material from the ,google ,print project47 ,,clairvoyance ,,by ,c4 ,w4 ,,leadbeater ,,second ,,edition ,,london ,,theosophical ,,publishing ,,society #aijc 99 99 99 99 99 ,,contents ,,chapter ,i4 ,,page ,,what ,,clairvoyance ,,is4 #e ,,chapter ,,ii4 ,,simple ,,clairvoyance3 ,,full #bi ,,chapter ,,iii4 ,,simple ,,clairvoyance3 ,,partial #ej ,,chapter ,,iv4 ,,clairvoyance ,,in ,,space3 ,,intentional #eh ,,chapter ,v4 ,,clairvoyance ,,in ,,space3 ,,semi-,,intentional #hc ,,chapter ,,vi4 ,,clairvoyance ,,in ,,space3 ,,unintentional #hg ,,chapter ,,vii4 ,,clairvoyance ,,in ,,time3 ,,the ,,past #if ,,chapter ,,viii4 ,,clairvoyance ,,in ,,time3 ,,the ,,future #aca ,,chapter ,,ix4 ,,methods ,,of ,,development #afc 99 99 99 99 99 ,,clairvoyance ,,chapter ,i4 ,,what ,,clairvoyance ,,is4 ,clairvoyance means literally nothing more than clear-seeing1 and it is a word which has been sorely misused1 and even degraded so far as to be employed to describe the trickery of a mountebank in a variety show4 ,even in its more restricted sense it covers a wide range of phenomena1 differing so greatly in character that it is not easy to give a definition of the word which shall be at once succinct and accurate4 ,it has been called spiritual vision1 but no rendering could well be more misleading than that1 for in the vast majority of cases there is no faculty connected with it which has the slightest claim to be honoured by so lofty a name4 ,for the purpose of this treatise we may1 perhaps1 define it as the power to see what is hidden from ordinary physical sight4 ,it will be as well to premise that it is very frequently 7though by no means always7 accompanied by what is called clairaudience1 or the power to hear what would be inaudible to the ordinary physical ear2 and we will for the nonce take our title as covering this faculty also1 in order to avoid the clumsiness of perpetually using two long words where one will suffice4 ,let me make two points clear before ,i begin4 ,first1 ,i am not writing for those who do not believe that there is such a thing as clairvoyance1 nor am ,i seeking to convince those who are in doubt about the matter4 ,in so small a work as this ,i have no space for that2 such people must study the many books containing lists of cases1 or make experiments for themselves along mesmeric lines4 ,i am addressing myself to the better-instructed class who know that clairvoyance exists1 and are sufficiently interested in the subject to be glad of information as to its methods and possibilities2 and ,i would assure them that what ,i write is the result of much careful study and experiment1 and that though some of the powers which ,i shall have to describe may seem new and wonderful to them1 ,i mention no single one of which ,i have not myself seen examples4 ,secondly1 though ,i shall endeavour to avoid technicalities as far as possible1 yet as ,i am writing in the main for students of ,theosophy1 ,i shall feel myself at liberty sometimes to use1 for brevity's sake and without detailed explanation1 the ordinary ,theosophical terms with which ,i may safely assume them to be familiar4 ,should this little book fall into the hands of any to whom the occasional use of such terms constitutes a difficulty1 ,i can only apologize to them and refer them for these preliminary explanations to any elementary ,theosophical work1 such as ,mrs4 ,besant's ,ancient ,wisdom or ,man and ,his ,bodies4 ,the truth is that the whole ,theosophical system hangs together so closely1 and its various parts are so interdependent1 that to give a full explanation of every term used would necessitate an exhaustive treatise on ,theosophy as a preface even to this short account of clairvoyance4 ,before a detailed explanation of clairvoyance can usefully be attempted1 however1 it will be necessary for us to devote a little time to some preliminary considerations1 in order that we may have clearly in mind a few broad facts as to the different planes on which clairvoyant vision may be exercised1 and the conditions which render its exercise possible4 ,we are constantly assured in ,theosophical literature that all these higher faculties are presently to be the heritage of mankind in general--that the capacity of clairvoyance1 for example1 lies latent in every one1 and that those in whom it already manifests itself are simply in that one particular a little in advance of the rest of us4 ,now this statement is a true one1 and yet it seems quite vague and unreal to the majority of people1 simply because they regard such a faculty as something absolutely different from anything they have yet experienced1 and feel fairly confident that they themselves1 at any rate1 are not within measurable distance of its development4 ,it may help to dispel this sense of unreality if we try to understand that clairvoyance1 like so many other things in nature1 is mainly a question of vibrations1 and is in fact nothing but an extension of powers which we are all using every day of our lives4 ,we are living all the while surrounded by a vast sea of mingled air and ether1 the latter inter-penetrating the former1 as it does all physical matter2 and it is chiefly by means of vibrations in that vast sea of matter that impressions reach us from the outside4 ,this much we all know1 but it may perhaps never have occurred to many of us that the number of these vibrations to which we are capable of responding is in reality quite infinitesimal4 ,up among the exceedingly rapid vibrations which affect the ether there is a certain small section--a very small section--to which the retina of the human eye is capable of responding1 and these particular vibrations produce in us the sensation which we call light4 ,that is to say1 we are capable of seeing only those objects from which light of that particular kind can either issue or be reflected4 ,in exactly the same way the tympanum of the human ear is capable of responding to a certain very small range of comparatively slow vibrations--slow enough to affect the air which surrounds us2 and so the only sounds which we can hear are those made by objects which are able to vibrate at some rate within that particular range4 ,in both cases it is a matter perfectly well known to science that there are large numbers of vibrations both above and below these two sections1 and that consequently there is much light that we cannot see1 and there are many sounds to which our ears are deaf4 ,in the case of light the action of these higher and lower vibrations is easily perceptible in the effects produced by the actinic rays at one end of the spectrum and the heat rays at the other4 ,as a matter of fact there exist vibrations of every conceivable degree of rapidity1 filling the whole vast space intervening between the slow sound waves and the swift light waves2 nor is even that all1 for there are undoubtedly vibrations slower than those of sound1 and a whole infinity of them which are swifter than those known to us as light4 ,so we begin to understand that the vibrations by which we see and hear are only like two tiny groups of a few strings selected from an enormous harp of practically infinite extent1 and when we think how much we have been able to learn and infer from the use of those minute fragments1 we see vaguely what possibilities might lie before us if we were enabled to utilize the vast and wonderful whole4 ,another fact which needs to be considered in this connection is that different human beings vary considerably1 though within relatively narrow limits1 in their capacity of response even to the very few vibrations which are within reach of our physical senses4 ,i am not referring to the keenness of sight or of hearing that enables one man to see a fainter object or hear a slighter sound than another2 it is not in the least a question of strength of vision1 but of extent of susceptibility4 ,for example1 if anyone will take a good bisulphide of carbon prism1 and by its means throw a clear spectrum on a sheet of white paper1 and then get a number of people to mark upon the paper the extreme limits of the spectrum as it appears to them1 he is fairly certain to find that their powers of vision differ appreciably4 ,some will see the violet extending much farther than the majority do2 others will perhaps see rather less violet than most1 while gaining a corresponding extension of vision at the red end4 ,some few there will perhaps be who can see farther than ordinary at both ends1 and these will almost certainly be what we call sensitive people--susceptible in fact to a greater range of vibrations than are most men of the present day4 ,in hearing1 the same difference can be tested by taking some sound which is just not too high to be audible--on the very verge of audibility as it were--and discovering how many among a given number of people are able to hear it4 ,the squeak of a bat is a familiar instance of such a sound1 and experiment will show that on a summer evening1 when the whole air is full of the shrill1 needle-like cries of these little animals1 quite a large number of men will be absolutely unconscious of them1 and unable to hear anything at all4 ,now these examples clearly show that there is no hard-and-fast limit to man's power of response to either etheric or aerial vibrations1 but that some among us already have that power to a wider extent than others2 and it will even be found that the same man's capacity varies on different occasions4 ,it is therefore not difficult for us to imagine that it might be possible for a man to develop this power1 and thus in time to learn to see much that is invisible to his fellow-men1 and hear much that is inaudible to them1 since we know perfectly well that enormous numbers of these additional vibrations do exist1 and are simply1 as it were1 awaiting recognition4 ,the experiments with the ,rntgen rays give us an example of the startling results which are produced when even a very few of these additional vibrations are brought within human ken1 and the transparency to these rays of many substances hitherto considered opaque at once shows us one way at least in which we may explain such elementary clairvoyance as is involved in reading a letter inside a closed box1 or describing those present in an adjoining apartment4 ,to learn to see by means of the ,rntgen rays in addition to those ordinarily employed would be quite sufficient to enable anyone to perform a feat of magic of this order4 ,so far we have thought only of an extension of the purely physical senses of man2 and when we remember that a man's etheric body is in reality merely the finer part of his physical frame1 and that therefore all his sense organs contain a large amount of etheric matter of various degrees of density1 the capacities of which are still practically latent in most of us1 we shall see that even if we confine ourselves to this line of development alone there are enormous possibilities of all kinds already opening out before us4 ,but besides and beyond all this we know that man possesses an astral and a mental body1 each of which can in process of time be aroused into activity1 and will respond in turn to the vibrations of the matter of its own plane1 thus opening up before the ,ego1 as he learns to function through these vehicles1 two entirely new and far wider worlds of knowledge and power4 ,now these new worlds1 though they are all around us and freely inter-penetrate one another1 are not to be thought of as distinct and entirely unconnected in substance1 but rather as melting the one into the other1 the lowest astral forming a direct series with the highest physical1 just as the lowest mental in its turn forms a direct series with the highest astral4 ,we are not called upon in thinking of them to imagine some new and strange kind of matter1 but simply to think of the ordinary physical kind as subdivided so very much more finely and vibrating so very much more rapidly as to introduce us to what are practically entirely new conditions and qualities4 ,it is not then difficult for us to grasp the possibility of a steady and progressive extension of our senses1 so that both by sight and by hearing we may be able to appreciate vibrations far higher and far lower than those which are ordinarily recognised4 ,a large section of these additional vibrations will still belong to the physical plane1 and will merely enable us to obtain impressions from the etheric part of that plane1 which is at present as a closed book to us4 ,such impressions will still be received through the retina of the eye2 of course they will affect its etheric rather than its solid matter1 but we may nevertheless regard them as still appealing only to an organ specialized to receive them1 and not to the whole surface of the etheric body4 ,there are some abnormal cases1 however1 in which other parts of the etheric body respond to these additional vibrations as readily as1 or even more readily than1 the eye4 ,such vagaries are explicable in various ways1 but principally as effects of some partial astral development1 for it will be found that the sensitive parts of the body almost invariably correspond with one or other of the chakrams1 or centres of vitality in the astral body4 ,and though1 if astral consciousness be not yet developed1 these centres may not be available on their own plane1 they are still strong enough to stimulate into keener activity the etheric matter which they inter-penetrate4 ,when we come to deal with the astral senses themselves the methods of working are very different4 ,the astral body has no specialized sense-organs--a fact which perhaps needs some explanation1 since many students who are trying to comprehend its physiology seem to find it difficult to reconcile with the statements that have been made as to the perfect inter-penetration of the physical body by astral matter1 the exact correspondence between the two vehicles1 and the fact that every physical object has necessarily its astral counterpart4 ,now all these statements are true1 and yet it is quite possible for people who do not normally see astrally to misunderstand them4 ,every order of physical matter has its corresponding order of astral matter in constant association with it--not to be separated from it except by a very considerable exertion of occult force1 and even then only to be held apart from it as long as force is being definitely exerted to that end4 ,but for all that the relation of the astral particles one to another is far looser than is the case with their physical correspondences4 ,in a bar of iron1 for example1 we have a mass of physical molecules in the solid condition--that is to say1 capable of comparatively little change in their relative positions1 though each vibrating with immense rapidity in its own sphere4 ,the astral counterpart of this consists of what we often call solid astral matter--that is1 matter of the lowest and densest sub-plane of the astral2 but nevertheless its particles are constantly and rapidly changing their relative position1 moving among one another as easily as those of a liquid on the physical plane might do4 ,so that there is no permanent association between any one physical particle and that amount of astral matter which happens at any given moment to be acting as its counterpart4 ,this is equally true with respect to the astral body of man1 which for our purpose at the moment we may regard as consisting of two parts--the denser aggregation which occupies the exact position of the physical body1 and the cloud of rarer astral matter which surrounds that aggregation4 ,in both these parts1 and between them both1 there is going on at every moment of time the rapid inter-circulation of the particles which has been described1 so that as one watches the movement of the molecules in the astral body one is reminded of the appearance of those in fiercely boiling water4 ,this being so1 it will be readily understood that though any given organ of the physical body must always have as its counterpart a certain amount of astral matter1 it does not retain the same particles for more than a few seconds at a time1 and consequently there is nothing corresponding to the specialization of physical nerve-matter into optic or auditory nerves1 and so on4 ,so that though the physical eye or ear has undoubtedly always its counterpart of astral matter1 that particular fragment of astral matter is no more 7and no less7 capable of responding to the vibrations which produce astral sight or astral hearing than any other part of the vehicle4 ,it must never be forgotten that though we constantly have to speak of astral sight or astral hearing in order to make ourselves intelligible1 all that we mean by those expressions is the faculty of responding to such vibrations as convey to the man's consciousness1 when he is functioning in his astral body1 information of the same character as that conveyed to him by his eyes and ears while he is in the physical body4 ,but in the entirely different astral conditions1 specialized organs are not necessary for the attainment of this result2 there is matter in every part of the astral body which is capable of such response1 and consequently the man functioning in that vehicle sees equally well objects behind him1 beneath him1 above him1 without needing to turn his head4 ,there is1 however1 another point which it would hardly be fair to leave entirely out of account1 and that is the question of the chakrams referred to above4 ,theosophical students are familiar with the idea of the existence in both the astral and the etheric bodies of man of certain centres of force which have to be vivified in turn by the sacred serpent-fire as the man advances in evolution4 ,though these cannot be described as organs in the ordinary sense of the word1 since it is not through them that the man sees or hears1 as he does in physical life through eyes and ears1 yet it is apparently very largely upon their vivification that the power of exercising these astral senses depends1 each of them as it is developed giving to the whole astral body the power of response to a new set of vibrations4 ,neither have these centres1 however1 any permanent collection of astral matter connected with them4 ,they are simply vortices in the matter of the body--vortices through which all the particles pass in turn--points1 perhaps1 at which the higher force from planes above impinges upon the astral body4 ,even this description gives but a very partial idea of their appearance1 for they are in reality four-dimensional vortices1 so that the force which comes through them and is the cause of their existence seems to well up from nowhere4 ,but at any rate1 since all particles in turn pass through each of them1 it will be clear that it is thus possible for each in turn to evoke in all the particles of the body the power of receptivity to a certain set of vibrations1 so that all the astral senses are equally active in all parts of the body4 ,the vision of the mental plane is again totally different1 for in this case we can no longer speak of separate senses such as sight and hearing1 but rather have to postulate one general sense which responds so fully to the vibrations reaching it that when any object comes within its cognition it at once comprehends it fully1 and as it were sees it1 hears it1 feels it1 and knows all there is to know about it by the one instantaneous operation4 ,yet even this wonderful faculty differs in degree only and not in kind from those which are at our command at the present time2 on the mental plane1 just as on the physical1 impressions are still conveyed by means of vibrations travelling from the object seen to the seer4 ,on the buddhic plane we meet for the first time with a quite new faculty having nothing in common with those of which we have spoken1 for there a man cognizes any object by an entirely different method1 in which external vibrations play no part4 ,the object becomes part of himself1 and he studies it from the inside instead of from the outside4 ,but with this power ordinary clairvoyance has nothing to do4 ,the development1 either entire or partial1 of any one of these faculties would come under our definition of clairvoyance--the power to see what is hidden from ordinary physical sight4 ,but these faculties may be developed in various ways1 and it will be well to say a few words as to these different lines4 ,we may presume that if it were possible for a man to be isolated during his evolution from all but the gentlest outside influences1 and to unfold from the beginning in perfectly regular and normal fashion1 he would probably develop his senses in regular order also4 ,he would find his physical senses gradually extending their scope until they responded to all the physical vibrations1 of etheric as well as of denser matter2 then in orderly sequence would come sensibility to the coarser part of the astral plane1 and presently the finer part also would be included1 until in due course the faculty of the mental plane dawned in its turn4 ,in real life1 however1 development so regular as this is hardly ever known1 and many a man has occasional flashes of astral consciousness without any awakening of etheric vision at all4 ,and this irregularity of development is one of the principal causes of man's extraordinary liability to error in matters of clairvoyance--a liability from which there is no escape except by a long course of careful training under a qualified teacher4 ,students of ,theosophical literature are well aware that there are such teachers to be found--that even in this materialistic nineteenth century the old saying is still true1 that when the pupil is ready1 the ,master is ready also1 and that in the hall of learning1 when he is capable of entering there1 the disciple will always find his ,master4 ,they are well aware also that only under such guidance can a man develop his latent powers in safety and with certainty1 since they know how fatally easy it is for the untrained clairvoyant to deceive himself as to the meaning and value of what he sees1 or even absolutely to distort his vision completely in bringing it down into his physical consciousness4 ,it does not follow that even the pupil who is receiving regular instruction in the use of occult powers will find them unfolding themselves exactly in the regular order which was suggested above as probably ideal4 ,his previous progress may not have been such as to make this for him the easiest or most desirable road2 but at any rate he is in the hands of one who is perfectly competent to be his guide in spiritual development1 and he rests in perfect contentment that the way along which he is taken will be that which is the best way for him4 ,another great advantage which he gains is that whatever faculties he may acquire are definitely under his command and can be used fully and constantly when he needs them for his ,theosophical work2 whereas in the case of the untrained man such powers often manifest themselves only very partially and spasmodically1 and appear to come and go1 as it were1 at their own sweet will4 ,it may reasonably be objected that if clairvoyant faculty is1 as stated1 a part of the occult development of man1 and so a sign of a certain amount of progress along that line1 it seems strange that it should often be possessed by primitive peoples1 or by the ignorant and uncultured among our own race--persons who are obviously quite undeveloped1 from whatever point of view one regards them4 ,no doubt this does appear remarkable at first sight but the fact is that the sensitiveness of the savage or of the coarse and vulgar ,european ignoramus is not really at all the same thing as the faculty of his properly trained brother1 nor is it arrived at in the same way4 ,an exact and detailed explanation of the difference would lead us into rather recondite technicalities1 but perhaps the general idea of the distinction between the two may be caught from an example taken from the very lowest plane of clairvoyance1 in close contact with the denser physical4 ,the etheric double in man is in exceedingly close relation to his nervous system1 and any kind of action upon one of them speedily reacts on the other4 ,now in the sporadic appearance of etheric sight in the savage1 whether of ,central ,africa or of ,western ,europe1 it has been observed that the corresponding nervous disturbance is almost entirely in the sympathetic system1 and that the whole affair is practically beyond the man's control--is in fact a sort of massive sensation vaguely belonging to the whole etheric body1 rather than an exact and definite sense-perception communicated through a specialized organ4 ,as in later races and amid higher development the strength of the man is more and more thrown into the evolution of the mental faculties1 this vague sensitiveness usually disappears2 but still later1 when the spiritual man begins to unfold1 he regains his clairvoyant power4 ,this time1 however1 the faculty is a precise and exact one1 under the control of the man's will1 and exercised through a definite sense-organ2 and it is noteworthy that any nervous action set up in sympathy with it is now almost exclusively in the cerebro-spinal system4 ,on this subject ,mrs4 ,besant writes3--,the lower forms of psychism are more frequent in animals and in very unintelligent human beings than in men and women in whom the intellectual powers are well developed4 ,they appear to be connected with the sympathetic system1 not with the cerebro-spinal4 ,the large nucleated ganglionic cells in this system contain a very large proportion of etheric matter1 and are hence more easily affected by the coarser astral vibrations than are the cells in which the proportion is less4 ,as the cerebro-spinal system develops1 and the brain becomes more highly evolved1 the sympathetic system subsides into a subordinate position1 and the sensitiveness to psychic vibrations is dominated by the stronger and more active vibrations of the higher nervous system4 ,it is true that at a later stage of evolution psychic sensitiveness reappears1 but it is then developed in connection with the cerebro-spinal centres1 and is brought under the control of the will4 ,but the hysterical and ill-regulated psychism of which we see so many lamentable examples is due to the small development of the brain and the dominance of the sympathetic system4 ,occasional flashes of clairvoyance do1 however1 sometimes come to the highly cultured and spiritual-minded man1 even though he may never have heard of the possibility of training such a faculty4 ,in his case such glimpses usually signify that he is approaching that stage in his evolution when these powers will naturally begin to manifest themselves1 and their appearance should serve as an additional stimulus to him to strive to maintain that high standard of moral purity and mental balance without which clairvoyance is a curse and not a blessing to its possessor4 ,between those who are entirely unimpressible and those who are in full possession of clairvoyant power there are many intermediate stages4 ,one to which it will be worth while to give a passing glance is the stage in which a man1 though he has no clairvoyant faculty in ordinary life1 yet exhibits it more or less fully under the influence of mesmerism4 ,this is a case in which the psychic nature is already sensitive1 but the consciousness is not yet capable of functioning in it amidst the manifold distractions of physical life4 ,it needs to be set free by the temporary suspension of the outer senses in the mesmeric trance before it can use the diviner faculties which are but just beginning to dawn within it4 ,but of course even in the mesmeric trance there are innumerable degrees of lucidity1 from the ordinary patient who is blankly unintelligent to the man whose power of sight is fully under the control of the operator1 and can be directed whithersoever he wills1 or to the more advanced stage in which1 when the consciousness is once set free1 it escapes altogether from the grasp of the magnetizer1 and soars into fields of exalted vision where it is entirely beyond his reach4 ,another step along the same path is that upon which such perfect suppression of the physical as that which occurs in the hypnotic trance is not necessary1 but the power of supernormal sight1 though still out of reach during waking life1 becomes available when the body is held in the bonds of ordinary sleep4 ,at this stage of development stood many of the prophets and seers of whom we read1 who were warned of ,god in a dream1 or communed with beings far higher than themselves in the silent watches of the night4 ,most cultured people of the higher races of the world have this development to some extent3 that is to say1 the senses of their astral bodies are in full working order1 and perfectly capable of receiving impressions from objects and entities of their own plane4 ,but to make that fact of any use to them down here in the physical body1 two changes are usually necessary2 first1 that the ,ego shall be awakened to the realities of the astral plane1 and induced to emerge from the chrysalis formed by his own waking thoughts1 and look round him to observe and to learn2 and secondly1 that the consciousness shall be so far retained during the return of the ,ego into his physical body as to enable him to impress upon his physical brain the recollection of what he has seen or learnt4 ,if the first of these changes has taken place1 the second is of little importance1 since the ,ego1 the true man1 will be able to profit by the information to be obtained upon that plane1 even though he may not have the satisfaction of bringing through any remembrance of it into his waking life down here4 ,students often ask how this clairvoyant faculty will first be manifested in themselves--how they may know when they have reached the stage at which its first faint foreshadowings are beginning to be visible4 ,cases differ so widely that it is impossible to give to this question any answer that will be universally applicable4 ,some people begin by a plunge1 as it were1 and under some unusual stimulus become able just for once to see some striking vision2 and very often in such a case1 because the experience does not repeat itself1 the seer comes in time to believe that on that occasion he must have been the victim of hallucination4 ,others begin by becoming intermittently conscious of the brilliant colours and vibrations of the human aura2 yet others find themselves with increasing frequency seeing and hearing something to which those around them are blind and deaf2 others1 again1 see faces1 landscapes1 or coloured clouds floating before their eyes in the dark before they sink to rest2 while perhaps the commonest experience of all is that of those who begin to recollect with greater and greater clearness what they have seen and heard on the other planes during sleep4 ,having now to some extent cleared our ground1 we may proceed to consider