Theos-Talk Archives (November 2002 Message tt00150)

Nov 8 2002

Dear Friend: You ask:

I have a question concerning the question for the Ocean. ( And to Q.
p. 56) Would the answer to
this question explain why people with schizophrenia have a hard time
understanding what is real and what is not?

--- Question from Answers to the Ocean --- p. 56
Q. Can Man be conscious on more than one plane at a time?

A. He cannot be fully conscious on more than one plane at a time;
attention
divided between two planes would give a mixed and divided perception
of
both

===============

I believe there is a problem in exactly equation that which Theosophy
teaches with what modern psychology defines. Schizophrenia for
instance is in Modern definitions called "a type of psychosis which
cause loss of contact with one's environment" and a "disintegration of
the personality."

Theosophy declares that each individual is a Monad, and the Monad (
Atma-Buddhi 0r SPIRIT and Wisdom) is an immortal being which uses the
"personality" as a basis for living in this Earth environment when
awake. Wit the MONAD is associated the HIGHER MIND MANAS . This
Higher Mind, which is also immortal and qualified with embodied
VIRTUE, casts a "shadow," so to speak on the new "personality"
generated at every reincarnation. And it creates thereon the LOWER
MANAS or the Mind involved in desires ( Kama-Manas).

Its Consciousness is ONE, teaches Theosophy, and it pierces up and
down the seven planes of being ( the "principles" of Man and nature --
which are 7-fold) and serves to unite the memory of all the
experiences on the various planes.

However it takes a great deal of training of the lower mind and the
psychic nature of the "personality" to retain the ability to be
conscious, and actively remember the experiences and correlations of
two planes at once. Impossible for the average man, and extremely
rare for those who are sensitive to the astral and the psychic reams.
These are closes to the physical pane of waking consciousness.

The psychosis mentioned then is of the "personality" and of the Lower
Mind. Its definitions are many and its amelioration is a matter of
understanding and then of control of the Lower by the Higher Mind.
Generally a deep involvement in some emotional trauma causes this
condition. This has to be identified and then examined impersonally.
The concept that nothing is ever "lost." and of Reincarnation of the
Immortal Monad and Ego -- which is the Real Man of Mind complete ,
ought to help as points of stability.

The "personality" is (in Theosophy) viewed as the "mask" of the
INDIVIDUALITY ( the ATMA-BUDDHI-MANAS) during any one life-time. It
is also called the "form with a name." [nama-rupa]


Let me place here a quotation or so from The SECRET DOCTRINE and
elsewhere on the subject of man's consciousness


"The ordinary man has no experience of any state of consciousness
other than that to which the physical senses link him. Men dream; they
sleep the profound sleep which is too deep for dreams to impress the
physical brain; and in these states there must still be consciousness.
How, then, while these mysteries remain unexplored, can we hope to
speculate with profit on the nature of globes which, in the economy of
nature, must needs belong to states of consciousness other and quite
different from any which man experiences here?"	(S D II 701)


"A man who regards himself as mentally sane, and is so regarded by his
neighbours, calls the visions of an insane brother -- whose
hallucinations make the victim either happy or supremely wretched, as
the case may be -- illusions and fancies likewise. But, where is that
madman for whom the hideous shadows in his deranged mind, his
illusions, are not, for the time being, as actual and as real as the
things which his physician or keeper may see?"	(S D I 295-6)


"Everything is relative in this Universe, everything is an illusion.
But the experience of any plane is an actuality for the percipient
being, whose consciousness is on that plane; though the said
experience, regarded from the purely metaphysical standpoint, may be
conceived to have no objective reality.

