Theos-Talk Archives (February 2003 Message tt00040)

Tuesday, February 04, 2003


Dear Mic: and friends,


Theosophy teaches that when the physical; body dies the Astral "soul"
that animates the physical body in man spends an appreciable time in
gathering together all the memories recorded in various centres of the
body and the brain.

The purpose of this gathering is to provide the Higher Mind with all
the material to review (which it does before it reincarnates again) of
the past life.

Why is this? It carries into two separate sections of subjective
nature this record, having divided it into two categories:

1. The actions, thoughts, words that were "good," noble and
altruistic, and

2, those which were selfish, malicious and "bad."

Following this "review" on the astral plane, a "Second death"
occurs -- as the evil side of life's memories are banished along with
the astral body (the personal soul) to dissipate on the astral plane
without the further support of the Life essence. The astral substance
now departs from the physical dead body. [ And here Theosophy
recommends that cremation be used to dispose of the physical remains,
as it expedites the dispatch of the life atoms therein back into
Nature for reuse. They (the "atoms" ) never die. They are the
building-blocks of Nature, and constantly come and go from us and
others all around us during our life.]

This process of dissipation of the astral corpse (on the astral plane)
and its evil memories, may take a few months to a few years depending
on how strongly the material and selfish the last life was. This is a
subjective state and remains on the astral plane. (From it are
derived the "ghosts," and other psychic "spiritualistic"
manifestations. ISIS UNVEILED gives many illustrations of this, and
in her KEY TO THEOSOPHY, H P B gives full explanations of that which
I am condensing here.)

The noble and altruistic memories gathered by the Spiritual-soul now
proceed into a totally different subjective a state called "DEVACHAN"
( Land of the gods). This state is presided over by the
Individuality, the inner SPIRIT OF MAN : ATMA-BUDDHI. It reviews and
meditates on all the noble things done during the last physical life,
and stores them up as part of the immortal character that we all have
accumulated. Here is where the immortal record of our lives are kept
(In the Buddhi) and they travel with us forevermore. One might say
that our INDIVIDUAL, and spiritually valuable "past," is immortalized
and added to its imperishable memory.

The time of the review just after physical death, may be from a few
fractions of a second (in case of violent death, accidents, shootings,
explosion, etc...) to about 12 hours in most normal cases. But
nothing is ever "lost." Hence it is recommended that the body be left
as undisturbed as possible for at least 12 hours.

I have heard of this case of a change in weight, which occurs sometime
during that 12 hour period. But the amount of change was a few ounces
or about 10 grams at most. Years ago, I read of this is an early
issue of THEOSOPHY (Los Angeles ) It was in ON THE LOOKOUT section, I
believe. But I lost the reference. Thinking over this I have
wondered how the "astral substance" would register a "physical
weight." I have no answer for that yet.

I wonder if the experiment has ever been repeated ? Only a doctor in
a hospital where they might have a finely tuned weighing machine able
to record such a sudden small change might be able to conduct which an
experiment and bring us up to date. Perhaps someone knows this
reference or has some lead to the original articles on which the
lookout comment was made.

23 is a prime as I recall and a great Princeton mathematician ( North
?) has made some important comments on that.. 7 is also a prime and
is said to be the factor of the Universe -- how is that ? It will be
found ever arising in descriptions of Nature and her departments. (see
SECRET DOCTRINE I 200 diagram, also, in S D see Vol. I 322, 361,
433-4, 460; S D Vol. II 73-4, 574-6, 602 for some leads ]

Both ISIS UNVEILED an The SECRET DOCTRINE have a lot of information to
give on these and other numbers, but one has to research it -- the
INDEX helps. A study of Cycles also helps. Both H P B and Judge
wrote articles on those. [ see through
http://www.blavatsky.net ]

Synchronicity relates to the return of certain comparable
situations -- but the underlying reason is yet to be discovered or set
to an algorithmic base. It relates to events in OUR TIME as
comprehended in UNIVERSAL TIME. Can you imagine the complexity if one
were to also consider a 7 fold or a 10 fold Universe in which
everything had to be mathematically exact ? [ in S D see I xxvi;
II 367-8, 392, 692-3 -- on synchronistic tables ]

The greater meaning is inherent in the Universe as its eternal LAWS,
of which and in which, we are only a late event.

One thing is quite certain (to me) the choices we make, even the
smallest, are a basis for our future Karma and we and the Universe
ever interact -- on more than a single plane of matter. We not only
are constantly remodeling ourselves, but we are framing our future
moment by moment. We do this by our choices -- which are either in
harmony with universal Law, or we seek to bend, distort, or otherwise
mangle the fair processes of evolution. As to why this latter
attracts such attention I am puzzled.

Maybe this is of help.

Best wishes,

Dallas


PS

if you would like a fuller exposition on the "After-death states" use

http://www.blavatsky.net

and go to Judge the OCEAN OF THEOSOPHY -- I am sure you will find it
useful and instructive. It is a short book only 178 pages but it
condenses The SECRET DOCTRINE rather well.


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

-----Original Message-----
From: Mic
Sent: Monday, February 03, 2003 6:37 PM
To:
Subject: Re:: coincidences - Dallas

Friend -- Dallas, etc...

That's great stuff. When we can't see the underlying
cause of a coincidence it is easy to say it must be
"magical", "divine intervention", life changing and
the like. I believe these sorts of people just
couldn't be bothered thinking. I remember years ago a
friend came up to me and told me a story he had heard.
He said that a man in hospital was on some sort of
weighing table/device when he passed away. This device
recorded a drop in the man's weight of 5 kg at the time
of his death. My friend concluded that it must have
been the man's soul escaping his body and going to
heaven. Firstly, unless someone here can confirm this
story, I think it sounds like a load of bollucks.
Secondly, it is rather presumptuous to conclude that
the only mechanism whereby a man could loose so much
weight is via the soul escaping (if indeed a human can
biologically/physiologically can possibly lose that
amount of weight in an instant). I concluded that my
friend was desperate to believe in a soul going to
heaven because not two months before he had lost his
own father. Perhaps a desperate coincidence there.

Another coincidence I absolutely love is when you sit
in a cafe/milk bar/pub/any such public venue and just
watch the flow of people through the door. I have
heard countless times shop keepers and the like
complain that they sit around for a while with nothing
to do then all of the sudden twenty people want
vegemite sandwiches. If any of you are sceptic about
this just go to any shop and ask (of course some
places are just so busy they don't have time to
realise any patterns - there was once I when was doing
some volunteer work for the Australian Conservation
Foundation, a bit of stock take in a shop they had,
and, being able to stay in the store all day, this
pattern was all too apparent.)

Of course we can sit here all day and scream that
there are underlying causes behind coincidences but
how do you convince people who do not want to believe?
An example is the familiar phenomena among
synchronists of the recurrence of the number 23. Why
this number? Why not any other number? Just this last
week the number 23 has started popping up everywhere in
my own life but, I also noticed, so has the number 7.
Is it really a coincidence or have I just become aware
that the number 23 (and 7) are just really common
numbers in our society.

Scientists have tried to explain coincidences, most
commonly through the phenomenon of synchronicity.
Mansfield (1995) in "Synchronicity, Science and
Soul-Making" argued that the acausal nature of
synchronicity (and through inference to all
coincidental events) could be proven through quantum
physics. Indeterminism and all that who-ha; As above,
so below; quantum holograms etc etc etc.

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