the various phenomena of clairvoyance4 ,they differ so widely both in character and in degree that it is not very easy to decide how they can most satisfactorily be classified4 ,we might1 for example1 arrange them according to the kind of sight employed--whether it were mental1 astral1 or merely etheric4 ,we might divide them according to the capacity of the clairvoyant1 taking into consideration whether he was trained or untrained2 whether his vision was regular and under his command1 or spasmodic and independent of his volition2 whether he could exercise it only when under mesmeric influence1 or whether that assistance was unnecessary for him2 whether he was able to use his faculty when awake in the physical body1 or whether it was available only when he was temporarily away from that body in sleep or trance4 ,all these distinctions are of importance1 and we shall have to take them all into consideration as we go on1 but perhaps on the whole the most useful classification will be one something on the lines of that adopted by ,mr4 ,sinnett in his ,rationale of ,mesmerism--a book1 by the way1 which all students of clairvoyance ought to read4 ,in dealing with the phenomena1 then1 we will arrange them rather according to the capacity of the sight employed than to the plane upon which it is exercised1 so that we may group instances of clairvoyance under some such headings as these3 #a4 ,simple clairvoyance--that is to say1 a mere opening of sight1 enabling its possessor to see whatever astral or etheric entities happen to be present around him1 but not including the power of observing either distant places or scenes belonging to any other time than the present4 #b4 ,clairvoyance in space--the capacity to see scenes or events removed from the seer in space1 and either too far distant for ordinary observation or concealed by intermediate objects4 #c4 ,clairvoyance in time--that is to say1 the capacity to see objects or events which are removed from the seer in time1 or1 in other words1 the power of looking into the past or the future4 ,,chapter ,,ii4 ,,simple ,,clairvoyance3 ,,full4 ,we have defined this as a mere opening of etheric or astral sight1 which enables the possessor to see whatever may be present around him on corresponding levels1 but is not usually accompanied by the power of seeing anything at a great distance or of reading either the past or the future4 ,it is hardly possible altogether to exclude these latter faculties1 for astral sight necessarily has considerably greater extension than physical1 and fragmentary pictures of both past and future are often casually visible even to clairvoyants who do not know how to seek specially for them2 but there is nevertheless a very real distinction between such incidental glimpses and the definite power of projection of the sight either in space or time4 ,we find among sensitive people all degrees of this kind of clairvoyance1 from that of the man who gets a vague impression which hardly deserves the name of sight at all1 up to the full possession of etheric and astral vision respectively4 ,perhaps the simplest method will be for us to begin by describing what would be visible in the case of this fuller development of the power1 as the cases of its partial possession will then be seen to fall naturally into their places4 ,let us take the etheric vision first4 ,this consists simply1 as has already been said1 in susceptibility to a far larger series of physical vibrations than ordinary1 but nevertheless its possession brings into view a good deal to which the majority of the human race still remains blind4 ,let us consider what changes its acquisition produces in the aspect of familiar objects1 animate and inanimate1 and then see to what entirely new factors it introduces us4 ,but it must be remembered that what ,i am about to describe is the result of the full and perfectly-controlled possession of the faculty only1 and that most of the instances met with in real life will be likely to fall far short of it in one direction or another4 ,the most striking change produced in the appearance of inanimate objects by the acquisition of this faculty is that most of them become almost transparent1 owing to the difference in wave-length of some of the vibrations to which the man has now become susceptible4 ,he finds himself capable of performing with the utmost ease the proverbial feat of seeing through a brick wall1 for to his newly-acquired vision the brick wall seems to have a consistency no greater than that of a light mist4 ,he therefore sees what is going on in an adjoining room almost as though no intervening wall existed2 he can describe with accuracy the contents of a locked box1 or read a sealed letter2 with a little practice he can find a given passage in a closed book4 ,this last feat1 though perfectly easy to astral vision1 presents considerable difficulty to one using etheric sight1 because of the fact that each page has to be looked at through all those which happen to be superimposed upon it4 ,it is often asked whether under these circumstances a man sees always with this abnormal sight1 or only when he wishes to do so4 ,the answer is that if the faculty is perfectly developed it will be entirely under his control1 and he can use that or his more ordinary vision at will4 ,he changes from one to the other as readily and naturally as we now change the focus of our eyes when we look up from our book to follow the motions of some object a mile away4 ,it is1 as it were1 a focussing of consciousness on the one or the other aspect of what is seen2 and though the man would have quite clearly in his view the aspect upon which his attention was for the moment fixed1 he would always be vaguely conscious of the other aspect too1 just as when we focus our sight upon any object held in our hands we yet vaguely see the opposite wall of the room as a background4 ,another curious change1 which comes from the possession of this sight1 is that the solid ground upon which the man walks becomes to a certain extent transparent to him1 so that he is able to see down into it to a considerable depth1 much as we can now see into fairly clear water4 ,this enables him to watch a creature burrowing underground1 to distinguish a vein of coal or of metal if not too far below the surface1 and so on4 ,the limit of etheric sight when looking through solid matter appears to be analogous to that imposed upon us when looking through water or mist4 ,we cannot see beyond a certain distance1 because the medium through which we are looking is not perfectly transparent4 ,the appearance of animate objects is also considerably altered for the man who has increased his visual powers to this extent4 ,the bodies of men and animals are for him in the main transparent1 so that he can watch the action of the various internal organs1 and to some extent diagnose some of their diseases4 ,the extended sight also enables him to perceive1 more or less clearly1 various classes of creatures1 elemental and otherwise1 whose bodies are not capable of reflecting any of the rays within the limit of the spectrum as ordinarily seen4 ,among the entities so seen will be some of the lower orders of nature-spirits--those whose bodies are composed of the denser etheric matter4 ,to this class belong nearly all the fairies1 gnomes1 and brownies1 about whom there are still so many stories remaining among ,scotch and ,irish mountains and in remote country places all over the world4 ,the vast kingdom of nature-spirits is in the main an astral kingdom1 but still there is a large section of it which appertains to the etheric part of the physical plane1 and this section1 of course1 is much more likely to come within the ken of ordinary people than the others4 ,indeed1 in reading the common fairy stories one frequently comes across distinct indications that it is with this class that we are dealing4 ,any student of fairy lore will remember how often mention is made of some mysterious ointment or drug1 which when applied to a man's eyes enables him to see the members of the fairy commonwealth whenever he happens to meet them4 ,the story of such an application and its results occurs so constantly and comes from so many different parts of the world that there must certainly be some truth behind it1 as there always is behind really universal popular tradition4 ,now no such anointing of the eyes alone could by any possibility open a man's astral vision1 though certain ointments rubbed over the whole body will very greatly assist the astral body to leave the physical in full consciousness--a fact the knowledge of which seems to have survived even to medival times1 as will be seen from the evidence given at some of the trials for witchcraft4 ,but the application to the physical eye might very easily so stimulate its sensitiveness as to make it susceptible to some of the etheric vibrations4 ,the story frequently goes on to relate how when the human being who has used this mystical ointment betrays his extended vision in some way to a fairy1 the latter strikes or stabs him in the eye1 thus depriving him not only of the etheric sight1 but of that of the denser physical plane as well4 7,see ,the ,science of ,fairy ,tales1 by ,e4 ,s4 ,hartland1 in the ,contemporary ,science series--or indeed almost any extensive collection of fairy stories47 ,if the sight acquired had been astral1 such a proceeding would have been entirely unavailing1 for no injury to the physical apparatus would affect an astral faculty2 but if the vision produced by the ointment were etheric1 the destruction of the physical eye would in most cases at once extinguish it1 since that is the mechanism by means of which it works4 ,anyone possessing this sight of which we are speaking would also be able to perceive the etheric double of man2 but since this is so nearly identical in size with the physical1 it would hardly be likely to attract his attention unless it were partially projected in trance or under the influence of ansthetics4 ,after death1 when it withdraws entirely from the dense body1 it would be clearly visible to him1 and he would frequently see it hovering over newly made graves as he passed through a churchyard or cemetery4 ,if he were to attend a spiritualistic sance he would see the etheric matter oozing out from the side of the medium1 and could observe the various ways in which the communicating entities make use of it4 ,another fact which could hardly fail soon to thrust itself upon his notice would be the extension of his perception of colour4 ,he would find himself able to see several entirely new colours1 not in the least resembling any of those included in the spectrum as we at present know it1 and therefore of course quite indescribable in any terms at our command4 ,and not only would he see new objects that were wholly of these new colours1 but he would also discover that modifications had been introduced into the colour of many objects with which he was quite familiar1 according to whether they had or had not some tinge of these new hues intermingled with the old4 ,so that two surfaces of colour which to ordinary eyes appeared to match perfectly would often present distinctly different shades to his keener sight4 ,we have now touched upon some of the principal changes which would be introduced into a man's world when he gained etheric sight2 and it must always be remembered that in most cases a corresponding change would at the same time be brought about in his other senses also1 so that he would be capable of hearing1 and perhaps even of feeling1 more than most of those around him4 ,now supposing that in addition to this he obtained the sight of the astral plane1 what further changes would be observable8 ,well1 the changes would be many and great2 in fact1 a whole new world would open before his eyes4 ,let us consider its wonders briefly in the same order as before1 and see first what difference there would be in the appearance of inanimate objects4 ,on this point ,i may begin by quoting a recent quaint answer given in ,the ,vhan4 ,there is a distinct difference between etheric sight and astral sight1 and it is the latter which seems to correspond to the fourth dimension4 ,the easiest way to understand the difference is to take an example4 ,if you looked at a man with both the sights in turn1 you would see the buttons at the back of his coat in both cases2 only if you used etheric sight you would see them through him1 and would see the shank-side as nearest to you1 but if you looked astrally1 you would see it not only like that1 but just as if you were standing behind the man as well4 ,or if you were looking etherically at a wooden cube with writing on all its sides1 it would be as though the cube were glass1 so that you could see through it1 and you would see the writing on the opposite side all backwards1 while that on the right and left sides would not be clear to you at all unless you moved1 because you would see it edgewise4 ,but if you looked at it astrally you would see all the sides at once1 and all the right way up1 as though the whole cube had been flattened out before you1 and you would see every particle of the inside as well--not through the others1 but all flattened out4 ,you would be looking at it from another direction1 at right angles to all the directions that we know4 ,if you look at the back of a watch etherically you see all the wheels through it1 and the face through them1 but backwards2 if you look at it astrally1 you see the face right way up and all the wheels lying separately1 but nothing on the top of anything else4 ,here we have at once the keynote1 the principal factor of the change2 the man is looking at everything from an absolutely new point of view1 entirely outside of anything that he has ever imagined before4 ,he has no longer the slightest difficulty in reading any page in a closed book1 because he is not now looking at it through all the other pages before it or behind it1 but is looking straight down upon it as though it were the only page to be seen4 ,the depth at which a vein of metal or of coal may lie is no longer a barrier to his sight of it1 because he is not now looking through the intervening depth of earth at all4 ,the thickness of a wall1 or the number of walls intervening between the observer and the object1 would make a great deal of difference to the clearness of the etheric sight2 they would make no difference whatever to the astral sight1 because on the astral plane they would not intervene between the observer and the object4 ,of course that sounds paradoxical and impossible1 and it is quite inexplicable to a mind not specially trained to grasp the idea2 yet it is none the less absolutely true4 ,this carries us straight into the middle of the much-vexed question of the fourth dimension--a question of the deepest interest1 though one that we cannot pretend to discuss in the space at our disposal4 ,those who wish to study it as it deserves are recommended to begin with ,mr4 ,c4 ,h4 ,hinton's ,scientific ,romances or ,dr4 ,a4 ,t4 ,schofield's ,another ,world1 and then follow on with the former author's larger work1 ,a ,new ,era of ,thought4 ,mr4 ,hinton not only claims to be able himself to grasp mentally some of the simpler fourth-dimensional figures1 but also states that anyone who will take the trouble to follow out his directions may with perseverance acquire that mental grasp likewise4 ,i am not certain that the power to do this is within the reach of everyone1 as he thinks1 for it appears to me to require considerable mathematical ability2 but ,i can at any rate bear witness that the tesseract or fourth-dimensional cube which he describes is a reality1 for it is quite a familiar figure upon the astral plane4 ,he has now perfected a new method of representing the several dimensions by colours instead of by arbitrary written symbols4 ,he states that this will very much simplify the study1 as the reader will be able to distinguish instantly by sight any part or feature of the tesseract4 ,a full description of this new method1 with plates1 is said to be ready for the press1 and is expected to appear within a year1 so that intending students of this fascinating subject might do well to await its publication4 ,i know that ,madame ,blavatsky1 in alluding to the theory of the fourth dimension1 has expressed an opinion that it is only a clumsy way of stating the idea of the entire permeability of matter1 and that ,mr4 ,w4 ,t4 ,stead has followed along the same lines1 presenting the conception to his readers under the name of throughth4 ,careful1 oft-repeated and detailed investigation does1 however1 seem to show quite conclusively that this explanation does not cover all the facts4 ,it is a perfect description of etheric vision1 but the further and quite different idea of the fourth dimension as expounded by ,mr4 ,hinton is the only one which gives any kind of explanation down here of the constantly-observed facts of astral vision4 ,i would therefore venture deferentially to suggest that when ,madame ,blavatsky wrote as she did1 she had in mind etheric vision and not astral1 and that the extreme applicability of the phrase to this other and higher faculty1 of which she was not at the moment thinking1 did not occur to her4 ,the possession of this extraordinary and scarcely expressible power1 then1 must always be borne in mind through all that follows4 ,it lays every point in the interior of every solid body absolutely open to the gaze of the seer1 just as every point in the interior of a circle lies open to the gaze of a man looking down upon it4 ,but even this is by no means all that it gives to its possessor4 ,he sees not only the inside as well as the outside of every object1 but also its astral counterpart4 ,every atom and molecule of physical matter has its corresponding astral atoms and molecules1 and the mass which is built up out of these is clearly visible to our clairvoyant4 ,usually the astral of any object projects somewhat beyond the physical part of it1 and thus metals1 stones and other things are seen surrounded by an astral aura4 ,it will be seen at once that even in the study of inorganic matter a man gains immensely by the acquisition of this vision4 ,not only does he see the astral part of the object at which he looks1 which before was wholly hidden from him2 not only does he see much more of its physical constitution than he did before1 but even what was visible to him before is now seen much more clearly and truly4 ,a moment's consideration will show that his new vision approximates much more closely to true perception than does physical sight4 ,for example1 if he looks astrally at a glass cube1 its sides will all appear equal1 as we know they really are1 whereas on the physical plane he sees the further side in perspective--that is1 it appears smaller than the nearer side1 which is1 of course1 a mere allusion due to his physical limitations4 ,when we come to consider the additional facilities which it offers in the observation of animate objects we see still more clearly the advantages of the astral vision4 ,it exhibits to the clairvoyant the aura of plants and animals1 and thus in the case of the latter their desires and emotions1 and whatever thoughts they may have1 are all plainly shown before his eyes4 ,but it is in dealing with human beings that he will most appreciate the value of this faculty1 for he will often be able to help them far more effectually when he guides himself by the information which it gives him4 ,he will be able to see the aura as far up as the astral body1 and though that leaves all the higher part of a man still hidden from his gaze1 he will nevertheless find it possible by careful observation to learn a good deal about the higher part from what is within his reach4 ,his capacity of examining the etheric double will give him considerable advantage in locating and classifying any defects or diseases of the nervous system1 while from the appearance of the astral body he will be at once aware of all the emotions1 passions1 desires and tendencies of the man before him1 and even of very many of his thoughts also4 ,as he looks at a person he will see him surrounded by the luminous mist of the astral aura1 flashing with all sorts of brilliant colours1 and constantly changing in hue and brilliancy with every variation of the person's thoughts and feelings4 ,he will see this aura flooded with the beautiful rose-colour of pure affection1 the rich blue of devotional feeling1 the hard1 dull brown of selfishness1 the deep scarlet of anger1 the horrible lurid red of sensuality1 the livid grey of fear1 the black clouds of hatred and malice1 or any of the other hundredfold indications so easily to be read in it by a practised eye2 and thus it will be impossible for any persons to conceal from him the real state of their feelings on any subject4 ,these varied indications of the aura are of themselves a study of very deep interest1 but ,i have no space to deal with them in detail here4 ,a much fuller account of them1 together with a large number of coloured illustrations1 will be found in my work on the subject ,man ,visible and ,invisible4 ,not only does the astral aura show him the temporary result of the emotion passing through it at the moment1 but it also gives him1 by the arrangement and proportion of its colours when in a condition of comparative rest1 a clue to the general disposition and character of its owner4 ,for the astral body is the expression of as much of the man as can be manifested on that plane1 so that from what is seen in it much more which belongs to higher planes may be inferred with considerable certainty4 ,in this judgment of character our clairvoyant will be much helped by so much of the person's thought as expresses itself on the astral plane1 and consequently comes within his purview4 ,the true home of thought is on the mental plane1 and all thought first manifests itself there as a vibration of the mind-body4 ,but if it be in any way a selfish thought1 or if it be connected in any way with an emotion or a desire1 it immediately descends into the astral plane1 and takes to itself a visible form of astral matter4 ,in the case of the majority of men almost all thought would fall under one or other of these heads1 so that practically the whole of their personality would lie clearly before our friend's astral vision1 since their astral bodies and the thought-forms constantly radiating from them would be to him as an open book in which their characteristics were writ so largely that he who ran might read4 ,anyone wishing to gain some idea as to how the thought-forms present themselves to clairvoyant vision may satisfy themselves to some extent by examining the illustrations accompanying ,mrs4 ,besant's valuable article on the subject in ,lucifer for ,september #ahif4 ,we have seen something of the alteration in the appearance of both animate and inanimate objects when viewed by one possessed of full clairvoyant sight as far as the astral plane is concerned2 let us now consider what entirely new objects he will see4 ,he will be conscious of a far greater fulness in nature in many directions1 but chiefly his attention will be attracted by the living denizens of this new world4 ,no detailed account of them can be attempted within the space at our disposal2 for that the reader is referred to ,no4 ,v4 of the ,theosophical ,manuals4 ,here we can do no more than barely enumerate a few classes only of the vast hosts of astral inhabitants4 ,he will be impressed by the protean forms of the ceaseless tide of elemental essence1 ever swirling around him1 menacing often1 yet always retiring before a determined effort of the will2 he will marvel at the enormous army of entities temporarily called out of this ocean into separate existence by the thoughts and wishes of man1 whether good or evil4 ,he will watch the manifold tribes of the nature-spirits at their work or at their play2 he will sometimes be able to study with ever-increasing delight the magnificent evolution of some of the lower orders of the glorious kingdom of the devas1 which corresponds approximately to the angelic host of ,christian terminology4 ,but perhaps of even keener interest to him than any of these will be the human denizens of the astral world1 and he will find them divisible into two great classes--those whom we call the living1 and those others1 most of them infinitely more alive1 whom we so foolishly misname the dead4 ,among the former he will find here and there one wide awake and fully conscious1 perhaps sent to bring him some message1 or examining him keenly to see what progress he is making2 while the majority of his neighbours1 when away from their physical bodies during sleep1 will drift idly by1 so wrapped up in their own cogitations as to be practically unconscious of what is going on around them4 ,among the great host of the recently dead he will find all degrees of consciousness and intelligence1 and all shades of character--for death1 which seems to our limited vision so absolute a change1 in reality alters nothing of the man himself4 ,on the day after his death he is precisely the same man as he was the day before it1 with the same disposition1 the same qualities1 the same virtues and vices1 save only that he has cast aside his physical body2 but the loss of that no more makes him in any way a different man than would the removal of an overcoat4 ,so among the dead our student will find men intelligent and stupid1 kind-hearted and morose1 serious and frivolous1 spiritually-minded and sensually-minded1 just as among the living4 ,since he can not only see the dead1 but speak with them1 he can often be of very great use to them1 and give them information and guidance which is of the utmost value to them4 ,many of them are in a condition of great surprise and perplexity1 and sometimes even of acute distress1 because they find the facts of the next world so unlike the childish legends which are all that popular religion in the ,west has to offer with reference to this transcendently important subject2 and therefore a man who understands this new world and can explain matters is distinctly a friend in need4 ,in many other ways a man who fully possesses this faculty may be of use to the living as well as to the dead2 but of this side of the subject ,i have already written in my little book on ,invisible ,helpers4 ,in addition to astral entities he will see astral corpses--shades and shells in all stages of decay2 but these need only be just mentioned here1 as the reader desiring a further account of them will find it in our third and fifth manuals4 ,another wonderful result which the full enjoyment of astral clairvoyance brings to a man is that he has no longer any break in consciousness4 ,when he lies down at night he leaves his physical body to the rest which it requires1 while he goes about his business in the far more comfortable astral vehicle4 ,in the morning he returns to and re-enters his physical body1 but without any loss of consciousness or memory between the two states1 and thus he is able to live1 as it were1 a double life which yet is one1 and to be usefully employed during the whole of it1 instead of losing one-third of his existence in blank unconsciousness4 ,another strange power of which he may find himself in possession 7though its full control belongs rather to the still higher devachanic faculty71 is that of magnifying at will the minutest physical or astral particle to any desired size1 as though by a microscope--though no microscope ever made or ever likely to be made possesses even a thousandth part of this psychic magnifying power4 ,by its means the hypothetical molecule and atom postulated by science become visible and living realities to the occult student1 and on this closer examination he finds them to be much more complex in their structure than the scientific man has yet realised them to be4 ,it also enables him to follow with the closest attention and the most lively interest all kinds of electrical1 magnetic1 and other etheric action2 and when some of the specialists in these branches of science are able to develop the power to see those things whereof they write so facilely1 some very wonderful and beautiful revelations may be expected4 ,this is one of the siddhis or powers described in ,oriental books as accruing to the man who devotes himself to spiritual development1 though the name under which it is there mentioned might not be immediately recognizable4 ,it is referred to as the power of making oneself large or small at will1 and the reason of a description which appears so oddly to reverse the fact is that in reality the method by which this feat is performed is precisely that indicated in these ancient books4 ,it is by the use of temporary visual machinery of inconceivable minuteness that the world of the infinitely little is so clearly seen2 and in the same way 7or rather in the opposite way7 it is by temporarily enormously increasing the size of the machinery used that it becomes possible to increase the breadth of one's view--in the physical sense as well as1 let us hope1 in the moral--far beyond anything that science has ever dreamt of as possible for man4 ,so that the alteration in size is really in the vehicle of the student's consciousness1 and not in anything outside of himself2 and the old ,oriental book has1 after all1 put the case more accurately than we4 ,psychometry and second-sight in excelsis would also be among the faculties which our friend would find at his command2 but those will be more fitly dealt with under a later heading1 since in almost all their manifestations they involve clairvoyance either in space or in time4 ,i have now indicated1 though only in the roughest outlines1 what a trained student1 possessed of full astral vision1 would see in the immensely wider world to which that vision introduced him2 but ,i have said nothing of the stupendous change in his mental attitude which comes from the experiential certainty as to the existence of the soul1 its survival after death1 the action of the law of karma1 and other points of equally paramount importance4 ,the difference between even the profoundest intellectual conviction and the precise knowledge gained by direct personal experience must be felt in order to be appreciated4 ,,chapter ,,iii4 ,,simple ,,clairvoyance3 ,,partial4 ,the experiences of the untrained clairvoyant--and be it remembered that that class includes all ,european clairvoyants except a very few--will1 however1 usually fall very far short of what ,i have attempted to indicate2 they will fall short in many different ways--in degree1 in variety1 or in permanence1 and above all in precision4 ,sometimes1 for example1 a man's clairvoyance will be permanent1 but very partial1 extending only perhaps to one or two classes of the phenomena observable2 he will find himself endowed with some isolated fragment of higher vision1 