Chapter 6

Whenever years after the death of a person his spirit is claimed to have "wandered back to earth" to give advice to those it loved, it is always in a subjective vision, in dream or in trance, and in that case it is the Soul of the living seer that is drawn to the _disembodied_ spirit, and not the latter which wanders back to our spheres.[46]

Where the sensitive, or medium, is of a pure and lofty nature, this rising of the freed Ego to the Devachanî is practicable, and naturally gives the impression to the sensitive that the departed Ego has come back to him. The Devachanî is wrapped in its happy "illusion", and

_The Souls, or astral Egos, of pure loving sensitives, labouring under the same delusion, think their loved ones come down to them on earth, while it is their own spirits that are raised towards those in the Devachan._[47]

This attraction can be exercised by the departed Soul from Kâmaloka or from Devachan:

A "spirit" or the spiritual Ego, cannot _descend_ to the medium, but it can _attract_ the spirit of the latter to itself, and it can do this only during the two intervals--before and after its "gestation period". Interval the first is that period between the physical death and the merging of the spiritual Ego into that state which is known in the Arhat Esoteric Doctrine as "Bar-do". We have translated this as the "gestation period", and it lasts from a few days to several years, according to the evidence of the Adepts. Interval the second lasts so long as the merits of the old [personal] Ego entitle the being to reap the fruit of its reward in its new regenerated Egoship. It occurs after the gestation period is over, and the new spiritual Ego is reborn--like the fabled Phoenix from its ashes--from the old one. The locality which the former inhabits is called by the northern Buddhist Occultists "Devachan."[48]

So also may the incorporeal principles of pure sensitives be placed _en rapport_ with disembodied Souls, although information thus obtained is not reliable, partly in consequence of the difficulty of transferring to the physical brain the impressions received, and partly from the difficulty of observing accurately, when the seer is untrained.[49]

A pure medium's Ego can be drawn to and made, for an instant, to unite in a magnetic(?) relation with a real disembodied spirit, whereas the soul of an impure medium can only confabulate with the _Astral Soul_, or Shell, of the deceased. The former possibility explains those extremely rare cases of direct writing in recognised autographs, and of messages from the higher class of disembodied intelligences.

But the confusion in messages thus obtained is considerable, not only from the causes above-named, but also because

Even the best and purest sensitive can at most only be placed at any time _en rapport_ with a particular spiritual entity, and can only know, see, and feel what that particular entity knows, sees, and feels.

Hence much possibility of error if generalisations are indulged in, since each Devachanî lives in his own paradise, and there is no "peeping down to earth,"

Nor is there any _conscious_ communication with the flying Souls that come as it were to learn where the Spirits are, what they are doing, and what they think, feel, and see.

What then is being _en rapport_? It is simply an identity of molecular vibration between the astral part of the incarnated sensitive and the astral part of the dis-incarnated personality. The spirit of the sensitive gets "odylised", so to speak, by the aura of the spirit, whether this be hybernating in the earthly region or dreaming in the Devachan; identity of molecular vibration is established, and for a brief space the sensitive becomes the departed personality, and writes in its handwriting, uses its language, and thinks its thoughts. At such times sensitives may believe that those with whom they are for the moment _en rapport_ descend to earth and communicate with them, whereas, in reality, it is merely their own spirits which, being correctly attuned to those others, are for the time blended with them.[50]

In a special case under examination, H.P. Blavatsky said that the communication might have come from an Elementary, but that it was

Far more likely that the medium's spirit really became _en rapport_ with some spiritual entity in Devachan, the thoughts, knowledge, and sentiments of which formed the substance, while the medium's own personality and pre-existing ideas more or less governed the forms of the communication.[51]

While these communications are not reliable in the facts and opinions stated,

We would remark that it may _possibly_ be that there really is a distinct spiritual entity impressing our correspondent's mind. In other words, there may, for all we know, be some spirit, with whom his spiritual nature becomes habitually, for the time, thoroughly harmonised, and whose thoughts, language, &c., become his for the time, the result being that this spirit seems to communicate with him.... It is possible (though by no means probable) that he habitually passes into a state of _rapport_ with a genuine spirit, and, for the time, is assimilated therewith, thinking (to a great extent if not entirely) the thoughts that spirit would think, writing in its handwriting, &c. But even so, Mr. Terry must not fancy that that spirit is consciously communicating with him, or knows in any way anything of him, or any other person or thing on earth. It is simply that, the _rapport_ established, he, Mr. Terry, becomes for the nonce assimilated with that other personality, and thinks, speaks, and writes as it would have done on earth.... The molecules of his astral nature may from time to time vibrate in perfect unison with those of some spirit of such a person, now in Devachan, and the result may be that he appears to be in communication with that spirit, and to be advised, &c., by him, and clairvoyants may see in the Astral Light a picture of the earth-life form of that spirit.

