Theos-Talk Archives (March 2004 Message tt00003)

Mar 1 2004

Dear John:

Many thanks for the links you sent me to see.

Mr. Judge in The OCEAN OF THEOSOPHY covers mental perceptions pretty
well in the last 2 chapters of that book and gives their rationale.

But let me quote you a story from the U L T Edition of LETTERS THAT HAVE
HELPED ME - Judge p, 150-152

--------------------------------

LETTERS ND THEIR FORERUNNERS

I had just finished reading aloud a letter from one of our circle sent
from the West the other day, when the Professor arrived, and seeing the
student sitting at the end of the table cried, "Oh, my dear fellow, you
are just the man I wanted. Your talk about dreams the other day gave me
so many new ideas I think I have hit on a poser for you this time."
We all became at once very much interested at the prospect of the
student's being posed. He is seldom put to flight, for he has a way of
waiting until you have said all you wish, and then gives the matter such
a turn that his expected defeat is your own Sedan day. This time he
looked at the Professor quite straight and laconically ejaculated,
"Letters and their forerunners, I presume."

A sort of falling of the jaw came to the Professor, and then I knew that
again our dear student had posed the other man, and at the same time the
voice of the widow whispered in my ear, "I saw a blue light go out of
his eyes when old 'Prof.' first spoke."

"Why," exclaimed the Professor, "that's it exactly, though I don't quite
give it just that title. But how did you know? Pshaw, it was only a
guess! It is this way. When I am thinking of a man, and the same day or
the same hour receive a letter from him, is there any necessary
connection between my thoughts and the getting of the letter?"

"There may be, and there may not. It all depends. Perhaps as much
connection as between our listening here to a letter being read, your
coming in just then, and my putting your query for you, 'by guess' as
you say. A close connection is quite possible, and exists in the greater
number of such cases. You have heard of the so-called superstition of
the 'forerunner' in Scotland and other countries? No, you paid no
attention to that? Well, they think that some people have what they call
a 'forerunner.' This is often a fleeting image of the person which comes
to the house or place to which the original is actually travelling, as
if to give warning of the approaching person, but which does not speak.
In
other cases it is a knock or number of knocks sent on ahead as a kind of
courier in advance. It does not forbode death, but is simply a
forerunner, the person's own familiar herald. 'Well, it is the same
thing with letters. They have their forerunners which travel on in
advance, some at a long distance, others not far before. It is a sort of
pressure of aura, an aura full of the characteristics of the writer, and
given impulse and direction from the very definite thoughts and ideas of
the correspondent toward the person written to. But really this is
preaching; I don't wish to monopolize the evening."

We all drew in our breaths, for this was exactly what we had been
talking about one day in the student's absence, and now he provokingly
proposed to cut off the explanation at the beginning. So there was
chorus of "Go on! Don't do like that. This is not a tea in Society. You
can have the evening."

"Do you mean," questioned the Professor, with an "I'll-draw him-out"
expression, "that certain objects-such, for instance, as letters-have
spheres of their own, of an extensible nature, which can and do travel
on ahead, where, impinging on the sensorium of the person to whom they
are written, they produce an impression or image or thought of the
writer in the brain of the individual against whom this sphere
impinges?"

"That is exactly it,"-and I caught a flying look from the student which
telegraphed that he was the one who had paused so as to draw the
Professor out and on into the web of his own words, which being in his
own style, might the more quickly be accepted by his brain.

"The existence of an aura around objects, and especially those belonging
to man, has been proved. Letters not only have it on general principles,
but also in a specialized state due to the concentration by the writer
upon thought, words, and person. It remains with the epistle somewhat in
the way a mass of compressed air travels along with a bullet or a cannon
ball. This latter is now well known, for by an instantaneous photograph
the cushion of the compressed air and the bullet have been distinctly
reproduced on the plate. What obtains in physics obtains also in the
realm of actual physics, to coin a term. "In some cases I have measured
the time this forerunner will reach me, and found it often to be one
day, which meant in one case a five-hundred-mile distance and in another
one thousand miles."