"But it is not against metaphysicians, but against physicists and
materialists that Esoteric teachings have to fight, and for these
Vital Force, Light, Sound, Electricity, even to the objectively
pulling force of magnetism, have no objective being, and are said to
exist merely as "modes of motion," "sensations and affections of
matter."	(S D I 295-6)


"....no single atom in the entire Kosmos is without life and
consciousness, how much more then its mighty globes? -- though they
remain sealed books to us men who can hardly enter even into the
consciousness of the forms of life nearest us? We do not know
ourselves, then how can we, if we have never been trained to it and
initiated, fancy that we can penetrate the consciousness of the
smallest of the animals around us?"	(S D I 702 Footnote)


"To "Spirit" is referable every manifestation of consciousness,
reflective or direct, and of unconscious purposiveness (to adopt a
modern expression used in Western philosophy, so-called) as evidenced
in the Vital Principle, and Nature's submission to the majestic
sequence of immutable law.

"Matter" must be regarded as objectivity in its purest abstraction --
the self-existing basis whose septenary manvantaric differentiations
constitute the objective reality underlying the phenomena of each
phase of conscious existence."	(S D I 328)


===================

These are offered as some principles.

One ought to inquire what leads to schizophrenia . It is an abnormal
condition, when the inner ONE CONSCIOUSNESS acting through the
personality believes itself to be one or another of these, or some
modification other than the normal .

Where does it acquire the delusion of separateness? In fact is it
the ONE CONSCIOUSNESS that is so acting? or, is it the personality,
in its selfishness and defending its existence, assume the mask of
various other types of personalities and wears them more or less
effectively.

I hope this may prove to be of some help.

Best wishes,

Dallas

P S The following is an outline of theosophical teachings about the
realm of the Psychic

It may prove useful.

=============================

The field of psychic forces, phenomena, and dynamics is a vast one.
Such phenomena are seen and the forces exhibited every day in all
lands, Are there psychic forces, laws, and powers? If there are, then
there must be the phenomena. And, then in man are the same powers and
forces which are to be found anywhere in Nature. He is held by the
Masters of Wisdom to be the highest product of the whole system of
evolution, and mirrors in himself every power, however wonderful or
terrible, of Nature; by the very fact of being such a mirror he is
man.

This has long been recognized in the East, where the writer has seen
exhibitions of such powers which would upset the theories of many a
Western man of science. And in the West the same phenomena have been
repeated for the writer, so that he knows of his own knowledge that
every man of every race has the same powers potentially.

Levitation of the body in apparent defiance of gravitation is a thing
to be done with ease when the process is completely mastered. It
contravenes no law.

Gravitation is only half of a law. The Oriental sage admits gravity,
if one wishes to adopt the term; but the real term is attraction, the
other half of the law being expressed by the word repulsion, and both
being governed by the great laws of electrical force. Weight and
stability depend on polarity, and when the polarity of an object is
altered in respect to the earth immediately underneath it, then the
object may rise. But as mere objects are devoid of the consciousness
found in man, they cannot rise without certain other aids. The human
body, however, will rise in the air unsupported, like a bird, when its
polarity is thus changed.

A third great law which enters into many of the phenomena of the East
and West is that of Cohesion. The power of Cohesion is a distinct
power of itself, and not a result as is supposed. This law and its
action must be known if certain phenomena are to be brought about, as,
for instance, what the writer has seen, the passing of one solid iron
ring through another, or a stone through a solid wall. Hence another
force is used which can only be called dispersion. Cohesion is the
determinating force, for, the moment the dispersing force is
withdrawn, the cohesive force restores the particles to their original
position.
Following this out the Adept in such great dynamics is able to
disperse the atoms of an object -- excluding always the human body --
to such a distance from each other as to render the object invisible,
and then can send them along a current formed in the ether to any
distance on the earth. At the desired point the dispersing force is
withdrawn, when immediately cohesion reasserts itself and the object
reappears intact.

But the lay mind infested by the materialism of the day wonders how
all these manipulations are possible, seeing that no instruments are
spoken of. The instruments are in the body and brain of man. In the
view of the Lodge "the human brain is an exhaustless generator of
force," and a complete knowledge of the inner chemical and dynamic
laws of Nature, together with a trained mind, give the possessor the
power to operate the laws to which I have referred. This will be man's
possession in the future, and would be his today were it not for blind
dogmatism, selfishness, and materialistic unbelief.

