Theos-Talk Archives (September 2004 Message tt00553)

--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, "kpauljohnson" <kpauljohnson@y...> 
wrote:
> --- 
> I haven't had any
> interest in reading books about Theosophy in many years. ...
> Reading the same kinds of books or the same exact books
> over and over accomplishes nothing for me and I don't
> get positive vibes from those who do so.

Well, I'll bet I know to whom you are referring.

You might consider the stuff of Max Freedom Long, especially THE 
SECRET SCIENCE BEHIND MIRACLES, which deals with his reconstruction 
of Hasa'iian shamanism. Long was a theosophist but says nothing 
about it that I remember. I will summarize what I learned from 
teachers. To actually proceed you need to start with a teacher.

Briefly, the Higher Self is reached through the unconscious mind, 
which serves as a sort of gatekeeper. (This is the Hawa'iian 
perspective.) The unconscious mind will block communication if you 
harbor certain kinds of ill feelings (especially guilt) or if you 
have wronged someone (which ties back to guilt.) This is the reason 
religious taboos were developed in ancient times. Ancient man sought 
to determine empirically how to please "the gods" (i.e., maintain the 
connection with his HS.) The taboos eventually evolved into a legal 
system and finally into an amorphous something called "morality" 
which is much less clear and gets defined however one wants. Over a 
period of millenia people have lost touch with the original purpose 
of morality and many have decided to dump it altogether in favor 
of "situation ethics," which is a sort of "if you can get away with 
it, why not?" sort of thing.

So if you feel guilty about the past part of the matter of 
establishing the HS connection is to clear the guilt. That could 
mean making amends with people who have a grievance against you (an 
idea incorporated into Five Step programs) or simple self 
forgivenessm, or certain other complex techniques for clearing 
guilt. This is called "kala" in the Hawa'iian language. Effective 
kala is essential if the connection is to be established. The issue 
is not whether you ARE guilty of anything, but whether you FEEL 
guilty.

It is also necessary to clear other negative emotions such as anger, 
fear, and sadness which may also block the connection. Most 
practitioners accompany this with "Ha" breathing to increase psychic 
energy, which is presentd to the HS as an "offering." Then one 
invokes or summons the HS, which can be accompanied by a chant, 
There is no sense putting the chant on the Internet since you have to 
be personally instructed how to do it. When the HS descends you will 
experience what is called "the rain of blessing", which is a 
sensation as if fine droplets of moisture were descending on you, 
producing an intense feeling of well being. You can then thank it 
for its blessings, ask it for practical assistance, or ask for 
information. Some people see symbols. Others get actual information 
from the "still small voice." Some see apparent miracles happen, 
which is to some extent increased awareness since there are miracles 
happening to us all the time. Apparently different people have very 
different degrees of success with this. Obviously I learned this 
from teachers, but some of it is in Long's books.

So far as I know, reading the same theosophy books endlessly and 
attacking historians who question the existence of the masters will 
accomplish nothing toward this end, although one must learn how to 
proceed from a book or (better) a teacher. The problem with 
theosophy is that it discourages anything remotely practical and 
urges students to just read magazines.