We are now in position to discriminate between the various kinds of
communication possible between those whom we foolishly divide into
"dead" and "living," as though the body were the man, or the man could
die. "Communications between the embodied and the disembodied" would
be a more satisfactory phrase.
First, let us put aside as unsuitable the word Spirit: Spirit does not
communicate with Spirit in any way conceivable by us. That highest
principle is not yet manifest in the flesh; it remains the hidden
fount of all, the eternal Energy, one of the poles of Being in
manifestation. The word is loosely used to denote lofty Intelligences,
who live and move beyond all conditions of matter imaginable by us,
but pure Spirit is at present as inconceivable by us as pure matter.
And as in dealing with possible "communications" we have average human
beings as recipients, we may as well exclude the word Spirit as much
as possible, and so get rid of ambiguity. But in quotations the word
often occurs, in deference to the habit of the day, and it then
denotes the Ego.
Taking the stages through which the living man passes after "Death",
or the shaking off of the body, we can readily classify the
communications that may be received, or the appearances that may be
seen:
I. While the Soul has shaken off only the dense body, and remains
still clothed in the etheric double. This is a brief period only, but
during it the disembodied Soul may show itself, clad in this ethereal
garment.
For a very short period after death, while the incorporeal
principles remain within the sphere of our earth's
attraction, it is _possible_ for spirit, under _peculiar_ and
_favourable_ conditions, to appear.[43]
It makes no communications during this brief interval, nor while
dwelling in this form. Such "ghosts" are silent, dreamy, like
sleep-walkers, and indeed they are nothing more than astral
sleep-walkers. Equally irresponsive, but capable of expressing a
single thought, as of sorrow, anxiety, accident, murder, &c., are
apparitions which are merely a thought of the dying, taking shape in
the astral world, and carried by the dying person's will to some
particular person, with whom the dying intensely longs to communicate.
Such a thought, sometimes called a Mayâvi Rûpa, or illusory form
_May be often thrown into objectivity, as in the case of
apparitions after death; but, unless it is projected with the
knowledge of (whether latent or potential), or owing to the
intensity of the desire to see or appear to some one shooting
through, the dying brain, the apparition will be simply
automatical; it will not be due to any sympathetic
attraction, or to any act of volition, any more than the
reflection of a person passing unconsciously near a mirror is
due to the desire of the latter._
When the Soul has left the etheric double, shaking it off as it
shook off the dense body, the double thus left as a mere empty corpse
may be galvanised into an "artificial life"; but fortunately the
method of such galvanisation is known to few.
II. While the Soul is in Kâmaloka. This period is of very variable
duration. The Soul is clad in an astral body, the last but one of its
perishable garments, and while thus clad it can utilise the physical
bodies of a medium, thus consciously procuring for itself an
instrument whereby it can act on the world it has left, and
communicate with those living in the body. In this way it may give
information as to facts known to itself only, or to itself and another
person, in the earth-life just closed; and for as long as it remains
within the terrestrial atmosphere such communication is possible. The
harm and the peril of such communication has been previously
explained, whether the Lower Manas be united with the Divine Triad and
so on its way to Devachan, or wrenched from it and on its way to
destruction.
III. While the Soul is in Devachan, if an embodied Soul is capable of
rising to its sphere, or of coming into _rapport_ with it. To the
Devachanî, as we have seen, the beloved are present in consciousness
and full communication, the Egos being in touch with each other,
though one is embodied and one is disembodied, but the higher
consciousness of the embodied rarely affects the brain. As a matter of
fact, all that we know on the physical plane of our friend, while we
both are embodied, is the mental image caused by the impression he
makes on us. This is, to our consciousness, our friend, and lacks
nothing in objectivity. A similar image is present to the
consciousness of the Devachanî, and to him lacks nothing in
objectivity. As the physical plane friend is visible to an observer on
earth, so is the mental plane friend visible to an observer on that
plane. The amount of the friend that ensouls the image is dependent on
his own evolution, a highly evolved person being capable of far more
communication with a Devachanî than one who is unevolved.
Communication when the body is sleeping is easier than when it is
awake, and many a vivid "dream" of one on the other side of death is a
real interview with him in Kâmaloka or in Devachan.
Love beyond the grave, illusion though you may call it,[44]
has a magic and divine potency that re-acts on the living. A
mother's Ego, filled with love for the imaginary children it
sees near itself, living a life of happiness, as real to it
as when on earth--that love will always be felt by the
children in flesh. It will manifest in their dreams and often
in various events--in providential protections and escapes,
for love is a strong shield, and is not limited by space or
time. As with this Devachanic "mother", so with the rest of
human relationships and attachments, save the purely selfish
or material.[45]
Remembering that a thought becomes an active entity, capable of
working good or evil, we easily see that as embodied Souls can send to
those they love helping and protecting forces, so the Devachanî,
thinking of those dear to him, may send out such helpful and
protective thoughts, to act as veritable guardian angels round his
beloved on earth. But this is a very different thing from the "Spirit"
of the mother coming back to earth to be the almost helpless spectator
of the child's woes.
