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diff --git a/26893-h/26893-h.htm b/26893-h/26893-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..354d1c9 --- /dev/null +++ b/26893-h/26893-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,8153 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" +"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> +<title> +The Project Gutenberg eBook of The New Avatar and The Destiny of the Soul, by Jirah D. Buck. +</title> + +<style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p {margin-top: 0.5em; text-align: justify; margin-bottom: 0.5em;} + body {margin-left: 11%; margin-right: 10%;} + a {text-decoration: none;} + .figleft {padding: .5em .5em 0 0; float: left;} + h3 {text-align:center; font-weight:normal; font-size: 1.2em;} + .pncolor {color: silver;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .figcenter {margin: 2em auto 2em auto; text-align: center;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + div.ce p {text-align: center; margin: auto 0;} + hr.mini {width: 2em; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; border:none; border-bottom:1px solid black; clear:both;} + .figright {padding: .5em 0 0 .5em; float: right;} + .caption {font-size:.8em;} + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; clear: both;} + .blockquot {margin-left:5%; margin-right:5%;} + .pagenum {display: inline; font-size: x-small; text-align: right; position: absolute; right: 2%; padding: 1px 3px; font-style: normal; font-variant:normal; font-weight:normal; text-decoration: none; background-color: inherit; border:1px solid #eee;} + hr.minor {width: 35%; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; border:none; border-bottom:1px solid black; clear:both;} + hr.major {width: 65%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em; border:none; border-bottom:1px solid black; clear:both;} + hr.silver {width: 100%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em; border:none; border-bottom:1px solid silver;} + h2 {text-align:center; font-weight:normal; font-size: 1.4em;} +// --> +/* XML end ]]>*/ +</style> + +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The New Avatar and The Destiny of the Soul, by +Jirah D. Buck + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The New Avatar and The Destiny of the Soul + The Findings of Natural Science Reduced to Practical Studies + in Psychology + +Author: Jirah D. Buck + +Release Date: October 12, 2008 [EBook #26893] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE NEW AVATAR *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<hr class='silver' /> + +<div class='ce'> +<p style=' font-size:2.2em; margin-top:1em;'>THE NEW AVATAR</p> +<p>AND</p> +<p style=' font-size:2.2em; margin-bottom:2em;'>The Destiny of the Soul</p> +<p>THE FINDINGS OF NATURAL SCIENCE</p> +<p style=' margin-bottom:4em;'>REDUCED TO PRACTICAL STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY</p> +<p style=' margin-bottom:2em;'>By</p> +<p style=' font-size:1.2em;'>JIRAH D. BUCK, M.D.</p> +<p style=' font-size:0.8em;'>Author of</p> +<p style=' font-size:0.8em;'>“Mystic Masonry,” “A Study of Man,” “Christos,” “The Genius of Freemasonry,”</p> +<p style=' font-size:0.8em;'>“Constructive Psychology,” “The Lost Word Found,”</p> +<p style=' font-size:0.8em; margin-bottom:5em;'>“Browning’s Paracelsus,” and other MSS.</p> +<p>SECOND EDITION</p> +<p>1916</p> +</div> + +<hr class='mini' /> + +<div class='ce'> +<p style=' font-size:1.2em;'>INDO-AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY</p> +<p style=' font-size:0.8em;'>(Not Inc.)</p> +<p>5705 SOUTH BOULEVARD</p> +<p>CHICAGO</p> +<p>ILL.</p> +</div> + +<hr class='silver' /> + +<div class='ce' style=' font-size:0.8em;'> +<p>COPYRIGHT</p> +<p>STEWART & KIDD CO.</p> +<p>1911</p> +<p>Entered at Stationers’ Hall, London, England</p> +</div> + +<hr class='mini' /> + +<div class='ce'> +<p><i>All Rights Reserved</i></p> +</div> + +<hr class='silver' /> + +<div class='ce'> +<p>TO THE</p> +<p style=' font-size:1.3em;'>GREAT FRIENDS</p> +<p style=' margin-top:0.7em;'>THE HELPERS—VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE—</p> +<p>WHOSE DEEPEST MOTIVE AND HIGHEST AIM</p> +<p style=' margin-bottom:0.7em;'>ARE TO ENCOURAGE, UPLIFT, AND INSPIRE</p> +<p style=' font-size:1.2em; margin-bottom:0.7em;'>THOSE WHO NEED;</p> +<p style=' margin-bottom:0.7em;'>THAT ALL, AT LAST, MAY STAND</p> +<p style=' font-size:1.2em; margin-bottom:0.7em;'>TOGETHER</p> +<p>IN THE MIDST OF</p> +<p>THE</p> +<p>RADIANT SPLENDOR</p> +<p style=' margin-bottom:0.7em;'>OF</p> +<p style=' font-size:1.2em;'>ETERNAL</p> +<p style=' font-size:1.2em;'>TRUTH</p> +</div> + +<hr class='silver' /> + +<div class='ce'> +<p style=' font-size:1.4em; margin-bottom:1em;'>Contents</p> +</div> + +<table border='0' width='500' cellpadding='2' cellspacing='0' summary='Contents' style='margin:1em auto;'> +<tr> + <td align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'><span style='font-size:small;'>CHAPTER</span></td> + <td></td> + <td align='right'><span style='font-size:small;'>PAGE</span></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'> </td> + <td valign='top' align='left'>FOREWORD </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#FOREWORD'>1</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'> </td> + <td valign='top' align='left'>INTRODUCTION </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#INTRODUCTION'>1</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td colspan='2' align='center'><br />SECTION ONE<br />STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY<br /> </td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>I.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left'>CLASSIFICATION OF FACULTIES, CAPACITIES, AND POWERS </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#I_CLASSIFICATION_OF_FACULTIES_CAPACITIES_AND_POWERS'>3</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>II.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left'>EMPIRICAL AND SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#II_EMPIRICAL_AND_SCIENTIFIC_EVIDENCE'>9</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>III.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left'>MEDIUMSHIP, SEERSHIP, AND HYPNOSIS </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#III_MEDIUMSHIP_SEERSHIP_AND_HYPNOSIS'>18</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>IV.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left'>THE MEASURE OF VALUES </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#IV_THE_MEASURE_OF_VALUES'>29</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>V.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left'>SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#V_SUMMARY_AND_CONCLUSIONS'>50</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>VI.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left'>THE CROSS IN RELIGION AND THE CRUX IN SCIENCE WITH THE GREAT WORK IN AMERICA </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#VI_THE_CROSS_IN_RELIGION_AND_THE_CRUX_IN_SCIENCE_WITH_THE_GREAT_WORK_IN_AMERICA'>68</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>VII.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left'>THE MODULUS OF NATURE AND THE THEOREM OF PSYCHOLOGY </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#VII_THE_MODULUS_OF_NATURE_AND_THE_THEOREM_OF_PSYCHOLOGY'>93</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td colspan='2' align='center'><br />SECTION TWO<br />THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE<br /> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>VIII.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left'>OUR INDEBTEDNESS TO ANCIENT INDIA </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#VIII_OUR_INDEBTEDNESS_TO_ANCIENT_INDIA'>111</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>IX.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left'>HERO WORSHIP AND FOLKLORE </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#IX_HERO_WORSHIP_AND_FOLKLORE'>136</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>X.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left'>CORROBORATIVE EVIDENCE </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#X_CORROBORATIVE_EVIDENCE'>146</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XI.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left'>CONCEPTIONS AND PORTENTS OF AN AVATAR </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XI_CONCEPTIONS_AND_PORTENTS_OF_AN_AVATAR'>151</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XII.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left'>PORTENTS OF THE PRESENT TIME </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XII_PORTENTS_OF_THE_PRESENT_TIME'>164</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XIII.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left'>THE SEPARABLE SOUL IN FOLKLORE </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XIII_THE_SEPARABLE_SOUL_IN_FOLKLORE'>171</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XIV.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left'>FROM CONFUSION TO CONSTRUCTION </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XIV_FROM_CONFUSION_TO_CONSTRUCTION'>191</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XV.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left'>THE SCIENCE OF PSYCHOLOGY AS A KNOWLEDGE OF THE HUMAN SOUL </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XV_THE_SCIENCE_OF_PSYCHOLOGY_AS_A_KNOWLEDGE_OF_THE_HUMAN_SOUL'>208</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XVI.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left'>THE NEW AVATAR </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XVI_THE_NEW_AVATAR'>218</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'> </td> + <td valign='top' align='left'>NOTES </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#NOTES'>223</a></td> +</tr> +</table> +<hr class='silver' /> + +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_xi' name='page_xi'></a>xi</span> +<a name='FOREWORD' id='FOREWORD'></a> +<h3>FOREWORD</h3> +</div> + +<p>The reader who is willing to give the following +pages a careful reading, and a courteous hearing, +is entitled to know the basis of study, observation +or experience from which the suggestions, +inferences and conclusions proceed, in order that +he may fairly estimate their value.</p> +<p>At the age of seventy-two, my egotism is at +least softened by the discovery of the many things I +do not know; and my dogmatism, so far as it ever +existed, is equally relaxed by the realization that it +is a bar to light and knowledge, which rest so +largely on demonstration.</p> +<p>For more than forty-five years I have been engaged +in the active practice of medicine with consultations +extending over three States.</p> +<p>For an equal length of time I have lectured in +Medical Colleges, fifteen years on the subject of +Physiology, an equal number on Therapeutics (including +Pathology and Histology), and for the last +fifteen years on Psychology, Mental and Nervous +Diseases, and all this time with a large College +Clinic from the poorer classes.</p> +<p>From first to last, my “Study of Medicine” +has been generically and specifically a “Study of +Man,” physical, mental, ethical, and psychical.</p> +<p>Outside of Medicine as a “Calling” or a “Profession” +my real interest has been to unravel the +nature of man, grasp the problem of human life, +and to apprehend the nature, laws, and destiny of +the human soul. My library covers a rather continuous +thread from 1543, and the time of Paracelsus, +to Profs. James, Ladd, Lombroso, Sir +Oliver Lodge, and Münsterberg.