefer that explanation. Do you remember the old old radio set that your father or your grandfather had? There were knobs and dials all over the place, and it was almost a feat of engineering to tune-in the local station. One had to turn up filament controls to make sure that the tubes were at the right voltage. One had to tune-in with a pair of slow motion knobs, often one had to move coils as well, and then there was the volume control. Your grandfather will tell you all about the first radios. Now—well, now one gets hold of a pocket radio, switches it on, moves a knob perhaps with one finger, and there is the program maybe from half way across the world. The female brain is like that, it is easier to tune than is the male brain.

We would also remind you of identical twins. It is an established fact that identical twins are nearly always in contact with each other, no matter how far they may be apart physically. You can have one twin in North America and another twin in South America, and you will get reports of happenings occurring to the pair of them simultaneously, you will get reports that each knows what the other is doing. That is because these two came from a single cell, came from a single egg, and so their brains are like a pair of carefully matched radio receivers or transmitters. They are ‘in tune’ without any effort at all on the part of the owners.

Now you will want to know how you can do telepathy, for you can do it with practice and with faith, but no matter how much practice, no matter how much faith, you will not do it unless you have our old friend inner composure. The best way to practice is:—

Tell yourself for a day or two that on such-and-such a day at such-and-such a time you are going to make your brain receptive so that you can pick up, first general impressions, and then definite telepathic messages. Keep repeating to yourself, keep affirming to yourself, that you are going to succeed in this.

On the pre-determined day, preferably in the evening, retire to a private room. Make sure that the lights are low, and that the temperature is just comfortable for you. Then recline in the position which you have found to be the most comfortable. Have in your hand a photograph of the person to whom you are most attached. Any light should be behind you so that it shines on or illuminates the photograph. Breathe deeply for a few minutes, and then clear your mind of all extraneous thoughts, think of the person whose photograph is in your hands, look at the photograph, visualise the person standing in front of you. What would this person say to you? What would you reply? Frame your thoughts. You can, if you like, say “Speak to me—Speak to me.” Then wait for a reply. If you are composed, if you have faith, you will get some stirring inside your brain. First you will be inclined to put it down to imagination, but it is not imagination but reality. If you dismiss it as idle imagination you will dismiss telepathy.

The easiest way of acquiring telepathic ability is to work with a person whom you know very well, and with whom you are on the most intimate terms of friendship. Both of you should discuss what you are going to do, you should both agree that on such-and-such a date at such-and-such a time you will get in touch with each other telepathically. Both of you should retire to rooms, it does not matter how far apart, it can even be a continent apart, for distance is no object. But you must make sure that you make allowance for any difference in time, for example—Buenos Aires may be two hours ahead of New York in time. You have to allow for that otherwise your experiment will fail. You also have to agree who is going to transmit and who is going to receive. You can do it easily if you synchronise your watches, and go by Greenwich mean time which will obviate any possibility of confusion. One can obtain Greenwich mean time almost anywhere, and if you decide to transmit first, and then after ten minutes, neither more nor less, but a definite fixed interval of time, your friend will transmit back. The first two or three times you will not necessarily succeed, but practice makes perfect. Remember that a baby cannot walk at the first attempt, the baby had to practice and fall down and crawl. You will not succeed necessarily at the first attempt at telepathy, but again practice makes perfect.

When you can send a telepathic message to a friend, or receive one, then you are well on the way to getting the thoughts of others, but you can only get their thoughts provided that you have no evil intent toward them. We are going to make one of our famous digressions here!

You can never, never, never use telepathy or clairvoyance or psychometry to do harm to another person, nor can any other person do harm to you by these means. It has often been stated that if an evil person were telepathic or clairvoyant they would be able to blackmail people who had made some slight mistake, but that emphatically is not the case, it is impossible. You cannot have light and darkness at the same time in the same place, and you cannot use telepathy for evil, that is an absolutely inexorable law of metaphysics. So—do not be alarmed, people do not read your thoughts to do you harm. No doubt many would like to, but they cannot do so. We mention that because of the fear that so many people have that a person by telepathy can know all the most secret fears and phobias. It is true that the purest minded people could pick up your thoughts, could see from your aura what your weak points were, but the pure person would not for one moment contemplate doing such a thing, and the impure person permanently lacks the ability.

We suggest that you practice telepathy with a friend, or if you cannot get a friend to co-operate, relax as we have said and let thoughts come in to you. You will find first that your head is a buzz of conflicting thoughts, it is similar to when you go into a crowd of people. There is a babble of conversation, just a horrible noise, everyone seems to be talking at the same time at the top of their voices. But if you try you can single out one voice. You can do that also in telepathy. Practice, you must practice and have faith, and then, provided you keep calm about it all and have no intention of hurting any other person, you will be able to do telepathy.

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Clairvoyance

(Extracts from You—Forever — 1965)

If you want to see clairvoyantly you will need a crystal or something which shines. If you have a diamond ring with one stone that is as good as a crystal, and certainly it is less tiring to hold! Here again you will have to recline comfortably, and you will have to make sure that the lighting is of a very low order indeed. Let us assume, though, that you have invested in a crystal—

You are resting completely at ease in your room in the evening. Your curtains or blinds have been drawn to cut out any direct rays of light. The room is so dark that you can hardly see the outline of the crystal. It is so dark that you certainly cannot see any pinpoints of light in the crystal. Instead the whole thing is hazy, almost ‘not there’, you know that you are holding it, you know that you can see ‘something’. Keep looking into the crystal without trying to see anything, look into the crystal as if you were looking in the far far distance. This crystal will be just a few inches from you, but instead you have to look miles. Then you will see the crystal gradually begin to cloud, you will see white clouds form, and the crystal, instead of being apparently of clear glass, will appear to be full of milk. Now is the critical time, do not jerk, do not let yourself become alarmed, as so many people do, because the next stage—

The whiteness rolls away like curtains being drawn away to disclose a stage. Your crystal has gone—vanished—and you see instead the world. You are gazing down as a God on Olympus might look upon the world, you see perhaps the clouds with a continent beneath, you have a sensation of falling, you might even involuntarily jerk forward a little. Try to control this because if you do jerk you will ‘lose the picture’ and have to start all over again some other night. But supposing you did not jerk, then you will have the impression that you are speeding down and the world is getting larger and larger, you will find continents sweep beneath you, and then you will come to a halt at some particular spot. You might see a historical scene, you might even appear to land in the middle of a war and find a tank charging at you. There is nothing to be alarmed at in this because the tank cannot hurt you, it will go right through you and you will not know a thing about it. You may find that you are seeing apparently through the eyes of some other person, you cannot see the person's face but you can see all that he or she would see. Again, do not be alarmed, do not allow yourself to jerk, you will see quite clearly, quite plainly, and although you do not actually hear a sound you will know everything that is being said. So it is that we see in clairvoyance. It is a very easy thing provided—again—that you have faith.

Some people do not actually see a picture, some people get all the impressions without actually SEEING. This often happens to a person who is engaged in business. We can have a very clairvoyant person indeed, but if that person be engaged in business or commerce, then often there is a sceptical attitude which makes it difficult to actually see the picture, the person sub-consciously thinks that such a thing cannot be, and as clairvoyance will not be completely denied the person gets impressions ‘somewhere in the head’ which are, nevertheless, as real as are the pictures.

With practice you can see clairvoyantly. With practice you can visit any period of the world's history and see what that history really was. You will be amused and amazed when you find most frequently that history was not as written in the history books, for history as written reflects the politics of the time. We can see how that happens in the case of Hitler Germany and Soviet Russia!