The Soul embodied may sometimes escape from its prison of flesh, and
come into relations with the Devachanî. H.P. Blavatsky writes:
Whenever years after the death of a person his spirit is
claimed to have "wandered back to earth" to give advice to
those it loved, it is always in a subjective vision, in dream
or in trance, and in that case it is the Soul of the living
seer that is drawn to the _disembodied_ spirit, and not the
latter which wanders back to our spheres.[46]
Where the sensitive, or medium, is of a pure and lofty nature, this
rising of the freed Ego to the Devachanî is practicable, and naturally
gives the impression to the sensitive that the departed Ego has come
back to him. The Devachanî is wrapped in its happy "illusion", and
_The Souls, or astral Egos, of pure loving sensitives,
labouring under the same delusion, think their loved ones
come down to them on earth, while it is their own spirits
that are raised towards those in the Devachan._[47]
This attraction can be exercised by the departed Soul from Kâmaloka or
from Devachan:
A "spirit" or the spiritual Ego, cannot _descend_ to the
medium, but it can _attract_ the spirit of the latter to
itself, and it can do this only during the two
intervals--before and after its "gestation period". Interval
the first is that period between the physical death and the
merging of the spiritual Ego into that state which is known
in the Arhat Esoteric Doctrine as "Bar-do". We have
translated this as the "gestation period", and it lasts from
a few days to several years, according to the evidence of the
Adepts. Interval the second lasts so long as the merits of
the old [personal] Ego entitle the being to reap the fruit of
its reward in its new regenerated Egoship. It occurs after
the gestation period is over, and the new spiritual Ego is
reborn--like the fabled Phoenix from its ashes--from the
old one. The locality which the former inhabits is called by
the northern Buddhist Occultists "Devachan."[48]
So also may the incorporeal principles of pure sensitives be placed
_en rapport_ with disembodied Souls, although information thus
obtained is not reliable, partly in consequence of the difficulty of
transferring to the physical brain the impressions received, and
partly from the difficulty of observing accurately, when the seer is
untrained.[49]
A pure medium's Ego can be drawn to and made, for an instant,
to unite in a magnetic(?) relation with a real disembodied
spirit, whereas the soul of an impure medium can only
confabulate with the _Astral Soul_, or Shell, of the
deceased. The former possibility explains those extremely
rare cases of direct writing in recognised autographs, and of
messages from the higher class of disembodied intelligences.
But the confusion in messages thus obtained is considerable, not only
from the causes above-named, but also because
Even the best and purest sensitive can at most only be placed
at any time _en rapport_ with a particular spiritual entity,
and can only know, see, and feel what that particular entity
knows, sees, and feels.
Hence much possibility of error if generalisations are indulged in,
since each Devachanî lives in his own paradise, and there is no
"peeping down to earth,"
Nor is there any _conscious_ communication with the flying
Souls that come as it were to learn where the Spirits are,
what they are doing, and what they think, feel, and see.
What then is being _en rapport_? It is simply an identity of
molecular vibration between the astral part of the
incarnated sensitive and the astral part of the
dis-incarnated personality. The spirit of the sensitive gets
"odylised", so to speak, by the aura of the spirit, whether
this be hybernating in the earthly region or dreaming in the
Devachan; identity of molecular vibration is established, and
for a brief space the sensitive becomes the departed
personality, and writes in its handwriting, uses its
language, and thinks its thoughts. At such times sensitives
may believe that those with whom they are for the moment _en
rapport_ descend to earth and communicate with them, whereas,
in reality, it is merely their own spirits which, being
correctly attuned to those others, are for the time blended
with them.[50]
In a special case under examination, H.P. Blavatsky said that the
communication might have come from an Elementary, but that it was
Far more likely that the medium's spirit really became _en
rapport_ with some spiritual entity in Devachan, the
thoughts, knowledge, and sentiments of which formed the
substance, while the medium's own personality and
pre-existing ideas more or less governed the forms of the
communication.[51]
While these communications are not reliable in the facts and opinions
stated,
We would remark that it may _possibly_ be that there really
is a distinct spiritual entity impressing our correspondent's
mind. In other words, there may, for all we know, be some
spirit, with whom his spiritual nature becomes habitually,
for the time, thoroughly harmonised, and whose thoughts,
language, &c., become his for the time, the result being that
this spirit seems to communicate with him.... It is possible
(though by no means probable) that he habitually passes into
a state of _rapport_ with a genuine spirit, and, for the
time, is assimilated therewith, thinking (to a great extent
if not entirely) the thoughts that spirit would think,
writing in its handwriting, &c. But even so, Mr. Terry must
not fancy that that spirit is consciously communicating with
him, or knows in any way anything of him, or any other
person or thing on earth. It is simply that, the _rapport_
established, he, Mr. Terry, becomes for the nonce assimilated
with that other personality, and thinks, speaks, and writes
as it would have done on earth.... The molecules of his
astral nature may from time to time vibrate in perfect unison
with those of some spirit of such a person, now in Devachan,
and the result may be that he appears to be in communication
with that spirit, and to be advised, &c., by him, and
clairvoyants may see in the Astral Light a picture of the
earth-life form of that spirit.