</p> +<p>My reading dips into the Sacred Books of the +East, the records of the Past, and particularly +the psychic phenomena of different ages, finding +at last the Constructive Theorem clearer than +anywhere else in the “School of Natural Science,” +from the fact that it is demonstrably cognizant +of all preceding work, and definitely conforms to +the strict demands of Science—Physical, Mental, +Ethical, Psychical and Spiritual, and proves to be +the very thing for which I have searched for nearly +half a century.</p> +<p>The foregoing statements are not made to force +credulity nor to assume authority. They simply +mean—This is how, and where, and how long, I +have been searching, largely, also at the bedside of +the sick, the deranged and the dying; from the first +breath of the little one that comes—</p> +<table summary='poetry' style='margin:0 auto'><tr><td> +<p style='margin: 0 0 0 0.0em;'>“Out from the shore of the Great Unknown</p> +<p style='margin: 0 0 0 0.0em;'>Weeping and wailing and all alone,”</p> +</td></tr></table> + +<p>to the death-damp and the last sigh of the aged; +in one case at nearly one hundred and four years.</p> +<p>Once I found an old lady of eighty, dying. The +“death-damp” on her brow; the “death-rattle” +in her throat; the chin dropped, and no pulse at the +wrist. She had a wayward son who had been promised +due notice of any change, and he had been sent +for. Speaking distinctly in her ear <i>I called her +back</i>; the motive being the grief of her son at not +bidding each other good-bye. The response was +immediate. The “rattle” in her throat ceased. +The pulse promptly returned. The mouth closed. +Then I said—“open your eyes,” which she promptly +did with a gentle smile. “You are not going to +do it,” I said. “No,” she replied. The son soon +came in and received his mother’s caress and +blessing. At the same hour on the following day, +she passed peacefully to the beyond, dying of old +age. Had it been a “crisis” in disease, she might +have recovered.</p> +<p>As a psychic phenomenon I never saw anything +just like it. Had I before doubted the existence +of a “separable soul,” it would have ended all +doubt. From the magnetic border of the “Great +Divide” <i>with a sufficient motive</i>, I literally “called +her back.”</p> +<p>The evidence of the concreteness, and wholeness +and self-awareness of the Individual Intelligence, +functioning in and through, and separable from +the physical body, was complete. No other explanation +or conclusion would fit or cover the case at all. +Had I been clairvoyant and able to <i>see</i> the entity, +it would have been another link in a chain whose +sequence pointed all one way. But even here I +was not without a witness.</p> +<p>In another case, an old lady was dying. A “Platform +Lecturer” (Mediumistic) was present and +described, incidentally, what she saw. She was a +good, clean, ignorant woman and only “controlled” +on the Platform.</p> +<p>She described a vapor emanating from the body, +as the “death-damp” increased, and outer “awareness” +failed. This vapor seemed to adhere together +until it stood near the head, rounded and nearly +reaching the ceiling. Then the “spirit form” +passed out from the top of the head, was inclosed +in the ball of “vapor,” and together they “floated +away.”</p> +<p>I found that she had never heard of the “Auric-egg” +nor read a page of the old Eastern philosophy, +and yet she had accurately described, step by step, +what the Masters for ages declare occurs at death.</p> +<p>Science is the careful observation, demonstration +and record of Facts, their orderly grouping or +classification, and the logical and sequential conclusions +resulting therefrom.</p> +<p>It is not a matter of opinion and belief, nor +dogma and denial, no matter how large, respectable, +and sincere may be the army of the dogmatists.</p> +<p>Take these suggestions and conclusions—my +friend—for what you think them worth, since now +you know how far they have grown from experience +and the love and search for the simple Truth.</p> +<p>The temptation to quote and annotate from many +authors is very great, but the material is so abundant +that one scarcely knows where to begin, where +to end; and as the address is solely to the reader +of “average intelligence,” and argument is eliminated +as far as possible, many quotations could do +little more than confirm opinions, and would extend +beyond the limits designed by the author, or the +brief space and popular form more desirable for +the average reader.</p> +<p>Repetitions in the text seemed unavoidable for +the reason, that at every phase of the subject I +have continually to regard the Individual, and that +aggregate called Society; the inner conscious life +of <i>one</i>, and the associate elements and conditions +regarding the many, and from different viewpoints.</p> +<p>Man, the Individual, is like a “wheel within a +wheel,” the larger circle being Humanity as a +whole.</p> +<p>Nor does the thought or concept stop here. There +is the relation of the Individual Intelligence we +call MAN to the Universal Intelligence we call +GOD, which as related to Nature is “In All, +Through All, Over All, and Above All.”</p> +<p>Not an “Absentee God,” but Illuminant within +and without revealing itself in what we call Love +and Law.</p> +<p>Here “in brief” I rest the case and proceed to the +evidence.</p> +<hr class='silver' /> + +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_xvii' name='page_xvii'></a>xvii</span> +<a name='INTRODUCTION' id='INTRODUCTION'></a> +<h3>INTRODUCTION</h3> +</div> + +<p>In “A Study of Man, and the Way of Health,” +first published twenty-one years ago, as a general +outline for my classes of Medical Students, to enable +them to grasp the real problem of life, and to +emphasize the Study of Man, as basic in the Study +of Medicine, the following epitome was placed in the +Preface.</p> +<div class='blockquot'> +<p>“The cosmic form in which all things are created +and in which all things exist is a Universal Duality.</p> +<p>Involution and Evolution express the two-fold +process of the One Law of Development, corresponding +to the two planes of being, the Subjective +and the Objective.</p> +<p>Consciousness is the central Fact of Being.</p> +<p>Experience is the only method of knowing.</p> +<p>Therefore, to Know, is to Become.</p> +<p>The Modulus of Nature, that is, the Pattern, +after which she everywhere builds, and the <i>Method</i> +to which she continually conforms is an Ideal, or +Archetypical Man.</p> +<p>The Perfect Man is the anthropomorphic God. +A living, potential Christ in every human soul.</p> +<p>Two natures meet on the human plane, and +focalize in man.</p> +<p>These are the Animal Ego and the Higher Self. +The one, an inheritance from lower life. The other, +an overshadowing from the next higher plane. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_227' name='page_227'></a>227</span></p> +<p>The Animal Principle is Selfishness. The Divine +Principle is Altruism.</p> +<p>However defective in other respects human nature +may be, all human endeavor must finally be measured +by the principle of Altruism and must stand +or fall by the measure in which it inspires and uplifts +Humanity.</p> +<p>The highest tribunal is the criterion of Truth, and +the test of truth is by its use and beneficence. ‘BY +THEIR WORK YE MAY KNOW THEM.’</p> +<p>Superstition is not Religion; Speculation is not +Philosophy; Materialism is not Science; but true +religion, true philosophy and true science are ever +the handmaids of Truth, and will at last be found +in perfect harmony.”</p> +</div> +<p>After more than twenty years of continuous and +careful study since the foregoing was written, I must +still confirm and emphasize these basic propositions +to-day.</p> +<p>The attempt is herein made to apply them more +particularly to the study of Psychology. To add +to what was then discerned and designated as +“the Modulus of Nature,” an exact and comprehensive +Theorem of Psychology.</p> +<p>I am well aware how presumptuous this would +in certain quarters be considered, if there were the +least probability that “those in authority” would +read these pages at all. The motive is involved in +the modulus, and I am quite content to leave it +there, while the “common people,” it is hoped, may +find herein, as I have found in the search for more +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_228' name='page_228'></a>228</span> +light, encouragement, inspiration, and hope. And +these may lead to Understanding.</p> +<p>It is the farthest possible from my thought or +wish to ignore or belittle the labors of earnest students +and writers on Psychology.</p> +<p>But there is a habit of conservatism in Physical +Science to-day, that in spirit and effect differs very +little from Dogma and Orthodoxy in Religion. It +concerns methods rather than results. It is generally +incredulous through fear of being over-credulous. +It is bound by tradition, or the records +of the past, and its dogmas are deductions from the +consensus of <i>opinions</i>, rather than “decrees in +councils” or “Infallible Popes.”</p> +<p>Occasionally a Scientist, like Sir Oliver Lodge, +seems to be utterly rid of both credulity and incredulity, +and for these, Science really means— +“the Facts of Nature, demonstrated, classified, and +systematized.”</p> +<p>But for the “Common People,” the average intelligent +student, for whom Science and the pursuit +of Knowledge is not a Profession, but a desire +to know, and to understand, in order to be able to +use wisely and well, it is of far less importance +to know what others think or believe, deny or +affirm, on the subject of Psychology, than to <i>realize</i> +what are the faculties, capacities, and powers of their +own souls.</p> +<p>Knowledge for the sake of knowledge, like “Art +for Art’s sake,” is one thing, Knowledge for <i>use</i> +in daily life, and for illuminating its pathway and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_229' name='page_229'></a>229</span> +revealing the purpose and destiny of man, is something +different indeed.</p> +<p>This hunger of the individual soul for real knowledge +is perhaps the most patent “Sign of the +Times.”</p> +<p>The average intelligent individual has broken +away from the traditions of the past, and yet found +nothing to take their place. One result is empty +churches, and the race for wealth, display, position, +and power. Increased idleness begets dissipation, +Paresis and Insanity increase, while wasted opportunity +both shortens and embitters life.</p> +<p>A very large number of intelligent men and +women realizing all this, and repelled by the almost +contemptuous conservatism of so-called Science, +swing to the side of credulity, and are robbed and exploited +by charlatans. They believe the Truth +<i>ought</i> to be forthcoming, and their intuitions and +demands, though oft leading to sore disappointment, +deserve a better fate.</p> +<p>It is for these, and for these reasons, that these +pages are written, and with no other hope of fame +or reward.</p> +<p>The demand is everywhere for Knowledge of the +soul. Facts there are in abundance, but how far +these facts are <i>demonstrated</i>, so as to constitute a +basis of exact science, and how to classify and +systematize them, the average intelligence does not +know.</p> +<p>The Psychical Scientist claims to know, and undoubtedly +does know, but he busies himself almost +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_230' name='page_230'></a>230</span> +exclusively in gathering and verifying <i>more facts</i>. +When asked by the average intelligence, “What +does it all mean?”—the answer is, “Ah! there’s +the rub. <i>Wait!</i> Some day we <i>may</i> know.”</p> +<p>The simple fact is that the Scientist is bewildered, +while the theologian and the dogmatist appeal to +Faith without Knowledge, and invoke miracle as +in all past times.