*          *          *

‘Seers’

(Extracts from You—Forever — 1965)

Many people think that ‘seers’ are always looking at one's aura, always reading one's thoughts. How wrong they are! A person with telepathic ability, or the power of clairvoyance, is not always reading thoughts or examining the aura of friends or enemies. Some of the things we should see would be far too unpleasant, far too unflattering. Some of them would indeed burst the balloon of our own imagined importance! There is too much else to do. We have in mind a certain person who sometimes visits us; she will start a sentence and utter three or four words, and then trail off with “but I don't have to tell you anything, do I? You know everything by just looking at me, don't you?” That is not so! We could ‘know everything’, but it would be morally wrong to do so. Have no fear about seers, occultists, clairvoyants, and others, for if they are of good morals they will not be peering at your private affairs even with your invitation. If they are not of good morals they cannot do it anyway! We want to tell you here that the back street ‘seer’ who tells your fortune for a trifle has no real ‘seeing’ ability. She is usually a poor old woman who cannot make money in any other way. Probably at some time she had clairvoyant abilities, but you cannot do such things on a commercial basis, you cannot tell a person clairvoyantly things about themselves for money because the mere fact of the passing of money causes the telepathic ability to wane. And the back street seer cannot always ‘see’, yet, if she has taken money, then she must put on some sort of a show. Being quite a good untrained psychologist she will let you do the talking, and will then tell you the things that you told her, and you, being deluded by the term ‘seer’, will exclaim with wonder at how accurately she has told you what you want to know!

Have no fear that clairvoyants are looking at your affairs; would you be happy if you thought that you were busy in your own home, writing a letter maybe, and someone came into your room, peered over your shoulder and read what you were writing? Would you like that person to go through your possessions picking up this and reading that, and getting to know all about you, getting to know all that you had, all that you thought about? Would you like to think that a person was tuning-in all the time to any telephone conversation that you had? Of course you would not! Let us say once again that a person of good character does not read your thoughts all the time, and a person of bad character quite definitely has not the ability! That is a law of the occult; a person of bad character is not clairvoyant. You might hear a lot of tales about a person who sees this and that and something else. Discount nine hundred and ninety nine percent of it!

A clairvoyant will always wait for you to tell him or her what you want to discuss. The clairvoyant will not intrude into the privacy of your thoughts or of your aura, not even if you invite that clairvoyant to do so. There are certain laws of occultism which must be adhered to most rigidly, for if one breaks those laws one can be punished in much the same way as one can be punished if one breaks a man-made law on Earth. Tell the clairvoyant what you want to tell—he or she will know if you are telling the truth. We will go so far as to admit that! Tell the clairvoyant whatever you want to, but make sure that if you do you tell the truth, otherwise you are deluding yourself only and not in any way deluding the clairvoyant!

So—remember once again, a good ‘seer’ will not ‘read your thoughts’ and a bad one CANNOT!

*          *          *

The Middle Way and its laws

(Extracts from You—Forever — 1965

& The Third Eye — 1956)

The Middle Way is an Eastern Way of Life. It means that you do not have to be too bad, but on the other hand you do not have to be too good, you have to be something in between. If you are too bad the police will get you, if you are too good, then you will be a stuffed prig or you will be unable to stay upon this Earth, because it is a fact that even Great Entities who come to this sad world of ours have to take some form of disability, some quirk of character, so that while upon Earth they are not perfect, for nothing perfect can exist upon this imperfect world.

Once again, do not try too hard, try to do a thing naturally, within reason, within your capacity. You do not have to go round offering slavish adherence to anything said by others. Use your common sense, adapt a thing or a statement to suit yourself. We might say “This is a red cloth,” but you might see it differently, to you it might be pink or orange or even a light purple, it depends upon the conditions under which you saw that cloth; your lighting may be different from our lighting, your sight may be different from ours. So do not try too hard, nor adhere too slavishly to anything. Use common sense, use the middle way, the middle way is a very very useful thing!

Try this middle way, it is the way of tolerance, the way of respecting the rights of others and of getting your own rights respected. In the East priests and others study judo and other forms of wrestling, not because the said priests are belligerent, but because in learning judo and similar forms of fighting one learns to control oneself, one learns self restraint, and above all one learns to give way in order that one may win. Take judo; in this one does not use one's own strength in order to win a battle, one uses the opponent's strength in order that he may be defeated. Even a very small woman knowing judo can defeat a hulking great brute of a man who does not. The stronger the man, the more fiercely he attacks, the easier it is to defeat him because his own strength causes him to fall more heavily.

Let us use judo or the strength of the opposition in order to overcome our problems. Do not tire yourself or wear yourself out, think out a problem that is bothering you, do not evade the issue as do so many people. Many people are afraid to look at a problem, they skirt around the edges of the problem probing tentatively but never getting anywhere. No matter how unpleasant a subject is, no matter how guilty you may feel about a thing, get right down to the root of your problem, find out what it is that troubles you, that frightens you. Then when you have discussed with yourself every aspect of the problem SLEEP ON IT! If you ‘sleep on a thing’ it will be passed to your Overself who has much greater understanding than you have, for the Overself is a great entity indeed compared to the human body. When your Overself, or even your sub-conscious, can examine the problem and come up with a solution they will often pass the solution into your consciousness, into your memory so that when you awaken you may exclaim with delighted amazement that now you have the answer to that which was troubling you and which, from thence on will trouble you no more.

Do you like our attic? Let us move on to another little ‘treasure’ which is lying about collecting a bit of dust. It is time that we looked into it, gave it an airing and let it see the light of day once again. What is in this package? Let us open it and see!

Too many people nowadays think that to be truly good is to be truly miserable. They think most mistakenly that one has to go about with a grim, sad face if one is ‘religious’. Such people may be afraid to smile, not necessarily because it might crack their face, but it might—which is much worse!—crack the façade of their thin veneer of religious belief! We all know of the grim old man who is nearly afraid to smile or is afraid to take the slightest pleasure from life in case he has a miserable time roasting in hell for a moment's lapse from grace!

(The Third Eye)

Our religious instruction was quite intensive; every morning we had to recite the Laws and Steps of the Middle Way. These Laws were:

(The Laws and Steps of the Middle Way)

1. Have faith in the leaders of the lamasery and country.

2. Perform religious observances, and study hard.

3. Pay honour to the parents.

4. Respect the virtuous.

5. Honour elders and those of high birth.

6. Help one's country.

7. Be honest and truthful in all things.

8. Pay heed to friends and relatives.

9. Make the best use of food and wealth.

10. Follow the example of those who are good.

11. Show gratitude and return kindness.

12. Give fair measure in all things.

13. Be free from jealousy and envy.

14. Refrain from scandal.

15. Be gentle in speech and in action and harm none.

16. Bear suffering and distress with patience and meekness.

We were constantly told that if everyone obeyed those Laws, there would be no strife or disharmony.

*          *          *

Death

(Extracts from The Third Eye — 1956

& You—Forever — 1965)

Death is Birth. Dying is merely the act of being born in another plane of existence. Man, or the spirit of Man, is eternal. The body is but the temporary garment that clothes the spirit, to be chosen according to the task in hand upon earth. Outward appearance does not matter. The soul within does. A great prophet may come in the guise of a pauper—how better can one judge of Man's charity to Man!—while one who has sinned in a past life when there is not poverty to drive him on.

Om! ma-ni pad-me Hum!

‘The Wheel of Life’ is what we call the act of being born, living on some world, dying, going back to the spirit state, and in time being reborn in different circumstances and conditions. A man may suffer much in a life, it does not necessarily mean that he was evil in a past life; it may be the best and quickest way of learning certain things. Practical experience is a better teacher than hearsay! One who commits suicide may be reborn to live out the years cut short in the past life, but it does not follow that all who die young, or as babies, were suicides. The Wheel of Life applies to all, beggars and kings, men, and women, coloured people and white. The Wheel is but a symbol of course, but one which makes matters clear to those who have no time to make a long study of the subject. One cannot explain Tibetan belief in a paragraph or two: the Kangyur, or Tibetan Scriptures, consist of over a hundred books on the subject, and even then it is not fully dealt with. There are many books hidden within remote lamaseries which are seen by Initiates alone.

