THE ASTRAL WORLD
When the physical body dies there is an interval between the loss of
consciousness here and the dawning of the astral consciousness. During
that interim a review of the life scenes takes place. Everything between
birth and death passes again through the consciousness, as it thus
pauses in the etheric double, between the life activities of two worlds.
Then peaceful unconsciousness follows, from which the man awakes in the
astral world.
To those accustomed to thinking of the dying as passing to some remote
heaven, where they become angels, it will perhaps sound startling to say
that a dead man is not aware at first that the change we call death has
taken place. Yet that is a common experience. Nor is it at all
remarkable that it should be so with many. We have only to recall the
fact that all physical matter is surrounded and permeated with astral
matter to realize that the physical plane is duplicated in astral
matter. Not only the physical body of the human being but, of course,
every physical object, has its astral duplicate. The dying man loses
consciousness of the physical plane and awakes as from a sleep to the
astral consciousness. He sees then the exact duplicate, in astral
matter, of the familiar scenes he has left behind. He sees, too, his
friends, for their astral bodies are replicas of their physical forms.
And yet, notwithstanding all this there is a difference, though not a
difference that enables him to comprehend what has occurred. He may know
that only yesterday, or what seems to him to have been yesterday, he was
ill and confined to his bed, and was perhaps told that he was about to
die; and now he is not ill; indeed, he never felt so free from aches and
pains in all his life. The pulsing energies and exhilaration of youth
are his again! This mystifies him. He sees his friends and naturally
speaks to them, but gets no reply and finds that he can not attract
their attention. It must be remembered that he can not see their
physical bodies any more than they can see his astral body. Yet he truly
sees them. If a so-called dead man and a living person look at the same
instant at another living person they will both see him, but the latter
sees the physical body while the former sees the astral body that
surrounds and permeates it.
Under these circumstances it is not strange that the new arrival in the
astral world is seized with a feeling of baffling mystery. He is in full
possession of his reasoning faculties, and will power, but there is a
puzzling limitation to his efforts to produce expected results. A
partial analogy may be found in the case of a person suddenly stricken
with aphasia over night. He rises in the morning, dresses, and goes
about his accustomed duties without the slightest suspicion that any
change has come to him until he takes up the morning paper and
discovers that he can not read--that the familiar print simply means
nothing to him!
Of course, in time the living dead man gets adjusted to the new life. He
soon meets others in the astral world who have been there longer and
they, sooner or later, succeed in convincing him that he is not having
an exceptionally vivid dream.
The astral world, as explained in a previous chapter, has seven
subdivisions and the astral body contains matter belonging to each of
them. While we have the physical body the matter of the astral body is
in rapid circulation, every grade of it being constantly represented at
the surface. But when the connection with the material plane is broken,
a rearrangement of the matter of the astral body automatically takes
place (unless it is prevented by an exercise of will power) and the
grossest grade of matter thereafter occupies its surface. Consequently
the consciousness of the man is limited to that subdivision of the
astral world represented by the lowest grade of matter which his astral
body contains at the time of his death. This is a fact the importance of
which it would be difficult to over emphasize, because his after-death
state of consciousness, his joy or sorrow--in short, his temporary
heaven or hell, depends upon his location in the astral world.
There are three, and only three modes of death, or release from the
physical body--by old age, by disease, or by violence. Old age is the
natural and desirable close of the chapter of physical plane experience.
It is most desirable to live to ripe old age and accumulate a large
harvest of experience. To live long and actively is excellent fortune.
It is not well to pass into the astral world with strong physical
desires. As old age comes on the desire forces subside. Most of that
grade of astral matter that is capable of expressing them has slowly
disappeared. Old age represents the most gradual loosening of the life
forces from the material plane, and that has many advantages.
Release from the physical body by disease is next in order of
desirability. It is a quicker and less complete breaking down of the
connection with the physical world. Nevertheless it is a condition in
which much progress may be made in getting free from physical desires,
as those who have had experience with invalids are aware. Desires
usually grow weaker with the progress of the disease that finally ends
in death.
Release from the physical form by violence is, of course, the least
desirable of the three, not merely because it is violence, but for the
much more important reason that sudden death finds the man, as a rule,
with a considerable amount of the lower grades of astral matter in his
astral body.
Whether the death by violence is the result of accident, murder, suicide
or legal execution, the astral plane conditions of consciousness are
alike unfortunate, in that it is sudden death, not the manner of death,
that permits entry upon the astral life before the lower grades of
astral matter have been eliminated from the astral body. This is one
reason why suicide is unfortunate--because it ushers the man into the
astral world with more of the matter of the lower levels in his astral
vehicle than would be there if he had lived out his normal physical
life.
Purgatory is a term often applied to the lowest level of the astral
world. The word is well chosen because it is there that the moral nature
is purged of its impurities. Strong desires cultivated and indulged
during the life in the physical body are eliminated with the gross
astral matter through which alone they can be expressed and, freed to
that extent, the man passes to the next subdivision, and into its higher
state of consciousness.