without apparently possessing other powers of sight which ought normally to accompany that fragment1 or even to precede it4 ,for example1 one of my dearest friends has all his life had the power to see the atomic ether and atomic astral matter1 and to recognize their structure1 alike in darkness or in light1 as inter-penetrating everything else2 yet he has only rarely seen entities whose bodies are composed of the much more obvious lower ethers or denser astral matter1 and at any rate is certainly not permanently able to see them4 ,he simply finds himself in possession of this special faculty1 without any apparent reason to account for it1 or any recognizable relation to anything else3 and beyond proving to him the existence of these atomic planes and demonstrating their arrangement1 it is difficult to see of what particular use it is to him at present4 ,still1 there the thing is1 and it is an earnest of greater things to come--of further powers still awaiting development4 ,there are many similar cases--similar1 ,i mean1 not in the possession of that particular form of sight 7which is unique in my experience71 but in showing the development of some one small part of the full and clear vision of the astral and etheric planes4 ,in nine cases out of ten1 however1 such partial clairvoyance will at the same time lack precision also--that is to say1 there will be a good deal of vague impression and inference about it1 instead of the clear-cut definition and certainty of the trained man4 ,examples of this type are constantly to be found1 especially among those who advertise themselves as test and business clairvoyants4 ,then1 again1 there are those who are only temporarily clairvoyant under certain special conditions4 ,among these there are various subdivisions1 some being able to reproduce the state of clairvoyance at will by again setting up the same conditions1 while with others it comes sporadically1 without any observable reference to their surroundings1 and with yet others the power shows itself only once or twice in the whole course of their lives4 ,to the first of these subdivisions belong those who are clairvoyant only when in the mesmeric trance--who when not so entranced are incapable of seeing or hearing anything abnormal4 ,these may sometimes reach great heights of knowledge and be exceedingly precise in their indications1 but when that is so they are usually undergoing a course of regular training1 though for some reason unable as yet to set themselves free from the leaden weight of earthly life without assistance4 ,in the same class we may put those--chiefly ,orientals--who gain some temporary sight only under the influence of certain drugs1 or by means of the performance of certain ceremonies4 ,the ceremonialist sometimes hypnotizes himself by his repetitions1 and in that condition becomes to some extent clairvoyant2 more often he simply reduces himself to a passive condition in which some other entity can obsess him and speak through him4 ,sometimes1 again1 his ceremonies are not intended to affect himself at all1 but to invoke some astral entity who will give him the required information2 but of course that is a case of magic1 and not of clairvoyance4 ,both the drugs and the ceremonies are methods emphatically to be avoided by any one who wishes to approach clairvoyance from the higher side1 and use it for his own progress and for the helping of others4 ,the ,central ,african medicine-man or witch-doctor and some of the ,tartar ,shamans are good examples of the type4 ,those to whom a certain amount of clairvoyant power has come occasionally only1 and without any reference to their own wish1 have often been hysterical or highly nervous persons1 with whom the faculty was to a large extent one of the symptoms of a disease4 ,its appearance showed that the physical vehicle was weakened to such a degree that it no longer presented any obstacle in the way of a certain modicum of etheric or astral vision4 ,an extreme example of this class is the man who drinks himself into delirium tremens1 and in the condition of absolute physical ruin and impure psychic excitation brought about by the ravages of that fell disease1 is able to see for the time some of the loathsome elemental and other entities which he has drawn round himself by his long course of degraded and bestial indulgence4 ,there are1 however1 other cases where the power of sight has appeared and disappeared without apparent reference to the state of the physical health2 but it seems probable that even in those1 if they could have been observed closely enough1 some alteration in the condition of the etheric double would have been noticed4 ,those who have only one instance of clairvoyance to report in the whole of their lives are a difficult band to classify at all exhaustively1 because of the great variety of the contributory circumstances4 ,there are many among them to whom the experience has come at some supreme moment of their lives1 when it is comprehensible that there might have been a temporary exaltation of faculty which would be sufficient to account for it4 ,in the case of another subdivision of them the solitary case has been the seeing of an apparition1 most commonly of some friend or relative at the point of death4 ,two possibilities are then offered for our choice1 and in each of them the strong wish of the dying man is the impelling force4 ,that force may have enabled him to materialize himself for a moment1 in which case of course no clairvoyance was needed or more probably it may have acted mesmerically upon the percipient1 and momentarily dulled his physical and stimulated his higher sensitiveness4 ,in either case the vision is the product of the emergency1 and is not repeated simply because the necessary conditions are not repeated4 ,there remains1 however1 an irresolvable residuum of cases in which a solitary instance occurs of the exercise of undoubted clairvoyance1 while yet the occasion seems to us wholly trivial and unimportant4 ,about these we can only frame hypotheses2 the governing conditions are evidently not on the physical plane1 and a separate investigation of each case would be necessary before we could speak with any certainty as to its causes4 ,in some such it has appeared that an astral entity was endeavouring to make some communication1 and was able to impress only some unimportant detail on its subject--all the useful or significant part of what it had to say failing to get through into the subject's consciousness4 ,in the investigation of the phenomena of clairvoyance all these varied types and many others will be encountered1 and a certain number of cases of mere hallucination will be almost sure to appear also1 and will have to be carefully weeded out from the list of examples4 ,the student of such a subject needs an inexhaustible fund of patience and steady perseverance1 but if he goes on long enough he will begin dimly to discern order behind the chaos1 and will gradually get some idea of the great laws under which the whole evolution is working4 ,it will help him greatly in his efforts if he will adopt the order which we have just followed--that is1 if he will first take the trouble to familiarize himself as thoroughly as may be with the actual facts concerning the planes with which ordinary clairvoyance deals4 ,if he will learn what there really is to be seen with astral and etheric sight1 and what their respective limitations are1 he will then have1 as it were1 a standard by which to measure the cases which he observes4 ,since all instances of partial sight must of necessity fit into some niche in this whole1 if he has the outline of the entire scheme in his head he will find it comparatively easy with a little practice to classify the instances with which he is called upon to deal4 ,we have said nothing as yet as to the still more wonderful possibilities of clairvoyance upon the mental plane1 nor indeed is it necessary that much should be said1 as it is exceedingly improbable that the investigator will ever meet with any examples of it except among pupils properly trained in some of the very highest schools of occultism4 ,for them it opens up yet another new world1 vaster far than all those beneath it--a world in which all that we can imagine of utmost glory and splendour is the commonplace of existence4 ,some account of its marvellous faculty1 its eneffable bliss1 its magnificent opportunities for learning and for work1 is given in the sixth of our ,theosophical manuals1 and to that the student may be referred4 ,all that it has to give--all of it at least that he can assimilate--is within the reach of the trained pupil1 but for the untrained clairvoyant to touch it is hardly more than a bare possibility4 ,it has been done in mesmeric trance1 but the occurrence is of exceeding rarity1 for it needs almost superhuman qualifications in the way of lofty spiritual aspiration and absolute purity of thought and intention upon the part both of the subject and the operator4 ,to a type of clairvoyance such as this1 and still more fully to that which belongs to the plane next above it1 the name of spiritual sight may reasonably be applied2 and since the celestial world to which it opens our eyes lies all round us here and now1 it is fit that our passing reference to it should be made under the heading of simple clairvoyance1 though it may be necessary to allude to it again when dealing with clairvoyance in space1 to which we will now pass on4 ,,chapter ,,iv4 ,,clairvoyance ,,in ,,space3 ,,intentional4 ,we have defined this as the capacity to see events or scenes removed from the seer in space and too far distant for ordinary observation4 ,the instances of this are so numerous and so various that we shall find it desirable to attempt a somewhat more detailed classification of them4 ,it does not much matter what particular arrangement we adopt1 so long as it is comprehensive enough to include all our cases2 perhaps a convenient one will be to group them under the broad divisions of intentional and unintentional clairvoyance in space1 with an intermediate class that might be described as semi-intentional--a curious title1 but ,i will explain it later4 ,as before1 ,i will begin by stating what is possible along this line for the fully-trained seer1 and endeavouring to explain how his faculty works and under what limitations it acts4 ,after that we shall find ourselves in a better position to try to understand the manifold examples of partial and untrained sight4 ,let us then in the first place discuss intentional clairvoyance4 ,it will be obvious from what has previously been said as to the power of astral vision that any one possessing it in its fulness will be able to see by its means practically anything in this world that he wishes to see4 ,the most secret places are open to his gaze1 and intervening obstacles have no existence for him1 because of the change in his point of view2 so that if we grant him the power of moving about in the astral body he can without difficulty go anywhere and see anything within the limits of the planet4 ,indeed this is to a large extent possible to him even without the necessity of moving the astral body at all1 as we shall presently see4 ,let us consider a little more closely the methods by which this super-physical sight may be used to observe events taking place at a distance4 ,when1 for example1 a man here in ,england sees in minutest detail something which is happening at the same moment in ,india or ,america1 how is it done8 ,a very ingenious hypothesis has been offered to account for the phenomenon4 ,it has been suggested that every object is perpetually throwing off radiations in all directions1 similar in some respects to1 though infinitely finer than1 rays of light1 and that clairvoyance is nothing but the power to see by means of these finer radiations4 ,distance would in that case be no bar to the sight1 all intervening objects would be penetrable by these rays1 and they would be able to cross one another to infinity in all directions without entanglement1 precisely as the vibrations of ordinary light do4 ,now though this is not exactly the way in which clairvoyance works1 the theory is nevertheless quite true in most of its premises4 ,every object undoubtedly is throwing off radiations in all directions1 and it is precisely in this way1 though on a higher plane1 that the kshic records seem to be formed4 ,of them it will be necessary to say something under our next heading1 so we will do no more than mention them for the moment4 ,the phenomena of psychometry are also dependent upon these radiations1 as will presently be explained4 ,there are1 however1 certain practical difficulties in the way of using these etheric vibrations 7for that is1 of course1 what they are7 as the medium by means of which one may see anything taking place at a distance4 ,intervening objects are not entirely transparent1 and as the actors in the scene which the experimenter tried to observe would probably be at least equally transparent1 it is obvious that serious confusion would be quite likely to result4 ,the additional dimension which would come into play if astral radiations were sensed instead of etheric would obviate some of the difficulties1 but would on the other hand introduce some fresh complications of its own2 so that for practical purposes1 in endeavouring to understand clairvoyance1 we may dismiss this hypothesis of radiations from our minds1 and turn to the methods of seeing at a distance which are actually at the disposal of the student4 ,it will be found that there are five1 four of them being really varieties of clairvoyance1 while the fifth does not properly come under that head at all1 but belongs to the domain of magic4 ,let us take this last one first1 and get it out of our way4 #a4 ,by the assistance of a nature-spirit4--,this method does not necessarily involve the possession of any psychic faculty at all on the part of the experimenter2 he need only know how to induce some denizen of the astral world to undertake the investigation for him4 ,this may be done either by invocation or by evocation2 that is to say1 the operator may either persuade his astral coadjutor by prayers and offerings to give him the help he desires1 or he may compel his aid by the determined exercise of a highly-developed will4 ,this method has been largely practised in the ,east 7where the entity employed is usually a nature-spirit7 and in old ,atlantis1 where the lords of the dark face used a highly-specialized and peculiarly venomous variety of artificial elemental for this purpose4 ,information is sometimes obtained in the same sort of way at the spiritualistic sance of modern days1 but in that case the messenger employed is more likely to be a recently-deceased human being functioning more or less freely on the astral plane--though even here also it is sometimes an obliging nature-spirit1 who is amusing himself by posing as somebody's departed relative4 ,in any case1 as ,i have said1 this method is not clairvoyant at all1 but magical2 and it is mentioned here only in order that the reader may not become confused in the endeavour to classify cases of its use under some of the following headings4 #b4 ,by means of an astral current4--,this is a phrase frequently and rather loosely employed in some of our ,theosophical literature to cover a considerable variety of phenomena1 and among others that which ,i wish to explain4 ,what is really done by the student who adopts this method is not so much the setting in motion of a current in astral matter1 as the erection of a kind of temporary telephone through it4 ,it is impossible here to give an exhaustive disquisition on astral physics1 even had ,i the requisite knowledge to write it2 all ,i need say is that it is possible to make in astral matter a definite connecting-line that shall act as a telegraph-wire to convey vibrations by means of which all that is going on at the other end of it may be seen4 ,such a line is established1 be it understood1 not by a direct projection through space of astral matter1 but by such action upon a line 7or rather many lines7 of particles of that matter as will render them capable of forming a conductor for vibrations of the character required4 ,this preliminary action can be set up in two ways--either by the transmission of energy from particle to particle1 until the line is formed1 or by the use of a force from a higher plane which is capable of acting upon the whole line simultaneously4 ,of course this latter method implies far greater development1 since it involves the knowledge of 7and the power to use7 forces of a considerably higher level2 so that the man who could make his line in this way would not1 for his own use1 need a line at all1 since he could see far more easily and completely by means of an altogether higher faculty4 ,even the simpler and purely astral operation is a difficult one to describe1 though quite an easy one to perform4 ,it may be said to partake somewhat of the nature of the magnetization of a bar of steel2 for it consists in what we might call the polarization1 by an effort of the human will1 of a number of parallel lines of astral atoms reaching from the operator to the scene which he wishes to observe4 ,all the atoms thus affected are held for the time with their axes rigidly parallel to one another1 so that they form a kind of temporary tube along which the clairvoyant may look4 ,this method has the disadvantage that the telegraph line is liable to disarrangement or even destruction by any sufficiently strong astral current which happens to cross its path2 but if the original effort of will were fairly definite1 this would be a contingency of only infrequent occurrence4 ,the view of a distant scene obtained by means of this astral current is in many ways not unlike that seen through a telescope4 ,human figures usually appear very small1 like those on a distant stage1 but in spite of their diminutive size they are as clear as though they were close by4 ,sometimes it is possible by this means to hear what is said as well as to see what is done2 but as in the majority of cases this does not happen1 we must consider it rather as the manifestation of an additional power than as a necessary corollary of the faculty of sight4 ,it will be observed that in this case the seer does not usually leave his physical body at all2 there is no sort of projection of his astral vehicle or of any part of himself towards that at which he is looking1 but he simply manufactures for himself a temporary astral telescope4 ,consequently he has1 to a certain extent1 the use of his physical powers even while he is examining the distant scene2 for example1 his voice would usually still be under his control1 so that he could describe what he saw even while he was in the act of making his observations4 ,the consciousness of the man is1 in fact1 distinctly still at this end of the line4 ,this fact1 however1 has its limitations as well as its advantages1 and these again largely resemble the limitations of the man using a telescope on the physical plane4 ,the experimenter1 for example1 has no power to shift this point of view2 his telescope1 so to speak1 has a particular field of view which cannot be enlarged or altered2 he is looking at his scene from a certain direction1 and he cannot suddenly turn it all round and see how it looks from the other side4 ,if he has sufficient psychic energy to spare1 he may drop altogether the telescope that he is using and manufacture an entirely new one for himself which will approach his objective somewhat differently2 but this is not a course at all likely to be adopted in practice4 ,but1 it may be said1 the mere fact that he is using astral sight ought to enable him to see it from all sides at once4 ,so it would if he were using that sight in the normal way upon an object which was fairly near him--within his astral reach1 as it were2 but at a distance of hundreds or thousands of miles the case is very different4 ,astral sight gives us the advantage of an additional dimension1 but there is still such a thing as position in that dimension1 and it is naturally a potent factor in limiting the use of the powers of its plane4 ,our ordinary three-dimensional sight enables us to see at once every point of the interior of a two-dimensional figure1 such as a square1 but in order to do that the square must be within a reasonable distance from our eyes2 the mere additional dimension will avail a man in ,london but little in his endeavour to examine a square in ,calcutta4 ,astral sight1 when it is cramped by being directed along what is practically a tube1 is limited very much as physical sight would be under similar circumstances2 though if possessed in perfection it will still continue to show1 even at that distance1 the auras1 and therefore all the emotions and most of the thoughts of the people under observation4 ,there are many people for whom this type of clairvoyance is very much facilitated if they have at hand some physical object which can be used as a starting-point for their astral tube--a convenient focus for their will-power4 ,a ball of crystal is the commonest and most effectual of such foci1 since it has the additional advantage of possessing within itself qualities which stimulate psychic faculty2 but other objects are also employed1 to which we shall find it necessary to refer more particularly when we come to consider semi-intentional clairvoyance4 ,in connection with this astral-current form of clairvoyance1 as with others1 we find that there are some psychics who are unable to use it except when under the influence of mesmerism4 ,the peculiarity in this case is that among such psychics there are two varieties--one in which by being thus set free the man is enabled to make a telescope for himself1 and another in which the magnetizer himself makes the telescope and the subject is simply enabled to see through it4 ,in this latter case obviously the subject has not enough will to form a tube for himself1 and the operator1 though possessed of the necessary will-power1 is not clairvoyant1 or he could see through his own tube without needing help4 ,occasionally1 though rarely1 the tube which is formed possesses another of the attributes of a telescope--that of magnifying the objects at which it is directed until they seem of life-size4 ,of course the objects must always be magnified to some extent1 or they would be absolutely invisible1 but usually the extent is determined by the size of the astral tube1 and the whole thing is simply a tiny moving picture4 ,in the few cases where the figures are seen as of life-size by this method1 it is probable that an altogether new power is beginning to dawn2 but when this happens1 careful observation is needed in order to distinguish them from examples of our next class4 #c4 ,by the projection of a thought-form4--,the ability to use this method of clairvoyance implies a development somewhat more advanced than the last1 since it necessitates a certain amount of control upon the mental plane4 ,all students of ,theosophy are aware that thought takes form1 at any rate upon its own plane1 and in the vast majority of cases upon the astral plane also2 but it may not be quite so generally known that if a man thinks strongly of himself as present at any given place1 the form assumed by that particular thought will be a likeness of the thinker himself1 which will appear at the place in question4 ,essentially this form must be composed of the matter of the mental plane1 but in very many cases it would draw round itself matter of the astral plane also1 and so would approach much nearer to visibility4 ,there are1 in fact1 many instances in which it has been seen by the person thought of--most probably by means of the unconscious mesmeric influence emanating from the original thinker4 ,none of the consciousness of the thinker would1 however1 be included within this thought-form4 ,when once sent out from him1 it would normally be a quite separate entity--not indeed absolutely unconnected with its maker1 but practically so as far as the possibility of receiving any impression through it is concerned4 ,this third type of clairvoyance consists1 then1 in the power to retain so much connection with and so much hold over a newly-erected thought-form as will render it possible to receive impressions by means of it4 ,such impressions as were made upon the form would in this case be transmitted to the thinker--not along an astral telegraph line1 as before1 but by sympathetic vibration4 ,in a perfect case of this kind of clairvoyance it is almost as though the seer projected a part of his consciousness into the thought-form1 and used it as a kind of outpost1 from which observation was possible4 ,he sees almost as well as he would if he himself stood in the place of his thought-form4 ,the figures at which he is looking will appear to him as of life-size and close at hand1 instead of tiny and at a distance1 as in the previous case2 and he will find it possible to shift his point of view if he wishes to do so4 ,clairaudience is perhaps less frequently associated with this type of clairvoyance than with the last1 but its place is to some extent taken by a kind of mental perception of the thoughts and intentions of those who are seen4 ,since the man's consciousness is still in the physical body1 he will be able 7even while exercising the faculty7 to hear and to speak1 in so far as he can do this without any distraction of his attention4 ,the moment that the intentness of his thought fails the whole vision is gone1 and he will have to construct a fresh thought-form before he can resume it4 ,instances in which this kind of sight is possessed with any degree of perfection by untrained people are naturally rarer than in the case of the previous type1 because of the capacity for mental control required1 and the generally finer nature of the forces employed4 #d4 ,by travelling in the astral body4--,we enter here upon an entirely new variety of clairvoyance1 in which the consciousness of the seer no longer remains in or closely connected with his physical body1 but is definitely transferred to the scene which he is examining4 ,though it has no doubt greater dangers for the untrained seer than either of the methods previously described1 it is yet quite the most satisfactory form of clairvoyance open to him1 for the immensely superior variety which we shall consider under our fifth head is not available except for specially trained students4 ,in this case the man's body is either asleep or in trance1 and its organs are consequently not available for use while the vision is going on1 so that all description of what is seen1 and all questioning as to further particulars1 must be postponed until the wanderer returns to this plane4 ,on the other hand the sight is much fuller and more perfect2 the man hears as well as sees everything which passes before him1 and can move about freely at will within the very wide limits of the astral plane4 ,he can see and study at leisure all the other inhabitants of that plane1 so that the great world of the nature-spirits 7of which the traditional fairy-land is but a very small part7 lies open before him1 and even that of some of the lower devas4 ,he has also the immense advantage of being able to take part1 as it were1 in the scenes which come before his eyes--of conversing at will with these various astral entities1 from whom so much information that is curious and interesting may be obtained4 ,if in addition he can learn how to materialize himself 7a matter of no great difficulty for him when once the knack is acquired71 he will be able to take part in physical events or conversations at a distance1 and to show himself to an absent friend at will4 ,again1 he has the additional power of being able to hunt about for what he wants4 ,by means of the varieties of clairvoyance previously described1 for all practical purposes he could find a person or a place only when he was already acquainted with it1 or when he was put en rapport with it by touching something physically connected with it1 as in psychometry4 ,it is true that by the third method a certain amount of motion is possible1 but the process is a tedious one except for quite short distances4 ,by the use of the astral body1 however1 a man can move about quite freely and rapidly in any direction1 and can 7for example7 find without difficulty any place pointed out upon a map1 without either any previous knowledge of the spot or any object to establish a connection with it4 ,he can also readily rise high into the air so as to gain a bird's-eye view of the country which he is examining1 so as to observe its extent1 the contour of its coast-line1 or its general character4 ,indeed1 in every way his power and freedom are far greater when he uses this method than they have been in any of the previous cases4 ,a good example of the full possession of this power is given1 on the authority of the ,german writer ,jung ,stilling1 by ,mrs4 ,crowe in ,the ,night ,side of ,nature 7p4 #abg74 ,the story is related of a seer who is stated to have resided in the neighbourhood of ,philadelphia1 in ,america4 ,his habits were retired1 and he spoke little2 he was grave1 benevolent and pious1 and nothing was known against his character except that he had the reputation of possessing some secrets that were considered not altogether lawful4 ,many extraordinary stories were told of him1 and amongst the rest the following3-- ,the wife of a ship captain 7whose husband was on a voyage to ,europe and ,africa1 and from whom she had been long without tidings71 being overwhelmed with anxiety for his safety1 was induced to address herself to this person4 ,having listened to her story he begged her to excuse him for a while1 when he would bring her the intelligence she required4 ,he then passed into an inner room and she sat herself down to wait2 but his absence continuing longer than she expected1 she became impatient1 thinking he had forgotten her1 and softly approaching the door she peeped through some aperture1 and to her surprise beheld him lying on a sofa as motionless as if he were dead4 ,she of course did not think it advisable to disturb him1 but waited his return1 when he told her that her husband had not been able to write to her for such and such reasons1 but that he was then in a coffee-house in ,london and would very shortly be home again4 ,accordingly he arrived1 and as the lady learnt from him that the causes of his unusual silence had been precisely those alleged by the man1 she felt extremely desirous of ascertaining the truth of the rest of the information4 ,in this she was gratified1 for he no sooner set his eyes on the magician than he said that he had seen him before on a certain day in a coffee-house in ,london1 and that he told him that his wife was extremely uneasy about him1 and that he1 the captain1 had thereon mentioned how he had been