</p> +<p>Spiritualism has had its day and left an immense +body of facts, while Mediumship and the dark +circle are more often repudiated by intelligent +professed Spiritualists. Satisfied as to conscious +existence after death as a <i>fact</i>, they have learned +how generally unreliable are many messages from +departed friends, owing to conditions beyond their +control; while the effect of surrender to so-called +“spirit-control” contributes to neither health nor +a well-balanced mind or character.</p> +<p>Hypnotism maintains a precarious hold, simply +through juggling with the words, “Suggestion” +and “Hypnosis.” The professional hypnotist, yielding +as he must to the public fear and condemnation +of Hypnotism, advocates <i>Just a little of it!</i> under +the false title “Suggestion,” for the good it is +claimed to do in such cases as the drink and drug +habit. As though a little further <i>weakening of the +will</i>, would ultimately tend to restore and strengthen +it!</p> +<p>One is reminded of the baby in “Pendennis.” +The Mother “hoped the Lord would forgive her, +because it was such a little one!” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_231' name='page_231'></a>231</span></p> +<p>Even the leaders in the “Emmanuel Movement” +have deceived themselves by this sophistry, and +while they applaud the temporary results, they +seem unaware that they are still further weakening +self-control and real character, by dominating the +Will.</p> +<p>It is thus that ignorance, confusion and unrest, +like waves of ocean, ebb and flow in the great +human tides.</p> +<p>Through impatience and discouragement alone, +many give up the quest for knowledge as hopeless, +and while too well-balanced to drift into dissipation, +they suffer from <i>ennui</i> and become pessimistic.</p> +<p>Real knowledge will not come all at once, like a +vision, or a complete revelation.</p> +<p>The first real Light that comes will be that of +Faith, a term generally misunderstood and misused.</p> +<p>Faith is the complete antithesis of blind dogma +and superstition. It is born within the soul, and +never imposed by outward authority enforced by +fear.</p> +<p>“Faith is the soul’s <i>intuitive conviction</i> of that +which both reason and conscience approve.”</p> +<p>To give intellectual assent to belief in God is one +thing; to be able to declare with light and warmth +that uplifts and inspires, “<i>I know</i> that my Redeemer +liveth” is another thing entirely.</p> +<p>The impatience above referred to would see the +end from the beginning, and know all about the +development and destiny of the soul before it has +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_232' name='page_232'></a>232</span> +learned the first lesson that guides and determines +both.</p> +<p>When, however, Science and Religion clasp +hands, and the facts of nature guided by the light +of Faith, build character and guide progress, there +is revealed a Philosophy of Life that needs little +revision. It is like the compass that points continually +to the pole, and gives unqualified assurance +as to the <i>direction</i> we are going.</p> +<p>So also every step in the past enables us to get +our bearings and verify our course by checking +backward.</p> +<p>Faith is no longer a blind dogma, but a compass +in the box of experience, the wise mariner’s guide +in the voyage of life.</p> +<p>If neither Science, Religion nor Philosophy, nor +all together can thus come to the service of man, can +not do it <i>now</i>, after all the weary centuries since +Plato and Aristotle, we may as well write <i>qui bono</i> +on our banners and trail them in the dust!</p> +<p>Even the theologies of the day, recognizing the +dilemma and the difficulties, still cling to the +miraculous, and to make the best of a bad bargain, +offer dogma in the place of demonstration, and contradictory +and blind belief in place of the light of +Faith.</p> +<p>While they count thousands as nominally in their +communion, the intelligent among all these have +many “mental reservations.”</p> +<p>The intelligent thought of the world flows past +and beyond them. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_233' name='page_233'></a>233</span></p> +<p>The “Soul’s intuitive conviction” agreeing with +“both reason and conscience” holds and guides +them, in spite of the verbal “confession of faith.”</p> +<p>The Divinity of Jesus, the Christ, can be fully +explained under natural and divine law, without +invoking miracle.</p> +<p>The result of such explanation is to dethrone him +from the altars of dogma and superstition, and enthrone +him on the altar of Love in the heart of +Humanity.</p> +<p>This is long delayed, but cannot be defeated.</p> +<hr class='silver' /> + +<div class='ce'> +<p style=' font-size:1.4em;'>STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY</p> +</div> + +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<a name='I_CLASSIFICATION_OF_FACULTIES_CAPACITIES_AND_POWERS' id='I_CLASSIFICATION_OF_FACULTIES_CAPACITIES_AND_POWERS'></a> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_3' name='page_3'></a>3</span> +<h2>CHAPTER I</h2> +<h3>CLASSIFICATION OF FACULTIES, CAPACITIES, AND POWERS</h3> +</div> + +<p>Starting with the <i>Modulus of Nature</i>—an +Ideal or <i>Archetypal Man</i>, and coming down to +practical things in daily life—</p> +<p>1. Man <i>is</i> an <i>Individual Intelligence</i>. This is +taken as an empirical <i>fact</i>, patent to every intelligent +individual.</p> +<p>The source and nature of intelligence itself need +not here concern us. We may call it an <i>ultimate</i> +that all the philosophies of the world have signally +failed to explain. It is something that grows, increases +or decreases, expands, becomes confused, +according to the conditions of bodily organ and +function, heredity, environment, personal effort and +the like; but so far as we know, it is the same +thing, large or small, wise or foolish. It is still, +measure for measure, Individual Intelligence.</p> +<p>2. The term <i>Individual</i> means distinct, concrete, +relatively separate. Man being an Individual Intelligence; +God is the Universal Intelligence. Just +as the organism of man is involved in, and evolved +from Universal Nature; so the Intelligence of +man is involved in, and evolved from Universal +Intelligence. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_4' name='page_4'></a>4</span></p> +<p>The empirical fact of the intelligence of man +presupposes a “sufficient reason” or source. Still +we do not know what God and Nature and Intelligence +are. We only know <i>how they manifest</i>. Our +intelligence enables us to observe, reflect, reason, +and in some measure apprehend the <i>method</i> and +<i>manifestation</i>.</p> +<p>I am not seeking to build nor unfold a “Philosophy.” +“Yes,” someone replies, “but a philosophy +is implied or involved.”</p> +<p>Very well, let <i>it</i> unfold <i>itself</i>.</p> +<p>3. The next empirical fact of prime importance +is, The Individual Intelligence, not of man, but +which <i>is</i> man, is <i>aware of itself</i>, i.e., “self-conscious.” +It is able to distinguish between the self and the +non-self.</p> +<p>4. Again, as to <i>consciousness</i>, as with intelligence: +We know that man has it and uses it, and +what it <i>does</i> to some extent; but we do not know +what it <i>is</i>, intrinsically, nor do we need to know +any of these <i>ultimates</i>. The effort to explain them +has never ended in anything but confusion. We +shall herein name them, and then pass them.</p> +<p>5. We have now postulated a self-conscious, +Individual Intelligence, as the real man. Next we +find this Man can <i>do</i> things, or <i>refrain</i> from doing; +act, or refrain from action. This is called Initiative, +Volition, Will.</p> +<p>6. This power of action and of choice, inspired +by intelligence, aware of the self, adapts actions to +ends. This involves reason and judgment. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_5' name='page_5'></a>5</span></p> +<p>7. In the course of experience along the lines of +action or restraint, and observing results in either +case, the individual desiring or preferring certain +results to others, acquires more or less self-control. +He controls himself to secure desired results.</p> +<p>Here then, in brief outline, are the basis and the +elements of our Psychology. They are drawn from +common observation and experience, and are verified +by the facts of daily life—generally complicated, +confused, or lost sight of in treatises on psychology.</p> +<p>Two of these factors, viz.: Consciousness and Will, +enter into all psychological phenomena such as +Hypnotism and Mediumship, and into every form +of mental alienation, insanity, obsession and the like.</p> +<p>Moreover, by building out of mental phenomena +a distinct entity—largely independent of the self-conscious +Intelligence, and almost equally so with +consciousness—our “philosophies,” “metaphysics,” +and explanations have become as confused and unreliable +as the psychical phenomenon itself.</p> +<p>Hudson’s so-called “Law of Psychic Phenomena,” +“Subliminal” and “Supraliminal Consciousness,” +and the juggling with the terms “suggestion” and +“hypnosis” may serve as sufficient illustrations. In +each instance phenomena are made to take the place +of principles and the core of the problem is ignored, +confused, or lost sight of.</p> +<p>In the meantime these empiricists are hunting in +the “rubbish of the temple” (which temple they +have <i>metaphysically</i> destroyed), for the Human +Soul—i.e. the concrete, intrinsic Individual Intelligence, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_6' name='page_6'></a>6</span> +which is ONE, and which the Master Builder +(Universal Intelligence) placed on the Trestle-board +of Creation and Time, for the building of character, +and the evolution of the Human Soul.</p> +<p>If the Ideal, Archetypal, or Divine Man, is +recognized as the <i>Modulus</i> of both Nature and +Divinity, our Theorem must consist in adhering to +the Modulus and working out the problem.</p> +<p>Q. E. D., if applied to man’s completion of his +own individual Temple, might stand for the last +words of Jesus, “It is finished,” The problem is +solved; “I have finished the Work Thou gavest me +to do.” Science, Religion and Philosophy have +clasped hands. Divinity revealed in Humanity is +triumphant over Death. “There is a Natural +(physical) body and there is a Spiritual body,” and +the Individual Intelligence is ONE in each, or in +both; viz.: The Human-Divine Soul.</p> +<p>To recognize the <i>Modulus</i> and intelligently to +apprehend the <i>Theorem</i> is the foundation and the +first step in the scientific solution of the problem of +life, and the progressive and continuous evolution of +the human soul. To use the term “Science” (as +applied to the study of psychology) in any other +way, is pure empiricism, is wholly unscientific, and +has never yet resulted in anything but confusion and +in laying a foundation for belief, conjecture, theory, +dogma, superstition, and fear.</p> +<p>The step of next importance, both in the scientific +study of psychology and in individual progress and +evolution, is the mental attitude of the individual; +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_7' name='page_7'></a>7</span> +his point of view; his open-mindedness and utter refusal +to <i>pre</i>judge anything. He will often say, “I +do not know.” He will sometimes say, “I do not +care.” That phase or presentation does not appeal +to, nor interest him.</p> +<p>This is what the Vedic philosophers called, “making +the mind <i>one pointed</i>” and like a search-light, with +the ability to concentrate it on a given point or +subject.</p> +<p>Bias, prejudice, preconceived opinion, credulity and +incredulity, are all like a crooked lens to the +eye of the mind, or to the perception of the simple +truth.