Theos-Talk Archives (January 2005 Message tt00227)

Jan 10 2005

Dear Gopi:

I think in this article from HPB you will find the answers to your
inquiries.

See also and study carefully the information HPB gives in TRANSACTIONS OF
THE BLAVATSKY LODGE, pp. 64-78 on Dreams and Visions and the inner
PRINCIPLES that are active in us.

If not then ask again.

Best wishes,

Dallas

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ARE DREAMS BUT IDLE VISIONS?
 
[THEOSOPHIST, Vol. III. No. 4, January, 1882.]
MODERN PANARION, p. 485

"DREAMS are interludes which fancy makes," Dryden tells us—perhaps to show
that even a poet will make occasionally his muse subservient to sciolistic
prejudice.

The instance of prevision in dream given above [in a letter addressed to The
Theosophist] is one of a series of what may be regarded as exceptional cases
in dream-life, the generality of dreams being, indeed, but "interludes which
fancy makes." 

It is the policy of materialistic, matter-of-fact science to superbly ignore
such exceptions, on the ground, perchance, that the exception confirms the
rule—or, we rather think, to avoid the embarrassing task of explaining such
exceptions. 

Indeed, if one single instance stubbornly refuses classification, with
"strange coincidences"—so much in favour with sceptics—then prophetic, or
verified, dreams would demand an entire remodeling of physiology; as in
regard to phrenology, the recognition and acceptance by science of prophetic
dreams (hence the recognition of the claims of theosophy and spiritualism)
would, it is contended, "carry with it a new educational, social, political,
and theological science." 

Result: Science will never recognize either dreams, spiritualism, or
occultism.
Human nature is an abyss, which physiology (and indeed modern science in
general) has sounded less deeply than some who have never heard the word
physiology pronounced. 

DUAL NATURE OF MAN

Never are the high censors of the Royal Society more perplexed than when
brought face to face with that insolvable mystery—man’s inner nature. The
key to it is— man’s dual being. It is that key that they refuse to use,well
aware that if once the door of the adytum be flung open they will be forced
to drop one by one their cherished theories and final conclusions— more than
once proved to have been no better than hobbies, starting from false or
incomplete premises. 

If we must remain satisfied with the half explanations of physiology as
regards meaningless dreams, how account in such case for the numerous facts
of verified dreams? To say that man is a dual being, that in man (to use the
words of Paul) "there is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body"; and
that, therefore, he must of necessity have a double set of senses—is
tantamount in the opinion of the educated sceptic to uttering an
unpardonable and most unscientific fallacy. Yet it has to be uttered,
science notwithstanding.

Man is undeniably endowed with a double set of senses; with natural or
physical senses (these to be safely left to physiology to deal with); and
with sub-natural or spiritual senses (belonging entirely to the province of
psychological science). 

The word "sub," let it be well understood, is used here in a sense
diametrically opposite to that given to it—in chemistry, for example. In our
case it is a prefix, as in "subtonic" or "sub-bass" in music. 

Indeed, as the aggregate sound of nature is shown to be a single definite
tone, a key-note vibrating from and through eternity; having an undeniable
existence per se, yet possessing an appreciable pitch only for "the acutely
fine ear" *— [see The VOICE OF THE SILENCE, p. 55 fn] so the definite
harmony or disharmony of man’s external nature is seen by the observant to
depend wholly on the character of the key-note struck for the outer by the
inner man. 

SPIRITUAL EGO THE FUNDAMENTAL BASE

It is the spiritual Ego or Self that serves as the fundamental base,
determining the tone of the whole life of man—that most capricious,
uncertain and variable of all instruments, which more than any other needs
constant tuning; it is its voice alone, which like the sub-bass of an organ,
underlies the melody of his whole life, whether its tones are sweet or
harsh, harmonious or wild, legato or pizzicato.

A SPIRITUAL BRAIN

Therefore, we say, man, in addition to the physical, has also a spiritual
brain. If the former is wholly dependent for the degree of its receptivity
on its own physical structure and development, it is, on the other hand,
entirely subordinate to the latter, inasmuch as it is the spiritual Ego
alone (according as it leans more towards its two highest principles, † or
towards its physical shell) that can impress more or less vividly the outer
brain with the perception of things purely spiritual or immaterial. 

Hence it depends on the acuteness of the mental feelings of the inner Ego,
on the degree of spirituality of its faculties, to transfer the impression
of the scenes its semi-spiritual brain perceives, the words it hears, and
what it feels, to the sleeping physical brain of the outer man. 

