Theos-Talk Archives (June 2004 Message tt00194)

--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, "Koshek Swaminathan" 
<arasophia@y...> wrote:
> 
> Leon and Steve,
> 
> I think the question is What exactly is the rupa?

Yes, that is the question. Theosophy seems to maintain that it is 
something which exists in fact and not just in concept. In his OLD 
DIARY LEAVES Olcott has a story of Damdodar dematerializing a mahatma 
letter and carrying its rupa with him to where HPB was, then 
remateializing it at the scene. This was part of one of SDamodar;s 
astral projection experiences and is interesting in part becauise if 
it is true it offers some objective evidence that his experience was 
not a mere dream. It also affords some insight into how the 
theosophists saw the whole business of precipitation, teleportation, 
etc. The story makes it clear it was not the letter itself but itt 
rupa which was carried across space.

As for energy, how mind affects matter is still a mystery, but a 
fellow named Deds published a book in the nineteenth century called 
ELECTRIC PSYCHOLOGY in which he argued that mind can affect 
electricity. The basis of that is of course the fact that your 
nervous system is electrical. A small amount of mental energy 
(assuming there is such a thing) would therefore produce a large 
effect on the material world. This idea made it into the SD, where 
Fohat is considered the "bridge" between mind and matter and is 
called "cosmic electricity." So the idea may be not to expend energy 
but to switch ir on or off, the way you might start a turbine by 
flipping a switch.