Psychic Powers E-Book

Helen Savage

• Herausgeber: Andura Publishing
• Kategorie: Ratgeber
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Beschreibung

Experience the life-changing power of Helen Savage with this unforgettable book.

Leseprobe

Psychic Powers

Helen Savage

INTRODUCTORY

THE craze to obtain super physical pow­ers, so apparent today, is nothing new. Nor is the appearance of such powers a re­cent evolutionary development. The litera­ture of every people is full of references, historical as well as fictional, to certain indi­viduals who can do things of a ‘magical’ character, which the laws of physical sci­ence, known today, do not explain.

Such persons may be able to talk with ‘spirits’: they hear phantom voices and see visions, and often think they are guided by angelic beings. They may be able to con­jure up visions of the past, or of things happening at a distance, or they can foretell the future. Sometimes they are able to over-ride the normal laws of nature by handling red-hot coals and similar things without be­ing burned. Sometimes they are able under trance to draw and write things that are ordinarily quite beyond their capacities. Others may have the power of exerting a sort of enchantment or fascination over their fellows and of making these latter do their bidding; or they can heal the sick by the ‘laying on of hands/ and in other ways.

It is noted that in the presence or atmos­phere of a certain type of such individuals strange happenings take place. ‘Raps’ and other sounds may be heard that are caused by no known agency; or there are the ring­ing of bells and sounds of musical instru­ments. Furniture perhaps moves of itself, and other household objects become dis­arranged. There may appear in the air what seem to be human hands and faces and ulti­mately complete figures.

The above examples, and many others that  might be enumerated, are all included under the general category of the psychic powers. In their essential nature these powers are not evil, though they vary widely in quality, ranging from those which are closely asso­ciated with the physical nature of man to those which work more closely with his spir­itual nature.

Then too, religious belief and custom has always profoundly affected the status of such powers, and it seems likely that their de­velopment along lower or higher lines has run parallel with, and has been a funda­mental part of, the growth and influence of religion among the people. For instance, at a time when the Mysteries were still in­fluencing the life of ancient Greece, a high type of clairvoyant was used in the sacred oracles, the priestess on the tripod being considered holy, and cherished and pro­tected from contamination of any sort. The Temples of Aesculapius in Greece, where the  art of healing was highly developed, and where the most remarkable cures were per­formed, were a recognized part of the Mysteries themselves.

On the other hand, during the Dark Ages in Europe most unwholesome types of ‘psy­chic epidemics’ occurred, connected in some cases with sorcery. And as late as the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries psy­chics were still believed to be witches and were put to death by the Church.

There are, in fact, certain cyclic periods in history when there occur unusual outcrop­pings of these psychic manifestations. At such times the numbers of these abnormal individuals increase. Others through curi­osity and the element of wonder are carried along on the psychic wave. The whole mat­ter is given undue importance and an em­phasis which almost always reacts harmfully upon those thus engaged, because they are ignorantly invoking strange forces which  they cannot control. We are at the present time in such a cycle. It is with this cycle that we are particularly concerned in this Manual: how it is affecting Western people, and what light Theosophy throws upon the whole matter.

The present cycle started in the middle of last century with the rise of modern Spiri­tualism. The movement spread like an epidemic, first through America and later to some extent in the European countries. About this time there had been a growing interest in cures effected by means of hypno­tism, and combined with the new possibilities these experiments suggested, the spiritual­istic movement was welcomed as a new reve­lation. Reputed clairvoyants developed into mediums, ‘spirit circles’ were formed in many families, and it was obvious that a great many people were rushing headlong into experimentation and practices whose dangers they little dreamed of.

Already by the last quarter of the century much harm had been done, both in the dis­astrous effect on mediums themselves, and in the tremendous interest that had been aroused in every and any sort of abnormal power. A glamour had been cast over it all and many were feverishly hunting after the most unwholesome sorts of inner develop­ment with complete ignorance of the nature of what they were after.

Part of the mission of the Theosophical Society, founded in 1875, was to call a halt to this mad rush for phenomena and powers. This was to be done principally in two ways:

A. By trying to illumine the hearts and minds of men with a spiritual light which so far transcended the will-o’-the-wisp flickerings of psychism, that the latter would lose their fascination.

B. By presenting a scientifically sound rationale of these lower powers, thereby giving logical and convincing proof, first, of  the existence of such powers, and second, of their extreme danger.