In the astral life some people linger long on the lower levels while
others know them not at all, but awaken to the blissful consciousness of
the higher subdivisions. Nature is everywhere consistent, grouping
together people of a kind. It is, however, the manner in which one lives
during physical life that determines his happiness or sorrow after
death. The astral body, the seat of the emotions, is, like the physical
body, constantly changing the matter that composes it. An emotion of any
kind expresses itself as a vibration in the matter of the astral body.
If it is a base emotion, such as anger, hatred, lust or cruelty, it
throws into vibration the grossest of the astral body's matter, for only
in that can it be expressed. If it is an exalted emotion, such as love,
sympathy, devotion, courage or benevolence, it affects only the rarer
grades of astral matter, for in them only can such feeling be expressed.
With most people there is a constant mingling of a wide range of
emotions, with a gain in one direction and a loss in another. One who
fortunately understands the law of emotional cause and effect may make
absolutely certain of a comfortable sojourn upon the astral plane after
death. He would make it a rule to watch his emotions and control them,
knowing that each time he indulged a gross one the vibration set up in
his astral body would strengthen and vivify the grossest grade of matter
in it, while pure and exalted emotions would strengthen the higher
grades. Ultimately, the grossest grade, becoming atrophied for the lack
of activity, would drop away from him.
The descriptions of purgatory given by the psychic scientists are
calculated to induce even the reckless to avoid it. If we could bring
together all the vilest men and women now living on the physical plane,
the crudest of murderers, the most besotted drunkards, the vilest
degenerates, the most conscienceless and vindictive fiends of every
description, and huddle them together in hovels reeking with filth, and
let them remain without any outward government, free to prey upon each
other, we should perhaps have a faint comprehension of the reality of
the lowest subdivision of the astral world. But no physical plane
comparison can do it full justice, for we must remember that it is the
emotional world and that the feelings of its inhabitants make its
atmosphere in a way that would here be impossible. Astral matter
instantly and exactly reproduces emotion, so that the fiend or the
sensualist looks exactly what he feels. Even in the unresponsive
physical matter, the evil in a man is often sufficiently expressed to
fill those who behold him with terror. In the astral world every cruel
thought and hideous emotion would express itself in visible form and the
multitudinous emotions welling up in the lower level of the astral
world would be as a loathsome swarm of reptiles gliding through its
horrible life. Add to all that the fact that the hopeless despair of its
denizens gives an atmosphere of utter gloom and desolation, and we have
a hell that leaves no need of other torture to check the course of the
erring soul. And yet there is no suffering that is not self-imposed. It
is both consistent and just that a man should associate with his kind
and look upon himself in others until he grows sick of his own vileness
and cries out in agony of spirit against his own moral offenses. It must
not be assumed that every person dying with considerable matter
belonging to the lower astral level still within his emotional body will
necessarily pass through such experiences. It should never be forgotten
that we are dealing with a matter of the utmost complexity and that even
the most exhaustive description in print would present only a fragment
of the truth. The conditions of consciousness on any subplane vary as
individuals vary. Some people on the lowest astral level are wholly
unconscious of their surroundings. Another variation is that some people
find themselves floating in darkness and largely cut off from others--a
sufficiently undesirable condition, and yet better than the fate of
some. All states of astral consciousness are reactions from previous
good or evil conduct and are, moreover, temporary conditions that will
in time be left behind.
In a different way and at a higher level there may be suffering on the
astral plane that is purifying the nature. Not all offenses against
nature's laws are of so gross a type. There is the abuse of desire and
the violation of conscience that may result in various kinds of regret
and emotional distress. A desire of a refined type strongly built up
upon the physical plane lives with an intenser vitality on the astral
plane after the physical body can no longer gratify it. A glutton and a
miser have strong desires of a very different type. Each of them is
likely to suffer on account of it during the astral life. They need not
dwell upon the lowest level to get a reaction from their folly in the
physical life. We can easily imagine the distress of the glutton in a
world without food. There could be no distress because of hunger, for
the astral body is not, like the physical body, renewed and maintained
by what it consumes. But hunger and the gratification of the sense of
taste are very different things. It is the latter that would trouble the
gormand, and it is said that great suffering, as in the case of the
drunkard, is his lot until the desire gradually disappears because of
the impossibility of its gratification.
The miser represents a subtler form of desire, but his greed for gold
may be quite as intense as that of the glutton for sensual
gratification. The accumulation of money has been the dominant thought
of his life. He has created in his mind a wholly false value for money
and it gives him real pain to part with a dollar of it. Only dire
necessity forces him to spend any portion of his hoard. It is not
difficult to imagine his emotions when he is obliged to leave it behind
and see others spend it freely.
Any kind of a desire that is related to the physical body is without
means of gratification in the astral world and if such desire has been
cultivated until it becomes strong enough to play an important part in
one's life it will certainly give him more or less trouble after the
loss of the physical body. Whether it grows out of an over-refinement
and excess in a natural appetite, as in the case of the epicure, or is
simply an artificial thing that is unrelated to any natural demand, as
in the case of the smoker, the inability to gratify the desire is
equally distressing. The suffering that results could hardly be judged
by what would follow on the physical plane when desire is thwarted, for
in the astral life emotion expresses itself much more intensely.