"Then, of course," I said, "each mass of this aura, which must be
personal to the writer, carries with it the idea or picture of the
friend?"

"Yes, this is so with all our thoughts, and we fix them firmly in the
letter during the writing. Then the aura is all permeated with our
image. and when the brain receives it that image produces an idea about
the writer. In some sensitive persons a partial knowledge of the
contents of the coming letter is gained, though in most cases only in
the vaguest manner. I think we have cumulative proof of this in
telepathy and mind-reading."
Just here, in the most annoying way, the door-bell began to ring,
announcing visitors not in the charmed circle, and both the Professor
and the Student pleaded engagements-with each other, I suppose, to
continue the conversation as they walked along.
TEA-TABLE TALKS Reprint: LETTERS - Judge p, 150-152

-October, 1892

-------------------------------------------

from: Letters -- Judge - pp 143-6


An inquirer writes: "I want to tell you of a little experience I had
last week. I would call it a dream, but it is unlike any dream I ever
had. It was in the night, of course, and I thought that I- the real
I-was standing by the bedside, looking down at my sleeping form. The
whole room was light, yet it did not seem like sunlight; it came from no
particular point, it cast no shadows; it seemed to be diffused from, or
to pervade, all things equally; it was not colored, like sunlight or
gaslight-it seemed white, or silvery. Everything was clearly visible:
the furniture, the mosquito bar, the brushes on the toilet-table. The
form on the bed I recognized distinctly. It was lying as usual, on the
right side, the right arm curved under the pillow, my favorite attitude.
I seemed to see it even more clearly, more distinctly than the ordinary
reflection in the mirror, for whereas there one only has the reflection
of a plane surface, here I saw it as a solid, just as I do other people
and could also observe the breathing. This did not last more than,
perhaps, thirty seconds, but long enough for me to see the body
distinctly, to observe and comment upon the fact that the face had an
expression of weariness, to note the light as before remarked and some
objects in the room. Then all faded away, and after wards-tho' how long,
of course I don't know-I awoke and it was day. Was this a dream, or did
I remember that much of the excursion of my 'Astral,' and was the light
I saw the Astral Light? C."

This inquirer was answered, "I believe that what you saw was the
remembrance of what really happened. Your astral self got out-as it
always does-and looked back at the body. It is more than likely that all
that you saw occurred when you were returning to the body, and that is
why it was short. We remember distinctly only that which is nearest to
us. I think you went out when you fell asleep and then on coming back to
wakefulness you kept a recollection of the last few seconds. You do not
really forget what you saw and thought while away. It sinks into your
upper, or sub-conscious, or super-conscious mind, from which it will all
percolate into the thoughts of your waking state. To remember what
happens during sleep, is to be a conscious seer. So we only get these
useless glimpses of our returning to the body.

"We go away in deep dreamless sleep to other spheres and states, where
we get ideas and so forth, and the way back is through many different
states, all having their denizens and obstructions. Besides that, there
are two ways to ascend and descend: the direct and indirect. So, much is
lost and mixed up on those two roads. Now I talk of actualities and not
sentimentally.

"We must be patient. because it takes time to find out how to walk, and
much time is spent in getting hold of clues. A great deal depends on
purity of thought and motive, and breadth of view."