The stronger the spirituality of the faculties of the latter, the easier it
will be for the Ego [MANAS] to awake the sleeping hemispheres, rouse into
activity the sensory ganglia and the cerebellum, and impress the former
(always in full inactivity and rest during the deep sleep of man) with the
vivid picture of the subject so transferred. 

In a sensual, unspiritual man, in one whose mode of life and animal
proclivities and passions have entirely disconnected his fifth principle
[MANAS] or animal, astral Ego [KAMA-MANAS] from its higher spiritual soul
[BUDDHI]; as also in him whose hard, physical labour has so worn out the
material body as to render him temporarily insensible to the voice and touch
of his astral soul—in both cases during sleep the brain remains in a
complete state of anæmia or full inactivity. 

Such persons rarely, if ever, have any dreams at all, least of all "visions
that come to pass." In the former, as the waking time approaches, and his
sleep becomes lighter, the mental changes as they begin to occur will
constitute dreams in which intelligence will play no part; his half-awakened
brain suggesting but pictures which are only the hazy grotesque
reproductions of his wild habits in life; while in the latter (unless
strongly preoccupied with some exceptional thought) his ever-present
instinct of active habits will not permit him to remain in that state of
semi-sleep during which, as consciousness begins to return, dreams of
various kinds are seen, but will arouse him at once without any interlude to
full wakefulness. 

SPIRITUAL VISIONS

On the other hand, the more spiritual a man, the more active his fancy, the
greater is the probability of his receiving in vision correctly the
impressions conveyed to him by his all-seeing, ever-wakeful Ego. The
spiritual senses of the latter, unimpeded as they are by the interference of
the physical senses, are in direct intimacy with his highest spiritual
principle [ATMA]. This principle (though per se a quasi-unconscious part of
the utterly unconscious, because utterly immaterial, Absolute ‡) having in
itself the inherent capabilities of omniscience, omnipresence, and
omnipotence, as soon as its pure essence comes in contact with pure
sublimated and (to us) imponderable matter, imparts these attributes in a
degree to the as pure astral Ego. 
Hence highly spiritual persons will see visions and dreams during sleep and
even in their hours of wakefulness. These are the sensitives, the
natural-born seers, now loosely termed "spiritual mediums," there being no
distinction made between a subjective seer, a "neurypnological" subject, and
even an Adept—one who has made himself independent of his physiological
idiosyncracies and has entirely subjected the outer to the inner man. Those
less spiritually endowed will see such dreams only at rare intervals; the
accuracy of the dreams depending on the intensity of the dreamer’s feeling
in regard to the perceived object.

VERIFIED DREAMS

Thus, in this question of verified dreams, as in so many others, modern
science stands before an unsolved problem, the insolvable nature of which
has been created by her own materialistic stubbornness, and her
time-cherished routine-policy. 

HIGHER AND LOWER MANASIC EGOS

For, either man is a dual being, with an inner Ego §—this Ego being the
"real" man, distinct from, and independent of, the outer man proportionally
to the prevalency or weakness of the material body; an Ego [MANAS], the
scope of whose senses stretches far beyond the limit granted to the physical
senses of man; an Ego which survives the decay of its external covering, at
least for a time, even when an evil course of life has made it fail to
achieve a perfect union with its spiritual higher Self, i.e., to blend its
individuality with it (the personality gradually fading out in each case)—or
the testimony of millions of men embracing several thousands of years—the
evidence furnished in our own century by hundreds of the most educated men,
often by the greatest lights of science—all this evidence, we say, goes for
naught. 

With the exception of a handful of scientific authorities—surrounded by an
eager crowd of sceptics and sciolists, who, having never seen anything,
claim, therefore, the right of denying everything—the world stands condemned
as a gigantic lunatic asylum! It has, however, a special department in it.
It is reserved for those who, having proved the soundness of their minds,
must of necessity be regarded as impostors and liars.

Has then the phenomenon of dreams been so thoroughly studied by
materialistic science, that she has nothing more to learn, since she speaks
in such authoritative tones upon the subject? Not in the least. 

BRAIN CHANNELS SENSATIONS AND VISIONS

The phenomena of sensation and volition, of intellect and instinct, are, of
course, all manifested through the channels of the nervous centres, the most
important of which is the brain. 