IV. Communications other than those from disembodied Souls, passing through normal _post mortem_ states.

(a) _From Shells._ These, while but the cast-off garment of the liberated Soul, retain for some time the impress of their late inhabitant, and reproduce automatically his habits of thought and expression, just as a physical body will automatically repeat habitual gestures. Reflex action is as possible to the desire body as to the physical, but all reflex action is marked by its character of repetition, and absence of all power to initiate movement. It answers to a stimulus with an appearance of purposive action, but it initiates nothing. When people "sit for development", or when at a _séance_ they anxiously hope and wait for messages from departed friends, they supply just the stimulus needed, and obtain the signs of recognition for which they expectantly watch.

(b) _From Elementaries._ These, possessing the lower capacities of the mind, _i.e._, all the intellectual faculties that found their expression through the physical brain during life, may produce communications of a highly intellectual character. These, however, are rare, as may be seen from a survey of the messages published as received from "departed Spirits".

(c) _From Elementals._ These semi-conscious centres of force play a great part at _séances_, and are mostly the agents who are active in producing physical phenomena. They throw about or carry objects, make noises, ring bells, etc., etc. Sometimes they play pranks with Shells, animating them and representing them to be the spirits of great personalities who have lived on earth, but who have sadly degenerated in the "spirit-world", judging by their effusions. Sometimes, in materialising _séances_, they busy themselves in throwing pictures from the Astral Light on the fluidic forms produced, so causing them to assume likenesses of various persons. There are also Elementals of a high type who occasionally communicate with very gifted mediums, "Shining Ones" from other spheres.

(d) _From Nirmânakâyas._ For these communications, as for the two classes next mentioned, the medium must be of a very pure and lofty nature. The Nirmânakâya is a perfected man, who has cast aside his physical body but retains his other lower principles, and remains in the earth-sphere for the sake of helping forward the evolution of mankind. Nirmânakâyas

Have, out of pity for mankind and those they left on earth, renounced the Nirvânic state. Such an Adept, or Saint, or whatever you may call him, believing it a selfish act to rest in bliss while mankind groans under the burden of misery produced by ignorance, renounces Nirvâna and determines to remain invisible _in spirit_ on this earth. They have no material body, as they have left it behind; but otherwise they remain with all their principles even _in astral life_ in our sphere. And such can and do communicate with a few elect ones, only surely not with _ordinary_ mediums.[52]

(e) _From Adepts now living on earth._ These often communicate with Their disciples, without using the ordinary methods of communication, and when any tie exists, perchance from some past incarnation, between an Adept and a medium, constituting that medium a disciple, a message from the Adept might readily be mistaken for a message from a "Spirit". The receipt of such messages by precipitated writing or spoken words is within the knowledge of some.

(f) _From the medium's Higher Ego._ Where a pure and earnest man or woman is striving after the light, this upward striving is met by a downward reaching of the higher nature, and light from the higher streams downward, illuminating the lower consciousness. Then the lower mind is, for the time, united with its parent, and transmits as much of its knowledge as it is able to retain.

From this brief sketch it will be seen how varied may be the sources from which communications apparently from "the other side of Death" may be received. As said by H.P. Blavatsky:

The variety of the causes of phenomena is great, and one need be an Adept, and actually look into and examine what transpires, in order to be able to explain in each case what really underlies it.[53]

To complete the statement it may be added that what the average Soul can do when it has passed through the gateway of Death, it can do on this side, and communications may be as readily obtained by writing, in trance, and by the other means of receiving messages, from embodied as from disembodied Souls. If each developed within himself the powers of his own Soul, instead of drifting about aimlessly, or ignorantly plunging into dangerous experiments, knowledge might be safely accumulated and the evolution of the Soul might be accelerated. This one thing is sure: Man is to-day a living Soul, over whom Death has no power, and the key of the prison-house of the body is in his own hands, so that he may learn its use if he will. It is because his true Self, while blinded by the body, has lost touch with other Selves, that Death has been a gulf instead of a gateway between embodied and disembodied Souls.