prevented writing1 adding that he was on the eve of embarking for ,america4 ,he had then lost sight of the stranger amongst the throng1 and knew nothing more about him4 ,we have of course no means now of knowing what evidence ,jung ,stilling had of the truth of this story1 though he declares himself to have been quite satisfied with the authority on which he relates it2 but so many similar things have happened that there is no reason to doubt its accuracy4 ,the seer1 however1 must either have developed his faculty for himself or learnt it in some school other than that from which most of our ,theosophical information is derived2 for in our case there is a well-understood regulation expressly forbidding the pupils from giving any manifestation of such power which can be definitely proved at both ends in that way1 and so constitute what is called a phenomenon4 ,that this regulation is emphatically a wise one is proved to all who know anything of the history of our ,society by the disastrous results which followed from a very slight temporary relaxation of it4 ,i have given some quite modern cases almost exactly parallel to the above in my little book on ,invisible ,helpers4 ,an instance of a lady well-known to myself1 who frequently thus appears to friends at a distance1 is given by ,mr4 ,stead in ,real ,ghost ,stories 7p4 #bg72 and ,mr4 ,andrew ,lang gives1 in his ,dreams and ,ghosts 7p4 #hi71 an account of how ,mr4 ,cleave1 then at ,portsmouth1 appeared intentionally on two occasions to a young lady in ,london1 and alarmed her considerably4 ,there is any amount of evidence to be had on the subject by any one who cares to study it seriously4 ,this paying of intentional astral visits seems very often to become possible when the principles are loosened at the approach of death for people who were unable to perform such a feat at any other time4 ,there are even more examples of this class than of the other2 ,i epitomize a good one given by ,mr4 ,andrew ,lang on p4 #ajj of the book last cited--one of which he himself says1 ,not many stories have such good evidence in their favour4 ,mary1 the wife of ,john ,goffe of ,rochester1 being afflicted with a long illness1 removed to her father's house at ,west ,malling1 about nine miles from her own4 ,the day before her death she grew very impatiently desirous to see her two children1 whom she had left at home to the care of a nurse4 ,she was too ill to be moved1 and between one and two o'clock in the morning she fell into a trance4 ,one widow ,turner1 who watched with her that night1 says that her eyes were open and fixed1 and her jaw fallen4 ,mrs4 ,turner put her hand upon her mouth1 but could perceive no breath4 ,she thought her to be in a fit1 and doubted whether she were dead or alive4 ,the next morning the dying woman told her mother that she had been at home with her children1 saying1 ,i was with them last night when ,i was asleep4' ,the nurse at ,rochester1 widow ,alexander by name1 affirms that a little before two o'clock that morning she saw the likeness of the said ,mary ,goffe come out of the next chamber 7where the elder child lay in a bed by itself71 the door being left open1 and stood by her bedside for about a quarter of an hour2 the younger child was there lying by her4 ,her eyes moved and her mouth went1 but she said nothing4 ,the nurse1 moreover1 says that she was perfectly awake2 it was then daylight1 being one of the longest days in the year4 ,she sat up in bed and looked steadfastly on the apparition4 ,in that time she heard the bridge clock strike two1 and a while after said3 ',in the name of the ,father1 ,son and ,holy ,ghost1 what art thou8' ,thereupon the apparition removed and went away2 she slipped on her clothes and followed1 but what became on't1 she cannot tell4 ,the nurse apparently was more frightened by its disappearance than its presence1 for after this she was afraid to stay in the house1 and so spent the rest of the time until six o'clock in walking up and down outside4 ,when the neighbours were awake she told her tale to them1 and they of course said she had dreamt it all2 she naturally enough warmly repudiated that idea1 but could obtain no credence until the news of the other side of the story arrived from ,west ,malling1 when people had to admit that there might have been something in it4 ,a noteworthy circumstance in this story is that the mother found it necessary to pass from ordinary sleep into the profounder trance condition before she could consciously visit her children2 it can1 however1 be paralleled here and there among the large number of similar accounts which may be found in the literature of the subject4 ,two other stories of precisely the same type--in which a dying mother1 earnestly desiring to see her children1 falls into a deep sleep1 visits them and returns to say that she has done so--are given by ,dr4 ,f4 ,g4 ,lee4 ,in one of them the mother1 when dying in ,egypt1 appears to her children at ,torquay1 and is clearly seen in broad daylight by all five of the children and also by the nursemaid4 7,glimpses of the ,supernatural1 vol4 ii41 p4 #fd47 ,in the other a ,quaker lady dying at ,cockermouth is clearly seen and recognized in daylight by her three children at ,settle1 the remainder of the story being practically identical with the one given above4 7,glimpses in the ,twilight1 p4 #id47 ,though these cases appear to be less widely known than that of ,mary ,goffe1 the evidence of their authenticity seems to be quite as good1 as will be seen by the attestations obtained by the reverend author of the works from which they are quoted4 ,the man who fully possesses this fourth type of clairvoyance has many and great advantages at his disposal1 even in addition to those already mentioned4 ,not only can he visit without trouble or expense all the beautiful and famous places of the earth1 but if he happens to be a scholar1 think what it must mean to him that he has access to all the libraries of the world6 ,what must it be for the scientifically-minded man to see taking place before his eyes so many of the processes of the secret chemistry of nature1 or for the philosopher to have revealed to him so much more than ever before of the working of the great mysteries of life and death8 ,to him those who are gone from this plane are dead no longer1 but living and within reach for a long time to come2 for him many of the conceptions of religion are no longer matters of faith1 but of knowledge4 ,above all1 he can join the army of invisible helpers1 and really be of use on a large scale4 ,undoubtedly clairvoyance1 even when confined to the astral plane1 is a great boon to the student4 ,certainly it has its dangers also1 especially for the untrained2 danger from evil entities of various kinds1 which may terrify or injure those who allow themselves to lose the courage to face them boldly2 danger of deception of all sorts1 of misconceiving and mis-interpreting what is seen2 greatest of all1 the danger of becoming conceited about the thing and of thinking it impossible to make a mistake4 ,but a little common-sense and a little experience should easily guard a man against these4 #e4 ,by travelling in the mental body4--,this is simply a higher and1 as it were1 glorified form of the last type4 ,the vehicle employed is no longer the astral body1 but the mind-body--a vehicle1 therefore1 belonging to the mental plane1 and having within it all the potentialities of the wonderful sense of that plane1 so transcendent in its action yet so impossible to describe4 ,a man functioning in this leaves his astral body behind him along with the physical1 and if he wishes to show himself upon the astral plane for any reason1 he does not send for his own astral vehicle1 but just by a single action of his will materializes one for his temporary need4 ,such an astral materialization is sometimes called the myvirpa1 and to form it for the first time usually needs the assistance of a qualified ,master4 ,the enormous advantages given by the possession of this power are the capacity of entering upon all the glory and the beauty of the higher land of bliss1 and the possession1 even when working on the astral plane1 of the far more comprehensive mental sense which opens up to the student such marvellous vistas of knowledge1 and practically renders error all but impossible4 ,this higher flight1 however1 is possible for the trained man only1 since only under definite training can a man at this stage of evolution learn to employ his mental body as a vehicle4 ,before leaving the subject of full and intentional clairvoyance1 it may be well to devote a few words to answering one or two questions as to its limitations1 which constantly occur to students4 ,is it possible1 we are often asked1 for the seer to find any person with whom he wishes to communicate1 anywhere in the world1 whether he be living or dead8 ,to this reply must be a conditional affirmative4 ,yes1 it is possible to find any person if the experimenter can1 in some way or other1 put himself en rapport with that person4 ,it would be hopeless to plunge vaguely into space to find a total stranger among all the millions around us without any kind of clue2 but1 on the other hand1 a very slight clue would usually be sufficient4 ,if the clairvoyant knows anything of the man whom he seeks1 he will have no difficulty in finding him1 for every man has what may be called a kind of musical chord of his own--a chord which is the expression of him as a whole1 produced perhaps by a sort of average of the rates of vibration of all his different vehicles on their respective planes4 ,if the operator knows how to discern that chord and to strike it1 it will by sympathetic vibration attract the attention of the man instantly wherever he may be1 and will evoke an immediate response from him4 ,whether the man were living or recently dead would make no difference at all1 and clairvoyance of the fifth class could at once find him even among the countless millions in the heaven-world1 though in that case the man himself would be unconscious that he was under observation4 ,naturally a seer whose consciousness did not range higher than the astral plane--who employed therefore one of the earlier methods of seeing--would not be able to find a person upon the mental plane at all2 yet even he would at least be able to tell that the man sought for was upon that plane1 from the mere fact that the striking of the chord as far up as the astral level produced no response4 ,if the man sought be a stranger to the seeker1 the latter will need something connected with him to act as a clue--a photograph1 a letter written by him1 an article which has belonged to him1 and is impregnated with his personal magnetism2 any of these would do in the hands of a practised seer4 ,again ,i say1 it must not therefore be supposed that pupils who have been taught how to use this art are at liberty to set up a kind of intelligence office through which communication can be had with missing or dead relatives4 ,a message given from this side to such an one might or might not be handed on1 according to circumstances1 but even if it were1 no reply might be brought1 lest the transaction should partake of the nature of a phenomenon--something which could be proved on the physical plane to have been an act of magic4 ,another question often raised is as to whether1 in the action of psychic vision1 there is any limitation as to distance4 ,the reply would seem to be that there should be no limit but that of the respective planes4 ,it must be remembered that the astral and mental planes of our earth are as definitely its own as its atmosphere1 though they extend considerably further from it even in our three-dimensional space than does the physical air4 ,consequently the passage to1 or the detailed sight of1 other planets would not be possible for any system of clairvoyance connected with these planes4 ,it is quite possible and easy for the man who can raise his consciousness to the buddhic plane to pass to any other globe belonging to our chain of worlds1 but that is outside our present subject4 ,still a good deal of additional information about other planets can be obtained by the use of such clairvoyant faculties as we have been describing4 ,it is possible to make sight enormously clearer by passing outside of the constant disturbances of the earth's atmosphere1 and it is also not difficult to learn how to put on an exceedingly high magnifying power1 so that even by ordinary clairvoyance a good deal of very interesting astronomical knowledge may be gained4 ,but as far as this earth and its immediate surroundings are concerned1 there is practically no limitation4 ,,chapter ,v4 ,,clairvoyance ,,in ,,space3 ,,semi-,,intentional4 ,under this rather curious title ,i am grouping together the cases of all those people who definitely set themselves to see something1 but have no idea what the something will be1 and no control over the sight after the visions have begun--psychic ,micawbers1 who put themselves into a receptive condition1 and then simply wait for something to turn up4 ,many trance-mediums would come under this heading2 they either in some way hypnotize themselves or are hypnotized by some spirit-guide1 and then they describe the scenes or persons that happen to float before their vision4 ,sometimes1 however1 when in this condition they see what is taking place at a distance1 and so they come to have a place among our clairvoyants in space4 ,but the largest and most widely-spread band of these semi-intentional clairvoyants are the various kinds of crystal-gazers--those who1 as ,mr4 ,andrew ,lang puts it1 stare into a crystal ball1 a cup1 a mirror1 a blob of ink 7,egypt and ,india71 a drop of blood 7among the ,maories of ,new ,zealand71 a bowl of water 7,red ,indian71 a pond 7,roman and ,african71 water in a glass bowl 7in ,fez71 or almost any polished surface 7,dreams and ,ghosts1 p4 #eg74 ,two pages later ,mr4 ,lang gives us a very good example of the kind of vision most frequently seen in this way4 ,i had given a glass ball1 he says1 to a young lady1 ,miss ,baillie1 who had scarcely any success with it4 ,she lent it to ,miss ,leslie1 who saw a large square1 old-fashioned red sofa covered with muslin1 which she found in the next country-house she visited4 ,miss ,baillie's brother1 a young athlete1 laughed at these experiments1 took the ball into the study1 and came back looking 'gey gash4' ,he admitted that he had seen a vision--somebody he knew under a lamp4 ,he would discover during the week whether he saw right or not4 ,this was at #e4cj on a ,sunday afternoon4 ,on ,tuesday1 ,mr4 ,baillie was at a dance in a town some forty miles from his home1 and met a ,miss ,preston4 ',on ,sunday1' he said1 'about half-past five you were sitting under a standard lamp in a dress ,i never saw you wear1 a blue blouse with lace over the shoulders1 pouring out tea for a man in blue serge1 whose back was towards me1 so that ,i only saw the tip of his moustache4' ',why1 the blinds must have been up1' said ,miss ,preston4 ',i was at ,dulby1' said ,mr4 ,baillie1 and he undeniably was4 ,this is quite a typical case of crystal-gazing--the picture correct in every detail1 you see1 and yet absolutely unimportant and bearing no apparent signification of any sort to either party1 except that it served to prove to ,mr4 ,baillie that there was something in crystal-gazing4 ,perhaps more frequently the visions tend to be of a romantic character--men in foreign dress1 or beautiful though generally unknown landscapes4 ,now what is the rationale of this kind of clairvoyance8 ,as ,i have indicated above1 it belongs usually to the astral-current type1 and the crystal or other object simply acts as a focus for the will-power of the seer1 and a convenient starting-point for his astral tube4 ,there are some who can influence what they will see by their will1 that is to say they have the power of pointing their telescope as they wish2 but the great majority just form a fortuitous tube and see whatever happens to present itself at the end of it4 ,sometimes it may be a scene comparatively near at hand1 as in the case just quoted2 at other times it will be a far-away ,oriental landscape2 at others yet it may be a reflection of some fragment of an kshic record1 and then the picture will contain figures in some antique dress1 and the phenomenon belongs to our third large division of clairvoyance in time4 ,it is said that visions of the future are sometimes seen in crystals also--a further development to which we must refer later4 ,i have seen a clairvoyant use instead of the ordinary shining surface a dead black one1 produced by a handful of powdered charcoal in a saucer4 ,indeed it does not seem to matter much what is used as a focus1 except that pure crystal has an undoubted advantage over other substances in that its peculiar arrangement of elemental essence renders it specially stimulating to the psychic faculties4 ,it seems probable1 however1 that in cases where a tiny brilliant object is employed--such as a point of light1 or the drop of blood used by the ,maories--the instance is in reality merely one of self-hypnotization4 ,among non-,european nations the experiment is very frequently preceded or accompanied by magical ceremonies and invocations1 so that it is quite likely that such sight as is gained may sometimes be really that of some foreign entity1 and so the phenomenon may in fact be merely a case of temporary possession1 and not of clairvoyance at all4 ,,chapter ,,vi4 ,,clairvoyance ,,in ,,space3 ,,unintentional4 ,under this heading we may group together all those cases in which visions of some event which is taking place at a distance are seen quite unexpectedly and without any kind of preparation4 ,there are people who are subject to such visions1 while there are many others to whom such a thing will happen only once in a life-time4 ,the visions are of all kinds and of all degrees of completeness1 and apparently may be produced by various causes4 ,sometimes the reason of the vision is obvious1 and the subject matter of the gravest importance2 at other times no reason at all is discoverable1 and the events shown seem of the most trivial nature4 ,sometimes these glimpses of the super-physical faculty come as waking visions1 and sometimes they manifest during sleep as vivid or oft-repeated dreams4 ,in this latter case the sight employed is perhaps usually of the kind assigned to our fourth subdivision of clairvoyance in space1 for the sleeping man often travels in his astral body to some spot with which his affections or interests are closely connected1 and simply watches what takes place there2 in the former it seems probable that the second type of clairvoyance1 by means of the astral current1 is called into requisition4 ,but in this case the current or tube is formed quite unconsciously1 and is often the automatic result of a strong thought or emotion projected from one end or the other--either from the seer or the person who is seen4 ,the simplest plan will be to give a few instances of the different kinds1 and to intersperse among them such further explanations as may seem necessary4 ,mr4 ,stead has collected a large and varied assortment of recent and well-authenticated cases in his ,real ,ghost ,stories1 and ,i will select some of my examples from them1 occasionally condensing slightly to save space4 ,there are cases in which it is at once obvious to any ,theosophical student that the exceptional instance of clairvoyance was specially brought about by one of the band whom we have called ,invisible ,helpers in order that aid might be rendered to some one in sore need4 ,to this class1 undoubtedly1 belongs the story told by ,captain ,yonnt1 of the ,napa ,valley in ,california1 to ,dr4 ,bushnell1 who repeats it in his ,nature and the ,supernatural 7p4 #ad74 ,about six or seven years previous1 in a mid-winter's night1 he had a dream in which he saw what appeared to be a company of emigrants arrested by the snows of the mountains1 and perishing rapidly by cold and hunger4 ,he noted the very cast of the scenery1 marked by a huge1 perpendicular front of white rock cliff2 he saw the men cutting off what appeared to be tree-tops rising out of deep gulfs of snow2 he distinguished the very features of the persons and the look of their particular distress4 ,he awoke profoundly impressed by the distinctness and apparent reality of the dream4 ,he at length fell asleep1 and dreamed exactly the same dream over again4 ,in the morning he could not expel it from his mind4 ,falling in shortly after with an old hunter comrade1 he told his story1 and was only the more deeply impressed by his recognizing without hesitation the scenery of the dream4 ,this comrade came over the ,sierra by the ,carson ,valley ,pass1 and declared that a spot in the ,pass exactly answered his description4 ,by this the unsophistical patriarch was decided4 ,he immediately collected a company of men1 with mules and blankets and all necessary provisions4 ,the neighbours were laughing meantime at his credulity4 ',no matter1' he said1 ',i am able to do this1 and ,i will1 for ,i verily believe that the fact is according to my dream4' ,the men were sent into the mountains one hundred and fifty miles distant direct to the ,carson ,valley ,pass4 ,and there they found the company exactly in the condition of the dream1 and brought in the remnant alive4 ,since it is not stated that ,captain ,yonnt was in the habit of seeing visions1 it seems clear that some helper1 observing the forlorn condition of the emigrant party1 took the nearest impressionable and otherwise suitable person 7who happened to be the ,captain7 to the spot in the astral body1 and aroused him sufficiently to fix the scene firmly in his memory4 ,the helper may possibly have arranged an astral current for the ,captain instead1 but the former suggestion is more probable4 ,at any rate the motive1 and broadly the method1 of the work are obvious enough in this case4 ,sometimes the astral current may be set going by a strong emotional thought at the other end of the line1 and this may happen even though the thinker has no such intention in his mind4 ,in the rather striking story which ,i am about to quote1 it is evident that the link was formed by the doctor's frequent thought about ,mrs4 ,broughton1 yet he had clearly no especial wish that she should see what he was doing at the time4 ,that it was this kind of clairvoyance that was employed is shown by the fixity of her point of view--which1 be it observed1 is not the doctor's point of view sympathetically transferred 7as it might have been7 since she sees his back without recognizing him4 ,the story is to be found in the ,proceedings of the ,psychical ,research ,society 7vol4 ii41 p4 #afj74 ,mrs4 ,broughton awoke one night in #ahdd1 and roused her husband1 telling him that something dreadful had happened in ,france4 ,he begged her to go to sleep again1 and not trouble him4 ,she assured him that she was not asleep when she saw what she insisted on telling him--what she saw in fact4 ,first a carriage accident--which she did not actually see1 but what she saw was the result--a broken carriage1 a crowd collected1 a figure gently raised and carried into the nearest house1 then a figure lying on a bed which she then recognized as the ,duke of ,orleans4 ,gradually friends collecting round the bed--among them several members of the ,french royal family--the queen1 then the king1 all silently1 tearfully1 watching the evidently dying duke4 ,one man 7she could see his back1 but did not know who he was7 was a doctor4 ,he stood bending over the duke1 feeling his pulse1 with his watch in the other hand4 ,and then all passed away1 and she saw no more4 ,as soon as it was daylight she wrote down in her journal all that she had seen4 ,it was before the days of electric telegraph1 and two or more days passed before the ,times announced ',the ,death of the ,duke of ,orleans4' ,visiting ,paris a short time afterwards she saw and recognized the place of the accident and received the explanation of her impression4 ,the doctor who attended the dying duke was an old friend of hers1 and as he watched by the bed his mind had been constantly occupied with her and her family4 ,a commoner instance is that in which strong affection sets up the necessary current2 probably a fairly steady stream of mutual thought is constantly flowing between the two parties in the case1 and some sudden need or dire extremity on the part of one of them endues this stream temporarily with the polarizing power which is needful to create the astral telescope4 ,an illustrative example is quoted from the same ,proceedings 7vol4 i41 p4 #cj74 ,on ,september #ith1 #ahdh1 at the siege of ,mooltan1 ,major-,general ,r----1 ,c4,b41 then adjutant of his regiment1 was most severely and dangerously wounded2 and1 supposing himself to be dying1 asked one of the officers with him to take the ring off his finger and send it to his wife1 who at the time was fully one hundred and fifty miles distant at ,ferozepore4 ',on the night of ,september #ith1 #ahdh1' writes his wife1 ',i was lying on my bed1 between sleeping and waking1 when ,i distinctly saw my husband being carried off the field seriously wounded1 and heard his voice saying1 ,take this ring off my finger and send it to my wife4 ,all the next day ,i could not get the sight or the voice out of my mind4 ',in due time ,i heard of ,general ,r---- having been severely wounded in the assault of ,mooltan4 ,he survived1 however1 and is still living4 ,it was not for some time after the siege that ,i heard from ,general ,l----1 the officer who helped to carry my husband off the field1 that the request as to the ring was actually made by him1 just as ,i heard it at ,ferozepore at that very time4 ,then there is the very large class of casual clairvoyant visions which have no traceable cause--which are apparently quite meaningless1 and have no recognizable relation to any events known to the seer4 ,to this class belong many of the landscapes seen by some people just before they fall asleep4 ,i quote a capital and very realistic account of an experience of this sort from ,mr4 ,w4 ,t4 ,stead's ,real ,ghost ,stories 7p4 #fe74 ,i got into bed but was not able to go to sleep4 ,i shut my eyes and waited for sleep to come2 instead of sleep1 however1 there came to me a succession of curiously vivid clairvoyant pictures4 ,there was no light in the room1 and it was perfectly dark2 ,i had my eyes shut also4 ,but notwithstanding the darkness ,i suddenly was conscious of looking at a scene of singular beauty4 ,it was as if ,i saw a living miniature about the size of a magic-lantern slide4 ,at this moment ,i can recall the scene as if ,i saw it again4 ,it was a seaside piece4 ,the moon was shining upon the water1 which rippled slowly on to the beach4 ,right before me a long mole ran into the water4 ,on either side of the mole irregular rocks stood up above the sea-level4 ,on the shore stood several houses1 square and rude1 which resembled nothing that ,i had ever seen in house architecture4 ,no one was stirring1 but the moon was there and the sea and the gleam of the moonlight on the rippling waters1 just as if ,i had been looking on the actual scene4 ,it was so beautiful that ,i remember thinking that if it continued ,i should be so interested in looking at it that ,i should never go to sleep4 ,i was wide awake1 and at the same time that ,i saw the scene ,i distinctly heard the dripping of the rain outside the window4 ,then suddenly1 without any apparent object or reason1 the scene changed4 ,the moonlit sea vanished1 and in its place ,i was looking right into the interior of a reading-room4 ,it seemed as if it had been used as a schoolroom in the daytime1 and was employed as a reading-room in the evening4 ,i remember seeing one reader who had a curious resemblance to ,tim ,harrington1 although it was not he1 hold up a magazine or book in his hand and laugh4 ,it was not a picture--it was there4 ,the scene was just as if you were looking through an opera-glass2 you saw the play of the muscles1 the gleaming of the eye1 every movement of the unknown persons in the unnamed place into which you were gazing4 ,i saw all that without opening my eyes1 nor did my eyes have anything to do with it4 ,you see such things as these as it were with another sense which is more inside your head than in your eyes4 ,this was a very poor and paltry experience1 but it enabled me to understand better how it is that clairvoyants see than any amount of disquisition4 ,the pictures were apropos of nothing2 they had been suggested by nothing ,i had been reading or talking of2 they simply came as if ,i had been able to look through a glass at what was occurring somewhere else in the world4 ,i had my peep1 and then it passed1 nor have ,i had a recurrence of a similar experience4 ,mr4 ,stead regards that as a poor and paltry experience1 and it may perhaps be considered so when compared with the greater possibilities1 yet ,i know many students who would be very thankful to have even so much of direct personal experience to tell4 ,small though it may be in itself1 it at once gives the seer a clue to the whole thing1 and clairvoyance would be a living actuality to a man who had seen even that much in a way that it could never have been without that little touch with the unseen world4 ,these pictures were much too clear to have been mere reflections of the thought of others1 and besides1 the description unmistakably shows that they were views seen through an astral telescope2 so either ,mr4 ,stead must quite unconsciously have set a current going for himself1 or 7which is much more probable7 some kindly astral entity set it in motion for him1 and gave him1 to while away a tedious delay1 any pictures that happened to come handy at the end of the tube4 ,,chapter ,,vii4 ,,clairvoyance ,,in ,,time3 ,,the ,,past4 ,clairvoyance in time--that is to say1 the power of reading the past and the future--is1 like all the other varieties1 possessed by different people in very varying degrees1 ranging from the man who has both faculties fully at his command1 down to one who only occasionally gets involuntary and very imperfect glimpses or reflections of these scenes of other days4 ,a person of the latter type might have1 let us say1 a vision of some event in the past2 but it would be liable to the most serious distortion1 and even if it happened to be fairly accurate it would almost certainly be a mere isolated picture1 and he would probably be quite unable to relate it to what had occurred before or after it1 or to account for anything unusual which might appear in it4 ,the trained man1 on the other hand1 could follow the drama connected with his picture backwards or forwards to any extent that might seem desirable1 and trace out with equal ease the causes which had led up to it or the results which it in turn would produce4 ,we shall