•w ■^•V *v* <5> "• \/ 3B£ V** V *i #o - <^ *■ v. ay * .*\^.% •^ ** .»* .0' sJ°* %,♦♦ ^a& x/ /jife'- %<** .«& % «? ^ 9 %. '.• ^\ ++# ^6< • **SXts-»T^ o >, •...• .«*• * /. ^ Jfrom incarnation to He-incarnation RICHARD INGALESE and ISABELLA INGALESE THE OCCULT BOOK CONCERN PUBLISHERS 9 to 15 Murray Street New York City LIBRARY of CONGRESS Twe Cepies Received MAR 8 1904 ^ Copyright Efltry ^ 0<\ \4 Copyright 1904 By Richard Ingalese Watkins Press New York i TO STUDENTS OF TRUTH EVERYWHERE 'New occasions teach new duties: Time makes ancient good uncouth ; They must upward still, and onward, who would keep abreast of Truth ; Lo, before us gleam her camp-tires ! we ourselves must Pilgrims be, Launch our May£ower, and steer boldly through the desperate winter sea, Nor attempt the Future's portals with the Past's blood rusted key.' 1 PREFACE In taking up a new study, or in extending an old one, a person is frequently confronted with views which may not harmonize with his preconceptions. In this course of lectures there is much which disagrees with the now accepted theological (often mistakenly called "religious"), social and scientific opinions and theories. A liberal and progressive man, without bias, will exam- ine new ideas before passing judgment upon them. We therefore expect each student to withhold judg- ment until the end of the Course and until he is satis- fied that he understands the presentation of the Occult Philosophy. The Course naturally divides itself into two parts, Anthropology and Cosmogony. The former, being more within the realm of common knowledge and ex- perience, will naturally appeal more quickly to the general reader than will the latter. It must be admit- ted, however, that modern science is sadly at sea con- cerning Cosmogony, since it offers several conflicting theories concerning the same. Most religionists have abandoned the Cosmogony of Genesis as it is commonly interpreted and understood. In the absence, therefore, of what the world usually regards as authoritative teach- ings on the subject, the Cosmogony of Occultism may supply at least a working hypothesis which is both as scientific and philosophic as is that offered by either modern science or religion. To those who can accept the Anthropology herein contained, but not the Cosmogony, we — like Galileo, who attempted to teach the construction and order of the Universe to the learned men of his time — can but assert the truth, praying the unconvinced reader, as he did the Grand Duke, "to consider it as mere poetry, or as a dream; nevertheless, as the poets sometimes set value upon their fancies, so I likewise have a certain esteem for this my novelty." We recommend the student to observe the following method of study as far as possible: Read slowly the entire lecture and then read all references cited in the lecture. Afterward re-read the entire lecture in view of such side lights. Divide the lecture into seven or several portions, and read one portion each day; and meditate upon the portion read. Those who will ob- serve this suggestion will find much more in the Course than will those who do not. This Course is intended to act as a door through which the man or mind enters the current of Philo- sophic Truth in the Divine Consciousness, which will Itself instruct and illumine each individual mind accord- ing to its desire and ability to receive enlightenment. The citation to pages in "The History and Power of Mind" refer to the paging of the second edition. By adding (i) to the pages cited between 31 and 119 inclusive, and (2) to all pages between 120 and 284 inclusive, the same reference may be found in the first edition. In both editions the paging is the same be- tween 1 and 30. There is nothing original on the part of the under- signed in the Philosophy set forth in this Course. Being true, it has always existed. If it appeals to you as true, accept it, and if you accept it solemnly resolve to live up to it. If it does not appeal to you as true, then you at least have the satisfaction of knowing that you have become acquainted with the Oldest Philosophy in the World, and one which has been handed down literally from time immemorial. We hold ourselves responsible for the correct pres- entation of the Philosophy as it was taught to us, and assert that our experiences and observations during a long period of study of Occultism — fifteen and thirty years respectively — verify its truth. R. I. AND I. I. February 1st, 1904. CONTENTS Chapter Page Introduction I. The Relation of Sex ... 7 II. Marriage . . . . . .31 III. Parenthood ..... 59 IV. Physical and Psychic Development . 89 V. Mental and Spiritual Development . 117 VI. Focusing Forces . . . . 141 VII. Mental Repulsion . . . .167 VIII. Mental Attraction ... 193 IX. Death 221 X. After Death .... 249 FROM INCARNATION TO RE-INCARNATION. LECTURE ONE. THE RELATION OF SEX. Before the beginning of Cosmic Day, and before "God created the heavens and the earth," the Father- Mother, the Creating and the Fructifying, the Giving and the Receiving, the Positive and Negative, the Male and Female aspects of the Universal Principle existed. While the darkness of the last Cosmic Night pre- vailed throughout the Universe, and while the Elohim or Planetary Spirits were sub-consciously resting in the bosom of the Infinite, God said : "Let there be light," and the Positive Divine Force went instantly forth from the great Cosmic Heart into the silent, negative Ether ; vibration began, and the first morning of our Cosmic Day was born. 1 When our World was in a subjective, vaporous con- dition — an irregular, shapeless mass of burning gases — the Universal Principle called forth from the Ether, in which all things subjectively reposed, the different ele- x The History and Power of Mind, pp. 36-43; 101-105. 8 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. ments which combined and solidified and produced the mineral kingdom of our Earth. And after her creation was completed and her orbit in the heavens established, for ages she still remained in a negative condition, re- ceptive only to the restless, surging Father Force — the sea — which covered, magnetized and enriched, and made it possible for her to "bring forth" and to bear upon her capacious bosom the vegetable and animal creations which she had conceived in the darkness and the silence. Then again was Divine Will put into operation, and the waters were "gathered together unto one place," in order that the dry land — the Mother Earth — should appear and "bring forth." And when she had clothed herself in this beautiful verdure she concealed beneath her green mantle the precious stones and rich minerals which had been created within her in the beginning of her existence. But nothing in all the Universe was created in vain, and it was not intended by the Uni- versal Principle that these mineral riches should be thus and forever hidden. They, with all the various fauna and flora, were placed in readiness to be made subject to the wills of the Sons of God when they should come and desire to appropriate them. As many more ages as Mother Earth had lain dor- mant under the sea did she require to evolve from her animal kingdom a form with brain of sufficient vibra- tory power to enable it to receive from the Universal The Relation of Sex. 9 Principle the Divine Spark which would lead and en- lighten it throughout the ages to come. And when this triumph had been gained and this animal man stood erect and walked upon two feet instead of four, he knew very little about himself and nothing about his source. But, "One day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day/' and, after what would seem to men of the present age as an almost in- terminable length of time, the law of Evolution, which is God's will operating in every living thing, brought to the Earth and to each of her animal men a subjective mind or soul to work out a double purpose. 1 First, to gain for itself greater strength and power by contacting with a material world of a lower rate of vibration than its own; and, second, to subject and raise animal man to a higher point of development. When these subjective minds or souls first came to Earth they knew nothing of sex or of things sensory or sensual. But each had indeed been created in the image of God and was a part of the Father-Mother Principle; therefore each of these subjective minds pos- sessed both a positive and negative side to its nature. In the realm where these souls had dwelt before coming to earth 2 this complexity in each had caused no 1 The History and Power of Mind, pp. 64-72. "The former as well as the future planetary homes of the soul will be discussed in the proposed course "Cosmogony and Evolu- tion." 10 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. inharmonious conditions, since there had been no trials to endure and no temptations to resist. Existence there had been a blissful, beautiful dream. But when these Sons of God came to this world and "saw the daughters of men," the animal forms which had been raised to receive them for their lords, each soul was forced to make its selection, and it was then that the sex question with all its ramifications and mystifications arose. Acting according to its natural tendencies, the posi- tive part of each of these subjective minds was attracted toward the masculine animal form, while the negative part of each mind, by reason of its nature, was attracted toward the female animal form. This caused dissen- sion, and war was declared in the heaven of each indi- vidual soul. Then came the first divorce ever granted upon this earth, and God gave one to each of His Sons. It came through the Courts of Evolutionary Law, of which the divorce courts of the present day are but remote ramifications. These first divorces, like those of the present day, were given for the purpose of permitting each Son of God to work out his salvation in his own way ; in other words, to give him free will. And since there were more animal forms than there were Sons of God to in- carnate in them, it was expedient that these incarnating souls should divide into halves, each half taking a form somewhat in conformity with its own nature ; in order The Relation of Sex. 11 that the new evolutionary scheme should be carried out in a shorter time than it had been in former periods. When the war of souls was ended and each subjective mind or soul had become accustomed to the new order of things, it was delighted with its conditions. It found the earth a garden filled with flowers and trees, with which its taste for the beautiful could be gratified. There were also delicious fruits with which its appetite could be pleased and satisfied. And there were silver and gold and precious stones with which its person and its abiding place could be adorned. Everything was here that could please the eye and gratify the senses, and then to each soul came the desire for individual possessions and great accumulation of material things. Man's original vibrations began to grow more and more gross until the beautiful subjective blue which had characterised his innocence deepened into the darkest shade of a selfish myrtle green. The animal nature which he had espoused and which he came to rule rose in its desires and ruled him. He became enveloped in the dark red vibrations of its animal passions, and the combination of the selfish green vibrations with the sexual red drew him into the lowest depths of those two currents. 1 He sank lower than the animals be- cause he had enough of the Divine Principle within him to give him reasoning power, and by aid of this he 'The History and Power of Mind, pp. 135-136; 228-230. 12 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. could better accomplish his purposes than could the animals. This was "The Fall of Man/' "The Original Sin," "The Fall from Grace," etc. But Divine Principle never goes backward. It is constantly pushing onward and upward; and although sometimes, from a narrow point of view, it seems that men and things are degen- erating and retrograding beyond all hope of recovery, still it is only seeming and not real. When the subjective man plunged from his realm of innocence and inexperience into the experiences of this earth, he was negatively good. He had never been tempted and had never come into contact with any- thing of a lower rate of vibration than his own. He was pure because his environment had been pure. He was an infant soul entering in upon a new state of existence. Because he had not experienced it, he did not know that indulgences in sexual excesses would ruin his body. Neither did he know that his generative organs had been made for the purpose of creating new human bodies for other souls or egos to incarnate in. As it has always been with every race at every great period of time since man came to live upon this planet, the first egos who came to incarnate were the stronger ones, and possessed more persistence and endurance than did those who came later. This was a necessity in order that each new race should have its pioneers, The Relation of Sex. 13 its strong men to do the heavy work and to prepare the way for the weaker ones who must follow after them. J^When these pioneer men were struggling to overcome the wild beasts of the forests and jungles and to prepare places for themselves to live, their forces went into physical labor, and they had not the time nor the in- clination to yield themselves to sexual excesses, to the same extent that those who followed them did. But as time passed the weaker souls incarnated in greater numbers. And when they could enjoy more comforts and luxuries than their progenitors, without the same efforts to obtain them, the morals of the peoples be- came more and more corrupted; and men and women began making the fearful mistake of thinking that their generative organs were created for the sole purpose of gratifying their own sexual, animal desires, and for the amusement and entertainment of their friends. They indulged themselves in every sexual excess that the human mind could devise until the time came to pay the penalty of attempting to break the Law of Being. Then men's magnificent physical strength began leav- ing them; they grew weak and ill and commenced to suffer the pains and aches and diseases which must necessarily follow upon those acts which drain the sys- tem of its precious, vital creative fluids. Then the physical bodies of the offspring began to manifest weaknesses inherited from their parents. 'There were giants in the earth in those days," but 14 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. gradually the physical stature of the races grew less and the "Samsons" were fewer and farther apart, until in the course of a great number of re-incarnations or generations the original man who had in the beginning of his race stood ten or twelve feet in height became reduced in stature to six or eight feet and his physical strength decreased in proportion. But Divine Law never leaves Its children without object lessons constantly before their eyes, and if they will but take cognizance of those lessons and profit by them much suffering for the races would be avoided. Around men on every side was operating the law of attraction and repulsion ; they saw its effects, but did not look for the causes. In their experience with the mineral kingdom they learned how to combine such minerals as were magnetically attracted toward each other and became quite skillful in making for themselves ornaments composed of such amalgamations as they desired and admired. They knew that the sex principle — which is but a higher expression of the law of attrac- tion and repulsion — manifested in all organized life; and they also knew that there were no sexual excesses or abuses committed among the creatures of a lower grade of intelligence than themselves. Yet still they remained willfully blind to this great truth which Divine Law was gradually trying to force upon them through suffering: that the relation of sex in the human family should not be a promiscuous relation, The Relation of Sex. 15 and that the generative organs of man could not be prostituted without dire results to the prostitutor. According to the Divine Law, the union of the sexes should never take place without the desire of both the male and the female who participate in that union ; and the desire should never be stimulated by anything but by the mutual magnetic attraction of each toward the other. Pictures which stimulate the passions, wines, liquors, drugs or highly spiced foods which befog the brain or produce unnatural and inordinate desires, should be abolished from civilized life, because the progressing man and woman cannot afford to have their development retarded by the use of them. During the perfect sex union of normal human bodies there is an exchange of magnetic force which is strengthening both to the physical bodies and to the minds of each. This exchange of magnetic force is due to the fact that the generative organs of the male and female act upon each other as do the opposite poles of an electrical instrument. A perfect circuit is made between the two bodies, and at the point of direct contact heat, power and life are generated. Then the nerves and blood absorb this electric fluid which flows from one body to the other and they be- come electrified and strengthened; and with an elec- trified and strengthened body the mind gains power. The primary use, however, of the union of sex is for the production of physical bodies for other egos to in- 16 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. carnate in. It is a sacred privilege to become the father and mother of another divine soul's earthly ve- hicle, and the generative organs of men and women should be kept sacred to the uses for which the Great Consciousness intended them. 1 Abuse of these organs leads to the degradation of the abuser because it is either a conscious or an unconscious blasphemous act against the Highest and most Sacred Law of Divine Principle. For the perpetration of this crime man will continue to be punished so long as he continues to transgress, and the punishment is of his own creation and he al- ways precipitates it upon himself. Prostitution of the generative organs of mankind is the most far reaching and the most stupendous of all the mistakes he makes. It is the most difficult of all to correct because of the subtle influences which surround him. The false teachings of past ages must be met and overcome ; his social environment affects him adversely, as does also his belief that the forgiveness of sins will remove the consequences of his acts. Then, too, often connubial influences are brought to bear upon him which he be- lieves he cannot ignore. But the time has come when the law must be recognized and obeyed, and a further discussion of it will be given in the lectures on "Mar- riage" and on "Parenthood." There came a time with every race when it was al- most impossible to find positive virtue in either sex. ^he History and Power of Mind, pp. 89-90. The Relation of Sex. 17 If a pure soul came to dwell among those people it re- ceived nothing but persecution, abuse and sometimes crucifixion, for attempting to live to a higher standard of morality than that of his time. And when the races became so corrupted that they constantly despised purity and loved impurity, then there was nothing that Divine Law could do to help their condition but to permit a cataclysm or a holocaust to sweep them off the earth, in order to begin a new period of evolution. When we stand among the ruins of old Nineveh and trace the broken outlines of her immense proportions and realize that it was only about four thousand years ago that she was in the height of her glory, conquering and enslaving every other nation and tribe of men who dared exist within her mighty reach, we wonder what could have brought that great city and the powerful nation of which she was the capital to this condition of ruin and almost utter oblivion. For it is only by studying the now nearly obliterated inscriptions left upon her broken pillars and by piecing together her ancient tablets that we are able to learn anything about her. Among the remains of her once beautiful palaces and walls there are still to be found indications of the great skill of her workmen ; and since all this is but the materialized expression of the power of those ancient men's minds, we must acknowledge that in power of concentration and creation they were equal if not supe- rior to many men of our present day. 18 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation, Where is there to be found anything that our present race has created which required the time, the effort and the patience to build that the great wall surrounding Nineveh required? It stood, a solid piece of masonry, fifty feet in thickness, one hundred and fifty feet in height, and eight miles in length, and was at once a roof garden and a speedway, enclosing an area of one thousand and eight hundred acres of land comprising the city. It was built to give pleasure to kings and princes, who, while testing the speed of their horses upon it, enjoyed a fine view of the surrounding coun- try; and it also made the city unapproachable and for a long time invincible to its enemies who wished to de- stroy it. Within that great enclosure were palaces of such im- mense proportions that the buildings of the present day in many respects seem almost insignificant when com- pared with them. Not in height, perhaps, did those great piles of stone exceed our own, but in depth, breadth and thickness. Their massive pillars and stair- ways, their entrances, their corridors and their audience rooms were built upon a vastly larger scale than any- thing the peoples of the present day have yet at- tempted. But those marble halls where dwelt the kings and princes of that remote past are now nothing but huge ash heaps. The magnificent apartments where the noble lords and ladies of those ancient days were born, The Relation of Sex. 19 grew to manhood and womanhood, danced, sang, told tales of love, wooed, wedded and died, are now reduced to dust and debris. Not a living thing may be seen in all that place of desolation except, perhaps, after night- fall, from some crevice or pit the gleaming eyes of a wild beast may peer out at the belated traveler; and after the sun goes down nothing may be heard to break that awful stillness except the growl of a savage brute or the call of a night-bird. All the mighty men of valor who once lived in that now ruined city are gone, and not a descendant is left alive to-day to tell the tale of his forefathers' strength and power. But there are legends to be found con- cerning those Ninevite heroes, and it is through these legends we learn that their kings were warlike and their conquering soldiery made the earth tremble with their tremendous power. The same ferocity which they manifested in the pursuit and destruction of wild beasts they also exhibited in hunting their fellow men ; and the dead of their vanquished foes they contemptu- ously trampled into the dust under their horses' feet. But when these great wars were ended, by reason of the fact that the surrounding nations and tribes which were accessible had been conquered and enslaved, the Ninevite kings and princes became weary of war and began yielding to the sensuousness and sensuality which comes to all wealthy and prosperous nations. They commenced feasting and dancing, wearing rich 20 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. garments and fine jewels, and indulging in great sexual excesses. The later generations being composed of weaker egos, readily and willingly adopted the habits of their ancestors, and the progress of the nation paused, hesitated for a while, and then began to decline. Indolence is the father of voluptuousness, and when those ancient men commenced to yield to the seductive influence of indolence, their tremendous forces sought to find expression through their lusts. They plunged into sexual indulgences and excesses with the same energy that they had fought battles and built palaces, and soon the Assyrian nation reached a point where there seemed to be no limitation to its voluptuousness. The wives and daughters, the matrons, maids and slaves were not able to satisfy the lasciviousness of the men, and when the whole nation had become so cor- rupted that there was no purity to be found in the land, a good man came to one of the great gates of Nineveh and commenced to cry against the sin that was being committed there. In the legend of our Bible this man was a prophet i and he was called Jonah, which means "a dove." He was a human instrument, a messenger sent to that im- moral city to bring the word of warning which Divine Mind sent to Its children before permitting their pun- ishment to come upon them. This good man came to Nineveh eight hundred and sixty years before the Nazarine was born, and when he entered the city he The Relation of Sex. 21 cried aloud to the people whom he met upon the streets and said: "Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown !" To this startling prophecy the people of the threat- ened city began to listen, and when the king heard it he "arose from his throne," and, laying aside his royal robes, he "covered himself with sackcloth and ashes," and sent forth his proclamation throughout the city that men and beasts should be covered with sackcloth; and that all men should "cry mightily unto God," and that they should "turn every one from his evil way." Because of this penitence and temporary reformation the cloud of destruction which had been slowly gather- ing over the doomed city was lifted and the sentence of immediate destruction was commuted. Unknown to the people a reprieve of forty years instead of forty days was granted them, during which time the nation had ample time to permanently reform and save itself from downfall. But like all unwise peoples who had preceded, and like many who have succeeded them, they soon grew weary of well doing. Constant prayer and fasting be- came monotonous and tiresome, and when the "forty days" had passed and there were no visible signs of the promised destruction of their city the Ninevites again gradually fell back into their old immoral ways of liv- ing and Jonah and his prophecy were discredited. When the forty years of respite had passed the Great 22 Prom Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. Consciousness sent another good man to warn the Assyrian Nation of its danger, but since the first prophecy had not been fulfilled the people did not be- lieve in the second, and the last days of Assyria's great- ness drew to an end. Then everything seemed to con- spire with fate to overthrow the city of Nineveh, and when the tramp of the Midian soldiers was heard in the streets, the people — many of whom had never be- fore seen a foreign foe, except in the position of a trembling captive — were seized with a great fear and fled in terror from the approaching host. Even the king, Saracus, took refuge in his palace and ordered his slaves to heap his goods into a funeral pyre for himself and for his household; and when the torch was ap- plied he covered his face with his mantle and his ashes were mingled with the ashes of the great city, where his ancestors had ruled and reigned for many generations before him. Nineveh was shrouded in everlasting night, destroyed by her blasphemous acts against the Divine Consciousness of which she was a part. With the downfall of Nineveh the Babylonian Empire immediately sprang into prominence, and very soon became the great power of the Eastern World. The men were strong and hardy, with large physique, and became the most distinguished mer- chants of the age. as their nation continued to prosper in material wealth. Babylon became the great me- tropolis of Western Asia and the peoples of the old The Relation of Sex. 23 world turned to it for their supplies. Whatever man- kind had to sell was offered in her markets, and what- ever the world demanded was to be found there. In the beginning of the nation's career there was much to admire and very little to condemn, but as it grew richer and more prosperous and as the weaker egos of the older races came to re-incarnate in the Babylonian race, avarice and greed for wealth overcame all the higher principles of the people and the time came when the domestic virtues were recklessly flung away for further gratification. It became a law that every Babylonian woman once in her life must offer herself to strangers publicly before the temple of Beltis in order to attract to the city of Babylon the trade of strangers. Maidens were sold at auction to wealthy princes and libertines who would be thus induced to come to the city to spend their money. Both sexes were ready at any moment to barter for money the pleasures which should be sacred to love, and the prime motive for all this was the passion for luxurious living. / Babylon became the earthly paradise for gluttony /and lust and whatever ministered to the appetities, and I the sensuality of the people was eagerly sought for and \enjoyed without scruple. Adornment of the person with rich garments and jewels of untold value were per- sistently sought for, luxuriant baths and fragrant oils for perfuming the body, costly viands and rare foods were provided for those who could afford to pay for 24 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. them. Everything that could excite or appease the human desire was demanded, found and wasted in lux- urious abandonment. The banquet and feast brought drunkenness and revel. The tables were spread with food of such richness that no human appetite could consume it. Dark wines were drunk from goblets of gold. Delicious fruits were piled high upon platters of silver ; the palaces became harems and polygamy be- came the custom of the whole nation. In spite of all their love of luxury the men were fear- less soldiers, and it is said that their courage in war was equal to their abandonment to pleasure. They were nearly always engaged in war with surrounding nations, and from the mountains to the gates of Egypt their merciless, lascivious soldiery carried the banners of their Empire while all other nations cringed before them. As a natural consequence their successes made them a haughty and an austere people. Pride came with their power as avarice had grown with their gain, and lust from their lawless indulgences. Babylon sat as a queen of the East, and her royal broods of princes and pam- ered idlers had nothing to check their selfishness and their vanity. But notwithstanding all these things, in no country, except in Egypt, were the ceremonies of religion more carefully observed. Temples rose on every hand. Priests engaged in the work peculiar to their supposed sacred offices were always to be seen. The dissolute The Relation of Sex. 25 kings were chief worshippers at the holy shrines and princes went devoutly to the temples. The seals and charms worn by both sexes were embellished with some religious device or emblem, and when the feasts were spread and the banqueters became uproariously drunken over their wines they invariably sang songs in honor to their gods. At all times these people cultivated a placid external manner and prided themselves upon their ability to commit the worst outrages with smiling faces. The city was laid out in blocks or squares, their buildings were three or four stories in height, and altogether in many respects New York, Chicago and San Fran- cisco of to-day are not very dissimilar to old Babylon in her architecture or in her mode of living. It is not at all difficult to trace in our "kings of finance," our "political bosses," our "rings'" and "ma- chines" the same characters who debauched the nation and themselves in Babylon. In many of our shop women who are expected to entertain traveling sales- men and merchants who come to our city to buy goods and to otherwise spend their money, we are able to trace the same characters who offered themselves to strangers before the temple of Beltis. And the men and women of fashion who pass their precious time in gamming and who have no regard for the sacredness of their marriage vows must necessarily have gained their proficiency in these matters as far back as the Babylon- 26 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation, ian times. And since so many persons seem to be still lacking in a knowledge of the great truth that a pure relationship between the sexes must be established on earth before our race will reach a higher point of de- velopment and before real happiness can be gained, it looks as if the people of the present age would have to meet the same fate that those of the old world met in order that it should learn the lesson God — the Great Consciousness — is trying to teach us. During the early part of the life of Nebuchadnezzar the Babylonian nation reached its zenith of wealth and power, and at that time the vices of the people were greatest. The king himself set the example of cruelty and selfishness to his people, who were delighted to follow his leading. Murder and rapine were his chief amusements, and the suffering of his victims seemed to give him the greatest pleasure. But when well advanced in age this great monarch dreamed the prophetic dream which foretold his approaching down- fall, and from that day his power and the power of the nation began to wane. When Belshazzar came to the throne the downfall of the nation was close at hand. But in his contempt for an enemy whom he believed to be powerless to harm him, he recklessly gave himself to the enjoyment of a great annual festival of the Babylonians. A thou- sand nobles were present at the banquet. There was splendor within the palace and darkness without, and The Relation of Sex. 27 while the drunken revel was at its height the enemy stole like a thief in the night and opened the river sluices into the canals and the river began to sink. Then there was nothing to prevent the foe from enter- ing the gates and the city was at his mercy. The drunken Babylonians then received the kind of treat- ment that they had given to others in the past. Their karma had fallen upon them, and the prophecy of the prophet Isaiah was fulfilled: "And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of Chaldees' excellency shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to genera- tion, neither shall the Arabian pitch his tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. But the wild beasts of the desert shall lie there and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures ; and owls shall dwell there and satyrs shall dance there." And the condition of Babylon is the same that it was after, its destruction two thousand years ago. The ancient Romans were an improvement upon the Babylonians because the experiences the egos had had in Babylon previous to their incarnating in Rome had taught them something. Monogamy was the law in the beginning of the Roman period, and motherhood was respected and domestic ties were recognized. Roman fathers were less erratic and they actually had a parental feeling for their children. They recognized 28 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. their sons as their rightful heirs and their daughters as the prospective matrons of Rome. In early times the Roman table was spread in the plainest manner and the fare was Spartan-like in its simplicity; but about one hundred and seventy years before the Nazarene was born they began to import and enjoy the gastronomic luxuries of the East. With feasting came drinking, and these indulgences con- tinued and increased until in a few years the life of the wealthy Romans became bestial to a degree never before equalled by civilized people. As the people of Rome gained wealth they com- menced spending it in riotous living, and finally the time came when the whole city was a scene of revelry and dissipation. To show the development which has been made by the incarnating souls of to-day, we may compare the Roman amusements and customs with those of our own day and age. The disregard of the duties and responsibilities of life and the love of amuse- ment led the Roman people to accept as their motto and demand, "Bread and the circus/' and Rome was as well supplied with circuses as New York is supplied with theatres. It was "bread and the circus" then for all the people ; it is now bread and the theatre for some of the people. When the circus became tame and uninteresting and the people desired blood should be spilled for their amusement, the Gladiators' time had arrived. When some of the people of this age desired that blood should The Relation of Sex. 29 be drawn for their amusement the prize ring was in- augurated. When the Romans went into battle they beheaded or enslaved their enemies whom they took prisoners. When the men of our time go into battle they shoot and kill as many as they can of the enemy and then collect indemnity of those whom they did not kill, to pay for the ammunition that was wasted, and so evolu- tion goes on. We who are living in the twentieth century are the Ninevites, the Babylonians and the Romans. Are we to be swept out of this life in the same inglorious man- ner that we were at those other periods of our exist- ence? Shall we go out from another incarnation in disgrace and humiliation because of our failure to learn that the right relation of the sexes is the rock founda- tion for all mankind to build his house of life upon, and because we fail to read the writing upon the walls of individual palaces? Or shall we turn from our follies and vices and save ourselves and our children from a repetition of those mistakes? True it is that each individual soul must ultimately stand or fall for itself; but it is also true that each soul has its influence to help or to hinder other souls upon their evolutionary journey. And the higher socially, politically or financially one stands, the more harm or help does one give to others ; for it is by one's example that one really teaches. Can we say to our children "be pure," "be truthful," 30 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. "be honest," when we ourselves are impure, untruthful or dishonest? Can men and women who stand at the head of a nation expect or hope that the lesser social or political lights of that nation, which they represent, will shine brighter than they? Our Shalmanesers, our Sargons, our Nebuchadnez- zars, our Belshazzars and our Ptolemys as well as our Caesars, our Neros, and our Napoleons are all here. And we also have our Semiramis, our Amyitis, our Cleopatra and our Josephine among us to-day. The same force which each of those individual souls mani- fested as ancient characters is still theirs and is mani- festing now. rlt may be that the Caesars and Napoleons of to-day are rulers of finance, or they may be the most un- scrupulous politicians. Our Cleopatra and our Jose- phine may be women of fashion, shop girls or house- maids; but they are here and are playing their parts upon the stage in this drama of life. And while we are studying the subject of "From Incarnation to Re- incarnation" let each individual soul begin by asking itself these questions: "What am I doing in this twentieth century? Am I progressing or retrogressing? If I am Caesar, am I doing better or worse than I did in Rome? If I am Cleopatra, have I learned anything by my past experi- ences or am I making the same mistakes over and over again that I made when I ruled Egypt ?" LECTURE TWO. MARRIAGE. Before man divided and incarnated in the animal forms of earth, he was negatively good and blissfully happy, with that happiness which comes with inertness and passivity. He needed nothing, that was necessary for his condition at that time, which he did not have, for he was a part of Divine Consciousness, and his existence was forever established. As the tree draws life from the surrounding atmosphere and the earth in which it is implanted, so did the Sons of God live on the Universal Consciousness which surrounded them. Development and growth were impossible under those contented and blissful conditions; and had not that Eden garden been abolished, evolution of the soul on that plane would have come to a standstill. Those Sons of God could be of no assistance to each other, because all things were equally distributed, and there was no opportunity to be either selfish or gener- ous. There was no opportunity to render each other assistance because there was nothing to do. All had 32 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. been done that could be done in that realm, and there was "nothing to live but life." Under those conditions stagnation for the future was inevitable, and nowhere in all the universe is absolute stagnation permitted to exist. Throughout all parts of Deity, during each Cosmic Day there must be activity. And so Divine Mind sent Its Sons to this earth to find what was not , to be found on the plane of their nativity. Ever since those Sons of God incarnated on earth, each half has been earnestly seeking a re-union with the other part of itself. Sub-consciously each one holds a mental picture of his past happiness, when, in the realm of innocence and purity, he dwelt free from the ills and troubles of his present state of existence. And each one longs for a return to the old blissful con- dition, for happiness is what every human soul desires more than anything else in the world, and it is for happiness that every one is striving. With Divine Man's descent into this material realm he forgot his origin, and the further he wandered among the forests and in the fields of sense the deeper he drank of the waters of Lethe. But in an inner chamber of each soul, where none can enter or disturb, there is a picture of another soul. Another face looks smilingly out and seems to beckon to the seeker after happiness, and says: "I am the one that you desire. When you find and possess me you will have your wish, for I am happiness." Marriage. 