(You—Forever)

Let us have a look first at what happens when we are aware that a loved one has passed on to that stage which people of Earth call ‘death’. We are going along in our normal way, possibly untroubled by any care or by any vexation. Then, suddenly, like a bolt from the blue, we are informed that this dearly beloved person is no longer with us. Immediately we feel our pulse race, we feel that the lachrymal ducts of our eyes get ready to shed moisture to relieve the tension within. We find that no longer do we see bright rosy cheerful colours, instead everything looks gloomy, everything looks sad as though suddenly a bright summer's day had been replaced by one of complete midwinter with leaden overcast skies.

Once again we come to our old friends the electrons, for when we are suddenly afflicted with sadness, with grief, the voltage generated in our brains alters, it may even change its direction of flow so that if we were seeing the world ‘through rose coloured spectacles’ before, then after the receipt of the sad news we see the world through spectacles which make everything gloomy, everything depressing. That is just a natural physiological function in the mundane plane, but in the astral plane we are depressed also because of the horrible drag which our physical vehicle gives us when we try to go to greet the one who is newly arisen into what is, after all, the Greater Life, the happier life.

It is sad indeed to have a loved friend go off to a far distant country, but upon Earth we console ourselves with the thought that we can always write a letter, send a cable, or even use a telephone. So-called ‘death’ on the other hand does not appear to leave any room for communication. Do YOU think that the ‘dead’ are beyond reach? You could be greatly and joyously mistaken! We say to you that there are various scientists in reputable scientific centres of the world who are actually working on an instrument which will be capable of communicating with those to whom we must refer as ‘disembodied spirits’. This is not a pipe dream, it is not a fantastic thought, it is an item of news which has been bruited about for quite a number of years, and according to the latest scientific reports there is at last some hope that such developments may soon become public knowledge, public property. But before we can get in touch with those who have passed beyond our immediate reach we can do much to help them.

When a person dies the physiological functions, that is, the actual working of the physical body, slows down and eventually stops. We have seen in the preliminary stages of this Course that a human brain can live for minutes only when deprived of oxygen. The human brain, then, is one of the first portions of the body to ‘die’. Obviously when the brain is dead, death is utterly inevitable. We have a special reason for making this what appears to be a long drawn out affair.

After the death of the brain, other organs deprived of the commands and the guidance of the brain subside into quiescence, that is, they become like a motor car which has been deserted by the driver. The driver has switched off the ignition and left the vehicle. The engine may give a few kicks over by its own momentum, and then gradually the car will cool. As it cools one will get little clicks and grunts and squeaks from contracting metal. The same with the human body—as one organ follows another into that stage which we call dissolution there are various creaks and grunts and twitches of muscles. Over a period of some three days the astral body completely and permanently disengages its hold of the physical body. The Silver Cord which we may say roots the astral body to the physical, gradually withers in much the same way as the umbilical cord of a baby withers when cut, when the baby is separated from the mother. For three days the astral body is kept in more or less close contact with the decaying physical.

A person who has died has an experience something like this; the person is in bed, possibly surrounded by sorrowing relatives or friends. There comes a shuddering gasp in the throat, and the final rattle of death, and then the last harsh breath is exhaled through the teeth. The heart races for a moment, slows, flutters, and stops—permanently.

There are various tremors of the body, gradually the body becomes colder, but at the instant of death itself a clairvoyant can see a shadowy form emerge from the physical vehicle and float upwards like a silvery mist, float up to lie directly above the dead body. Over a period of the three days the silver cord connecting the two darkens, eventually it turns black where it enters the body. Then one gets an impression of black dust flying off that part of the cord which is still connected to the body. At last the cord drops loose and the astral form is free to rise properly and to get its introduction to the life above the astral. First, though, it has to look down and see this dead body which it used to inhabit. Often the astral form will accompany a hearse to the cemetery and will actually witness the funeral proceedings. There is no pain, no distress, no upset caused by this because the astral, in the case of a person unprepared by knowledge such as that contained within this Course, is in a state of semi-shock. It follows the body in the coffin in much the same way as a kite will follow a small boy at the other end of a string, or in much the same way as a balloon follows the trailer car which holds it from escaping. Soon, though, this silver cord—silver no longer—parts, and then the astral body is free to go up and up, and to prepare for its second death. This second death is completely and absolutely painless.

Before the second death a person has to go to the Hall of Memories and see all that happened in his life. You are not judged by anyone except yourself, and there is no greater judge, no sterner judge than yourself. When you see yourself stripped of all the petty conceits, all the false values that were dear to you upon the Earth you may find that in spite of all the money you have left behind, in spite of all the positions you have held, all the appointments, you are not so great after all. Very, very frequently the most humble, the most lowly and the poorest in money, get the most satisfactory and highest judgement.

After having seen yourself in the Hall of Memories, then you go on to that portion of the ‘Other World’ which you think is most suitable for you. You do not go to Hell, believe us when we say that Hell is upon Earth—our training school!

You will probably know that people in the East, great mystics, great teachers, never let their true name be known because there is much power in names, and if all and sundry can call upon one in the correct vibration of one's name, then one is pulled irresistibly back to gaze upon the Earth. In some parts of the East, and in some parts of the West, too, God is known as ‘He whose name may not be spoken’. That is because if everyone kept calling on God, then the leader of this world would have a most harrowing time.

Many teachers adopt a name which is not their own, a name which differs markedly from the pronunciation of their true name, for names, remember, consist of vibrations, of cords and harmonics, and if one is called by what is one's own harmonic combination of vibrations, then one is greatly distracted from any work which one may be doing at the time.

Sorrowing unduly for those who have ‘passed over’ causes them pain, causes them to feel dragged down to the Earth. They are much the same as a man who has been cast into the water and feels himself dragged down by soggy clothes and heavy boots.

Let us consider again this matter of vibrations, for vibration is the essence of life upon this Earth, and in fact upon any and all worlds. We all know a very simple illustration of the power of vibration; soldiers who are marching along keeping step will break back that step and walk across a big bridge in any disordered array of paces. The bridge may be capable of withstanding the heaviest mechanised traffic, it may be capable of bearing a whole succession of armoured tanks rattling across, or it may bear a whole load of railway locomotives, and it will not deviate more than its designated amount through that load. Yet let a column of men march in step across that bridge, and it will set up momentum which causes the bridge to sway and bounce, and eventually to collapse.

Another illustration we might give in the matter of vibration is that of the violinist; if he takes his violin he can, by playing a single note for some seconds, cause vibrations to build up in a wine glass with the result that the glass will shatter with a surprisingly loud explosion.

The soldiers is one end of our illustration on vibration, and the other end? Let us consider Om. If one can say the words ‘Om Mani Padme Um’ in a certain way and keep on saying that for a few minutes, one can build up a vibration of quite fantastic strength. So—remember that names are powerful things, and those who have passed over should not be called unduly, nor should they be called in sorrow or grief, for why should our sorrow be allowed to penalise them and make them suffer? Have they not suffered enough already?

We may wonder why we come to this Earth and suffer death, but the answer is that dying refines one, suffering refines one provided that it be not too much suffering, and again we must remind you that in nearly every case (there are certain special exceptions!) no man or woman is ever called upon to bear greater suffering or sorrow than meets his or her particular need of refining at that moment. You will appreciate this when you think of a woman who can swoon with sorrow. The swoon is merely a safety valve so that she is not overburdened with sorrow, so that nothing happens to injure her.

Often a person who has suffered a great sorrow will be numb with grief. Here again, the numbness is a mercy to the one who is left and to the one who has gone on. Numbness can cause the bereaved to be aware of the loss and so to undergo the refining process, but in being aware of the loss he or she is not unbearably tormented.