Using the same powers, the trained Adept can produce before the eye,
objective to the touch, material which was not visible before, and in
any desired shape. This would be called creation by the vulgar, but it
is simply evolution in your very presence. Matter is held suspended in
the air about us. Every particle of matter, visible or still
unprecipitated, has been through all possible forms, and what the
Adept does is to select any desired form, existing, as they all do, in
the Astral Light and then by effort of the Will and Imagination to
clothe the form with the matter by precipitation. The object so made
will fade away unless certain other processes are resorted to which
need not be here described, but if these processes are used the object
will remain permanently. And if it is desired to make visible a
message on paper or other surface, the same laws and powers are used.
The distinct -- photographically and sharply definite -- image of
every line of every letter or picture is formed in the mind, and then
out of the air is drawn the pigment to fall within the limits laid
down by the brain, "the exhaustless generator of force and form." All
these things the writer has seen done in the way described, and not by
any hired or irresponsible medium, and he knows whereof he speaks.

This, then, naturally leads to the proposition that the human Will is
all powerful and the Imagination is a most useful faculty with a
dynamic force. The Imagination is the picture-making power of the
human mind. In the ordinary average human person it has not enough
training or force to be more than a sort of dream, but it may be
trained. When trained it is the Constructor in the Human Workshop.

Arrived at that stage it makes a matrix in the Astral substance
through which effects objectively will flow. It is the greatest power,
after Will, in the human assemblage of complicated instruments.

The modern Western definition of Imagination is incomplete and wide of
the mark. It is chiefly used to designate fancy or misconception and
at all times stands for unreality. It is impossible to get another
term as good because one of the powers of the trained Imagination is
that of making an image. The word is derived from those signifying the
formation or reflection of an image. This faculty used, or rather
suffered to act, in an unregulated mode has given the West no other
idea than that covered by "fancy." So far as that goes it is right but
it may be pushed to a greater limit, which, when reached causes the
Imagination to evolve in the Astral substance an actual image or form
which may be then used in the same way as an iron molder uses a mold
of sand for the molten iron.

It is therefore the King faculty, inasmuch as the Will cannot do its
work if the Imagination be at all weak or untrained. For instance, if
the person desiring to precipitate from the air wavers in the least
with the image made in the Astral substance, the pigment will fall
upon the paper in a correspondingly wavering and diffused manner.

To communicate with another mind at any distance the Adept attunes all
the molecules of the brain and all the thoughts of the mind so as to
vibrate in unison with the mind to be affected, and that other mind
and brain have also to be either voluntarily thrown into the same
unison or fall into it voluntarily. So though the Adept be at Bombay
and his friend in New York, the distance is no obstacle, as the inner
senses are not dependent on an ear, but may feel and see the thoughts
and images in the mind of the other person.
And when it is desired to look into the mind and catch the thoughts of
another and the pictures all around him of all he has thought and
looked at, the Adept's inner sight and hearing are directed to the
mind to be seen, when at once all is visible. But, as said before,
only a rogue would do this, and the Adepts do not do it except in
strictly authorized cases. The modern man sees no misdemeanor in
looking into the secrets of another by means of this power, but the
Adepts say it is an invasion of the rights of the other person. No man
has the right, even when he has the power in his hand, to enter into
the mind of another and pick out its secrets. This is the law of the
Lodge to all who seek, and if one sees that he is about to discover
the secrets of another he must at once withdraw and proceed no
further. If he proceeds his power is taken from him in the case of a
disciple; in the case of any other person he must take the consequence
of this sort of burglary. For Nature has her laws and her policemen,
and if we commit felonies in the Astral world the great Law and the
guardians of it, for which no bribery is possible, will execute the
penalty, no matter how long we wait, even if it be for ten thousand
years. Here is another safeguard for ethics and morals. But until men
admit the system of philosophy put forward in this book, they will not
deem it wrong to commit felonies in fields where their weak human law
has no effect, but at the same time by thus refusing the philosophy
they will put off the day when all may have these great powers for the
use of all.

