Theos-Talk Archives (November 2002 Message tt00303)

Nov 13 2002

Dear Friends:

As I read it, Theosophy teaches that there is ONE CONSCIOUSNESS in
every human Being and this originates in the MONAD. ( Atma-Buddhi or
in terms of their definitions they are Purity and WISDOM. In each
principle the One Consciousness manifests various powers peculiar to
that plane and the internal "Principle" related to it.. All are
however carefully interconnected, so as to form a viable whole Man.

Spirit (or Atma) represents the ABSOLUTE in manifestation.

Buddhi (or WISDOM) represents the accumulated experience of all the
many lives lived. It has the capacity to warn, because it has
witnessed many failures and successes. It may be called the power of
discrimination.

But these two are remote (so to say) from material existence and
embodiment. Or, the material man, which is the vehicle of the
INDIVIDUALITY when it reincarnates. It has been called the
PERSONALITY (the "mask") because of its ephemeral, transitory nature.

A bridge is needed, of intelligence and understanding. Mind provides
this, and with Atma and Buddhi forms the INDIVIDUALITY -- which is
the Real, the Eternal Man. This has been called HIGHER MANAS, or the
power of Moral and Ethical thinking and acting.

INDIVIDUALITY: SPIRIT -- WISDOM -- MIND

PERSONALITY: KAMA -- LIFE ENERGY -- ASTRAL -- PHYSICAL
bodies.

More interesting is the concept that as a result of the evolution of
the material and passional, desire nature, there is generated a
sensitivity to the Mind and other powers of thinking, and inquiring
into purposes and causes. This has been called LOWER MANAS, or the
conjoined principles of Manas and Kama.

The gap between the Kama (desires passions and emotions) and the
Buddhi (wisdom of experience) principles bridged by the mind creates
this duality in the mind principle. 1. The WISE and DISCRIMINATING
impersonal MIND, and 2. the ignorant, impulsive, foolish and
selfish Mind of the embodied man.

This causes (in our personality and using the Lower Mind) most of our
perplexity and doubt of law operating in man ( making him a
responsible being) when he chooses his actions.

Interestingly enough, H P B in TRANSACTIONS OF THE BLAVATSKY LODGE (
pp 59 - 79 ) deals with the communications between Higher and Lower
Manas in this way: In the section on "dreams" we find

=----------------

Q. What are the "principles" which are active during dreams?

A. The "principles" active during ordinary dreams -- which ought to be
distinguished from real dreams, and called idle visions -- are Kama,
the seat of the personal Ego and of desire awakened into chaotic
activity by the slumbering reminiscences of the lower Manas.

Q. What is the "lower Manas"?

A. It is usually called the animal soul (the Nephesh of the Hebrew
Kabalists). It is the ray which emanates from the Higher Manas or
permanent Ego, and is that "principle" which forms the human mind --
in animals instinct, for animals also dream. The combined action of
Kama and the "animal soul," however, are purely mechanical. It is
instinct, not reason, which is active in them. During the sleep of the
body they receive and send out mechanically electric shocks to and
from various nerve-centers. The brain is hardly impressed by them, and
memory stores them, of course, without order or sequence. On waking
these impressions gradually fade out, as does every fleeting shadow
that has no basic or substantial reality underlying it. The retentive
faculty of the brain, however, may register and preserve them if they
are only impressed strongly enough. But, as a rule, our memory
registers only the fugitive and distorted impressions which the brain
receives at the moment of awakening. This aspect of "dreams" however,
has been sufficiently observed and is described correctly enough in
modern physiological and biological works, as such human dreams do not
differ much from those of the animals. That which is entirely terra
incognita for Science is the real dreams and experiences of the higher
EGO, which are also called dreams, but ought not to be so termed, or
else the term for the other sleeping "visions" changed.

Q. How do these differ?

A. The nature and functions of real dreams cannot be understood unless
we admit the existence of an immortal Ego in mortal man, independent
of the physical body, for the subject becomes quite unintelligible
unless we believe -- that which is a fact -- that during sleep there
remains only an animated form of clay, whose powers of independent
thinking are utterly paralyzed.