All of the suffering in the astral world, of whatever type, is the
natural result of the thoughts, emotions and acts during the life on the
physical plane. The astral world is that part of the mechanism for man's
evolution that brings him up with a sharp turn when he is moving in the
wrong direction. He is not being punished. The injurious forces he has
generated are simply reacting upon him. This reaction, that sets him
right, is as certain as in the case of the infant that picks up a live
coal. It is merely less direct, and not so immediate in result, and it
works itself out in a multiplicity of ways. One of the methods of
reaction that helps to stamp out a fault is the automatic repetition of
the unpleasant consequences of wrong doing. The murderer will serve for
a general illustration. In the case of a deliberate, premeditated and
cruel murder, the assassin is moved by such base motives as revenge or
jealousy. The results of these, so far as their frightful consequences
to the victim are concerned, do not in the least tend to deter the
assassin from further deeds of violence. He feels gratified with his
success and is quite satisfied with himself. Only the possibility of
detection and punishment troubles him. If they follow in due course they
will accomplish something in correcting his erroneous views of life. But
they will not be sufficient to register indelibly, in the very nature of
the man, a proper sense of the horror of which he has been guilty. Such
a man can be impressed and his viewpoint changed only by consequences to
himself. It is in the reaction in the astral life of the forces he has
generated here that he gets the lesson that forces in upon his
consciousness the horror inseparable from murder. If he escapes the
physical plane consequences of his deed he will nevertheless come into
contact in the astral world with conditions sufficiently horrible. He
has made a tie with his victim that can not be broken until the scales
of justice are balanced and nature's exaction has been paid to the
uttermost. Just what form of retribution will follow depends, of course,
on the nature of the case. But the reaction is as certain as it is
multiplex. One of its variants is the gruesome experience of always
fleeing from the corpse of the victim, but with the utter impossibility
of a moment's escape. In the case of a murderer who has been
apprehended, tried, condemned and executed, the whole of the tragedy and
its sequel would be, not only lived over in imagination but repeated
automatically, in fact, and worked out in full detail in the plastic
matter of the astral region. Probably few people have the imagination to
comprehend what the murderer feels of apprehension and fear at his trial
when his life is in the balance; or what he suffers while hiding from
justice and making futile efforts to escape the pursuing officers of the
law; or what his emotions are as his hands are tied and he steps upon
the death trap. All this is reproduced in the astral life, repeatedly.
As one whose mind is completely filled with a subject--let us say
something that is the cause of much anxiety--finds it impossible to turn
his attention from it and think of other things, or go to sleep, and is
impelled against his desire to think the matter over and over, so the
assassin is enmeshed in the emotion web of his crime and can not escape
from living and acting it all over and over again until a revulsion of
feeling arouses him to full comprehension of the horror of his crime.
Again it should be said that no attempt is here made to give more than a
very fragmentary description, and a few hints, of the manner in which
the retributory laws of nature work. A writer on the subject should also
be careful that, in pointing out the fact that to certain classes of
offenders against nature's laws severe penalties accrue, the reader does
not get the impression that suffering is the common lot in the astral
life. The truth of the matter is that people who live clean, moderate
lives, and refrain from generating forces that are injurious to others,
will know nothing whatever of the unfortunate side of astral existence.
In the limitations, the vexations, the physical aches and ills, the
poverty, sorrow and suffering of the material plane, most of us are as
near to hell-conditions of existence as we ever will be. The ordinary
man of average morality has so little of the matter of the lowest level
of the astral plane lingering in him that as a rule he would begin his
postmortem existence on the next higher subdivision, which is the
counterpart of the earth's surface. He would therefore have no knowledge
of the hell that exists on the lower level. But that is not at all true
of those who live grossly and freely indulge the emotions of anger,
jealousy, hatred, revenge, and their kindred impulses, that often lead
to violent crimes. It is possible to live the physical life so sanely,
usefully, harmoniously and unselfishly that at the death of the physical
body one will pass almost immediately to a joyous and useful career in
the astral world. But while that is quite possible the unfortunate fact
is that a great many people so color all their emotions with selfishness
that the astral sojourn is unpleasantly affected by it. It is the
emotions that determine the astral life and it is said that if they are
directly selfish they bring the man into conditions on the astral plane
that are very unpleasant.
It must be expected that any idea we may form of the astral life will be
incomplete, and inadequate to give a true conception what it is really
like. Perhaps the most comprehensible of the subplanes is that which
reproduces the physical landscape in astral matter. There the average
man will begin his conscious astral career. If we think of the world as
we know it here and then imagine all that is material to have vanished
from it we shall gain some comprehension of the situation. Eliminate the
necessity of providing food, clothing and shelter and nearly all of the
labor of the race would cease. The tilling of the soil, the mining, the
building, the manufacturing, and the transportation and exchange of the
products of field and factory, constitute nearly the whole of human
activity. In the astral life no food is required and one is clothed with
astral matter from which garments are fashioned almost with the ease and
rapidity of thought. No houses are needed for shelter. The astral body
is not susceptible to degrees of heat and cold, and nothing there
corresponds to our temperatures. There is no division of night and day,
objects being self-luminous and light being perpetual.