33 Perhaps Man does not know it, but this picture is of the other half of his soul, and that soul is vibrating in all the shades of the colors which correspond with his own, and it is the only soul in all the Universe who is. He loves it, but he knows not why. And should he be an artist he tries to reproduce it upon his can- vas. If he is a musician he composes and sings to it. If an actor he plays his best when he thinks he sees it among his audience. If he is a man of finance he saves money for it, and dreams of the day when, in human form, it will sit at his table, wear his jewels and be his life long companion. Sometimes he has a fancy that he has seen it. A woman whom he meets reminds him of his sacred picture. There is a look or a gesture which he believes he remembers, and eagerly he seeks an introduction. It may or may not be the one he is looking for; if it is and a marriage is consummated between them, his soul's longing is satisfied. There will be no other face so dear and no other form so precious as hers. If he is a man well on in his develop- ment, he will always be true to her, and should she be taken from him by the transition called death, he would never seek to fill, with another, the place in his heart that she occupied. Should he be an undeveloped man with animal passions unrestrained, he would, in his brutal way, always love her best, but she might not be his only love. 34 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. When a soul seeking happiness incarnates in female form, the precious picture of the other half of herself still remains in the sacred inner chamber of her soul. It is the same dear face that she has always loved and has been seeking through all the lives that she has lived. But now, perhaps, her fancy paints it dressed in military style, or perhaps it may be that he wears the royal ermine and a crown. And if not either one of these, perhaps she sees him in other walks of life, among the professions or in the trades. For in the midst of what a woman most admires, there she puts her sacred picture and there she does her worshipping. If the law of compensation has decreed that a woman shall not meet the other half of her soul in a lifetime, she may enter into what the world calls a marriage of convenience, j In this case, if her moral principles are well established, she is faithful to the man she has es- poused, and makes what the world calls "a good wife" ; but in the sanctuary of her soul is the sacred picture of her true love, her real husband; and when she is tried with the cares and vexations of her wedded life, and her heart aches with its emptiness, she turns to her sacred picture and for the time being is comforted. Marriage is the re-union of the two halves of a soul, and any other union which in any way imitates it, is necessarily a mock-marriage. When two mismated halves attempt to consummate a union, it is but an abortive attempt at marriage, and is never perfectly Marriage. 35 satisfactory to either. When we stop to consider how many millions of half souls are dwelling upon this globe to-day, and when we realize that there are at least half as many more on the subjective planes surrounding the earth, and that from among this vast multitude there are only two who are vibrating alike, and who belong to each other, it is not difficult to understand why mock-marriages are so numerous. That they are a necessity up to a certain point, during the evolutionary work that has to be done, no one can deny. At this time they are helpful to each half soul who engages in them, for they bring experiences which are necessary in order that marriages may be understood and appre- ciated. There is no contract that man makes that is so far reaching in its ramifications as the legalized mar- riage contract. It effects, for good or ill, more souls than does any other contract, and it colors his own life more or less from the moment it is made until the end of many of his following lives. No soul or half soul knows what he is capable of do- ing or of becoming until he has been tried. He must indeed be ground upon the wheel of fine experiences before the brilliancy of his soul jewels can shine forth, and the mock-marriage covenant provides for him the greatest wheel in the machinery of life, while Divine Law turns it slowly or rapidly, as the exigencies of the case require. The question is often asked now : "Is marriage a fail- 36 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. ure?" and the disgruntled victims of mock-marriages sometimes spend weeks and months in writing books devoted to this great subject. They believe they are doing the world and their fellowmen a service by hold- ing their personal miseries up to view, and they seem to get great satisfaction out of telling the world about the troubles wedded life has brought to them. They do not know that during all the lives that they have lived upon this planet, they have, perhaps, never been really married one dozen times, and often even those few experiences of connubial bliss are entirely forgot- ten. But, like all other false things, mock-marriage must some time be destroyed. When its purpose has been served in the evolutionary scheme it will disappear from the face of the earth, and marriage, for which mock- marriage is but a poor substitute, will take its place. It is a comfort, perhaps, to know that as the human race evolves, half souls meet oftener and enjoy the privilege of each other's society for longer periods of time. As the world grows older more marriages will be consummated, while mock-marriages will decrease in number and popularity. It is a well known fact that the time for boy and girl weddings is practically dnded, in the Western world at least; brides of sixteen and bridegrooms of twenty are now the exception and not the rule, as they once were. It is no longer a disgrace for a woman to go Marriage. 37 through life alone if she feels disposed to do so. There are no more "Old maids," and if there were there is not sufficient opprobrium attached to the title to frighten girls into making mock-marriages to escape it. The woman who prefers not to wed but to remain true to her ideal — the sacred picture which she carries in her heart — is evincing a courage which many of her weaker married sisters would do well to admire. And the "Old Bachelor," who is attacked on every side by matrons, maids and unhappy benedicts, because, for a given reason or without one, he refuses to be in- veigled into a distasteful mock-marriage for the sake of some one else's convenience, is really a pioneer — although perhaps he does not know it — in the ranks of those who will in the future be instrumental in abolish- ing mock-marriages. Because he does not wed there is no reason to suppose that he has not his sacred pict- ure in his heart, and that he does not worship at that sacred shrine the same as all other half souls do. As evolution goes on and souls increase in strength and positive goodness, the Law of Attraction, acting along the line of least resistance, will bring half souls together even without the aid of their own conscious, mental demands, while mismated souls will be, by the law of repulsion, separated and swept apart more quickly than before. Many kindly disposed persons are regretting the fact that the "divorce mills are grinding by night and by 38 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation, day," and are separating husbands and wives by the hundreds and thousands. The anxiety of these good people might be quieted, perhaps, by the knowledge that it is not an evil, but a good, that they are so ear- nestly deploring. The divorce mills never separate the husbands and wives who truly belong to each other, but only those mismated souls who have entered into mock-marriages which they can no longer endure. While recognizing the unhappiness of many mock- marriages, yet it is shocking to the man or woman who understands the sacred relationship of marriage to listen to the ridicule and contemptuous remarks that are constantly being made about it at many of our theatres, for instance, and at other places of amusement. The supposed funny men use this sacred subject for an ob- ject at which to fire their witticisms. They rack their brains and burn midnight oil trying to study out some new sarcasm concerning it; and as fast as they fling their sacrilegious jokes at the public, the daily and weekly papers report and illustrate them with cartoons and caricatures to make them the more convincing and impressive. It is true that the jokes nearly always bring a laugh from the mismated half souls who are or have been suffering from the inconveniences or miseries of a mock-marriage, but a laugh is not always an expres- sion of pleasure; sometimes it is but a thin veil for a Marriage. 39 sob, and very often those who laugh do so because they do not know what else to do. Just a step below the loveless mock-marriage is another unhappy condition to which men and women often turn in desperation, hoping to at least escape from the limitations and bondage which the mock-mar- riage covenant so often puts upon its victims. This condition is prostitution of the sacred, generative organs, and is but another escape valve for the surging emotions and passions of souls who are seeking but have not found the other half of themselves. Thousands of misguided people are wallowing in this slough of despond called prostitution. It is a dismal, dirty place to be, and not one who enters it is happy or ever can be, so long as he stays there. Prostitution is called by various names according to the grade or depth to which a soul has sunken in it ; for there are degrees in this as well as in all other kinds of experiences which man encounters on this plane of existence. In its beginning prostitution is never called by its rightful name; if it were, now that the human race has reached its majority or age of understanding, it is probable that many souls would hesitate and per-^ haps be spared much suffering which comes through indulging in this vice. But society and the world at large use a softer, gentler word to designate this crime, and as a consequence the souls of the tempted ones are 40 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. lulled into a false sense of security by the use of the wrong title. It does not shock the sensitiveness of a woman who has just entered the by-path of unchastity to say, "she has a love affair," "a little aside," or "a private ro- mance." But if she were to be told instead that she had become a prostitute, and had started for hell, she might pause and consider, and perhaps turn away from the temptation altogether. At its beginning the path of prostitution often as- sumes the appearance of a beautiful, restful pathway hedged by sweetest flowers and entered through a love bower of roses. A tempter in human form always stands at the entrance to this bower and smilingly invites all passers by to enter and enjoy the seductive influences to be found within. If it is a heartbroken woman who is passing, the tempter knows that she is wedded to a humanized brute, and it assumes the appearance of a thoughtful, kindly gentleman. Perhaps it may come to her in the form of her physician, her attorney or her pastor. At first he will look the sympathy he dare not express in words to her, and she feels rested and com- forted in his presence. After a while he tells her to come inside the bower which stands at the entrance to the by-path, and rest a while with him, and she, crav- ing the love of which she has been defrauded in her wedded life, steps aside, believing she will find within that bower what her heart longs for. Marriage. 41 If the passer by is a disappointed man wedded to a woman who has no sympathy with him ; if he is aspir- ing to heights of fame or fortune which seem unattain- able, unaided and alone, the tempter at the entrance to the bower appears to him in the form of a woman, an intellectual and social leader of society, perhaps. She tells him he is worthy of a better place than the one he occupies, and that he can never rise to the heights he wishes to gain so long as he is held in bondage to the "clod" that he has wedded. She flatters him and offers to help him gain the position he so much desires, and he steps inside the love bower, believing it to be the en- trance to a higher life. If the passer by is a poor girl, earning her bread and the bread for some one dependent upon her, the tempter appears to her in the form of a man possessed of an abundance of the world's goods. He tells her that she is fitted for a better life than the one she is living; that with her beauty and her grace she should be gowned in silks and velvets, and that jewels should shine from among the locks of her beautiful hair and sparkle against her soft, velvety skin. He whispers love into her ears and promises to share his wealth with her if she will but step into the love bower with him. If she listens and accepts his invitation, she too, has started for the slough of despond called prostitution. If it is a young man just starting in life with his physical body filled with strength and animal magnet- 42 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation, ism, the tempter appears to him in the form of a hand- some, dashing, laughing woman. She promises to give him excitement that will make the nerves of his body throb with delight. She offers amusements and pleas- ures most exquisite if he will enter the love bower with her; and when he has entered she points out the road beyond which she says leads to a "long life and a happy one." She is mistaken. She is pointing the way to a short life and a wretched one ; to nothing but the fleet- ing pleasures of sensuality. 1 For pleasure is not happi- ness. It is created only by the temporary gratification of the physical senses, and may be turned into pain in an instant of time. But happiness is soul harmony and may last so long as the soul exists. It may be enjoyed in the humblest as well as the most exalted positions in which man may live upon this earth. It is the light which shines from within the soul outward, and it is not dependent upon external things for its intensity or existence. In man's progress and search for happiness on earth he seems to find it necessary to investigate and explore all the by-ways which lead from the highway of life. Just opposite to the by-way of prostitution is another one leading in a diametrical direction. It is a much narrower path and more difficult to follow, and is called celibacy. It is never found nor tried by any soul until after he has lived through a few lives of prostitution, iMata the Magician, pp. 123-125. Marriage. 43 with their attending miseries. Then, with his soul filled with loathing or with a fear of the consequences of sexual indulgences and excesses, the ordinary celibate rushes to the opposite extreme and enters into a life of sexual repression. If he becomes fanatical upon the subject, he shuts himself away from the world and refuses to see or speak to a woman. Perhaps he finds a few other souls who are smarting under similar afflictions, and he pre- vails upon them to join him in forming a society or brotherhood, which they agree to call a "holy order," and perhaps the remainder of that life will be spent where they cannot be reached by their former tempta- tions. In their desire to live apart from the world they sometimes retire to the mountains and build such bar- riers between them and their fellow-men as will guard them from what they believe to be their greatest enemy — women — and there they undertake to do God's will. Since all kinds of experiences are necessary to the development of a soul, this kind of a life, from an evolutionary standpoint, is a sort of resting place where man stops in his career while he reviews his past ex- periences and assimilates the good that is to be gotten out of them. The life of the celibate is a long step in advance of the life of prostitution, and there can be no doubt that in this new position man gains an advantage over the other kind of life. But if he has become a celibate because of his hatred for women, or because 44 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. he fears that he is not strong enough to meet and over- come the temptations that the world holds for him, then he has not conquered his passions, and the Divine Law will force him back into the world at some future life to finish fighting the battles from which he has fled. Fear brings limitation of thought, and a limitation of thought brings a limitation of freedom. It is the fear of persons or of things which causes a man or a woman to voluntarily live behind iron bound doors and within solid walls of masonry. And the great piles of stone into which they retire for protection from the "world, the flesh and the devil" are but stupendous monu- ments of their fears. The power and extent of a celi- bate's fear are usually represented by the size of the monument he builds for himself, and although he may retire within it and live for a lifetime, he has not escaped from Divine Law, which will bring to him in another life everything that he feared and ran from in this one. 1 If a man becomes a celibate because he is afraid of the consequences of living a life of prostitution, and if his desires for sex union are strong within him, then the continued and enforced repression of the physical expression of those desires will produce a congested condition of his generative organs, and also of all other organs which are sympathetically connected with them. He has not escaped from the consequences of his de- 1 History and Power of Mind. pp. 84-90. Marriage. 45 sires for sexual union, nor from the result of the physi- cal repression of those desires. **- Many physicians declare that celibacy produces monomaniacs, fools and lunatics, and advise their pa- tients to indulge, rather than repress, their sexual de- sires, calling such indulgences "physical necessities." The Occultist says that the true principle of celibacy is represented by the soul who lives the life of chastity because he loves chastity, and not because he fears con- sequences or future punishment. And when that point has been reached in his evolution, he has no fear of persons or of things tempting him to stray from the path of purity; and he will not become a lunatic nor a fool, nor will his life be spent within the walls of a monastery. The Century Dictionary defines chastity as, The state or quality of being chaste ; the state of being guiltless of unlawful sexual intercourse ; sexual purity ; celibacy ; the unmarried state; abstinence from lawful indul- gences in sexual intercourse; continence due to a re- ligious motive. There was once a man who said that virtue or chas- tity was like an onion. It had many layers or skins, and the deeper one went toward the heart of it, the thicker the skins became. The Century Dictionary's definition of chastity gives the word as many shades of meaning as there are skins of an onion; and after reading the various definitions, it is really left to the one seeking 46 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. the truth to decide to which shade or layer he belongs or aspires. To the man sodden in debaucheries, the person who indulges in an occasional "aside," or "romance," repre- sents his ideal of chastity; and to the man with an oc- casional "affair," the one who does not violate the letter of his marriage vows is a chaste person. Physical virtue is what most persons call chastity, and the world thinks it matters not what impure things may be thought or said by either a man or a woman, if neither actually break the seventh commandment. This is not getting very deep into the onion, but it is a small gain and shows that the race has made some progress since the Ninevite and Babylonian times. But physical chastity alone is not to be trusted or depended upon. It is like any other negative goodness, and may be maintained so long as the environment conducive to that condition exists; or it may become corrupted at any moment when temptation is placed before it. To be of lasting value it must have the sustaining power of a pure mind behind it. And this condition is never reached in the career of any soul until it has gained a point in its development where it really desires to be chaste for chastity's sake, and not for the sake of in- dividual or public opinion. The world has the mistaken belief that the sweet privilege of chastity should be granted only to the feminine portion of humanity, and that it is exclusively Marriage. 47 a feminine requisite and most unbecoming to the stern- er portion, the masculine element of society. To this great misconception of the truth is much of the do- mestic sorrows of to-day attributable, and the progress of the race must necessarily be retarded as long again as it would be if men recognized their own needs of chastity. For so long as men continue to believe that because of the majesty of their sex they are divinely and socially licensed individuals, and that the seventh commandment, or any other rule or code of moral regulations, applicable to women, is not applicable to them or to their conduct in life, the human race will make but very slow progress. Unless both sexes build their characters upon the rock foundation of chastity, their life structures cannot withstand the storms of ex- perience which come to every incarnated soul. How can one half of the population of the earth at- tain or maintain a condition of purity while the other half is working to overthrow and destroy that condi- tion ? Solomon, who was reputed to be the wisest man who had ever lived during ancient Bible times, asked: "Who can find a virtuous woman?" and then followed his question with the declaration : "For her price is far above rubies." If the Bible stories are true concerning his moral character, he was responsible for much of the scarcity of virtue among the women of his time; and when he complained of their impurity he was like the men who spend all their money in riotous living and 48 Prom Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. then blame society and the government for their pov- erty. Solomon did not manifest any wisdom when he complained of a condition that he was using his kingly influence to produce; and Occultists would not enroll his name among the names of their wise men. When the Sons of God forgot their origin and be- came enamoured with the pleasures of sense, they first adopted the system of communal marriage for their marital relationship. This was largely due to the in- fluence of the animal minds which they had espoused and against which they were unable to contend. In es- tablishing a union of this kind a number of persons of both sexes who were comparatively congenial, agreed to become a community and to live apart from all other communities and to possess all things in common. This was the commencement of socialism. In a communal union of this kind the male parentage of offspring was irregular and uncertain. The mothers of the children became the absolute heads of the households, and the lineage of each individual could be traced only through its female ancestry. Since evolution can proceed only through individualization, and since communal unions were but one of the grossest forms of prostitution, there could be but one result growing out of such re- lationship, and that was the destruction of those com- munities either by reason of a mutinous element aris- ing within them, or by their being conquered and en- slaved by a stronger tribe of men. Marriage. 49 Out of the communal union there evolved two other systems of marital relationship, one is called Polyandry and the other Polygamy, and each system was adopted according as it seemed best adapted to the climate and productiveness of the country in which the people lived. If some of the Sons of God migrated to a place where nature did not produce abundantly, and they had to till the soil in order to live, or if they were driven by an enemy into the mountains where there were not oppor- tunities for securing food through cultivating the soil, then large families were not desirable, and the marital system of Polyandry was adopted. By this system one woman became the wife of a family of brothers, the oldest brother making the selection of her, and the younger ones accepting his choice for the family wife without criticism or complaint. This was but a slight improvement upon the communal union, but it was an improvement, inasmuch as it limited the circle of pos- sible parentage to a family with a common name, rather than to a community composed of various names. But if those ancient men lived in a land where there was an abundance of food to be had without effort, and if for shelter he needed only to interlace the boughs of a few saplings together and then permit the wild rose or grape vines to grow over them, making for him a comfortable abiding place, then he adopted the mari- tal system of Polygamy for his sex union and raised large families of children. Under this system the line- 50 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. age of each individual in a tribe was traceable through its male ancestry. When humanity had reached a point where history began, in the so-called sacred Bible records, it was sup- posed to be the duty of every man to do his uttermost toward fulfilling the command in Genesis : "Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it." It was then considered a shame and a disgrace to the head of a family not to be able to produce abundantly through his marital relationship. In those days a "bar- ren woman" was a reproach to her sex, for she was believed to be under the curse of God, and her husband was justified by the customs of the times in "putting her away," while he brought another woman to fill her place in his home and to bear him children. Polygamy was freely practiced by men who thought it their duty — as well as pleasure — to use every available means toward swelling the size of the race to which they be- longed. This order of things was continued, and by some nations recognized as a religious duty, until the ten commandments were given to Moses for the benefit of the Children of Israel. That was the first religious check put upon polygamy, and that was not very far reaching since it only put a limit upon man's sexual relations between himself and other men's wives. He was still permitted to have as many wives as he could provide for if he confined his selections to unmarried women. But nothing is ever to be gained for a nation Marriage. 51 through the practice of polygamy except numerical strength. In every other respect the practice is debas- ing and demoralizing. As a nation or race advances in evolution the Divine Law brings reforms ; and in spite of the desires of the mass of humanity, a way will be found to improve their condition. There was never a tribe of men or a nation so gross or sensual that it did not have its wise men who were stronger than those whom they undertook to teach. And those men who were in advance of the ignorant masses became the spiritual advisers of not only the people, but also of the kings and rulers. Many of the wise men, the High Priests of ancient Bible times, were Occultists and understood that marriage meant the re-union of two half souls; and when those ancient peoples had evolved to a point where they would listen to, and be influenced, by their wise men on the subject of marriage, the High Priests made the attempt to establish monogamy among them. When the priests were unable to determine whether those who wished to marry really belonged to each other or not, they "consulted the stars," which were supposed to indicate at the birth of each individual the exact point of development he had reached during his previous life. If the stars indicated adversely then the banns were forbidden, and the marriage was not con- summated. But if they indicated favorably, the wed- ding was sanctified by a most solemn sacrament, and 52 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. during the performance of the religious marriage rites the command was given forth by the officiating priest, "Whom God hath joined together let no man put asunder !" It is to this fragment of Occult teachings that the Church of to-day holds as a reason for its refusal to recognize the contractual union or the modern divorce. And although it still attempts to enforce what it be- lieves to be the command of God, and refuses to believe in human power to annul a marriage, still it does not take the trouble to ascertain first whether or not it is the sacred re-union of two half souls which is being consummated, or even if there is a psychic or physical affinity between them. It bestows its blessing freely and indiscriminately upon all alike, and expects that, not- withstanding the ignorance of the persons entering into a covenant of this kind, it shall be established until the end of their natural lives. It is quite willing to for- give and absolve from consequences any mistake which man makes on earth except his matrimonial mistakes; but these which are the most serious of all, and which affect more souls than does any other, the Church does not permit him to correct. The contractual union is the outgrowth of the natural consequences following the many matrimonial mistakes and their attending miseries which men have made within the past few years. Smarting under what seemed to him an injustice inflicted upon him by the Marriage, 53 Church in refusing to release him from his unhappy marital relationship, he conceived the plan of legaliz- ing, by civil law, any contract which should appeal to his reason and sense of justice and which would protect his rights and those of his progeny. This kind of union does not ask for itself the bless- ings of either priest or Church. The contract is usually prepared by an attorney and, like all other legal docu- ments of any value, is signed, witnessed and recorded among the records of the county or state where it was made. It is a coldblooded, unromantic way of an- nouncing to the world that a man and woman have agreed to enter into, what should be, the sacred re- lationship that exists between the true husband and wife ; but because of the undevelopment of the mass of humanity who is now incarnated upon earth, it seems at present to be a necessity. And since it is only the comparative few who marry for a reason other than for social or financial advantages, the contractual union serves its purpose very well indeed ; and the victims of a mock-marriage seeking a legal separation and divorce are by reason of this contract saved the humiliation of receiving a condemnatory reproach from the Church — since it cannot punish what it does not recognize. If an American girl buys a duke for the sake of gain- ing the social position of a duchess, it is because she is at a point in her development where she needs and de- serves all the experiences which follow the making of 54 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. such a purchase. If: a nobleman barters his title for American dollars and accepts a girl as a bonus in the trade, he also needs, and will get, the experiences which will follow the making of his bargain, and there is no moral difference between this and any other trade. It is not a marriage — a union of souls — nor should it pre- tend to be. It is nothing but a union of the sexes as represented and expressed by those two individuals, and there is nothing more sacred about it than there is in hiring a mistress or buying a horse and cart. It is not a violation of God's command to separate those two persons by divorce or in any other way, be- cause God never joined them together; and it is to such cases of business unions as these that the written con- tracts of marriage fit best. It gives to the innocent off- spring from such a union its legal property rights and a respectful recognition by the world, and it gives to the woman who paid for them the privilege of using for the remainder of that life the particular crest and title adopted by, and belonging to, the house in which she has bought a seat. Among persons in other walks of life the same rule holds good. A loveless sex union is well evidenced by a written contract, and until the human race has evolved beyond its present condition and has reached a point where it understands and appreciates the sa- credness of the esoteric basis of marriage, the sacri- mental union will in most cases be but a burlesque. Marriage, 55 But the mock-marriage, with all its numerous disad- vantages and unpleasant features, whether it be con- summated through a contract or by the religious rites of a marriage sacrament, is a necessity at this time in the evolution of the race. Without its restraining in- fluences upon the desires and passions of mankind, there would be no foundation for either positive or negative virtue to rest upon. Without it there would be nothing to build our homes or our governments upon, and the human race would be no better off to-day than it was when might was right and every man was a free lance to do with his own and other's property as pleased him best. Mock-marriage is not only a social and political necessity, but it is a karmic necessity as well, and through it many souls are brought together in the family circle to work out past obligations and to pay debts which could be paid in no other way. The Law of Justice does rule the world, although the contrary sometimes appears to be true, and it oper- ates in the most infinitesimal affairs and relations of life. If a man and woman have entered into a mock-mar- riage there was a karmic reason for it; one or the other, or both perhaps, owed a karmic debt which must be paid ; and it could be faithfully and fully done only through the devotion which is demanded and received through a covenant of this kind. If all persons who are chafing under the restraint caused by their matrimonial fetters would but realize that their present condition of 56 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. unhappiness is but the result of past mistakes, of unjust treatment which they have given in some other life to the very individuals they are now joined to in wedlock, it would serve to explain many of the mysteries of wedded life. There is a way to become free from the unpleasant conditions which attend a mock-marriage, even though it has been karmically produced. It is through the power of mental demand. It is the divine right and privilege of every human soul to demand of Divine Mind its freedom from unpleasant environment. And if this is done and the demand goes forth into the Great Consciousness with all the earnestness of a suffering soul, the fetters will begin to fall away, and one after another the limitations will be broken. The liberation will come in the way which Divine Mind wishes and which, in view of all past mistakes and injustices, is best for the one who makes the demand. 