probably find it easier to grasp this somewhat difficult section of our subject if we consider it in the subdivisions which naturally suggest themselves1 and deal first with the vision which looks backwards into the past1 leaving for later examination that which pierces the veil of the future4 ,in each case it will be well for us to try to understand what we can of the modus operandi1 even though our success can at best be only a very modified one1 owing first to the imperfect information on some parts of the subject at present possessed by our investigators1 and secondly to the ever-recurring failure of physical words to express a hundredth part even of the little we do know about higher planes and faculties4 ,in the case then of a detailed vision of the remote past1 how is it obtained1 and to what plane of nature does it really belong8 ,the answer to both these questions is contained in the reply that it is read from the kshic records2 but that statement in return will require a certain amount of explanation for many readers4 ,the word is in truth somewhat of a misnomer1 for though the records are undoubtedly read from the ksha1 or matter of the mental plane1 yet it is not to it that they really belong4 ,still worse is the alternative title1 records of the astral light1 which has sometimes been employed1 for these records lie far beyond the astral plane1 and all that can be obtained on it are only broken glimpses of a kind of double reflection of them1 as will presently be explained4 ,like so many others of our ,theosophical terms1 the word ksha has been very loosely used4 ,in some of our earlier books it was considered as synonymous with astral light1 and in others it was employed to signify any kind of invisible matter1 from mlaprakriti down to the physical ether4 ,in later books its use has been restricted to the matter of the mental plane1 and it is in that sense that the records may be spoken of as kshic1 for although they are not originally made on that plane any more than on the astral1 yet it is there that we first come definitely into contact with them and find it possible to do reliable work with them4 ,this subject of the records is by no means an easy one to deal with1 for it is one of that numerous class which requires for its perfect comprehension faculties of a far higher order than any which humanity has yet evolved4 ,the real solution of its problems lies on planes far beyond any that we can possibly know at present1 and any view that we take of it must necessarily be of the most imperfect character1 since we cannot but look at it from below instead of from above4 ,the idea which we form of it must therefore be only partial1 yet it need not mislead us unless we allow ourselves to think of the tiny fragment which is all that we can see as though it were the perfect whole4 ,if we are careful that such conceptions as we may form shall be accurate as far as they go1 we shall have nothing to unlearn1 though much to add1 when in the course of our further progress we gradually acquire the higher wisdom4 ,be it understood then at the commencement that a thorough grasp of our subject is an impossibility at the present stage of our evolution1 and that many points will arise as to which no exact explanation is yet obtainable1 though it may often be possible to suggest analogies and to indicate the lines along which an explanation must lie4 ,let us then try to carry back our thoughts to the beginning of this solar system to which we belong4 ,we are all familiar with the ordinary astronomical theory of its origin--that which is commonly called the nebular hypothesis--according to which it first came into existence as a gigantic glowing nebula1 of a diameter far exceeding that of the orbit of even the outermost of the planets1 and then1 as in the course of countless ages that enormous sphere gradually cooled and contracted1 the system as we know it was formed4 ,occult science accepts that theory1 in its broad outline1 as correctly representing the purely physical side of the evolution of our system1 but it would add that if we confine our attention to this physical side only we shall have a very incomplete and incoherent idea of what really happened4 ,it would postulate1 to begin with1 that the exalted ,being who undertakes the formation of a system 7whom we sometimes call the ,logos of the system7 first of all forms in ,his mind a complete conception of the whole of it with all its successive chains of worlds4 ,by the very act of forming that conception ,he calls the whole into simultaneous objective existence on the plane of ,his thought--a plane of course far above all those of which we know anything--from which the various globes descend when required into whatever state of further objectivity may be respectively destined for them4 ,unless we constantly bear in mind this fact of the real existence of the whole system from the very beginning on a higher plane1 we shall be perpetually misunderstanding the physical evolution which we see taking place down here4 ,but occultism has more than this to teach us on the subject4 ,it tells us not only that all this wonderful system to which we belong is called into existence by the ,logos1 both on lower and on higher planes1 but also that its relation to ,him is closer even than that1 for it is absolutely a part of ,him--a partial expression of ,him upon the physical plane--and that the movement and energy of the whole system is ,his energy1 and is all carried on within the limits of ,his aura4 ,stupendous as this conception is1 it will yet not be wholly unthinkable to those of us who have made any study of the subject of the aura4 ,we are familiar with the idea that as a person progresses on the upward path his causal body1 which is the determining limit of his aura1 distinctly increases in size as well as in luminosity and purity of colour4 ,many of us know from experience that the aura of a pupil who has already made considerable advance on the ,path is very much larger than that of one who is but just setting his foot upon its first step1 while in the case of an ,adept the proportional increase is far greater still4 ,we read in quite exoteric ,oriental scriptures of the immense extension of the aura of the ,buddha2 ,i think that three miles is mentioned on one occasion as its limit1 but whatever the exact measurement may be1 it is obvious that we have here another record of this fact of the extremely rapid growth of the causal body as man passes on his upward way4 ,there can be little doubt that the rate of this growth would itself increase in geometrical progression1 so that it need not surprise us to hear of an ,adept on a still higher level whose aura is capable of including the entire world at once2 and from this we may gradually lead our minds up to the conception that there is a ,being so exalted as to comprehend within ,himself the whole of our solar system4 ,and we should remember that1 enormous as this seems to us1 it is but as the tiniest drop in the vast ocean of space4 ,so of the ,logos 7who has in ,him all the capacities and qualities with which we can possibly endow the highest ,god we can imagine7 it is literally true1 as was said of old1 that of ,him and through ,him1 and to ,him are all things1 and in ,him we live and move and have our being4 ,now if this be so1 it is clear that whatever happens within our system happens absolutely within the consciousness of its ,logos1 and so we at once see that the true record must be ,his memory2 and furthermore1 it is obvious that on whatever plane that wondrous memory exists1 it cannot but be far above anything that we know1 and consequently whatever records we may find ourselves able to read must be only a reflection of that great dominant fact1 mirrored in the denser media of the lower planes4 ,on the astral plane it is at once evident that this is so--that what we are dealing with is only a reflection of a reflection1 and an exceedingly imperfect one1 for such records as can be reached there are fragmentary in the extreme1 and often seriously distorted4 ,we know how universally water is used as a symbol of the astral light1 and in this particular case it is a remarkably apt one4 ,from the surface of still water we may get a clear reflection of the surrounding objects1 just as from a mirror2 but at the best it is only a reflection--a representation in two dimensions of three-dimensional objects1 and therefore differing in all its qualities1 except colour1 from that which it represents2 and in addition to this1 it is always reversed4 ,but let the surface of the water be ruffled by the wind and what do we find then8 ,a reflection still1 certainly1 but so broken up and distorted as to be quite useless or even misleading as a guide to the shape and real appearance of the objects reflected4 ,here and there for a moment we might happen to get a clear reflection of some minute part of the scene--of a single leaf from a tree1 for example2 but it would need long labour and considerable knowledge of natural laws to build up anything like a true conception of the object reflected by putting together even a large number of such isolated fragments of an image of it4 ,now in the astral plane we can never have anything approaching to what we have imaged as a still surface1 but on the contrary we have always to deal with one in rapid and bewildering motion2 judge1 therefore1 how little we can depend upon getting a clear and definite reflection4 ,thus a clairvoyant who possesses only the faculty of astral sight can never rely upon any picture of the past that comes before him as being accurate and perfect2 here and there some part of it may be so1 but he has no means of knowing which it is4 ,if he is under the care of a competent teacher he may1 by long and careful training1 be shown how to distinguish between reliable and unreliable impressions1 and to construct from the broken reflections some kind of image of the object reflected2 but usually long before he has mastered those difficulties he will have developed the mental sight1 which renders such labour unnecessary4 ,on the next plane1 which we call the mental1 conditions are very different4 ,there the record is full and accurate1 and it would be impossible to make any mistake in the reading4 ,that is to say1 if three clairvoyants possessing the powers of the mental plane agreed to examine a certain record there1 what would be presented to their vision would be absolutely the same reflection in each case1 and each would acquire a correct impression from it in reading it4 ,it does not however follow that when they all compared notes later on the physical plane their reports would agree exactly4 ,it is well known that if three people who witness an occurrence down here in the physical world set to work to describe it afterwards1 their accounts will differ considerably1 for each will have noticed especially those items which most appeal to him1 and will insensibly have made them the prominent features of the event1 sometimes ignoring other points which were in reality much more important4 ,now in the case of an observation on the mental plane this personal equation would not appreciably affect the impressions received1 for since each would thoroughly grasp the entire subject it would be impossible for him to see its parts out of due proportion2 but1 except in the case of carefully trained and experienced persons1 this factor does come into play in transferring the impressions to the lower planes4 ,it is in the nature of things impossible that any account given down here of a vision or experience on the mental plane can be complete1 since nine-tenths of what is seen and felt there could not be expressed by physical words at all2 and1 since all expression must therefore be partial1 there is obviously some possibility of selection as to the part expressed4 ,it is for this reason that in all our ,theosophical investigations of recent years so much stress has been laid upon the constant checking and verifying of clairvoyant testimony1 nothing which rests upon the vision of one person only having been allowed to appear in our later books4 ,but even when the possibility of error from this factor of personal equation has been reduced to a minimum by a careful system of counter-checking1 there still remains the very serious difficulty which is inherent in the operation of bringing down impressions from a higher plane to a lower one4 ,this is something analogous to the difficulty experienced by a painter in his endeavour to reproduce a three-dimensional landscape on a flat surface--that is1 practically in two dimensions4 ,just as the artist needs long and careful training of eye and hand before he can produce a satisfactory representation of nature1 so does the clairvoyant need long and careful training before he can describe accurately on a lower plane what he sees on a higher one2 and the probability of getting an exact description from an untrained person is about equal to that of getting a perfectly-finished landscape from one who has never learnt how to draw4 ,it must be remembered1 too1 that the most perfect picture is in reality infinitely far from being a reproduction of the scene which it represents1 for hardly a single line or angle in it can ever be the same as those in the object copied4 ,it is simply a very ingenious attempt to make upon one only of our five senses1 by means of lines and colours on a flat surface1 an impression similar to that which would have been made if we had actually had before us the scene depicted4 ,except by a suggestion dependent entirely on our own previous experience1 it can convey to us nothing of the roar of the sea1 of the scent of the flowers1 of the taste of the fruit1 or of the softness or hardness of the surface drawn4 ,of exactly similar nature1 though far greater in degree1 are the difficulties experienced by a clairvoyant in his attempt to describe upon the physical plane what he has seen upon the astral2 and they are furthermore greatly enhanced by the fact that1 instead of having merely to recall to the minds of his hearers conceptions with which they are already familiar1 as the artist does when he paints men or animals1 fields or trees1 he has to endeavour by the very imperfect means at his disposal to suggest to them conceptions which in most cases are absolutely new to them4 ,small wonder then that1 however vivid and striking his descriptions may seem to his audience1 he himself should constantly be impressed with their total inadequacy1 and should feel that his best efforts have entirely failed to convey any idea of what he really sees4 ,and we must remember that in the case of the report given down here of a record read on the mental plane1 this difficult operation of transference from the higher to the lower has taken place not once but twice1 since the memory has been brought through the intervening astral plane4 ,even in a case where the investigator has the advantage of having developed his mental faculties so that he has the use of them while awake in the physical body1 he is still hampered by the absolute incapacity of physical language to express what he sees4 ,try for a moment to realize fully what is called the fourth dimension1 of which we said something in an earlier chapter4 ,it is easy enough to think of our own three dimensions--to image in our minds the length1 breadth and height of any object2 and we see that each of these three dimensions is expressed by a line at right angles to both of the others4 ,the idea of the fourth dimension is that it might be possible to draw a fourth line which shall be at right angles to all three of those already existing4 ,now the ordinary mind cannot grasp this idea in the least1 though some few who have made a special study of the subject have gradually come to be able to realize one or two very simple four-dimensional figures4 ,still1 no words that they can use on this plane can bring any image of these figures before the minds of others1 and if any reader who has not specially trained himself along that line will make the effort to visualize such a shape he will find it quite impossible4 ,now to express such a form clearly in physical words would be1 in effect1 to describe accurately a single object on the astral plane2 but in examining the records on the mental plane we should have to face the additional difficulties of a fifth dimension6 ,so that the impossibility of fully explaining these records will be obvious to even the most superficial observation4 ,we have spoken of the records as the memory of the ,logos1 yet they are very much more than a memory in an ordinary sense of the word4 ,hopeless as it may be to imagine how these images appear from ,his point of view1 we yet know that as we rise higher and higher we must be drawing nearer to the true memory--must be seeing more nearly as ,he sees2 so that great interest attaches to the experience of the clairvoyant with reference to these records when he stands upon the buddhic plane--the highest which his consciousness can reach even when away from the physical body until he attains the level of the ,arhats4 ,here time and space no longer limit him2 he no longer needs1 as on the mental plane1 to pass a series of events in review1 for past1 present and future are all alike simultaneously present to him1 meaningless as that sounds down here4 ,indeed1 infinitely below the consciousness of the ,logos as even that exalted plane is1 it is yet abundantly clear from what we see there that to ,him the record must be far more than what we call a memory1 for all that has happened in the past and all that will happen in the future is happening now before ,his eyes just as are the events of what we call the present time4 ,utterly incredible1 wildly incomprehensible1 of course1 to our limited understanding2 yet absolutely true for all that4 ,naturally we could not expect to understand at our present stage of knowledge how so marvellous a result is produced1 and to attempt an explanation would only be to involve ourselves in a mist of words from which we should gain no real information4 ,yet a line of thought recurs to my mind which perhaps suggests the direction in which it is possible that that explanation may lie3 and whatever helps us to realize that so astounding a statement may after all not be wholly impossible will be of assistance in broadening our minds4 ,some thirty years ago ,i remember reading a very curious little book1 called1 ,i think1 ,the ,stars and the ,earth1 the object of which was to endeavour to show how it was scientifically possible that to the mind of ,god the past and the present might be absolutely simultaneous4 ,its arguments struck me at the time as decidedly ingenious1 and ,i will proceed to summarize them1 as ,i think they will be found somewhat suggestive in connection with the subject which we have been considering4 ,when we see anything1 whether it be the book which we hold in our hands or a star millions of miles away1 we do so by means of a vibration in the ether1 commonly called a ray of light1 which passes from the object seen to our eyes4 ,now the speed with which this vibration passes is so great--about #ahf1jjj miles in a second--that when we are considering any object in our own world we may regard it as practically instantaneous4 ,when1 however1 we come to deal with interplanetary distances we have to take the speed of light into consideration1 for an appreciable period is occupied in traversing these vast spaces4 ,for example it takes eight minutes and a quarter for light to travel to us from the sun1 so that when we look at the solar orb we see it by means of a ray of light which left it more than eight minutes ago4 ,from this follows a very curious result4 ,the ray of light by which we see the sun can obviously report to us only the state of affairs which existed in that luminary when it started on its journey1 and would not be in the least affected by anything that happened there after it left2 so that we really see the sun not as he is1 but as he was eight minutes ago4 ,that is to say that if anything important took place in the sun--the formation of a new sun-spot1 for instance--an astronomer who was watching the orb through his telescope at the time would be quite unaware of the incident while it was happening1 since the ray of light bearing the news would not reach him until more than eight minutes later4 ,the difference is more striking when we consider the fixed stars1 because in their case the distances are so enormously greater4 ,the pole star1 for example1 is so far off that light1 travelling at the inconceivable speed above mentioned1 takes a little more than fifty years to reach our eyes2 and from that follows the strange but inevitable inference that we see the pole star not as and where it is at this moment1 but as and where it was fifty years ago4 ,nay1 if to-morrow some cosmic catastrophe were to shatter the pole star into fragments1 we should still see it peacefully shining in the sky all the rest of our lives2 our children would grow up to middle age and gather their children about them in turn before the news of that tremendous accident reached any terrestrial eye4 ,in the same way there are other stars so far distant that light takes thousands of years to travel from them to us1 and with reference to their condition our information is therefore thousands of years behind time4 ,now carry the argument a step farther4 ,suppose that we were able to place a man at the distance of #ahf1jjj miles from the earth1 and yet to endow him with the wonderful faculty of being able from that distance to see what was happening here as clearly as though he were still close beside us4 ,it is evident that a man so placed would see everything a second after the time when it really happened1 and so at the present moment he would be seeing what happened a second ago4 ,double the distance1 and he would be two seconds behind time1 and so on2 remove him to the distance of the sun 7still allowing him to preserve the same mysterious power of sight7 and he would look down and watch you doing not what you are doing now1 but what you were doing eight minutes and a quarter ago4 ,carry him away to the pole star1 and he would see passing before his eyes the events of fifty years ago2 he would be watching the childish gambols of those who at the very same moment were really middle-aged men4 ,marvellous as this may sound1 it is literally and scientifically true1 and cannot be denied4 ,the little book went on to argue logically enough that ,god1 being almighty1 must possess the wonderful power of sight which we have been postulating for our observer2 and further1 that being omnipresent1 ,he must be at each of the stations which we mentioned1 and also at every intermediate point1 not successively but simultaneously4 ,granting these premises1 the inevitable deduction follows that everything which has ever happened from the very beginning of the world must be at this very moment taking place before the eye of ,god--not a mere memory of it1 but the actual occurrence itself being now under ,his observation4 ,all this is materialistic enough1 and on the plane of purely physical science1 and we may therefore be assured that it is not the way in which the memory of the ,logos acts2 yet it is neatly worked out and absolutely incontrovertible1 and as ,i have said before1 it is not without its use1 since it gives us a glimpse of some possibilities which otherwise might not occur to us4 ,but1 it may be asked1 how is it possible1 amid the bewildering confusion of these records of the past1 to find any particular picture when it is wanted8 ,as a matter of fact1 the untrained clairvoyant usually cannot do so without some special link to put him en rapport with the subject required4 ,psychometry is an instance in point1 and it is quite probable that our ordinary memory is really only another presentment of the same idea4 ,it seems as though there were a sort of magnetic attachment or affinity between any particle of matter and the record which contains its history--an affinity which enables it to act as a kind of conductor between that record and the faculties of anyone who can read it4 ,for example1 ,i once brought from ,stonehenge a tiny fragment of stone1 not larger than a pin's head1 and on putting this into an envelope and handing it to a psychometer who had no idea what it was1 she at once began to describe that wonderful ruin and the desolate country surrounding it1 and then went on to picture vividly what were evidently scenes from its early history1 showing that that infinitesimal fragment had been sufficient to put her into communication with the records connected with the spot from which it came4 ,the scenes through which we pass in the course of our life seem to act in the same manner upon the cells of our brain as did the history of ,stonehenge upon that particle of stone3 they establish a connection with those cells by means of which our mind is put en rapport with that particular portion of the records1 and so we remember what we have seen4 ,even a trained clairvoyant needs some link to enable him to find the record of an event of which he has no previous knowledge4 ,if1 for example1 he wished to observe the landing of ,julius ,csar on the shores of ,england1 there are several ways in which he might approach the subject4 ,if he happened to have visited the scene of the occurrence1 the simplest way would probably be to call up the image of that spot1 and then run back through its records until he reached the period desired4 ,if he had not seen the place1 he might run back in time to the date of the event1 and then search the ,channel for a fleet of ,roman galleys2 or he might examine the records of ,roman life at about that period1 where he would have no difficulty in identifying so prominent a figure as ,csar1 or in tracing him when found through all his ,gallic wars until he set his foot upon ,british land4 ,people often enquire as to the aspect of these records--whether they appear near or far away from the eye1 whether the figures in them are large or small1 whether the pictures follow one another as in a panorama or melt into one another like dissolving views1 and so on4 ,one can only reply that their appearance varies to a certain extent according to the conditions under which they are seen4 ,upon the astral plane the reflection is most often a simple picture1 though occasionally the figures seen would be endowed with motion2 in this latter case1 instead of a mere snapshot a rather longer and more perfect reflection has taken place4 ,on the mental plane they have two widely different aspects4 ,when the visitor to that plane is not thinking specially of them in any way1 the records simply form a background to whatever is going on1 just as the reflections in a pier-glass at the end of a room might form a background to the life of the people in it4 ,it must always be borne in mind that under these conditions they are really merely reflections from the ceaseless activity of a great ,consciousness upon a far higher plane1 and have very much the appearance of an endless succession of the recently invented cinematographe1 or living photographs4 ,they do not melt into one another like dissolving views1 nor do a series of ordinary pictures follow one another2 but the action of the reflected figures constantly goes on1 as though one were watching the actors on a distant stage4 ,but if the trained investigator turns his attention specially to any one scene1 or wishes to call it up before him1 an extraordinary change at once takes place1 for this is the plane of thought1 and to think of anything is to bring it instantaneously before you4 ,for example1 if a man wills to see the record of that event to which we before referred--the landing of ,julius ,csar--he finds himself in a moment not looking at any picture1 but standing on the shore among the legionaries1 with the whole scene being enacted around him1 precisely in every respect as he would have seen it if he had stood there in the flesh on that autumn morning in the year #ee ,b4,c4 ,since what he sees is but a reflection1 the actors are of course entirely unconscious of him1 nor can any effort of his change the course of their action in the smallest degree1 except only that he can control the rate at which the drama shall pass before him--can have the events of a whole year rehearsed before his eyes in a single hour1 or can at any moment stop the movement altogether1 and hold any particular scene in view as a picture as long as he chooses4 ,in truth he observes not only what he would have seen if he had been there at the time in the flesh1 but much more4 ,he hears and understands all that the people say1 and he is conscious of all their thoughts and motives2 and one of the most interesting of the many possibilities which open up before one who has learnt to read the records is the study of the thought of ages long past--the thought of the cave-men and the lake-dwellers as well as that which ruled the mighty civilisations of ,atlantis1 of ,egypt or ,chalda4 ,what splendid possibilities open up before the man who is in full possession of this power may easily be imagined4 ,he has before him a field of historical research of most entrancing interest4 ,not only can he review at his leisure all history with which we are acquainted1 correcting as he examines it the many errors and misconceptions which have crept into the accounts handed down to us2 he can also range at will over the whole story of the world from its very beginning1 watching the slow development of intellect in man1 the descent of the ,lords of the ,flame1 and the growth of the mighty civilisations which they founded4 ,nor is his study confined to the progress of humanity alone2 he has before him1 as in a museum1 all the strange animal and vegetable forms which occupied the stage in days when the world was young2 he can follow all the wonderful geological changes which have taken place1 and watch the course of the great cataclysms which have altered the whole face of the earth again and again4 ,in one especial case an even closer sympathy with the past is possible to the reader of the records4 ,if in the course of his enquiries he has to look upon some scene in which he himself has in a former birth taken part1 he may deal with it in two ways2 he can either regard it in the usual manner as a spectator 7though always1 be it remembered1 as a spectator whose insight and sympathy are perfect7 or he may once more identify himself with that long-dead personality of his--may throw himself back for the time into that life of long ago1 and absolutely experience over again the thoughts and the emotions1 the pleasures and the pains of a prehistoric past4 ,no wilder and more vivid adventures can be conceived than some of those through which he thus may pass2 yet through it all he must never lose hold of the consciousness of