If we could drop out of physical life all need of physical labor,
abolish all response to heat or cold, the need of food and houses, and
add unlimited wealth or, to be more exact, give each person the power to
possess all that wealth can confer and much that it can not, we would
have an approach to a conception of the astral world from one viewpoint.
Each one entering the astral life has, of course, a fullness of liberty
and freedom from responsibility that is not instantly comprehensible to
the physical mind. There is nothing whatever that he must do. There is,
however, plenty that he can do if he desires to be active. On the
physical plane many people of wealth travel and amuse themselves with
sight seeing. Thousands of others would do so if it were possible. In
the astral world it is possible and large numbers of people drift
aimlessly about with no particular plans. Multitudes belonging to
various religious sects organize themselves into congregations, build
edifices and spend much time in religious services. Others amuse
themselves building houses and constructing landscapes. It is not at all
necessary, but the old habits live and influence activities.
The average person in the astral world gives himself to idleness and
the enjoyment of the intensified emotions of the astral life just as the
majority of people would do here if it were possible to escape the round
of duties so sternly imposed by their necessities. For a long time the
most of them also make daily visits to the homes they have left behind
on the physical plane. Those who have a strong tie of affection with
some member of the family frequently spend much time lingering around
and going on little journeys about the premises or elsewhere with the
loved one. They understand that the dead person is not perceived by the
living one, but nevertheless they desire to be near. They do not have a
full consciousness of all the living person is thinking and doing, but
they are fully aware of the state of feeling, or emotion, and whether
the living friend is pleasantly or unpleasantly affected by passing
events.
As the astral life becomes more and more familiar to the newly arrived
individual he gets well settled in it and gradually readjusts his
viewpoint to a truer perspective than he has here. As time passes he is
less and less in touch with the affairs of the physical life and finally
loses consciousness of them altogether as he passes on to the higher
levels of the astral world.
But there are many people who have a more serious view of life and who
lose no opportunity of acquiring knowledge, and the astral world, which
is called "the hall of learning" by students of the occult, presents
remarkably good conditions to them. Here we are limited in three
dimensions of matter and hampered by the very narrow range of the
physical senses. In the astral world matter has four dimensions and new
and marvelous avenues of learning open before the student. Those who are
at all interested in music, or art of any kind, find both the field and
the facilities enormously extended. Those who study nature, whether by
directly probing into her secrets or by cleverly combining her
principles into new processes and inventions, have such opportunities as
scientist and discoverer has not dreamed of on this plane. And so for
all the thoughtful and studious there is a life of the most useful and
fascinating kind in the astral world.
But it must not be supposed that the opportunity of usefulness and
progress is only for the studious. There as here the opportunity for
useful work in helping humanity forward is boundless; for while poverty
and disease have disappeared absolutely there is much philanthropic work
of other kinds to be done. People are to be taught, for there, as here,
the majority are sadly in need of knowledge of how to take advantage of
nature's laws for our rapid progress, and how to live in harmony with
them in order to get the greatest happiness from life. But the work to
be done is by no means confined to teaching. The ignorance that makes
the teaching so necessary has brought a great many people into the
unfortunate condition, where immediate assistance is most urgently
needed, and there is such a variety of helplessness that nobody need be
idle.
Because of the false teaching upon the subject of life hereafter, people
are bewildered when they become conscious in the astral life. Many have
had their minds so vividly impressed with the awful fate that awaits
those who are not "saved" before death that they fall into a state of
terror when at last they realize that death has really occurred. Others,
who may or may not be haunted with any such absurd misconceptions, cling
so tenaciously to the physical life when about to leave it that there is
not complete separation between the etheric double and astral body. The
result is that the unfortunate person finds himself cut off from the
physical world and yet not arrived in the astral! Wrapped in a cloud of
etheric matter he drifts for a time in terror of the unknown. Those
among the so-called dead who are kindly enough to rescue the distressed
may come to their relief and give valuable assistance.
Perhaps the commonest thing that engages the attention of the astral
worker is the fear that death brings to most people. They arrive in the
astral world with the feeling that everything is unknown and uncertain.
All preconceived ideas about the life after death have suddenly been
found unreliable and they are afraid of, they know not what. They want
to cling to anybody who knows something of the new world. When we
remember that people are arriving in the astral world by the tens of
thousands daily, even under normal conditions, it is evident that all
who wish to be of service can find plenty to do. No special knowledge of
the astral plane is necessary. Common sense is a sufficient equipment,
in such simple work, for those who desire to be useful instead of giving
the entire time to the pleasures of that world. The work for the astral
helpers ranges upward in complexity, of course, and there is profitable
activity for those with the fullest knowledge and skill. They usually
work in well organized groups and render service of great practical
value.
Life on the astral plane has its end for the same reason that it comes
to a close on the physical plane. Nature's purpose has been accomplished
and the man is ready to go on farther in his evolution. The length of
the astral life varies just as it does in the physical world. Some
physical lives are very long and sometimes only when five scores of
years, or more, have passed does the ego withdraw. Other lives are very
short and scarcely well begun when they unexpectedly come to a close.