</p> +<p>Not only are these principles basic in the scientific +study of psychology and the evolution of the individual +intelligence, but their neglect and oversight +are solely responsible for the confusion everywhere +manifest on the subject, as well as for <i>every form of +subjective control</i>, mediumship, psychical epidemics, +and obsession, and they enter into every form and +phase of insanity.</p> +<p>If this be true, and it is readily demonstrable, what +subject is of equal importance; and what facts and +considerations are so transcendent as these?</p> +<p>The difference is that between a mad-house with its +frenzied and frightened mob of helpless victims, and +a palace of the gods in which dwelleth Righteousness, +Love, Peace, and Eternal Joy.</p> +<p>Is it not <i>worth while</i>?</p> +<p>This Modulus and Theorem of the School of +Natural Science involve Religion, Regeneration, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_8' name='page_8'></a>8</span> +Redemption, and the well-being of Souls here and +hereafter.</p> +<p>They separate Religion from Superstition, Duty +from Dogma, cast out Fear, release the wings of +aspiration and faith; and where “the mourners went +about the streets” is heard a new song of rejoicing +that binds up the wounds and sorrows of the brokenhearted.</p> +<p>Again I ask, “Is it not worth while?”</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<a name='II_EMPIRICAL_AND_SCIENTIFIC_EVIDENCE' id='II_EMPIRICAL_AND_SCIENTIFIC_EVIDENCE'></a> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_9' name='page_9'></a>9</span> +<h2>CHAPTER II</h2> +<h3>EMPIRICAL AND SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE</h3> +</div> + +<p>Let us bear in mind that man <i>is</i> an Individual +Intelligence; that this involves self-consciousness, +or awareness of Self, the innate ability to +distinguish between the Self and the non-Self. +Hence arises the power of choice, discernment, or +discrimination.</p> +<p>There also arises the impulse to <i>act</i>, or the Initiative, +called the Will. This also involves the +power of restraint, the act or the refraining from +action.</p> +<p>This action, under the basic endowment—intelligence—is +called <i>Rational Volition</i>.</p> +<p>There is thus, Intelligence; the Power to choose; +the power to act and the adaptation of acts or +restraints to ends, or to desired objects or results.</p> +<p>Experience teaches the individual, thus endowed, +that he is responsible for all he thinks, feels, acts +and does; and this, under his endowment of Intelligence, +is what we call <i>Conscience</i>.</p> +<p>We are not building up a theory, but simply +analyzing psychological facts, demonstrated as true +in the experience of every intelligent individual. +Just as the chemist analyzes a compound he finds in +his laboratory. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_10' name='page_10'></a>10</span></p> +<p>Our <i>Modulus</i> is the Perfect Man. Our <i>Theorem</i> +is the method of use that, by experience and observation +everywhere, has been demonstrated as Constructive, +enabling the Individual to build toward, +and to realize the Modulus.</p> +<p>The power to discriminate, choose and act, when +normally exercised, implies judgment and understanding.</p> +<p>Hence, we have perception, rational choice, intelligent +action and desired results, for which we recognize +our personal responsibility. Hence arise our +ability and necessity to <i>review</i> our actions, motives, +aims and their results, and to pass judgment upon +them in the Light of Conscience (Con-Science, to +know the Self) to pass judgment upon ourselves +as to motives, aims, results, and consequences.</p> +<p>The Brain is a center of consciousness with avenues +of perception and impulse and departments +that by aggregation, separation or association, enable +the Individual Intelligence to determine the +relation in time, or duration, force and orderly +relation of perceptions, desires, motives, actions (or +thoughts and feelings) as to sequence or results.</p> +<p>This whole conscious realm is the Mind. It is +the <i>inner chamber</i> of the <i>Soul</i>. It is in no sense +an entity. The actor, the real entity, is the Individual +Intelligence.</p> +<p>To say, therefore, that “Man is all mind,” or +that the mind does this, or that, is simply nonsense. +It is like saying that the little room in which I am +now writing, with its books and pictures, with my +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_11' name='page_11'></a>11</span> +thoughts, feelings, emotions, and magnetism, is <i>I</i>! +Perhaps it is <i>like</i> me, or <i>full</i> of me, but <i>I</i> am something +<i>else</i> and something <i>more</i>.</p> +<p>Let us get rid of this “confusion of tongues”; +this “babel of Psychology”; “New Thought” (as +old as man); “Metaphysics”; “Christian Science” +<i>et hoc genus omne</i>, and come down to common sense +and the facts of nature. The aim and the results +along these lines are often good and helpful; then +why clothe them in the garb of absurdities?</p> +<p>Recognize the facts, and express them intelligently, +and they may do ten times more good, for +then we could understand them. They are, one and +all, a weak dilution of the old Hindoo Yoga, +thrashed over there for thousands of years; straining +after <i>results</i>, while ignorant of, or ignoring +<i>basic principles</i>.</p> +<p>Aside from the “Eight Systems of Philosophy” +now recognized in India, there are hundreds of +varieties and classes of <i>Yogis</i>.</p> +<p>“To acquire powers” is one thing; self-mastery +and self-knowledge are quite another. Thus the +one is often distorted and always transient; the +other constructive, regenerative, and enduring.</p> +<p>To illustrate by contrast what Constructive Psychology, +or the building of character, <i>is not</i>, we may +now take some of the forms of diseased action +known to all time, occurring in individuals and in +epidemics, and which to-day fill our Insane Asylums +with “Incurables.”</p> +<p>The point of first importance in all these cases, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_12' name='page_12'></a>12</span> +is the <i>lack</i> of self-control. Weakness, aberration +or disease of the Will. The Individual Intelligence +fails to exercise its divine prerogative and be +<i>Master</i> in and of its <i>own house</i>.</p> +<p>In the place of this control, sensations, feelings, +emotions, desires, appetites, passions, and ambitions +run riot. The <i>Servants</i> of the Master war among +themselves, quarrel with each other, bind the Master +hand and foot, wreck the furniture, and at last +destroy the house. The Master has become the victim +and at last the slave of his own servants. His +Will is in abeyance; his perceptions distorted; his +feelings and emotions aggravated; his “Reason +Dethroned”; his judgment impaired; he has an +“Unbalanced Mind.”</p> +<p>What is here needed but <i>Christos</i> in the Temple, +“turning over the tables of the money-changers and +the seats of them that sold doves,” and restoring the +High-Priest in the Holy Temple—the Human +Soul, viz.: the intelligent Will of Man, determined +to govern his own house, and responsible for results?</p> +<p>In place of Rational Volition, clear, just and +true perceptions, sound judgment and clear understanding, +we have “Illusions,” “Hallucinations” +and “Delusions.” In other words, the Individual +is <i>Insane</i>!</p> +<p>It all goes deeper than the <i>Mind</i>; the Soul, the +Individual Intelligence is dethroned in his own +Kingdom; Body, Mind, and Soul are out of joint.</p> +<p>Not only does this condition exist without being +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_13' name='page_13'></a>13</span> +recognized; not only just here lies the whole secret +and field of <i>Education</i> in child, woman and man, +but so ignorant are thousands as to these patent facts +and basic principles, that they covet and strive +after this confusion, this devolution, in the vain +search for knowledge, light, and truth.</p> +<p>These are the office, the function and the result +to the subject (or victim) of Mediumship and +Hypnotism. They yield the Will, the mastery of +their own house, to another.</p> +<p>The servants may be tractable for a while, but +an <i>alien</i> is seated upon the throne, and the Master +is no longer King in his own realm.</p> +<p>Others may indeed learn something from his +undoing, from the crimes committed upon him, just +as we learn from criminals how we <i>ought not</i> to +live.</p> +<p>Whether ignorantly, voluntarily, by persuasion, +or by force of a stronger will, the medium and the +hypnotic subject are victims either of ignorance +or of design, to their own undoing.</p> +<p>These psychical experiences have been found in all +ages and among every people of whom we have +any valid history, from the red Indians of the +North to the Voodoos of Africa, and from the Hill +Tribes of India to the earliest Scandinavian Tribes +and the islands of the sea.</p> +<p>As civilizations advanced, the more intelligent and +unscrupulous individuals, ambitious of knowledge or +power, regardless of the rights or well-being of +others, and discovering these powers, exercised them +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_14' name='page_14'></a>14</span> +for their own aggrandizement. This has been +known through the ages as <i>Black Magic</i>, and is +laughed at to-day by so-called “Scientists” as +“nothing but the fears, credulity, and superstitions +of the ignorant multitude.” This was the core of +Egyptian Paganism, and is the very genius of +Clericalism to-day—the domination of the Individual +Will, through superstition and fear.</p> +<p>Owing to seismic and cataclysmic shocks, volcanic +eruptions, tidal waves, and great epidemics of disease, +whole peoples have been dominated by fear +or frenzied by superstitious dread, so that whole +villages and cities became literally “mad-houses,” +and were often depopulated.</p> +<p>Read the story of “Peter, the Hermit,” and “The +Crusades,” the “Black Death,” the “Great +Plague” that swept over Europe in the Thirteenth +century; or that of the “Flagellants,” and the +“Dancing Mania,” where whole villages became +“Dancing Dervishes,” samples of which may occasionally +be found to-day in the cities of America, +the “Yogis” that are “Buddhas” or “Christs” in +New York, and the Dowies that were “Elijahs” +in Chicago, the Genius of Point Loma, Obispo, +Santa Rosa, “Oahspe,” “Solar-Biology,” and +again, <i>et hoc genus omne</i>! Verily! “there is nothing +new under the sun.”</p> +<p>Contrast these individuals with an individual of +sound mind, good judgment, and a well-ordered +life, and see how and where and why the wreck +inevitably follows. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_15' name='page_15'></a>15</span></p> +<p>The pressure outside changes continually, and +these things spread and grow like all contagions. +Nature at times seems wrathful and destructive, and +there are, no doubt, deep-seated conditions and +changes in the magnetism of the earth and air, not +yet comprehended by modern science.</p> +<p>In stamping out contagious and epidemic disease, +simple cleanliness has been like a revelation from the +gods, and modern surgery has only stopped short +of the miraculous.</p> +<p>Society is but the aggregation of individuals, and +on the one principle of <i>Self-Control</i> every individual +is related to the negative or the positive side of +psychical and physical epidemics.</p> +<p>There is scarcely an avenue along these lines that +has not been more or less explored by modern +science.