But if we admit the existence of a higher or permanent Ego in us --
which Ego must not be confused with what we call the "Higher Self,"
[ATMA] we can comprehend that what we often regard as dreams,
generally accepted as idle fancies, are, in truth, stray pages torn
out from the life and experiences of the inner man, and the dim
recollection of which at the moment of awakening becomes more or less
distorted by our physical memory. The latter catches mechanically a
few impressions of the thoughts, facts witnessed, and deeds performed
by the inner man during its hours of complete freedom. For our Ego
lives its own separate life within its prison of clay whenever it
becomes free from the trammels of matter, i.e., during the sleep of
the physical man. This Ego it is which is the actor, the real man, the
true human self. But the physical man cannot feel or be conscious
during dreams; for the personality, the outer man, with its brain and
thinking apparatus, are paralyzed more or less completely.


We might well compare the real Ego to a prisoner, and the physical
personality to the gaoler of his prison. If the gaoler falls asleep,
the prisoner escapes, or, at least, passes outside the walls of his
prison. The gaoler is half asleep, and looks nodding all the time out
of a window, through which he can catch only occasional glimpses of
his prisoner, as he would a kind of shadow moving in front of it. But
what can he perceive, and what can he know of the real actions, and
especially the thoughts, of his charge?

Q. Do not the thoughts of the one impress themselves upon the other?

A. Not during sleep, at all events; for the real Ego does not think as
his evanescent and temporary personality does. During the waking hours
the thoughts and Voice of the Higher Ego do, or do not, reach his
gaoler -- the physical man, for they are the VOICE OF HIS CONSCIENCE,
but during his sleep they are absolutely the "Voice in the desert." In
the thoughts of the real man, or the immortal "Individuality," the
pictures and visions of the Past and Future are as the Present; nor
are his thoughts like ours, subjective pictures in our cerebration,
but living acts and deeds, present actualities. They are realities,
even as they were when speech expressed in sounds did not exist; when
thoughts were things, and men did not need to express them in
speeches; for they instantly realized themselves in action by the
power of Kriya-Sakti, that mysterious power which transforms
instantaneously ideas into visible forms, and these were as objective
to the "man" of the early third Race as objects of sight are now to
us.

Q. How, then, does Esoteric Philosophy account for the transmission of
even a few fragments of those thoughts of the Ego to our physical
memory which it sometimes retains?

A. All such are reflected on the brain of the sleeper, like outside
shadows on the canvas walls of a tent, which the occupier sees as he
wakes. Then the man thinks that he has dreamed all that, and feels as
though he had lived through something, while in reality it is the
thought-actions of the true Ego which he has dimly perceived. As he
becomes fully awake, his recollections become with every minute more
distorted, and mingle with the images projected from the physical
brain, under the action of the stimulus which causes the sleeper to
awaken. These recollections, by the power of association, set in
motion various trains of ideas.

Q. It is difficult to see how the Ego can be acting during the night
things which have taken place long ago. Was it not stated that dreams
are not subjective?

A. How can they be subjective when the dream state is itself for us,
and on our plane, at any rate, a subjective one? To the dreamer (the
Ego), on his own plane, the things on that plane are as objective to
him as our acts are to us.

Q. What are the senses which act in dreams?

A. The senses of the sleeper receive occasional shocks, and are
awakened into mechanical action; what he hears and sees are, as has
been said, a distorted reflection of the thoughts of the Ego. The
latter is highly spiritual, and is linked very closely with the higher
principles, Buddhi and Atma. These higher principles are entirely
inactive on our plane, and the higher Ego (Higher Manas) itself is
more or less dormant during the waking of the physical man. This is
especially the case with persons of very materialistic mind. So
dormant are the Spiritual faculties, because the Ego is so trammelled
by matter, that It can hardly give all its attention to the man's
actions, even should the latter commit sins for which that Ego -- when
reunited with its lower Manas -- will have to suffer conjointly in the
future. It is, as I said, the impressions projected into the physical
man by this Ego which constitute what we call "conscience"; and in
proportion as the Personality, the lower Soul (or Lower Manas), unites
itself to its higher consciousness, or EGO, does the action of the
latter upon the life of mortal man become more marked.

Q. This Ego, then, is the "Higher Ego"?

A. Yes; it is the higher Manas illuminated by Buddhi; the principle of
self-consciousness, the "I-am-I," in short. It is the Karana-Sarira,
the immortal man, which passes from one incarnation to another.

Q. Is the "register" or "tablet of memory" for the true dream-state
different from that of waking life?

A. Since dreams are in reality the actions of the Ego during physical
sleep, they are, of course, recorded on their own plane and produce
their appropriate effects on this one. But it must be always
remembered that dreams in general, and as we know them, are simply our
waking and hazy recollections of these facts.