The person who has passed over is protected by the numbness of the bereaved, because if the numbness were not present perhaps the bereaved, with wailing and lamentations in full possession of his or her faculties, would cause great stress, great drags on the person who had newly passed over.

In the fullness of time it may be that all of us will be able to communicate with those who have passed over in much the same way as we can now use a telephone to get in touch with those who are in some distant city of the world.

By studying this Course conscientiously, by having faith in yourself and in the Greater Powers of this life and of the next life, you too should be able to get in touch with those who have passed over. It is possible to do so by telepathy, it is possible to do so by clairvoyance and by so-called ‘automatic writing’. In this latter, however, one must keep clear of one's own distorted imagination, one must control one's imagination so that the message which is written out, apparently sub-consciously, does not emanate from our consciousness nor from our sub-conscious, but comes instead directly from one who has passed over and who can see us although most of us cannot, for the moment, see them.

Be of good cheer, be of good faith, for believing you can accomplish miracles. Is it not written that faith can move mountains? It certainly can!

*          *          *

The different levels of the astral

(Extracts from Three Lives — 1977)

“If a person has only lived a very few lives on the Earth plane—the three dimensional plane—then when they leave the Earth, or ‘die’ as it is miscalled, the astral body or soul or whatever you like to call it is received into a low-grade astral world suitable for the knowledge of the person who has just arrived. You can say a human boy or man doesn't know much so he had to go to night classes, he can't climb up in society until he has learned enough to take his place in a higher society. It is quite the same in the astral worlds; there are many, many astral worlds, each one suitable for a particular type of person. Here in this world which is in the low-astral of a fourth dimension you will have to learn about metaphysics, you will have to learn how to think so that you may get clothing, food, and anything else you need. You need yet to go to the Hall of Memories where you will see all that you have done in your past life, and you will judge yourself. And I may say that no one judges one more harshly than one's Overself. The Overself can be likened to the soul. Briefly, there are about nine ‘dimensions’ available in this particular sphere of activity. When one has finally reached embodiment in the ninth body or Overself then one is prepared to go up to higher realms and learn higher things. People, entities, are always striving to climb upwards like plants striving to reach toward the light.

“This is a low-astral world where you will have many lessons to learn. You will have to go to school and learn many facts of life on Earth, many facts of life in the astral. Then later you will decide what type of lessons you have to learn. When all that has been decided upon you will be able to return to the Earth to suitable parents and it is hoped that this time you will have more opportunities to climb upwards and to get a better status on the Earth, a better soul status, that is, not just one's class on the Earth. It is hoped that in the next life you will learn a lot so that when you leave the Earth body again you will not come to this low stage but you will move upwards perhaps two, perhaps three ‘planes’ above this one.

“The higher you climb in the astral planes the more interesting your experiences and the less suffering you can endure, but you have to approach things like that carefully, gently, and slowly. For example, if you were suddenly put upon an astral world two or three stages above this you would be blinded by the intensity of the emanations from the Guardians of that world, so the sooner you learn that which you have to learn the sooner you can go back to Earth and prepare for a higher stage.

“Let us say that a very, very good man indeed leaves the Earth, the three dimensional Earth from which you have so recently arrived. If the man is truly spiritual he could go up two or three stages, and then he would not find harsh treatment such as that which you get on this plane, he would not find that he had to imagine food to eat. His body essence would absorb all the energy it needed from the surroundings. You could do that as well but you are uneducated in such things, you cannot understand much about spirituality as witness the admitted fact that until now you have not believed in life after death. Upon this plane, this plane where you now reside, there are many, many people who did not believe there is life after death: they are here to learn that there is!

“In later incarnations you will strive up and up so that each time you die to the Earth world and are reborn to an astral world, you will climb to a higher plane and will have greater and greater time between incarnations. For instance, in your own case; suppose you were discharged from your employment on Earth. Well, in your particular job there are usually plenty of vacancies, you could get a similar job the next day, but if you were a professor or something, to give you an illustration, you would have to try harder and wait longer to get suitable employment. Similarly, on this plane on which you are now lodged you could be sent back to the Earth world in a month or two, but when one gets to higher planes one has to wait longer in order to recover from the psychic shocks endured on the Earth.”

*          *          *

Reincarnation

(Extracts from The Cave of the Ancients — 1963)

“Seng was an old mandarin,” said my Guide. “His life had been a fortunate one and now, in the evening of that life he felt a great contentment. His family was large, his concubines and slaves many. Even the Emperor of China himself had shown him favours. As his aged eyes peered short-sightedly through the window of his room he could dimly discern the beautiful gardens with the strutting peacocks. Softly to his failing ears came the song of birds returning to the trees as the day grew old. Seng lay back, relaxed upon his cushions. Within himself he could feel the rustling fingers of Death loosing his bonds with life. Slowly the blood red sun sank behind the ancient pagoda. Slowly Old Seng sank back upon his cushions, a harsh rattling breath hissing through his teeth. The sunlight faded, and the little lamps in the room were lighted, but Old Seng had gone, gone with the last dying rays of the sun.” My Guide looked at me in order to be sure that I was following him, then continued.

“Old Seng lay slumped upon his cushions, with his body sounds creaking and wheezing into silence. No longer did blood rush through arteries and veins, no longer did body fluids gurgle within. The body of Old Seng was dead, finished with, of no more use. But a clairvoyant, if one had been present, would have seen a light blue haze form around the body of Old Seng. Form, then lift over the body, floating horizontally above, attached by the thinning Silver Cord. Gradually the Silver Cord thinned, and parted. The Soul which had been Old Seng floated off, drifted like a cloud of incense smoke, vanished effortlessly through the walls.” The Lama refilled his cup, saw that I also had tea, then continued.

“The Soul drifted on through realms, through dimensions which the materialist mind cannot comprehend. At last it reached a wondrous parkland, dotted with immense buildings at one of which he stopped, here the Soul that had been Old Seng entered and made his way across a gleaming floor. A soul, Lobsang, in its own surroundings, is as solid as you are upon this world. The soul in the world of the soul, can be confined by walls, and walk upon a floor. The soul there has different abilities and talents from those we know upon the Earth. This Soul wandered on and at last entered a small cubicle. Sitting down, he gazed at the wall before him. Suddenly the wall appeared to vanish, and in its place he saw scenes, the scenes of his life. He saw that which we term The Akashic Record, which is the Record of all that has ever happened and which can be seen readily by those who are trained. It is also seen by everyone who passes from the Earth life to the life beyond, for Man sees the Record of his own successes and failures. Man sees his past and judges himself. There is no sterner judge than Man himself. We do not sit trembling before a God; we sit and see all that we did and all that we meant to do.” I sat silent, I found all this of quite absorbing interest. I could listen to this for hours—better than dull lessonwork!

“The Soul that had been Old Seng the Chinese Mandarin sat and saw again the life that he, upon Earth, had thought so successful,” continued my Guide. “He saw, and sorrowed for his many faults, and then he rose and left the cubicle, going speedily to a larger room where men and women of the Soul World awaited him. Silently, smiling with compassion and understanding, they awaited his approach, his request to be guided. Sitting in their company he told them of his faults, of the things he had attempted to do, meant to do, and failed.” “But I thought you said he was not judged, he judged himself!” I said quickly. ”That is so, Lobsang,” replied my Guide. “Having seen his past and his mistakes, he now approached these Advisors in order to receive their suggestions—but do not interrupt, listen to me and save your questions for after.”