</p> +<p>That knowledge is still incomplete; that mistakes +have been made; that matters have been contemptuously +set aside, belittled, or declared to be +not worth investigation, was to have been expected. +But the progress has been immense, and the light +shines on many obscure and difficult problems, where +before was the utter darkness of superstition and +fear, dirt, degradation, and death.</p> +<p>These phenomena manifest on the physical plane, +disturb the social state, and the relations of individuals +to each other. They concern the environment +of man in a world of matter, sense, and +time.</p> +<p>But the Individual Intelligence, which is Man, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_16' name='page_16'></a>16</span> +lives also in another world, related to, but within, +around, and beyond the physical.</p> +<p>Man senses or feels it as anterior to birth and +extending beyond death. He calls it the subjective +or Spiritual World.</p> +<p>The realm of his consciousness is related to it, +as the body is related to the physical plane and +the things of sense and time. His consciousness +seems <i>aware</i> of both planes or both worlds, though +ignorant of the real nature and meaning of both, +and capable of interpreting neither correctly.</p> +<p>Man feels his way through the life on the outer +plane guided by his experience of weight, measure, +distance, resistance, and the like.</p> +<p>The other world—the inner, or subjective—seems +distant, evasive, and unreal, and in contemplating +it he is filled with uncertainty, dread, fear, and +superstition.</p> +<p>Our friends die and disappear; we miss them, +and mourn for them. Where are they? What +will become of us when we die? Shall we ever +meet them again?</p> +<p>Passing by religion and revelation, as we are +dealing with facts and phenomena in the natural +life of man, rather than with creeds and dogmas that +undertake to cut the “Gordian Knot,” these questions +stare everyone in the face, and in every age +man has tried to solve them by actual knowledge.</p> +<p>Belief in ghosts, angels and demons is practically +universal; and just here comes in the whole range +of psychical phenomena, facts and fantasies, illusions, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_17' name='page_17'></a>17</span> +hallucinations and delusions, rational volition, +reason dethroned, and the Will in Subjection, already +referred to.</p> +<p>As individual experiences, subjective or objective, +all are real. The fear incited by illusions and +hallucination, or by “seeing a ghost,” regardless +of the fact of its actual existence, is as real to the +individual as that of meeting a serpent in the grass, +or a tiger in the jungle.</p> +<p>Soothsayers, diviners, prophets, mediums, conjurers, +and seers consequently have been found in +every age and among every people. Ignorance, +fear, dread of death, desire to know, have always +provided them with patrons, followers, or disciples.</p> +<p>They have often reaped a rich harvest, and not +unfrequently dominated a race or a people, as the +Papacy does to-day.</p> +<p>Where they have failed to create belief, they +have often triumphed through fear and anathema, +and often supplemented these weapons by persecution, +imprisonment, torture, and death, and so held +sway.</p> +<p>Revelation begs the question; dogma forces the +conclusion; and both dominate the soul without +convincing and without <i>knowledge</i>.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<a name='III_MEDIUMSHIP_SEERSHIP_AND_HYPNOSIS' id='III_MEDIUMSHIP_SEERSHIP_AND_HYPNOSIS'></a> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_18' name='page_18'></a>18</span> +<h2>CHAPTER III</h2> +<h3>MEDIUMSHIP, SEERSHIP, AND HYPNOSIS</h3> +</div> + +<p>Into this arena of the inquiring soul of man, +came Modern Spiritualism.</p> +<p>It contained little or nothing new, as to methods, +aims, or results.</p> +<p>The Church, Protestant and Catholic alike, uttered +their warnings, called it “dealings with the devil,” +but divested of political authority and without power +to arrest or persecute, as in the past, were unable +to stay the tide. It swept the country like a +whirlwind. The average individual, desiring to +know and to get tidings from departed friends, was +unrestrained and unterrified.</p> +<p>He could not see why, if the gates were really +ajar, angels might not communicate, no less than +devils.</p> +<p>Then came the cry of “fraud,” often amply +justified, and a cloud of uncertainty and unreliability +settled over the phenomena generally. Unscrupulous +men and women seeing their opportunity, sophisticated +and exploited it, and “exposures” of these +became common.</p> +<p>But in spite of all this, there remained facts, +and groups of phenomena impossible to explain +away. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_19' name='page_19'></a>19</span></p> +<p>Finally, men like Crookes and Wallace took up +the subject and investigated the phenomena, not +from the emotional, expectant, or fraternal aspect, +but from the purely scientific, and rendered their +verdict, which, though frequently ignored or treated +with contempt, remains practically unaltered.</p> +<p>Thousands became convinced of the <i>fact</i> of life +beyond the grave, and at the same time of the +unreliability of many so-called “communications.” +Finally the “Society for Psychical Research” was +formed; phenomena were searchingly examined, +verified, and recorded as a basis for further research.</p> +<p>The posthumous work of F. W. H. Myers, +“Human Personality and its Survival of Bodily +Death,” added to the Society’s records and many +other publications a record of verified facts in +psychic phenomena such as never before existed, +and which nothing short of a cataclysm can destroy.</p> +<p>In the meantime, the “dark circle” went into +desuetude, and Spiritualism, as a cult, declined. +Accepting the broad conclusion of a life after death, +and with no very clear demonstration as to exactly +where, or how, the case rested largely.</p> +<p>The reason for this obscurity was to be found +in the absence of clear conceptions as to the nature +of the human soul, and what life on the spiritual +plane really signifies.</p> +<p>In other words, the foundation was laid empirically +to await classification and conclusions in a +comprehensive Philosophy of Psychology, consistent +with a science of the soul; and there it remains +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_20' name='page_20'></a>20</span> +to-day with the average individual, and the average +man of physical or psychical science.</p> +<p>Returning now from this brief excursion into the +social status, to the problem as related to the mental, +moral, and physical health of individuals, and bearing +in mind our Modulus of Man, and Theorem of +Constructive Psychology, we find the annals of +Spiritualism, Mediumship, or subjective control, +of exceeding importance.</p> +<p>Another plane of life exists. Individuals on +either plane communicate with the controlling entity +on the supra-physical plane.</p> +<p>The Medium is invariably subjective and controlled. +He has no choice of controls, and often no +knowledge (never reliable knowledge) as to who +or what controls him. He is sometimes informed +by his “guide” as to the control’s identity, and +learns, often, that he and his circle have been +deceived by ignorant or “lying spirits.”</p> +<p>The whole process reverses our Modulus and +Theorem of Constructive Psychology, the building +of character and normal evolution.</p> +<p>The most important consideration at this point +is its relation to the sanity of individuals.</p> +<p>There are thousands of individuals to-day, who, +failing in rational volition, or self-control, are controlled +by entities on the subjective plane. They +are <i>obsessed</i>.</p> +<p>This subjective control without the knowledge or +consent of the victim, and unrecognized and generally +called “absurd” by “Alienists” and “experts,” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_21' name='page_21'></a>21</span> +constitutes a very large per cent, of the +insane to-day, and because ignored or unrecognized, +these cases are classed as “Incurable.”</p> +<p>It should be remembered that the annals of +Spiritualism, and the records of scientific Psychical +Research, have <i>demonstrated</i> the possibility and the +<i>fact</i> of such control. It should also be remembered +that the average “expert alienist” is guided solely +by results of such obsession, where it occurs; that +he is blind to causes, liable to exclude or taboo obsession, +and therefore largely liable to err.</p> +<p>In other words, he is prejudiced; and his bias +and incredulity blind him to the facts and to the +real causes.</p> +<p>He could hardly be expected to make the obsession +<i>let go</i>, while denying that it exists. But he +<i>might</i> help the victim gain <i>Self-control</i> if he but +recognized the facts and knew how.</p> +<p>Realizing the fact of the connection of the two +worlds, the physical and the spiritual, and communication +between them in the subjective or irresponsible +way, the question naturally arises, “Is +there not another way of communication? May not +the Individual Intelligence on the physical plane +communicate with the denizens of the spiritual +plane <i>at his own volition, independently</i>? May he +not learn to see and hear them without attempting, or +desiring to <i>control</i> them, more than he does his +associates, his friends and neighbors on the physical +plane, or allowing them to control him?”</p> +<p>Is it not purely a question of <i>fact</i>, and of scientific +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_22' name='page_22'></a>22</span> +demonstration, to be determined by experiment?</p> +<p>This question leads us to another phase of psychology +and the records of the past. There have +been Seers, Clairvoyants, and Clairaudiants in all +ages.</p> +<p>Unlike the psychical phenomena already referred +to,—and belonging to the positive and initiative, +rather than the negative and subjective side of +the psychical equation,—these seers have been fewer +in number, and are always individuals showing a +high degree of self-control, and of intellectual and +moral evolution.</p> +<p>Admitting the general propositions involved, it +can readily be seen that this must be so from the +very nature of the case. The Masters of mankind, +in any and all directions have been few. The +slaves, through ignorance, superstition and fear, +have been legions. Those who have gained habitual +self-control, and finally self-mastery, knowledge +and power, have been few; while the majority have +been controlled by their own appetites and passions, +and by other individuals.</p> +<p>This self-mastery and higher evolution also includes +another element beside strength of character, +and that is, Refinement.</p> +<p>In other words; it is, from first to last, a journey +from the gross and sensuous physical plane, toward +the refined and spiritual plane, involving all the +faculties, capacities, and powers, feelings, sensations, +emotions, intuitions, and aspirations of man. It +is, in short, a normal, higher evolution. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_23' name='page_23'></a>23</span></p> +<p>All the elements of this higher evolution are basic +and innate in the original endowment of man. By +exercise, the latent faculties, capacities and powers +grow, expand, and develop. Self-control, rational +volition, and the sense of personal responsibility, +(conscience) make the evolution conformatory to the +Modulus—the Perfect Man.</p> +<p>As this human being, dwelling on the physical +plane, <i>e</i>volves, the spiritual faculties of the Divine +Man are <i>in</i>volved from the spiritual plane. When +this simultaneous and co-ordinate development is +complete, the Human and the Divine are <i>at-one</i> +in the Individual.