It often happens, indeed, that we have no recollection of having
dreamt at all, but later in the day the remembrance of the dream will
suddenly flash upon us. Of this there are many causes. It is analogous
to what sometimes happens to every one of us. Often a sensation, a
smell, even a casual noise, or a sound, brings instantaneously to our
mind long-forgotten events, scenes and persons. Something of what was
seen, done, or thought by the "night-performer," the Ego, impressed
itself at that time on the physical brain, but was not brought into
the conscious, waking memory, owing to some physical condition or
obstacle. This impression is registered on the brain in its
appropriate cell or nerve-center, but owing to some accidental
circumstance it "hangs fire," so to say, till something gives it the
needed impulse. Then the brain slips it off immediately into the
conscious memory of the waking man; for as soon as the conditions
required are supplied, that particular center starts forthwith into
activity, and does the work which it had to do, but was hindered at
the time from completing.

Q. How does this process take place?

A. There is a sort of conscious telegraphic communication going on
incessantly, day and night, between the physical brain and the inner
man. The brain is such a complex thing, both physically and
metaphysically, that it is like a tree whose bark you can remove layer
by layer, each layer being different from all the others, and each
having its own special work, function, and properties.

Q. What distinguishes the "dreaming" memory and imagination from those
of waking consciousness?

A. During sleep the physical memory and imagination are of course
passive, because the dreamer is asleep: his brain is asleep, his
memory is asleep, all his functions are dormant and at rest. It is
only when they are stimulated, as I told you, that they are aroused.
Thus the consciousness of the sleeper is not active, but passive. The
inner man, however, the real Ego, acts independently during the sleep
of the body; but it is doubtful if any of us -- unless thoroughly
acquainted with the physiology of occultism -- could understand the
nature of its action.

Q. What relation have the Astral Light and Akasa to memory?

A. The former is the "tablet of the memory" of the animal man, the
latter of the spiritual Ego. The "dreams" of the Ego, as much as the
acts of the physical man, are all recorded, since both are actions
based on causes and producing results. Our "dreams," being simply the
waking state and actions of the true Self, must be, of course,
recorded somewhere. Read "Karmic Visions" in Lucifer, and note the
description of the real Ego, sitting as a spectator of the life of the
hero, and perhaps something will strike you.

Q. What, in reality, is the Astral Light?

A. As the Esoteric Philosophy teaches us, the Astral Light is simply
the dregs of Akasa or the Universal Ideation in its metaphysical
sense. Though invisible, it is yet, so to speak, the phosphorescent
radiation of the latter, and is the medium between it and man's
thought-faculties. It is these which pollute the Astral Light, and
make it what it is -- the storehouse of all human and especially
psychic iniquities. In its primordial genesis, the astral light as a
radiation is quite pure, though the lower it descends approaching our
terrestrial sphere, the more it differentiates, and becomes as a
result impure in its very constitution. But man helps considerably to
this pollution, and gives it back its essence far worse than when he
received it.

Q. Can you explain to us how it is related to man, and its action in
dream-life?

A. Differentiation in the physical world is infinite. Universal
ideation -- or Mahat, if you like it -- sends its homogeneous
radiation into the heterogeneous world, and this reaches the human or
personal minds through the Astral Light.

Q. But do not our minds receive their illuminations direct from the
Higher Manas through the Lower? And is not the former the pure
emanation of divine Ideation -- the "Manasa-Putras," which incarnated
in men?

A. They are. Individual Manasa-Putras or the Kumaras are the direct
radiations of the divine Ideation -- "individual" in the sense of
later differentiation, owing to numberless incarnations. In sum they
are the collective aggregation of that Ideation, become on our plane,
or from our point of view, MAHAT, as the Dhyan-Chohans are in their
aggregate the WORD or "Logos" in the formation of the World. Were the
Personalities (Lower Manas or the physical minds) to be inspired and
illumined solely by their higher alter Egos there would be little sin
in this world. But they are not; and getting entangled in the meshes
of the Astral Light, they separate themselves more and more from their
parent Egos..... This imaginary [astral] space, however, on which are
impressed the countless images of all that ever was, is, and will be,
is but a too sad reality. It becomes in, and for, man -- if at all
psychic -- and who is not? -- a tempting Demon, his "evil angel," and
the inspirer of all our worst deeds. It acts on the will of even the
sleeping man, through visions impressed upon his slumbering brain
(which visions must not be confused with the "dreams"), and these
germs bear their fruit when he awakes.