There is nevertheless a general average to be found. It is at least
possible to make averages for different classes of people and to say
that a majority of those who are of ordinary health and strength are
likely to attain a stated age, while it is certain that the majority of
those who have such, and such, a physical handicap will lose their
physical bodies when they are much younger. Such general rules may also
be applied to the astral life.
Here a long and alert life is most desirable because the purpose of the
physical plane is to gather experience that shall be transmuted into
wisdom on a higher plane. It is a seed time against a later harvest. But
the astral plane is, for the vast majority of the race, related to the
purgative process. In that life the errors of the physical life are
largely worked out and desires that have grown up like weeds in a garden
are rooted out and the budding virtues are given a chance to grow. It is
a corrective plane, where blunders are checked up and the moral
perspective is re-established. Naturally enough the sooner that can be
done the better. The rule of a long life being most desirable on the
physical plane is, therefore, reversed on the astral plane. It is the
shortest life in the astral world that is the greatest prize, and it
comes to those who have lived the purest and noblest lives while here.
The sooner a man gets through the astral world and begins the reaping of
his harvest on the mental plane, or heaven world, the better it is for
him.
The length of the astral sojourn depends primarily upon the durability
of the astral body and that, in turn, depends upon the kind of a life he
has lived here. Let us suppose that he has lived a very gross and
sensual life. All of the emotions of that type that he indulged built
more gross matter in his astral body and also strengthened and vivified
the lowest grade of matter that was already there. Let us also imagine
that he had an ungovernable temper and frequently gave way to outbursts
of fury; further, that he was cruel and revengeful, seeking and finding
many opportunities of inflicting injuries upon others. Here we have a
case for long life on the lower levels of the astral world.
Let us now consider a different type of man. He lives peacefully and
harmoniously with those about him. He feels strong affection for wife
and children. He has a host of friends because of his cheerful, helpful
and sympathetic attitude toward others. He lives cleanly and thinks
nobly. His mind is kept free from trivialities and his tongue is never
employed in gossip. He makes a determined and persistent effort to
eliminate pride, envy and ambition. He cultivates the habit of thinking
first of the welfare of others and always last of himself--in short,
tries hard to eliminate selfishness and see all things impersonally.
Such a man could know nothing whatever of the disagreeable part of the
astral life and would pass quickly through even the higher subdivisions
and reach the ecstatic happiness of the heaven world.
From the lower subdivisions a man rises very gradually to the higher. He
remains on a given level so long as is required to eliminate the matter
of that level from his astral body. He is then immediately conscious on
the next higher level. The grosser matter falls away because the man has
at last stopped sending his life force through it. Ungratified desire
has finally worn itself out and he is free. The process can be greatly
hastened or retarded by the man's attitude toward life. If he foolishly
dwells upon his desires, he gives new vitality and prolonged life to
them. If he can resolutely turn his mind to higher things he hastens his
release. His fate is in his own hands, and he is fortunate indeed if he
has a knowledge of such matters.
One who dies in advanced years will pass more rapidly through the astral
world than he would have done had he died in the full strength of
manhood. As the years accumulate the emotions that vivify the lowest
grades of astral matter are not so much in evidence and the matter in
which they are expressed loses its vitality. That is an additional
reason why it is desirable to live to old age in the physical world.
The hold that the material world has upon the mind is one of the causes
which greatly prolong existence in the astral world. Some people give
their time and thought so exclusively to material things that after
they lose the physical body they cannot keep the mind away from the life
that lies behind them. This difficulty does not necessarily arise wholly
from having given one's energies entirely to personal ambition and
material accumulation. Sometimes the ruler of a country is so determined
to still manage affairs, as far as possible, that this vivid interest in
the physical world stretches out the period of astral life most
unfortunately.
Ordinarily one's sojourn in the astral world is comparatively short, if
we measure it in the terms of physical life. A person who has lived here
seventy years may have thirty or forty years on the astral plane. But
that will depend not only upon how he lived the physical life just
closed but also upon his general position in human evolution. A savage
of low type would have a comparatively long astral life while a man at
the higher levels of civilization would have a comparatively short
period there, while the man in the lower levels of civilized life might
be said to come in at about midway between the two. But it must be
remembered that these are very general estimates and that among
civilized peoples individuals differ enormously. Some will pass very
slowly and, so far as lower levels are concerned, painfully, through
astral life, while the sojourn of others there is measured in minutes,
and they pass happily and almost instantaneously from physical death to
the heaven world. But such people are the exception, not the rule.
Communication with those who have passed on into the astral world is
possible, but not always desirable, for a number of reasons. As an
evidence of the continuity of consciousness in the hands of the
scientific investigator, such communications have been of the greatest
value. As a consolation to those who have thus come again in touch with
dead friends such messages have been of inestimable value to the
bereaved, particularly when they have been received in the privacy of
the family circle by some of its members. For a time those who have lost
the physical body are usually within easy reach through the usual
methods employed for the purpose and perhaps no harm is done by such
communications unless they arouse anew the grief of those who have been
left behind and thus greatly depress the departed. But after the living
dead get farther along, and are practically out of touch with the
material world, then directing their attention backward may be
positively injurious to them. For that reason careful students of the
occult seldom seek to obtain messages, or at least do it with proper
consideration for all the circumstances of the particular case.