It was in this cause that H. P. Blavatsky, when she first came to America in 1873, had been instructed to work with the Spiri­tualists. In her own words:

I am here in this country sent by my Lodge on behalf of Truth in modern spiritualism, and it is my most sacred duty to unveil what is, and expose what is not. . (See H. P. Blavatsky and the Theosophical Move­ment, by C. J. Ryan, chapters v and vi.)

But beyond a certain point they were not willing to accept her explanations of phe­nomena based on the Ancient Wisdom which she had been taught. Many of them even repudiated her, and thereby they lost a valuable champion and gave up the oppor­tunity offered to them to put their ex­perimentations upon a sound basis and at the same time satisfy the natural human longing for evidence of post-mortem survival.

There was, further, the counter-current of materialism that had to be reckoned with. While the simple-minded, as well as others of a mystical type, were being sucked into the psychic vortex, the great army of the skeptics saw in these manifestations only trickery and hallucination; and since both these factors are abundantly found in the annals of Spiritualism, the skeptics had a pretty good case.

The situation was a difficult and peculiar one because the psychic demonstrations which, it had been hoped, would jolt a ma­terialistic world into an awakening to a wider outlook, got out of hand, so to speak. Since the group of Spiritualists had become utterly useless as an instrument for serious study, H. P. Blavatsky herself, under the direction and often with the aid of her Teachers, was then instructed to give proof

of her own supernormal powers.(A description of these may be found in much of the early Theosophical literature, as for instance The Occult World by A. P. Sinnett.) Her pur­pose in this was to show the skeptics that beyond their circumscribed sphere of physic­al matter was an invisible world operating under its own unerring laws which, for one who understood them, could be made to act with definite and demonstrable results. Fur­ther, as W. Q. Judge says, she exhibited these marvelous feats for the purpose of showing those who were learning from her that the human subject is a complicated and powerful being, not to be classed, as science loves to do, with mere matter and motion. – The Path, VIII, May, 1893

H. P. Blavatsky was bitterly disappointed in the general attitude of the scientists to­wards her entirely disinterested efforts. Writing in her magazine Lucifer, in Febru­ary, 1888, she says:

Never were the phenomena presented in any other character than that of instances of a power over perfectly natural though unrecognized forces, and incidentally over matter, possessed by certain individuals who have attained to a larger and higher knowledge of the Universe than has been reached by scientists and theologians, or can ever be reached by them, by the roads they are now respectively pursuing. Yet this power is latent in all men, and could, in time, be wielded by anyone who would cultivate the knowledge and conform to the con­ditions necessary for its development.

She continues:

Therefore, it is hardly to be wondered at, that word came to abandon phenomena and let the ideas of Theosophy stand on their own intrinsic merits.

When the Mahatmans who started the Theosophical Society were urged to cause a newspaper published in India to appear in London on the day of publication, or vice versa, to convince the skeptics once for all, their answer came:

Very true, we work by natural not supernatural  means and laws. But as on the one hand Science would find itself unable (in its present state) to account for the wonders given in its name, and on the other, the ignorant masses would still be left to view the phenomenon in the light of a miracle; everyone who would thus be made a witness to the occurrence would be thrown off his balance and the results would be deplorable. (See The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett, Let­ter No. I.)

They declined to perform the experiment, pointing out further that, on the one hand, no phenomena, however startling, would ever convince the skeptics; and on the other hand, that in order to prevent superstitious practices arising, a healthy element of doubt should be preserved. Further, as greater and greater proofs would be demanded, the Mahatmans themselves would end by find­ing themselves on the point of breaking the unalterable esoteric law, namely, that the secrets of the occult arts shall never be divulged except to those who have undergone the most strict and thorough discipline in their own schools of training.

It is now more than half a century since H. P. Blavatsky brought her spiritual mes­sage to the West, and we are seeing evi­dences of its infiltration into the general thought-world, which is turning men’s minds away from materialism. But much remains to be done in educating people as to the dangers of psychism. We are opening upon a new cycle which will see the progressive development of new faculties in man. As the human race advances it will inevitably become more finely organized both physic­ally and psychically, and will come gradually more and more in contact with forces, powers and beings that belong to a more subtle plane of existence. What Theosophy has to give in the way of explanation and prepa­ration is needed right now as the introduc­tion to a new cycle of development.

FUNDAMENTAL IDEAS

THE nature of the psychic powers and faculties cannot be understood without a comprehension of certain basic concep­tions. These are as necessary as charts are in sailing an unfamiliar sea.

First we must dismiss the idea that any­thing can be brought about by supernatural means. No divine being can suspend the working of natural law. On the other hand, neither can we say with the materialists that everything can be explained by the laws of physical nature alone.