Q. What is the part played by Will in dreams?

A. The will of the outer man, our volition, is of course dormant and
inactive during dreams; but a certain bent can be given to the
slumbering will during its inactivity, and certain after-results
developed by the mutual inter-action -- produced almost
mechanically -- through union between two or more "principles" into
one, so that they will act in perfect harmony, without any friction or
a single false note, when awake. But this is one of the dodges of
"black magic," and when used for good purposes belongs to the training
of an Occultist. One must be far advanced on the "path" to have a will
which can act consciously during his physical sleep, or act on the
will of another person during the sleep of the latter, e.g., to
control his dreams, and thus control his actions when awake.

Q. We are taught that a man can unite all his "principles" into one --
what does this mean?

A. When an adept succeeds in doing this he is a Jivanmukta: he is no
more of this earth virtually, and becomes a Nirvanee, who can go into
Samadhi at will. Adepts are generally classed by the number of
"principles" they have under their perfect control, for that which we
call will has its seat in the higher EGO, [ Higher Manas] and the
latter, when it is rid of its sin-laden personality, is divine and
pure.

Q. What part does Karma play in dreams? .....

A. If they say so, it is because they have preserved in all their
purity and remembered the traditions of their forefathers. They know
that the Self is the real Ego, and that it lives and acts, though on a
different plane. The external life is a "dream" to this Ego, while the
inner life, or the life on what we call the dream plane, is the real
life for it. ...

Q. What is the difference, "karmically," between the two?

A. The physical animal man is as little responsible as a dog or a
mouse. For the bodily form all is over with the death of the body. But
the real SELF, that which emanated its own shadow, or the lower
thinking personality, that enacted and pulled the wires during the
life of the physical automaton, will have to suffer conjointly with
its factotum and alter ego in its next incarnation.

Q. But the two, the higher and the lower, Manas are one, are they not?

A. They are, and yet they are not -- and that is the great mystery.
The Higher Manas or EGO is essentially divine, and therefore pure; no
stain can pollute it, as no punishment can reach it, per se, the more
so since it is innocent of, and takes no part in, the deliberate
transactions of its Lower Ego. Yet by the very fact that, though dual
and during life the Higher is distinct from the Lower, "the Father and
Son" are one, and because that in reuniting with the parent Ego, the
Lower Soul fastens upon and impresses upon it all its bad as well as
good actions -- both have to suffer, the Higher Ego, though innocent
and without blemish, has to bear the punishment of the misdeeds
committed by the lower Self together with it in their future
incarnation. The whole doctrine of atonement is built upon this old
esoteric tenet; for the Higher Ego is the antitype of that which is on
this earth the type, namely, the personality.

It is, for those who understand it, the old Vedic story of Visvakarman
over again, practically demonstrated. Visvakarman, the all-seeing
Father-God, who is beyond the comprehension of mortals, ends, as son
of Bhuvana, the holy Spirit, by sacrificing himself to himself, to
save the worlds.

The mystic name of the "Higher Ego" is, in the Indian philosophy,
Kshetrajna, or "embodied Spirit," that which knows or informs kshetra,
"the body." Etymologize the name, and you will find in it the term
aja, "first-born," and also the "lamb." All this is very suggestive,
and volumes might be written upon the pregenetic and postgenetic
development of type and antitype -- of Christ-Kshetrajna, the
"God-Man," the First-born, symbolized as the "lamb."

The Secret Doctrine shows that the Manasa-Putras or incarnating EGOS
have taken upon themselves, voluntarily and knowingly, the burden of
all the future sins of their future personalities.[S D II 167,
224-5 ] Thence it is easy to see that it is neither Mr. A. nor Mr. B.,
nor any of the personalities that periodically clothe the
Self-Sacrificing EGO, which are the real Sufferers, but verily the
innocent Christos within us. Hence the mystic Hindus say that the
Eternal Self, or the Ego (the one in three and three in one), is the
"Charioteer" or driver; the personalities are the temporary and
evanescent passengers; while the horses are the animal passions of
man. It is, then, true to say that when we remain deaf to the Voice of
our Conscience, we crucify the Christos within us. But let us return
to dreams.