“As I was saying,” continued the Lama, “the soul sat with the Advisors and told them of his failures, told them of the qualities which he had to ‘grow’ into his Soul before he could evolve further. First would come the return to view his body, then would come a period of rest—years or hundreds of years—and then he would be helped to find conditions such as were essential for his further progress. The Soul that had been Old Seng went back to Earth to gaze finally upon his dead body, now ready for burial. Then, no longer the Soul of Old Seng, but a Soul ready for rest, he returned to the Land Beyond. For a time unspecified he rested and recuperated, studying the lessons of past lives, preparing for the life to come. Here, in this life beyond death, articles and substances were as solid to his touch as they had been on Earth. He rested until the time and conditions were pre-arranged.” “I like this!” I exclaimed, “I find it of great interest.” My Guide smiled at me before continuing.

“At some pre-determined time, the Soul in Waiting was called and was led forth into the World of Mankind by one whose task was such service. They stopped, invisible to the eyes of those in the flesh, watching the parents-to-be, looking at the house, assessing the probabilities that this house would afford the desired facilities for learning the lessons which had to be learned this time. Satisfied, they withdrew. Months later the Mother-to-Be felt a sudden quickening inside her as the Soul entered and the Baby came to life. In time the Baby was born to the World of Man. The Soul that had once activated the body of Old Seng now struggled anew with the reluctant nerves and brain of the child Lee Wong living in humble circumstances in a fishing village of China. Once again the high vibrations of a Soul were converted to the lower octave vibrations of a flesh body.”

I sat and thought. Then I thought some more. At last I said, “Honourable Lama, as this is so, why do people fear death, which is but a release from the troubles of Earth?” “That is a sensible question, Lobsang,” replied my Guide. “Did we but remember the joys of the Other World many of us would not be able to tolerate hardships here, wherefore we have implanted within us a fear of death.” Giving me a quizzical sideways glance, he remarked, “Some of us do not like school, do not like the discipline so necessary at school. Yet when one grows up and becomes adult the benefits of school become apparent. It would not do to run away from school and expect to advance in learning; nor is it advisable to end one's life before one's allotted time.” I wondered about this, because just a few days before an old monk, illiterate and sick, had thrown himself from a high hermitage. A sour old man he had been, with a disposition that made him refuse all offers of help. Yes, old Jigme was better out of the way, I thought. Better for himself. Better for others.

“Sir!” I said, “then the monk Jigme was at fault when he ended his own life?” “Yes, Lobsang, he was very much at fault,” replied my Guide. “A man or woman has a certain allotted span upon the Earth. If one ends his or her life before that time, then he or she has to return almost immediately. Thus we have the spectacle of a baby born to live perhaps a few months only. That will be the soul of a suicide returning to take over the body and so live out the time which should have been lived before. Suicide is never justified; it is a grave offence against oneself, against one's Overself.” “But Sir,” I said, “how about the high born Japanese who commits ceremonial suicide in order to atone for family disgrace? Surely he is a brave man that he does that.” “Not so, Lobsang,” my Guide was most emphatic. “Not so. Bravery consists not of dying but in living in face of hardship, in face of suffering. To die is easy, to live—that is the brave act! Not even the theatrical demonstration of pride in ‘Ceremonial Suicide’ can blind one to its wrongness. We are here to learn and we can only learn through living our allotted span. Suicide is never justified!”

*          *          *

Reincarnation — a new birth

(Extracts from I Believe — 1976)

Again in the room the chairman said, “You have seen incidents of your life. You have seen that, blue blood or red blood, you have committed many crimes ending up by the crime of suicide. Now we have to decide, or rather we have to help you to decide what will be the best vocation by which you can atone for the harm that you have done in the viciousness of war and the crime which you have committed in suicide. Do you have any ideas what you would like to be?”

Algernon was very chastened. He felt very shaky, he felt worse than he could ever remember feeling before. He took his head in his hands and leaned his elbows on the table. The room was silent, completely silent. Algernon sat there for an indefinite time thinking of all that he had seen, worse, thinking of all the things that he had seen of the acts which he had done, and he pondered what should he be? The thought occurred to him that possibly he should become a priest, clergyman, possibly a bishop, and with a bit of influence he might even rise to be an archbishop. But then from somewhere he got such an impelling feeling of negation that he changed his line of thinking very quickly.

A veterinarian, he thought. But no, he did not like animals that much, and there wasn't much status in being a veterinarian, was there? It would be such a come-down, he thought, to one of his caste to be a mere veterinarian.

From somewhere he got the impression of silent laughter, laughter which mocked him, laughter which indicated to him that he was still on the wrong track. And then he thought that he would become a doctor, a fashionable doctor, he would work among the nobility, and possibly he could save seventy or eighty lives in his career and then he would have a clean sheet with which to start another life at the end of this, the impending one.

One of the men spoke for the first time. “We have, of course, been watching your thoughts in this globe,” and he gestured to a globe let into the table which Algernon had not seen before because it had been covered up, but now it was glowing and showing Algernon's thoughts. As Algernon blushed deeply at the realisation that all he had thought had been revealed so the image in the globe blushed deeply also.

The chairman spoke, “Yes, I can thoroughly recommend that you become a doctor but I do not at all recommend that you become a society doctor. This is the plan which I would recommend in your case.”

The chairman stopped and riffled through some papers, and then said, “You have taken life, you have maimed and mutilated others.” Algernon rose to his feet. “No! I have not maimed, I have not mutilated—” The chairman interrupted, “Yes, by your orders others have been killed, others have been maimed and mutilated, and you bear the blame quite as much as the persons who actually did the acts. But you are listening to me, and you had better listen carefully for I shall not repeat what I am saying. You should become a doctor, but a doctor in a poor district where you can work among the poor, and you will start your life under poor conditions, no longer a member of the aristocracy but one who has to claw his way up. And in the thirtieth year of that life your life will be ended and you will return here if you repeat your suicide, or, if not you will go to a higher plane of the astral where you will be prepared according to how well you have performed in the life which you are about to undergo.”

There was considerable discussion for some time, and then the chairman knocked with his gavel and said, “We will meet again to plan the parents you will have, to plan the area to which you shall be born, and to arrange the date. Until that time you may return to the House of Rest. The meeting is now adjourned.”

Algernon and the doctor walked sombrely along the garden paths, neither saying a word, and then the doctor took Algernon into the House of Rest and showed him a suitable room, saying, “I will come back for you later when I am so instructed.” With the briefest of nods he turned away and left, and Algernon sat in a chair with his head in his hands, the picture of misery, thinking of all that he had seen, thinking of all that he had done, and thinking, “Well, if this is purgatory thank goodness there is no hell!”

*          *          *          *          *

(Second extract)

“You have to return as a child of poor parents, those who are without social status, because the act which you have been called upon to play in your previous life seems seriously to have warped your understanding and your perceptions, and you place yourself into a class to which you are not entitled. We are going to suggest—and you have the right to refuse—that you are born to parents in London, in the area known as Tower Hamlets. There are some very suitable parents-to-be near Wapping High Street. You will have the advantage of being born quite close to the Tower of London and to the Mint and to very famous dock areas where there is shocking poverty and suffering. Here, if you agree, and if you have the moral and mental fibre, you can work your way up to be a physician or surgeon, and in saving the lives of those around you you can atone for the lives that you have taken and caused to be taken. But you will have to decide quickly because these women who we have chosen as prospective mothers for you are already pregnant, and that means we have no time to waste. I am going to show you,” he said, “the area which will be your locale.”

He turned and waved his hand to the wall which Fifty-Three had taken to be of glass, of frosted glass. As he did so it sprang into life, life in colour, and Fifty-Three could see an area of London which he knew only indifferently. The River Thames, yes; Southwark Bridge; London Bridge, and then the Bascules of Tower Bridge moved on to the screen. And to the side the Tower of London itself could be seen. He sat there quite enthralled, looking at the absolutely clear pictures, seeing traffic on the streets. He was most intrigued to see horseless carriages and very, very few horse-drawn vehicles indeed. He exclaimed on the matter, and the counsellor said, “Oh yes, horse-drawn traffic has almost disappeared, things have changed considerably since you have been here, and you have been here quite a time, you know. You were unconscious for about three years. Now everything is motorised, motor buses, motor vans, and motor cars. Things are supposed to have improved but I personally deplore the passing of the horse from the streets.”