1 This sub- ject will be again referred to in the lecture, "Mental and Spiritual Development." Since it is through the marital relationship that a race continues to exist and evolve, it is most important that those relations should be brought to the highest and best point of refinement, and should be maintained in that position by the social and political power of the race. 1 The History and Power of Mind, pp. 150-162. Marriage. 57 With the picture of unhappy marital relationship constantly before the eyes of the people, there are many individuals of both sexes who are seeking relief from their dissatisfied or wretched conditions by entering into what is called an "Independent Sex Life." j The Church says: 'Therefore (because/ woman was taken out of man) shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh." And the unhappy married man or woman says : "That may or may not be true, and if it is, why should I be made to suffer a deprivation of agree- able sex relationship with some one I like better than the person I am married to, because thousands of years ago a woman was taken out of a man?" Then the State says to the would be Independent Sex Relationist : "I will punish you with fine or im- prisonment if you commit adultery or fornication." And the seeker after sexual freedom replies: "Then I will hide the truth from you ; I will do in secret what I am not permitted to do openly." And then commence the falsehoods which this man or woman must tell in order to be protected from the penalties which follow the living of a double life. When an individual commences to tell lies about a particular thing, he often loses his scruples concerning any kind of falsehood and sinks to the lowest degree of prevarica- tion and deceptionN His word becomes of no value to his friends nor to society in general, and after a while 58 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. he receives nothing but disrespect from his fellow men. When he has ceased to tell the truth he has ceased to love it, and if he does not love the truth he will not be true to himself nor to any one else. But this is not all there is to be dreaded by the un- truthful man or woman. There are psychic dangers to be encountered in the dark red current of thought into which the untruthful person enters, through his deceit and double dealing. This current, which is the lowest rate of vibration of all the cosmic currents sur- rounding the earth and mankind, contains all the un- developed, disembodied souls who have passed from earth life. These souls, by reason of their grossness, cannot get away from the material plane, and, through the operation of the law of attraction, are drawn by sympathy to other souls — whether incarnated or ex- carnated — who are at a similar point of development. They are able now to enjoy only by proxy, as it were, the vices of which they were deprived by the loss of their physical bodies; and they surround the man or woman who, by adopting similar vices to their own, have entered their realm of thought, 1 and lead him to destruction. More will be said along this line in the lecture entitled "After Death." !The History and Power of Mind, pp. 169-177; 228-230. LECTURE THREE. PARENTHOOD. Ages and ages ago, so many that it makes man dizzy to try to calculate their number, the Divine Parenthood of man began. And billions of years be- fore man's creation, in the beginning of our Cosmic Day, God — Divine Mind — began getting the Universe — man's home — ready to receive him. During the first great period of our Cosmic Day God — Divine Mind — desired light. 1 The command went forth: "Let there be light," and the vibrations of cer- tain portions of the ether began to quicken and in- crease until, in accordance with the Divine Will, light was born. And all that was accomplished or estab- lished during the first period of our Cosmic Day was the awakening and quickening into activity of those great centers of consciousness which the Occultist calls Solar Deities and which the sun worshipping peoples call Sun Gods. During the second great period of our Cosmic Day, L The History and Power of Mind, p. 71, "Genesis. 60 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. God — Divine Mind — desired that the undeveloped portion of Itself should separate from the developed portion, in order that the undeveloped portion should become subjected to evolutionary law applicable more directly to itself. "And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters." And God made the firma- ment and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament, and it was so. In other words through the operation of Divine Will, the differentiated portion of Itself became sep- arated from the undifferentiated; the manifested was separated from the unmanifested, and there appeared in the Universe two distinct portions of the Universal Consciousness which men now call mind and matter. 1 Both of these portions were of the same substance, but differed by reason of each portion's different rate of vibrations: "And God called the firmament (the undifferentiated portion of Itself) Heaven, and the evening and the morning were the second day." During the third great period of our Cosmic Day, God — Divine Mind — desired that from the differen- tiated or undeveloped portion of Itself there should be prepared abiding places for Its sons — when they should be created. And again the Divine Will went 1 The History and Power of Mind, pp. 36-37. Parenthood. 61 forth throughout the Universe and the creative Gods, the Elohim or Planetary Spirits were quickened into activity. Their long period of inaction during the Cosmic Night was now passed and they were ready at the first call of the Universal Consciousness to begin the labors of the new Cosmic Day. 2 "And God said, Let the waters under the heaven (the undifferentiated por- tion of Itself) be gathered together unto one place and let the dry land appear, and it was so." And God called the dry land Earth (Worlds) and the gathering to- gether of the waters called He seas, and God saw that it was good. And all that was accomplished during the third period of our Cosmic Day was the bringing into existence from the differentiated portion of Itself what the Elohim or Planetary Spirits saw pictured in Divine Mind. God made the mental pictures of what It de- sired should be materialized during the several periods, and this mental picturing is the creation described in the first chapter of Genesis, and in the second chapter of Genesis up to verse seven. The fourth great period of our Cosmic Day was one of Celestial Chaos. For at that time there was con- fusion in the workshop of the heavenly Gods. Many of the planetary systems were but blazing masses of burning gas. Comets were flying through space, col- 2 The History and Power of Mind, pp. 101-103. 62 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. liding and coalescing with other comets, and Divir.e Law and Order, during the greater part of that period, were prospective but not realized. The suns which were to become magnetic centers for world systems were blazing and bursting with the intense energy that was poured into them by the Elohim. The creative Gods seemed to play at cricket with comets, suns and worlds, and the whole heavens was but a pyrotechnical display of flaming planets. At the fifth great period of our Cosmic Day Divine Mind declared that harmony should again prevail in the Universe, and, in accordance with the Divine Will, Celestial Order came out of Cosmic Chaos. Planets and planetary systems became adjusted to their orbits and began revolving round their respective magnetic centers or suns, and the war between worlds came to an end. "And God said, Let the Earth (Worlds) bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind whose seed is in itself upon the earth (worlds) and it was so." "And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the mov- ing creatures that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven." And God created great whales and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind, and God saw that it was good, and the evening and the morning were the fifth day. The words "and God said Parenthood. 63 let there be," or "God made," etc., in Genesis, always refer to the mental creation of Divine Mind. On the morning of the sixth great period of our Cosmic Day "God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and everything that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and God saw that it was good." 1 The mental pictures in Divine Mind not yet objectiv- ized by the Elohim or Planetary Spirits had now to be materialized, and "these are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, and every living plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew," in accordance with the divine ideal or picture. Then the Lord God — the Seraphim and the Cherubim — with their tremendous united power, became the demon- strators and brought these pictures into objectivity, or, "formed (animal) man of the dust of the ground . . . and out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree . . . and out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every fowl of the air." This was the second or physical creation de- scribed in the second chapter of Genesis, and which will be elaborated in lecture four of this Course. And when at last everything was ready to receive him, "God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the l The History and Power of Mind, pp. 69-71. 64 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." With Divine Mind's desire for parenthood there came into the Universal Consciousness the mental pictures of the Sons of God ; and when the Elohim saw those pictures they commenced to draw from the differentiated part of God individual portions of Divine Mind, and form- ing each of these portions into an oval or egg-shaped sphere, like themselves, they fulfilled the command and created each son in their own "image" and after their own "likeness." 2 Then they gave to each individual soul its own rate of vibration, and the magnetic power inherent in each, because of its Divine origin, made it an independent , magnetic, evolving, immortal soul, through whom its Father, Divine Mind, should be able to express Itself. And through whom It would be able to raise to a higher point of development the vegetable and animal kingdoms below man. And it was for this purpose that God gave His sons dominion over the earth and over all it contained. For Divine Mind works only through Its individual instruments from the highest and greatest centres of consciousness — the Solar Deities — down to the smallest and most insig- nificant creature in the Universe. When the Sons of God had incarnated in the animal forms of earth they immediately began using the laws 2 The History and Power of Mind, pp. 65-68. Parenthood. 65 which govern procreation. In those ancient days men knew no more about gestation than they did about digestion and became parents more from their animal desires and impulses than from any desire for offspring. In their ignorance of the law they not only used, but they also abused, it; and yet, unconsciously to them- selves, they became instruments, though many times imperfect ones, for the Divine Mind, their Father to work through. But God is patient with Its children, and after many ages of ignorance with their attending suffering had passed, man reached a point in his evo- lution where he recognized that there was a higher power than his own, and began to have a desire for a knowledge concerning it. He wanted to know the truth about himself and about his relationship to that power. He also recog- nized the fact that there were laws which governed him and his environment and he desired to become acquainted with them. Before the awakening of his desire to. know the truth concerning his family rela- tions, his children had been born with the regularity of the coming of the seasons. Sometimes there were so many that he could scarcely get food for himself and them. And when hunger commenced to gnaw daily in his stomach he suddenly awoke to the realization of the truth that he had been extravagant in exercising his parental privileges, and, notwithstanding his race be- lief that man should be fruitful and multiply and re- 66 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. plenish the earth, he began to think about retrenching and demanded in his heart to know the laws governing the conception and birth of children and how to regu- late the size of his family. The law of demand and supply has been operating in the Universe since the Universe was created. And although men have not known how to use that law in- telligently and scientifically, still, whatsoever a man desires in his heart will come to him sooner or later. After a long period of wishing and waiting man's desire for knowledge concerning conception and his parental duties was met. Advanced souls, men who had lived through a former period of evolution and who had gained a knowledge far beyond that of the peoples whom they came to help, were sent to this earth to incarnate in human form and to become teachers of the rising, growing races. As the cool and gentle dew from heaven falls upon the parched and feverish earth, refreshing and reviv- ing it after the burning rays of the sun have disap- peared, so did the wisdom brought to ignorant, suffer- ing mankind, by the teachers of Occult Truths, revive and encourage such individual souls as were ready to receive it. By these teachers men and women were taught that to become the father and mother of a human body, the earthly temple for another soul, was a sacred, divine privilege. That parenthood should always be assumed with deepest reverence and with Parenthood, 67 an earnest demand for wisdom to train each little per- sonality in a manner that will make it tractable for the incarnating ego to control. That when the tiny brain should become expanded to the point where it should be possible for the soul to take full possession it would be a good instrument, instead of a poor one, for the soul to use. As the Creative Gods in the heavens moulded the souls of men in forms similar to their own, so do the animal men of earth now reproduce their own forms in those of their children. It is true that "fools rush in where angels fear to tread," and the advanced souls see with fear and often with regret the consequences which must come to the men and women who carelessly and recklessly assume the responsibilities of parenthood and then deliberately shirk those responsibilities, or turn their little ones over to the care of ignorant and viciously inclined per- sons to care for. If a beautiful and wonderful jewel, a thing so rare that there was but one other like it in the Universe, were to be presented to a woman, would she give that jewel to a hireling to wear? Would she carelessly leave it, with its beauty and purity un- guarded, for weeks and perhaps for months, to be smirched and defiled by those with whom she has en- trusted it, and who know or care nothing for its value? What would the world think of the King who gave his crown to his valet to do with as he saw fit? And yet, in comparison with the soul jewels in the crown of 68 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation, parenthood, the jewels in the crown of a monarch are most insignificant. Before a woman conceives the embryo which is to become a human body the Divine Law attracts to her a soul, or ego, which in a past life has been asso- ciated either pleasantly or unpleasantly with her or with the man who will be the father of her child. Sometimes this ego, who is about to reincarnate, does not leave her for a moment alone for weeks, and per- haps for months, before conception. It is ever present, waiting for the moment to come when copulation will occur and the conditions will be favorable for the con- ception of its body. And when the desired conditions are produced it sends forth from itself into the ovarium, within the mother, a tiny, blue, magnetic thread and fastens it to the life germ which the father has just deposited there. To the spiritual eyes of the Seer this magnetic thread appears upon the subjective plane as the web thread of the spider appears to physical eyes upon the mate- rial plane. Both seem to be equally fragile and easily broken; but the magnetic thread, when once attached to its embyro, is strengthened in its hold by the rein- carnating ego's intense desire for life. The Law of Attraction which brought that ego to that family also gives protection to the embryo through its action upon the uterus containing it. It causes that organ to con- tract around the tiny life germ for the first few days Parenthood. 69 after it is received, or until a membrane, which will be a further protection to the embryo, is completely formed within the opening of the cervix. When conception is established, then comes the building of the body which the reincarnating ego will possess. If the ego or builder is an undeveloped soul and, without its volition, is being forced back into earth-life by the great Law, then the building of its body is not a conscious creation of its own, but is the result of the physical action of the law and the mother's mind. But the advanced soul consciously selects from the mother's blood the finest atoms for the embryo, and mentally moulds his vehicle according to his purpose. The reincarnating ego completely envelops the mother of its embryo at the moment of conception and con- tinues in that close relation during the whole period of gestation, and effects more or less her disposition and desires. If it is of a weaker nature than hers, then its influence is not externally apparent to any large de- gree; but if it is stronger, even if it be of a more undeveloped nature than hers, it dominates her in every way. She will no longer have the same likes or dis- likes, will sometimes yield to the most unaccountable tastes, and often to depraved appetites. Persons whom she once loved she will now despise and vice versa. Sometimes she will seem to be obsessed by a demon of animal passion and during the whole period of gesta- 70 'From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. tion her sexual desires will seem to be unsatiable. To her friends she becomes a source of sorrow and dis- appointment, because they do not understand the cause of the change in her. She, herself, may not understand it and usually does not care to know the reason. If she were to be examined psychically by a clairvoy- ant she would be seen surrounded and completely en- veloped by a dark shadow — which is the aura of the ego who is incarnating as her child; and its colors would seem to have entirely overcome and suppressed her own. During the period of gestation perhaps she would be absolutely obsessed or insane — as obsession is more popularly called. Through the intense and perhaps gross desires of the reincarnating ego, it may impress the tiny body with impurities. It may poison the blood of the child with its own hatred and anger. Through its uncon- trolled emotions and passions it often produces an abnormal condition of some of its internal organs, and the body will be born with impure blood and a defective brain, or perhaps with a physical deformity of limbs or body. Then it will be said that these misfortunes were inherited from its parents, or that they were birth- marks caused by some fault of the mother, or by some mishap which befell her during the period of gestation. When the woman is relieved of the burden of carry- ing the child and her normal, mental condition has reasserted itself, by reason of the fact that the rein- Parenthood. 71 carnating ego has been a step removed from her aura, she often suffers the deepest remorse because of the unfortunate condition of her child. Her friends, and perhaps her husband, tell her how disgracefully she has misbehaved, and blame her for the condition of her offspring. In reality, however, she neither con- sciously nor unconsciously produced it, and it may be that the ego of her child was drawn into her family because of its past relationship with her husband who is now its father. It is true that she was karmically connected with her husband and that the Law brought them together for that reason. Through her relationship with him she had to participate in his karma, but she may not have had any past association with the particular ego who was now reincarnated as their child, and should not be blamed for its misfortunes. Some one may ask why is it not right, under such cir- cumstances, to produce a miscarriage and dislodge the unfortunate embryo, rather than to permit it to de- velop into an unruly and disreputable individual and become a source of trouble to its parents. To such a question the Occultist would reply : Nothing whatever would be gained by producing such a miscarriage, since that unruly, undeveloped ego actually belongs to that family by reason of past association, and the Law would continue to bring it back again and again until that woman or man to whom it belonged were compelled 72 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. to give it parentage, and thus pay the debt that he or she owed to it. For all mankind at this point in the evolution of the race owe debts that can be paid in no other way than by becoming parents, and the Divine Law is an inexorable collector of karmic debts. If a developed or advanced ego is seeking reincar- nation in a certain family it is also because of karmic reasons. 1 During some past life there was formed a pleasant relationship between it and some member of that family. Or perhaps it may be that it is the other half of the soul of the mother to whom it has now come in the relationship of child. 2 In a case like this the soul of that mother will be uplifted all during the period 'of gestation and she will anticipate the coming of her child with the happiness that she would feel at the prospect of a visit from her dearest friend. She will dream of it by night and plan beautiful things for it by day. It will be a pleasure to her to fashion the dainty garments it is to wear, and perhaps she will not permit them to be made by other hands than her own. Things happening in her household or among her friends which once disturbed and annoyed her now bring nothing but a smile to her face. She is per- meated with the aura of the soul that she loves better than any other in the Universe and her sacred picture grows daily clearer to her mental vision. This is be- x Mata the Magician, p. 154. 2 Linked Lives, p. 203. Parenthood. 73 cause it has come so near, it has indeed again become a part of her, and they two are blended together as they were before coming to earth to suffer and learn to be strong. If it is not the other half of herself, but is equal to her in development, then she is often contented and pleased with the possibility of becoming a mother. If it should be an ego greatly in advance of her, she would be blessed in many ways by the close relation- ship during gestation and the impetus her mind would receive from it would take her a long step in advance of where she was when she conceived the little body for it to use. 1 Heredity, according to the common acceptance of the term, is impossible. Neither the father or mother of a child can give to it its character or any part of it. It is true that in the case of a reincarnating ego not being as strong as either of its parents the physical body may resemble in appearance one or both parents. This may be due to two causes. First, the reincarnating ego may be, in a general way, of a similar character to one or both parents. Or it may be that it is not a con- scious builder of its body and negatively waits for the Law and for the mind of its mother to mould its body for it. By many physicians, and by society in general, it is *Mata the Magician, p. 105. 74 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. believed to be true that the father or mother can trans- mit impurities and disease through their blood to their innocent offspring, and that a child will thus be made to suffer for the sins of its parents. The Occultist would say no ego could reincarnate with parents who would inoculate poisons or disease into its body, unless, by reason of its own past mistakes, that ego deserved to have them. It could never be brought into that family by the Law, if it did not belong there, because the Law is Justice as well as Law. To the mother who finds in her children the taint of a poison which she knows she did not give them, but which came from their father, the Occultist would say: Because of this let no bitterness live in your heart toward the man whom you have espoused, because it is a debt which is being paid and the child whom you believe to be an inno- cent sufferer for another's sins had sins of its own to expiate and is expiating them under the right and proper conditions now. By this it is not meant that nothing should be done to improve the condition of the child, because improve- ment is always needed at every moment during the life of a human being. But do not blame God for the afflic- tion, or do not believe it to be an especial dispensation of Providence sent to you. 1 Do not waste force weep- ing and lamenting, but look at it philosophically and 1 The History and Power of Mind, pp. U6-U9; 244. Parenthood. 75 help that ego to live better this time than it did before, so that it may not suffer again in a like manner. And while you seek to eliminate the poison from its body also try to eliminate from its mind the poisonous thoughts which brought it to this condition. There are sins of omission as well as sins of com- mission, and nowhere in any walk of life are there more of these to be found than in the relationship of parent- hood. The mother who is too ignorant or too careless to watch her baby and prevent that little animal per- sonality from contracting in its infancy the habits which will later lead to sexual abuses, wakens some day to the realizing sense that her beloved son or daughter in whom her heart's pride is centered has become a nervous, physical wreck because of the fear- ful practice of masturbation. Or has, perhaps, entered the broad road of prostitution to suffer, and it may be to die a disgrace to the mother who neglected her parental duty toward that child. Modesty is the first lesson that should be taught to the baby. When it begins to toddle teach it that there are certain portions of its body which must always be kept decorously covered, and which must not be han- dled or played with. Bad impressions are often made on a baby's mind by the admiring mother who bears its little body and shows it to her friends, or has its picture taken in its nudity. Baby soon learns to believe that 76 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. nudity is nice, and it is more difficult for it to unlearn a thing than to learn it. When a baby girl has reached an age of understand- ing, the wise mother will win her confidence by talking with her alone each day upon the subjects which seem of the greatest interest to the child. She will ask her questions concerning the children with whom she plays, or of the servants in the house who have the care of her ; and very soon she will be able to determine some- thing of the daily influences which are brought to bear upon the child. During those hours of sacred confi- dence the plastic mind of the child should be moulded into the right condition to resist the evil of the outside world. If during those precious hours the mother teaches her that she is never alone, but is surrounded by night as well as by day by Divine Consciousness which knows every thought she thinks and every act that she performs, the child will not be easily led into transgression. Before the girl reaches puberty, the time when the progressed reincarnating ego usually takes full posses- sion of its body, 1 the wise mother will impress upon her mind that for the protection of her good name, and in order that her future husband should fully trust in her virtue and purity, God had created within her body a hymen, which is the physical expression of the purity Mata the Magician, p. 126. Parenthood, 77 of her thoughts. She will tell her that this expression of physical purity must be guarded as carefully as her eyes, which are but the material windows for her soul. And she will impress the thought upon the girl's mind that the hymen is a veil for the sacred creative organs within her body, and it must remain where God placed it until the time shall come when she will enter into the relationship of wife. Because of her sex the baby girl should not be made an isolated subject to be taught the necessity for purity of thought and action. The baby boy should begin his private interviews with his mother at an equally tender age. For it is a great mistake to believe that because he is a boy he does not need to be taught purity or does not come under the same rules that should govern the conduct of his sister. Souls are sexless and incar- nate alternately in male and female personalities. It is the soul of the boy that the mother is educating, and it matters not which sex it uses now, the truth and purity which is taught it to-day will last throughout its future reincarnations. It is a mistake to believe that the modest man is not a strong character, or that he is a weakling because he refuses to enter into the follies and vices which society permits him to enter and still retain its respect. So let not the mothers be afraid of robbing their sons of any of the majesty of their manhood by teaching them along the same lines that they teach their sisters. Vir- 78 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. tue is a wonderous jewel and shines as brightly in the crown of manhood as it does in the crown of woman- hood. And whichever place it may be it always serves as a strong light to illumine the pathway of its posses- sor on the journey of life. The Occultist would say, be not ashamed to be or to become a modest, truthful, virtuous man ; for by so doing you will be entitled to be taught the highest wis- dom given to man upon this planet. But if you have not the rock foundation of virtue and truth to stand upon you could not bear to know the highest Occult teachings, which will be given only to those who ar v e thus prepared and are therefore ready. Teaching by word of mouth is not all of the parental duties. The lessons taught the child as it sits on the parent's knee are beautiful and impressive, but they do not do all the work that needs to be done in the child's heart garden. There is the daily example which both parents put before it and which goes very far toward moulding the little one's character into a perfect or imperfect image of manhood or womanhood. It is natural and right that the mother should be the child's ideal of perfect womanhood, and that the father should be its ideal of perfect manhood. It is also nat- ural that those ideals should be raised or lowered in the child's mind according to the behavior of the ob- jects of those ideals. How can a mother teach mod- esty to a child who sees her exposing her own person Parenthood. 79 in a state of nudity? How can she teach her child purity of thought and action when she, herself, indulges in impurity? She may think she is concealing her con- duct from her child, but those little bright eyes see much more than she imagines, and that active little mind will draw its own conclusions at a very tender age. How can a mother teach a child to be truthful when she, herself, tells falsehoods to it and before it? It is true that children are often impelled to ask em- barrassing questions, and desire to know many things which it may not seem advisable to answer at that time. In such cases, instead of telling a falsehood to conceal the truth, it is better to say: "When you are old enough to be told this thing which you are asking about, I will answer your question." If a baby of five or six years wishes to know where her baby brother came from, it is neither advisable nor necessary to enter into a detailed account of the cir- cumstances and conditions which brought him into the family. But the little ones's question being an honest one, deserves a respectful and considerate reply ; and it is not right to put her off with the usual tale of a stork or a fairy bringing and leaving him on the door step; nor that the doctor took him out of his box where he keeps all other babies. If it does not seem advisable to tell the truth at that time, then one should promise to explain the mystery at some future time. 80 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation, It is a mistake to tell children the Santa Claus falsehood. It is true that it makes a very pretty story, and a child lives in a delightful dream of expectation until the sad day comes when it learns the truth. The awakening is usually a terrible shock and disappoint- ment, and its confidence is forever shaken in the per- son who told and maintained the falsehood. Circum- stances which seem trifling and unimportant to a pa- rent are of great importance to the child who is learn- ing its first lessons in life. And the little one's dis- appointments are as hard for it to bear as are those which break the hearts and ruin the lives of men and women. Because of their love for their children, parents often make slaves of themselves and sacrifice much which they need and desire, in order that their children may have more than they can afford to give them. It is not an unusual thing to hear a mother say: "I will never see my daughter's hands look as mine do. She shall never work as I have worked if I can help it. My child shall have all the advantages that were denied to me because of the poverty of my parents. It is my duty to deny myself in order that she may become ac- complished." The one object in life is the development and growth of every individual soul, and not one should be re- tarded in its evolution by becoming the slave of another soul. The mother who works all day in the kitchen, Parenthood. 81 laundry, or at household work, in order to save her daughter's white hands from the stains of labor, is not only retarding her own growth, but she is at the same time fostering in her daughter's character a degree of selfishness which will retard instead of advance her progress in life. If the ego who came to reincarnate as the daughter of the hard-working, self-sacrificing woman had not needed and deserved the lessons in physical labor which Divine Law intended she should get in that environment, then she would not have been brought to that family to incarnate. And the mother, through her mistaken sense of duty, transgressed against the Divine Law when she refused to share her labors with her child. Because of the many self-im- posed tasks the mother cannot take time to read or to think along educational lines; she has very little or no time to spend upon her toilet, and as a consequence she appears illiterate, stupid and poorly gowned. The daughter for whom she has toiled is ashamed of her, and perhaps repudiates her relationship if an oppor- tunity is presented. There is a saying that if a man makes a doormat of himself his friends will wipe their shoes on him. This is a very terse way of stating a great truth and applies to the case under discussion. This mother earns the punishment she receives for attempting to evade the operation of the Law which governs her own and her daughter's progress. The punishment Is bestowed 82 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. upon her through the individual whom she, by her mis- taken ideas of duty, has retarded in her development. It is a fearful thing to hinder the evolution of another soul, and never fails to bring its punishment. It is not infrequent that the old father and mother are left unthanked and alone to toil and pay off the mortgage that, while laboring under their mistaken sense of duty, they put upon their home in order that their boy could go to college and have a sufficient amount of money to dress equal with, and to spend in company with, the wealthy men's sons with whom he would associate during his college days. And it is not infrequent, when the young man returns to his humble home and compares it and his homely old parents with the homes and parents of his fashionable friends, that he feels ashamed and' aggrieved and often blames his father and mother for his poverty. Such a young man might be heard to say: "They brought me into the world against my will and now they may take care of me," and the disappointed father and mother bow their heads and bend their backs under the burden which mistaken duty has put upon them. It was not the duty of those parents to risk losing their home for the sake of giving their son an oppor- tunity in life which neither of them could have. But it was their duty to share with him their labors as well as their blessings. If the boy had an aspiration for a college course, and was willing to earn the money to Parenthood. 