Theos-Talk Archives (September 2006 Message tt00213)

By the training of faculties we all possess, but which they alone 
have developed to perfection, [these Adepts] have entered in spirit 
these various [superphysical] planes and states. For long ages, one 
generation of Adepts after another has studied the mysteries of 
being, of life, death, and re-birth, and all have taught in their 
turn some of the facts so learned. HPB, KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 217

Their spiritual visions, real explorations by, and through, physical 
and spiritual senses untrammelled by blind flesh, were 
systematically checked and compared one with the other, and their 
nature sifted. All that was not corroborated by unanimous and 
collective experience was rejected, while that only was recorded as 
established truth which, in various ages, under different climes, 
and throughout an untold series of incessant observations, was found 
to agree and receive constantly further corroboration. The methods 
used by our scholars and students of the psycho-spiritual sciences 
do not differ from those of students of the natural and physical 
sciences.  Only our fields of research are on two different planes, 
and our instruments are made by no human hands, for which reason 
perchance they are only the more reliable. The retorts, 
accumulators, and microscopes of the chemist and naturalist may get 
out of order; the telescope and the astronomer's horological 
instruments may get spoiled; our recording instruments are beyond 
the influence of weather or the elements.  HPB, KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 86-
87

For thousands of years, one initiate after another, one great 
hierophant succeeded by other hierophants, has explored and re-
explored the invisible Universe, the worlds of the interplanetary 
regions, during long periods when his conscious soul, united to the 
spiritual soul and to the ALL, free and almost omnipotent, left his 
body.  The mysteries of life as well as death, of the visible and 
invisible worlds, have been fathomed and observed by initiated 
adepts in all epochs and in all nations. They have studied these 
during the solemn moments of union of their divine monad with the 
universal Spirit, and they have recorded their experiences.  Thus by 
comparing and checking the observations of one with those of 
another, having been able to ascertain that the visions of adepts 
who lived 10,000 years ago are invariably corroborated and verified 
by those of modern adepts, to whom the writings of the former never 
do become known until later --- the truth has been established.  A 
definite science, based on personal observation and experience, 
corroborated by continuous demonstrations, containing irrefutable 
proofs, for those who study it, has thus been established.  HPB, 
COLLECTED WRITINGS, V, 50-51 

The Secret Doctrine is the accumulated Wisdom of the Ages, and its 
cosmogony alone is the most stupendous and elaborate system.  The 
facts have actually occupied countless generations of initiated 
seers and prophets to marshal, to set down and explain. The flashing 
gaze of those seers has penetrated into the very kernel of matter, 
and recorded the soul of things there.  

The [Esoteric] system is no fancy of one or several isolated 
individuals. It is the uninterrupted record covering thousands of 
generations of Seers whose respective experiences were made to test 
and to verify the teachings of higher and exalted beings, who 
watched over the childhood of Humanity. For long ages, the "Wise 
Men" of the Fifth Race had passed their lives in learning by 
checking, testing, and verifying in every department of nature the 
traditions of old by the independent visions of great adepts; i.e., 
men who have developed and perfected their physical, mental, 
psychic, and spiritual organisations to the utmost possible degree. 

No vision of one adept was accepted till it was checked and 
confirmed by the visions --- so obtained as to stand as independent 
evidence --- of other adepts, and by centuries of experiences. HPB, 
THE SECRET DOCTRINE, I, 273-273

Daniel
http://BlavatskyArchives.Com

[Note:  The above extracts have been transcribed from the original 
sources but some text has been silently deleted. The original texts, 
however, can be found from the bibliographical references. 
Explanatory words added by the editor are enclosed within brackets.]