his own individuality--must retain the power to return at will to his present personality4 ,it is often asked how it is possible for an investigator accurately to determine the date of any picture from the far-distant past which he disinters from the records4 ,the fact is that it is sometimes rather tedious work to find an exact date1 but the thing can usually be done if it is worth while to spend the time and trouble over it4 ,if we are dealing with ,greek or ,roman times the simplest method is usually to look into the mind of the most intelligent person present in the picture1 and see what date he supposes it to be2 or the investigator might watch him writing a letter or other document and observe what date1 if any1 was included in what was written4 ,when once the ,roman or ,greek date is thus obtained1 to reduce it to our own system of chronology is merely a matter of calculation4 ,another way which is frequently adopted is to turn from the scene under examination to a contemporary picture in some great and well-known city such as ,rome1 and note what monarch is reigning there1 or who are the consuls for the year2 and when such data are discovered a glance at any good history will give the rest4 ,sometimes a date can be obtained by examining some public proclamation or some legal document2 in fact in the times of which we are speaking the difficulty is easily surmounted4 ,the matter is by no means so simple1 however1 when we come to deal with periods much earlier than this--with a scene from early ,egypt1 ,chalda1 or ,china1 or to go further back still1 from ,atlantis itself or any of its numerous colonies4 ,a date can still be obtained easily enough from the mind of any educated man1 but there is no longer any means of relating it to our own system of dates1 since the man will be reckoning by eras of which we know nothing1 or by the reigns of kings whose history is lost in the night of time4 ,our methods1 nevertheless1 are not yet exhausted4 ,it must be remembered that it is possible for the investigator to pass the records before him at any speed that he may desire--at the rate of a year in a second if he will1 or even very much faster still4 ,now there are one or two events in ancient history whose dates have already been accurately fixed--as1 for example1 the sinking of ,poseidonis in the year #iefd ,b4,c4 ,it is therefore obvious that if from the general appearance of the surroundings it seems probable that a picture seen is within measurable distance of one of these events1 it can be related to that event by the simple process of running through the record rapidly1 and counting the years between the two as they pass4 ,still1 if those years ran into thousands1 as they might sometimes do1 this plan would be insufferably tedious4 ,in that case we are driven back upon the astronomical method4 ,in consequence of the movement which is commonly called the precession of the equinoxes1 though it might more accurately be described as a kind of second rotation of the earth1 the angle between the equator and the ecliptic steadily but very slowly varies4 ,thus1 after long intervals of time we find the pole of the earth no longer pointing towards the same spot in the apparent sphere of the heavens1 or in other words1 our pole-star is not1 as at present1 ,greek3 a ,urs ,minoris1 but some other celestial body2 and from this position of the pole of the earth1 which can easily be ascertained by careful observation of the night-sky of the picture under consideration1 an approximate date can be calculated without difficulty4 ,in estimating the date of occurrences which took place millions of years ago in earlier races1 the period of a secondary rotation 7or the precession of the equinoxes7 is frequently used as a unit1 but of course absolute accuracy is not usually required in such cases1 round numbers being sufficient for all practical purposes in dealing with epochs so remote4 ,the accurate reading of the records1 whether of one's own past lives or those of others1 must not1 however1 be thought of as an achievement possible to anyone without careful previous training4 ,as has been already remarked1 though occasional reflections may be had upon the astral plane1 the power to use the mental sense is necessary before any reliable reading can be done4 ,indeed1 to minimize the possibility of error1 that sense ought to be fully at the command of the investigator while awake in the physical body2 and to acquire that faculty needs years of ceaseless labour and rigid self-discipline4 ,many people seem to expect that as soon as they have signed their application and joined the ,theosophical ,society they will at once remember at least three or four of their past births2 indeed1 some of them promptly begin to imagine recollections and declare that in their last incarnation they were ,mary ,queen of ,scots1 ,cleopatra1 or ,julius ,csar6 ,of course such extravagant claims simply bring discredit upon those who are so foolish as to make them but unfortunately some of that discredit is liable to be reflected1 however unjustly1 upon the ,society to which they belong1 so that a man who feels seething within him the conviction that he was ,homer or ,shakespeare would do well to pause and apply common-sense tests on the physical plane before publishing the news to the world4 ,it is quite true that some people have had glimpses of scenes from their past lives in dreams1 but naturally these are usually fragmentary and unreliable4 ,i had myself in earlier life an experience of this nature4 ,among my dreams ,i found that one was constantly recurring--a dream of a house with a portico over-looking a beautiful bay1 not far from a hill on the top of which rose a graceful building4 ,i knew that house perfectly1 and was as familiar with the position of its rooms and the view from its door as ,i was with those of my home1 in this present life4 ,in those days ,i knew nothing about reincarnation1 so that it seemed to me simply a curious coincidence that this dream should repeat itself so often2 and it was not until some time after ,i had joined the ,society that1 when one who knew was showing me some pictures of my last incarnation1 ,i discovered that this persistent dream had been in reality a partial recollection1 and that the house which ,i knew so well was the one in which ,i was born more than two thousand years ago4 ,but although there are several cases on record in which some well-remembered scene has thus come through from one life to another1 a considerable development of occult faculty is necessary before an investigator can definitely trace a line of incarnations1 whether they be his own or another man's4 ,this will be obvious if we remember the conditions of the problem which has to be worked out4 ,to follow a person from this life to the one preceding it1 it is necessary first of all to trace his present life backwards to his birth and then to follow up in reverse order the stages by which the ,ego descended into incarnation4 ,this will obviously take us back eventually to the condition of the ,ego upon the higher levels of the mental plane2 so it will be seen that to perform this task effectually the investigator must be able to use the sense corresponding to that exalted level while awake in his physical body--in other words1 his consciousness must be centred in the reincarnating ,ego itself1 and no longer in the lower personality4 ,in that case1 the memory of the ,ego being aroused1 his own past incarnations will be spread out before him like an open book1 and he would be able1 if he wished1 to examine the conditions of another ,ego upon that level and trace him backwards through the lower mental and astral lives which led up to it1 until he came to the last physical death of that ,ego1 and through it to his previous life4 ,there is no way but this in which the chain of lives can be followed through with absolute certainty3 and consequently we may at once put aside as conscious or unconscious impostors those people who advertise that they are able to trace out anyone's past incarnations for so many shillings a head4 ,needless to say1 the true occultist does not advertise1 and never under any circumstances accepts money for any exhibition of his powers4 ,assuredly the student who wishes to acquire the power of following up a line of incarnations can do so only by learning from a qualified teacher how the work is to be done4 ,there have been those who persistently asserted that it was only necessary for a man to feel good and devotional and brotherly1 and all the wisdom of the ages would immediately flow in upon him2 but a little common-sense will at once expose the absurdity of such a position4 ,however good a child may be1 if he wants to know the multiplication table he must set to work and learn it2 and the case is precisely similar with the capacity to use spiritual faculties4 ,the faculties themselves will no doubt manifest as the man evolves1 but he can learn how to use them reliably and to the best advantage only by steady hard work and persevering effort4 ,take the case of those who wish to help others while on the astral plane during sleep2 it is obvious that the more knowledge they possess here1 the more valuable will their services be on that higher plane4 ,for example1 the knowledge of languages would be useful to them1 for though on the mental plane men can communicate directly by thought-transference1 whatever their languages may be1 on the astral plane this is not so1 and a thought must be definitely formulated in words before it is comprehensible4 ,if1 therefore1 you wish to help a man on that plane1 you must have some language in common by means of which you can communicate with him1 and consequently the more languages you know the more widely useful you will be4 ,in fact there is perhaps no kind of knowledge for which a use cannot be found in the work of the occultist4 ,it would be well for all students to bear in mind that occultism is the apotheosis of common-sense1 and that every vision which comes to them is not necessarily a picture from the kshic records1 nor every experience a revelation from on high4 ,it is better far to err on the side of healthy scepticism than of over-credulity2 and it is an admirable rule never to hunt about for an occult explanation of anything when a plain and obvious physical one is available4 ,our duty is to endeavour to keep our balance always1 and never to lose our self-control1 but to take a reasonable1 common-sense view of whatever may happen to us2 so shall we be better ,theosophists1 wiser occultists1 and more useful helpers than we have ever been before4 ,as usual1 we find examples of all degrees of the power to see into this memory of nature1 from the trained man who can consult the record for himself at will1 down to the person who gets nothing but occasional vague glimpses1 or has even perhaps had only one such glimpse4 ,but even the man who possesses this faculty only partially and occasionally still finds it of the deepest interest4 ,the psychometer1 who needs an object physically connected with the past in order to bring it all into life again around him1 and the crystal-gazer who can sometimes direct his less certain astral telescope to some historic scene of long ago1 may both derive the greatest enjoyment from the exercise of their respective gifts1 even though they may not always understand exactly how their results are produced1 and may not have them fully under control under all circumstances4 ,in many cases of the lower manifestations of these powers we find that they are exercised unconsciously2 many a crystal-gazer watches scenes from the past without being able to distinguish them from visions of the present1 and many a vaguely-psychic person finds pictures constantly arising before his eyes without ever realizing that he is in effect psychometrizing the various objects around him as he happens to touch them or stand near them4 ,an interesting variant of this class of psychics is the man who is able to psychometrize persons only1 and not inanimate objects as is more usual4 ,in most cases this faculty shows itself erratically1 so that such a psychic will1 when introduced to a stranger1 often see in a flash some prominent event in that stranger's earlier life1 but on other similar occasions will receive no special impression4 ,more rarely we meet with someone who gets detailed visions of the past life of everyone whom he encounters4 ,perhaps one of the best examples of this class was the ,german writer ,zschokke1 who describes in his autobiography this extraordinary power of which he found himself possessed4 ,he says3-- ,it has happened to me occasionally at the first meeting with a total stranger1 when ,i have been listening in silence to his conversation1 that his past life up to the present moment1 with many minute circumstances belonging to one or other particular scene in it1 has come across me like a dream1 but distinctly1 entirely involuntarily and unsought1 occupying in duration a few minutes4 ,for a long time ,i was disposed to consider these fleeting visions as a trick of the fancy--the more so as my dream-vision displayed to me the dress and movements of the actors1 the appearance of the room1 the furniture1 and other accidents of the scene2 till on one occasion1 in a gamesome mood1 ,i narrated to my family the secret history of a sempstress who had just before quitted the room4 ,i had never seen the person before4 ,nevertheless the hearers were astonished1 and laughed and would not be persuaded but that ,i had a previous acquaintance with the former life of the person1 inasmuch as what ,i had stated was perfectly true4 ,i was not less astonished to find that my dream-vision agreed with reality4 ,i then gave more attention to the subject1 and as often as propriety allowed of it1 ,i related to those whose lives had so passed before me the substance of my dream-vision1 to obtain from them its contradiction or confirmation4 ,on every occasion its confirmation followed1 not without amazement on the part of those who gave it4 ,on a certain fair-day ,i went into the town of ,waldshut accompanied by two young foresters1 who are still alive4 ,it was evening1 and1 tired with our walk1 we went into an inn called the ',vine4' ,we took our supper with a numerous company at the public table1 when it happened that they made themselves merry over the peculiarities and simplicity of the ,swiss in connection with the belief in mesmerism1 ,lavater's physiognomical system and the like4 ,one of my companions1 whose national pride was touched by their raillery1 begged me to make some reply1 particularly in answer to a young man of superior appearance who sat opposite1 and had indulged in unrestrained ridicule4 ,it happened that the events of this person's life had just previously passed before my mind4 ,i turned to him with the question whether he would reply to me with truth and candour if ,i narrated to him the most secret passages of his history1 he being as little known to me as ,i to him8 ,that would1 ,i suggested1 go something beyond ,lavater's physiognomical skill4 ,he promised if ,i told the truth to admit it openly4 ,then ,i narrated the events with which my dream-vision had furnished me1 and the table learnt the history of the young tradesman's life1 of his school years1 his peccadilloes1 and1 finally1 of a little act of roguery committed by him on the strong-box of his employer4 ,i described the uninhabited room with its white walls1 where to the right of the brown door there had stood upon the table the small black money-chest1 etc4 ,the man1 much struck1 admitted the correctness of each circumstance--even1 which ,i could not expect1 of the last4 ,and after narrating this incident1 the worthy ,zschokke calmly goes on to wonder whether perhaps after all this remarkable power1 which he had so often displayed1 might not really have been always the result of mere chance coincidence6 ,comparatively few accounts of persons possessing this faculty of looking back into the past are to be found in the literature of the subject1 and it might therefore be supposed to be much less common than prevision4 ,i suspect1 however1 that the truth is rather that it is much less commonly recognized4 ,as ,i said before1 it may very easily happen that a person may see a picture of the past without recognizing it as such1 unless there happens to be in it something which attracts special attention1 such as a figure in armour or in antique costume4 ,a prevision also might not always be recognized as such at the time2 but the occurrence of the event foreseen recalls it vividly at the same time that it manifests its nature1 so that it is unlikely to be overlooked4 ,it is probable1 therefore1 that occasional glimpses of these astral reflections of the kshic records are commoner than the published accounts would lead us to believe4 ,,chapter ,,viii4 ,,clairvoyance ,,in ,,time3 ,,the ,,future4 ,even if1 in a dim sort of way1 we feel ourselves able to grasp the idea that the whole of the past may be simultaneously and actively present in a sufficiently exalted consciousness1 we are confronted by a far greater difficulty when we endeavour to realize how all the future may also be comprehended in that consciousness4 ,if we could believe in the ,mohammedan doctrine of kismet1 or the ,calvinistic theory of predestination1 the conception would be easy enough1 but knowing as we do that both these are grotesque distortions of the truth1 we must look round for a more acceptable hypothesis4 ,there may still be some people who deny the possibility of prevision1 but such denial simply shows their ignorance of the evidence on the subject4 ,the large number of authenticated cases leaves no room for doubt as to the fact1 but many of them are of such a nature as to render a reasonable explanation by no means easy to find4 ,it is evident that the ,ego possesses a certain amount of previsional faculty1 and if the events foreseen were always of great importance1 one might suppose that an extraordinary stimulus had enabled him for that occasion only to make a clear impression of what he saw upon his lower personality4 ,no doubt that is the explanation of many of the cases in which death or grave disaster is foreseen1 but there are a large number of instances on record to which it does not seem to apply1 since the events foretold are frequently exceedingly trivial and unimportant4 ,a well-known story of second-sight in ,scotland will illustrate what ,i mean4 ,a man who had no belief in the occult was forewarned by a ,highland seer of the approaching death of a neighbour4 ,the prophecy was given with considerable wealth of detail1 including a full description of the funeral1 with the names of the four pall-bearers and others who would be present4 ,the auditor seems to have laughed at the whole story and promptly forgotten it1 but the death of his neighbour at the time foretold recalled the warning to his mind1 and he determined to falsify part of the prediction at any rate by being one of the pall-bearers himself4 ,he succeeded in getting matters arranged as he wished1 but just as the funeral was about to start he was called away from his post by some small matter which detained him only a minute or two4 ,as he came hurrying back he saw with surprise that the procession had started without him1 and that the prediction had been exactly fulfilled1 for the four pall-bearers were those who had been indicated in the vision4 ,now here is a very trifling matter1 which could have been of no possible importance to anybody1 definitely foreseen months beforehand2 and although a man makes a determined effort to alter the arrangement indicated he fails entirely to affect it in the least4 ,certainly this looks very much like predestination1 even down to the smallest detail1 and it is only when we examine this question from higher planes that we are able to see our way to escape that theory4 ,of course1 as ,i said before about another branch of the subject1 a full explanation eludes us as yet1 and obviously must do so until our knowledge is infinitely greater than it is now2 the most that we can hope to do for the present is to indicate the line along which an explanation may be found4 ,there is no doubt whatever that1 just as what is happening now is the result of causes set in motion in the past1 so what will happen in the future will be the result of causes already in operation4 ,even down here we can calculate that if certain actions are performed certain results will follow1 but our reckoning is constantly liable to be disturbed by the interference of factors which we have not been able to take into account4 ,but if we raise our consciousness to the mental plane we can see very much farther into the results of our actions4 ,we can trace1 for example1 the effect of a casual word1 not only upon the person to whom it was addressed1 but through him on many others as it is passed on in widening circles1 until it seems to have affected the whole country2 and one glimpse of such a vision is far more efficient than any number of moral precepts in impressing upon us the necessity of extreme circumspection in thought1 word1 and deed4 ,not only can we from that plane see thus fully the result of every action1 but we can also see where and in what way the results of other actions apparently quite unconnected with it will interfere with and modify it4 ,in fact1 it may be said that the results of all causes at present in action are clearly visible--that the future1 as it would be if no entirely new causes should arise1 lies open before our gaze4 ,new causes of course do arise1 because man's will is free2 but in the case of all ordinary people the use which they will make of their freedom can be calculated beforehand with considerable accuracy4 ,the average man has so little real will that he is very much the creature of circumstances2 his action in previous lives places him amid certain surroundings1 and their influence upon him is so very much the most important factor in his life-story that his future course may be predicted with almost mathematical certainty4 ,with the developed man the case is different2 for him also the main events of life are arranged by his past actions1 but the way in which he will allow them to affect him1 the methods by which he will deal with them and perhaps triumph over them--these are all his own1 and they cannot be foreseen even on the mental plane except as probabilities4 ,looking down on man's life in this way from above1 it seems as though his free will could be exercised only at certain crises in his career4 ,he arrives at a point in his life where there are obviously two or three alternative courses open before him2 he is absolutely free to choose which of them he pleases1 and although some one who knew his nature thoroughly well might feel almost certain what his choice would be1 such knowledge on his friend's part is in no sense a compelling force4 ,but when he has chosen1 he has to go through with it and take the consequences2 having entered upon a particular path he may1 in many cases1 be forced to go on for a very long way before he has any opportunity to turn aside4 ,his position is somewhat like that of the driver of a train2 when he comes to a junction he may have the points set either this way or that1 and so can pass on to whichever line he pleases1 but when he has passed on to one of them he is compelled to run on along the line which he has selected until he reaches another set of points1 where again an opportunity of choice is offered to him4 ,now1 in looking down from the mental plane1 these points of new departure would be clearly visible1 and all the results of each choice would lie open before us1 certain to be worked out even to the smallest detail4 ,the only point which would remain uncertain would be the all-important one as to which choice the man would make4 ,we should1 in fact1 have not one but several futures mapped out before our eyes1 without necessarily being able to determine which of them would materialize itself into accomplished fact4 ,in most instances we should see so strong a probability that we should not hesitate to come to a decision1 but the case which ,i have described is certainly theoretically possible4 ,still1 even this much knowledge would enable us to do with safety a good deal of prediction2 and it is not difficult for us to imagine that a far higher power than ours might always be able to foresee which way every choice would go1 and consequently to prophesy with absolute certainty4 ,on the buddhic plane1 however1 no such elaborate process of conscious calculation is necessary1 for1 as ,i said before1 in some manner which down here is totally inexplicable1 the past1 the present1 and the future1 are there all existing simultaneously4 ,one can only accept this fact1 for its cause lies in the faculty of the plane1 and the way in which this higher faculty works is naturally quite incomprehensible to the physical brain4 ,yet now and then one may meet with a hint that seems to bring us a trifle nearer to a dim possibility of comprehension4 ,one such hint was given by ,dr4 ,oliver ,lodge in his address to the ,british ,association at ,cardiff4 ,he said3 ,a luminous and helpful idea is that time is but a relative mode of regarding things2 we progress through phenomena at a certain definite pace1 and this subjective advance we interpret in an objective manner1 as if events moved necessarily in this order and at this precise rate4 ,but that may be only one mode of regarding them4 ,the events may be in some sense in existence always1 both past and future1 and it may be we who are arriving at them1 not they which are happening4 ,the analogy of a traveller in a railway train is useful2 if he could never leave the train nor alter its pace he would probably consider the landscapes as necessarily successive and be unable to conceive their co-existence4444 ,we perceive1 therefore1 a possible fourth dimensional aspect about time1 the inexorableness of whose flow may be a natural part or our present limitations4 ,and if we once grasp the idea that past and future may be actually existing1 we can recognize that they may have a controlling influence on all present action1 and the two together may constitute the 'higher plane' or totality of things after which1 as it seems to me1 we are impelled to seek1 in connection with the directing of form or determinism1 and the action of living beings consciously directed to a definite and preconceived end4 ,time is not in reality the fourth dimension at all2 yet to look at it for the moment from that point of view is some slight help towards grasping the ungraspable4 ,suppose that we hold a wooden cone at right angles to a sheet of paper1 and slowly push it through it point first4 ,a microbe living on the surface of that sheet of paper1 and having no power of conceiving anything outside of that surface1 could not only never see the cone as a whole1 but he could form no sort of conception of such a body at all4 ,all that he would see would be the sudden appearance of a tiny circle1 which would gradually and mysteriously grow larger and larger until it vanished from his world as suddenly and incomprehensibly as it had come into it4 ,thus1 what were in reality a series of sections of the cone would appear to him to be successive stages in the life of a circle1 and it would be impossible for him to grasp the idea that these successive stages could be seen simultaneously4 ,yet it is1 of course1 easy enough for us1 looking down upon the transaction from another dimension1 to see that the microbe is simply under a delusion arising from its own limitations1 and that the cone exists as a whole all the while4 ,our own delusion as to past1 present1 and future is possibly not dissimilar1 and the view that is gained of any sequence of events from the buddhic plane corresponds to the view of the cone as a whole4 ,naturally1 any attempt to work out this suggestion lands us in a series of startling paradoxes2 but the fact remains a fact1 nevertheless1 and the time will come when it will be clear as noonday to our comprehension4 ,when the pupil's consciousness is fully developed upon the buddhic plane1 therefore1 perfect prevision is possible to him1 though he may not--nay1 he certainly will not--be able to bring the whole result of his sight through fully and in order into this light4 ,still1 a great deal of clear foresight is obviously within his power whenever he likes to exercise it2 and even when he is not exercising it1 frequent flashes of fore-knowledge come through into his ordinary life1 so that he often has an instantaneous intuition as to how things will turn out even before their inception4 ,short of this perfect prevision we find1 as in the previous cases1 that all degrees of this type of clairvoyance exist1 from the occasional vague premonitions which cannot in any true sense be called sight at all1 up to frequent and fairly complete second-sight4 ,the faculty to which this latter somewhat misleading name has been given is an extremely interesting one1 and would well repay more careful and systematic study than has ever hitherto been given to it4 ,it is best known to us as a not infrequent possession of the ,scottish ,highlanders1 though it is by no means confined to them4 ,occasional instances of it have appeared in almost every nation1 but it has always been commonest among mountaineers and men of lonely life4 ,with us in ,england it is often spoken of as though it were the exclusive appanage of the ,celtic race1 but in reality it has appeared among similarly situated peoples the world over4 ,it is stated1 for example1 to be very common among the ,westphalian peasantry4 ,sometimes the second-sight consists of a picture clearly foreshowing some coming event2 more frequently1 perhaps1 the glimpse of the future is given by some symbolical appearance4 ,it is noteworthy that the events foreseen are invariably unpleasant ones--death being the commonest of all2 ,i do not recollect a single instance in which the second-sight has shown anything which was not of the most gloomy nature4 ,it has a ghastly symbolism which is all its own--a symbolism of shrouds and corpse-candles1 and other funereal horrors4 ,in some cases it appears to be to a certain extent dependent on locality1 for it is stated that inhabitants of the ,isle of ,skye who possess the faculty often lose it when they leave the island1 even though it be only to cross to the mainland4 ,the gift of such sight is sometimes hereditary in a family for generations1 but this is not an invariable rule1 for it often appears sporadically in one member of a family otherwise free from its lugubrious influence4 ,an example in which an accurate vision of a coming event was seen some months beforehand by second-sight has already been given4 ,here is another and perhaps a more striking one1 which ,i give exactly as it was