83 pay for it, they had no right to keep him at home or to refuse him the opportunity to progress along any line he chose to follow. Because he was their son they had no right to demand a lifelong servitude from him any more than, because they gave him birth, he had the right to demand a life servitude from them. There were experiences which he needed in that humble en- vironment which would serve to bring out the strong points in his character as no other environment would do ; and Divine Mind placed him there because it was the best place for him to be. It was not necessary, however, that he should always remain in that environ- ment, and after the necessary lessons had been learned and the required strength had been gained, he had the right to release himself and to work out his life prob- lems in any way that he liked best. It is not an unusual thing to hear a mother say: "My daughter must have jewels and fine clothes and be 'up to date' ; it does not matter about me, I am getting old, and an old woman does not need anything anyway." This is another case of mistaken parental duty. In order that her daughter may have fine clothes, jewels and be "up to date," an evolving soul creeps into a cor- ner and hides herself because of her shabby, old-fash- ioned appearance. She cannot meet her daughter's friends because she has given everything she possessed toward ornamenting and beautifying her daughter. 84 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. She does not know what kind of society her daughter keeps because she is not permitted to appear in the parlor when company is present. The real maternal duty of supervising the selection of her daughter's friends is overruled by the mistaken duty of keeping her "up to date," and permitting her to try to force herself into a social position which the family ex- chequer is not able to maintain without sacrifice to the parents. That mother's punishment for her transgression of the Law usually comes in the form of dishonor to the daughter and a consequent disgrace to the family name ; and she is compelled to creep further than ever into the background and hide her head for shame of that which she has been instrumental in precipitating upon herself and upon her child. When the majority of the women of any nation abso- lutely refuse to become mothers, whether it is because of their poverty and inability to support their children, or whether it is because they are too fashionable and have not the time to give to the sacred duties of motherhood, then the world may know that "race sui- cide" has begun in that portion of the globe where those women dwell. For the law of demand and sup- ply works along this line as forcefully as along any other, and when women commence to picture them- selves as barren and demand barrenness, they are scientifically creating that condition for themselves and Parenthood. 85 for the nation to which they belong. If artificial means are used to produce this condition the demise of the nation will be hastened. And if a point has been reached where its limitation of thought, its fixed re- ligious beliefs and its unprogressive modes of living are causing mental strangulation to the individuals who compose it, then the addition of these various causes to the first great cause soon brings demolition. For example, take the Chinese race. There are a few individuals in that great nation who manifest a desire to break through the ancient customs of their ances- tors by going to America and elsewhere to live. Some of these emigrants adopt, to a limited extent, the cus- toms and modes of living of the peoples whom they go among. But as a nation the Chinese are bound by their religious beliefs to the time of Confucius; and because of their ancestral worship cannot depart from those ancient religious customs. Some of the men who come to America make a pretense of manifesting an interest in the religions of their adopted country; but, as has been repeatedly shown, there is no founda- tion for that interest other than curiosity or a desire for financial gain. With most of their men and with many of their women sex relationship has reached a point of utter moral depravity. Licentious indulgences are with them a recreation and a pastime. Many of their women are born barren and, in order that prostitution 86 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. among them may not be restrained by child-bearing, many women are made barren by artificial means. This last named crime alone would destroy the nation after a few more generations. But when that crime is com- bined with all the limitations and obstructions which its people have put in the way of their own evolution, there is but one result that can come and that is destruction of the entire Chinese nation. It is to be hoped that the people of our own and other nations, who believe themselves to be progressive and enlightened, will learn something of the causes and un- mistakable signs which precede and produce "race sui- cide," and not be so unwise as to require experiences similar to those of a dying nation in order to learn the lesson Divine Law is trying to teach. Since there are two sides to every subject, there is another side to this one. Opposite to "race suicide" stands the other extreme, which is parental slavery. Parenthood is a necessary experience in man's evolu- tion, but parental slavery, produced by overmuch pa- renthood, is another great mistake. Because God said on the morning of man's creation "be fruitful and multi- ply and replenish the earth and subdue it," many people have believed it to be a duty they owed to God to give birth to as many children as it was possible to do, and regardless of health or of financial conditions bore children in such numbers that they were utterly unable to take care of them. This is exhibiting an extrava- Parenthood. 87 gance in the parental privileges of man and is as much to be deplored as any other extravagance. It is true that there are many egos upon the subject- ive plane awaiting opportunities for re-incarnation. But so there is an abundance of food in the world waiting to be transformed into blood, bone and muscle. A man who would constantly overcrowd his stomach in order to accommodate the food that was waiting to be transformed into something higher than food would be abusing that organ and would soon reach a point where he could not retain any food, and he would shorten his life as a penalty for his extravagance in eating. There are certain religious orders which encourage and even command their female members to give birth to as many children as it is possible to do ; and priests have been known to advise the sacrifice of the life of a mother for the sake of bringing another child into the world, even though at that moment there was a family of little ones to be left motherless by his decision. The Occultist would say such advice as this, coming from a priest, supposed to be a holy man, should be re- garded as a crime, and should be made punishable by the State. It is a mistake to allow such men to teach ignorant people to commit such wrongs as these, for it is as much of a wrong to sacrifice the incarnation of one soul for the sake of giving incarnation to another as it is to take life in any other way. 88 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. It is not necessary that a soul should become a slave to a larger family of children than it has means to comfortably provide for. It is not right nor just for a man and woman to toil early and late and be deprived of the advantages and pleasures of life in order that a number of other egos may have an opportunity to re- incarnate. But every man and woman should be wil- ling to pay the parental debt they owe to the Divine Law, by having some children. In other words they should be willing and glad to give bodies to and to educate at least two other egos to pay for their own birth and education. But if an individual does not wish to pay his v debt and prefers to shirk his sacred obligation; if he feels either mentally or physically unqualified for parent- hood, then he should refuse to marry and should devote his time to the improvement of his mental and physical condition and toward helping improve the condition of others who need his assistance. The Nazarene said: "For ye hath the poor always with you," and the man or woman who does not desire to marry and become a natural parent can find much to do for the fatherless and motherless children in the world who need assistance. LECTURE FOUR PHYSICAL AND PSYCHIC DEVELOPMENT. In the three lectures preceding this one there have been a few brief glimpses of cosmogonal evolution and of the relationship existing between God — Divine Mind — and some of the greatest individualized centers of force in the Universe ; such as the Solar Deities and the Elohim or Creative Gods. It must be understood that these great Centres of Consciousness were the com- bined products of remote Cosmic Days, and that on the morning of our first period they were but called again into activity and were not newly created as was anciently believed. For God did not create the earth and all it contained first and then make "two great lights : the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night : and the stars and set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the Earth/' as is stated in the first chapter of Genesis. But, in accordance with the Divine Law, which is also the law of necessity, the stronger centers of force preceded the weaker in this Cosmic Day, the same as 90 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. they did during past periods, and will forever con- tinue to do; and therefore the Occultist would say, before the creation of worlds, or of planetary systems, the suns were created which were to give light and heat and magnetic life to those worlds. On the morning of the second period of our Cosmic Day, after light had been established and after the Di- vine Will had caused the separation to take place be- tween the undifferentiated and the differentiated por- tions of Itself, and after God had said : "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters." Celestial Be- ings, who in our Scripture were sometimes called the Seraphim and Cherubim, and who had been but waiting for the Divine Summons to arouse them from their inactivity — came forth from the undifferentiated por- tion of God and were ready to begin the work which the All Father, Divine Mind, desired them to do. Like the Elohim, these great Beings were also cen- ters of individualized consciousness, but differed from them in being the products of the Cosmic Day just past. When the last Cosmic Night came on they had, through individualization, evolved to a point beyond the possi- bility of re-absorbment into the Universal Conscious- ness. 1 And although they were possessed of lesser power, being smaller centers than the Elohim, still the individual Godhood of each had been established, and they belonged to the "Heavenly Host" of souls who work everlastingly for the upbuilding of the Universe. J The History and Power of Mind, pp. 100-101. Physical and Psychic Development. 91 Throughout our Scripture these Beings are frequent- ly mentioned, and are called by various names, accord- ing to the impression made upon the mind of the indi- vidual who saw them. Usually they appeared singly to persons, as in the case of Saul, who was going to Damascus to persecute the ancient Christians. The description he gave of the Being who stopped him in his mad career was more nearly correct than was usually given in those days. He was impressed with the thought that it was Jesus of Nazareth who spoke to him, and in his report of the incident he said : "Suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven ; and he fell to the earth and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" and for three days afterward he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank. It may or may not have been the Being who had been using the body of the humble Nazarene in order to teach humanity how to live to higher standards of mo- rality ; but whether it was He or not, it certainly was a Celestial Being who had been sent to Saul to enlighten him regarding the mistakes he was making in persecut- ing his fellowmen. And it was not the first nor the last incident of the kind which has occurred among mankind. In the first chapter of Ezekiel there is a most graphic description given of four of these Beings who, that ancient prophet declared, had appeared to him. He 92 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. said they looked exactly alike and had "the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord." And when he heard the voice of the One who spoke, he fell upon his face and was unable to stand before that holy com- pany. It is not unreasonable to believe that the ridiculous description Ezekiel gave of that Celestial Quartet was highly colored by his intense emotional condition, as well as by the imperfection of his clairvoyant vision at that time. So far as the details are concerned, his de- scription of those Beings could not have been correct, since Beings who have reached the point of develop- ment which entitles them to the position of Creative Gods have no need for wings, neither do they have ani- mal heads nor birds' faces. But they are great Souls who in their Cosmic Day were men like the men of our present day, but who have now become disem- bodied, yet have retained every principle except their physical vehicle, for which they have no further need. And, instead of going to some far away heaven and spending an eternity in selfish bliss, they have chosen to do the work of self-sacrifice which ends only with the Cosmic Day in which that work is undertaken. Combined they form the invisible "Host" which ever protects and watches over humanity within its karmic limits. Singly or in pairs, they sometimes visit indi- viduals who have become worthy of their help. They are the protecting, compassionate, guardian angels for Physical and Psychic Development. 93 struggling, suffering souls of earth. They are the Elder Brothers, the Saviours, the Avatars for undevel- oped men. With their intense and rapid rates of vibration they sometimes appear to man as great centers of light or as radiant suns encircled by all the colors of the rainbow. And if one of these wondrous Beings comes into close proximity with an undeveloped incarnated soul, that soul is often unable to bear the Presence and retain his consciousness on the material plane. Sometimes one of these Beings takes a physical body and uses it for a short time for the purpose of enabling Him to mingle with men and thus help a race or a na- tion by leading it over a difficult place in its evolution. But whether incarnated or not, they inspire and up- lift the leaders of peoples teaching them at all times the highest truths that they are able to understand. The laws operating in the macrocosm also control the microcosm, and since in order to evolve, Divine Mind has to express Itself through the instrumentality of individualized centers, it was necessary in the sixth period of our Cosmic Day, after suns and worlds and systems of worlds had been created, that It should con- tinue further with the individualization of Itself. When the earth was formed and adjusted to its orbit in the heavens, and when its surface had become sufficiently cooled and encrusted to form a substantial foundation, the vapors which had been accumulating in its sur- 94 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. rounding- atmosphere, by reason of the intense heat emanating from it as a mass of burning gases, were precipitated back upon it in the form of a heavy rain. This is described in Genesis second chapter and sixth verse: "But there went up a mist from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground." The Occultist further says that there was a great downpour of rain which lasted for many years until the whole face of the earth was covered with water. And that for ages Mother Earth was covered with the restless, surging sea. 1 When the time had come in the earth's evolution that individualized life could be maintained upon it, the earth, through its own magnetic power of attraction, commenced to draw from the differentiated portion of the Universal Consciousness surrounding it the cosmic life currents which were to ensoul it and to ensoul all the animal forms which it should sometime produce. The first current which was attracted, and which en- tirely permeated it, was the cosmic current orange. This is the current that gives life to everything and without which neither minerals nor vegetables nor ani- mals could exist. 2 Without its renewing power even the earth itself would soon become nothing but a huge ball of crumbling coke and slowly disintegrate. After the life current was established and had formed a broad iFrom Incarnation to Re-incarnation, p. 8. 2 The History and Power of Mind, p. 231. Physical and Psychic Development, 95 protecting band around the earth then came the cosmic current red 1 and blended with the orange upon its outer edge. In this current are the elements which induce pro-creation and therefore it was a necessary force to aid in the work of re-production of the vegetable and animal forms of earth. After the cosmic current red then came another which vibrates at the rate producing green 2 and blended with the red upon its outer edge. In this current are the elements which produce and maintain the principle of individualization and thus it was also a necessary factor in the work which Divine Mind desired done upon the earth. When our globe had become surrounded and en- souled with these currents or colors it was ready to bring forth into objectivity the various vegetable and animal forms which Divine Mind had created on the mental plane, and in this work the Seraphim and Cheru- bim, the Lord Gods of the second chapter of Genesis, became the demonstrators. 3 According to the command of God — Divine Mind — the Elohim had created the Sons of God out of the differentiated part of the Universal Consciousness and had placed him in a realm of innocence upon another sphere or orb in our planetary chain ; and now the Sera- phim and Cherubim undertook the work of creating the forms of vegetable and animal life and the bodies of animal men out of that part of the differentiated por- »The History and Power of Mind, p. 228. a The History and Power of Mind, p. 232. 8 From Incarnation to Re-incarnation, p. 63. 96 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation, tion of the Universal Consciousness which had been attracted to and had ensouled the earth. Since Divine Mind had pictured certain portions of the earth covered with grasses, flowers and trees, and had thus formed the matrices for these individualized expressions of Itself, seven Seraphs and seven Cherubs, half souls of each other, formed into a group of Creative Beings for the purpose of materializing Divine Mind's mental creations. These Beings with their united force raised continents above the surface of the waters and caused "the waters under the heaven to be gathered to- gether unto one place." Then they slowly drew from the orange, the red and the green currents, ensouling the earth, a combined force which, as it passed through the mineralized soil and appeared upon its surface, in- dividualized and materialized into the many forms of vegetable life which they had seen pictured in Divine Mind before they grew. First came the tiny lichens upon the rocks, then the grass and flowers, the shrubs and finally the trees ; and thus the command of God — Divine Mind — was fulfilled ; "and out of the ground" made the Lord Gods to grow every plant of the field and every "tree that is pleasant for the sight, and good for food." After the vegetable kingdom was created and was ready to support the animal life that was to come, then this group of Celestial Beings began slowly to material- ize the pictures they saw in Divine Mind of the fish. First came the various kinds of mussels, mollusks and Physical and Psychic Development. 97 bivalves. All were without shells in the beginning but afterward, those that needed, evolved such protection as would preserve life and maintain continued exist- ence. And after ages and ages there were evolved from the mussel, fish ; and from the fish a creature half fish and half fowl, which finally evolved to fowl and flew above the waters instead of swam in the waters, and thus was fulfilled the mandate of Divine Mind: "Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven." And after the waters had been made to bring forth, then these Celestial Beings began slowly to materialize the insect and animal forms which they had seen pict- ured in Divine Mind. From the decaying roots of the grasses and the flowers the life principle was drawn into tiny insect and animal forms (which of course did not include the malignant creatures which were subse- quently the offspring of men's minds). 1 And from the decaying roots of shrubs and trees the life principle was drawn into larger animal forms. The soul of the squirrel which now has its home in the hollow of a decaying tree was once the soul of a tree. Then it depended upon the soil and the atmos- phere for its individual maintenance and its limitations held it firmly attached to the mother earth which bore it. When its experience as a tree had been sufficient, and when its material tree body began to decay, the 1 The History and Power of Mind, p. 173. 98 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. Universal Consciousness, desiring a higher individuali- zation for it, acted as the evolutionary impulse and pushed the tree soul out of its dying vehicle, and the Celestial Beings moulded it into the tiny squirrel form which they saw pictured in Divine Mind. Because of its former life as a tree and because of its past associa- tions with the forest, in its new and more progressed form it loved and made its home among the trees, until after many re-incarnations as a squirrel it outgrew that condition also and was able to use a larger and a stronger body. And thus the animal kingdom was gradually evolved through the re-embodiment of the life principle, combined with the pro-creative and in- dividualizing forces, until a form was evolved which stood erect and walked upon two feet. This form the Celestial Beings — the Lord Gods — created (evolved) from "the dust of the ground." It was the materialized and mineralized product of the earth. And when they "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life," or drew into his body the combined cosmic life currents, (ani- mal) "man became a living (animal) soul," and was ready to receive the divine, immortal principle which was waiting upon another sphere to come and im- mortalize his existence. In Lecture One of this course it was shown how the Sons of God incarnated in the animal forms which the Celestial Beings had prepared for them, 1 and the ac- 1 From Incarnation to Re-incarnation, p. 10; The History and Power of Mind, pp. 69-71. Physical and Psychic Development. 99 count of that incarnation will not be repeated. It is sufficient to say that after the union of the two minds, the higher and the lower, or the subjective and the objective, the struggle for the supremacy commenced between them; and although man has lived upon this planet until more than one-half of the time has passed which was allotted to his evolution, the struggle be- tween his two minds is still strong and he is now only just beginning to learn something about his origin and nature. Since history began to be written there have been individuals who have stood forth during their age or generation in the position of psychics ; and because of the mental or moral undevelopment of some of those in- dividuals, psychism has suffered a great deal of oppro- brium. The Century Dictionary defines psychism as: "The doctrine that there is a fluid diffused throughout all nature, animating equally all living and organized beings, and that the difference which appears in their actions comes of their particular organization." To the ordinary student this definition is confusing. For if there is a fluid diffused throughout all nature which animates equally all living and organized beings, why should not every being be equally effected by it? It also defines the word Psyche, from which psychism is derived, as a Greek word meaning among other things "the human soul, spirit or mind." If it is the human soul which is supposed to be diffused through- L.Oi G. 100 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. out all nature and which animates equally all living and organized beings, then the first definition is wrong, be- cause, as is most apparent, it is the soul's own person- ality which is most animated, and other beings or per- sonalities are affected by it according to its condition of development and consequent influence over them. The great trouble with the definition as it stands is, that the person who wrote it was not acquainted with the subject he was writing about, and the trouble with humanity is that it knows very little about the subject and is always suspicious of whatever it is not acquainted with. Occultism teaches that psychism or psychic develop- ment is soul growth and that it is not an "especial gift from God," to one individual more than to another; but it is the result of the soul's evolvement and conse- quent ability to see or to be otherwise conscious on planes other than the material, while it still functions in a physical body. That psychism pertains to and is an attribute of the soul and not of the spirit or sub- jective mind is shown by the fact that many animals are psychic. There are many instances on record of horses who have been frightened at disembodied entities and have refused to draw a carriage containing the dead body of a man or ot a beast. This was because they saw or were conscious of the disembodied soul of the corpse which they feared. And dogs have been known to fear or to follow and obey the will of a disembodied Physical and Psychic Development, 101 soul who was invisible to persons who were not psychic ; and yet no one could possibly claim spirituality for the animals. The cult which calls its followers spiritualists has had much to do with bringing confusion in the minds of investigators along this line of thought. Many of the followers of this cult believe themselves to be "spirit- ualists," because they have accepted as a truth the fact that there is eternal progression for the human soul — which belief is an entirely separate and distinct thing from a knowledge of spirit or of things spiritual. Every living thing is animated by a soul and this soul, whether it is of a plant or of animal or of a man, is the evolutionary force within, which re-incarnates again and again until sometime and somewhere it reaches the spiritual plane of development. Then and not until then can it be properly called spiritual. There are two kinds of psychic development, the prudent, which leads to independent clairvoyance and clairaudience ; and the imprudent, which leads to the destruction of the physical body or to insanity. The prudent psychic develops his body by living a natural, orderly life. Through meditation and concentration and by a conscious use of the life currents and of the higher cosmic currents, he keeps his thoughts pure and his body well and strong. With the coming of the Sons of God to this planet to incarnate, there were added to the band of colors already 102 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. surrounding it two higher cosmic currents or colors. The first three, the orange, the red, and the green, were all that were needed to ensoul the earth and the vege- table and animal kingdoms. But when the Sons of God came here to dwell, being of a higher rate of vibra- tion than any thing on earth, their evolution depended upon their having higher forces to draw from. Hav- ing been created out of that portion of the Universal Consciousness which vibrates as blue, they were blue and their mental supplies had to be drawn from the cos- mic current out of which they had been created. For man is the connecting link between the Celestial Beings of other Cosmic Days and the lower creatures of his own day, and it is through him and his efforts that the lower kingdoms will be raised to a higher development. Without the blue cosmic current he could not continue to maintain his present position in the Universe, but would deteriorate into the same general rate of vibra- tion with the creatures below him that draw their sup- port from the lower cosmic currents. With the coming of the blue current to enlarge the earth's aura there also came the next higher current, which is the yellow or spiritual, and with this the cosmic band of colors was completed. All that man and all the other individualized creations of earth would need to draw upon during this period of evolution was now ready for use; but the last two were for man, since it was intended by Divine Mind that Its Sons should as- Physical and Psychic Development. 103 pire and attain to the yellow or spiritual realm, and by so attaining uplift all the creations in the world below them. With these conditions in view the prudent psychic begins to lay the foundation for future clairvoyancy or Seership by going about getting his body into the proper condition in a scientific manner. For he knows that without a sound body and a wholesome mind his psychic development would be more harmful than help- ful to him. Independent clairvoyance and clairaudi- ence belong to man's mental and spiritual development and come only by consciously using the cosmic currents blue and yellow. Instructions how to gain these attri- butes of soul will be given in Lecture Five of this course; at present physical and psychic development will be discussed, since these two things are the basis or foundation for the higher attributes to rest upon. The first races of mankind that existed upon the earth were powerful in their physique; "there were giants in those days;" and those ancient men were-sup- plied with several physical organs which have now either entirely disappeared or have diminished in size to nothing but infinitesimal and apparently useless glands. The diminution of these organs was caused by the sexual excesses which man indulged in and to the artificial modes of living which he adopted. For ex- ample, the tiny gland in the center of his brain which medical science calls the pineal gland was once a center 104 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. of consciousness used by ancient men for the purpose of functioning upon the psychic plane. 1 It was the organ through which the soul reported psychic events to the material plane. Situated at the end of his au- ditory nerves was once other glands or centers of con- sciousness which the soul used to transmit psychic vibrations into audible sounds. But because he grew to love the material things of earth more than the psychic or mental, he neglected and finally ceased to use those centers of consciousness which he possessed. With the disuse of an organ it diminishes in size and strength and after a long continued disuse it becomes atrophied, and so it was with these centers of conscious- ness in man's brain. Because of his grossness and sex- ual excesses, the selfish and brutal conditions into which man sank, his psychic centers of consciousness dwindled to glands very little larger than pin heads and became of no use whatever to him. The same condition became true of other organs in his body. Originally there was an extra receptacle at- tached to the caecum or head of the intestinal colon, which is now called the vermiform appendix. For those ancient men it served the purpose of retaining a vital fluid which was abstracted from his food during the process of digestion, and which would supply him with sufficient nutrition to enable him to exist for weeks and sometimes for months without taking any other !The History and Power of Mind, p. 184. Physical and Psychic Development. 105 food. Now the miserable remnant of that once won- derful organ has degenerated into nothing but a cause of much suffering for mankind in general, and a source of considerable revenue for some of the members of the medical profession. And while our learned sur- geons proceed to remove the now useless attachment they wonder what it was ever created for. In ancient days man was also supplied with a pair of glands which were situated just above his kidneys and which medical science now calls suprarenal bodies. These bodies were created for the purpose of secreting other precious fluids vitally necessary to the prolonga- tion of his physical life ; but like the psychic centers in his brain these organs have also become obsolete, and all because of his neglect and abuse of his physical body. At this time in the cycle or evolution, during the last half of the sixth great period of our Cosmic day, man is beginning to bestir himself, and is trying to regain some of the powers he once possessed and so extrava- gantly wasted. It is encouraging to note that the ris- ing generations have begun to depart from the customs of the generations passing and are devoting more time to athletics. Twenty or thirty years ago it was con- sidered quite the proper thing for wealthy men's sons to aspire to becoming nothing but effeminate fops. In those days the heaviest things the fashionable scions of some of the old aristocratic families lifted or at- 106 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. tempted to carry were their fancy headed canes, which they sat and sucked while they idly stared out of their clubhouse windows at the women who passed. They did nothing and knew nothing about anything besides the regular routine of the useless indolent lives that they lived. And the most arduous things the young women of that class and generation did was to practice a little piano music and eat bon bons. Both sexes were pale and puny and usually died quite young. But the rising generation seems to have caught step with the law of evolution and is cultivating its physical strength. And although it may not realize what great benefit will be derived from so doing, yet is surely laying the founda- tion for a magnificent physique for the coming race. As it has always been with every new impulse in the right direction, there are persons who take an extreme view of everything and over-do whatever they under- take to do. By reason of their enthusiasm in believing that if a little of anything is good, a great deal is better, they are strongly inclined to over-do in their athletic exercises. To acquire health and strength it is not necessary or advisable to spring out of a warm bed in the morning and while the stomach is empty take a plunge into a tub of cold water; and then in order to bring the blood back to the surface of the body, from the vitals where it has been driven by the sudden shock, rub the skin until it smarts with the violent friction of rubbing. But it is necessary to rise and dress and Physical and Psychic Development. 