</p> +<p>This at-one-ment is the exact opposite of “vicarious.” +It is the result of personal effort and self-mastery.</p> +<p>The dogma of the church has so completely sophisticated +it as to turn normal evolution into +<i>devolution</i>; and, so far as it has any effect, or is +operative at all, to turn man backward toward the +animal, instead of upward toward the Divine.</p> +<p>Seership and Spiritual powers, therefore, as the +result of “Living the Life,” are <i>Evolutionary</i>. +Mediumship, subjective control, and obsession in +any form, or in whatsoever degree, are <i>Devolutionary</i>.</p> +<p>Progress along either line may be very slow, but +the trend is as opposite as is the East from the +West, as Light from Darkness, as Good from Evil.</p> +<p>By classifying these powers of man and psychical +phenomena to which they give rise, whether in the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_24' name='page_24'></a>24</span> +conscious, inner realm, in functions of the bodily +organism, or observable to others, we are able to +assign each to its proper class with considerable +accuracy.</p> +<p>Both evolutionary and devolutionary progress, +with the ordinary individual, are slow processes. +Seldom is either process a designed and straightforward +climbing, or a quick descent “into the dark +abyss.”</p> +<p>Consequently, as the human race evolves as a whole, +relatively more and more individuals are found who +“get flashes” of sight or sound, more or less from +the subjective or spiritual plane of being. There +are intuitions, “warnings,” and premonitions of +coming events. Some seek and cultivate, others +fear and avoid them.</p> +<p>They are mostly on the “border-land,” if not on +the “ragged-edge” of insanity. It is only necessary +to further weaken the will, or to indulge the passions +and emotions, in order to decide the matter, +derange the mind, and send the individual to an +asylum.</p> +<p>On the other hand, with individuals who lead a +clean, cheerful, well-ordered life, these experiences +may mean encouragement, confirmation, and progress +toward the spiritual realm of being. They +should be observed carefully, but not <i>cultivated</i>. +They may serve as guide-posts and as mere incidents +of a day’s journey.</p> +<p>The average popular cult to-day, as often in the +past, where psychical phenomena are involved, results +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_25' name='page_25'></a>25</span> +in converting the normal mental realm, the +realm of normal self-consciousness, into a vaudeville +performance; a mere “Variety Show,” where +all due sense of proportion and relation is lost.</p> +<p>In place of the normal Individual Intelligence, +sitting serenely on the throne of life and ruling his +Kingdom with justice, wisdom and paternal love, +the king joins the melee of acrobats and dancing +girls, encourages the orchestra till, in a pandemonium +of revelry, he puts out the lights, or in wild +frenzy fires the building.</p> +<p>Sometimes it claims to “command success” by +<i>demanding</i> it; or wealth without earning it; or +health without regard to hygienic law; or by “taking +a Mantram” to open the gates of heaven. Or +again, by servile obedience to the freaks or dogmas +of a “Leader” or “Official Head” and adulation +<i>ad nauseam</i>, to gain admission to the “Elect.”</p> +<p>One and all of these, from first to last, tend +toward Devolution. They are destructive, not constructive, +in building character and true manhood +and womanhood.</p> +<p>Again, the Monk or the devotee abandons society, +becomes a recluse, flees into the desert or the +mountain, subsists upon roots or herbs, sits in one +posture till the joints of the body become fixed, +holds the arms above the head till they become immovable, +and the finger nails <i>turn and grow through +the palms of the hands</i>; or sits gazing at the navel +and repeating the word <i>Om</i>.</p> +<p>Indeed, it would seem that the ways and means +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_26' name='page_26'></a>26</span> +to stop normal growth, constructive evolution and +healthy living, had been well-nigh exhausted.</p> +<p>The enthusiast, the fanatic and the “easy mark” +of to-day are seldom aware of any of these things, +and so they are bled, fleeced, and exploited accordingly. +“All is Mind!” “Great is Elijah!” or +“Mrs.” Elijah, and Oahspe is his Prophet! while +Babel reigns in the place of Natural Science.</p> +<p>The Theosophical Movement inaugurated in +this country by H. P. Blavatsky in 1875, differed +essentially and radically from all others; first, in +placing ethics as the first stone in the foundation of +a real knowledge of the nature of man. Its objects +as concisely stated at the time were—</p> +<p>First: To establish a <i>nucleus</i> for a Universal +Brotherhood of Man.</p> +<p>Second: To study ancient religions, philosophies +and sciences, and determine their relations and +values.</p> +<p>Third: To investigate the Psychical Powers latent +in Man.</p> +<p>Hospitality to Truth from any source and under +any name, was characteristic of the movement during +the entire lifetime of the Founders.</p> +<p>Dogma was eliminated, Authority beyond facts +and demonstrated truth denied, and Superstition +regarded as only another name for ignorance.</p> +<p>While the facts and the demonstrations of +Science were recognized, and given the largest hospitality, +nevertheless, the “Secret Doctrine” and, +in a broad sense, the whole movement was an effort +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_27' name='page_27'></a>27</span> +to present to modern times, and particularly to the +Western world, the most ancient and pure philosophy +of old India, the <i>Vedanta</i> or “Wisdom-Religion.”</p> +<p>An immense work of rejuvenation has gone on +in India, particularly in the establishment and +maintenance of Schools for Girls, and in the relief +of poverty and discouragement of the teeming +millions.</p> +<p>An immense literature was created, not yet appreciated, +except by students here and there, who found +light, explanation, and encouragement in their +studies of the mysteries of Nature and of life.</p> +<p>Since the death of the founders of the Society, in +this country at least, only a few branches and +fragments of the original organization now remain.</p> +<p>“Leaders” and “Official Heads” often wholly +ignorant of the Philosophy, which colossal egotism +and exploitation could hardly supply, have brought +the very names “Theosophy” and “Brotherhood” +into contempt and ridicule in many sections.</p> +<p>As some of these “official heads” are still in +evidence, final results cannot now be formulated, +and need not be here considered or forecast. The +evidence is not all in.</p> +<p>Personally, I desire to record my great indebtedness +and highest appreciation of a noble life and a +magnificent work accomplished by one of the most +remarkable and unselfish women known to history, +and for the light and knowledge which she made +accessible, and which I still hold, practically unchanged, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_28' name='page_28'></a>28</span> +but with the theorems of Natural Science, +in place of the postulates of Philosophy as better +fitting “the progressive intelligence” of the present +time.</p> +<p>The two lines of presentation when clearly apprehended +are not antagonistic, but supplementary. +Their aims and purpose are the same.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<a name='IV_THE_MEASURE_OF_VALUES' id='IV_THE_MEASURE_OF_VALUES'></a> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_29' name='page_29'></a>29</span> +<h2>CHAPTER IV</h2> +<h3>THE MEASURE OF VALUES</h3> +</div> + +<p>This is a very utilitarian age. Start almost any +subject, propose almost any scheme, adventure, +or investment, and the question is asked, “Will it +pay?” The multitude are cautious; the lower +stratum, the unsuccessful—the poor and the oppressed—are +envious and often bitter and resentful; +the successful are often reckless, dissipated, and +proud.</p> +<p>I am not writing an essay on Economics, but on +Ethics and Psychology; on the character, value, and +use of the resources <i>within</i> ourselves; our <i>real possessions</i>. +Here only may be found <i>actual values</i>.</p> +<p>I am not considering the “hereafter,” as to +“rewards and punishments”; what gods, devils, +angels, or men may do <i>to us</i>, here or hereafter; but +what we may (if we choose) do <i>for ourselves</i>.</p> +<p>This question is practical to the last degree. +Put the question, “does it pay?” and I answer: +It pays like nothing else on earth; it is the only +thing that is independent of time, place, or circumstance.</p> +<p>It concerns man’s <i>actual possessions</i>, of which +nothing in “the three worlds” can ever dispossess +him. I know of nothing so beneficent, in any +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_30' name='page_30'></a>30</span> +concept of God or Nature, Providence or Destiny, +as this birthright and opportunity of man, to build +character, and <i>be</i> what he chooses to be.</p> +<p>He who knows his power, realizes his opportunity +and utilizes his resources, may build a Palace of +the Soul, in which he may dwell, literally, in a +“kingdom of heaven.” And because God is the +Architect, and Man the Contractor and Builder, +working strictly to the “plans” and the designs, +“that house shall stand.” It is founded on the +“Rock of Ages.”</p> +<p>Did anyone ever know or see a noble character +that was not built by the Individual himself, by +personal effort, by self-control, by self-denial, by +justice and kindness to others; often in the face of +Poverty; often in spite of wealth; often in the face +of sickness, pain and deformity; perhaps deaf and +dumb and blind; and yet, like Helen Keller, the +soul triumphant and glorified?</p> +<p>To-day, as I write, I went to the Crematory to +see the dissolution of a poor, twisted, deformed, and +tortured body of a woman past fifty, in which had +dwelt a soul so serene, cheerful, and patient, that +the beatitudes clustered around her, like doves in a +garden of roses. It required no stretch of the +imagination to determine what society she had +entered. “Like seeks like,” and each “goes to his +own place.” Her motive, the day-star of her life, +was the Mother-Love for an only son. In spite +of poverty and pain, she must reward him for love +and loyalty, by being bright and cheerful and by +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_31' name='page_31'></a>31</span> +belittling her own discomfort to save him sorrow.</p> +<p>Her reward was the growth of the soul that has +now risen to its great reward, and dearer and +sweeter than all this to the Mother-heart, was to +see and realize the growth, the tenderness, and the +beautifying of the soul of the Son.</p> +<p>Did it pay? I can almost hear her shouting for +joy as she joins the anthem of the Invisible Choir +of Helpers that welcome her just over the border. +She prayed many times, even the last time I saw +her, before the great change, “If it be possible, +let this cup pass from me.” I could only say, “Wait +just a little longer,” with the assurance that every +shadow of darkness shall be transformed into dazzling +light, and every drop of bitterness into the +nectar of the Gods. She was almost deaf and +blind, but you should have heard the sweetness in +her voice and seen the radiance in her face. I did +not know that the end was so near.</p> +<p>To the son, the sweetest sound on earth was that +mother’s voice, but, though silent for a thousand +years, he would not recall her to one moment of +the old torture. His sorrow for <i>himself</i> is swallowed +up and glorified in his joy for her release.