Fifty-Three turned his attention to the picture again. Mint Street, Cable Street, Shadwell, East Smithfield, the Highway, Thomas More Street, St Catherines, Wapping High Street, and Wapping Wall.

The counsellor said, “Well, we have five women who are pregnant. I want you to choose which area you prefer of that shown. Of the five women one is the wife of an inn keeper, or I believe you might call him a publican. The second is the wife of a greengrocer. The third is the wife of an ironmonger. The fourth is the wife of a motor bus driver. And the fifth, she is again a lodging house keeper. I say again because the first one is an inn keeper. Now, you have a right of choice and no one will influence you. I can give you a list of them and you will have twenty-four hours upon which to meditate over this matter, and if you need any advice you merely have to ask.”

Fifty-Three sat back and gazed at the living pictures on that wall, seeing people move about, seeing the strange costumes that women were now wearing, marvelling at the horseless carriages going along, marvelling too at the amount of building going on. Then he turned to the counsellor and said, “Sir, I would ask you particularly that I be permitted to see the ten people, five fathers and five mothers, from whom I am expected to pick my parents. I would like to see them, I would like to see their home conditions.”

The counsellor, or interrogator, shook his head slowly with real regret: “Ah, my friend,” he mourned, “that is a request beyond my ability to grant for we never, never do such a thing. We can merely give you the details and you make your choice. You are not permitted to see your parents for that would be an invasion of their privacy. Now I suggest you return to your Transit Hotel and think about the whole matter.”

*          *          *          *          *

(Third extract)

“Well? Have you decided which you should be?”

The doctor nudged Fifty-Three who was standing there in sullen silence. “Speak up,” he whispered. “Can't you see they are losing patience with you?” Fifty-Three stepped forward and without being invited to do so slammed himself down in a chair.

“No,” said he. “How can I decide? I have only the briefest details of these people. I have no idea of what conditions I will encounter. I know I find a publican as extremely distasteful, but possibly an ironmonger would be even more distasteful. I am quite ignorant of such people, never having encountered them on a social basis in my life. Perhaps you, sir, with your undoubted experience, would be prepared to advise me.” Fifty-Three looked insolently at the man at the head of the table, but he just smiled tolerantly and said, “You are extremely class conscious, and I agree with you that the honourable trade of inn keeper or public house manager or ironmonger would be too much for your sub-conscious. I could indeed, though, very strongly recommend that eminent public house in Cable Street, but for one of your type given to too much snobbishness I will, instead, suggest another family, that of the greengrocer. The father is Martin Bond and the wife is Mary Bond. Mary Bond is almost of full term and if you are to take over the body of her as yet unborn child you must lose absolutely no more time, you must come to your senses and decide, for only you can decide.”

“Greengrocer!” thought Fifty-Three. “Rotten potatoes, stinking onions, overripe tomatoes. Faugh! How ever did I get in a mess like this?” He twiddled his fingers, scratched his head and squirmed miserably in the chair. The others in the room kept quiet, they knew of the desperate state which one got into at having to make such a decision. At last Fifty-Three raised his head and said defiantly, “Well, I will take that family. They might find they've got a better man in their family than they ever had before!”

The woman sitting at the side of the table said, “Mr Chairman, I think we should run a series of checks on him again because we have to see that he is still compatible with the mother. It would be a terrible thing for the woman if after all she has gone through her baby was stillborn.”

The man at the other side of the table said, “Yes,” and he turned to look at Fifty-Three. “If the child is stillborn that still does not help you because you would be returned here on the grounds that your lack of co-operation and your intransigence will have caused the woman to lose her child. I do suggest for your own sake—it really doesn't matter to us—that you co-operate more, that you try to make a more equable temperament, or you may find that we shall have to send you anywhere like garbage being thrown out.”

The woman rose to her feet, hesitated a moment, then turned to Fifty-Three and said, “Come with me.” The chairman nodded and also rose to his feet. The doctor touched Fifty-Three's arm and said, “Come along, this is it.”

Reluctantly, like a man facing execution, Fifty-Three climbed sluggishly to his feet and followed the woman into a side room. Here things were very different. The whole walls seemed to be flickering lights behind frosted glass. There seemed to be a remarkable number of knobs and buttons and switches. Fifty-Three thought for a moment that he had got himself into an electric power station, but then directly in front of him was a peculiarly shaped table, a very peculiarly shaped table indeed. It seemed to be the outline of a human figure, arms, legs, head and everything. The woman said, “Get on that table.” For a moment Fifty-Three hesitated, then shrugging his shoulders he climbed on to the table brusquely brushing off the kindly hand of the doctor who tried to assist him. As he lay on the table he found a most peculiar sensation overtook him; the table seemed to mould itself to him. He had never felt more comfortable in his life. The table was warm. Looking up he found his sight was not so good as it had been, it was blurry. Faintly, indistinctly, he could make out shapes on the wall in front of him. Vaguely and strangely uninterested he gazed at the wall and thought he could distinguish a human form. It seemed to be a female form. At a rough guess Fifty-Three thought she was in bed, then as he watched through lacklustre eyes he had an impression that someone was pulling back the bedclothes.

A distorted voice came to him, “It seems to be all right. I say he is compatible.” It was very strange, very strange indeed. Fifty-Three had an impression that he was ‘going under’ an anaesthetic. There was no struggling, no apprehension, there was not even clear thought. Instead he lay there on that form-fitting table, lay there and gazed up uncomprehendingly at the people whom previously he had known so well. The doctor, the chairman, the woman.

Vaguely he was aware that they were saying things: “Compatible basic frequency.” “Temperature inversion.” “A period of synchronisation and stabilisation.” And then he smiled drowsily and the world of purgatory slipped away from him and he knew no more of that world.

*          *          *          *          *

(Fourth extract)

ALGERNON shuddered violently in his sleep. Algernon? Fifty-Three? Whoever it was now, he shuddered violently in his sleep. No, it was not sleep, it was the most terrible nightmare he had ever in his life experienced. He thought of an earthquake which had happened near Messina, Salonika, where buildings had toppled and where the earth had yawned and people had fallen through to be squashed flat as the earth, yawning, closed again.

This was terrible—terrible. This was the worst thing he could ever experience, the worst thing he had ever imagined. He felt that he was being mashed and squashed. For a time in his confused nightmare state he imagined that he had been caught by a boa constrictor in the Congo and was being forced willy nilly down the snake's throat.

All the world seemed to be upside-down. Everything seemed to be shaking. There was pain, convulsions, he felt pulverised, terrified.

From a distance away there came a muffled scream, a scream as heard through water and thick swaddling. Barely conscious in his pain he made out, “Martin, Martin, get a taxi quickly, it's started.”

He mulled over the name. “Martin? Martin?” He had a vague, but only a very vague recollection that at some time somewhere in some life he had heard that name before, but no, try as he would he could not bring back into his memory's recall what the name meant or to whom it was applied.

*          *          *          *          *

(Fifth extract)

He could see nothing but from the very warm surroundings he had had now he was precipitated on to something rough and cold, the cold seemed to seep into his bones and he shivered. To his amazement he found that he was sopping wet, and then ‘something’ grasped him by the ankles and whisked him up into the air upside-down.

There was a sharp ‘slap, slap!’ across his buttocks and he opened his mouth to protest at the indignity, at the outrage perpetrated upon the helpless body of an officer and a gentleman. And with his first scream of rage all memory of the past faded from him as a dream fades at the opening of a new day, and a baby was born.