* * * * *

APPENDIX.

The following passage on the fate of suicides is taken from the _Theosophist_, September, 1882.

We do not pretend--we are not permitted--to deal exhaustively with the question at present, but we may refer to one of the most important classes of entities, who can participate in objective phenomena, other than Elementaries and Elementals.

This class comprises the Spirits of conscious sane suicides. They are _Spirits_, and not _Shells_, because there is not in their cases, at any rate until later, a total and permanent divorce between the fourth and fifth principles on the one hand, and the sixth and seventh on the other. The two duads are divided, they exist apart, but a line of connection still unites them, they may yet reunite, and the sorely threatened personality avert its doom; the fifth principle still holds in its hands the clue by which, traversing the labyrinth of earthly sins and passions, it may regain the sacred penetralia. But for the time, though really a Spirit, and therefore so designated, it is practically not far removed from a Shell.

This class of Spirit can undoubtedly communicate with men, but, as a rule, its members have to pay dearly for exercising the privilege, while it is scarcely possible for them to do otherwise than lower and debase the moral nature of those with and through whom they have much communication. It is merely, broadly speaking, a question of degree; of much or little injury resulting from such communication; the cases in which real, permanent good can arise are too absolutely exceptional to require consideration.

Understand how the case stands. The unhappy being revolting against the trials of life--trials, the results of its own former actions, trials, heaven's merciful medicine for the mentally and spiritually diseased--determines, instead of manfully taking arms against a sea of troubles, to let the curtain drop, and, as it fancies, end them. It destroys the body, but finds itself precisely as much alive mentally as before. It had an appointed life-term determined by an intricate web of prior causes, which its own wilful sudden act cannot shorten. That term must run out its appointed sands. You may smash the lower half of the hand hour-glass, so that the impalpable sand shooting from the upper bell is dissipated by the passing aerial currents as it issues; but that stream will run on, unnoticed though it remain, until the whole store in that upper receptacle is exhausted.

So you may destroy the body, but not the appointed period of sentient existence, foredoomed (because simply the effect of a plexus of causes) to intervene before the dissolution of the personality; this must run on for its appointed period.

This is so in other cases, _e.g._, those of the victims of accident or violence; they, too, have to complete their life-term, and of these, too, we may speak on another occasion--but here it is sufficient to notice that, whether good or bad, their mental attitude at the time of death alters wholly their subsequent position. They, too, have to wait on within the "Region of Desires" until their wave of life runs on to and reaches its appointed shore, but they wait on, wrapped in dreams soothing and blissful, or the reverse, according to their mental and moral state at, and prior to the fatal hour, but nearly exempt from further material temptations, and, broadly speaking, incapable (except just at the moment of real death) of communicating _scio motu_ with mankind, though not wholly beyond the possible reach of the higher forms of the "Accursed Science," Necromancy. The question is a profoundly abstruse one; it would be impossible to explain within the brief space still remaining to us, how the conditions immediately after death differ so entirely as they do in the case (1) of the man who deliberately _lays down_ (not merely _risks_) his life from altruistic motives in the hope of saving those of others; and (2) of him who deliberately sacrifices his life from selfish motives, in the hope of escaping trials and troubles which loom before him. Nature or Providence, Fate, or God, being merely a self-adjusting machine, it would at first sight seem as if the results must be identical in both cases. But, machine though it be, we must remember that it is a machine _sui generis_--

Out of himself he span The eternal web of right and wrong; And ever feels the subtlest thrill, The slenderest thread along.

A machine compared with whose perfect sensitiveness and adjustment the highest human intellect is but a coarse clumsy replica, _in petto_.

And we must remember that thoughts and motives are material, and at times marvellously potent material, forces, and we may then begin to comprehend why the hero, sacrificing his life on pure altruistic grounds, sinks as his life-blood ebbs away into a sweet dream, wherein

All that he wishes and all that he loves, Come smiling round his sunny way,

only to wake into active or objective consciousness when reborn in the Region of Happiness, while the poor unhappy and misguided mortal who, seeking to elude fate, selfishly loosens the silver string and breaks the golden bowl, finds himself terribly alive and awake, instinct with all the evil cravings and desires that embittered his world-life, without a body in which to gratify these, and capable of only such partial alleviation as is possible by more or less vicarious gratification, and this only at the cost of the ultimate complete rupture with his sixth and seventh principles, and consequent ultimate annihilation after, alas! prolonged periods of suffering.