</p> +<p>And what is all this but a lesson in practical +psychology, the growth of the soul?</p> +<p>Does it pay? Ask that Mother; ask that Son +now. “How do you know?” How do you know +anything, except as you see, or experience it?</p> +<p>Character reveals itself. It cannot long hide itself. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_32' name='page_32'></a>32</span> +When the check goes to the bank the resources +are there. The Bank of God, and of +Nature, and of Compensation, and Eternal Justice, +cannot fail. Its resources are infinite.</p> +<p>Independent of time, place, or circumstance, I +said: Intrinsic, Inalienable.</p> +<p>Take another illustration almost at random. A +cultured soul, winning its way alone, and at great +disadvantage.</p> +<p>In the middle of the tenth century lived Farabi, +or Alfarabi. He did not confine himself to the +Koran, but fathomed the most useful and interesting +sciences. He visited Sifah Doulet, the Sultan of +Syria. The Sultan was surrounded by the learned +who were conversing with him on the sciences.</p> +<p>Farabi entered the salon where they were assembled +and remained standing till the Emperor +desired that he should be seated; at which the philosopher, +by a freedom rather astonishing, went and +sat on the end of the Sultan’s sofa. The Prince, +surprised at his boldness, called one of his officers +and commanded him, in a tongue not generally +known, to put out the intruder. The philosopher +heard him, and replied in the same tongue, “O +Signor! he who acts so hastily is subject to repent.” +The Prince was no less astonished by his reply than +by his manner and assurance.</p> +<p>Wishing to know more of him, he began a conference +among his philosophers, in which Farabi +disputed with so much eloquence and energy that +he reduced all the doctors to silence. Then the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_33' name='page_33'></a>33</span> +Sultan ordered music, and when the musicians entered, +Farabi accompanied them upon the lute with +so much delicacy as to win the admiration of all +present. He then drew out, at the Sultan’s request, +a piece of his own composition, and sang it with his +own accompaniment, and had the audience first +in laughter, and then in tears—and to complete +his Magic, changed to another piece and put them all +asleep.</p> +<p>The Sultan in vain urged Farabi to remain near +his person, and offered him a high position in his +household.</p> +<p>Voluminous writings of Farabi are preserved in +the library at Leyden.</p> +<p>“A tale of the Arabian Nights,” you may say, +and yet it is historic. It reveals the fact that resources, +character, and wisdom, in the end triumph +and surmount all obstacles. They are intrinsic and +permanent values.</p> +<p>They may remain unknown or unappreciated by +others, but they are none the less riches to him who +possesses them.</p> +<p>It was during this same tenth century in which +Alfarabi lived, that there existed at Baghdad a +Society composed of Mohammedans, Jews, Christians, +and Atheists, for the purpose of Philosophical +discussions and scientific investigation; and it was +doubtless under this influence that Alfarabi was +educated and enabled to cope with the philosophers +of the world. Here in Arabia was the highest culture +known at the time, in Medicine and all the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_34' name='page_34'></a>34</span> +Arts and Sciences, while the Ecclesiastics were +inaugurating the dark ages elsewhere, to eventually +spread over the whole of Europe.</p> +<p>Here and there have always appeared individuals +superior to their age and time; men who dug to +the foundations of knowledge, built character, accumulated +resources, and left their impress upon +all subsequent time.</p> +<p>Nor has this accumulation of real knowledge been +derived from books and schools, though these resources +have not been neglected.</p> +<p>Real culture of the Individual has always consisted +in the realization of the latent powers of +man, in bringing these to light, in learning by experience +how to use them. Hence arise self-knowledge, +self-control, and a higher evolution.</p> +<p>It is not a mere technical, intellectual acquirement, +the ability to define principles and formulate +propositions. It rather consists in testing them out +in actual experience; first by self-analysis to become +familiar with the real self, its capacities and powers, +its motives and aims in life; and having grasped and +adjusted all these, then to start consciously, deliberately, +determinedly, and intelligently, on “the +road to the South,” on the upward climb toward +the Light.</p> +<p>“Possessions,” with the great majority of individuals, +mean something outward, in space and +time; what we have, and, for the time hold, rather +than what we are. The average idea of enjoyment +is something altogether superficial and transient. It +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_35' name='page_35'></a>35</span> +is found, or supposed to be found, in variety of +sensations, emotions and feelings; in ringing the +changes on these, till vitality fails, disillusion or +satiety supervenes, and old age or death closes the +play. Often the appetite remains, when vitality +fails, and Faust rejuvenated, would run the same +gauntlet again. The pity of it is that thousands of +these victims of either satiety or Tantalus seem +never to dream that there are other values, or anything +else, or better, in life.</p> +<p>And yet there is not one of these faculties, +capacities and powers that is useless, or, in itself, +evil or degrading. They are, one and all, resources +of the Individual Intelligence; tools for the day’s +work; materials for the building of the Temple; +whereas, they most frequently are made the motive +and the aim of life. They are means to a higher +end, and not the end itself.</p> +<p>Without the latent passions, emotions, and feelings, +man would be a mere mechanism. If all +were mind, or mere intellect, there could be neither +the creation nor the appreciation of beauty. Every +work of art would be soulless; music might amuse +the intellect by intricate chords and variations, like +a colorless kaleidoscope, but it could never touch +the heart nor elevate the soul.</p> +<p>Music and art, in the highest sense, through +consonant vibrations in us, open the doors and windows +of the soul, put us in touch and tune with +the Infinite, and <i>then</i>, the real harmony begins. +We live for the time in another world and return +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_36' name='page_36'></a>36</span> +with a sigh and recover the bated breath, as though +we had seen a vision beyond words. Music is an +agent, a talisman, a means to an end. It strikes +in us chords that lie at the foundation, the combinations +that unlock the doors, and the “Imprisoned +Splendor” wings in and out like the +doves of Hesperides.</p> +<p>Blunt the passions, the feelings and the emotions +by over-indulgence, by vice and dissipation, and the +royal guests desert the banquet hall, the doors of +the soul creak on their hinges; and in place of the +“music of the spheres” you have a devil’s dance, +and the orgies of despair!</p> +<p><i>Does it pay?</i> It all depends on <i>use</i>. Here lie +the resources, the real possessions of man. Here +lies the “Parable of the Talents.”</p> +<p>Look at the profusion, the prodigality, the +beneficence of Nature, Flowers and Fruit, Beauty +and Bloom and Fragrance everywhere. Where +there is no eye to see, no hand to pluck, Mother +Nature delights in profusion, seemingly because +she is made that way and cannot help it. And yet, +in this little Rose-garden of ours—the Human Soul +-we tramp down the flowers, plant loathsome +weeds and poisons that kill and degrade and besot +us, set up the tables of the money-changers, drive +out the doves of Hesperides, and turn the temple +into a shambles for wild beasts. “Nothing pays.” +“Let us curse God and—die!”</p> +<p>Is there not something after all in the <i>Measure +of Values</i>, and in the inexorable <i>Law of Use</i>? +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_37' name='page_37'></a>37</span></p> +<p>And who <i>constrains</i> us but <i>ourselves</i>?</p> +<p>Can God and Nature be so prodigal, noting +even the sparrows fall, and yet disregard the children +of men?</p> +<p>What our resources are we can never imagine +till we draw upon and begin to utilize them as +others have done throughout the ages.</p> +<p>The “average sinner,” seemingly to justify or +excuse his own failure, will not believe that any +have ever achieved. <i>But there they stand</i> all down +the ages! Ecclesiastics help the deception and +keep up the illusion by calling it <i>Miracle</i> or +“Special Providence,” and so prevent man from +entering his birthright, <i>to possess it</i>; and so we +sell our birthright for a mess of pottage. It is like +the dissipated, poverty-stricken spendthrift, who +shuts his eyes and refuses to believe that any, by +industry, economy, integrity and hard work have +secured a competency. And so he cries, “Come on, +boys! let’s have another drink, and then rob this +bond-holder, who has more than his share.”</p> +<p>The Measure of Values, and the Law of Use +<i>hold everywhere</i>, in every department of human +life; and the question, “Does it pay?” is practical +and scientific to the last degree, and no one can +answer but ourselves. As we answer will be the +results, and nothing but ourselves can change them.</p> +<p>We must realize that the human body, the organism +of man, with all its faculties, capacities and +powers, is but an <i>instrument</i> of the Individual Intelligence; +and that every experience in life, every +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_38' name='page_38'></a>38</span> +episode in our career, is like a day’s work; perfecting +the instrument for more and better work, if +used rightly; till we advance from height to height +of being; to larger and still larger and more glorious +fields of work and experience.</p> +<p>There would seem to be no limit to this evolution, +this upward and onward journey of the human soul. +The more good work done, the larger the capacity +and the broader the field opening before us. “From +height to height the spirit walks.”</p> +<p>The primary endowment of man is Life and conscious +Intelligence, with the power to use both.</p> +<p>This would seem to be the only gratuity, and +whether we regard it as a blessing or a curse, +depends on how we regard and use them.</p> +<p>The great majority in all time, through ignorance +or recklessness, seem to have misused them.</p> +<p>Hence sickness, disease, deformity, and degradation.</p> +<p>It is a wonderful thing—this Law of Normal +Use—from which health, harmony, comfort, joy, +growth, and development result, while misuse and +abuse degrade and destroy.</p> +<p>Divinity seems to have put within the grasp of +man’s Intelligence (if he <i>chooses and wills</i>) an almost +infinite range in power, variety and application, +of that subtle and basic Principle of affinity, balance +and equilibrium, that unites the atoms in a molecule, +or a chemical substance; that law of attraction +and repulsion—the Parallelogram of Force—that +holds the planets in their orbits. Divinity +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_39' name='page_39'></a>39</span> +seems to have taken man into council and offered +him, not only the Kingdom of Nature, but the +royal domain of his own soul, as a reward for +co-operation and loyal service, on condition that +he shall use wisely, intelligently, loyally, and kindly, +and not misuse or abuse.</p> +<p>Is it <i>worth while</i>? Will it <i>pay</i>?