107 then open a window which lets the sunlight into the room, and while raising the arms to the highest point above the head slowly fill the lungs to their greatest capacity with the pure oxygen of the morning. Then, as the breath is slowly exhaled, allow the arms to fall to the sides, and while this exercise is being repeated the thoughts should be concentrated upon the blue or yellow cosmic currents which surround the earth and supply man with his mental and spiritual forces. It is not necessary to practice lifting great weights in order to strengthen the muscles and gain physical strength. Neither is it necessary to hang suspended by the heels in mid air over a horizontal bar until the veins and arteries are ready to burst with the blood that is thus unnaturally forced into them. Man's Crea- tors never intended that he should walk or stand upon his hands with his feet elevated in the air. An intelli- gent examination of his venous system will show that he was intended to walk or stand upon his feet and to use his hands and arms for other purposes than for walking. And such extreme exercises as these are not permanently helpful. For a time a man may feel thrills of exhilaration passing through his body because of his cold bath or of his exciting acrobatic performances, but there always comes a reaction from those shocks to his physical body the same as follows the thrilling experi- ence of drinking a stimulant. The extra strength is not his to keep, but is only borrowed from the future and will leave him as suddenly as it came. 108 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. Because it has been reported that a great hero called Hercules practiced lifting a calf each day until it reached maturity and in this manner gained the strength to carry it when it became full grown, many of our modern heroes and athletes, who live where calves are not available, substitute iron dumb bells for infant bovines, and increase the weight of those bells until they sometimes injure themselves permanently with straining. They forget — if they ever knew — that the strength they are now beginning to regain was lost ages and ages ago and that since it went gradually it will return gradually if they go about getting it in a wise and prudent manner. Very few recognized athletes live to the age of fifty years and many die after about ten years of hard train- ing. They suddenly collapse or go out with pneu- monia or heart failure and people wonder why those strong men were unable to resist a severe cold when they could lift much more than their weight. The rea- son is this. They had been overstraining their lungs and their muscles, and when the reaction came and they were placed upon a bed of illness their overstrained organs collapsed like an overcharged balloon. Gentle, healthy exercises are both beneficial and nec- essary for man's physical and psychic development ; but physical exercises should always be regulated by good judgment and common sense the same as should any- thing else that man does. Physical and Psychic Development, 109 For an aid to the practice of concentration there are muscular exercises which are most beneficial and which serve to develop both the muscles and the mind. In- stead of lifting heavy weights and overstraining the muscles it is a better exercise to concentrate the thoughts upon a particular muscle and learn to raise and lower it by the power of thought concentration. The circulation of the blood in the body can also be controlled in a like manner, and this is a better exercise than that of walking or of running for many miles for the purpose of getting a good circulation. If a person desires to test the truth of this statement for himself, let him concentrate his thoughts upon the blood in his feet. For five consecutive minutes let him think of nothing but his feet and the blood which is flowing into the veins and arteries of them. See the veins throbbing and filled with blood in any portion of his body and he will very soon be able to control the circu- lation of his blood as well as to strengthen and enlarge his muscles by his power of concentration of thought. If a person desires to enlarge and magnetize his brain and the psychic centers within it, let him concentrate his thoughts upon the tiny glands which are the com- bined physical and psychic centers of consciousness for his soul. Let him see the blue cosmic current flowing into his brain or such center until it throbs with this animating, magnetic fluid. But when his head seems to be entirely filled with the current, and he feels it vibrating strongly, it is unwise to continue longer to 110 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. draw upon it at that time. He should remember not to be extravagant in this any more than in any other exercise ; for in the beginning of his practicing he can over-do with his mental gymnastics the same as with his physical athletics. In other words he should be gentle and prudent with this as with every other thing he undertakes to do and not waste his precious force in smashing and tearing at himself because he may have a plenty. It is much easier to destroy anything than to construct it, and it requires much less time. There are mental as well as physical reactions, and it is well to avoid both as much as possible. Now that man has reached the age of Marconi and telephone systems for transmitting intelligence and sounds, it is not so difficult for him to understand how subjective sounds and scenes can be transmitted and described upon the material plane. After witnessing the process of receiving from a ship in mid ocean a message, and having it telephoned from the receiving station to him in his home, perhaps he can understand how the soul can transmit through its highly developed and sensitive instrument its message to the material world. But it is with this as it is with every other thing in the world that is done well, the proper conditions must exist in order to produce perfect results. If the Marconi receiving instrument is out of order the mes- sage sent to it from the ship will either not be received at all, or it will be imperfect and incomplete and there- fore not be understood. If the psychic's brain is be- Physical and Psychic Development, 111 fogged with the fumes of liquor or tobacco, or if the vibrations of his receiving glands and auditory nerves are deadened or stupefied by drugs or poisonous medi- cines he will not make a good transmitter of the mes- sage sent by the soul. Therefore it is an absolute neces- sity that a good psychic should possess a good body. He must be sound in mind and sound in body if he is to become an independent clairvoyant or clairaudient. The imprudent manner in which psychic power has been developed has been the greatest of all the reasons for the disrepute which psychism suffers among intelli- gent persons of the world. No intelligent thinking person is going to accept as a truth anything that is told him by a wild eyed, long haired, pallid faced man or woman who is posing before the public as a psychic. The woman who goes about the streets muttering or whispering to herself or gesticulating, with her eyes half closed, is of no credit to the subject she is studying and wishes to present to the world. The woman who tells everybody she knows and everybody she meets that she "is so psychic" or that she "examines psychically everything and everybody" she sees, is an unfortunate, misguided specimen of im- prudent psychic development; for she has neither a sound body nor a sound mind for the foundation of her development and is therefore totally unreliable in her statements. The prudently developed psychic will neither dress nor appear differently from the class of 112 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. people to which he belongs, and will always use his powers wisely. He will not advertise himself in any way as a psychic, nor will he seek notoriety through his powers. If he gives to a friend of the knowledge he has gained he does it because he believes it will be of benefit to his friend, and not because he hopes or expects that in some way the giving will accrue to his own advantage. There are many ways by which a lower order of psychic development can be gained, but two of the principal ways are through the Orientalists' method of breathing and yoga practices, and through so-called spiritualistic developing circles of some of the Western students. Both these methods usually produce a low order of mediumship which is never approved of by the true Occultist. 1 For if Occultism stands for anything in the world it is for the independent development for every individual soul, and not for the dependence of one soul upon another whether incarnated or ex-car- nated. The material plane upon which man lives is inter- penetrated by the first subjective plane which is crowded with disembodied souls who cannot get away from the material stage whereon they acted their vari- ous parts in their drama of life. It is perfectly natural that the dispositions and desires of these souls should not change by the laying down of their bodies. , And it ir The History and Power of Mind, pp. 168-184. Physical and Psychic Development. 113 is natural that if they can find embodied souls whom they can influence or control that they should try to control them, because it is the natural tendency of un- developed natures to desire to manage other persons affairs for them. There are hundreds of men and women in physical life who are ready to give advice to others about the most delicate and intricate matters pertaining to their private affairs and then bitterly re- sent it if their advice is not followed. And it is the same kind of souls upon the first psychic plane who offer themselves as "heavenly guides" to mortals of earth. The disembodied entity who succeeds in gaining sufficient influence over a psychic to in any way control his thoughts or his actions, commences to draw upon the magnetism of that person from the first moment the attachment between them is formed. And if its influence is permitted to continue, if the psychic is quite willing and anxious to be led by his "heavenly guide," there will soon be additions made to his group of "con- trols" and this will continue until he becomes possessed by a whole "band" and never for a moment will he be acting independently or according to his own judg- ment. He never is permitted to think for himself, but is constantly impressed with the thoughts of others who do his thinking for him, and while they give to him their often mistaken ideas, they draw from him his physical magnetism until he becomes a nervous wreck. 114 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. He becomes their magnetic dynamo or supply station from which they take copiously. He permits his business — if he has any — to be con- ducted under the guidance of a soul who was an Indian warrior and whose own business during his last earthly experience was that of hunting and fishing and taking scalps. If the psychic fails in business he wonders what was the cause of his failure, since he followed faithfully the directions of his "Indian guide." In his marital relationship he may be guided by a soul who in earth life was a polygamist, and who still believes in a plurality of wives. If the psychic finds himself incarcerated in prison for the crime bigamy while acting under the guidance of this "control," he wonders how it could have happened. These instances will suffice for the present, but further explanation of the psychic plane and its relation to the physical world will be given in Lecture Ten. Yoga practices for psychic development are older than the written history of mankind and was used by the priests on the Continent Atlantis, which is now sunken beneath the sea. The yoga of to-day has de- generated from its original purpose of upbuilding the body and brain of man and has become a dangerous and most degenerate practice. The Occultists say it was used by the first teachers of the races, by the Ava- tars and the Saviours, for the purpose of raising man's mind from the material things of earth to the spiritual planes of thought. To produce perfect mental har- Physical and Psychic Development. 115 mony between God and man. In those ancient days the priests and high priests retired into their sanctuaries when they wished to commune with Divine Mind, and, through meditation and concentration upon the Great Consciousness and the Celestial Beings, received the spiritual enlightenment they demanded. But they did not indulge in the foolish chastisement or scourging of their physical bodies as do the yogi of the present day. They did not sit upon the ground in a single spot without moving until the roots of a tree grew over their limbs. Neither did they clench their hands and hold them in that position until their nails grew into their palms. There are Orientalists who teach Western students the damaging and dangerous yoga breathing, for the purpose of stimulating or awakening psychic centers of consciousness in the body and the brain. The Occult- ist would warn against the practice. To many who read these lectures this warning will be unnecessary because their own limited experiences have brought about physical disturbances. These results are in- evitable because the unnatural method of breathing suddenly changes the polarity of the brain and reverses the natural circulation of the blood, bringing abnormal pressure upon the psychic centers in the brain. Be- cause the brain controls the nerves of the body the en- tire nervous system is thus sympathetically affected. The sudden change from the natural to the unnatural manner of breathing renders the physical body negative 116 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. and unable to resist an attack of epilepsy or obsession. The minor physical results manifest in one or more of the following forms: temporary blindness in one or both eyes, bleeding at the ears or nose, stammering and hysteria. If a person desires to know something fur- ther of the results of yoga breathings let him make a study of those who practice them, whether they are from the Orient or from the Occident. It is not dif- ficult to find victims of this wretched practice in many of the insane asylums of this country and it is not pos- sible to find one person who has gained anything in spiritual development by aid of them. Swami Vivei sacrifice her life, if it should be necessary, for his good, and, because he does not wish her to read the books he does not like, she refrains from doing so. Because he will not be left for a moment alone, she devotes her entire time to him. He vampirizes her body until it becomes so badly demagnetized that she cannot use it, and she is finally forced out of her vehicle without having gained in this life any of the knowledge or wisdom she craved. Thus this whole incarnation has been wasted, so far as soul progression was concerned, because of her yielding to the selfish, personal wishes of a nonentity. Mentally and physically enslaved, as she was, by her husband's will, she heard nothing but his pessimistic opinions; and because of his inharmonious vibrations, optimisti- cally inclined individuals were not welcome visitors at her home. And thus not only did this soul lose this incarnation, but, because of the pessimistic thought 218 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. creations among which she lived for so many years, she will be drawn into a most wretched environment for her next life. She will then be born surrounded with poverty, sickness and gloom, and she will be over- shadowed from infancy to womanhood, and perhaps to the end of that life, with the fearful materialized creations that were mentally created for her in this life, and which she tacitly accepted. The Law of Mental Attraction operates as regu- larly and as unerringly as does the law of gravity, which is a part of it, and therefore every mind or soul is a center of gravity for itself. Man is a little vortex or world, and becomes possessed of everything, whether it be good or ill, that he pictures in his radius or aura. As the thought creations of Gods and of men exist within the atmosphere or aura of the earth, and through the operation of the law of physical attrac- tion or gravitation are magnetically drawn to the earth, and are held upon the earth, so do the mental creations remain in the aura of a soul, or little world, until they are materialized and possessed by the souls who created them, or for whom they were created. For, like the creative Gods of the heavens who materialized Divine Mind's pictures upon the earth, so men can and do create for other men as well as for themselves. And if their creations are accepted and are not destroyed by mental repulsion, they will materialize and do the work that their nature compels them to do. And the mag- Mental Attraction. 219 netic attraction of the mind for whom they were created will hold to them as tenaciously, although only pos- sessed of them by adoption, as the material creations of earth are held in their positions by the gravic force of the earth. LECTURE NINE. DEATH. From the moment the objective or animal mind was created upon the earth, it has never ceased to fear the transition called death. This is due to its intense desire for life, and to the fact that it is utterly oblivious to all its past states of consciousness, and is entirely un- conscious of a continued state of existence upon any plane other than the material. To the objective mind, physical form is life, and therefore it believes that to maintain life, form must be preserved. Since its desire for life is greater than all its other desires, disintegra- tion of form, for the animal or objective mind, is the greatest misfortune that can come upon it. And until each subjective mind shall be able to impress upon its objective mind the truth that life is God, and therefore is eternal, and that its personal existence is not de- pendent upon physical form, human beings will con- tinue to fear disintegration of form more than any- thing else in the world. Believing, as men did, that immortality could be gained only through the preservation of the material 222 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. form, and, because they desired to again meet those whom they had loved and had so mysteriously lost through "death," they used every available means to preserve intact the deserted physical bodies, with the hope and the belief that some time those same forms would be re-animated and be re-united with the be- reaved who were left behind. Therefore it was the objective mind's desire for immortality that caused men, of a more remote period than this, to have their own and their friends' physical bodies preserved after the souls had departed to other realms. By some peoples it was thought that "death" was a form of suspended animation and that, by means of it, the life principle, or soul of man, was locked into his body, there to remain until some great Celestial Being should come to earth and should arouse and restore him to activity. To persons of this faith the destruction or loss of a physical body caused greater sorrow, if pos- sible, than did "death"; since such a loss prevented the possibility of resurrection and of consequent immortal- ity. There were other peoples who believed that the soul of man was not locked inside his body after "death," but was bound to it by fetters that permitted it to go but a few feet from the body. And the fol- lowers of this faith believed it to be a sacred duty to daily place food and drink at the head or feet of the corpse, or somewhere within its reach, in order that the life principle could consume them and thus be kept Death. 223 strong and able to again use the body when the time should come far it to be restored to activity. To these persons the failure to provide food and drink for an exca mated soul was a greater crime than was murder, and was punishable with slow torture, such as starva- tion, or some fearful affliction which was believed to be equal to what the soul had suffered in consequence of the culprit's neglect. To the Occultist there is no "death," according to the common acceptance of the term. The condition called "death" is but a complete demagnetization of the atoms composing a material form. Complete de- magnetization of a form produces absolute disintegra- tion of that form, and since the atoms, of which a form is composed, are held together only by the magnetic attraction that exists between them, disintegration can- not become complete until all the magnetism has been withdrawn from the form which those atoms combined to compose. Therefore, a physical body cannot be properly called dead until it is entirely disintegrated; and any or all artificial means which may be used upon it to prevent it from disintegration, but retards demag- netization. In lectures six and seven of this course, vibration, and magnetic attraction and repulsion of the atoms were discussed; and the student is referred to those two lectures for information upon those subjects. In lecture eight of this course demagnetization, by vampirization, 224 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. was introduced, and will now be further discussed, since vampirization is usually the beginning of disintegration or ''death," as this lecture is entitled. Demagnetization of a physical body is produced by the constant expenditure of its magnetism in greater quantities than it is received, and this condition may be produced in various ways. In lecture six, of this course, on page 143, the manner in which magnetic power or force is generated and expressed was touched upon and will not be repeated. But in connection with the subject under discussion it may be well to add that, since the generation of force, which is always magnetic, is wholly dependent upon the rotary motion of the atoms composing a center, and, since the expression, or giving of force, is dependent upon the elliptical mo- tion of a center, then it is not difficult to understand why the physical body of a man or of a beast generates the most force when it is resting or sleeping. In other words, natural sleep, which is absolute rest to a physical body or center, is the greatest generator of magnetic force of any condition into which that body can enter; and therefore, in order to prevent an early "death," or the demagnetization of a physical body, the same num- ber of hours should be given to sleep as are given to physical activity during each day, or each twenty-four hour cycle. Every thing that has form, whether so called inani- mate or animate, is created subject to cyclic law; and, Death. 225 during the first half of its daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly cycles possesses much more magnetic force than it does during the latter half of those cycles. This is due to the fact that magnetic force is constantly flowing and ebbing through material forms, whether those forms are suns, worlds, or men. And this flowing and ebbing of magnetic force may also be called action and reaction, magnetization and demagnetization, or life and "death." When a world is created and has been given its orbit, one half of the time it travels toward its sun and the other half it travels away from it. When it is going toward the sun it is becoming magnetized by the sun and is then generating more force than it is giving. But when it is going from the sun it is giving more magnetism than it is receiving, and all inhabited worlds are alike in this respect. For example take the earth. From the twenty-first day of December until the twen- ty-first day of June of each year, she is being magnet- ized; because at that time the greater part of her surface is locked in snow and ice, the vegetation, which vampir- izes her magnetism, is resting and sleeping, and she is receiving magnetic force from the sun in greater quan- tities than she is giving it to the creatures that are living and depending upon her for that force. This period is her flood tide.. But from the twenty-first day of June until the twenty-first day of December this order of things is reversed and she is then giving to her de- 226 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. pendents more magnetism than she is receiving; because she has then turned and is going from the sun, which she in her turn vampirizes. And then, too, during that time all vegetation and lower animal life have awakened from the winter's period of inactivity or rest, and are drawing from the earth magnetic forces in order that they may express those forces individually through the various forms and productions of which they are capa- ble. And thus on the twenty-first day of June of each year demagnetization of the earth by vampirization be- gins. If she were to continue to recede from the sun indefinitely, that demagnetization would finally become "death," or disintegration; and she and every form which now exists upon and vampirizes her would cease to exist as form. But, as conditions now are, the earth is gradually giv- ing more magnetism than she receives, and the time will come when she must rest or disintegrate. This is because, as she grows older, her responsibilities increase instead of diminish. For, as men and beasts multiply in numbers, more demands are made upon her for their maintenance and her natural resources are consumed in greater quantities. Her vital fluids and gases are drawn out of her, and, through consumption, are changed into hydro-carbon vapors and aeriform matter and are left behind her in space as she whirls rapidly through it in her orbit. Then, with each added year, she is robbed of more and more of her minerals which, when in their Death. 227 natural states, as strata, serve as repositories for the magnetic force she receives from the sun during her flood tides. But in cosmos the Drvine Law provides periods of rest for Its worlds and suns, as It provides opportuni- ties for rest for men and beasts who live upon the worlds. These cosmic rests are utilized by the planets to the full limit of time given to them, and, because of these rests, are their lives and their usefulness prolonged. In the life of a world there are seven great periods of inactivity each of which lasts as long as do its periods of action, and in this manner each world is enabled to regain some of the magnetism of which it has been robbed. But it never fully regains it, for, if that were possible, it would continue, in the form in which it began to exist, until the end of the Cosmic Day in which it was created; and this would not be desirable, since, in order that evolu- tion may not be limited or delayed by ancient forms, all forms must be made to give way to new when their period of usefulness is ended. To illustrate a rest in cosmos, a few pages will be quoted from the diary of an advanced student of Occultism. "My Master promised that to-day we would go and see a world that is about to enter into rest for many thousand years, and it is with most intense interest I awaited his coming. At midnight he arrived and in a few moments we were on our way. ***** At a great distance we saw a stellar group — a cosmic 228 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. x community — which, independent of all others, seemed to have become a system of its own. A mass of molten cosmic matter formed a central sun or magnet for the system and was at least one thousand times as large, and, although not nearly so dense, yet, I think, weighed three hundred times as much as does our earth. "That great orb was enveloped in clouds of vapor, which, at so great a distance, seemed to have been created by the humidity of the atmosphere surrounding it coming into contact with the intense heat it gener- ated. And those vapory clouds were in a constant and a tumultuous commotion. At times they seemed to be tossed about as if a great consciousness were playing at golf with thenf; and then they became piled high upon each other like mountains, while from the glowing orb behind we saw a rich golden light that illuminated them as if by calcium flame. Sometimes they were suddenly torn apart, and, through the rifts, there streamed great sheets of fire which gave to them the appearance of rose colored billows of foam. Then again the rifts were closed and the whole mass assumed a dull grey color as though a cloud of smoke had passed between us and the scene. "As we came nearer, it was most evident that the flaming mass of molten matter, or sun, was whirling through space with tremendous velocity, and was drag- ging after it by its powerful magnetic attraction five smaller globes or satellites; and those worlds when com- Death. 229 pared with their magnet appeared as fireflies beside an arc-light; yet the smallest of them was considerably larger than is our earth. Approaching still nearer, we discovered that the satellite furtherest from its sun was undergoing great changes. Drawn, as it was, by an ir- resistible force, it continued to follow its orbit, but its rotary motion had almost ceased, and, like a great dead fish upon the sea, it floated in space and was drawn helplessly in the wake of the monster orb that still at- tracted and controlled it. From its appearance I con- cluded that it was the oldest of the five satellites, and my Master told me that it was closing the sixth great cycle or period in its evolution. "When we entered the atmosphere of that globe we found it stiflingly hot. Great copper colored clouds hung low in the sky and the light from its sun had been turned into shade by them. Gazing through the hazy dimness of the shadows, it seemed that the glowing orb that served as sun had refused to longer give of its light and brightness to that world — its suffering child. For, through that dense atmosphere which could not be penetrated by a lesser light, the sun had the appearance of a dark, crimson sea of clotted blood; and as we looked about upon the shadows it seemed as if the moon and stars had also refused to shine upon that helpless world, and that it was left to meet its fate in darkness. " 'Why does not the sun shine here the same as it shines upon the other planets in this group?' I asked of my Master; and he replied: 230 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. " The sun has not ceased to shine, but this planet, because of its inharmonious condition, has created these shadows that lie between itself and the sun. Its vibra- tions and the vibrations of these clouds have obscured the sun's light. It is in the same condition with a man who has become over-wrought with work or with play, and, if it were possible to use the word in connection with a tired world, I would say this planet is suffering from cosmic neurasthenia, and for a time must go into absolute rest or become disintegrated.' "At that moment, just beneath us, we saw a ruined city on that strange globe and went down to examine its condition. Round us everywhere were evidences of destruction and dissolution. There were monstrous heaps of stone that were now but the remnants of once beautiful buildings. And there were also crushed and crumbling walls of stone that had once enclosed huge structures of most magnificent and lofty proportions. "A race of beings both wise and powerful must have had their homes upon that planet, since such huge blocks of granite could never have been lifted to their elevated positions without the aid of powerful machin- ery that had been devised and operated by the intuitive minds and muscular strength of men. And, once hav- ing been placed, they never could have been dislodged and tossed into such abandoned confusion except by a terrific convulsion of nature. "Everywhere there seemed to be an ominous calm Death. 231 that, like a fearful mental depression, had settled upon that ruined city and all the land surrounding it. Not a breath of air was stirring, and the vegetation was as dried as if it were standing in a fiery furnace. The leaves from the once beautiful shade trees had fallen to the ground and were curled and seared almost beyond recognition as leaves. Lying in the cracked and hard- ened soil at the bottom of a fountain basin were the withered roots and stems of what had been a water lily plant. All indications pointed to the fact that for many, many days this intolerable heat had been gradually in- creasing until it had absorbed all the moisture and had taken the lives of all the creatures who had lived in that place. It was also evident that the men who had built that city had deserted it; but my Master said: 'Come, let us go to the mountains, w T hich are at some distance beyond the city walls, and search for the people who lived here.' "It was as he expected to find. In the valley, on the brink of what had been a broad river, there were thou- sands of lifeless human bodies. The adults were gigan- tic in size; the half grown children were like our full grown men and the infants were like our children of five or six years of age. They had all fled from their homes to escape death from the falling walls of their dwellings, but had met it there in that valley by suffocation and thirst. For the river bed was dry and the dead and de- caying carcasses of fish and animals were lying in heaps 232 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. upon the bottom where they had died fighting for the last drop of the precious liquid — water. "While we were gazing at the scene of ruin and dis- tress we became conscious of a trembling of the ground. Then there was a sound as if an explosion had occurred in the direction of the ruined city. It was followed by another and then another; and then we heard a fearful roar which seemed to increase in volume with every second until it seemed to come from almost beneath our feet. Then there was a swaying of the leafless branches of the trees, and a heaving up and down of the blackened soil, and soon there appeared great wide fissures where the ruined city had stood. A cloud of fire and smoke and gaseous fumes burst forth, and as suddenly and seemingly as easily as a pebble could be cast into a stream of water the remnants of the ruined city sank from sight between the awful jaws of that quaking ground. There was nothing left to mark the place where it had stood except a few stones which had helped to compose its outer walls. "This was the first earthquake I had ever witnessed and it impressed me very strongly. While I was think- ing of the great necessity that must have existed to pro- duce such a fearful catastrophe my Master said: 'A storm is coming,' and, looking upward at the sky I saw that the copper colored clouds had changed to a leaden grey, and it had become so dark that an object one hundred feet away was but dimly discernible. Then a Death. 233 wind commenced to blow in spasmodic puffs and soon splashing rain drops pattered down upon the heated stones in the river bed. At last those dreadful vampire clouds were giving back to that suffering world the moisture which they had been robbing it of for weeks and months. But it had come too late. All life was extinct and not a creature was left alive to taste it and to be revived. "Far up the valley I heard a sound as of rushing wind. It came down the river course and brought a deluge with it. A sheet of water like a huge white curtain swept past us and from the heated ground a cloud of steam rose like a fog. The soil, cracked and hot, could not absorb the vital fluid in such quantities, and the torrents, rushing down the mountain sides, were re- ceived into the river bed and went sweeping swiftly on. The temperature, too, had fallen from torrid heat to al- most freezing cold, and still I saw no prospect of a dim- inution of that dreadful storm. And now the clouds were almost black with unshed rain and I understood that a cataclysm had begun. * ***** * "More than sixty days passed by before my Master permitted me to again visit that suffering world in what had seemed to me to be its death agony of fever heat and drouth; and when we went again we found all things submerged — except the mountain tops — and there was a cold greater and more intense than anything I ever knew. The waters were frozen into a solid sea of 234 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. ice, and there was not a creature who could live a mo- ment upon that globe in that fearful frigid state. It was indeed a frozen corpse, and, wrapped in its mantle of ice and snow, which served as a burial shroud for all its latent forces, it had sunken into sleep not to wake again until the great cyclic law should call its forces forth on its resurrection day. "As we were leaving the frozen world, my Master said: 'It is with worlds as it is with men; they live, re- volving round their central suns until their material forces have been spent and they become physically de- magnetized and unfit for further use. Then their time of rest comes on. The throbbing, pulsing life force be- comes suspended, or is withdrawn, and their conscious- ness is changed from action to inaction. For action must be followed by reaction as surely as darkness fol- lows day.' " Like the Universe, cyclic law has always existed and is a fundamental principle underlying evolution. 1 Like life, it has always been and will forever continue to be. It commences its operations with an individual from the moment of the creation of that individual and ap- plies to men and beasts as well as to worlds. Because the earth is controlled by cyclic law, all the creatures who depend upon the earth for their existence are in- fluenced by the same cycles or periods of time that con- l The History and Power of Mind, pp. 94-97, 103-104, 163-164. Death. 235 trol the earth. The inhabitants «of other planets are also subject to cyclic law, but because of the difference between the size of globes and the consequent differ- ence in the size of the orbit of each the cyclic periods on the different planets differ in length. For example. The earth makes her revolution around the sun in three hundred and sixty-five days and one- fourth of a clay; and this length of time upon this earth is called a yearly cycle. But the planet Uranus, being almost fifteen times the size of the earth, has so great an orbit as to require eighty-four years and one week of our time to make its revolution round the sun. And because the cyclic periods on the planet Uranus are so much greater than are those of the earth, the creatures that inhabit Uranus, being governed by the cyclic law operating upon that planet, also have longer cycles and live to a much greater age than do the creatures upon the earth. It is a self-evident truth that the more magnetic force a form expends the sooner it will become disintegrated as a natural consequence. And this is as true with the microcosm as it is with the macrocosm. The individual who works or plays for eighteen hours out of each twenty-four expends much more magnetic force than does the individual who sleeps and draws back to him- self his forces for twelve hours out of the twenty-four. As the earth has its flood and ebb tides, or the coming and going of its magnetic forces, so does every creature 236 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. who lives upon her have its flood and ebb tides; and if man would but become wise enough to work with the cyclic law instead of against it, he would save himself much suffering and prolong his life to a greater length than he does. The moment a child is born his flood tide commences. He has then entered a world that will supply him with all the magnetic force he needs to use, but not to waste. Feeling his abundance of force, as a child, he romps and plays and expends much of it in this man- ner, but sleeps so soundly and so long each night, that he draws back to himself during those rest periods, more force than he has expended. Thus he is in constant possession of a sufficient surplus of magnetism to enable his physical body to grow and to expand. This condi- tion usually continues to exist until he has reached what is called "his majority," and then his body ceases to grow. Because of his increased responsibilities, he then begins to expend more magnetic force than he generates, or receives. This is due to the fact that he does not spend so much time in sleep as he formerly did, and, if he labors to live, perhaps he works for ten hours out of each twenty-four and then recreates or dissipates during the greater part of each night. If he is in possession of wealth and social position perhaps he may be imbued with the thought that he must "go the pace" or be disgraced, and then he searches for new and untried avenues through which he may expend or waste Death. 