IV. Communications other than those from disembodied Souls, passing
through normal _post mortem_ states.
(a) _From Shells._ These, while but the cast-off garment of the
liberated Soul, retain for some time the impress of their late
inhabitant, and reproduce automatically his habits of thought and
expression, just as a physical body will automatically repeat habitual
gestures. Reflex action is as possible to the desire body as to the
physical, but all reflex action is marked by its character of
repetition, and absence of all power to initiate movement. It answers
to a stimulus with an appearance of purposive action, but it initiates
nothing. When people "sit for development", or when at a _séance_ they
anxiously hope and wait for messages from departed friends, they
supply just the stimulus needed, and obtain the signs of recognition
for which they expectantly watch.
(b) _From Elementaries._ These, possessing the lower capacities of the
mind, _i.e._, all the intellectual faculties that found their
expression through the physical brain during life, may produce
communications of a highly intellectual character. These, however, are
rare, as may be seen from a survey of the messages published as
received from "departed Spirits".
(c) _From Elementals._ These semi-conscious centres of force play a
great part at _séances_, and are mostly the agents who are active in
producing physical phenomena. They throw about or carry objects, make
noises, ring bells, etc., etc. Sometimes they play pranks with Shells,
animating them and representing them to be the spirits of great
personalities who have lived on earth, but who have sadly degenerated
in the "spirit-world", judging by their effusions. Sometimes, in
materialising _séances_, they busy themselves in throwing pictures
from the Astral Light on the fluidic forms produced, so causing them
to assume likenesses of various persons. There are also Elementals of
a high type who occasionally communicate with very gifted mediums,
"Shining Ones" from other spheres.
(d) _From Nirmânakâyas._ For these communications, as for the two
classes next mentioned, the medium must be of a very pure and lofty
nature. The Nirmânakâya is a perfected man, who has cast aside his
physical body but retains his other lower principles, and remains in
the earth-sphere for the sake of helping forward the evolution of
mankind. Nirmânakâyas
Have, out of pity for mankind and those they left on earth,
renounced the Nirvânic state. Such an Adept, or Saint, or
whatever you may call him, believing it a selfish act to rest
in bliss while mankind groans under the burden of misery
produced by ignorance, renounces Nirvâna and determines to
remain invisible _in spirit_ on this earth. They have no
material body, as they have left it behind; but otherwise
they remain with all their principles even _in astral life_
in our sphere. And such can and do communicate with a few
elect ones, only surely not with _ordinary_ mediums.[52]
(e) _From Adepts now living on earth._ These often communicate with
Their disciples, without using the ordinary methods of communication,
and when any tie exists, perchance from some past incarnation, between
an Adept and a medium, constituting that medium a disciple, a message
from the Adept might readily be mistaken for a message from a
"Spirit". The receipt of such messages by precipitated writing or
spoken words is within the knowledge of some.
(f) _From the medium's Higher Ego._ Where a pure and earnest man or
woman is striving after the light, this upward striving is met by a
downward reaching of the higher nature, and light from the higher
streams downward, illuminating the lower consciousness. Then the lower
mind is, for the time, united with its parent, and transmits as much
of its knowledge as it is able to retain.
From this brief sketch it will be seen how varied may be the sources
from which communications apparently from "the other side of Death"
may be received. As said by H.P. Blavatsky:
The variety of the causes of phenomena is great, and one need
be an Adept, and actually look into and examine what
transpires, in order to be able to explain in each case what
really underlies it.[53]
To complete the statement it may be added that what the average Soul
can do when it has passed through the gateway of Death, it can do on
this side, and communications may be as readily obtained by writing,
in trance, and by the other means of receiving messages, from embodied
as from disembodied Souls. If each developed within himself the
powers of his own Soul, instead of drifting about aimlessly, or
ignorantly plunging into dangerous experiments, knowledge might be
safely accumulated and the evolution of the Soul might be accelerated.
This one thing is sure: Man is to-day a living Soul, over whom Death
has no power, and the key of the prison-house of the body is in his
own hands, so that he may learn its use if he will. It is because his
true Self, while blinded by the body, has lost touch with other
Selves, that Death has been a gulf instead of a gateway between
embodied and disembodied Souls.
* * * * *