Q. Are so-called prophetic dreams a sign that the dreamer has strong
clairvoyant faculties?
A. It may be said, in the case of persons who have truly prophetic
dreams, that it is because their physical brains and memory are in
closer relation and sympathy with their "Higher Ego" than in the
generality of men. The Ego-Self [Higher Manas] has more facilities for
impressing upon the physical shell and memory that which is of
importance to such persons than it has in the case of other less
gifted persons. Remember that the only God man comes in contact with
is his own God, called Spirit, Soul and Mind, or Consciousness, and
these three are one.

But there are weeds that must be destroyed in order that a plant may
grow. We must die, said St. Paul, that we may live again. It is
through destruction that we may improve, and the three powers, the
preserving, the creating and the destroying, are only so many aspects
of the divine spark within man. ...

Q. What, then, is the process of going to sleep?

A. This is partially explained by Physiology. It is said by Occultism
to be the periodical and regulated exhaustion of the nervous centers,
and especially of the sensory ganglia of the brain, which refuse to
act any longer on this plane, and, if they would not become unfit for
work, are compelled to recuperate their strength on another plane or
Upadhi. First comes the Svapna, or dreaming state, and this leads to
that of Shushupti. Now it must be remembered that our senses are all
dual, and act according to the plane of consciousness on which the
thinking entity energizes. Physical sleep affords the greatest
facility for its action on the various planes; at the same time it is
a necessity, in order that the senses may recuperate and obtain a new
lease of life for the Jagrata, or waking state, from the Svapna and
Shushupti. According to Raj Yoga, Turya is the highest state. As a man
exhausted by one state of the life fluid seeks another; as, for
example, when exhausted by the hot air he refreshes himself with cool
water; so sleep is the shady nook in the sunlit valley of life. Sleep
is a sign that waking life has become too strong for the physical
organism, and that the force of the life current must be broken by
changing the waking for the sleeping state. Ask a good clairvoyant to
describe the aura of a person just refreshed by sleep, and that of
another just before going to sleep. The former will be seen bathed in
rhythmical vibrations of life currents -- golden, blue, and rosy;
these are the electrical waves of Life. The latter is, as it were, in
a mist of intense golden-orange hue, composed of atoms whirling with
an almost incredible spasmodic rapidity, showing that the person
begins to be too strongly saturated with Life; the life essence is too
strong for his physical organs, and he must seek relief in the shadowy
side of that essence, which side is the dream element, or physical
sleep, one of the states of consciousness.

Q. But what is a dream?

A. That depends on the meaning of the term. You may "dream," or, as we
say, sleep visions, awake or asleep. If the Astral Light is collected
in a cup or metal vessel by will-power, and the eyes fixed on some
point in it with a strong will to see, a waking vision or "dream" is
the result, if the person is at all sensitive. The reflections in the
Astral Light are seen better with closed eyes, and, in sleep, still
more distinctly. From a lucid state, vision becomes translucid; from
normal organic consciousness it rises to a transcendental state of
consciousness.

Q. To what causes are dreams chiefly due?

A. There are many kinds of dreams, as we all know. Leaving the
"digestion dream" aside, there are brain dreams and memory dreams,
mechanical and conscious visions. Dreams of warning and premonition
require the active co-operation of the inner Ego. They are also often
due to the conscious or unconscious co-operation of the brains of two
living persons, or of their two Egos.

Q. What is it that dreams, then?

A. Generally the physical brain of the personal Ego, the seat of
memory, radiating and throwing off sparks like the dying embers of a
fire. The memory of the Sleeper is like an AEolian seven-stringed
harp; and his state of mind may be compared to the wind that sweeps
over the chords. The corresponding string of the harp will respond to
that one of the seven states of mental activity in which the sleeper
was before falling asleep. If it is a gentle breeze the harp will be
affected but little; if a hurricane, the vibrations will be
proportionately powerful. If the personal Ego is in touch with its
higher principles and the veils of the higher planes are drawn aside,
all is well; if on the contrary it is of a materialistic animal
nature, there will be probably no dreams; or if the memory by chance
catch the breath of a "wind" from a higher plane, seeing that it will
be impressed through the sensory ganglia of the cerebellum, and not by
the direct agency of the spiritual Ego, it will receive pictures and
sounds so distorted and inharmonious that even a Devachanic vision
would appear a nightmare or grotesque caricature. Therefore there is
no simple answer to the question "What is it that dreams," for it
depends entirely on each individual what principle will be the chief
motor in dreams, and whether they will be remembered or forgotten.

