"You do not need to be told by me that you have lived on this earth
before, and that you have many times been gently yet forcibly drawn
into connection with the other predestined half of yourself,--that Soul
of love which blindly seeking, you have often rejected when found--not
of yourself have you rejected it--but simply because of the influences
around you to which you have yielded. Now in this further phase of your
existence you have been given another chance--another opportunity. It
is quite possible that had you not come to me you would have lost your
happiness again, and it was this knowledge which made me receive you,
against all the rules of our Order, when I saw that you were fairly
resolved. Your ordeal would have been longer had you not made the first
bold advance yourself on the occasion of your entrance into our chapel.
The light of the Cross and Star drew you, and your Soul obeyed the
attraction of its native element. Had you opposed its intention by
doubts and fears, I should have had more trouble with you than I should
have cared to undertake. But you made the first step yourself with a
rare courage--the rest was comparatively easy."
He paused again and again went on.
"I have already said that you are under the impression of having gone
through certain adventures or episodes, which have more or less
distressed and perplexed you. These things have had NO EXISTENCE except
in your mind! When I took you up to your room in the turret, I placed
you under my influence and under the influence of four other brains
acting in conjunction with myself. We took entire possession of your
mentality, and made it as far as possible like a blank slate, on which
we wrote what we chose. The test was to see whether your Soul, which is
the actual You, could withstand and overcome our suggestions. At first
hearing, this sounds as if we had played a trick upon you for our own
entertainment--but it is not so,--it is merely an application of the
most powerful lesson in life--namely, THE RESISTANCE AND CONQUEST OF
THE INFLUENCES OF OTHERS, which are the most disturbing and weakening
forces we have to contend with."
I began to see clearly what he meant me to understand, and I hung upon
his words with eager attention.
"You have only to look about you in the world," he continued--"to
realise the truth of what I say. Every day you may meet some soul whose
powers of accomplishment might be superb if it were not for the
restricting influences to which it allows itself to succumb. How often
do you not come upon a man or woman of brilliant genius, who is
nevertheless rendered incompetent by opposing influences, and who
therefore lives the life of a bird in a cage! Take the thousands of men
wrongly mated, whose very wives and children drag them down and kill
every spark of ambition and accomplishment within them! Take the
thousands of women persuaded or forced into unions with men whose low
estimate of woman's intellect coarsens and degrades her to a level from
which it is almost impossible to rise! This is the curse of
'influences'--the magnetic currents of other brains which set our own
awry, and make half the trouble and mischief in the world. Not one soul
in a hundred thousand has force or courage to resist them! The man
accustomed to live with a wife who without doing any other harm, simply
kills his genius by the mere fact of her daily contact, moods, and
methods, makes no effort to shake himself free from the apathy her
influence causes, but simply sinks passively into inaction. The woman,
bound to a man who insists on considering her lower than himself, and
often pulled this way and that by the selfish desires or aims of her
children or other family belongings, becomes a mere domestic drudge or
machine, with no higher aims than are contained in the general ordering
of household business. Love,--the miraculous touchstone which turns
everything to gold,--is driven out of the circle of Life with the
result that Life itself grows weary of its present phase, and makes
haste to seek another more congenial. Hence proceeds what we call age
and death."
I was about to interrupt by an eager question--but he silenced me by a
gesture.
"Your position," he went on--"from a psychic standard,--which is the
only necessary, because the only lasting attitude,--is that of being
brought into connection with the other half of your spiritual and
immortal Ego,--which means the possession of perfect love, and with it
perfect life. And because this is so great a gift, and so entirely
Divine, influences are bound to offer opposition in order that the Soul
may make its choice VOLUNTARILY. Therefore, when I, and the other
brains acting with me, placed you under our power, we impressed you
with all that most readily shakes the feminine mind--doubt, jealousy,
suspicion, and all the wretched terrors these wretched emotions
engender. We suggested the death of Rafel Santoris as well as his
treachery,--you heard, as you thought, voices behind a wall--but there
were no voices--only the suggestion of voices in your mind. You saw
strange phantoms and shadows,--they had no existence except in so far
as we made them exist and present themselves to your mental vision. You
wandered away into unknown places, so you imagined,--but as a matter of
fact you NEVER LEFT YOUR ROOM!"
"Never left my room!" I echoed--"Oh, that cannot be!"
"It can be, because it is!" he answered me, smiling gravely--"The only
thing in your experience that was REAL was the finding of the book 'The
Secret of Life'--in the purple-draped shrine. Here it is"--and he took
it up from the table on which it lay--"and if you had turned it over a
little more, you would have found this"--and he read aloud--
"'All action is the material result of Thought. Suffering is the result
of THINKING INTO PAIN--disease the result of THINKING INTO WEAKNESS.
Every emotion is the result of wrong or right THINKING, with one
exception--Love. Love is not an Emotion but a Principle, and as the
generator of Life pervades all things, and is all things. Thought,
working WITHIN this Principle, creates the things of beauty and
lastingness,--Thought, working OUTSIDE this Principle, equally creates
the things of terror, doubt, confusion, and destruction. There is no
other Secret of Life--no other Elixir of Youth--no other Immortality!'"
He pronounced the last words with gentle and impressive emphasis, and a
great sweetness and calm filled my mind as I listened.
"I--or I should say we--for four of my Brethren were deeply interested
in you on account of the courage you had shown--we took you up to the
utmost height of endurance in the way of mental terror--and, to our
great joy, found your Soul strong enough to baffle and conquer the
ultimate suggestion of Death itself. You held firmly to the truth that
there is NO death, and with that spiritual certainty risked all for
Love. Now we have released you from our spells!"--and his eyes were
full of kindness as he looked at me--"and I want to know if you
thoroughly realise the importance of the lesson we have taught?"