237 his magnetism. It is true that he may be unconscious of the results of his wastefulness, and perhaps he does not know that disintegration or "death" commenced its work upon his body at the moment demagnetization began to exceed magnetization; but ignorance of the law does not excuse or exempt its offenders from con- sequences, and, after a few years of dissipation, he begins to call himself "old man" before he really feels the age that is so rapidly approaching as the result of his ex- travagances in the expenditure of force. When starting his career of dissipation the young of- fender of the law thinks "old man" a complimentary title, and bestows it generously upon himself and upon all the "other boys" whom he wishes to flatter. This is because the title implies extended experiences in dissi- pation, in which he takes great pride until the time comes when, as a result of_his physical excesses and frequent declarations that he is an "old man," and after some unusual expenditure of force, he is really brought to feel the age he has been declaring for himself. Then he begins to wonder why he cannot do the things he once did, and why a little fun tires him now so much. If he knew that "death" had already commenced to claim his body for its own, and that with every over-exertion or dissipation he was shortening his span of life, he would change his mode of living, the nature of his amusements, and his declarations for old age. To prevent disintegration or "death," and to prolong 238 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. the existence of a physical body to one hundred or to one hundred and fifty years, men must make some radi- cal changes in their modern mode of living. They must give more time to sleep and more thought to what they eat and drink. At least one-half of a man's time should be given to rest or to sleep and his food should never be other than simple and wholesome. Highly spiced, and therefore indigestible things should be abol- ished. Pepper and all condiments containing peppers and mustards should never be taken into the stomach; since neither of these do any good, are neither nutritious nor satisfying to hunger, and serve only as irritants to the internal organs and intestines the same as they do when applied to the skin of the body. For his beverages man should drink nothing but pure water, either hot or cold, according as the occasion seems to require, and the unfermented juices of fruits; and the time given to labor, or to the necessary and direct expenditure of physical or magnetic force, should not exceed four or five hours of each day. He should learn to recognize and work with the cyclic law by never making extra or unnecessary exertions during his ebb tides which oper- ate during the last two weeks of his lunar months, and during the last six months of his yearly cycles. He should watch the expenditures of his magnetic force and never continue with them until physical exhaustion or depletion comes upon him. During the last half of his century he should save his Death. 239 magnetism by sleeping and resting more than he did during the first half. And if by reason of some illness or mishap there should be an extra demand made upon his physical strength he should immediately supply that deficiency with electricity. When his century cycle has ended and the flood tide of his new century commences to supply him with its new force, if he has taken the proper care of his physical body and has kept it in a condition to receive and to make use of the new force, he will enter in upon his new cycle with much greater physical strength than he possessed during the first ten or fifteen years of his last century's ebb tide. But over-exertion or an unnecessary expenditure of magnetic force, for any cause, is not the only means by which demagnetization or "death" may be hastened or produced. There is the element of vampirization which must also be taken into consideration; and this is a very great factor in the process of disintegration. As men and beasts vampirize the earth and take from her her magnetic forces, so are men and beasts vampirized by each other and by the elements. In lecture eight of this course an illustration was given of a negative individual vampirizing and living off of the magnetism of another individual until his victim's forces were so greatly di- minished as to make it impossible to longer hold her body; and complete demagnetization or "death" ensued. The illustration was not that of an unusual condition to be found in the human family, but is more common 240 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. than otherwise. For, either consciously or unconscious- ly, the stronger individuals are constantly giving of their magnetism to those with whom they associate who are weaker than themselves; and, whether it be a man or a beast that suffers from this kind of vampirization, the results are the same. Unconscious of the law governing the exchange of magnetism, it has been a custom with some persons to provide feeble or aged individuals with animal pets which they could vampirize. If a child were to suddenly become "ailing," as indisposition was sometimes called, it was often provided with a healthy puppy with which it was permitted to sleep and to play in order that it should regain its health. And old persons who were fast losing their magnetism would often insist upon, and be permitted to sleep with children or with younger persons in order that their magnetic forces should.be again restored.' But if aged persons were not permitted to prolong their physical lives by vampirizmg the force of younger individuals during sleep, then it has been a very noticeable fact that they were happiest, brightest and strongest when they were surrounded daily by chil- dren, or by younger persons. The man of eighty who seeks a wife always selects, if possible, a woman who is much younger than himself. And it is not an unheard of occurrence for a wealthy widow of sixty, or even of seventy-five years, to buy for herself a young husband of thirty. This is vampirization, and whether of a con- Death. 241 scious or an unconscious nature, its results are the same. Then there is another form of vampirization which is of and by the elements of nature. In the same manner that man draws or absorbs from the atmosphere, on a beautiful spring day, the electric or magnetic force he needs and feels strengthened by having received, so do the cold, cutting winds of a frosty day in winter take from him his magnetism. It is a popular fallacy with the people who live in a cold climate, that it is healthful to walk, or to ride, or to be exposed to the freezing air of winter. And because such exposure brings the blood to the cheeks, it is believed to be revivifying to the in- dividuals who indulge in it. This is as much a mistaken belief as is that which makes a man take a plunge into a tub of cold water in order that he may be temporarily stimulated by bringing the blood to the surface of his body by violent friction after the plunge. A sudden shock to the system is always harmful, in- stead of helpful, and serves to shorten instead of to lengthen the span of life. Cold indicates a lowered rate of vibration. Cold water is vibrating at a lower rate than is warm or hot water. Cold wintry air is vibrating at a lower rate than is warm spring air; and a warm body, if exposed to cold air, or to cold water long- enough, will become demagnetized or frozen. When a body is frozen it is called dead ; and this condition is pro- duced by the cold air or cold water, in which it has been submerged, having vampirized or drawn out of it its 242 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. magnetic forces. The man or woman who persists in being exposed to the cold winds of winter without his or her skin covered and protected from the wind, is vol- untarily submitting to vampirization and is hastening old age and decrepitude. The physician who tells a per- son to bare his neck to the cold in order to become toughened to the cold, and promises health to that per- son in consequence of his exposure, is either ignorant of the law which operates as vibration, or he is looking for another patient. The woman who persists in expos- ing her face without a veil, to protect her skin from the vampirizing cold air, becomes aged and wrinkled before the time for wrinkles, and the muscles of her face also grow weak and flabby in consequence of the exposure to cold. A glance at the wrinkled and grizzled old sailor who faces the storms before the mast should be a suffi- cient object lesson to show her the results of exposure to cold air and cold water. When the body and brain of a man are lowered below the normal rate his mental forces cannot manifest so well as when his blood is circulating and his body is vibrat- ing normally, and this is illustrated by the different mental conditions of the different peoples on the earth. For example: The mind of the Eskimo is never so active as is the mind of an East Indian. And history shows that the greatest civilizations have always been found in a warm climate. But there comes a time when disintegration or Death. 243 "death" to the physical body or material form must come; and because of the breaking of family ties and of familiar associations this is often a sad occasion. To the evolving, developing soul who becomes disembodied, "death" is really a second birth into a higher plane of consciousness or realm, and it is by or through this transition that it becomes relieved of all physical pains and discomforts. But because of its love for the souls whom it is leaving upon the earth, and who mourn and grieve because of its absence, it is sometimes made to suffer great mental depression and sadness and is thus prevented from entering fully into the joys of the mental and spiritual planes of being. This is because the sor- row and lamentations of its earthly friends attract and hold it to earth. By their wishing or demanding that it shall return to them, it is drawn back by the magnetic attraction of love, and is sometimes deprived of mental or spiritual happiness for years because of its friends mourning for it. 1 When the time has come for a soul to leave its earthly vehicle the real process of death is as natural as was the process of its birth into the world, and is not dissimilar. As the head of the human child is born first, and after- ward its body, so the head of the soul emerges and rises above its physical head. Then slowly the shoulders and body appear, and finally its limbs and feet. There are ^Linked Lives, pp. 198-199. 244 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. always other disembodied souls who are waiting to as- sist and to receive the passing soul, and, if the shock of its separation from the physical body has been so great that it is unconscious for a time — as is often the case — these disembodied soul friends support and strengthen it until it has regained its consciousness and enough of its magnetic strength to support itself. For the first few hours after its disembodiment a soul is never so strong as afterward, because so much of its magnetic force is still left in its deserted physical body. But as the body grows cold, because of the continuous lowering of the rate of vibrations of the atoms compos- ing it, the magnetic force is drawn into the soul who has just left it. With this added magnetism the disembodied soul gains strength and greater consciousness, and if the physical body should be cremated,_and not embalmed or entombed, the soul gains liberation from its physical body as soon as its physical atoms are dispersed. For there is a magnetic cord that binds the soul to its old body until complete disintegration has taken place, as the umbilical cord unites the infant to its pre-natal envelope, and it is as great a kindness to sever the mag- netic cord and liberate the soul from its deserted body, by cremation, as it is to cut the umbilical cord of the newly born infant and set it free from its incumbrances. x But sad as "death" or the disintegration of a physical i Linked Lives, pp. 195-197. Death. 245 body may be to those who loved and lost it as a com- panion or friend, it is not to be compared with the sad- ness that comes to the souls who, by their missions, are sometimes compelled to witness the "second death" or the disintegration of another soul. This is a fearful fate, and it may be small comfort to know that it comes to the minority instead of the majority of disembodied souls who pass on to the subjective planes or realms. Diametrically opposed to the spiritual plane of con- sciousness called Nirvana, by the Eastern students of Occultism, is a plane which these same students know T as Avitchi. In our scripture it is called Hell, and repre- sents the very lowest depths of degradation into which an entity can fall. Nothing but conscious, persistent and unceasing transgression of the Divine Law can bring a soul to this dreadful place, a knowledge of the existence of which is never given to students until they are far enough advanced to be able to bear that knowl- edge without dangerously effecting them. Further details concerning this state of consciousness will be given in the last lecture of this course in connec- tion with the subject "Homes of the Soul." It is suffi- cient at this point to say that "second death" comes most to animal, or objective minds whose subjective minds have deserted them because of their persistent wickedness. 1 But there are rare occasions when a Son iRistory and Power of Mind, pp. 170-171, 176-177. 246 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation, of God goes downward, instead of upward. When it yields and continues to yield to the suggestions of its animal mind until it comes to a point where it deliber- ately and consciously chooses the left hand instead of the right hand path, then it goes down into the nether world, instead of up into the higher, spiritual realms. "Second death" is produced in much the same man- ner as physical death or disintegration is produced. The vibrations of a dying soul grow slow and slower, and its specific gravity grows dense and denser until it can no longer remain upon what is called the first subjective plane, but is drawn by the law of attraction, which is also gravic force, down to a lower plane, to continue there its wretched existence with others of its kind. When disintegration really commences, like the old de- magnetized physical body it has left, it begins to grow dark and darker as its density increases, until it becomes as black as the realms into which it has sunken. For there is not one ray of light that penetrates the greatest depths of the awful darkness of that place. Then the form of the dying soul commences to change in shape. First the legs and arms usually begin to diminish in size and length until they have disappeared altogether, leaving the head and body absolutely limbless. Then the body commences to disintegrate and gradually dis- appears until there is nothing left but the head with its distorted features. And thus this disintegration or "sec- ond death" continues for centuries. But before the Death. 247 form of the dying soul begins to be disintegrated or dis- membered there is a hope that it may be saved from that fearful fate and be raised or resurrected to a higher plane of consciousness. For there are strong and beau- tiful souls who voluntarily go down into those dreadful depths to try to help and to save the denizens of that nether world. If, as it does sometime occur, that one half of a soul has gone wrong and has sunken into hell and the other half has evolved to a point of development where it is able to undertake the work of trying to save its other half from annihilation, or "second death," then it descends and approaches as near its other half as its vibration will permit. And there it whispers words of encouragement and consolation to the sinful sufferer and offers help if it will but try to rise again. To an incarnated soul upon earth it would seem that any soul who had sunken into that place would need nothing but an opportunity to escape to consent to liberation, but this is not the case. In Avitchi or Hell a soul becomes so depressed with its wretchedness, so discouraged and so pessimistic that it often refuses to make the least effort to change its mode of thinking; and thus make it possible to rise out of its condition. This is because, by its many lives of perversity of thought and action, it has brought itself into a mental condition which holds it as firmly as prison walls and iron doors hold the incarcerated prisoner of State. It is a sad picture to look upon to see a beautiful soul 248 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. pleading with its unhappy half and attempting to raise or to lead it to where it may catch a glimpse of a higher and a better plane of consciousness which it may gain if it will but make an effort for itself. For no soul has either the power or the right to save another against its will; and it matters not however far it may have ad- vanced in its development, it cannot bring another into happiness without that other's co-operation and con : scious effort in its own behalf. Sometimes these unhappy beings are convinced and persuaded to retrace their steps and thus rise out of their wretchedness. But more often they will neither respond nor listen to those who would help them. Then they gradually sink low and lower while becoming more and more wretched until at last complete disintegra- tion or re-absorbment into the lowest, darkest shade of the red cosmic current obliterates them forever from the Universe as individual souls. And this is "second death." A most horrible picture to contemplate, but not worse than to burn forever and forever in a lake ot fire and brimstone prepared by the devil and his angels for erring mankind. LECTURE TEN. AFTER DEATH. When the indestructibility of the soul began to be accepted as a fact by the thoughtful people of the world, immediately thereafter there arose a most im- portant question: "What becomes of the soul after death and after the human body or the material means of physical expression has been destroyed or disin- tegrated?" To meet and to answer this question, from time to time, many theories have been offered to the world as truths by certain individuals who claimed to be holy men, and who were supposed to be inspired by God to teach Divine Law to others. But because a great number of their theories were both unreasonable and cruel, and differed so greatly in their characters from what man daily saw and knew of God and of His laws, after a time incredulity began to take the place of credulity concerning both the teachers and their teach- ings. And, notwithstanding the fact that anathemas loud and deep have been sent forth from the so-called divine expounders of truth against all persons who 249 250 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. dared to think or to live contrary to the rules laid down by them, men and women have gone steadily on in their various ways and many have become independent thinkers. In the beginning of the Christian era the followers of Christ began teaching and healing humanity, accord- ing to the manner in which the Nazarene had taught and healed before them. Later they decided, after many sad experiences, that it was necessary to teach some- thing besides the doctrine of love to the cruel, animal men of their day. Instead, therefore, of following in the footsteps of the Nazarene and continuing to teach, as He had done, that God is a loving Father and is ready to receive and to help all His children, they digressed from the path of true Christianity and began to use hell and eternal damnation as a club to beat men into submission, and to force them to worship after the manner that they dictated or described. And after the same manner that some parents believe it to be necessary to frighten their children into submission and obedience by promising to bring a "boogie man" to get them, the ancient Church fathers succeeded in frightening men into obedience and submission by the threats of the devil and a future punishment. And when they found that men could be influenced through their fears much sooner than through their loves, they inten- sified their fearful teachings by painting such pictures of a future state of existence, for those who did not After Death. 251 accept the tenets of the Church, as would have made the heart of the loving Nazarene sad to see. Believing, as many of the Church fathers did, that the Christian Church was the only door to salvation, and that every soul who did not enter it was doomed to destruction, they spared no pains, nor did they hesi- tate to give any of their wildest flights of fancy for inspired truths, which they believed would serve to bring souls into that institution. And, since a story never loses details by being continuously repeated, as the years rolled by, the stories of hell, as given by the early fathers, lost nothing by their constant repetition. When those ancient men saw how well their schemes had worked toward increasing the membership and con- sequent support of their Church, they redoubled their efforts and their falsehoods. After a time, forgetting or ignoring the fact that the Nazarene had said: "Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto Me; for of such is the kingdom of heaven," they invented new hell horrors by including unbaptized and stillborn infants with sinning adults on their lists of candidates for that dreadful place. But, like all other destructive things, by reason of their own natures these deceptions finally returned upon and destroyed themselves. The unreasonableness and the injustice of such a thing as infant damnation finally arose like a grinning skull and horrible cross bones between the faces of bereaved parents and their 252 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. God, until it came to pass that either God or creed must go out of their hearts. To some persons those teachings brought materialism. Many men and women became infidels and repudiated God altogether. Others went insane over their grief and passed out of life men- tally unbalanced. Then there were a few who were brave and strong enough to repudiate the belief in hell and banded themselves together into a society called Universalists, and declared that hell was upon earth, and that man received his punishment as he went through life and not hereafter. Anciently all teachers wore cowls and skirts, and while thus attired demanded and received a reverence from the people which greatly aided them in controlling their worshipers. This was: because the teachers so nearly resembled the pictures of the heavenly saints whom tr^ey professed to represent upon earth. But, gradually, as the more modern clergyman commenced to adopt a style of dress less saintly and more fashion- able, much of the halo of holiness was removed from around their personalities. It became quite difficult for the mass of men who had so blindly worshiped signs and symbols, as interpreted by teachers clad in gowns and girdles, to accept as Divine Truth anything given to them by men dressed in trousers and waistcoats. And, notwithstanding the terrible threats of eternal damna- tion so generously bestowed upon them, many evolving After Death. 253 souls revolted from the tyranny of the ancient Church and adopted newer and easier forms of worship. This religious reaction was in perfect accord with Divine Law, which always brings reaction to follow action along any line of thinking or doing. It was natural that there should be a relaxation from the an- cient forms of worship, even to the extent of a disbelief in a future punishment, or even regarding a future state of existence. It could not be otherwise after the people's long submission to the ironclad creeds and dogmas of a Church which depended upon hell and damnation instead of Divine Love for its corner-stone. When mankind had reached a point where it really wanted to know the truth, there occasionally appeared an individual with intellectual strength and mental poise sufficient to enable him to rise and denounce all man- made creeds, and to declare that there is no anthropo- morphic God, but that this is a universe of law, in which all men have the right to a freedom of thought and a freedom of speech. When first these intellectual giants appeared before the people and repudiated the ancient teachings of the Church, the fear enslaved souls expected that God in His vengeance would pour out His wrath upon those men and that they would speedily meet with some terrible physical or mental affliction. But when it was seen that those heroes of the times were still permitted to live and to speak what they believed to be true, many, who had become surfeited 254 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. with the old orthodox teachings and who really desired freedom of thought and action, accepted their words as expressed truth. On January 29th, 1737, Thomas Paine was born. And during his life, which lasted about seventy-two years, he did more towards freeing the American people from their mental bondage than any other man had done previously to him. Such a storm as he raised with his "Common Sense" and his "Rights of Man" — for which latter book he was outlawed from England — was never equalled until Robert Ingersoll stepped upon the lecture platform, and, striking his intellectual ax into the roots of that deadly nightshade of superstition, called "eternal hell fire," finished the work that Thomas Paine com- menced almost a century before him. Since 1876- 1886, when Robert Ingersoll did his great work for the English speaking people of the world — who were privileged to hear his voice or read, his lect- ures — a belief in hell and eternal damnation has steadily waned. Even the ministers of the gospel who at that time so frantically and fiercely denounced him as an agent of the devil and declared that he was rob- bing the Church of its most valuable and sacred tenet, have been compelled to modify their doctrines. And now, at the beginning of the Twentieth Century, fore- ordination, infant damnation and hell fire are seldom alluded to either in the pulpits of the civilized world nor in polite society. For the churches have learned After Death. 255 that they must keep step with the procession or fall out of the evolutionary race altogether. Since dire future punishment for terrible crimes is no longer predicted, the people have now become lulled into a false sense of security. They have swung to the other extreme and believe they have nothing to fear as a punishment, except public opinion, which is some- times very gently expressed concerning society's fa- vorites. And because of this belief, a large portion of the human family has entered again into indulgences and transgressions against Divine Law which it dared not enter while bound by the fear of hell. The indi- viduals who believed themselves to be God fearing were mistaken; they were only hell fearing, and now that hell has been wiped off the religious map they are neither the one nor the other. The race has reached its majority, and is like the boy who has suddenly become a man. He can vote, and therefore is no longer obliged to submit to the auto- cratic rule of his parents. He is now too large to be chastised, and therefore threats have ceased to frighten him into submission; and yet he is not wise or good enough to live up to the best that he knows. Because of the strictness of his past training and the watchfulness of his parents, he was not permitted to indulge in the excesses which he secretly desired to indulge in. But now that all restrictions have been removed, he is satia- ting himself because he believes there will be no con- 256 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. sequences. He is mistaken. There are and will be consequences, both here and hereafter, and although he may not meet with the devil of ancient theology and may not be plunged forever and forever into the lake which burns with unquenchable fire, still he is at a critical point in his evolution and cannot escape the results of his transgressions. It all depends upon how high he climbs or how low he sinks upon this material plane where his future state of existence will be. For in the Father's house there are many mansions, and a place is prepared for him which is best suited to his development. And there will be nothing but his own efforts which will change his condition. In that other state of existence the wealth or social position which he enjoyed here will have no power to help him. He will be recognized for just what he is, and for nothing else. Below this material plane and below the first sub- jective plane are the lowest conditions into which the souls of this earth can enter. By the Eastern students of Occultism it is called Avitchi, and in its lowest depths is indescribable in its horrors. It is the home for lost souls or for those who have deliberately chosen to do evil instead of good. When, by reason of its thoughts and acts, a soul's vibrations have become more gross than are those of the earth, and, because of this con- dition, it is unable to longer resist the gravic attraction of the earth, through the operation of the same law After Death. 257 that draws a stone to the bottom of the sea or to a point where it meets with obstructions as dense as itself, that unfortunate, misguided soul is drawn by gravic force lower and lower into obscuration and darkness. Then it becomes disintegrated through vampirization by the red cosmic current in which it dwells. For this cosmic current not only surrounds and penetrates the surface of the earth, but it also permeates it to its center. Its darkest, deadliest shades are as destructive and as disintegrating to a dying soul as corrosive acid is destructive to a material body. It eats, consumes or absorbs the soul atom by atom until it is entirely disin- tegrated. Let it be understood that souls are not lost or destroyed through the vindictiveness of an angry God, but through and by their own willful sinning, and in no other way. Notwithstanding all the book lore that has been given to man by the^ scientific investigators of material phe- nomena, he knows very little of what the earth contains beneath its surface. And the human race is almost as ignorant concerning the world it dwells in and of the subjective planes surrounding it as the blind mole in the meadow is unconscious of man's political and social relationships. If the human family were to be entirely limited to the few sodden crumbs of knowledge which are occasionally thrown to it by so-called scientific men, who believe in the existence of nothing that cannot be measured or weighed by their material rules or scales, 258 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. then the school of evolution would necessarily be closed during the greater part of the time, and man would be unable to make much progress in his development. But because there have been and are advanced souls upon earth 1 who wished to know the truth whether it squared with their preconceived notions or not, it is possible for less advanced souls to profit by the results of their investigations and experiences, and a few pages here will be quoted from the diary of the same student of Occultism who so kindly contributed from his basket and store, for lectures Six and Nine of this Course. "I had often asked my master to show me the abode for lost souls, and each time he had sadly refused, say- ing, 'You could not bear it now.' But to-day, after having been an accepted student for almost seven years, he offered to take me into Avitchi as far as it was pos- sible for an incarnated soul to go. And when I saw the horrors of that awful place, I ceased to wonder why he had heretofore refused my request. When liberated from my body and ready to descend into the bowels of the earth, I was surprised to see how easily soul could penetrate dense matter. In a vague way I had expected that my Master would take me to some extinct volcano and use it as a passageway to the lower realms; but this was not the case. Before we had descended to any considerable depth he took me by the hand and said, iThe History and Power of Mind, pp. 19, 20, 23, 26, 27, 64, After Death. 259 'Whatever happens, do not let go of me, since an in- experienced soul, if left by itself, is sometimes caught between two entities — denizens of the lower plane — and is detained and demagnetized by vampirization until the magnetic cord between the physical body and their victim becomes absorbed, and dissolution to the physical body necessarily ensues,' and, thus warned, I kept close to my Master, and it was very well for me that I did. "After descending for several hundred feet into the earth we first came to a number of caverns which opened into each other as one cave often leads to an- other. There was a subterranean stream of water that poured forth from a great hole in the rocky wall and flowed through the place from end to end and disap- peared with a roar over the edge of a yawning abyss in the last cavern. The walls of this place were glisten- ing with_ minerals, and there were veins of ore among those rocks that, to have seen, would have driven a miner insane with greed. At the bottom of the shallow stream there were great quantities of gold that, by the constant washing of the swiftly running water, had been cleansed from earthy deposits until it glittered and shone most tantalizingly. "At first I was so intently interested in those rocky caverns and our surroundings that I had not noticed that for a distance around us of ten feet or more there shone a strange blue light, which made the walls 260 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. and floors glisten with a weird brilliancy. But when the thought occurred to me that the light from neither sun nor moon could penetrate to this depth without an opening in the earth, I began to wonder where the light came from, and, turning to my Master for an answer, I saw that it emanated from him. 1 In this darkness he had become a luminous body and was light- ing the place with his brilliancy. In reply to my mental query he smilingly replied: 'Souls, like other things, always shine by contrast with unpleasant surroundings, and we must have light upon the subject that we are studying.' And then I knew that his modesty forbade him from saying that he possessed the power to create light, according to his will, in any place or at any time. Forgetting everything except his wondrous power, I stood gazing admiringly at him until, wishing to divert my attention from himself, he said: 'Look yonder,' and looking in the direction he indicated, I saw a group of entities who were watching us. "Standing as they did among the shadows, that ap- peared the denser by contrast with the light that en- circled us, they looked more like apes than like men. With distorted features, grinning mouths and bulging eyeballs, they made a wretched picture to look upon, and I shuddered as I gazed. They all appeared to be startled, half blinded and disturbed by the light that iMata the Magician, pp. 12, 16, 20, 21. After Death, 261 had come so suddenly into their abode, and they hud- dled together, as if afraid we would attack them. Taking my hand, my Master led me forward until we were near enough to let the light shine full upon the group, and thus I had the opportunity to see each one very plainly. Had their figures been straight and erect, I should judge that they had been men who measured six feet while in physical life; but now they were bowed and bent and had huge humps between their shoulders. Their legs were crooked and withered, their arms were covered with knots or bunches, and them- hands and fingers looked like claws, while their feet resembled the feet of bears. " 'Do you know who these individuals were in life?' I asked my Master, and he replied: They were mem- bers of the Spanish Inquisition and have no subjective minds, since those left them long before they ,excar- nated. These are now nothing but animal or objective minds, which were too strong for their subjective minds to control and have been deserted to their fate 1 . When they first passed from physical life they lingered for a time upon the first subjective plane of being, casting their diabolical influence upon such men's minds as they could control, until, weakened by their unwise expendi- ture of magnetic force, and thus losing their power, they were swept from the first plane by the law of l The History and Power of Mind, pp. 170, 171, 176, 177. 262 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. evolution or adjustment, which soon places every in- dividuality where it belongs 1 . By reason of their den- sity, these entities settled here, and will remain in this place or condition until there shall be another cyclic change or movement of the law. Then^ they will de- scend still lower, since, being nothing but objective minds, there is no hope of their ever being raised out of this condition.' " 'Will you tell me something about the operation of the cyclic law you have just referred to?' I asked. " 'During the latter part of the ebb tide of each century, as men now reckon time, there comes a re- adjustment upon all the subjective planes of being sur- sounding and interpenetrating the earth. Souls who are progressive are permitted to reincarnate and souls who will not progress, but who have Karma to expiate, are compelled to reincarnate or to move downward. If for lack of strength or for Karmic reasons a soul is un- able to reincarnate and is on the downward instead of the upward course, then it isi swept off the plane where it has been functioning, and, by gravic attraction, settles into a lower condition or state of consciousness; and thus it goes gradually downward until final disintegra- tion or reabsorbment into the lowest shade of the red cosmic current becomes its fate. Shall we pass on and examine the next lower condition?' he asked, and again we started forth on our tour of investigation. x The History and Power of Mind, pp. 109-111. After Death. 