Q. Is the apparent objectivity in a dream really objective or
subjective?

A. If it is admitted to be apparent, then of course it is subjective.
The question should rather be, to whom or what are the pictures or
representations in dreams either objective or subjective? To the
physical man, the dreamer, all he sees with his eyes shut, and in or
through his mind, is of course subjective. But to the Seer within the
physical dreamer, that Seer himself being subjective to our material
senses, all he sees is as objective as he is himself to himself and to
others like himself. Materialists will probably laugh, and say that we
make of a man a whole family of entities, but this is not so.

Occultism teaches that physical man is one, but the thinking man
septenary, thinking, acting, feeling, and living on seven different
states of being or planes of consciousness, and that for all these
states and planes the permanent Ego (not the false personality) has a
distinct set of senses.

Q. Can these different senses be distinguished?

A. Not unless you are an Adept or highly-trained Chela, thoroughly
acquainted with these different states. Sciences, such as biology,
physiology, and even psychology (of the Maudsley, Bain, and Herbert
Spencer schools), do not touch on this subject.

Science teaches us about the phenomena of volition, sensation,
intellect, and instinct, and says that these are all manifested
through the nervous centers, the most important of which is our brain.
She will speak of the peculiar agent or substance through which these
phenomena take place as the vascular and fibrous tissues, and explain
their relation to one another, dividing the ganglionic centers into
motor, sensory and sympathetic, but will never breathe one word of the
mysterious agency of intellect itself, or of the mind and its
functions.

Now, it frequently happens that we are conscious and know that we are
dreaming; this is a very good proof that man is a multiple being on
the thought plane; so that not only is the Ego, or thinking man,
Proteus, a multiform, ever-changing entity, but he is also, so to
speak, capable of separating himself on the mind or dream plane into
two or more entities; and on the plane of illusion which follows us to
the threshold of Nirvana, he is like Ain-Soph talking to Ain-Soph,
holding a dialogue with himself and speaking through, about, and to
himself. And this is the mystery of the inscrutable Deity in the
Zohar, as in the Hindu philosophies; it is the same in the Kabbala,
Puranas, Vedantic metaphysics, or even in the so-called Christian
mystery of the Godhead and Trinity. Man is the microcosm of the
macrocosm; the god on earth is built on the pattern of the god in
nature. But the universal consciousness of the real Ego transcends a
millionfold the self-consciousness of the personal or false Ego.

Q. Is that which is termed "unconscious cerebration" during sleep a
mechanical process of the physical brain, or is it a conscious
operation of the Ego, the result of which only is impressed on the
ordinary consciousness?

A. It is the latter; for is it possible to remember in our conscious
state what took place while our brain worked unconsciously? This is
apparently a contradiction in terms.

Q. How does it happen that persons who have never seen mountains in
nature often see them distinctly in sleep, and are able to note their
features?

A. Most probably because they have seen pictures of mountains;
otherwise it is somebody or something in us which has previously seen
them.

Q. What is the cause of that experience in dreams in which the dreamer
seems to be ever striving after something, but never attaining it?

A. It is because the physical self and its memory are shut out of the
possibility of knowing what the real Ego does. The dreamer only
catches faint glimpses of the doings of the Ego, whose actions produce
the so-called dream on the physical man, but is unable to follow it
consecutively. A delirious patient, on recovery, bears the same
relation to the nurse who watched and tended him in his illness as the
physical man to his real Ego. The Ego acts as consciously within and
without him as the nurse acts in tending and watching over the sick
man. But neither the patient after leaving his sick bed, nor the
dreamer on awaking, will be able to remember anything except in
snatches and glimpses.

Q. How does sleep differ from death?

A. There is an analogy certainly, but a very great difference between
the two. In sleep there is a connection, weak though it may be,
between the lower and higher mind of man, and the latter is more or
less reflected into the former, however much its rays may be
distorted. But once the body is dead, the body of illusion, Mayavi
Rupa, becomes Kama Rupa, or the animal soul, and is left to its own
devices. Therefore, there is as much difference between the spook and
man as there is between a gross material, animal but sober mortal, and
a man incapably drunk and unable to distinguish the most prominent
surroundings; between a person shut up in a perfectly dark room and
one in a room lighted, however imperfectly, by some light or other.