related to me by one of the actors in the scene4 ,we plunged into the jungle1 and had walked on for about an hour without much success1 when ,cameron1 who happened to be next to me1 stopped suddenly1 turned pale as death1 and1 pointing straight before him1 cried in accents of horror3 ',see6 see6 merciful heaven1 look there6' ',where8 what8 what is it8' we all shouted confusedly1 as we rushed up to him and looked round in expectation of encountering a tiger--a cobra--we hardly knew what1 but assuredly something terrible1 since it had been sufficient to cause such evident emotion in our usually self-contained comrade4 ,but neither tiger nor cobra was visible--nothing but ,cameron pointing with ghastly1 haggard face and starting eyeballs at something we could not see4 ',cameron6 ,cameron' cried ,i1 seizing his arm1 'for heaven's sake1 speak6 ,what is the matter8' ,scarcely were the words out of my mouth when a low1 but very peculiar sound struck on my ear1 and ,cameron1 dropping his pointing hand1 said in a hoarse1 strained voice1 ',there6 you heard it8 ,thank ,god it's over' and fell to the ground insensible4 ,there was a momentary confusion while we unfastened his collar1 and ,i dashed in his face some water which ,i fortunately had in my flask1 while another tried to pour brandy between his clenched teeth2 and under cover of it ,i whispered to the man next to me 7one of our greatest sceptics1 by the way71 ',beauchamp1 did you hear anything8' ',why1 yes1' he replied1 a curious sound1 very2 a sort of crash or rattle far away in the distance1 yet very distinct2 if the thing were not utterly impossible1 ,i could have sworn it was the rattle of musketry4' ',just my impression1' murmured ,i2 'but hush6 he is recovering4' ,in a minute or two he was able to speak feebly1 and began to thank us and apologize for giving trouble2 and soon he sat up1 leaning against a tree1 and in a firm1 though still low voice said3 ',my dear friends1 ,i feel ,i owe you an explanation of my extraordinary behaviour4 ,it is an explanation that ,i would fain avoid giving2 but it must come some time1 and so may as well be given now4 ,you may perhaps have noticed that when during our voyage you all joined in scoffing at dreams1 portents and visions1 ,i invariably avoided giving any opinion on the subject4 ,i did so because1 while ,i had no desire to court ridicule or provoke discussion1 ,i was unable to agree with you1 knowing only too well from my own dread experience that the world which men agree to call that of the supernatural is just as real as--nay1 perhaps1 even far more real than--this world we see about us4 ,in other words1 ,i1 like many of my countrymen1 am cursed with the gift of second-sight--that awful faculty which foretells in vision calamities that are shortly to occur4 ',such a vision ,i had just now1 and its exceptional horror moved me as you have seen4 ,i saw before me a corpse--not that of one who has died a peaceful natural death1 but that of the victim of some terrible accident2 a ghastly1 shapeless mass1 with a face swollen1 crushed1 unrecognizable4 ,i saw this dreadful object placed in a coffin1 and the funeral service performed over it4 ,i saw the burial-ground1 ,i saw the clergyman3 and though ,i had never seen either before1 ,i can picture both perfectly in my mind's eye now2 ,i saw you1 myself1 ,beauchamp1 all of us and many more1 standing round as mourners2 ,i saw the soldiers raise their muskets after the service was over2 ,i heard the volley they fired--and then ,i knew no more4' ,as he spoke of that volley of musketry ,i glanced across with a shudder at ,beauchamp1 and the look of stony horror on that handsome sceptic's face was not to be forgotten4 ,this is only one incident 7and by no means the principal one7 in a very remarkable story of psychic experience1 but as for the moment we are concerned merely with the example of second-sight which it gives us1 ,i need only say that later in the day the party of young soldiers discovered the body of their commanding officer in the terrible condition so graphically described by ,mr4 ,cameron4 ,the narrative continues3 ,when1 on the following evening1 we arrived at our destination1 and our melancholy deposition had been taken down by the proper authorities1 ,cameron and ,i went out for a quiet walk1 to endeavour with the assistance of the soothing influence of nature to shake off something of the gloom which paralyzed our spirits4 ,suddenly he clutched my arm1 and1 pointing through some rude railings1 said in a trembling voice1 ',yes1 there it is6 that is the burial-ground ,i saw yesterday4' ,and when later on we were introduced to the chaplain of the post1 ,i noticed1 though my friends did not1 the irrepressible shudder with which ,cameron took his hand1 and ,i knew that he had recognized the clergyman of his vision4 ,as for the occult rationale of all this1 ,i presume ,mr4 ,cameron's vision was a pure case of second-sight1 and if so the fact that the two men who were evidently nearest to him 7certainly one--probably both--actually touching him7 participated in it to the limited extent of hearing the concluding volley1 while the others who were not so close did not1 would show that the intensity with which the vision impressed itself upon the seer occasioned vibrations in his mind-body which were communicated to those of the persons in contact with him1 as in ordinary thought-transference4 ,anyone who wishes to read the rest of the story will find it in the pages of ,lucifer1 vol4 xx41 p4 #deg4 ,scores of examples of similar nature to these might easily be collected4 ,with regard to the symbolical variety of this sight1 it is commonly stated among those who possess it that if on meeting a living person they see a phantom shroud wrapped around him1 it is a sure prognostication of his death4 ,the date of the approaching decease is indicated either by the extent to which the shroud covers the body1 or by the time of day at which the vision is seen2 for if it be in the early morning they say that the man will die during the same day1 but if it be in the evening1 then it will be only some time within a year4 ,another variant 7and a remarkable one7 of the symbolic form of second-sight is that in which the headless apparition of the person whose death is foretold manifests itself to the seer4 ,an example of that class is given in ,signs before ,death as having happened in the family of ,dr4 ,ferrier1 though in that case1 if ,i recollect rightly1 the vision did not occur until the time of the death1 or very near it4 ,turning from seers who are regularly in possession of a certain faculty1 although its manifestations are only occasionally fully under their control1 we are confronted by a large number of isolated instances of prevision in the case of people with whom it is not in any way a regular faculty4 ,perhaps the majority of these occur in dreams1 although examples of the waking vision are by no means wanting4 ,sometimes the prevision refers to an event of distinct importance to the seer1 and so justifies the action of the ,ego in taking the trouble to impress it4 ,in other cases1 the event is one which is of no apparent importance1 or is not in any way connected with the man to whom the vision comes4 ,sometimes it is clear that the intention of the ,ego 7or the communicating entity1 whatever it may be7 is to warn the lower self of the approach of some calamity1 either in order that it may be prevented or1 if that be not possible1 that the shock may be minimized by preparation4 ,the event most frequently thus foreshadowed is1 perhaps not unnaturally1 death--sometimes the death of the seer himself1 sometimes that of one dear to him4 ,this type of prevision is so common in the literature of the subject1 and its object is so obvious1 that we need hardly cite examples of it2 but one or two instances in which the prophetic sight1 though clearly useful1 was yet of a less sombre character1 will prove not uninteresting to the reader4 ,the following is culled from that storehouse of the student of the uncanny1 ,mrs4 ,crowe's ,night ,side of ,nature1 p4 #gb4 ,a few years ago ,dr4 ,watson1 now residing at ,glasgow1 dreamt that he received a summons to attend a patient at a place some miles from where he was living2 that he started on horseback1 and that as he was crossing a moor he saw a bull making furiously at him1 whose horns he only escaped by taking refuge on a spot inaccessible to the animal1 where he waited a long time till some people1 observing his situation1 came to his assistance and released him4 ,whilst at breakfast on the following morning the summons came1 and smiling at the odd coincidence 7as he thought it71 he started on horseback4 ,he was quite ignorant of the road he had to go1 but by and by he arrived at the moor1 which he recognised1 and presently the bull appeared1 coming full tilt towards him4 ,but his dream had shown him the place of refuge1 for which he instantly made1 and there he spent three or four hours1 besieged by the animal1 till the country people set him free4 ,dr4 ,watson declares that but for the dream he should not have known in what direction to run for safety4 ,another case1 in which a much longer interval separated the warning and its fulfilment1 is given by ,dr4 ,f4 ,g4 ,lee1 in ,glimpses of the ,supernatural1 vol4 i41 p4 #bdj4 ,mrs4 ,hannah ,green1 the housekeeper of a country family in ,oxfordshire1 dreamt one night that she had been left alone in the house upon a ,sunday evening1 and that hearing a knock at the door of the chief entrance she went to it and there found an ill-looking tramp armed with a bludgeon1 who insisted on forcing himself into the house4 ,she thought that she struggled for some time to prevent him so doing1 but quite ineffectually1 and that1 being struck down by him and rendered insensible1 he thereupon gained ingress to the mansion4 ,on this she awoke4 ,as nothing happened for a considerable period the circumstance of the dream was soon forgotten1 and1 as she herself asserts1 had altogether passed away from her mind4 ,however1 seven years afterwards this same housekeeper was left with two other servants to take charge of an isolated mansion at ,kensington 7subsequently the town residence of the family71 when on a certain ,sunday evening1 her fellow-servants having gone out and left her alone1 she was suddenly startled by a loud knock at the front door4 ,all of a sudden the remembrance of her former dream returned to her with singular vividness and remarkable force1 and she felt her lonely isolation greatly4 ,accordingly1 having at once lighted a lamp on the hall table--during which act the loud knock was repeated with vigour--she took the precaution to go up to a landing on the stair and throw up the window2 and there to her intense terror she saw in the flesh the very man whom years previously she had seen in her dream1 armed with the bludgeon and demanding an entrance4 ,with great presence of mind she went down to the chief entrance1 made that and other doors and windows more secure1 and then rang the various bells of the house violently1 and placed lights in the upper rooms4 ,it was concluded that by these acts the intruder was scared away4 ,evidently in this case also the dream was of practical use1 as without it the worthy housekeeper would without doubt from sheer force of habit have opened the door in the ordinary way in answer to the knock4 ,it is not1 however1 only in dream that the ,ego impresses his lower self with what he thinks it well for it to know4 ,many instances showing this might be taken from the books1 but instead of quoting from them ,i will give a case related only a few weeks ago by a lady of my acquaintance--a case which1 although not surrounded with any romantic incident1 has at least the merit of being new4 ,my friend1 then1 has two quite young children1 and a little while ago the elder of them caught 7as was supposed7 a bad cold1 and suffered for some days from a complete stoppage in the upper part of the nose4 ,the mother thought little of this1 expecting it to pass off1 until one day she suddenly saw before her in the air what she describes as a picture of a room1 in the centre of which was a table on which her child was lying insensible or dead1 with some people bending over her4 ,the minutest details of the scene were clear to her1 and she particularly noticed that the child wore a white night-dress1 whereas she knew that all garments of that description possessed by her little daughter happened to be pink4 ,this vision impressed her considerably1 and suggested to her for the first time that the child might be suffering from something more serious than a cold1 so she carried her off to a hospital for examination4 ,the surgeon who attended to her discovered the presence of a dangerous growth in the nose1 which he pronounced must be removed4 ,a few days later the child was taken to the hospital for the operation1 and was put to bed4 ,when the mother arrived at the hospital she found she had forgotten to bring one of the child's night-dresses1 and so the nurses had to supply one1 which was white4 ,in this white dress the operation was performed on the girl the next day1 in the room that her mother saw in her vision1 every circumstance being exactly reproduced4 ,in all these cases the prevision achieved its result1 but the books are full of stories of warnings neglected or scouted1 and of the disaster that consequently followed4 ,in some cases the information is given to someone who has practically no power to interfere in the matter1 as in the historic instance when ,john ,williams1 a ,cornish mine-manager1 foresaw in the minutest detail1 eight or nine days before it took place1 the assassination of ,mr4 ,spencer ,perceval1 the then ,chancellor of the ,exchequer1 in the lobby of the ,house of ,commons4 ,even in this case1 however1 it is just possible that something might have been done1 for we read that ,mr4 ,williams was so much impressed that he consulted his friends as to whether he ought not to go up to ,london to warn ,mr4 ,perceval4 ,unfortunately they dissuaded him1 and the assassination took place4 ,it does not seem very probable that1 even if he had gone up to town and related his story1 much attention would have been paid to him1 still there is just the possibility that some precautions might have been taken which would have prevented the murder4 ,there is little to show us what particular action on higher planes led to this curious prophetic vision4 ,the parties were entirely unknown to one another1 so that it was not caused by any close sympathy between them4 ,if it was an attempt made by some helper to avert the threatened doom1 it seems strange that no one who was sufficiently impressible could be found nearer than ,cornwall4 ,perhaps ,mr4 ,williams1 when on the astral plane during sleep1 somehow came across this reflection of the future1 and being naturally horrified thereby1 passed it on to his lower mind in the hope that somehow something might be done to prevent it2 but it is impossible to diagnose the case with certainty without examining the kshic records to see what actually took place4 ,a typical instance of the absolutely purposeless foresight is that related by ,mr4 ,stead1 in his ,real ,ghost ,stories 7p4 #hc71 of his friend ,miss ,freer1 commonly known as ,miss ,x4 ,when staying at a country house this lady1 being wide awake and fully conscious1 once saw a dogcart drawn by a white horse standing at the hall door1 with two strangers in it1 one of whom got out of the cart and stood playing with a terrier4 ,she noticed that he was wearing an ulster1 and also particularly observed the fresh wheel-marks made by the cart on the gravel4 ,nevertheless there was no cart there at the time2 but half an hour later two strangers did drive up in such an equipage1 and every detail of the lady's vision was accurately fulfilled4 ,mr4 ,stead goes on to cite another instance of equally purposeless prevision where seven years separated the dream 7for in this case it was a dream7 and its fulfilment4 ,all these instances 7and they are merely random selections from many hundreds7 show that a certain amount of prevision is undoubtedly possible to the ,ego1 and such cases would evidently be much more frequent if it were not for the exceeding density and lack of response in the lower vehicles of the majority of what we call civilized mankind--qualities chiefly attributable to the gross practical materialism of the present age4 ,i am not thinking of any profession of materialistic belief as common1 but of the fact that in all practical affairs of daily life nearly everyone is guided solely by considerations of worldly interest in some shape or other4 ,in many cases the ,ego himself may be an undeveloped one1 and his prevision consequently very vague2 in others he himself may see clearly1 but may find his lower vehicles so unimpressible that all he can succeed in getting through into his physical brain may be an indefinite presage of coming disaster4 ,again1 there are cases in which a premonition is not the work of the ,ego at all1 but of some outside entity1 who for some reason takes a friendly interest in the person to whom the feeling comes4 ,in the work which ,i quoted above1 ,mr4 ,stead tells us of the certainty which he felt many months beforehand that be would be left in charge of the ,pall ,mall ,gazette though from an ordinary point of view nothing seemed less probable4 ,whether that fore-knowledge was the result of an impression made by his own ,ego or of a friendly hint from someone else it is impossible to say without definite investigation1 but his confidence in it was fully justified4 ,there is one more variety of clairvoyance in time which ought not to be left without mention4 ,it is a comparatively rare one1 but there are enough examples on record to claim our attention1 though unfortunately the particulars given do not usually include those which we should require in order to be able to diagnose it with certainty4 ,i refer to the cases in which spectral armies or phantom flocks of animals have been seen4 ,in ,the ,night ,side of ,nature 7p4 #dfb et seq47 we have accounts of several such visions4 ,we are there told how at ,havarah ,park1 near ,ripley1 a body of soldiers in white uniform1 amounting to several hundreds1 was seen by reputable people to go through various evolutions and then vanish2 and how some years earlier a similar visionary army was seen in the neighbourhood of ,inverness by a respectable farmer and his son4 ,in this case also the number of troops was very great1 and the spectators had not the slightest doubt at first that they were substantial forms of flesh and blood4 ,they counted at least sixteen pairs of columns1 and had abundance of time to observe every particular4 ,the front ranks marched seven abreast1 and were accompanied by a good many women and children1 who were carrying tin cans and other implements of cookery4 ,the men were clothed in red1 and their arms shone brightly in the sun4 ,in the midst of them was an animal1 a deer or a horse1 they could not distinguish which1 that they were driving furiously forward with their bayonets4 ,the younger of the two men observed to the other that every now and then the rear ranks were obliged to run to overtake the van2 and the elder one1 who had been a soldier1 remarked that that was always the case1 and recommended him if he ever served to try to march in the front4 ,there was only one mounted officer2 he rode a grey dragoon horse1 and wore a gold-laced hat and blue ,hussar cloak1 with wide open sleeves lined with red4 ,the two spectators observed him so particularly that they said afterwards they should recognize him anywhere4 ,they were1 however1 afraid of being ill-treated or forced to go along with the troops1 whom they concluded to have come from ,ireland1 and landed at ,kyntyre2 and whilst they were climbing over a dyke to get out of their way1 the whole thing vanished4 ,a phenomenon of the same sort was observed in the earlier part of this century at ,paderborn in ,westphalia1 and seen by at least thirty people2 but as1 some years later1 a review of twenty thousand men was held on the very same spot1 it was concluded that the vision must have been some sort of second-sight--a faculty not uncommon in the district4 ,such spectral hosts1 however1 are sometimes seen where an army of ordinary men could by no possibility have marched1 either before or after4 ,one of the most remarkable accounts of such apparitions is given by ,miss ,harriet ,martineau1 in her description of ,the ,english ,lakes4 ,she writes as follows3-- ,this ,souter or ,soutra ,fell is the mountain on which ghosts appeared in myriads1 at intervals during ten years of the last century1 presenting the same appearances to twenty-six chosen witnesses1 and to all the inhabitants of all the cottages within view of the mountain1 and for a space of two hours and a half at one time--the spectral show being closed by darkness6 ,the mountain1 be it remembered1 is full of precipices1 which defy all marching of bodies of men2 and the north and west sides present a sheer perpendicular of #ijj feet4 ,on ,midsummer ,eve1 #agce1 a farm servant of ,mr4 ,lancaster1 half a mile from the mountain1 saw the eastern side of its summit covered with troops1 which pursued their onward march for an hour4 ,they came1 in distinct bodies1 from an eminence on the north end1 and disappeared in a niche in the summit4 ,when the poor fellow told his tale1 he was insulted on all hands1 as original observers usually are when they see anything wonderful4 ,two years after1 also on a ,midsummer ,eve1 ,mr4 ,lancaster saw some men there1 apparently following their horses1 as if they had returned from hunting4 ,he thought nothing of this2 but he happened to look up again ten minutes after1 and saw the figures1 now mounted1 and followed by an interminable array of troops1 five abreast1 marching from the eminence and over the cleft as before4 ,all the family saw this1 and the manoeuvres of the force1 as each company was kept in order by a mounted officer1 who galloped this way and that4 ,as the shades of twilight came on1 the discipline appeared to relax1 and the troops intermingled1 and rode at unequal paces1 till all was lost in darkness4 ,now of course all the ,lancasters were insulted1 as their servant had been2 but their justification was not long delayed4 ,on the ,midsummer ,eve of the fearful #agde1 twenty-six persons1 expressly summoned by the family1 saw all that had been seen before1 and more4 ,carriages were now interspersed with the troops2 and everybody knew that no carriages had been1 or could be1 on the summit of ,souter ,fell4 ,the multitude was beyond imagination2 for the troops filled a space of half a mile1 and marched quickly till night hid them--still marching4 ,there was nothing vaporous or indistinct about the appearance of these spectres4 ,so real did they seem1 that some of the people went up1 the next morning1 to look for the hoof-marks of the horses2 and awful it was to them to find not one foot-print on heather or grass4 ,the witnesses attested the whole story on oath before a magistrate2 and fearful were the expectations held by the whole country-side about the coming events of the ,scotch rebellion4 ,it now comes out that two other persons had seen something of the sort in the interval--viz41 in #agdc--;but had concealed it1 to escape the insults to which their neighbours were subjected4 ,mr4 ,wren1 of ,wilton ,hall1 and his farm servant1 saw1 one summer evening1 a man and a dog on the mountain1 pursuing some horses along a place so steep that a horse could hardly by any possibility keep a footing on it4 ,their speed was prodigious1 and their disappearance at the south end of the fell so rapid1 that ,mr4 ,wren and the servant went up1 the next morning1 to find the body of the man who must have been killed4 ,of man1 horse1 or dog1 they found not a trace and they came down and held their tongues4 ,when they did speak1 they fared not much better for having twenty-six sworn comrades in their disgrace4 ,as for the explanation1 the editor of the ,lonsdale ,magazine declared 7vol4 ii41 p4 #cac7 that it was discovered that on the ,midsummer ,eve of #agde the rebels were 'exercising on the western coast of ,scotland1 whose movements had been reflected by some transparent vapour1 similar to the ,fata ,morgana4' ,this is not much in the way of explanation2 but it is1 as far as we know1 all that can be had at present4 ,these facts1 however1 brought out a good many more2 as the spectral march of the same kind seen in ,leicestershire in #agjg1 and the tradition of the tramp of armies over ,helvellyn1 on the eve of the battle of ,marston ,moor4 ,other cases are cited in which flocks of spectral sheep have been seen on certain roads1 and there are of course various ,german stories of phantom cavalcades of hunters and robbers4 ,now in these cases1 as so often happens in the investigation of occult phenomena1 there are several possible causes1 any one of which would be quite adequate to the production of the observed occurrences1 but in the absence of fuller information it is hardly feasible to do more than guess as to which of these possible causes were in operation in any particular instance4 ,the explanation usually suggested 7whenever the whole story is not ridiculed as a falsehood7 is that what is seen is a reflection by mirage of the movements of a real body of troops1 taking place at a considerable distance4 ,i have myself seen the ordinary mirage on several occasions1 and know something therefore of its wonderful powers of deception2 but it seems to me that we should need some entirely new variety of mirage1 quite different from that at present known to science1 to account for these tales of phantom armies1 some of which pass the spectator within a few yards4 ,first of all1 they may be1 as apparently in the ,westphalian case above mentioned1 simply instances of prevision on a gigantic scale--by whom arranged1 and for what purpose1 it is not easy to divine4 ,again1 they may often belong to the past instead of the future1 and be in fact the reflection of scenes from the kshic records--though here again the reason and method of such reflection is not obvious4 ,there are plenty of tribes of nature-spirits perfectly capable1 if for any reason they wished to do so1 of producing such appearances by their wonderful power of glamour 7see ,theosophical ,manual1 ,no4 ,v41 p4 #fj71 and such action would be quite in keeping with their delight in mystifying and impressing human beings4 ,or it may even sometimes be kindly intended by them as a warning to their friends of events that they know to be about to take place4 ,it seems as though some explanation along these lines would be the most reasonable method of accounting for the extraordinary series of phenomena described by ,miss ,martineau--that is1 if the stories told to her can be relied upon4 ,another possibility is that in some cases what have been taken for soldiers were simply the nature-spirits themselves going through some of the ordered evolutions in which they take so much delight1 though it must be admitted that these are rarely of a character which could be mistaken for military manoeuvres except by the most ignorant4 ,the flocks of animals are probably in most instances mere records1 but there are cases where they1 like the wild huntsmen of ,german story1 belong to an entirely different class of phenomena1 which is altogether outside of our present subject4 ,students of the occult will be familiar with the fact that the circumstances surrounding any scene of intense terror or passion1 such as an exceptionally horrible murder1 are liable to be occasionally reproduced in a form which it needs a very slight development of psychic faculty to be able to see and it has sometimes happened that various animals formed part of such surroundings1 and consequently they also are periodically reproduced by the action of the guilty conscience of the murderer 7see ,manual ,v41 p4 #hc74 ,probably whatever foundation of fact underlies the various stories of spectral horsemen and hunting-troops may generally be referred to this category4 ,this is also the explanation1 evidently1 of some of the visions of ghostly armies1 such as that remarkable re-enactment of the battle of ,edgehill which seems to have taken place at intervals for some months after the date of the real struggle1 as testified by a justice of the peace1 a clergyman1 and other eye-witnesses1 in a curious contemporary pamphlet entitled ,prodigious ,noises of ,war and ,battle1 at ,edgehill1 near ,keinton1 in ,northamptonshire4 ,according to the pamphlet this case was investigated at the time by some officers of the army1 who clearly recognized many of the phantom figures that they saw4 ,this looks decidedly like an instance of the terrible power of man's unrestrained passions to reproduce themselves1 and to cause in some strange way a kind of materialization of their record4 ,in some cases it is clear that the flocks of animals seen have been simply hordes of unclean artificial elementals taking that form in order to feed upon the loathsome emanations of peculiarly horrible places1 such as would be the site of a gallows4 ,an instance of this kind is furnished by the celebrated ,gyb ,ghosts1 or ghosts of the gibbet1 described in ,more ,glimpses of the ,world ,unseen1 p4 #aji1 as being repeatedly seen in the form of herds of mis-shapen swine-like creatures1 rushing1 rooting and fighting night after night on the site of that foul monument of crime4 ,but these belong to the subject of apparitions rather than to that of clairvoyance4 ,,chapter ,,ix4 ,,methods ,,of ,,development4 ,when a man becomes convinced of the reality of the valuable power of clairvoyance1 his first question usually is1 ,how can ,i develop in my own case this faculty which is said to be latent in everyone8 ,now the fact is that there are many methods by which it may be developed1 but only one which can be at all safely recommended for general use--that of which we shall speak last of all4 ,among the less advanced nations of the world the clairvoyant state has been produced in various objectionable ways2 among some of the non-,aryan tribes of ,india1 by the use of intoxicating drugs or the inhaling of stupefying fumes2 among the dervishes1 by whirling in a mad dance of religious fervour until vertigo and insensibility supervene2 among the followers of the abominable practices of the ,voodoo cult1 by frightful sacrifices and loathsome rites of black magic4 ,methods such as these are happily not in vogue in our own race1 yet even among us large numbers of dabblers in this ancient art adopt some plan of self-hypnotization1 such as the gazing at a bright spot or the repetition of some formula until a condition of semi-stupefaction is produced2 while yet another school among them would endeavour to arrive at similar results