Of course not every baby has experiences such as this because the average baby is just an unconscious mass of protoplasm until it is born, and only when it is born does consciousness take over. But in the case of Algernon, or Fifty-Three, or whatever you want to call him, the matter was somewhat different because he had been a suicide, because he had been a very difficult ‘case’ indeed, and there was an extra factor; this person—this entity—had to return with a special purpose in mind, he had to take up a special vocation and so the knowledge of what was that vocation had to be passed on from the astral world through the being-born baby and straight on to the mental matrix of the new-born baby.

For some time the baby lay, or was moved about. Things were done to the baby, something attached to its body was cut away, but the baby was oblivious to it all. Algernon had gone. Now there was a baby with no name. But after a few days in the hospital vague shapes came and moved in front of the infant's blurry vision. “Coo,” said a somewhat crude voice, “runty little devil, ain' 'e? What you going to call 'im, Mary?”

The mother, fondly gazing down at her first born, looked away and smiled up at the visitor and said, “Well, Alan I think we are going to call him. We decided if it was a girl we'd call her Alice, and if it was a boy we'd call him Alan, so Alan it's going to be.”

*          *          *

Rampa's Predictions

(Extracts from Chapters of Life — 1967)

There is a very complicated theory which is actually a very true theory about parallel universes, and to the effect that everything has already happened and that we are living in a different time continuum. However, we do not propose to go into that here, instead let it be stated that the Seers of old could see into the future, the Seers of the present can do so also. Now I am going to give you an illustration of this. This is something which happened to me, which happened under full control. I went into a trance and this is what I saw:

I saw first a probability that a war would be starting. Now, looking back, I can say that—yes, that was so, that was the war which started in Vietnam after the French withdrew, after the Foreign Legion was disbanded. But that was proved to be correct.

Other things are: In the future Italy will be conquered by Communism. For the time being the Christian religion will be lost and the Vatican will be closed, cardinals and bishops will be killed, Communism will seep throughout Europe. It will not be the Communism which we know at the present time, it will be modified somewhat. The original Communism of Russia was a much rougher, tougher affair than it is now, more like the Chinese Communism. England and the United States will eventually amalgamate for protection, and England will come under the direction of the United States and will, in fact, have an American as its Governor, which is quite an amusing thought when one thinks that people went from England to found America, and now the Americans are going to go back and rediscover England.

Eventually the surface of the Earth will crack. If you have read the reports of the International Geophysical Year you will know that there are great areas of stress beneath the ocean, areas where alterations are taking place. Already the sea-beds are rising. Lost continents which are now the sea-bed will rise and form new lands, present lands will sink and the world will for a time be in panic and turmoil. New York will be levelled to the ground and eventually shall sink beneath the waters of the Atlantic. Los Angeles and San Francisco, Seattle and Vancouver on the Pacific coast, will be levelled to the ground and then shall sink beneath the rising Pacific. Most of the coast-line will be inundated, the whole land will change. From over Alaska will come rockets with bombs from Communist Russia, great devastation will be caused in the United States and Canada. Of course, through retaliatory methods of these countries, great devastation will also be caused in Russia, but on the North American continent a few survivors will cluster on top of the Rocky Mountains, enough to repopulate the continent later.

In Canada the Great Lakes which are now fresh-water lakes shall reverse the direction of their flow through the tipping of the Earth's axis, so that the sea shall flow from Quebec to Montreal, from Montreal to Buffalo, Buffalo to Detroit, and the water shall pile up at Chicago and flood the city and flood the land, and cut for itself a salt waterway into the Mississippi. The rushing waters, made into a raging torrent by the tipping of the world's axis, will soon erode away a lot of the land so that there a new island is formed. All that which is divided by the water and facing the sea shall be a new land.

In Europe the bed of the Mediterranean shall rise and become high land and there shall be opened great tombs, part of sunken Egypt and part of the land sunk years before.

The whole of the South American continent shall be disturbed by earthquakes. The Falkland Islands shall be islands no longer, but shall unite as high land with the lower third of Argentina. At about the lower third of Argentina a great rift shall appear so that there is access from the Pacific to the Atlantic through a gap which shall be no wider than the gap between the Mediterranean and Gibraltar. Under the change of weight distribution the Earth shall tilt even more and the seasons will change, the Poles will melt and much land will become available in these areas, together with wondrous ores and many new resources.

Japan and Korea and part of the Chinese coast will sink beneath the waters, but other lands shall emerge from the seas. The Russians will have moved great satellites into space. Soon the Chinese will get into space also, for they will have seized scientists from the United States who fled from the floods and destruction. The year 2000 will see great events in space, not always for peace, for there shall be great rivalry between the branches of Communism, the Russians and the Chinese. In the year 2004 there will be a tremendous war between China and Russia in space. On Earth, people will huddle in deep shelters and many shall be saved. More lands shall sink and more shall rise.

One part of this prophecy gave me so much cause for thought I wondered if I should be discreetly silent and not mention it, but what does it matter, let us tell the truth, let us, as we have gone so far, go a little farther.

In the year 2008 or so the Russians and the Chinese will settle their differences under the stimulus of a much greater thing. From far out in space, from beyond this whole system, will come people, humans, who will come here and want to settle on this Earth. The humans already here will be frightfully cross about it all, and they will look upon their unwanted guests with a jaundiced eye. For a time there will be a considerable commotion, however, eventually common sense and reason will prevail.

The people from outer space will demonstrate peaceful intentions, and that is a thing sadly lacking on this Earth. In time the people from outer space shall settle down with the people who are native to this Earth, they will intermarry, all races will intermarry so that at last there shall be only one race and it shall be known as the Race of Tan because the mixture of all colours, white, black, yellow, and brown, will result in a very pleasant tan shade.

At this stage in the evolution of the Earth it shall be the Golden Age, the age of peace, the age of tranquillity and of high occult knowledge. It shall be an age when Man, whether terrestrial Man or extra-terrestrial Man, shall get along harmoniously.

The future beyond that? Yes, that is clear also, but let us be content with this first episode because it is, in fact, a true episode.

Do you laugh, are you cynical, sceptical? Well you are entitled to your opinion as I am entitled to my knowledge. If you had my knowledge you would not be listening to me now, and you would not be laughing.

A very short time ago it was stated that Man would never send a message across the Atlantic by radio. Then it was said that Man would never fly the Atlantic in an aeroplane. It was stated that no one could possibly go faster than the speed of sound because people would die, it was also reported that Man would not be able to get into space because the heat generated by the speed would burn him up. Man has gone into space, and Woman also. Things which are utterly impossible today are commonplace tomorrow. Now we bounce television programmes off an artificial satellite, now we bounce radio messages off the Moon, Mars, Venus. How can you say that my prophecy is not true?

It is a sad thing that people condemn that which they do not understand. It is a sad thing that if people cannot do this or that or something else, then they are inclined to say, “Oh, but that is impossible, quite impossible, such things are beyond human knowledge.” This, of course, is nonsense, because when one can see the Akashic Record of everything that has happened one can also see the Record of Probabilities.

And if you wonder what the Record of Probabilities is let me give you a simple illustration. Probabilities are those things which you expect to happen, you expect that tomorrow, the day after, and for years after, ships will steam upon the seas, planes will fly across the sky, and cars will go spewing noxious fumes throughout the countryside. You really expect that will happen because it is so probable. The future of a race or country can be forecast with the highest degree of accuracy, and the Record of Probabilities indicates what all that will be. Here you have had an insight into what will happen, but there are other things, little incidents which point the way. Do you want some more?All right—in years to come England will be a state of the United States in much the same way as Hawaii and Alaska are states of the United States. Eventually England will be controlled by and from the United States, and eventually England will subscribe to the Federal Laws of the United States.

Canada will be one of the leading countries of the world in centuries to come, Canada and Brazil. Brazil at present is in a decline, but Brazil shall rise and shall be perhaps the second greatest country of the world, it shall in fact become ‘High’ Brazil once again.