Among phenomena useful to notice are those consisting of the moving of
objects without physical contact. This may be done, and in more than
one way. The first is to extrude from the physical body the Astral
hand and arm, and with those grasp the object to be moved. This may be
accomplished at a distance of as much as ten feet from the person. I
do not go into argument on this, only referring to the properties of
the Astral substance and members. This will serve to some extent to
explain several of the phenomena of mediums. In nearly all cases of
such apportation the feat is accomplished by thus using the unseen but
material Astral hand. The second method is to use the elementals of
which I have spoken. They have the power when directed by the inner
man to carry objects by changing the polarity, and then we see, as
with the fakirs of India and some mediums in America, small objects
moving apparently unsupported. These elemental entities are used when
things are brought from longer distances than the length to which the
Astral members may be stretched. It is no argument against this that
mediums do not know they do so. They rarely if ever know anything
about how they accomplish any feat, and their ignorance of the law is
no proof of its non-existence. Those students who have seen the forces
work from the inside will need no argument on this.

Clairvoyance, clairaudience, and second-sight are all related very
closely. Every exercise of any one of them draws in at the same time
both of the others. They are but variations of one power. Sound is one
of the distinguishing characteristics of the Astral sphere, and as
light goes with sound, sight obtains simultaneously with hearing. To
see an image with the Astral senses means that at the same time there
is a sound, and to hear the latter infers the presence of a related
image in Astral substance. It is perfectly well known to the true
student of occultism that every sound produces instantaneously an
image, and this, so long known in the Orient, has lately been
demonstrated in the West in the production to the eye of sound
pictures on a stretched tympanum. This part of the subject can be gone
into very much further with the aid of occultism, but as it is a
dangerous one in the present state of society I refrain at this point.
In the Astral Light are pictures of all things whatsoever that
happened to any person, and as well also pictures of those events to
come the causes for which are sufficiently well marked and made. If
the causes are yet indefinite, so will be the images of the future.
But for the mass of events for several years to come all the producing
and efficient causes are always laid down with enough definiteness to
permit the seer to see them in advance as if present. By means of
these pictures, seen with the inner senses, all clairvoyants exercise
their strange faculty. Yet it is a faculty common to all men, though
in the majority but slightly developed; but occultism asserts that
were it not for the germ of this power slightly active in every one no
man could convey to another any idea whatsoever.

In clairvoyance the pictures in the Astral Light pass before the inner
vision and are reflected into the physical eye from within. They then
appear objectively to the seer. If they are of past events or those to
come, the picture only is seen; if of events actually then occurring,
the scene is perceived through the Astral Light by the inner sense.
The distinguishing difference between ordinary and clairvoyant vision
is, then, that in clairvoyance with waking sight the vibration is
communicated to the brain first, from which it is transmitted to the
physical eye, where it sets up an image upon the retina, just as the
revolving cylinder of the phonograph causes the mouthpiece to vibrate
exactly as the voice had vibrated when thrown into the receiver. In
ordinary eye vision the vibrations are given to the eye first and then
transmitted to the brain. Images and sounds are both caused by
vibrations, and hence any sound once made is preserved in the Astral
Light from whence the inner sense can take it and from within transmit
it to the brain, from which it reaches the physical ear. So in
clairaudience at a distance the hearer does not hear with the ear, but
with the center of hearing in the Astral body. Second-sight is a
combination of clairaudience and clairvoyance or not, just as the
particular case is, and the frequency with which future events are
seen by the second-sight seer adds an element of prophecy.

The highest order of clairvoyance -- that of spiritual vision -- is
very rare. The usual clairvoyant deals only with the ordinary aspects
and strata of the Astral matter. Spiritual sight comes only to those
who are pure, devoted, and firm. It may be attained by special
development of the particular organ in the body through which alone
such sight is possible, and only after discipline, long training, and
the highest altruism. All other clairvoyance is transitory,
inadequate, and fragmentary, dealing, as it does, only with matter and
illusion. Its fragmentary and inadequate character results from the
fact that hardly any clairvoyant has the power to see into more than
one of the lower grades of Astral substance at any one time. The
pure-minded and the brave can deal with the future and the present far
better than any clairvoyant. But as the existence of these two powers
proves the presence in us of the inner senses and of the necessary
medium -- the Astral Light, they have, as such human faculties, an
important bearing upon the claims made by the so-called "spirits" of
the seance room.