Due regard for the interests of those who have passed on, as well as for
those who remain, requires that all the facts be given full weight. The
truth of the matter is that it is our keen sense of loss that gives rise
to the desire for a message of some sort. We long to once more get into
touch with one that seems to be lost to us. We are not really thinking
much about his welfare. As a matter of fact he has not lost sight of us
and does not have our sense of separation. Not only is he able to see us
at all times and be conscious of our feelings and emotions, but during
the hours when we are asleep he is in the fullest and freest
communication with us and we with him. On awakening we usually have no
memory of this and if we do we think it was a dream. But it is not so
with him. His memory of it is perfect and the result is that he has not
our sense of separation and loss at all.
The result of knowledge upon the subject, that is readily gained by a
study of the researches of the skilled occultists, is that one comes to
feel that one should rest satisfied with the fact that we do converse
with the dead nightly, and leave mediumistic communications to the
scientific investigators. The natural order of things is that the person
who passes into the astral world shall in time fix his mind exclusively
upon the inner life and be completely divorced from physical plane
affairs. That is the mental and emotional condition which permits of his
rapid passage through levels where he should not linger. It is said that
to turn his attention backward at this time may cause him acute
distress.
A reading of the Christian scriptures with a knowledge of occultism
often throws a new light upon the subject. An instance of this is to be
found in the story of the woman of Endor who is visited by Saul in his
quest for psychic information about the crisis that has been reached in
the affairs of his kingdom. The woman went into trance and acted as a
medium for a communication from Samuel, who tells Saul just what will
occur in the impending battle. Samuel's first words were a reproach to
Saul. "Why hast thou disquieted me to bring me up?"[F] was his greeting.
It is the language of one who is displeased. Drawing his attention
forcibly back to the material world by the strong desire Saul had to
communicate with him was evidently distressing to the dead king, hence
the rebuke, "Why hast thou _disquieted_ me?"
What is here said on the subject of communication, however, has
reference to general principles only. There is no intention of
suggesting that it is always undesirable to communicate with those who
have passed over. Often those on the other side seek means of
communicating and they should then find the most willing co-operation
from this side. Sometimes one who has left the physical plane life has a
message of great importance to deliver and such a case reverses the
general rule--he would be delayed if he could _not_ communicate. It
would be decidedly to his advantage to free his mind of the matter.
Until he has done so he may remain in a restless condition and his case
falls into the category of what the spiritualists call "earth bound." He
may have left undone something that a message will set right, if he can
get it through, or he may have secreted something that cannot be found
because he died suddenly and had no opportunity to speak of it. Or it
may simply be a case of desiring to prove to materialistic friends the
fact that the so-called dead are not dead, and are close at hand. It is
sometimes possible for the important information to come through into
physical life in the form of a dream by the living, and thus the
recovery of valuables has followed.[G] In such a case the dream is a
memory of facts well known in astral life but hidden from the waking
consciousness by the unresponsive material brain.
It sometimes happens that one who thus most earnestly desires to
communicate but is wholly ignorant of how to accomplish his purpose
causes a good deal of annoyance. His blundering attempts to use psychic
force may be wholly abortive and result only in meaningless noises,
raps, the tumbling of books or dishes from shelves or the aimless
movement of furniture. Annoyance is sometimes caused also by intention,
on the part of those who think it is humorous to play pranks. It must be
remembered that passing on to the astral life does not improve one's
common sense. If while living here, he thought it amusing to astonish or
delude somebody, or trick a friend into seriously accepting some absurd
assertion as a fact, he still regards the same course as entertaining.
This accounts for many of the foolish, and sometimes startling messages,
or answers to questions, received at seances.
It has often been asked why, if communication between the physical and
astral planes is possible, we do not receive information that might lead
to valuable discoveries and inventions. The very fact that death does
not confer wisdom explains it in part. But an even more important fact
is that communication is easy with the lower levels and correspondingly
difficult as the higher levels are reached. All who have had much
experience with seances are familiar with the fact that "guides" or
"controls," that is, the persons in the invisible realms who direct the
seance and frequently speak through the medium, are very often Indians
or others at a low level of evolution. The majority of the inhabitants
of the astral levels with which communication is easy are not the type
capable of furnishing ideas of any great value. It is on the higher
levels that the man of intellectual power passes most of his astral
life. The scientist or the inventor who has given so much thought to his
work that he has been in some degree successful here is not likely to
have much consciousness on lower levels. It is the highest of the seven
subdivisions of the astral world that is the habitat of the person who
has followed intellectual pursuits, during physical life, and with that
level it is practically impossible for the ordinary medium to
communicate.