Let it not be supposed that there is no hope for this class--the sane deliberate suicide. If, bearing steadfastly his cross, he suffers patiently his punishment, striving against carnal appetites still alive in him, in all their intensity, though, of course, each in proportion to the degree to which it had been indulged in earth-life. If, we say, he bears this humbly, never allowing himself to be tempted here or there into unlawful gratifications of unholy desires, then when his fated death-hour strikes, his four higher principles reunite, and, in the final separation that then ensues, it may well be that all may be well with him, and that he passes on to the gestation period and its subsequent developments.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: Book ii., from lines 666-789. The whole passage bristles with horrors.]

[Footnote 2: xii. 85. Trans., of Burnell and Hopkins.]

[Footnote 3: From the translation of Dhunjeebhoy Jamsetjee Medhora, _Zoroastrian and some other Ancient Systems_, xxvii.]

[Footnote 4: Trans., by Mirza Mohamed Hadi. _The Platonist_, 306.]

[Footnote 5: _The Sacred Books of the East_, iii, 109, 110.]

[Footnote 6: _Secret Doctrine_, vol. i. p. 281.]

[Footnote 7: See _ibid._, p. 283.]

[Footnote 8: _Isis Unveiled_, vol. i. p. 480.]

[Footnote 9: Theosophical Manuals, No. 1.]

[Footnote 10: _The Heroic Enthusiasts_, Trans., by L. Williams. part ii. pp. 22, 23.]

[Footnote 11: _Cremation_, Theosophical Siftings, vol. iii.]

[Footnote 12: _Man: Fragments of Forgotten History_, pp. 119, 120.]

[Footnote 13: _Key to Theosophy_, H.P. Blavatsky, p. 109. Third Edition.]

[Footnote 14: _Magic, White and Black_, Dr. Franz Hartmann, pp. 109, 110. Third Edition.]

[Footnote 15: See _The Seven Principles of Man_, pp. 17-21.]

[Footnote 16: _Theosophist_, March, 1882, p. 158, note.]

[Footnote 17: _Essays upon some Controverted Questions_, p. 36.]

[Footnote 18: _Fortnightly Review_, 1892, p. 176.]

[Footnote 19: _Key to Theosophy_, p. 67.]

[Footnote 20: _Ibid._, p. 97.]

[Footnote 21: _Key to Theosophy_, p. 97]

[Footnote 22: _Ibid._, p. 102.]

[Footnote 23: June, 1882, art. "Seeming Discrepancies."]

[Footnote 24: Pp. 73, 74. Ed. 1887.]

[Footnote 25: _Theosophical Glossary_, Elementaries.]

[Footnote 26: See _The Seven Principles of Man_, p.p. 44-46.]

[Footnote 27: The name Sukhâvatî, borrowed from Tibetan Buddhism, is sometimes used instead of that of Devachan. Sukhâvatî, according to Schlagintweit, is "the abode of the blessed, into which ascend those who have accumulated much merit by the practice of virtues", and "involves the deliverance from metempsychosis" (_Buddhism in Tibet_, p. 99). According to the Prasanga school, the higher Path leads to Nirvâna, the lower to Sukhâvatî. But Eitel calls Sukhâvatî "the Nirvâna of the common people, where the saints revel in physical bliss for æons, until they reënter the circle of transmigration" (_Sanskrit-Chinese Dictionary_). Eitel, however, under "Amitâbha" states that the "popular mind" regards the "paradise of the West" as "the haven of final redemption from the eddies of transmigration". When used by one of the Teachers of the Esoteric Philosophy it covers the higher Devachanic states, but from all of these the Soul comes back to earth.]

[Footnote 28: See _Lucifer_, Oct, 1892, Vol. XI. No. 62.]

[Footnote 29: _The Path_, May, 1890.]

[Footnote 30: _Ibid._]

[Footnote 31: "Notes on Devachan," as cited.]