by the use of some of the ,indian systems of regulation of the breath4 ,all these methods are unequivocally to be condemned as quite unsafe for the practice of the ordinary man who has no idea of what he is doing--who is simply making vague experiments in an unknown world4 ,even the method of obtaining clairvoyance by allowing oneself to be mesmerized by another person is one from which ,i should myself shrink with the most decided distaste2 and assuredly it should never be attempted except under conditions of absolute trust and affection between the magnetizer and the magnetized1 and a perfection of purity in heart and soul1 in mind and intention1 such as is rarely to be seen among any but the greatest of saints4 ,experiments in connection with the mesmeric trance are of the deepest interest1 as offering 7among other things7 a possibility of proof of the fact of clairvoyance to the sceptic1 yet except under such conditions as ,i have just mentioned--conditions1 ,i quite admit1 almost impossible to realize--,i should never counsel anyone to submit himself as a subject for them4 ,curative mesmerism 7in which1 without putting the patient into the trance state at all1 an effort is made to relieve his pain1 to remove his disease1 or to pour vitality into him by magnetic passes7 stands on an entirely different footing2 and if the mesmerizer1 even though quite untrained1 is himself in good health and animated by pure intentions1 no harm is likely to be done to the subject4 ,in so extreme a case as that of a surgical operation1 a man might reasonably submit himself even to the mesmeric trance1 but it is certainly not a condition with which one ought lightly to experiment4 ,indeed1 ,i should most strongly advise any one who did me the honour to ask for my opinion on the subject1 not to attempt any kind of experimental investigation into what are still to him the abnormal forces of nature1 until he has first of all read carefully everything that has been written on the subject1 or--which is by far the best of all--until he is under the guidance of a qualified teacher4 ,but where1 it will be said1 is the qualified teacher to be found8 ,not1 most assuredly1 among any who advertise themselves as teachers1 who offer to impart for so many guineas or dollars the sacred mysteries of the ages1 or hold developing circles to which casual applicants are admitted at so much per head4 ,much has been said in this treatise of the necessity for careful training--of the immense advantages of the trained over the untrained clairvoyant2 but that again brings us back to the same question--where is this definite training to be had8 ,the answer is1 that the training may be had precisely where it has always been to be found since the world's history began--at the hands of the ,great ,white ,brotherhood of ,adepts1 which stands now1 as it has always stood1 at the back of human evolution1 guiding and helping it under the sway of the great cosmic laws which represent to us the ,will of the ,eternal4 ,but how1 it may be asked1 is access to be gained to them8 ,how is the aspirant thirsting for knowledge to signify to them his wish for instruction8 ,once more1 by the time-honoured methods only4 ,there is no new patent whereby a man can qualify himself without trouble to become a pupil in that ,school--no royal road to the learning which has to be acquired in it4 ,at the present day1 just as in the mists of antiquity1 the man who wishes to attract their notice must enter upon the slow and toilsome path of self-development--must learn first of all to take himself in hand and make himself all that he ought to be4 ,the steps of that path are no secret2 ,i have given them in full detail in ,invisible ,helpers1 so ,i need not repeat them here4 ,but it is no easy road to follow1 and yet sooner or later all must follow it1 for the great law of evolution sweeps mankind slowly but resistlessly towards its goal4 ,from those who are pressing into this path the great ,masters select their pupils1 and it is only by qualifying himself to be taught that a man can put himself in the way of getting the teaching4 ,without that qualification1 membership in any ,lodge or ,society1 whether secret or otherwise1 will not advance his object in the slightest degree4 ,it is true1 as we all know1 that it was at the instance of some of these ,masters that our ,theosophical ,society was founded1 and that from its ranks some have been chosen to pass into closer relations with them4 ,but that choice depends upon the earnestness of the candidate1 not upon his mere membership of the ,society or of any body within it4 ,that1 then1 is the only absolutely safe way of developing clairvoyance--to enter with all one's energy upon the path of moral and mental evolution1 at one stage of which this and other of the higher faculties will spontaneously begin to show themselves4 ,yet there is one practice which is advised by all the religions alike--which if adopted carefully and reverently can do no harm to any human being1 yet from which a very pure type of clairvoyance has sometimes been developed2 and that is the practice of meditation4 ,let a man choose a certain time every day--a time when he can rely upon being quiet and undisturbed1 though preferably in the daytime rather than at night--and set himself at that time to keep his mind for a few minutes entirely free from all earthly thoughts of any kind whatever and1 when that is achieved1 to direct the whole force of his being towards the highest spiritual ideal that he happens to know4 ,he will find that to gain such perfect control of thought is enormously more difficult than he supposes1 but when he attains it it cannot but be in every way most beneficial to him1 and as he grows more and more able to elevate and concentrate his thought1 he may gradually find that new worlds are opening before his sight4 ,as a preliminary training towards the satisfactory achievement of such meditation1 he will find it desirable to make a practice of concentration in the affairs of daily life--even in the smallest of them4 ,if he writes a letter1 let him think of nothing else but that letter until it is finished if he reads a book1 let him see to it that his thought is never allowed to wander from his author's meaning4 ,he must learn to hold his mind in check1 and to be master of that also1 as well as of his lower passions he must patiently labour to acquire absolute control of his thoughts1 so that he will always know exactly what he is thinking about1 and why--so that he can use his mind1 and turn it or hold it still1 as a practised swordsman turns his weapon where he will4 ,yet after all1 if those who so earnestly desire clairvoyance could possess it temporarily for a day or even an hour1 it is far from certain that they would choose to retain the gift4 ,true1 it opens before them new worlds of study1 new powers of usefulness1 and for this latter reason most of us feel it worth while2 but it should be remembered that for one whose duty still calls him to live in the world it is by no means an unmixed blessing4 ,upon one in whom that vision is opened the sorrow and the misery1 the evil and the greed of the world press as an ever-present burden1 until in the earlier days of his knowledge he often feels inclined to echo the passionate adjuration contained in those rolling lines of ,schiller's3 ,dien ,orakel zu verknden1 warum warfest du mich hin ,in die ,stadt der ewig ,blinden1 mit dem aufgeschloss'nen ,sinn8 ,frommt's1 den ,schleier aufzuheben1 wo das nahe ,schreckniss droht8 ,nur der ,irrthum ist das ,leben2 dieses ,wissen ist der ,tod4 ,nimm1 ,o nimm die traur'ge ,klarheit mir vom ,aug' den blut'gen ,schein6 ,schrecklich ist es deiner ,wahrheit sterbliches ,gefss zu seyn6 which may perhaps be translated ,why hast thou cast me thus into the town of the ever-blind1 to proclaim thine oracle by the opened sense8 ,what profits it to lift the veil where the near darkness threatens8 ,only ignorance is life2 this knowledge is death4 ,take back this sad clear-sightedness2 take from mine eyes this cruel light6 ,it is horrible to be the mortal channel of thy truth4 ,and again later he cries1 ,give me back my blindness1 the happy darkness of my senses2 take back thy dreadful gift6 ,but this of course is a feeling which passes1 for the higher sight soon shows the pupil something beyond the sorrow--soon bears in upon his soul the overwhelming certainty that1 whatever appearances down here may seem to indicate1 all things are without shadow of doubt working together for the eventual good of all4 ,he reflects that the sin and the suffering are there1 whether he is able to perceive them or not1 and that when he can see them he is after all better able to give efficient help than he would be if he were working in the dark2 and so by degrees he learns to bear his share of the heavy karma of the world4 ,some misguided mortals there are who1 having the good fortune to possess some slight touch of this higher power1 are nevertheless so absolutely destitute of all right feeling in connection with it as to use it for the most sordid ends--actually even to advertise themselves as test and business clairvoyants6 ,needless to say1 such use of the faculty is a mere prostitution and degradation of it1 showing that its unfortunate possessor has somehow got hold of it before the moral side of his nature has been sufficiently developed to stand the strain which it imposes4 ,a perception of the amount of evil karma that may be generated by such action in a very short time changes one's disgust into pity for the unhappy perpetrator of that sacrilegious folly4 ,it is sometimes objected that the possession of clairvoyance destroys all privacy1 and confers a limit-less ability to explore the secrets of others4 ,no doubt it does confer such an ability1 but nevertheless the suggestion is an amusing one to anyone who knows anything practically about the matter4 ,such an objection may possibly be well-founded as regards the very limited powers of the test and business clairvoyant1 but the man who brings it forward against those who have had the faculty opened for them in the course of their instruction1 and consequently possess it fully1 is forgetting three fundamental facts3 first1 that it is quite inconceivable that anyone1 having before him the splendid fields for investigation which true clairvoyance opens up1 could ever have the slightest wish to pry into the trumpery little secrets of any individual man2 secondly1 that even if by some impossible chance our clairvoyant had such indecent curiosity about matters of petty gossip1 there is1 after all1 such a thing as the honour of a gentleman1 which1 on that plane as on this1 would of course prevent him from contemplating for an instant the idea of gratifying it2 and thirdly1 in case1 by any unheard-of possibility1 one might encounter some variety of low-class pitri with whom the above considerations would have no weight1 full instructions are always given to every pupil1 as soon as he develops any sign of faculty1 as to the limitations which are placed upon its use4 ,put briefly1 these restrictions are that there shall be no prying1 no selfish use of the power1 and no displaying of phenomena4 ,that is to say1 that the same considerations which would govern the actions of a man of right feeling upon the physical plane are expected to apply upon the astral and mental planes also2 that the pupil is never under any circumstances to use the power which his additional knowledge gives to him in order to promote his own worldly advantage1 or indeed in connection with gain in any way2 and that he is never to give what is called in spiritualistic circles a test--that is1 to do anything which will incontestably prove to sceptics on the physical plane that he possesses what to them would appear to be an abnormal power4 ,with regard to this latter proviso people often say1 ,but why should he not8 it would be so easy to confute and convince your sceptic1 and it would do him good6 ,such critics lose sight of the fact that1 in the first place1 none of those who know anything want to confute or convince sceptics1 or trouble themselves in the slightest degree about the sceptic's attitude one way or the other2 and in the second1 they fail to understand how much better it is for that sceptic that he should gradually grow into an intellectual appreciation of the facts of nature1 instead of being suddenly introduced to them by a knock-down blow1 as it were4 ,but the subject was fully considered many years ago in ,mr4 ,sinnet's ,occult ,world1 and it is needless to repeat again the arguments there adduced4 ,it is very hard for some of our friends to realize that the silly gossip and idle curiosity which so entirely fill the lives of the brainless majority on earth can have no place in the more real life of the disciple2 and so they sometimes enquire whether1 even without any special wish to see1 a clairvoyant might not casually observe some secret which another person was trying to keep1 in the same way as one's glance might casually fall upon a sentence in someone else's letter which happened to be lying open upon the table4 ,of course he might1 but what if he did8 ,the man of honour would at once avert his eyes1 in one case as in the other1 and it would be as though he had not seen4 ,if objectors could but grasp the idea that no pupil cares about other people's business1 except when it comes within his province to try to help them1 and that he has always a world of work of his own to attend to1 they would not be so hopelessly far from understanding the facts of the wider life of the trained clairvoyant4 ,even from the little that ,i have said with regard to the restrictions laid upon the pupil1 it will be obvious that in very many cases he will know much more than he is at liberty to say4 ,that is of course true in a far wider sense of the great ,masters of ,wisdom themselves1 and that is why those who have the privilege of occasionally entering their presence pay so much respect to their lightest word even on subjects quite apart from the direct teaching4 ,for the opinion of a ,master1 or even of one of his higher pupils1 upon any subject is that of a man whose opportunity of judging accurately is out of all proportion to ours4 ,his position and his extended faculties are in reality the heritage of all mankind1 and1 far though we may now be from those grand powers1 they will none the less certainly be ours one day4 ,yet how different a place will this old world be when humanity as a whole possesses the higher clairvoyance6 ,think what the difference will be to history when all can read the records2 to science1 when all the processes about which now men theorize can be watched through all their course2 to medicine1 when doctor and patient alike can see clearly and exactly all that is being done2 to philosophy1 when there is no longer any possibility of discussion as to its basis1 because all alike can see a wider aspect of the truth2 to labour1 when all work will be joy1 because every man will be put only to that which he can do best2 to education1 when the minds and hearts of the children are open to the teacher who is trying to form their character2 to religion1 when there is no longer any possibility of dispute as to its broad dogmas1 since the truth about the states after death1 and the ,great ,law that governs the world1 will be patent to all eyes4 ,above all1 how far easier it will be then for the evolved men to help one another under those so much freer conditions6 ,the possibilities that open before the mind are as glorious vistas stretching in all directions1 so that our seventh round should indeed be a veritable golden age4 ,well for us that these grand faculties will not be possessed by all humanity until it has evolved to a far higher level in morality as well as in wisdom1 else should we but repeat once more under still worse conditions the terrible downfall of the great ,atlantean civilization1 whose members failed to realize that increased power meant increased responsibility4 ,yet we ourselves were most of us among those very men let us hope that we have learnt wisdom by that failure1 and that when the possibilities of the wider life open before us once more1 this time we shall bear the trial better4 ,,index ,,page ,advantages of astral vision1 #da1 #fe1 #ga mental vision1 #gi training1 #bj1 #ef1 #gj1 #ajc1 #aaf1 #aba kshic records1 #he1 #ig et seq41 #afj ,apparitions1 #ed ,armies1 phantom1 #aed ,assassination of ,mr4 ,perceval1 #aea ,aspect of the records1 #aae ,astral body1 #fi counterpart #af current1 #fb et seq41 #hh1 #ie matter1 polarization of1 #fc senses1 #ag sight1 #cg et seq41 #ei et seq41 #ff telescope1 #fe1 #he1 #ajc world1 #ha1 #ajc ,aura1 the1 #db et seq41 #aja ,balance1 #abf ,bat's cry1 experiment with1 #aa ,battle of ,edgehill1 #afa ,body1 the astral1 #fi the causal1 #aja ,brownies1 #cc ,buddhic faculty1 #ah1 #ajh1 #acf1 #aci ,bull and the doctor1 the story of1 #adg ,causal body1 #aja ,centres of vitality1 #ad1 #ag ,cerebro-spinal system1 #bb ,ceremonies used to gain clairvoyance1 #eb1 #afc ,certainty of eventual good1 #agd ,character1 judgment of1 #db ,chakrams1 #ad-ag ,chord of a man1 the1 #hj ,clairaudience1 #f1 #fi et seq4 ,clairvoyance by drugs or ceremonies1 #eb et seq41 #afc casual1 #ic does it destroy privacy81 #aga ,clairvoyance during sleep1 #bf how first manifested1 #bf hysterical1 #ec limitations of1 #gi1 #ha1 #aga meaning of word1 #e occasional flashes of1 #bc of the uncultured1 #ba on mental plane1 #ef on trivial subjects1 #ee1 #ie1 #aeb partial and temporary1 #ed restrictions upon1 #ha1 #aga sadness of1 #afi under mesmerism1 #bd1 #eb1 #afd ,clairvoyants1 test and business1 #ea1 #agj ,classification of phenomena1 #bg ,colours1 new1 #ce ,common-sense in occultism1 necessity of1 #abe ,consciousness1 continuous1 #df the focus of1 #ca ,considerations1 preliminary1 #g ,contemplation1 #afg ,continuous consciousness1 #df ,control of thought1 #afh ,counterpart1 astral1 #af ,crystal-gazing1 #ff1 #hd et seq41 #abg ,curative mesmerism1 #afe ,curiosity not permitted1 #agc ,current1 astral1 #fb et seq41 #hh1 #ie ,dangers1 #gh ,date1 how to find a1 #aai et seq4 ,dead1 the1 #de1 #fb ,death1 visits at1 #gd et seq4 ,delirium tremens1 #ec ,dervishes1 the1 #afc ,devas1 the1 #dd ,development1 methods of1 #afc the path of1 #afg regular1 #ai ,difference between etheric and astral sight1 #cf ,difficulties1 #ajc et seq4 ,dimension1 the fourth1 #ch et seq41 #fe1 #ajg1 #acg ,distance1 sight at a1 #ei1 #ha ,double1 the etheric1 #cd ,drugs used to gain clairvoyance1 #eb1 #afc ,duke of ,orleans1 the story of the1 #ij ,earth1 the ,stars and the1 #aaj ,edgehill1 battle of1 #afa ,elementals1 #cb1 #dd1 #afb ,equation1 the personal1 #ajd et seq4 ,eternal now1 the1 #aji1 #acg ,etheric double1 the1 #cd vision1 #cj et seq4 ,experiments in crystal-gazing1 #ff1 #hd et seq4 with bat's cry1 #aa with spectrum1 #aj ,extension of senses1 #ab ,faculties1 latent1 #g buddhic1 #ah1 #ajh1 #acf1 #aci ,fairy ointment1 #cd ,finding a stranger1 #hj ,first manifestations of clairvoyance1 #be et seq4 ,flocks1 phantom1 #aed1 #afj1 #afb ,focus of consciousness1 the1 #ca ,fourth dimension1 the1 #ch et seq41 #fe1 #ajg1 #acg ,freewill limited1 #acb et seq4 ,future prospects1 #age ,ghosts of the gibbet1 #afb ,glamour1 #afj ,goffe1 the story of ,mary1 #ge ,helpers1 invisible1 #df1 #gd1 #hh1 #aff ,historical study1 possibilities of1 #aad et seq4 ,hinton's works1 #ch ,housekeeper's dream1 the story of the1 #adg et seq4 ,how a picture is found1 #aaf et seq4 to find a date1 #aai et seq4 to investigate1 #ee ,huntsman1 the wild1 #afj ,hypnotization1 self1 #hf ,hysterical clairvoyance1 #ec ,incarnations1 past1 #aah1 #abc et seq4 ,investigate1 how to1 #ee ,invisible helpers1 #df1 #gd1 #hh1 #aff ,judgment of character1 #db ,jung ,stilling's story1 #ga et seq4 ,knowledge1 the value of1 #abe ,latent faculties1 #g ,limitations of clairvoyance1 the1 #gi1 #ha1 #aga ,limited freewill1 #acb et seq4 ,links needed1 #aad ,lodge1 address by ,dr4 ,oliver1 #acg ,logos of the system1 the1 #ii et seq4 ,magic1 #ec ,magnifying1 the power of1 #dg-fg ,manifestations of clairvoyance1 the first1 #bf ,masters of ,wisdom1 the1 #bj1 #afg1 #agd ,materialization1 #gj ,myvirpa1 the1 #gh ,meaning of word clairvoyance1 #e ,meditation1 #afg ,mediums1 trance1 #hc ,mental plane clairvoyance1 #ef plane sense1 #ah world1 #hj1 #ajd1 #aae ,mesmerism1 clairvoyance under1 #bd1 #fb1 #afd curative1 #afe ,methods of development1 #afc ,micawbers1 psychic1 #hc ,mooltan1 story of the siege of1 #ib ,murder1 reproduction of1 #afa ,nature spirits1 #cc1 #dd1 #fa1 #afj ,necessity of common-sense in occultism1 #abe ,new colours1 #ce ,now1 the eternal1 #aji1 #acg ,occasional clairvoyance1 #bc ,ointment1 fairy and witch1 #cd ,orleans1 the story of the ,duke of1 #ij ,other planets1 #ha ,partial and temporary clairvoyance1 #ed ,past incarnations1 #aah1 #abc et seq4 ,path of development1 the1 #afg ,perceval1 assassination of ,mr41 #aea ,personal equation1 the1 #ajd et seq4 ,phantom flocks1 #aed1 #afj1 #afb ,phenomena1 classification of1 #bg sance room1 #ce1 #fb ,philadelphian seer1 the story of a1 #gb et seq4 ,physical objects1 the transparency of1 #cb ,pictures before going to sleep1 #ic ,planets1 other1 #ha ,polarization of astral matter1 #fc ,poseidonis1 the sinking of1 #abj ,possibilities of historical study1 #aad et seq4 ,power of magnifying1 the1 #dg1 #fg ,power of response to vibrations1 #i1 #aa ,preliminary considerations1 #g ,premonition1 ,mr4 ,stead's1 #aec ,prevision1 #acb1 #aci ,prospects for the future1 #age ,psychic ,micawbers1 #hc ,psychometry1 #aad1 #abg ,qualifications of the student1 #aff ,qualified teachers1 #afe ,radiations1 #ei ,records1 kshic1 #he1 #ig et seq41 #afj aspect of the1 #aae ,regular development1 #ai ,reproduction of a murder1 #afa ,restrictions upon clairvoyance1 #ha1 #aga ,rntgen rays1 the1 #aa ,sadness of clairvoyance1 the1 #afi ,schiller's lines1 #afi ,sance-room phenomena1 #ce1 #fb ,second-sight1 #adj et seq4 the symbolism of1 #ade ,seer1 a ,philadelphian1 #gb et seq4 ,self-hypnotization1 #hf ,sense1 extension of1 #ab ,senses1 astral1 #ag ,sight1 astral1 #cg et seq41 #ei et seq41 #ff at a distance1 #ei1 #ha spiritual1 #eg ,sleep1 clairvoyance during1 #bf ,society1 the ,theosophical1 #afg ,solar system1 the1 #ii ,spectral armies1 #aed ,spectrum1 experiment with the1 #aj ,spiritualistic phenomena1 #ce1 #fb ,stars and the ,earth1 ,the1 #aaj ,stories of crystal-gazing1 #hd et seq4 second sight1 #acb1 #adj et seq4 ,story by ,jung ,stilling1 #gb ,mr4 ,stead's1 #ic of ,captain ,yonnt1 #hi ,mary ,goffe1 #ge ,miss ,x4's dogcart1 #aeb ,mr4 ,stead's premonition1 #aec ,story of ,souter ,fell1 #aef-g the bull and the doctor1 #adg the ,duke of ,orleans1 #ij the housekeeper's dream1 #adg et seq4 ,story of the siege of ,mooltan1 #ib the white night-dress1 #adi ,zschokke1 #abg et seq4 ,stranger1 finding a1 #hj ,sympathetic system1 the1 #bb et seq4 ,system1 the ,logos of the1 #ii et seq4 ,teachers1 qualified1 #afe ,telescope1 the astral1 #fe1 #he1 #ajc ,temporary and partial clairvoyance1 #ed ,tests not given1 #agb ,theosophical ,society1 ,the1 #afg terms1 #g ,thought-control1 #afh ,thought-forms1 #dc1 #fg ,throughth1 #ci ,time only relative1 #ach ,training1 the advantages of1 #afe where to be had1 #afg ,trance mediums1 #hc ,transparency of physical objects1 #cb ,trivial subjects1 clairvoyance on1 #ee1 #ie1 #aeb ,uncultured1 clairvoyance in the1 #ba ,value of knowledge1 the1 #abe ,variable capacity of response1 #aj et seq4 ,vibrations1 #i power of response to1 #aa ,vision1 astral1 #cg et seq41 #ei et seq41 #ff etheric1 #cj et seq4 ,visions1 casual1 #ada ,visits at death1 #gd et seq4 ,voodoo or ,obeah1 #afc ,white night-dress1 the story of the1 #adi ,wild huntsman1 the1 #afj ,wisdom1 the ,masters of1 #bj1 #afg1 #agd ,world1 the astral1 #ha1 #ajc mental1 #hj1 #ajd1 #aae ,x4's story1 ,miss1 #aeb ,x ,rays1 #aa ,yonnt's story1 ,captain1 #hi ,zschokke's story1 #abg et seq4 ,,printed ,,by ,,neill ,,and ,,co41 ,,ltd41 ,,edinburgh4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,theosophical ,,society4 ,,saty,,nn,,sti ,,paro ,,dharmah ,illustration ,,there ,,is ,,no ,,religion ,,higher ,,than ,,truth4 ,,objects4 ,to form a nucleus of the universal ,brotherhood of ,humanity1 without distinction of race1 creed1 sex1 caste or colour4 ,to encourage the study of comparative religion1 philosophy and science4 ,to investigate unexplained laws of nature and the powers latent in man4 99 99 99 99 99 ,any person desiring information as to the ,theosophical ,society is invited to communicate with any one of the following ,general ,secretaries3 ,,america3 ,alexander ,fullerton2 ,new ,york1 #df ,fifth ,avenue4 ,,britain3 ,bertram ,keightley1 ,m4,a4 7pro tem472 ,london1 #bh ,albemarle ,street1 ,w4 ,,india3 ,upendra ,nath ,basu1 ,b4,a41 ,,ll4,b42 ,benares1 ,n4,w4,p4 ,,scandinavia3 ,arvid ,kns2 ,sweden1 ,engelbrechtsgatan #g1 ,stockholm4 ,,australia3 ,h4 ,a4 ,wilson2 ,sydney1 ,n4,s4,w41 #db ,margaret ,street4 ,,new ,,zealand3 ,c4 ,w4 ,sanders2 ,auckland1 ,mutual ,life ,buildings1 ,lower ,queen ,street4 ,,holland3 ,w4 ,b4 ,fricke1 ,amsterdam1 #gf ,amsteldijk4 ,,france3 ,dr4 ,th4 ,pascal ,paris2 #ei ,avenue de la ,bourdonnais4 ,,italy3 ,rome1 ,societ ,teosofica1 #gj ,via di ,pietra4 ,,germany3 ,dr4 ,rudolph ,steiner 7pro tem472 #ie ,kaiserallee1 ,friedenau1 ,berlin4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,the ,,theosophical ,,society is composed of students1 belonging to any religion in the world or to none1 who are united by their approval of the above objects1 by their wish to remove religious antagonisms and to draw together men of good-will whatsoever their religious opinions1 and by their desire to study religious truths and to share the results of their studies with others4 ,their bond of union is not the profession of a common belief1 but a common search and aspiration for ,truth4 ,they hold that ,truth should be sought by study1 by reflection1 by purity of life1 by devotion to high ideals1 and they regard ,truth as a prize to be striven for1 not as a dogma to be imposed by authority4 ,they consider that belief should be the result of individual study or intuition1 and not its antecedent1 and should rest on knowledge1 not on assertion4 ,they extend tolerance to all1 even to the intolerant1 not as a privilege they bestow1 but as a duty they perform1 and they seek to remove ignorance1 not to punish it4 ,they see every religion as an expression of the ,,divine ,,wisdom1 and prefer its study to its condemnation1 and its practice to proselytism4 ,peace is their watch-word1 as ,truth is their aim4 ,,theosophy is the body of truths which forms the basis of all religions1 and which cannot be claimed as the exclusive possession of any4 ,it offers a philosophy which renders life intelligible1 and which demonstrates the justice and the love which guide its evolution4 ,it puts death in its rightful place1 as a recurring incident in an endless life1 opening the gateway of a fuller and more radiant existence4 ,it restores to the world the science of the spirit1 teaching man to know the spirit as himself1 and the mind and body as his servants4 ,it illuminates the scriptures and doctrines of religions by unveiling their hidden meanings1 and thus justifying them at the bar of intelligence1 as they are ever justified in the eyes of intuition4 ,members of the ,theosophical ,society study these truths1 and ,theosophists endeavour to live them4 ,every one willing to study1 to be tolerant1 to aim high1 and to work perseveringly1 is welcomed as a member1 and it rests with the member to become a true ,theosophist4 ,,books ,,recommended ,,for ,,study4 s4 d4 ,an ,outline of ,theosophy4 ,c4 ,w4 ,leadbeater #a #j ,ancient ,wisdom4 ,annie ,besant #e #j ,theosophical ,manuals4 ,seven ,principles of ,man4 ,annie ,besant #a #j ,re-incarnation4 ,annie ,besant #a #j ,karma4 ,annie ,besant #a #j ,death--and ,after8 ,annie ,besant #a #j ,the ,astral ,plane4 ,c4 ,w4 ,leadbeater #a #j ,the ,devachanic ,plane4 ,c4 ,w4 ,leadbeater #a #j ,man and his ,bodies4 ,annie ,besant #a #j ,the ,key to ,theosophy4 ,h4 ,p4 ,blavatsky #f #j ,esoteric ,buddhism4 ,a4 ,p4 ,sinnett #b #f ,the ,growth of the ,soul4 ,a4 ,p4 ,sinnett #e #j ,man's ,place in the ,universe #b #j ,man ,visible and ,invisible 7illustrated74 ,c4 ,w4 ,leadbeater #aj #f ,a student who has thoroughly mastered these may study ,the ,secret ,doctrine4 ,h4 ,p4 ,blavatsky4 ,three volumes and separate index1 #c4 ,man ,visible and ,invisible 7illustrated74 ,c4 ,w4 ,leadbeater #aj #f ,,world-,,religions4 s4 d4 ,fragments of a ,faith ,forgotten4 ,g4 ,r4 ,s4 ,mead #aj #f ,esoteric ,christianity4 ,annie ,besant #e #j ,four ,great ,religions4 ,annie ,besant #b #j ,orpheus4 ,g4 ,r4 ,s4 ,mead #d #f ,the ,kabalah4 ,a4 ,e4 ,waite #g #f ,,ethical4 ,in the ,outer ,court4 ,annie ,besant #b #j ,the ,path of ,discipleship4 ,annie ,besant #b #j ,the ,voice of the ,silence4 ,h4 ,p4 ,blavatsky #a #f ,light on the ,path4 ,mabel ,collins #a #f ,bhagavad-,git4 ,trans4 ,annie ,besant #a #f ,studies in the ,bhagavad-,git #a #f ,the ,doctrine of the ,heart #a #f ,the ,upanishats4 ,trans4 by ,g4 ,r4 ,s4 ,mead and ,j4,c4 ,chattopadyaya4 ,two ,volumes1 each #a #f ,three ,paths and ,dharma4 ,annie ,besant #b #j ,theosophy of the ,upanishats #c #j ,the ,stanzas of ,dayn4 ,h4,p4 ,blavatsky #a #f ,,various4 ,nature's ,mysteries4 ,a4 ,p4 ,sinnett #b #j ,clairvoyance4 ,c4 ,w4 ,leadbeater #b #j ,dreams4 ,c4 ,w4 ,leadbeater #a #f ,the ,building of the ,kosmos4 ,annie ,besant #b #j ,the ,evolution of ,life and ,form4 ,annie ,besant #b #j ,some ,problems of ,life4 ,annie ,besant #a #f ,thought-,power1 its ,control and ,culture4 ,annie ,besant #a #f ,the ,science of the ,emotions4 ,bhagavan ,das #c #f ,the ,gospel and the ,gospels4 ,g4 ,r4 ,s4 ,mead #d #f ,five ,years of ,theosophy #aj #j 99 99 99 99 99 ,,the ,,theosophical ,,review4 ,,edited ,,by ,,annie ,,besant ,,and ,g4 ,r4 ,s4 ,,mead4 ,amongst the ,regular ,contributors are3 ,,annie ,,besant4 ,,alex4 ,,fullerton4 ,g4 ,r4 ,s4 ,,mead4 ,,bertram ,,keightley4 ,a4 ,p4 ,,sinnett4 ,c4 ,w4 ,,leadbeater4 ,,dr4 ,a4 ,a4 ,,wells4 ,,michael ,,wood4 ,and other well-known ,writers on ,theosophy4 ,,single ,,copies1 #as4 #abs4 ,,per ,,annum4 ,half-yearly ,bound ,volumes1 ,cloth1 #hs4 #f;d4 ,,entered ,,at ,,stationers' ,,hall4 ,,all ,,rights ,,reserved4 ,,the ,,theosophical ,,review is a magazine of which any society might be proud4 ,it is weighty1 striking1 suggestive1 and up to date4 ,the articles are all by recognised experts1 and they all deal with some aspect of a really profound subject4 ,it is a very remarkable shilling's worth4--,the ,gentleman's ,journal4 ,all the above-named books are published at unit prices by ,,the ,,theosophical ,,publishing ,,society1 #c ,,langham ,,place1 ,,london1 ,w41 from whom a full catalogue of works on ,theosophy and kindred subjects can be obtained1 post free1 on application4 99 99 99 99 99