One of the objections to indiscriminate communication with the astral
plane lies in the very fact that the lowest class of entities are most
accessible. That not only accounts for the commonplace messages in such
abundance, but it is frequently a source of actual danger, especially
where people form "circles" for the purpose of rendering themselves more
sensitive to psychic influences. In such cases it is common to accept
every message as absolute truth. There is no doubt that as a rule the
astral people in charge of such a gathering are earnest and honest. But
they are neither all-wise nor all-powerful, and it sometimes comes about
that some of the sitters are partially or wholly obsessed by astral
entities, and that may prove to be an exceedingly serious matter. Some
people have thus lost their sanity and others their lives.
It is, of course, only the gross type of astral person who has a desire
to seize upon the physical body of another. The purpose is to gratify
desires that have outlived the physical body. The dead drunkard is
perhaps the commonest example of the obsessing entity, and if the
obsession is only partial it may lead to nothing worse than strong and
perhaps irresistible impulses toward alcoholic stimulation. Obsession
may, of course, occur without the psychic door being opened
deliberately. But no obsession is possible, in any case, unless there is
something within the victim responsive to the moral defect of the
obsessing entity.
Partial obsessions are rather common and there are frequent inquiries as
to the best means of treating such a case. It may amount only to the
slight annoyance of astral people hanging about and refusing to depart
or to actual persecution. In all such cases the victim is, of course, in
conscious touch and communication with the intruders. One of the world's
greatest authorities on the subject, who is a constant investigator of
the unseen regions, has given detailed answer to two questioners, and
what he says is of such practical value that it is well worth
reproducing. The second question itself is enlightening as to the
character of the obsessing entities. The first inquirer asks:
"What is the best way to get rid of an excarnate human
being who persists in occupying one's body?"
The reply follows:
"I should simply and absolutely decline to be so obsessed.
The best and kindest plan would be to have an explanation
with the dead person, to enquire what he wants and why he
makes such persistent attempts. Quite probably, he may be
some ignorant soul who does not at all comprehend his new
surroundings, and is striving madly to get into touch again
with the only kind of life that he understands. In that
case if matters are explained to him, he may be brought to
a happier frame of mind and induced to cease his
ill-directed efforts. Or the poor creature may have
something on his mind--some duty unfulfilled or some wrong
unrighted; if this be so, and the matter can be arranged to
his satisfaction, he may then be at peace.
"If, however, he proves not to be amenable to reason, if in
spite of all argument and explanation he refuses to abandon
his reprehensible line of action, it will be necessary
gently but firmly to resist him. Every man has an
inalienable right to the use of his own vehicles, and
encroachments of this nature should not be permitted. If
the lawful possessor of the body will confidently assert
himself and use his own willpower no obsession can take
place.
"When such things occur, it is almost always because the
victim has in the first place voluntarily yielded himself
to the invading influence, and his first step therefore is
to reverse that act of submission, to determine strongly to
take matters into his own hands again and to resume control
over his property. It is this reassertion of himself that
is the fundamental requirement, and though much help may be
given by wise friends, nothing which they can do will take
the place of the development of willpower on the part of
the victim, or obviate the necessity for it. The exact
method of procedure will naturally vary according to the
details of the case."
The same authority answers another question on the same subject and he
is here dealing with particular entities that he has evidently seen:
"I have long been troubled by entities who constantly
suggest evil ideas and make use of coarse and violent
language. They are always urging me to take strong drink,
and goading me on to the consumption of large quantities of
meat. I have prayed earnestly, but with little avail, and
am driven to my wits' end. What can I do?"
To this appeal the psychic scientist replies:
"You have indeed suffered greatly; but now you must make up
your mind to suffer no more. You must take courage and make
a firm stand. The power of these dead people over you is
only in your fear of them. Your own will is stronger than
all theirs combined if you will only know that it is; if
you turn upon them with vigor and determination they must
yield before you. You have an inalienable right to the
undisturbed use of your own vehicles, and you should insist
on being left in peace. You would not tolerate an intrusion
of filthy and disgusting beings into your house on the
physical plane; why should you submit to it because the
entities happen to be astral? If an insolent tramp forces
himself into a man's house, the owner does not kneel down
and pray--he kicks the tramp out; and that is precisely
what you must do with these astral tramps.
"You will no doubt say to yourself that when I give you
this advice I do not know the terrible power of the
particular demons who are afflicting you. That is exactly
what they would like you to believe--what they will try to
make you believe; but do not be so foolish as to listen to
them. I know the type perfectly, and mean, despicable,
bullying villains they are; they will torment a weak woman
for months together, but will fly in cowardly terror the
moment you turn upon them in righteous anger! I should just
laugh at them, but I would drive them out, hold not a
moment's parley with them. Of course, they will bluster and
show fight, because you have let them have their own way
for so long that they will not tamely submit to expulsion;
but face them with iron determination, set your will
against them like an immovable rock, and down they will go.
Say to them: 'I am a spark of the divine fire, and by the
power of the God within me I order you to depart!' Never
let yourself think for an instant of failure or of
yielding; God is within you, and God cannot fail."[H]
Probably there is no astral subject of more vital importance to any of
us than that of the right attitude of mind and emotion toward the living
dead. It is commonly said that we can do nothing more for them when they
have passed away from physical plane life, but a greater error could not
easily be made. The connection with us is by no means severed. Not only
are they emotionally in touch with us but their emotions are very much
keener than when they had a physical body through which to express them.