263 "It is a wonderful earth on which we live, and until I had the opportunity to study it by the light of soul, I had no idea of its almost limitless resources. There are vast beds of coal and great wealth of minerals, and there are rivers and lakes of petroleum which have never yet been touched by the probing iron tubes that men are so constantly sending after it. There are un- derground rivers and lakes of water and caverns so great that our largest buildings would seem like chil- dren's playhouses if they were to be put into them. As we swiftly passed from wonder to wonder, we saw many unfortunate beings who had neglected their op- portunities for progress and were now taking the con- sequences. Some looked frightened, others sad and despairing, but many were rebellious and bitter. They were of many shades of darkness and had nothing now to do but to meditate upon their mistakes or to dispute or quarrel among themselves. As we passed or paused to look at them they usually returned our gaze; some- times stupidly or wonderingly, but more often appre- hensively, since the fear of greater calamities seemed to prevail with each. They never spoke to us unless we addressed them first, and this we did not care to do except in one instance, when we found a creature who had been a woman during its last incarnation and still retained something of what I imagined was her former appearance. She had been a Voodoo sorceress, my Master said, and was really a subjective and objective 264 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. mind gone wrong together. This soul had deliberately chosen to do evil instead of good, and was suffering the consequences of its choice. It was surrounded by a number of other entities who had been her victims in times past, and with whom she had been instrumental in helping downward instead of upward. When we came into the presence of this creature it rushed for- ward with outstretched arms as if it were about to seize us. But, stretching out his hand and giving it a look which seemed to have the power to stop a whirl- wind, my Master spoke the one word, 'Stop!' and im- mediately it fell upon its knees as quickly as if it had been knocked down with a club. Then with his hand still raised, and, without taking his eyes from the creat- ure's face, he said: Tf you have anything to say you must say it where you are. You cannot come any nearer.' "'Help! help! help!' it shouted in a tragic tone of voice, T want to get out of here!' and it commenced wringing its hands and swaying its body backward and forward while its eyes gleamed wickedly. " 'What would you do if you were to be helped out of your condition?' Master asked. " T would kill the man who murdered and sent me here,' it replied viciously. T would search the world over, and when I found him I would strangle him with my hands as he strangled me; and then I would drag him down to my own condition! Will you help me to After Death. 265 get revenge?' it suddenly inquired, looking at Master with its reddened eyes that blinked and squinted under the radiant light that surrounded us. " 'Not while your only purpose for release is revenge/ he replied, and, as we turned away, it sent after us such curses as made me shudder at their wickedness. "After spending considerable time in looking about, my Master said: 'Now that you have seen so many phases of this wretchedness I shall show you the place which first gave rise to the Bible legend of hell or of the lake which is supposed to burn forever and forever with unquenchable fire. For that, as,' well as nearly all those old legends, was founded upon fragments of truth,' and, after passing under many miles of sea and then down deep into what seemed to be almost to the center of the earth, we came into the greatest of all the caverns I had seen. It was so immense that I was impressed with the thought that we had really entered another world until my Master said: 'This is hell. Into greater depths than this we cannot go; but I am told that there is a place even worse than this where all forms become slowly absorbed except their heads, which remain conscious and which continue to float about upon a dark, blood red sea of cosmic consciousness like corks upon the surface of a stream. And finally after many centuries, the heads, too, become absorbed and are drawn back to help swell that great torrent of red cosmic force which is constantly sweeping round and through the 266 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. earth; and which is ever ready to supply animal man with material for his passions and his lower emotions.' 1 'This. great cavern which we had entered seemed to be a center of attraction toward which much of the vital fluids and gases of the earth were drawn. There were monstrous holes in the walls and roof that looked as if they had at some time been vents and had served as chimneys to the place. And everywhere were heaps of rocks that looked as if they had some time been heated and tossed about like great balls of putty by some tremendous force, and had then been left to harden into all their present grotesque shapes. There were also deep pools of inky water and streams which gushed or trickled according to their size or volume from among the rocks and crevices. Here and there we saw hiding and dodging about among the shadows the ugly misshapen forms of some of the denizens of that place. Going further into the cavern we found that, after the distance of a mile or two, the floors began a gradual descent, and the further we went the sharper became the decline until we seemed to be going down- ward at an angle of about forty-five degrees. And still on every hand, before and behind us, were heaps and piles of rocks which we passed either over, through or between upon our journey. After a time from out the shadows and the darkness there came a glimmer of light The History and Power of Mind, pp. 135, 136, 140, 142, 143, 224, 230. After Death. 267 in the distance, and I paused and asked my Master what was its cause and from whence it came. He replied: " That light is from the fiery lake of which you have been told. It is a burning pool. We are now directly beneath the Island of Java, which is but a volcanic for- mation upon the surface of the earth, and which con- tains numerous craters which serve as vents or chim- neys for this lake of fire,' and on approaching nearer I looked upon a scene that neither time nor eternity will ever be able to obliterate from my memory. "Below us at perhaps a distance of one thousand feet was what seemed to be a huge caldron of liquid rock. It was seething and bubbling and spurting high toward the roof of the cavern as if it were being forced upward by numerous fountains. And there was also a constant and a terrific rumbling and roaring sound, and a trem- bling of the rocks around us as if they were being shaken from their resting places and were about to go plunging down the decline to be melted again into lava in that fiery furnace. It was impossible for me to esti- mate the area covered by that boiling mass, since it was in such a constant and tumultuous commotion that I could see but a small portion of it. But as I watched it roll and heard it thunder, and saw it swirl and dash about in its seeming conscious efforts to consume every- thing within its reach, and, as I became conscious of the sickening stench that arose from its combined gase- ous and sulphurous fumes, I understood why the 268 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. theologians' hell had been so graphically described. Turning to my Master I asked: 'Am I to understand that this place was expressly prepared for lost souls?' and he replied: " 'No. This condition is but the result of a meeting at this' point within the earth of such of her fluids and gases as are combustible by coming into contact. The combination of sulphur, gases and oils combined with the different chemicals which are also here in great quantities has produced combustion, and the continu- ous flow of oil and of gas into this burning center sup- plies the fuel that keeps it burning. This is the largest of the several burning lakes that now exist within the earth and which supply the different volcanoes with their fires.' "At that moment I saw a group of entities approach- ing. Their bodies were coal black and glittered in the firelight as though they were covered with scales. All were deformed. Some had huge heads and broad shoul- ders, while] their legs and arms seemed like slender sticks. Others had large bodies and small heads and eyes that looked like living coals of fire. All had mon- strous mouths and huge ears, and as they approached I was conscious of a great fear. For of all the hideous creatures I had ever seen in all our wanderings, these were the worst. Drawing nearer to my Master, I said: 'Keep them away, for I am afraid,' and he replied: 'Be calm. For if you cannot command yourself then you After Death. 269 cannot command them,' then raising his hand as he had done before to the voodoo sorceress he said: 'Stop!' You can come no nearer,' and immediately the creatures paused, hesitated, and then turned and went another way. At that moment I felt a change coming over me. I had seemed to lose my poise completely, and I said: 'Let us go. I cannot bear any more of this,' and Master quickly took me out of that awful place. "When next I had an opportunity to talk with Master I asked him why ancient teachers had taught that the only place of future punishment was that lake of fire when there were so many other unhappy conditions. And he replied: 'Ancient teachers knew the truth, since many were clairvoyant, and were conscious of all the states and grades of happiness or degradation into which souls can come. But because that is the lowest extreme of an abnormal condition of which they were conscious they used it to frighten, men into good be- haviour. It was not prepared for lost souls, but souls sank into it by reason of their sinning, by the same law which souls may rise to great spiritual heights by reason of their goodness and wisdom.' "Since I have been seeing faces and forms and have been hearing voices, I have wished to go out upon the first subjective plane and see the souls as they appear in their different states of consciousness. But it was not until to-day that Master consented to show me about, 270 From. Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. always having refused before this with the remark that I was not prepared to meet either the dwellers upon the threshold or the souls of higher realms because of my emotional nature, which I did not yet properly control. But to-day, after severely testing me, he consented to make thef attempt, but promised to cut our investiga- tions short if I should again lose my poise as I did in Avitchi. "At first it seemed incredible to believe that there could be such throngs and crowds of beings upon the first subjective plane while incarnated souls were mov- ing about among them and utterly unconscious of their presence or existence. 1 When first I was liberated from my body and took my Master's hand, it seemed as if it must be fete day and that every one was out upon a dress parade. For there were thousands who jostled and pushed each other about, played pranks or disputed and quarreled as men do at a county fair or when a cir- cus has come to a country town. And there were the souls of animals running about and following both in- carnated and excarnated beings and each other and seemed to be as tangible as were those whom they were following. There were huge dogs and small dogs, kit- tens, cats and rats. And there were monkeys that had been some one's pets, and who were as active in that parade as any other creature. l The History and Power of Mind, pp. 174-175. After Death. 271 "In the country before we reached the city I saw the souls of cows and of horses and of sheep mingling with the incarnated herds or flocks of their kind, and it seemed that the first subjective plane was as greatly crowded with the souls of animals as with human souls. 1 In passing through the fields I observed that the female animals were the greatest centers of attraction for the disembodied animal souls of their kind; and when I asked to know the caused of this my Master said it was because of the possibility of rebirth or reincarnation for the animals who were being drawn again into physical life. They were attracted to the female animals more than to the males because it was through them, as mothers, that they would again be able to gain physical expression. And what was true with the animals was also true with human beings. Some women, and espe- cially those who were at an age and in a condition where motherhood was possible, were surrounded by disembodied souls who were ready for rebirth. "Something that impressed me very forcefully was the fact that although we were walking upon the earth the same as if we were in our physical bodies, still the atmosphere seemed to have entirely changed in some places/ We were not conscious of the heat, although it had been exceedingly warm before leaving my physi- cal body. The sun then was shining fiercely and there L The History and Power of Mind, p. 174. 272 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. was not a cloud to be seen in the sky. But now, in this new condition, the sun was obscured in the city which my Master wished me to see subjectively, and there were shadows so dense in some portions of it that it seemed as if twilight had fallen. And this was especially true in the lower quarters of the city, where gambling and prostitution prevailed. And when I asked why this darkened condition existed my Master replied. 'This is a mental atmosphere that is vibrating at a rate which you are conscious of as shadows. When incarnated men and women constantly transgress against truth, purity and honesty they create mental cesspools or vor- tices of gross vibrations which draw into them, by their own attractive power, such disembodied entities or souls as are vibrating in mental accord with those who created such vortices. 1 It is not alone true that the doers of evil prefer darkness rather than light, but they also create darkness by the density of their thought vibrations. They establish clouds between themselves and the sun in the same manner that they establish barriers be- tween themselves and the purer souls who dwell on the planes above them. Look there, for instance,' and he pointed to a large fine building which appeared to be an aristocratic family residence. "Taking me by the hand, we entered the house with- out opening the front door, which was firmly bolted l The History and Power of Mind, p. 176. After Death. 273 inside, and the bolts held in their places by strong steel chains. In the parlor we saw women who were painted like dolls and who were only half dressed, or were in costumes which, I believe, are sometimes called decol- lete, and which made but poor pretences of concealing their voluptuous forms. They were lolling about on couches and easy chairs, while small tables, on which were bottles of liquor and finely cut wine glasses, stood just within reach of each. Behind, before and on either side of every woman in that room stood the disembodied souls of persons of both sexes who had been as low or worse than they in development. For there were women inj that place who had been pure and true only a few years before, but who had strayed from the path of virtue, had yielded to a tempter in human form and had finally reached this condition. Now they were never free from the power that intoxicants have upon the physical brain, and because of this were much more easily influenced by the disembodied entities who. were mentally urging them to drink and to sin. With a feel- ing of indignation at the condition into which these women had been enticed I turned to Master and said: " 'Why cannot these women be made to see and know of the danger they are in? And why are they per- mitted to go blindly on to such a terrible fate as is awaiting them?' "He calmly replied: 'If you do not control your emo- tion of sympathy better than this, I shall take you back 274 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. to your body and you will not be permitted to extend your investigations for some time. These women are passing through this phase of experience because at present they have neither the desire nor the will to es- cape it. If you will observe you will see that the ob- jective mind of each is in absolute control of her actions. If I were to suddenly lift the veil and show them the entities who stand at their elbows, and if they were to be made conscious of the dangers they are approaching, they would no nothing more than to scream and faint; and when they would return to consciousness upon the material plane, they would overlook the lesson of truth which I had attempted to teach them and would believe they had been the victims of a nightmare or of. some kind of a joke. Then they would only drink the deeper to drown the fearful recollection. No. It is impossible to help a soul until it is ready and desires to be helped and then it will co-operate with its helper, and even then one must be wise enough not to do too much at one time, since none can bear more truth than can be immediately digested and applied to present conditions.' "Passing on to another apartment on that same floor we found the man and woman who owned the house. They were sitting at a table and were playing cards with two other persons. It was not difficult to see that these persons were much further along upon the down- ward road than were any of the women in the parlor. These, too, were drinking intoxicants and were using After Death. 275 the worse language I had ever heard expressed. They were gambling and also plotting against the fortunes and the lives of several persons of whom I had never heard; and, crowding around them so closely that they could scarcely be distinguished apart from each other, were disembodied souls who were almost as dark and as devilish looking as were some of those whom we had seen in Avitchi. These entities mentally suggested plans most diabolical to these human plotters and then laughed heartily when their suggestions were accepted. ''Rising to the floor above we entered a large, luxuri- ously furnished room where there was a young girl. She was very handsome but most unhappy. There was liquor and glasses to drink from standing upon a table in the room, but she had not touched it. When we en- tered she was pacing the floor and was wringing her hands in an agony of grief; and immediately my sym- pathies began to go out to her. But Master touched my hand and said: 'Remember your poise. If you lose it you cannot be of service to her nor to any one else whom you will meet. Now listen.' ' 'Oh, my God, my God, have you forsaken me?' she moaned. 'Why did I yield to that awful temptation! I must get away from this place and go back to my father. I will get out. I will, I will!' and she rushed toward the door just as a dissolute looking man stepped into the room. At sight of him the girl stopped, hesi- tated and finally sank into a chair. It was evident 276 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. that he was the direct cause of her misery. Coming forward he smilingly made a flattering remark, to which she did not reply, but continued to look steadily and sullenly straight before her. At this moment Master stepped close to her side, and, pushing away the evil entities who stood around her and were mentally urging her into a passion, he whispered: 'You are repentant, not rebellious; and you desire to be good. You can and you shall escape from this place before you are compelled to sin again,' and these words he repeated again and again to her. "Sensitive to thought as the girl was, she seemed to listen to Master's suggestions, and immediately gained control of her anger. And when the man who had just entered, laid his hand upon her shoulder caressingly, she rose and confronted him; and while the tears shone in her eyes, she said: 'You say you love me, and it was because of your protestations of love that I dis- obeyed my good old father and fled with you. You promised to marry me, but you did not do it. Will you release and give me the money to return to my father?' "At first the man looked surprised and then provoked and finally replied: 'Still harping on that old subject which I thought you had forgotten. Why can't {you be satisfied as you are? Haven't you everything a girl could possibly want?' " 'No. I want my freedom from this den of iniquity. I want to breathe the pure air and see the sunshine After Death. 277 again. I am sorry for my wilfulness and for my dis- obedience and wish to return home,' she replied sadly. " 'But you are disgraced. Who will recognize you, in the town where you were born and shone with such brilliancy for so short a time?' he sneered. " 'My father will receive me and God will forgive me and I don't care for the others. I want to be good and be happy again before I die,' she sobbed. "Here Master stepped close to the man and whis- pered: 'Pity and release her; she is too good to live this life,' and this he repeated several times until the man received the thought and said: " 'When would you like to go?' " 'Now! this instant,' she replied, and started toward the closet for her wraps. " 'But how can you pack all your gowns and get away to-day? Better stay another night,' he said slowly. " 'I don't want to ever see those things again,' she replied passionately, 'for they would only remind me of my miserable mistakes which I wish to forget. Please let me go now.' "At that moment an evil entity came close to the man and was about to suggest something to him when Master stepped between the two and said: 'As you will some time hope for mercy, have mercy now for this girl,' and he suggested the thought with such force that the man turned pale and began trembling. After a moment he said: 'And so you shall go home, and have all the 278 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. money that you will need to take you there. If your father refuses to have you back, let me know and I will send you enough more to keep you honest until you can turn yourself somehow,' and handing her a large package of bank notes he said: 'Come, I will see you to the station/ and they walked together out of the house. Then Master said: 'She is the only person in this place who is ready to be helped, and now let us go.' "The next place we visited was an opium den. Down a narrow street into a Chinese shop where there were Oriental wares for sale we went, and finally entered a large room in the basement of the building where the deadly drug was smoked. Here were men and women lying round the room upon luxurious couches that were piled high with silken pillows. These persons were in all states and conditions of stupefaction, and like the place that we had just left this, too, was crowded with disembodied entities in their different states of un- development. All these entities had been opium smok- ers during their past incarnations but now, because of not being possessed of physical bodies, could enjoy their favorite indulgence only by proxy — as the disem- bodied soul of a drunkard enjoys the fumes of intoxi- cants through vampirizing an embodied drunkard. These entities were nearly all nothing but objective, animal minds who had been deserted by their subjec- tive minds, but were still strong enough to influence and to suggest the thought to their victims to smoke After Death. 279 opium. When their victims had become completely stupefied and unconscious those vampires settled down upon them like huge black bats and, lying out at full length upon the prostrate physical forms, drew from them their magnetic forces until, after regaining con- sciousness, they could scarcely stand or walk. In this manner the vampires were able to enjoy the burning fumes of the opium and at the same time gain the magnetic strength they desired and needed in order to continue with their diabolical work. "In this place there seemed to be no one who could be helped, since those of them who had been deserted by their higher or subjective minds were simply animal or objective minds incarnated in weakened and diseased physical bodies and were beyond help. And those who still were blest with subjective minds were not con- trolled by them, but were entirely dominated by their animal, natures. "As we passed through the city we paused for a few moments in many homes of the, rich and also the poor, and saw much suffering but some happiness in both. In every class there were individuals who were posi- tively good and were living up to their highest ideals. The homes of these were filled with bright and uplift- ing vibrations and around such incarnated souls were disembodied entities who were suggesting beautiful thoughts to assist them in their work for themselves 280 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. and for others. 1 In other homes, often where there was much wealth and social honor, there was nothing but degeneracy and drunkenness. And this condition ap- plied equally as well to each of the two extremes of so- ciety. Persons who had nothing to do, and those who would do nothing, were surrounded by; disembodied entities of a like or of a worse nature than themselves, who suggested demoralizing thoughts which were ac- cepted and acted upon. And nearly all these disem- bodied entities were earth-bound and could not pass to higher planes than the first subjective, because their love for material things was greater than for spiritual things. They would stay with the sensual because they loved sensuousness; and would eventually either rein- carnate or sink lower because of their grossness. "Among the middle classes, with persons who were neither rich nor poor, but who were kept busy at work earning a living we* found much greater mental de- velopment and more purity and truth. And I was strongly impressed with the thought that physical and mental activity are great protections against degeneracy and; all kinds of sin. This is because the objective minds gain the greatest strength and power when their physical bodies are idle. "After we had studied the first subjective plane, as it appeared in the largest city in our country, my Master L The History and Power of Mind, p. 186. After Death. 281 said, 'I shall now show you something of the second subjective plane which surrounds the earth outside the first plane. This is the temporary abode for disem- bodied' souls who have struggled through and have overcome many of the temptations of earth; and have gained a point of development where they desire to progress instead of retrogress. For such, this is a resting place between earth lives where they may digest, as it were, their earth experiences and assimilate the good that is to be gotten from each. When a soul has reached the second subjective plane, it is not likely, al- though not impossible to fall into Avitchi. And if such a fate should befall it then it is due to the fact that it was more negatively than positively good, and fell through lack of strength to resist some great temptation upon earth. After such a soul has been permitted to suffer for a time the consequences of its mistakes, usual- ly a stronger soul goes down and attempts to encourage and to assist it out of its unhappy condition. And that angel of mercy is usually the other half of itself. But instances like these are rare although they do sometimes occur.' "It seemed as if a burden of lead had been lifted from my shoulders when we entered the atmosphere of that next higher plane; for we had indeed passed through purgatory and had at last entered a heaven of rest. There were no shadowy places, no darkness nor any gloom there. But there were trees and flowers and 282 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. mossy banks and flowering shrubs. There were also beautiful places of abode and large magnificent build- ings like amphitheatres, erected for assembly halls. And everything seemed to be as tangible and as firm to me as the earth had seemed to be to my physical body. In a vague way I had expected to find this plane a vapory, cloudy place, and I think I had even expected to find the souls who dwelt thereon transparent and intangible. But to my surprise and delight all things here were real to me as soul. "A silvery light that reminded me of intensified moon- light shone everywhere. And there was a restfulness in the atmosphere of which I had never before dreamed. 'Let us sit here upon the bank of this stream among these flowers,' I said, and my Master consented. After the horrible scenes that I had so recently looked upon on the lower plane of being, this place seemed to be the height of beauty and bliss, and I said: 'Surely no soul could ask for more happiness than this/ and Master replied: " 'This is indeed beautiful and restful, but there are planes beyond this where there are glories greater than these.' "At that moment we saw two souls approaching, and as I gazed at them in speechless wonderment, my Mas- ter said that they were re-united half souls who were enjoying this paradise together after an earthly incarna- tion of suffering. Radiant with happiness they were After Death. 283 the most beautiful beings I had yet seen, and, as they came nearer, I seemed to experience some of the love they radiated. Pausing at a short distance from us they smiled and waved their hands as if to welcome us to their heaven and then passed on. After resting for a time Master said: 'Come, you have kept your poise so well through these experiences that I shall now show you the next higher plane of being,' and rising, we passed on through gardens and groves, through fields and over hills, for what seemed to me to be a great dis- tance. And during each moment of the time I felt so uplifted and so happy that I hardly recognized myself in this new environment. On our way we met many beau- tiful souls, each of whom kindly saluted us but did not offer to engage in conversation. Unlike mortals they seemed to be utterly devoid of curiosity, although they must have known that I did not belong in their realm. As we were passing a large assembly hall, we paused to listen to the music, and what I heard in that beautiful place made a lasting impression upon my mind. Lover of music as I had always been, I had studied with the best masters who were available upon earth, but when I listened to the music on that plane I felt that never again should I wish to hear my own or another human voice lifted in song. The melody was so entrancing that I stood spellbound until it ceased, and then Master said: 'Come, we have but little more time. You have been away from your body longer than I intended that 284 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. you should be, and we must hasten back. But before we go, look yonder for a moment,' and raising my eyes, I saw the golden glory of the Gods. We were at the boundary between the second and the third planes of being, where an electric, silvery, blue light faded into a golden yellow light, softer and more beautiful than can be described; since words fail to express the depth of feeling that was awakened at the sight of the scene that lay before me. But in that sacred moment it be- came pictured upon my memory, never to be effaced. "There were Beings upon that plane who shone as brightly as the sun, and the colors that radiated from them were more beautiful than are those of a rainbow because they were living, throbbing colors. And there was a soft melody in the air that seemed to come from every direction. There was a fragrance, too, so subtile and so sweet that it seemed to permeate everything. This perfume, I understood, was the essence or the souls of the flowers with which the land was filled. " Ts this the theologians' heaven, the place which they describe as the city with pearly gates and golden streets?' Tasked my Master, and he replied: " 'No. That plane is still beyond this one. I would show you it but you could not bear the vibrations of that realm. That plane is what the Eastern students call Nirvana and is where perfected souls go to rest forever and forever as men reckon time. But individ- ual bliss in Nirvana does not last forever, since all in- After Death. 285 dividual conditions must sometime change. The souls who enter Nirvana have reached Godhood, and, before leaving the third plane elect which they will do, take up the mission of assisting human souls onward in their development or pass into Nirvanic bliss and finally fade out as individual souls and be absorbed into the yellow cosmic current, becoming universal spiritual force. 1 Many choose to become one with the spiritual force and forever lose their individuality rather than to return to earth and witness the sinning and suffering there. Others, after gaining this plane, and after resting here for a season prefer to return to earth and assist those who are coming on behind them. " Then those Beings return to the world's battle ground where they sometimes incarnate as Saviours or Avatars and lead such souls as will be led out of the bondage of ignorance and into a knowledge of truth, which is freedom. The ancient teachers, as you now understand, selected the two extreme conditions or states of consciousness for the heaven and hell for man- kind, and entirely omitted the intermediate planes of being where the majority of disembodied souls go, ex- cept the first subjective plane, which they call purgatory. By working upon man's fears and hopes they expected to prevent his sinning and thus raise him to higher The History and Power of Mind, pp. 132, 133, 138, 157, 158, 224, 237. From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation, pp. 138-139. 286 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. realms. They did what they thought best at the dif- ferent periods of time in which they served humanity. But old forms and old systems of religion^ must give way to new, and man now needs greater truths and more freedom of thought than ever before during this period of evolution.' " INDEX Activity Throughout Deity — 32. Adeptship, Foundation Stones Necessary for — 178. Afflictions, Deity Not Responsible for Our — 74. After Death— 249 to 286. Age of Mental Power — 131. " Reason — 131. Alcohol Retards Psychic Development — in. Anger — Belongs to Red Cosmic Current — 125. " Crimes Caused by — 125. Deity Does Not Show— 257. Animal Forms — Instinct Helps to Improve and Preserve — 12T. Mental Origin of— 95. Seraphim and Cherubim Materialized — 63, 95, 97, 98. " Kingdom — Creation of — 62 to 64, 98. Demand and Supply Used Unconsciously by— 183. " Evolved Through Re-embodiment of Life Principle — 98. Vibrations of — Higher Than Those of Vegetable Kingdom — 169. Ants, Consciousness of — 120, 121. Appendix, Vermiform — Use of — 104, 105. Cause of Its Degeneration — 103 to 105. Assyria — See Nineveh. Athletics — 105, 106, 108. Atom — Defined — 141, 142. 2 8 7 288 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. Atom — Demagnetization of — 212, 213. Form Depends on Vibration of — 168. Individual Center of Force — 142, 143. Magnetic Attraction Caused by Polarization of — 212. Motions of — 143, 224. Negative Side of — 212, 213. Positive Side of — 212, 213. Used in Creation of Form — 168. Visible to the Soul — 147. Attraction — Atoms Vibrating at Common Rate Cause — 168. Construction Depends on — 142. Evolution Depends on Repulsion and — 142, 193. " Law of— 68, 203, 210, 218. " " " Action on Half Souls — 37. " " in Parenthood— 68, 69. " " Sex Principle a Part of — 14. " " Success Caused by — 203. Magnetic — Caused by Polarization of Atoms — 212. Depends on Vibration — 143. Mental — 169, 170, 193 to 219. A Constructive Force — 193. " Vibration Cause of — 169, 170. Powers Manifest as — 142. Souls Influenced by Gravic — 256, 257, 262. Aura — Expansion of — 146. " Mental Creations Remain in — 218. Avatars— 93, 114, 285. Avitchi— See Hell. Baby, First Uses Forces Destructively — 159. Babylon — 29. Compared with Modern Cities — 25. " Description of — 25. Fall of— 26, 27. Polygamy in — 24. (f Religion of— 24, 25. Index. 289 Babylon— Rise of— 22, 23. Sensuousness in — 23 to 25. Sexual Excesses in — 23, 24. Barrenness — Among Chinese — 85, 86. Causes Race Suicide — 84, 85. Curse of God — 50. Result of Law— 84. Baths, Cold, Dangerous — 106, 107, 241. Beings — Celestial — 89 to 98, 115, 148, 222. Knowledge Received Through Concentration on — 115. on Third Subjective Plane — 284, 285. Beltis, Temple of — 25. Eeverages, Proper Kind for Man — 238. Blue Cosmic Force — 160, 165. " Increases Mental Growth — 107, 109, 133. Mental Portion of Divine Mind— 165. " Necessary for Man — 102. Body — Care of — 236 to 242. " Destruction of — 158, 222. " Elimination of Poison from Mind and — 75. " First Men Had Powerful — 103. " Form of— 158, 159. " Formation of— 70, 73, 74, 159. " Generates Forces and Power — 156, 157. " Health of — Necessary Before Psychic Development — 101, 103, III. " Influenced by Past Mistakes — 74. " Liberation From — 145. " Material Manifestation of Inner Man — 158, 159. " Mental Power Requires Strong Physical — 211. Preservation of After Death — 222. Psychic Development Demands Sound — 103. Renewal of— 158. " Sexual Excesses Ruin — 12, 13. " Sin Affects Formation of — 74. 290 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. Body — Soul Leaving — 145. " Used as Long as Desired — 179. Breath of Life— 98. Brotherhood, Student of Silent — 178. Calamities Are Caused by Fear — 202, 203. Celestial Crematorium — 156. Celibacy — No Escape from Divine Law Through — 44. Ordinary Manifestations of — 42 to 45. True Principle of — 45. Center — In Growth of Form — 168, 169. of Consciousness, Origin of — 89. " " Force — 142. " Arousing of, in Next Cosmic Day — 144, 145. " " Formation of — 142, 149. " " Man Is Highest — 193. Origin of— 89. " " Reawakening of Powerful — 144, 145. Shape of— 158. Chaos, Celestial — 61, 62. Character Must Be Built on Chastity — 47. Chastity — Applicable to Both Sexes — 47. Character Must Be Built 011—47. Defined— 45, 46. Mental— 46, 47. " Physical — 46. " Value of— 47. Cherubim — See Seraphim and Cherubim. Children — Development of — 159, 160. Disappointments of — 80. Modesty Should Be Taught to— 75, 7&- Moulding of Minds of — 76. Presence of Deity Should Be Taught to — 76. Purity Should Be Taught to — Irrespective of Sex —79. Questions of — 79. Index. 