The lower principles are like wild beasts, and the higher Manas is the
rational man who tames or subdues them more or less successfully. But
once the animal gets free from the master who held it in subjection;
no sooner has it ceased to hear his voice and see him than it starts
off again to the jungle and its ancient den. It takes, however, some
time for an animal to return to its original and natural state, but
these lower principles or "spook" return instantly, and no sooner has
the higher Triad entered the Devachanic state than the lower Duad
rebecomes that which it was from the beginning, a principle endued
with purely animal instinct, made happier still by the great change.

Q. What is the condition of the Linga Sarira, or plastic body, during
dreams?

A. The condition of the Plastic form is to sleep with its body, unless
projected by some powerful desire generated in the higher Manas. In
dreams it plays no active part, but on the contrary is entirely
passive, being the involuntarily half-sleepy witness of the
experiences through which the higher principles are passing.

Q. Under what circumstances is this wraith seen?

A. Sometimes, in cases of illness or very strong passion on the part
of the person seen or the person who sees; the possibility is mutual.
A sick person especially just before death, is very likely to see in
dream, or vision, those whom he loves and is continually thinking of,
and so also is a person awake, but intensely thinking of a person who
is asleep at the time.

Q. Can a Magician summon such a dreaming entity and have intercourse
with it?

A. In black Magic it is no rare thing to evoke the "spirit" of a
sleeping person; the sorcerer may then learn from the apparition any
secret he chooses, and the sleeper be quite ignorant of what is
occurring.

Under such circumstances that which appears is the Mayavi rupa; but
there is always a danger that the memory of the living man will
preserve the recollections of the evocation and remember it as a vivid
dream. If it is not, however, at a great distance, the Double or Linga
Sarira may be evoked, but this can neither speak nor give information,
and there is always the possibility of the sleeper being killed
through this forced separation. Many sudden deaths in sleep have thus
occurred, and the world been no wiser.

Q. Can there be any connection between a dreamer and an entity in
"Kama Loka"?

A. The dreamer of an entity in Kama Loka would probably bring upon
himself a nightmare, or would run the risk of becoming "possessed" by
the "spook" so attracted, if he happened to be a medium, or one who
had made himself so passive during his waking hours that even his
higher Self is now unable to protect him. This is why the mediumistic
state of passivity is so dangerous, and in time renders the Higher
Self entirely helpless to aid or even warn the sleeping or entranced
person. Passivity paralyzes the connection between the lower and
higher principles. It is very rare to find instances of mediums who,
while remaining passive at will, for the purpose of communicating with
some higher Intelligence, some extraneous spirit (not disembodied),
will yet preserve sufficiently their personal will so as not to break
off all connection with the higher Self.

Q. Can a dreamer be "en rapport" with an entity in Devachan?

A. The only possible means of communicating with Devachanees is during
sleep by a dream or vision, or in trance state. No Devachanee can
descend into our plane; it is for us -- or rather our inner Self -- to
ascend to his. ....

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

Best wishes, Dallas

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

-----Original Message-----
From: Steve S
Sent: Tuesday, November 12, 2002 7:36 PM
To:
Subject: sleep, dreams, Higher Self, Manas

--- In theos-talk@y..., leonmaurer@a... wrote:
> Could you please quote the particular text?

"the [Higher] Ego ... is highly spiritual, and is linked very closely
with the higher principles, Buddhi and Atma."

But she says that:

"the Higher] Ego must not be confused with what we call the 'Higher
Self.'"

The reason is undoubtedly that the Higher Self does not reside within
the body, whereas the Higher Ego, being "linked very closely" with
it, is a reflection of the Higher Self within the body.

"These higher principles are entirely inactive on our plane, and the
higher Ego (Manas) itself is more or less dormant during the waking
of the physical man. This is especially the case with persons of very
materialistic mind. So dormant are the Spiritual faculties, because
the Ego is so trammelled by matter, that It can hardly give all its
attention to the man's actions, even should the latter commit sins
for which that Ego ? when reunited with its lower Manas ? will have
to suffer conjointly in the future. It is, as I said, the impressions
projected into the physical man by this Ego which constitute what we
call "conscience"; and in proportion as the Personality, the lower
Soul (or Manas), unites itself to its higher consciousness, or EGO,
does the action of the latter upon the life of mortal man become more
marked."

CUT