-October, 1887

---------------------------------------------


Quickly thought he could beat that dream: he generally does go us one
better, and I don't know that any one envies him some of his occult
adventures at least. He was living in New York, and had an acquaintance
who was better known to the family of his uncle than to himself. He went
to Washington and put up in a private house in R. Street. On the second
night he dreamed he was at home and was going in by the basement way in
company with the above-named gentleman and his own deceased sister. As
they were about entering, the gentleman put his hand on the overhanging
stoop, which at once fell upon him, and he disappeared beneath it. Every
one in the dream seemed to feel very badly about him. Next day Quickly
made a note of the dream in his diary and dismissed it from his mind.
Not writing home, he heard nothing about the gentleman, but when he
returned to New York he learned that his acquaintance had had a severe
fall which brought on an old trouble, and that he had died on the night
of the dream. The Professor listened with the genuine
"I-know-all-about-it" air, and remarked at the close that the dream was
doubtless caused by the events of the man's life passing rapidly through
his dying mind, and when he came to his relations with Quickly, that
recollection vibrated in connection with Quickly and caused his dream,
reaching him all the more rapidly because his physical nature was at the
moment quiescent in sleep. I do not doubt myself that this suggestion is
a correct clue to all similar occurrences.

-March, 1888

-------------------------------------------------


The student * was prevailed on the other night to say some-thing about
dreams and dreaming.

"Yes, although the greater number of dreams are foolish, we must not
despise them utterly, but should discriminate. If we rely on dreams we
shall at last become verily superstitious and amen able to punishment by
our friends. The fact that nearly all people dream is an enormous fact.
For in these dreams, foolish, sad, grave, or prophetic, there is some
ego or person or individual who experiences the feelings that we note in
dreams and remember afterwards. The same sort of cognitions and
sensations is perceived in dreams as when we are awake. Who feels, who
suffers and enjoys? is the question. That is what we should consider.
But it is true that
-----
* By this time, the name "Quickly" was no longer used, Mr. Judge being
henceforth referred to simply as "Student" or "X.' '-Eds.
--------------------------------------

one may learn the meaning of his own dreams; rare is the man who can say
what, if any, meaning the dreaming of another has."

-May, 1891

-----------------------------------------------


The student remarked, "Dreams are not understood generally, and most of
those we have are forgotten in five minutes after waking up. Job truly
said that in the visions of the night man is instructed. That this [the
Bishop's dream under discussion] was a day-dream does not alter the
case. Bulwer Lytton shows that the first initiations come in dreams.
They are nearly always in symbols, for the inner man has no such
language as ours. He sees and speaks by pictures. He throws out a
thought as a picture. It is for us to grasp it and remember. Each
picture is modified by the changing methods of our waking hours of
thought. Your friend has well dreamed and well interpreted, and if we
were to act upon our dream- teaching when it gives high motive, then we
could encourage, as it were, the inner dreamer so that oftener we might
get instruction. The Bishop's impulse is to slightly sniff at his
relative because he is so practical. Yet he, even, dreams and a great
fact is therefore present in his experience-the fact of dreaming. Our
dreams present an opportunity to us as waking men and women to so live
that the Inner Self may more easily speak to us. For, as with new
acquaintances and strange languages, it is necessary to become
accustomed to the new forms of speech and thought, so that out of the
great confusion reigning at first we may bring order with instruction.
The lesson of this dream is for all; it is to throw off the hold of self
upon us each in his own way-for all differ-and to abandon all fear. But
we cannot do either while we remain impure; as we purify, so we
succeed."	TEA-TABLE TALKS from: LETTERS -- Judge -
pp 143-6

-March, 1892


---------------------------------


There are more incidents narrated, if you are interested let me know and
I can send them.

Best wishes,


Dallas

---------------------------------------------------------------


-----Original Message-----
From: sambl
Sent: Sunday, February 29, 2004 4:04 PM
To: 
Subject: [bn-study] Re: Karmic action as an expression of universa...

Dallas,

Thanks as always. I have recently read some fairly unique current
era
content posted on the Web that is curiously revenant to several
questions
posted by those you answer correspondence to, and also that of
Morten
and others. 


One query seeks a current new presencing and message in
today's world based on H.P.B.'s mention of future "Messengers" in
our
time. 


Others discuss process of the Ascent of the Mind of Mankind, and
also how the Ancient Wisdom is perpetuated and renewed. 


Although these pages are yet set in concrete proof of validity and they
are
controversial with positions taken on both sides, they are most 
stimulating and have a strange resonance with the S.D. we all take
pleasure in.

John