291 Children— Teaching of— 78 to 80. " Training of— 67, 75 to 80. Chinese— 85, 86. Sex Relationship Among— 85, 86. Unprogressiveness of — 85, 86. Christ — 250, 251. " Followers of, Healed Humanity — 250. Christianity, True — 250. Church — 128. " Christian — 250. " Creeds of — 129, 130, 253. Dogmas of— 129, 130, 253. " Dominion of — 128. Early, Fear Used by — 250, 251. Independent Moralists' Effect on — 130, 131. Mental and Christian Scientists' Effect on — 131. Revision of Creeds of — 130, 131. Withdrawal from — 128 to 130. Clairaudience — 101, 131. Acquirement of — 132, 133. " Denned — 132. Developed by Use of Cosmic Currents — 103. Not Dependent on Mesmerism — 132. Sound Mind and Body Required for — III. Clairvoyance — 101, 131. " , Acquirement of — 132, 133. " Denned — 131, 132. Developed by Use of Cosmic Currents — 103. Not Dependent on Mesmerism — 132. Sound Mind and Body Required for — ill. Spiritual Planes Open to — 136. Coercion, Deity Never Uses — 210. Cold, Demagnetization by — 241, 242. Comets as Destructive Force — 149, 150. " in Fourth Period — 61. 292 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. Comets— Meeting Constructive Force — 149, 150. "Common Sense" by Paine — 254. Communal Marriage — 48. Concentration — Aid to Practice of — 109. Among Ninevites — 17. Cosmic Force Consciously Used Through — 160 Defined — 161. Demand and Supply Aided by — 183, 184. Draws Object Thought of — 162. Examples of — 162 to 164. Exercises in — 161 to 166. How to Increase Power of — 162 to 166. Increases Mental and Physical Power — 160. Lack of — 160. Mental Power Gained by — 160, 165, 166, 185. Muscular Exercise by — 109. Particularity in — 211. Practice Increases Power of — 185 to 187. Psychic Development Aided by — 101, 109, 133. Result of Lack of — 160, 161. Rules to Increase — 162 to 166. Spiritual Power Gained by — 165, 166, 185. Successful Persons Use — 184. Condiments — 238. Confucius — 85. Conscience — Beliefs Regarding — 122, 123. Cause of Difference in — 127, 128. Disregard of — 172, 173. Effect of — 122. Evolution of Man Helped by — 128, 129. Growth of — 121 to 123. Instinct Mother of — 122, 123. Loss of — 127. Result of Instinct — 122, 123. Sheriff Not Actuated by — 126, 127. Index. 293 Conscience — Sympathy Often Mistaken for — 123, 124. Used to Conquer Objective Mind — 123. " Voice of— 122 to 128. Consciousness — Desire Exists Only with — 119. Grows Out of Sub-Consciousness — 119, 120. " In Man, Animals and Plants — 118 to 121. " Instinct Born of — 121. Man Is Center of— 193. Mind Grows from — 120, 121. Origin of Center of — 89. " Swarm — 120, 121. Conservation of Force — 161, 203, 211 to 219, 235 to 239. Construction — Depends on Attraction — 142. Follows Destruction — 159. Harder Than Destruction — 101, 159. Mental Attraction Is Force for — 193. Of Worlds— 145 to 150. Optimism Is Force for — 193. Progression Is Force for — 193. Control of Environment — 131, 170, 171. Cosmic Currents — Blue — 102, 160, 165. Conscious Use of — 160. Green — 95, 102, 160, 171, 172. Orange— 94, 102, 159, 160, 171. Origin of — 94. Red— 95, 102, 125, 160, 171, 172, 257. Use of, in Psychic Development — 101, 103. Yellow— 102, 103, 165, 285. Cosmic Day — See Day, Cosmic. Cosmic Dust — 147, 148. Force — See Cosmic Currents. Creation — Among Ninevites — 17. By Deity— 7 to 9, 59 to 64. " Man— 97. " Planetary Spirits — 148 to 150. 294 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. Creation — Mental, Aura Contains — 218. " Effect of Optimism on — 208, 209. " " Pessimism on — 209. Of Animals — 63. " Earth— 8, 59 to 61. " Form — 168, 169. " Living Creatures — 62. " Man— 63, 64. " Worlds — 145 to 150. Vibration Is Keynote of — 167, 193. Cremation Frees Soul from Body — 244. Crematorium, Celestial — 156. Crime Is Photographed on Mind — 125, 126. Criticism, Fear of — 197 to 199, 201. Cyclic Law — A Fundamental Principle — 234. " " Always Existed — 234. " Application of, to Man — 235 to 239. " Governs Flow of Magnetic Force — 225. Subjective Plane Is Governed by — 262. " Universal in Its Application — 224, 234. Damnation — Church Idea of — 250 to 253. Eternal — 250, 252, 253. Infant — 130, 251, 252. Used to Force Men to Worship — 250. Waning of Belief in — 254. Day, Cosmic — Birth of — 7. Fifth Period of— 62, 63. First Period of — 59. Fourth Period of— 61, 62. Negative Individuals Await Another — 215, 216. Same Length as Cosmic Night — 144. Second Period of — 59, 60, 90. Sixth Period of— 63, 93, 94, 105. Third Period of— 60, 61. Vibration Generated by Divine Will in Be- ginning of — 143. Index. 295 Death — 221 to 248. " A Second Birth— 243. " A Transition — 179. " Beginning of, Is Vampirization — 224. " Cause of — 237 to 243. " Cremation Frees Soul from Body — 244. Denned by Occultist — 223. " Fear of, by Objective Mind — 221. " " Cause of — 221. " " How to Destroy — 221. " Prevention of — 224, 237 to 242. " Process of, Described — 243, 244. " Second — 245 to 248. Affects Most Objective Minds Deserted by Their Subjective — 246. Description of — 246 to 248. Final Result of— 248. Transgression, Conscious, Persistent and Un- ceasing, Cause of — 245. Soul After— 249. Theories About— 249 to 285. " Is Weakest Immediately After — 244. " Vampirization Is Beginning of — 224. Deities, Solar — Awakening of — 59. Deity Works Through— 64. " , " Origin of — 89. Deity — Activity Throughout — 32. Afflictions Should Not Be Blamed on— 74. " Always Pushes Onward — 12. " Animals Created by — 63. Anthropomorphic Idea of — 129, 253. " Christ Taught Loving — 250. " Creation by — 7 to 9, 59 to 64. " Demands Met by — 180, 210. " Existence of — 117, 118, 167. 296 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. Deity— Expresses Through Man — 64. Karmic Debts Collected by — 72. Lessons Taught by — 14, 26, 81, 86. Living Creatures Created by — 62, 6s. Never Coerces — 210. Origin of All Things — 117, 167. Presence of — Should Be Taught Children — 76. Repudiation of — 252. Rests as Long as It Labors — 144. Souls Not Lost Through Vindictiveness of — 257. Suggestions by — 210. Works Through Individual Instruments — 64, 65, 93, 209, 210. Demagnetization — Cause of — 224, 236 to 242. Death Is Complete — of Physical Body — 223. Disintegration Caused by — 223, 257. How Produced — 211 to 213. Of Earth — 225, 226. People Suffer from— 211 to 218. Prevention of — 224, 237, 238. Retarded by Embalming — 223. Demand and Supply, Law of — 66, 177. " Acceptance of— 182, 183. " " Concentration in — 183 to 186. " " Condition for Use of— 183 to 192. " " Conscious Use of — 183. " " Karmic Law and — 179 to 192, 211. " " Obstacles Result of— 187. " " Operating in Universe — 66. " " Optimism Assists Operation of — 208, 209. " Pessimism Retards Operation of— 209. Index. 297 Demands Are Fulfilled — t8o, 210, 212. Depletion of Magnetism, Voluntary — 211. Desire — Growth of — 119 to 121. " In Animals and Plants — 118 to 121. " Intensification of — 119. Merges Into Will— 128, 136. " Of Disembodied Souls — 112. Destiny Controlled by Man — 179. Destruction Destroys Destructive Things — 251. Easier Than Construction — 101, 159. of Old Forms — 142, 157, 221, 286. of Worlds — 145, 150 to 156. Premature — Regretted — 158. Repulsion Cause of — 142. Development — See Kinds of, Also Growth. Devil of Ancient Theology— 130, 256. " Used to Frighten Men — 250. Diary of Advanced Occult Student, Quotations from — 145 to 156, 227 to 234, 258 to 286. Dielectrics — 215. Discouragement — Cause of — 192. Knowledge Kills — 191. Repulsion Caused by — 190, 191. Disintegration Produced by Demagnetization — 223, 257. Dissipation — 236, 237. Divine Law — See Deity. Divorce — Not an Evil — 37, 38, 52 to "4. " Purpose of First — 10. Dust, Cosmic — 147, 148. Duty in Parenthood — 81 to 84, 89. " to Help Others— 88. " to Pay Parental Debts— 88. Dwellers on Threshold — 270. Dynamo, Celestial — 151, 152. Earth — See also World. 298 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. Earth — Covered with Water — 8, 94. Creation of— 8, 59 to 61. Demagnetization of — 225, 226. Governed by Cyclic Law — 225. Interior of — 259 to 268. Magnetization of — 225. Requires Rest Eventually — 226. Sun Magnetizes — 225, 226, 227. Vampirization of — 225, 226. Eden, Abolition of the Garden of — 31. Ego — Reincarnation of Advanced — 72, 73. " Takes Full Possession of Body at Puberty — 76. Electricity as a Means of Recuperation — 239. Elliptical Motion in Expression of Force — 143, 224. Elohim — Creation by — 62 to 64. Creators of Subjective Mind — 95. Origin of— 89, 90. Quickening of — 61. Rest of— 7, 61. Embalming — 22s. Embryo, Formation of Human — 159. Energy — See Force. Entities Around Opium Den — 278, 279. Draw Magnetism from Psychics — 113, 114. Enjoy by Proxy — 58, 278. " Females Attract — 271. " Intoxicants Increase Power of — 273. Mental Suggestions by — 275, 276. " Seek Those in Mental Accord — 272, 273, 280. " Souls Controlled by — 113, 114. Environment, Control of — 131, 170, 171. Eskimo — 242. Ether, All Things Subjectively Repose in — 7. Evil, Darkness Created by Doers of — 272. " See Sin. Index. 299 Evolution — As God's Will — 9. Attraction and Repulsion Necessary for — 142, 193. Critical Point in — 256. " Manifestation of — 118. " Moves the Universe — 118. Of Animal Man — 8, 9, 31, 160. Of Mankind Through Conscience — 128, 129. Protection Not Needed for — 202. Repulsion and Attraction Necessary for — 142, 193. Will Moves— 118. Exercise — Improper — 106, 108. " Proper — 106 to 109. Existence, Personal Not Dependent Upon Physical Form — 221. Expiation of Mistakes — 182. Expression of Power — 143. Ezekiel— 91, 92. Beings Seen by — 91, 92. Falsity, Fear and — Go Hand in Hand — 201. Fatalism — 179. Fate, Cause of — 175, 176. Fear — Artists Affected by — 199, 200. " Attribute of Objective Mind — 195, 199. Cause of Most Calamities — 202, 203. Dependent Upon Lower Emotions — 200. " Destruction of — 200. " Different Aspects of — 196 to 201. " Falsity Accompanies — 201. " Ignorance and — 201. " Man Influenced by — 250. Man Limited by — 196. Most Formidable Attribute of Objective Mind — 195. Must Be Conquered — 195. Of Criticism and Public Opinion — 197 to 199, 201. " Death, Cause of — 221. How to Destroy — 221. 300 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation, Fear— Of Death, Objective Minds— 221. " Of Loss— 196. " Physical — 196. " Prevents Mental Poise and Individualization — 196. " Progressive Souls Have No — 201. " Retards Growth of Soul — 44, 196. " Thoughts and Freedom Limited by — 44. Females Attract Souls Ready for Reincarnation — 271. Fish, Origin of — 96, 97. Food — Kind to Avoid — 238. Force — See also Power. " Always Magnetic — 224. " Center of — 142. " " Atom Is— 142. " Awakening of in Next Cosmic Day — 144, 145. " " Formation of — 142, 149. " " Man Is Highest— 193. " Shape of— 158. " Conservation of — 161, 203, 211 to 219, 235 to 239. " Cosmic — See Particular Color. " Expression of — 224. " Focusing of — 141 to 166. Generation of — 156, 157, 160, 161, 224. Magnetic, Governed by Cyclic Law — 225, 235 to 239. Waste of — 236 to 239. " Neither Good nor Evil — 157. Of Attraction Depends on Vibration of Atoms — 168. " Return of to Emanating Centers — 148. " Strengthening of — 161,, 169. Foreordination — 130, 254. Form — Creation of — 168. " Depends on Vibration — 167, 168. Destruction of Old — 142, 157, 221, 286. Fowl, Origin of— 97. Index. 301 Freedom — Limited by Fear — 44. Of Thought and Speech — 253, 254. " Soul — 145. Future State Depends Upon Condition on Material Plane — 256. Generative Organs — See Sex Organs. Generation of Power — 143, 158. Genesis — Incorrect Order of Creation in — 89. Referred to— 7 to 10, 50, 59 to 64, 94, 95. Gestation — See Procreation. Gladstone — 127, 128. God — See Deity. Good — Done for Sake of — 129, 136. " Necessary Condition for Spirituality — 136. Gravic Attraction on Souls — 256, 257, 262. Gravity, Law of, Referred to — 218. Green Cosmic Force — 102, 160. " Use of Produces Individualization — 95, 172. Use of by Objective Mind— 171, 172. Group, Stellar — See Stellar Group. Growth — Happiness Attained Through Spiritual — 134. Impossible Previous to Incarnation — 31. Half Souls — Action of Law of Attraction on — 37. " Attempt to Save Each Other from Hell — 247. "■ Each Contains Picture of Other — 32, 33. " Happiness Attained by — 32. " Reincarnation of — 72. Seeking Each Other — 32 to 34. " Vibrate the Same — 33. Hangings, Emotions Cause — 125, 126. Happiness — Attained Through Spiritual Growth — 134. When Half Souls Find Each Other— 32. Defined — 42. Excarnated Soul Deprived of by Mourning — 243. Involves Soul's Independence of Others — 196. 302 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. Happiness — Negative — of Subjective Mind — 10, 31, 170, 194, 195. Poise Necessary for — 195. Soul Must Have— When Alone— 196, 197. The Thing Most Desired— 32. Harmony in the Universe — 62. Heaven, Separated from the Manifested — 60. Heavenly Guides — 113. Hell — Appearance of Souls in — 260 to 269. Avitchi — 245, 247, 256 to 270. Described — 246, 247, 258 to 269. Home for Lost Souls — 245, 256. Horrors of— 247, 258 to 269. Lowest Condition of Lost Souls — 245, 247, 256. Souls Reaching Second Subjective Plane Sel- dom Fall — 281. Souls Saved from — 247, 248. Vampirization of Inexperienced Souls in — 259. Cause of a Soul's Entrance Into — 245. Church Idea of — 250 to 255. Conception of Early Fathers — 251. Diametrically Opposed to Nirvana — 245. Difficulty of Saving a Soul from — 247. Fear of — 250, 251, 255, 269. Origin of Bible Legend — 265 to 268. Used to Force Men to Worship — 250, 251, 269. Universalist's Idea of — 252. Waning of Belief in — 254. Heredity — 70, 73, 74. Holiness, Halo of, Around Teachers — 252. Hymen, Physical Expression of Purity — 76, 77. Ignorance and Fear — 201. Improvement Needed Every Moment — 74. Immortality — 221, 222. Incarnation, Reason for — 32, 71, 74, 81. Independent Sex Life — 57. Index. 303 Independent Sex Life — Psychic Dangers of — 58. Indestructibility of Soul — 196, 201, 249. Indigestion — 189. Indignation, Effect of — 184. Individualization — Fear Prevents — 196. Goal of Every Soul — 196. Green Cosmic Force Produces — 95, 172. Indolence, Voluptuousness Caused by — 20. Infant Damnation — 130, 250, 251. Infidels, One Cause of — 252. Ingersoll, Robert G. — 254. Insanity— 69, 70, 113, 114, 116. Caused by Religious Beliefs — 252. Insects, Origin of — 97. Instinct — 118. " Birth of — 121. Merges Into Intuition — 128. Mother of Conscience — 122, 123. " Use of— 121. Intoxicants — Brain Affected by — 273. Control of Entities Affected by — 273. Entities Enjoy by Proxy — 278. Retard Psychic Development — ill. Intuition — 118. , Instinct Merges Into — 128. Necessary for Spirituality — 136. Suggestions of Subjective Mind — 207. Java, Island of, Burning Pool Under — 267. Jesus — His Body Used by an Exalted Being — 91. Jonah Warns Nineveh — 20, 21. Justice, Law of — Rules the World — 55. Karma, Debts of — Accumulation of — 173 to 189. " Affect Future Births— 208, 209. " " Collected — 72, 176, 177. " " Example of — 174, 175 to 189. 304 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. Karma, Debts of — Exhaustion of — 182, 183. " " Prevent Seeing Truth — 182. " Result of— 173, 174 to 189. Law of, and Demand and Supply — 174 to 192, 211. Mock Marriage a Result of — 55, 56. Objective Mind Creates Bad — 208. Optimist Ceases to Create Bad — 208. Parenthood Influenced by — 71 to 74. Reincarnation Prevented by — 262. Resulting from Hate — 262. Keynote of Creation, Vibration Is — 167, 193. Kismet — 179. Knowledge Received Through Meditation and Concentration Upon Great Consciousness and the Celestial Beings — 115. Labor — Proper Amount Per Day — 238. Law — Causes Certain Incarnations — 71, 74, 81. Cyclic — 224, 225, 234 to 249, 262. " Readjustment on Subjective Plane Under — 262. Divine — See Deity, of Attraction— 68, 210, 218. Action on Half Souls— 37. Demand and Supply — 66, 84, 177, 179 to 192, 208, 209, 211. " Justice Rules the World — 55. " Repulsion, Action on Half Souls — 37. " Success — 2031 to 219. Religious Reaction in Accord with — 252. Transgressions Against the — 84, 255. Legends Founded on Fragments of Truth — 265. Lessons Taught by Divine Law — 14, 26, 81, 86. Let There Be Light — 143. Life, Primary Object in — 80. Light — Demand for — 59. " Souls Possess Power to Create — 260. Liver, Torpid — 189. Index. 305 Love — Attractive Force — 243. " Doctrine of, Taught by Christ — 250. Luck, Belief in— 174, 175. Macrocosm — 93, 235. Magnetism — Conservation of — 235 to 239. Disembodied Entities Draw — from Psychic — 113, 114. Ebbing and Flowing of — 225, 235, 236. Exchange of — 240. Lost by Worlds Not Wholly Regained — 227. Sun Gives — to Earth — 225, 226, 227. Vampirization of— 211 to 218. Voluntary Depletion of — 211. Majority, Race Has Reached Its — 255. Malignant Creatures Offsprings of Men's Minds — 97. Man — Advanced — 66. " Awakening of — 65. " Belongs to Constructive or Destructive Side of Life — 171. " Building Body of — 69. " Center for Generation of Power — 165, 193. " Condition of — Before Incarnating in Animal Forms — 3i, 95- " Creation of — 63, 64, 98. " Deity Expresses Through — 64, 65. " Destiny Controlled by — 179. " Development of — 8, 9, 31, 160. " Dominion of — 64. " Evolution of — 8, 9, 31, 128, 160. " Fall of— 11, 12. " Fear Influences — More Than Love — 250, 251. " Forgot His Origin After Incarnation — 32. " Governed by Cyclic Law — 235 to 239. " Highest Center of Force on This Planet — 193. " Is Small World— 218. 306 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. Man — Lower Kingdoms Raised by — 102. " Magnetism of — 225, 235, 236, 239. " Rest Periods Provided for — 224, 227. Seraphim and Cherubim Formed Bodies of — 95, 96. " Strong Incarnate First — 12, 13. " Subjective Mind Incarnating in — 9. Manifestation, Vibration Necessary for — 167. Marconi — no. Marriage — 31 to 58. By Civil Contract— 52, 53, 54, 55. Communal — 48. Defined — 34. Evolution Through — 53 to 56. Of Convenience — 34, 35. Disappearance of — 36, 37. How to Free One's Self from — 56. Reason for— 35, 55. Mistakes of the Church about — 52. Mock— 34 to 39, 53, 54, 55, 56. Monogamy — 5 1 . Polyandry — 49. Polygamy— 49 to 51. Ridicule of— 38. True— 34, 51, 52, 54. Master of Occultism — 145. Materialism, One Cause of Belief in — 252. Matter, Part of Deity— 60. Matthew (quoted) — 144. Meditation. "Used in Psychic Development — 101. Mental Attraction — 169, 170, 193. " Development Necessary for Spirituality — 136, 137. " Likes and Dislikes — 169, 170. " Power Gained Through Concentration — 160. " Repulsion — 169. Microcosm — 93, 235. Index. 307 Middle Class, Mental Condition of — 280. Mind, Consciousness Develops into — 120, 121. Crime Photographed by — 125, 126. Draws to Itself Whatever Persistently Dwells On— 203, Elimination of Sin from — 75. Magnetic Attraction of — 203, 219. Objective, Abandoned by Subjective — 127. Bad Karma Created by — 208. Causes Sorrow and Disharmony — 170. Conscience Used to Conquer — 123. Conscious Effort to Control — 178. Created by Seraphim and Cherubim — 98. Death Feared by — 221. " Second — 245 to 248. Desire of — 118. Development of — in, 118 to 121, 194. Domination by — 171. Endowed with Subjective — 121, 170. Evolution of — 121. Fear is Attribute of — 195, 199, 221. Grows When Body is Idle — 280. Healthy, Necessary for Psychic Development — in. Holds Subjective kind t Earth — 194. Life to — 221, 222. Must be Raised for Progress — 194. Origin of — 98. Pessimism Caused by — 207. Repellent to Aids in Evolution — 170. Result of Control by — 274. Struggle for Supremacy — 99. Subjective Mind Ruling — 170, 171. Superstitions of — 178. Vibrates Lower than Subjective — 170, 194. Part of Deity — 60. 308 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. Mind — Subjective — See also Soul. Abandonment of Man by — 127. Blissful Existence of — 9, 10, 31, 170, 194, 195. Color is Blue— 102. Conscience Used by, to Conquer Objective Mind — 123, 172, 173. Created by Elohim — 95. Creation of— 64, 95. Deity Expresses Through — 64, 65. " Division of — 10. Earth Bound by Objective Mind— 194. Endowing Objective Mind — 121, 170. Experience of — 12, 127, 170. Incarnating in Man — 9, 64, 65, 170. Nature of — 9, 10, 12, 194, 195. Negative Happiness of — 10, 31, 170, 194, 195. Negative Side of — 9, 10. " Origin of — 95, 102. Poise Must be Acquired by — 195. Positive Side of — 9, 10, 12. Preparation for— 8. Progression of — 195. Rarely Dies— 246. Realm of Before Coming to this Planet — 95. Retrogression of — 11, 12. " " Ruling Objective Mind — 170, 171. Sire of Conscience — 123. Struggle for Supremacy — 99. " " Vibrates Higher than Earth — 194. " Objective Mind— 170, 194. " " War of — 10, 11. Will of— 118. Wishes Granted— 191. Index. 309 Minerals, Repositories for Magnetic Force — 227. Miscarriage Cannot Prevent Operation of Law — 71. Mistakes, Body Influenced by Past — 74. Expiation of — 182. Modesty Does Not Indicate Weakness — 77. First Lesson that Should be Taught — 75. " Taught by Example — 78, 79. Mohammedan — 179. " Kismet of — 179. Money, Demand for — 192. Moralist, Independent — 129, 130. Effect on Church — 130, 131. Moses, Ten Commandments Given to — 50. Motherhood — See Parenthood. Motion, Cessation of — 143, 144. Elliptical Necessary for Expression of Power — 143, 224. Rotary Necessary for Generation of Power — 143, 158, 224. Mourning, Excamated Soul Deprived of Happiness by — 243. Music of the Spheres — 131, 149. On Second Subjective Plane — 283. Name, Soul — 201, 202. Navel, a Center — 161. Nebuchadnezzar — 26. Negative Side to Everything — 212, 213. Negativeness — 9, 10, 31, 46, 134 to 136, 170, 194, 195, 239. Night, Cosmic, Inaction During — 61. Manner of its Coming — 144. " Same Length as Cosmic Day — 144. Nineveh — 17, 29. " Decline of — 20. Description of — 17 to 19. Destruction of — 22. Jonah Warns — 20, 21. 310 Prom Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. Nineveh— Repentance of— 21. " Sensuousness in — 19. Sexual Excesses in — 20. Nirvana — 138, 139, 245, 284, 285. Objective Mind — See Mind. Obsession — 113, 114. During Gestation — 69, 70. Occult, Quotations from Diary of Advanced Student — 145 to 156, 227 to 234, 258 to 286. Truths Given Only to Those Prepared — 66, 78. Occultism, Eastern School of — 179. Occultists, High Priests Were — 51. Omnipotence, Attribute of Spirituality — 137. Concentration Necessary for — 138. " Demand for — 133, 165. " Receiving of — 136, 146, 166. Unconscious Demand for — 165. Omnipresence, Attribute of Spirituality — 137 to 139. Western Occultists do not Demand — 138. Omniscience, Attribute of Spirituality — 137. Concentration Necessary for — 137. " Demand for — 133, 165. Receiving of— 136, 146, 166. Unconscious Demand for — 165. Opium Den, Subjective Plane Around — 278, 279. Optimism, Constructive Force — 193. Demand and Supply Helped by — 208, 209. Karmic Obstacles Not Created by — 208. " Result of — 205 to 209. Success Brought by — 204, 205. Versus Pessimism — 204 to 209. Orange Life Force — 102, 159, 160. First Attracted by Earth— 94, 95. Objective Mind Uses— 171. " " Supplies Physical Strength — 171. Used in Formation of Body — 159. Index. 311 Order, Celestial — 62. Organs, Sex — See Sex. Paine, Thomas — 131, 254. Parenthood— 59 to 88. A Sacred Privilege — 16, 66, 67. And Inheritance — 70, 73, 74. Body Moulded in — 70, 73, 74. Compulsory — 71, 72. Divine — 64. " Beginning of— 59. Duty of— 81 to 84, 88. Ego Around Mother Before Re-incarnation — 68, 69, 70. Example in — to Children — 78, 79. Exercise of— 65, 66, 87. Karmic Law in — 71 to 74. Law of Attraction in — 68, 69. " Miscarriage in — 71, 72. Neglect of Child in — 75. Obsession During — 69, 70. Of Plants— 119. Religious Orders and — 87. Sins of Omission and Commission in — 75. " Slavery in — 80 to 88. Training of Children in — 67, 75 to 80. Transgression of Law in — 84. Passion — See Sexual Passion. Patriotism, an Emotion — 124. Peace, be Still— 143. Pepper — 238. Personal Existence not Dependent on Physical Form — 221. Pessimism, a Destructive Force — 188 to 190, 193. Hates Optimism — 204. In Hell— 247. Objective Mind Causes — 207. 312 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. Pessimism, Repulsion Caused by — 188 to 190. Retards "Demand and Supply" — 209. Versus Optimism — 204 to 209. Physical Development, Cold Baths Dangerous in — 106, 107. Lifting Heavy Weights Dangerous- 107, 108. Mental Concentration in — 109. Morning Exercise for — 107. Short Life of Athletes— 108. Tendency to Overdo — 106. " Form is Not Personal Existence — 221. Pineal Gland, Cause of Degeneration of — 103, 104. " " Use of— 103, 104. Plants, Growth of — 118 to 121. " Paternal Mission in — 119. " Sub-Conscious Desire in — 118 to 121. Pleasure is Not Happiness — 42. Poise, Mental, Fear Prevents — 196, 269. " Happiness Requires — 195. " " How to Gain — 202. " Increases Individuality — 209. " Necessary for Progression — 195. " Necessary to Help Others — 275. " Optimist Has — 204, 209. " Perfect Must be Acquired — 195. Subjective Plane Requires — 275, 283. Polarization of Atoms Causes Magnetic Attraction — 212. Operates on all Planes — 212. Polyandry — 49. Polygamy — 49 to 51 Poor, Mental Condition Around the — 279, 280. Positive Side to Everything — 212, 213. Poverty — 179. Demonstrating Over — 181. Result of Previous Demands — 180. Index, 313 Power — See also Force. Cannot of Itself be Evil — 157. Expression of — 143. Generation of — 143. Manifests in Everything — 142. Mental— 160. Operates Through all Centers — 156, 157. Strong Physical Body Required for Mental — 21: Primordal Condition — 144. Procreation — 65. Body Moulded During — 73. Obsession During — 69, 70. Process of— 68 to 73. Purpose of Sex Organs is — 12, 15, 16. Red Cosmic Current Induces — 95. Progression, Constructive Force of — 193. Mental Poise Necessary for — 195. Prostitution of Generative Organs — 15, 16, 39 to 42. Psychic Development, Alcohol Affects — in. Concentration Aids — 101, 109. How to Develop Psychic Centers- no. 109, Imprudent, Consequence — 101, in to 114. Imprudent Cause of Disrepute — in. Kinds of — 101, 112. Occultism Teaches Independent — 112. Prudent — 101, 102, 109, in, 112, 131, 132. Soul Growth — 100. Sound Body Necessary for — 103, in. Through Spiritual Developing Circles — 112. Through Yoga Practices — 112 to 116. Tobacco Affects — in. 314 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. Psychism, Attribute of Soul — ioo. Cause of Disrepute of — in. Defined — 99, 100. Psychic Plane — See Subjective Plane. Psychics, Entities Draw Magnetism of — 113, 114. Puberty, Ego Takes Possession of Body at — 76. Public Opinion, Fear of — 197 to 199, 201. Punishment, Belief in Future — 253. Future, 255 to 269. Result of No Belief in Future— 255. Purgatory — 281, 285. See First Subjective Plane, 270 to 286. Purity, Lasting Effect of — 77. Race, Its Majority Has Been Reached — 255. " Suicide of — 84 to 86. Reaction, Religious — 253. Red Cosmic Current — 58, 102, 160. " Anger Belongs to — 125. Contains Undeveloped Disembodied Souls— 58. Disintegrates Lost Souls — 257, 265, 266. Emotions Drawn from — 171, 172. Objective Mind Uses — 171, 172. Passions Drawn from — 171, 172, 266. Sexual Belongs to— 125. Procreation Induced by — 95. Vampirizes Lost Souls — 257. Repulsion, Between Atoms Vibrating at Different Rates — 168, 169, 170. Destruction Depends on — 142. Discouragement Causes — 190, 191. Evolution Depends Upon Attraction and — 142, 193. Law of, Action on Half Soul — 37. " Mental — 167 to 192. " " Cause of — 169 to 192. Index. 315 Repulsion, Mental— Difference in Vibration Cause of— 169, 170. Pessimism Causes — 188 to 190. Power Manifests as — 142. Rest, Necessary for Earth Eventually — 226. " Man— 238. Periods of Provided by Divine Law — 227. " Description of — 227 to 234. Revelations (quoted) — 155. Rich, Mental Condition Around — 279, 28c. Ridicule of Marriage — 38. "Rights of Man/' Paine's — 254. Romans — 27 to 29. " Babylonians and — 28. Compared with Men To-day — 28, 25. Sensuousness Among — 28. Rotary Motion in Generation of Force — 143, 158, 224. Saracus, King of Nineveh — 22. Saul — 91. Saviours — 285. Scientific Men, Knowledge of — 257. Scientists, Mental and Christian — 131. Seas Magnetized the Earth — 8. Second Death — See Death. Seer— 68. Seraphim and Cherubim, Demonstration of Vegetable and Ani- mal Forms, 63, 95 to 97. " Description of — 91, 92. Half Souls of Each Other— 96. " Nature of — 92, 93. " Origin of — 90. Sex, Chinese, Relationship of, Among — 85, 86. " Excesses, Animals Do Not Commit — 14. Diminution of Physique Caused by — 103, 104. Effect of— 12 to 16. In Nineveh — 20. 316 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. Sex, Excesses, Psychic Centers Diminished by — 104, 105. Punishment for — 16, 17. Independent, Life — 57, 58. Love and — 23. Organs, Abuse of — 16, 75. " Action of — 15. " Prostitution of — 15, 16, 39 to 42. " Purpose of — 12, 15, 16. Origin of — 10. Principle is Law of Attraction and Repulsion — 14. Purity Should be Taught Boys and Girls — 76, 77. Relation of — 14, 15, 26, 29. " " Foundation for all Mankind— 29. Souls are Without — 77. Union of — 15, 16. Virtue in Either — 16, 17. Sexual Passion, Belongs to Red Current — 125. Causes Crimes — 125. Physical Repression of — 44, 45. Sheriff, Motive Actuating — 126, 127. Shrub, Sub-consciousness of — 120, 121. Sin, Activity Great Protection Against — 280. Belief in the Forgiveness of — 16. Body Influenced by — 74. In Parenthood — 75. Original — 12. Souls Destroyed by Own — 257, 269. Slavery, Evil Effect of— 80 to 83, 86 to 88. Parental— 80 to 88. Sleep, after Using Cosmic Forces — 133. " Generates Greatest Amount of Force — 224, 236. " Necessary to Prevent Demagnetization or Death— 224. " Time Required for — 224, 236 to 239. " Vampirization During — 240. Societies, Ethical — 129. Index. 317 Sodom and Gomorrah — 27. Solar Deities — See Deities. Solomon — 47, 48. Sons of God — See Mind Subjective and Soul. Sorrow, Caused by Objective Mind — 170. Soul — See also Mind, Subjective. Advanced Seek the Truth — 128, 258. After Death — 249. Theories About — 249 to 286. At Place Where it Belongs — 189. Attraction, Gravic, on — 256, 257, 262. Attracts Like Disembodied Souls — 58, 272 to 274, 280. Avitchi is Home for Lost — 245, 256. Cannot be Helped Until Ready — 274. Composition of — 196. Development of is Object of Life — 80. Difficult to Save from Hell — 247, 248. Disembodied, Control by — of Embodied Soul — 113, 114. Desires of — 112. Distinction from Spirit — 101. Division of the — 10. Fear Does Not Affect Progressive — 201. Form of — 64, 67. Freedom of — 145. Indestructible — 196, 201, 202, 249. Individualization is Goal of — 196. Influence Each Other — 29, 30. Leaving Body — 145. Lost, Abode of — 256 to 269. " Condition of — 256 to 269. " Result of Our Sinning — 257, 269. Mourning Prevents Happiness for — 243. Must Learn to be Happy When Alone — 196, 197. Name — 201, 202. No Right to Save, Against Its Will— 248. 318 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. Soul — Nothing Hidden from Liberated — 146, 147. " Pure, Experience of — 17. " Question for Each — 30. " Reabsorption of — 190. Reaches Spiritual Plane of Development — 101. Retarding Evolution of — 82. Reunited to Half Soul— 282, 283. " Saving Lost — From Hell — 247, 248. Second Death of — 245 to 248. " Sexless — 77. " Squirrel — 97, 98. Tree— 97, 98. " War of — 10, 11. " Will Become What Desires — 189, 190. " No Salvation of Soul Against — 248. Spanish Inquisition, Members of — 261, 262. Speech Confined to Human Beings — 136, 137. Spirit, Distinction of from Soul — 101. Spirits, Planetary — 148. Creation by— 148 to 150. Rest of— 7- Spiritualists — 101. Method of Psychic Development by — 112. Misuse of Name of — 112. Spirituality, Awakening of Intuition Necessary for — 136. Cause of Happiness — 134. Control of Environment Necessary for — 131. " Defined— 134 to 137. Happiness Attained Through — 134. Mental Development Necessary for — 136, 137. Necessary Condition for — 134. Negativeness not — 134 to 136. Omnipotence an Attribute of — 137. " Omnipresence " " — 137. " Omniscience " " — 137. Index. 319 Spirituality, True — 134 to 136. Will Absorbs Desire in — 136. Stagnation Not Permitted to Exist — 32. Stellar Group, Description of — 227 to 229. Sub-Consciousness Develops into Consciousness — 119, 120. In Plants — 118 to 121. Subjective Mind — See Mind, Subjective — Also Soul. Subjective Plane, Cyclic Law Governs Readjustment on — 262. Disembodied Souls Inhabit — 112. " Existence on — 256 to 286. " " First — 112, 261, 269 to 280. " Interpenetrates Material Plane — 112. " " Ignorance of — 257. " " Inhabitants of — 112, 270 to 286. " Second— 281 to 284. " " For Progressive Souls — 281. Music on— 283. Reality of— 282. " " Shadows on — 272. Third— 284, 285. " " Beings on — 284. " " Music on — 284. Success, Concentration Aids — 211. " Conservation of Energy Necessary for — 203, 211 to ■ 219. " Elements Necessary for — 203 to 219. Law of— 203 to 219. " Mental Attraction and — 204. " Mode of Mind in — 203, 204 to 211. " Particularity in — 211. " Optimism Brings — 204, 205. " Pessimism Retards — 204, 205. " Specific Demands — 203. Suggestions, Entities Make Mental— 275, 276, 279. Good Mental— 276, 277, 279. 320 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. Superstitions of Objective Mind — 178, 179. Suprarenal Bodies, Cause of Degeneration of — 103 to 105. " Use of— 105. Suns, Centers of Systems — 62. " Description of — 228. " Magnetize Their Worlds — 225. Period of Rest Provided for — 227. Sympathy, an Emotion — 123, 124. Causes Crimes — 125. " Mistakes— 124. " War— 124. Control of— 124, 273 to 275. Judgment Swept Aside by — 123, 124. Mistaken for Conscience — 123. Reason Swept Aside by — 123, 124. Teachers, Appear to Mankind When Truth is Desired — 253. Of Occult Truths— 66. Wore Cowls and Skirts — 252. Ten Commandments, First Check on Polygamy — 50. Thought, Elimination of Poisonous — 75. Freedom of — 253, 254, 286. Limited by Fear — 44. Magnetic Connection of — 162. Threshold, Dwellers on — 270. Tobacco, Psychic Development Retarded by — in. Tolstoi— 127, 128. Transgressions, Against Divine Law — 255. No Escape from Result of — 256. Second Death Caused by Conscious — 245. Truth, Advanced Souls Wish to Know — 258. " Cannot be Destroyed — 202. " Foundation for Occult Teachings — 78. " Humanity, Mass of, Cannot Receive Higher Truths — 178. " Karmic Debts Obscure the — 182. Index. 321 Truth, Mankind Wishing to Know— 253. Universalist — 252. Universe, Reduced to Primordial Substance — 144. Uranus, Inhabitants of Live Longer — 235. Yearly Cycle upon — 235. Vampirization — 211 to 218. Beginning of Death — 224. By the Elements of Nature — 241. Cold Produces — 241, 242. Cyclic Law and — 225. Demagnetization Produced by — 211, 212, 213. In Married Life — 216 to 218. Individuals Exist by — 213 to 218. Characteristics of — 214, 215. Lost Soul Disintegrated by Red Cosmic Force by— 257. Next Life Affected by — 212. Of Earth, 225, 226. Of Man by Another — 213 to 218, 239, 240. Sleep and — 240. Vibration Affected by — 212. Vanity Stimulates Some Artists — 200. Vegetable Forms, Materialized by Seraphim and Cherubim — 95, 96. " • " Mental Origin of — 95. Vermiform Appendix — 103 to 105. Vibrations, Attraction Caused by — 168. Cause of— 118, 143, 167. Cessation of — 143. Creator of Force — 167. Different Rates of — 60, 182. Evil — 272. Form Depends upon — 167, 168. Generated by Divine Will — 143, 167. Keynote of Creation — 167, 193. 322 From Incarnation to Re-Incarnation. Vibrations, Law of — 169, 199. Motion Due to — 143. Necessary for Manifestation — 167. Neither Good nor Evil — 157. Of Individual Souls — 64. On Mental Plane— 169, 170. Origin of — 143. Repulsion Caused by — 168. Vampirization Affects — 212. Virtue, Required to Know Highest Occult Truths— 78. Shines in Manhood as Brightly as in Womanhood — ; Vive Kananda Swami — 116. Voice of Conscience — 122 to 127. Voluptuousness, Indolence Causes — 20. Voodoo Sorceress — 263 to 265. Vortex Draws to Itself — 148. War, Celestial— 155, 156. " Of Soul— io, 11. Will, Desire Merges into — 128, 136. " Divine — See also Deity. Cause of Vibration— 1 18, 143, 167. Existed Before Motion — 167. " Force that Moves Evolution — 118. " Free — 10, 210, 248. " No Right to Save a Soul Against its — 248. Wise Men of Ancient Times Taught Monogamy — 51. Wish, Every, is Granted Sometime — 191. Witch of Endor — 134. Work — See Labor. World — See also Earth. " Creation of — 7, 8, 59 to 61, 145 to 150. " Demagnetized Going Away from Sun — 225. " Description of, Entering Period of Rest — 229 to 234. " Destruction of — 145, 150 to 156. " Difference in Length of Cyclic Periods — 235. " Life Forces Leaving — 153. Index. 323 World — Magnetized Going Toward Sun — 225. " Periods of Rest Provided for — 227. " Seven Great Periods of Activity and Inactivity — 227. " Under, Description of— 258 to 269. Yellow Cosmic Force, Absorption into — 285. " Increases Spiritual Force — 107. Psychic Development by — : iss. " Spiritual Portion of Divine Mind— 165. When Brought to Earth— 102, 103. Yoga, Dangers of — 115, 116. " Degeneration of — 114, 115. " First Used by Avatars — 114. " Method of Psychic Development — 112 to 116. " Used on Atlantis — 114. SECOND EDITION OF THE HISTORY AND POWER OF MIND BY RICHARD ETOALESE. Is now ready for delivery. "This is the only book which describes Cosmic Forces, and shows how to use them." It gives the law of mental and also of psychic phenomena, and "explains clearly just how to use the power of mind in any desired direction." Send for a circular showing what the secular, religious, and metaphysical papers have to say about the book, or better still send for the book. Cloth, 308 pp. Price, $2.00 post paid. MATA THE MAGICIAN A Romance of the New Era BY ISABELLA IJTOALESE Is a forceful story illustrating in a fascinating man- ner the Law of Re-incarnation, and the mental power of an advanced Soul. Cloth, 12 mo. Daintily Produced, $1.50 post paid. LINKED LIVES A Tale of Yesterday and To-day BY ISABELLA I^GALESE Is a novel in which the reader sees the grinding of the "Mills of the Gods." "The Books say well, my Brothers! Each man's life The outcome of his former living is ; The by-gone wrongs bring forth sorrows and woes The by-gone right brings bliss." Cloth in Green and Gold, 235 pp. Price $1.50 post paid. The Occult Book Co^cer^, publishers, 9 to 15 Murray Street, New York City. W 128 82 V ..i^'. * a>«^ -^ififil^ c5>°in «%#%f^sf* A>^t. 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