The peculiar substance through which these actions take place has two forms,
the vesicular and the fibrous, of which the latter is held to be simply the
propagator of the impressions sent to or from the vesicular matter. Yet
while this physiological office is distinguished, or divided by science into
three kinds—the motor, sensitive and connecting—the mysterious agency of
intellect remains as mysterious and as perplexing to the great modern
physiologists as it was in the days of Hippocrates. 

The scientific suggestion that there may be a fourth series associated with
the operations of thought has not helped towards solving the problem; it has
failed to shed even the slightest ray of light on the unfathomable mystery.
Nor will they ever fathom it unless our men of science accept the hypothesis
of Dual Man.
-- H P B 
 
* This tone is held by the specialists to be the middle F of the piano.

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"Hast thou attuned thy heart and mind to the great mind and heart of all
mankind? For as the sacred River's roaring voice whereby all Nature-sounds
are echoed back, (2) so must the 

==============================
	
(2) The Northern Buddhists, and all Chinamen, in fact, find in the deep roar
of some of the great and sacred rivers the key-note of Nature. Hence the
simile. It is a well-known fact in Physical Science, as well as in
Occultism, that the aggregate sound of Nature-such as heard in the roar of
great rivers, the noise produced by the waving tops of trees in large
forests, or that of a city heard at a distance—is a definite single tone of
quite an appreciable pitch. This is shown by physicists and musicians. Thus
Prof. Rice (Chinese Music) shows that the Chinese recognized the fact
thousands of years ago by saying that "the waters of the Hoang-ho rushing
by, intoned the kung" called "the great tone" in Chinese music; and he shows
this tone corresponding with the F, "considered by modern physicists to be
the actual tonic of Nature." Professor B. Silliman mentions it, too, in his
Principles of Physics, saying that "this tone is held to be the middle F of
the piano; which may, therefore, be considered the key-note of Nature."
Voice, p. 55fn

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

† The sixth principle, or spiritual soul [BUDDHI], and the seventh—the
purely spiritual principle [ATMA], the Spirit or Parabrahman, the emanation
from the unconscious ABSOLUTE. (See "Fragments of Occult Truth,"
Theosophist, October, 1881.)

‡ To this teaching every kind of exception will be taken by the theists and
various objections raised by the spiritualists. It is evident that we cannot
be expected to give, within the narrow limits of a short article, a full
explanation of this highly abstruse and esoteric doctrine. 

To say that the Absolute Consciousness is "unconscious" of its consciousness
(hence to the limited intellect of man must be "Absolute Unconsciousness")
seems like speaking of a square triangle. We hope to develop the proposition
more fully in one of the forthcoming numbers of "Fragments of Occult Truth,"
of which we may publish a series. We will then prove, perhaps, to the
satisfaction of the non-prejudiced that the Absolute, or the Unconditioned,
and (especially) the Unrelated, is a mere fanciful abstraction, a fiction,
unless we view it from the standpoint, and in the light of, the more
educated pantheist. 

To do so, we will have to regard the Absolute merely as the aggregate of all
intelligences, the totality of all existences, incapable of manifesting
itself except through the interrelationship of its parts, as it is
absolutely incognizable and non-existent outside its phenomena. and depends
entirely on its ever-correlating forces, dependent in their turn on the One
Great Law. 

§ Whether with one solitary Ego, or Soul, as the spiritualists affirm, or
with several—i.e., composed of seven principles, as eastern esotericism
teaches—is not the question at issue for the present. Let us first prove by
bringing our joint experience to bear, that there is in man something beyond
Büchner’s force and matter.
 


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-----Original Message-----
From: Gopi 
Sent: Saturday, January 08, 2005 4:01 PM
To: 
Subject: [bn-study] Re: THE KARMA of CATACLYSMS


Dallas,

I had a very special experience I would like to share!

We have a Sufi group that I participate in their activities such as their
Sufi dancing. That has good intention and well meaning activity. One time
they invited a Tibetan Gong maker. (What all I could think of was Gong
Show on TV) 

He brought several gongs and they were very fascinating. After letting us
hear some of them, he was going to play a quite a large gong. He
described how meticulously he had to put that together and asked us to
lay down on our back, relax and be in a meditative mood. I followed the
instructions. He played once and it was pleasant. Then he played again,
it was quite soothing. When he played a third time I started hearing some
thing very pleasant. When he played a fourth time, I found what it was,
it was the Sanskrit chanting of many saints of the past(?) from Himalayas
and Blue mountains in India. That was the greatest single Spiritual
experience I ever had. That was as close to the Creator (FIRST Logos?)
one can ever get to!

What we do or Think may never leave, some may get neutralized!

Gopi