They are now living in the astral body, the matter of which is
enormously more responsive to emotional vibrations. A joyous emotion
here would be tremendously more joyous there and a thing that would
produce depression here would be a hundred times more depressing there.
That fact should give pause to those who are inclined to think in
sorrow, and with something of despair, about their friends who have
passed on. They are not far away in space and our emotions affect them
profoundly and instantly.
We are all familiar with the fact that moods are communicable. The
person who is cheerful cheers up others in his vicinity, while the one
who is gloomy spreads gloom wherever he goes. It is a simple matter of
vibrations. It is often within the power of a member of the family who
habitually has "the blues" to destroy the happiness of the entire
household. If we think of the most depressing effect that can be caused
by sorrow on the physical plane, and then multiply its effectiveness by
a hundred, we shall have no exaggeration of the astral effects of the
emotions we indulge in the physical body. If, then, the sorrow of a
weeping relative distresses us here it is clear that it must bring
really keen distress to the one who is the subject of such grief. His
life may thus be made miserable by the very persons who would be the
last to cause him sorrow if they understood what they were doing.
We can really help the so-called dead and make them very much happier by
simply changing our mournful attitude toward them. All violent
expressions of grief should be avoided and a determination to make the
best of the matter should be cultivated. The situation may indeed be
bad, but we make it very much worse by our mourning. The funeral customs
of Occidental civilization are quite consistent with its materialism. We
act as nearly as possible as though we believe the dead are lost to us
absolutely. We make matters as gloomy as possible. Yet we are slowly
improving. Not so very long ago when anybody died those present stopped
the ticking of the clock, drew down the window curtains, moved about on
tiptoe, and acted generally in a way calculated to add as much as
possible to the awe and the gloom. We still wear somber and depressing
black and add all we can externally to our inward distress.
A more sensible attitude of mind may be observed at any theosophical
funeral and, with growing frequency, at the funerals among thinking
people. A funeral should not be the occasion of a final expression of
grief, but a gathering of friends who send kindly thoughts and helpful
good wishes to the comrade whose life work in the physical world is
finished. The general feeling should be very much like that of a party
of friends who go to the pier to see a well loved traveler off on a long
journey to remote parts of the earth for a sojourn of many years or
possibly a lifetime. There should be constant thought of his welfare,
not of the loss to his friends. Grief that thinks of itself is an
expression of selfishness and is detrimental to all. One should practice
self control in such a matter just as one would control a feeling of
anger under different circumstances.
Naturally enough the control of grief when one we love has passed on is
none to easy. But any degree of success is much better than no effort,
and will certainly help the one for whom we mourn. Much can be
accomplished by avoiding unnecessary incidents that bring vividly back
the keen sense of loss. Many people indulge the foolish custom of
regularly visiting the cemetery where the body has been interred. A
little analysis will show that this is only another evidence of our
materialistic modes of thought, and the custom serves to perpetuate
emotions that should never have existed. We can not, of course, think
too often nor too tenderly of those who have passed on, but we should
do nothing that leads us to think of them as being dead, or being far
away. The fact that they are alive and well and happy and near should
constantly fill the mind; and all of that, in nearly all cases, will be
perfectly true if we do not foolishly destroy their peace of mind with
our selfish sorrow.
Occasionally a hint on the subject comes from the astral plane people
themselves. In the recent book[I] by Sir Oliver Lodge, on his
experiments in psychic research, there is a message from his son, who
was killed in battle, agreeing to attend the family Christmas dinner and
to occupy the chair placed for him, provided they will all refrain from
gloomy thoughts about him! No one who is informed on the subject of
emotional reaction on the astral body, after the loss of the physical
body, could be surprised by the conditions named by the young man.
The advocates of cremation have a strong argument in the fact that the
preservation of the body for a time, whether in a tomb or a grave, tends
to keep grief alive. When the body is reduced to ashes the delusion that
the body is somehow the man seems to have less of a material basis.
Visits to a tomb or grave are unfortunate, not alone because they renew
grief through thinking upon it and thus cause great distress to those
for whom we mourn, but also because the environment of a cemetery is one
of the worst possible for the sorrowing. It is a dismal park of
concentrated griefs where each mourner accentuates the emotional
distress of all others. There is but one sensible attitude to take
toward those we have lost by death--to think of them as living a joyous,
busy life and at least calling on us daily even though most of us are
not sensitive enough to be conscious of the fact. We should try to
realize the truth of the matter and then readjust our habits to fit the
facts. The average person who is afflicted with the erroneous ideas
still so common, is doing an enormous amount of injury and bringing into
the lives of the very people he loves a depression of which he little
dreams, and which he can change to vivid pleasure by always thinking
cheerfully of them and sending them daily thoughts of serenity and
peace.
FOOTNOTES:
[F] 1 Samuel XXVIII--15.
[G] Ch. 3, Dreams and Premonitions.--L. W. Rogers.
[H] The Inner Life.--Leadbeater, Vol. I. p. 483.
[I] Raymond: or Life and Death.--Lodge.