France and Russia will unite in years to come to really squash Germany. France and Russia both feel menaced by Germany, and they will unite forces to end that threat, and the German race will be scattered among other nations in the same manner as Jews are now scattered among other nations.

The United States and Russia will combine to defeat China, the new China which poses a threat to civilisation everywhere, and so the Bear and the Eagle shall unite to defeat the Dragon, and not until the Dragon is defeated shall there be any enduring peace.

Those of you who are astrologically inclined will remember that on February 5th, 1962, 16 degrees covered the Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn during an eclipse at that time. The next time that will happen will be on May 5th of the year 2000, and shortly before that time Halley's comet will return in April 1986. All these configurations will lead to momentous occurrences throughout the world. It will be the opening of a New Age, the time when hope flourishes again like the gentle spring flowers which revive and bloom anew when the winter snows give way to sunshine, and as the spring flowers are renewed by the seasons, and the renaissance which comes about every year, so shall Man, Man's hopes and spiritual aspirations become renewed after the year 2000.

It might be as well here to say something about the changing climate of this world, because almost everyone in the world must have noticed great changes. The climate also is a worthy subject of prediction.

In the years to come there will be many earthquakes, land will rise and land will fall, and much land will become water. Out in the Pacific there is a great fault extending thousands of miles. It is a crack in the Earth's surface, and if many more nations start letting off many more atom bombs or worse, the crack will open a little and shift a lot, and then there will be a whole series of earthquakes and floods.

For hundreds of years it has been possible to more or less predict the weather. One could consult charts kept at meteorological offices and these charts would indicate that the temperature of, say, Canada normally would fall between such-and-such limits at such-and-such a time, while, for example, in Buenos Aires there were different limits of rise and fall. It was possible to predict the weather in Moscow, or Timbuktu, or anywhere, by consulting records which indicated what the average temperature should be at other equivalent times for many, many years past. We have known what would happen during each season, we have known if the summer was going to be hotter than winter and what the limits of cold were going to be, and what the limits of heat were going to be, but all this is changing, and changing rapidly, through a whole conglomeration of causes, most of them man-made.

Have you noticed that quite recently there have been increasing reports of freak weather? In the United States there have been absolutely abnormally cold winters. In Georgia the weather has been quite a lot below zero. Arizona, that too, has had a great deal of cold, at times 40 degrees below.

I have had letters from friends in Canada and the United States and I get reports of freak weather, stunning cold. Then a week later, almost a heatwave. I had a report the other day from Niagara Falls, Canada; the weather was extremely hot, sweltering hot, and then it became frightfully cold. In Detroit, U.S.A., the weather has been stunningly cold, then suddenly it turned hot.

In the North and East United States there has been dryness, in fact April of this year was the driest ever recorded on the United States weather stations. There was no water for the plants, no irrigation system worked. Plants withered in the parched ground.

I don't know how many of you have been to the United States, but in Montana, not so far from the Canadian border, there is a big National Park, and in that Park there is a glacier, in fact there are several, but some have completely melted and others are greatly diminished.

Certain areas of the United States and Canada depend quite a lot on ski programs, programs calling for snow and ice. Well, there has been no snow or ice and so these people depending on such climatic conditions have been ruined.

In the mid-West there have been tornados, tremendous tornados. The number and speed and ferocity of tornados has been increasing. Quite recently there have been more than 800 tornados a year in mid-United States.

But let us leave the United States. There are other parts of the world. I get mail from all over the world, and it does not need mail but newspapers, to bring in information about the weather. In England there has been absolutely freak weather, the coldest on record, and in England they have had the worst blizzard ever, traffic was at a standstill, people were short of food and were freezing, cattle died through exposure and through starvation.

In the Mediterranean weather has been completely freak, abnormally cold for instance, and about a metre in depth of snow in Sicily which advertises as Sunny Sicily. Well, they might have had sunshine but they have certainly had searing cold as well. It is all freak weather, the climate of the world is changing. In Rome there was ice, on the River Tiber there was ice, ice for the first time in 500 years. One associates Rome, Italy, with warmth, with a kind benevolent climate, not with ice on the River Tiber on which people could skate.

And another part of the world—Japan. They have had the roughest winter in living history. Storms, crop failures, they have had everything bad.

In Russia, on the other hand, the climate seems to have been getting milder. Siberia is less frigid, and of course with all these changes in climatic conditions more changes are caused, for if we heat an area of land the air above it rises and forms cumulus clouds. It may be that so many atom bombs have obscured the direct radiation of the Sun to the Earth and back into space, that that has altered zones of temperature throughout the world. Thus it is, as has been predicted, that in the not too distant future things are going to change on this Earth.

Have you ever thought of this? If the ice at the North Pole and South Pole melted the water level all around the world would rise by at least 600 feet? Think, even if some of the ice on the coast of Russia were to melt, the resulting flood could inundate New York or Montevideo; in fact, it would not take many feet of water to completely flood Uruguay. But in case Uruguayans want to rush out and get water-wings and bathing suits, let me say this; according to predictions that part of the world will rise so that instead of being flooded it will be quite a long way above water level. New York will sink beneath the waves, so it is predicted, and down near the end of Argentina a rift will be caused dividing the tail of Argentina from the body, so there will be in effect an island there, and a quicker passage through to the Pacific Ocean. That in itself will cause a bit of commotion, because the Pacific is saltier than is the Atlantic, and so we have more or less of a paradox; the Pacific water will be warmer but heavier, and so it will sink in the colder waters of the Atlantic because the Atlantic is not so salty, and is, therefore, lighter.

The Russians are busy altering the weather to their own advantage by tampering with the Gulf Stream, which causes warm water which normally should go to Europe to flow along the sides of Siberia, so that Siberia is becoming thawed out and will become the far land of Russia. But in the swing of the balance England could have another Ice Age, and ice could sweep across quite a lot of Europe.

Normally the Earth is surrounded by layers of air, some of them travelling as air currents in the same way as there are water currents. Normally the amount of cosmic rays entering and striking the Earth is fairly constant, but now because of the meddling with the upper atmosphere by rockets traversing and bombs going off, the outer atmosphere's jet streams have been disturbed and diverted. Thus there are temperature inversions so that hot air perhaps cannot rise and whole lands become parched through lack of rain and through excess of heat. Temperature zones throughout the world are changing, mainly for the worse, and unless mankind rises up to control those who desire war, then mankind is going to have a pretty sorry time before they have a better time. However, we are now in the Age of Kali, the Age of pain, suffering, and despair. Soon will come the dawn when Man can again hope and know that he is progressing towards greater things, greater happiness, greater spirituality, and greater faith in his fellow men.

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THE END

Table of Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

THE EARTH

Formation and origin

CONFIGURATION

The Earth is hollow / origin of U.F.O.s

Organisation ‘The Manus’ of the world

Parallel worlds — The fourth dimension

The different civilisations

This is the World of Illusion

Life is like a school

MAN

Nature of man

What is Life?

Human potential

Conscious, unconscious, subconscious

Imagination

Human relations

Love — affection

Mariage — couple

Man and his ‘partners’ on Earth

The cats

The role of animals in relation to humans

The plants

Ecological considerations

Metaphysical problems

Existence of God

Need for religion

Faith

Hell

Purgatory

Guardian angels guides …

Prayer

Meditation

The human condition

The ageing process

Fear

Suffering

Drugs

Alcohol

Insanity

Suicide

THE MESSAGE FROM RAMPA

The third eye

The aura

The Colours of the Aura

Reading an aura

The silver cord

Astral travel

The karma

The Akashic Record

Thought Forms

Hypnotism

Psychometry

Telepathy

Clairvoyance

‘Seers’

The Middle Way and its laws

Death

The different levels of the astral

Reincarnation

Reincarnation — a new birth

Rampa's Predictions