Dreams are sometimes the result of brain action automatically
proceeding, and are also produced by the transmission into the brain
by the real inner person of those scenes or ideas high or low which
that real person has seen while the body slept. They are then strained
into the brain as if floating on the soul as it sinks into the body.
These dreams may be of use, but generally the resumption of bodily
activity destroys the meaning, perverts the image, and reduces all to
confusion. But the great fact of all dreaming is that some one
perceives and feels therein, and this is one of the arguments for the
inner person's existence. In sleep the inner man communes with higher
intelligences, and sometimes succeeds in impressing the brain with
what is gained, either a high idea or a prophetic vision, or else
fails in consequence of the resistance of brain fiber. The karma of
the person also determines the meaning of a dream, for a king may
dream that which relates to his kingdom, while the same thing dreamed
by a citizen relates to nothing of temporal consequence. But, as said
by Job: "In dreams and visions of the night man is instructed."

Apparitions and doubles are of two general classes. The one, astral
shells or images from the astral world, either actually visible to the
eye or the result of vibration within thrown out to the eye and thus
making the person think he sees an objective form without. The other,
the astral body of living persons and carrying full consciousness or
only partially so endowed. But that apparitions have been seen there
is no doubt. Apparitions of those just dead may be either pictures
made objective as described, or the Astral Body -- called Kama Rupa at
this stage -- of the deceased. And as the dying thoughts and forces
released from the body are very strong, we have more accounts of such
apparitions than of any other class.

The Adept may send out his apparition, which, however, is called by
another name, as it consists of his conscious and trained astral body
endowed with all his intelligence and not wholly detached from his
physical frame.

Theosophy does not deny nor ignore the physical laws discovered by
science. It admits all such as are proven, but it asserts the
existence of others which modify the action of those we ordinarily
know. Behind all the visible phenomena is the occult cosmos with its
ideal machinery; that occult cosmos can only be fully understood by
means of the inner senses which pertain to it; those senses will not
be easily developed if their existence is denied. Brain and mind
acting together have the power to evolve forms, first as astral ones
in astral substance, and later as visible ones by accretions of the
matter on this plane. Objectivity depends largely on perception, and
perception may be affected by inner stimuli. Hence a witness may
either see an object which actually exists as such without, or may be
made to see one by internal stimulus. This gives us three modes of
sight: (a) with the eye by means of light from an object, (b) with the
inner senses by means of the Astral Light, and (c) by stimulus from
within which causes the eye to report to the brain, thus throwing the
inner image without. The phenomena of the other senses may be
tabulated in the same manner.

The Astral substance being the register of all thoughts, sounds,
pictures, and other vibrations, and the inner man being a complete
person able to act with or without co-ordination with the physical,
all the phenomena of hypnotism, clairvoyance, clairaudience,
mediumship, and the rest of those which are not consciously performed
may be explained. In the Astral substance are all sounds and pictures,
and in the Astral man remain impressions of every event, however
remote or insignificant; these acting together produce the phenomena
which seem so strange to those who deny or are unaware of the
postulates of occultism.

But to explain the phenomena performed by Adepts, Fakirs, Yogees, and
all trained occultists, one has to understand the occult laws of
chemistry, of mind, of force, and of matter.


=============================

-----Original Message-----
From: Richard P
Sent: Thursday, November 07, 2002 10:32 PM
To
Subject: RE: ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS -- Chapter 3 -- THE EARTH CHAIN -- 7
Principles and "Globes"-- in the "OCEAN"


Hello one and all;

I have a question concerning the question for the Ocean. Would the
answer to
this question explain why people with schizophrenia have a hard time
understanding what is real and what is not?


--- Question from Ocean ---
Q. Can Man be conscious on more than one plane at a time?

A. He cannot be fully conscious on more than one plane at a time;
attention
divided between two planes would give a mixed and divided perception
of
both.


Thank you.

Richard