[Footnote 32: "Notes on Devachan," as before. There are a variety of stages in Devachan; the Rûpa Loka is an inferior stage, where the Soul is still surrounded by forms. It has escaped from these personalities in the Tribhuvana.]

[Footnote 33: _Vishnu Purâna_, Bk. I. ch. v.]

[Footnote 34: _Key to Theosophy_, p. 69. Third Edition.]

[Footnote 35: Sixth and seventh in the older nomenclature, fifth and sixth in the later--_i.e._, Manas and Buddhi.]

[Footnote 36: _Key to Theosophy_, p. 99. Third Edition.]

[Footnote 37: _Ibid._, p. 100.]

[Footnote 38: _Ibid._, p. 101.]

[Footnote 39: See Manual No. 2 _Re-incarnation_, pp. 60, 61. Third Edition.]

[Footnote 40: _Key to Theosophy_, p. 105. Third Edition.]

[Footnote 41: _Esoteric Buddhism_, p. 197. Eighth Edition.]

[Footnote 42: Quoted in the _Secret Doctrine_, vol. ii. p. 83. The student will do well to read, for a fair presentation of the subject, G.R.S. Mead's "Note on Nirvâna" in _Lucifer_, for March, April, and May, 1893. (Re-printed in _Theosophical Siftings_).]

[Footnote 43: _Theosophist_, Sept., 1882, p. 310.]

[Footnote 44: See on "illusion" what was said under the heading "Devachan".]

[Footnote 45: _Key to Theosophy_, p. 102. Third Edition.]

[Footnote 46: _Theosophist_, Sept. 1881.]

[Footnote 47: "Notes on Devachan", _Path_, June, 1890, p. 80.]

[Footnote 48: _Theosophist_, June, 1882, p. 226.]

[Footnote 49: Summarised from article in _Theosophist_, Sept., 1882.]

[Footnote 50: _Ibid._, p. 309.]

[Footnote 51: _Ibid._, p. 310.]

[Footnote 52: _Key to Theosophy,_ p. 151.]

[Footnote 53: _Theosophist_, Sept., 1882, p. 310.]

* * * * *

INDEX.

Accident, Death by, 37.

Appendix, 81.

Astral Body, 19, Fate of, 31.

Astral Shell or Soul, 75.

_Avesta_, quoted, 9.

Blavatsky, H.P., quoted, 16, 17, 24, 30, 31, 33, 34, 35, 45, 49, 60, 65, 66, 67, 73, 74, 78.

_Book of the Dead_, quoted, 8.

Bruno, Giordano, quoted, 21.

_Buddhism in Tibet_, quoted, 47, (note).

Communications between Earth and other Spheres, 70. " between Earth and Soul in Etheric Body, 71. " between Earth, and soul in Devachan, 72, " between Earth and soul in Kâmaloka, 72. " from Adepts now living, 79. " from Elementals, 78. " from Elementaries, 77. " from Medium's Higher Ego, 79. " from Nirmânakâyas, 78. " from Shells, 43, 77.

_Controverted Questions, Essays upon some_, quoted, 28.

_Cremation_, quoted, 21.

Cycle of Incarnation, 52 et seq.

Death, a Gateway, 79. " Chinese Ideas of, 11. " Christian Ideas of, 6. " Egyptian Ideas of, 8. " Theosophic Ideas of, 18.

_Desatir_, quoted, 9.

Devachan, 33, 46. et seq.

Devachan, Passing into, of the average-living, 33.

Devachan, The Soul in, 72.

Devachanî, The, 58 et seq.

Earth, The return to, 66.

Egos, Many lives of, 63 et seq.

Elementals, 44, 78.

Elementaries, 45, 77.

_Esoteric Buddhism_, quoted, 69.

Etheric Double, 12, 22 et seq., 24, 25, 71 et seq.

Fiery Lives, 17.

_Fortnightly Review_, quoted, 29.

_Heroic Enthusiasts, The_, quoted, 21.

Immortal Triad, The, 12, 13, 31, 33, 58, 60.

_Isis Unveiled_, quoted, 17.

Kâmaloka, 26, 27, 29, 32, 34, 41.

Kâmaloka, The Soul in, 72.

Kâma Rûpa, 30.

_Key to Theosophy_, quoted, 24, 30, 31, 33, 60, 65, 67, 73, 78.

_Lucifer_, quoted, 49, 70.