</p> +<p>Nor is this all, beneficent as it seems. The +whole journey of life on the physical plane here +below is so designed and planned as to make the +natural aging and decay of the physical body +supplement, unfold and develop the Spiritual Body, +through the right use of the faculties, capacities, and +powers of the Human Soul—the Individual Intelligence.</p> +<p>These are aspects, uses and powers of that +subtle <i>something</i> we call <i>Life</i>; that <i>Principle</i> that</p> +<table summary='poetry' style='margin:0 auto'><tr><td> +<p style='margin: 0 0 0 0.0em;'>“Runs through all time, extends through all extent,</p> +<p style='margin: 0 0 0 0.0em;'>Lives undivided, operates unspent.”</p> +</td></tr></table> + +<p>Normal use that insures growth and development, +range and power of action, is also, from +first to last, a <i>refining</i> process; while misuse and +abuse of these powers degrade and brutalize +<i>inevitably</i>.</p> +<p>It follows, therefore, as the bodily structure +and functions fail <i>under normal use</i> those of the +spiritual body open, develop and unfold. First +the seed, then the plant, then the flower and finally +the fruit “of a well-spent life.”</p> +<p>There is no “theory” or “guess-work” about +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_40' name='page_40'></a>40</span> +it. It becomes, step by step, a matter of conscious, +intelligent, individual experience. We +know it just as we know that fire will burn or that +we are here now, living, breathing, and acting.</p> +<p>If I thrust my finger into a flame, all the philosophers +and metaphysicians of the world could +not “argue” me out of the experience of the +fact of “burn” and “pain”; nor could theologians +succeed any better by quotations from Scripture! +Man is so constituted that the <i>facts</i> of <i>experience</i> +are stubborn things; and the more open to reason +the individual the more convincing the facts of +experience. Ignorance, superstition, and fear recede +in the presence of these Lights of man’s +intelligence, as do dogma and despotism, that +seek to enslave the human soul.</p> +<p>Theologians tell us that it is exceeding dangerous +to take all this responsibility upon ourselves, +thus appealing to ignorance, superstition, and fear.</p> +<p>I would answer: I refuse to take the responsibility +of <i>disregarding</i> or <i>disobeying</i> the Law which +the Divine and Universal Intelligence has placed +at the <i>very foundation</i> of man’s being; and I am +so <i>un</i>orthodox as to imagine and believe that God +knew what he was about, even better than the +theologians, or the “Infallible” Italian who misinterprets +God, Nature, and Man.</p> +<p>To-day, as I write, “God’s Vicegerent” is instigating +and promoting a “Holy War” in Priest-ridden +Spain, over the temporal power of the +Vatican, angered to the point of murder over the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_41' name='page_41'></a>41</span> +“posting of notices of places of public worship,” +other than Catholic.</p> +<p>They would rather turn the world into one +“City of the Dead,” than yield <i>one point</i> of +Freedom, Enlightenment, or Self-government to +man.</p> +<p>And men still call this <i>Religion</i>, and cast aside +the crucifix for the sword, the gun and the firebrand. +The <i>Inferno</i> has never yet been portrayed +or even outlined. Its name is Priestcraft and +Intolerance under the name of “Religion.”</p> +<p>And is this a “Study in Psychology”? Yea, +verily! Scientific Psychology is the only thing +that goes to the very bottom of it, and defines +and classifies every element, every fact in human +experience. Man cannot build a <i>home</i> on a piece +of ground where a slaughter-house disputes every +square yard of ground with the tombstones of +a graveyard. Clericalism is ever the one or the +other, and frequently both; denying to man the +right to build a <i>home</i> for himself anywhere, except +by its permission and according to its plans and +specifications, fixing the rent and the revenues for +all future time.</p> +<p>The Premier of Spain to-day is disputing this +prerogative of Rome, and the graveyard has been +thrown open. The pity, the marvel of it all is, +that the people generally do not seem to care, and +call any statement of facts “sensational” or +“panicky.”</p> +<p>I am told by some very good people that these +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_42' name='page_42'></a>42</span> +references to Popery seem irrelevant, and by +others, that they mar the symmetry of my essay.</p> +<p>They are reminded that we are dealing with +real and permanent values, and with what man +may do and ought to do for himself.</p> +<p>Lying squarely across this upward pathway of +man, to be pursued by free choice and personal +effort, is the dogma of the Vicarious Atonement +and the forgiveness of sin, of which +“His Holiness” claims to hold the <i>exclusive +agency</i>.</p> +<p>Through appeal to superstition and fear this +preposterous and sacrilegious claim to-day, as in all +the past, paralyzes the will and discourages the +personal efforts of millions of men and women. +Between that blind credulity which makes personal +effort unnecessary, and the miracle and dogma +which make it seem useless, the upward and onward +march of man is hindered or annulled, notwithstanding +the fact that many men and women lead +noble lives who are yet communicants of the +Church, both Catholic and Protestant. True, they +may, with little thinking, reason and reflection +from early education and “lip-service,” give intellectual +assent to these dogmas. But the lives +they lead and the personal effort put forth prove +them “better than their creeds.” They say with +the lips, “Christ has forgiven us,” or “Jesus will +save us,” and while they are <i>saying</i> these things +they <i>go to work saving themselves</i> by “leading +the life” through personal effort and experience. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_43' name='page_43'></a>43</span></p> +<p>In other words, they “save themselves” in spite +of their creeds and superstitions.</p> +<p>It is, therefore, with this exact “measure of +values,” that we are dealing; and the necessity +and value of these considerations are nowhere so +plain to-day, or so imperative, as just here, in +the face of these demoralizing dogmas and pretensions +of men, who contradict all natural law +and steal unblushingly the prerogatives of God, +as his “Vicegerent.” The marvel of it is that it +excites neither surprise nor protest, but is treated +with a smile of good-natured complacency outside +its circle of dupes.</p> +<p>He who treats it seriously, as a thing that, more +than any other, demoralizes, discourages and +paralyzes <i>millions</i>, is regarded as “sensational,” +“emotional,” or an “alarmist.”</p> +<p>In the face of all the facts, of which the daily +papers are full, and the record of the Vatican +crowded, I prefer that my own arraignment <i>shall +stand</i>. No one who knows half these facts can +dispute or gainsay them. We are making history +here to-day, as mankind has had to make it in all +the past, in the face of these “Lions in the path” +of civilization and progress.</p> +<p>If I must choose between being superficial, +ignorant and insincere, or being an “alarmist,” I +certainly and unhesitatingly choose to be an +<i>alarmist</i>! The strongest ally of Superstition to-day +is credulity, or indifference. The average man +says, “I do not <i>believe</i> there is any danger”; and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_44' name='page_44'></a>44</span> +if he “spoke his heart” would add, “if there is, +I do not <i>care</i>.”</p> +<p>I would only reply, “If you mean to be honest, +read, observe, and see.” You may wait too long. +Spain and Portugal are just awakening from the +priest-ridden lethargy of centuries, and are making +history anew. May a just God and all the angels +help and protect them.</p> +<p>The great daily newspapers of the country are +very conservative wherever Rome is concerned. +She is too powerful and her resources too well +organized and available to be disregarded.</p> +<p>It is therefore very significant that an editorial +in one of the largest and most influential of these +papers to-day gives a clear, concise, and impartial +epitome of the “<i>Row in Spain</i>,” clearly locating +its cause and animus in the Vatican, and showing +how unbearable this tyranny and exploitation had +become to a large portion of the people of Spain.</p> +<p>I refer to this here for a special purpose, which +involves and lies at the foundation of all other +issues and considerations. And that is the statement +in this editorial, that while the Church of +Rome has held practically <i>undisputed sway</i> in +Spain <i>for centuries</i>, with immense tracts of land, +houses and revenues, independent of civil authority, +with 20,000 priests, 5,000 communities with 60,000 +inmates in a population of only 20,000,000 of +people—<i>Seventy per cent. of the people are entirely +uneducated.</i> With every opportunity, plenty of +time and almost boundless resources, <i>Rome has +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_45' name='page_45'></a>45</span> +kept the people in ignorance, the easier to rob +them</i>; determined to <i>own</i> the land, the resources, +and the people—body and soul—as the <i>Autocrat</i> +of heaven and earth! A slavery in the name of +“Religion” found nowhere else on earth to-day.</p> +<p>So much for Spain and the Vatican to-day. For +the sequel, watch the daily papers.</p> +<p>And what has this to do with America? With +Psychology? With the Measure of Values?</p> +<p>Simply this: Is anyone so dense as to suppose +that the <i>Seventy per cent.</i> of dense ignorance in +Spain is an accident, or an oversight of the Vatican +and its servants? There lie the “policy” and the +secret of the power of Rome.</p> +<p>In America our foundations, our bulwarks, and +our hope and security of Freedom, Enlightenment, +and Progress lie in our Free Public Schools. These +Rome hates, condemns as “Godless,” and would +destroy if she could, as continually proved by the +letters and edicts of the Popes.</p> +<p>Seeing, however, that she cannot do this, and +fearful of losing her hold on her thirteen or fourteen +million of communicants in America, she +rushes the building of Parochial Schools, and +threatens her people with dire penalties who +patronize any other. Since she cannot <i>prevent</i> +education here, as in Spain, she must “educate” +<i>in her own way</i>, in order to retain her power over +the rising generation. The basis of this education +are ignorance, superstition, and fear; its crown, the +slavery of conscience and the “Dogma of Obedience.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_46' name='page_46'></a>46</span> +The brutality of Ignorance in Spain is +the sophistry of Priestcraft under the name of +“Religion,” in America.</p> +<p>The Genius of the Vatican is “Infallibility.” +It not only never errs, but it never changes. It +dons another mask, adopts another slogan, and is +now engaged in a great crusade to <i>educate</i>!</p> +<p>Constructive Psychology, the building of Individual +Character, means the <i>precise opposite</i> of +every principle, proposition, and practice of Popery. +I desire to make this plain and unmistakable.</p> +<p>Nothing on earth transcends in importance this +basic, universal, and <i>eternal antithesis</i>. It marks +and monuments, in all time, the <i>Parting of the +Ways</i> between Good and Evil; between Liberty +and Despotism; between Light and Darkness; between +Evolution and Devolution; between “Modernism” +and Paganism; between Civilization and +the Dark Ages; between the “Sermon on the +Mount”—the Beatitudes, and the <i>Spanish Roman +Vatican Inquisition</i>!</p> +<p>And this “antithesis,” this issue, is as imminent, +as active, as burning in America to-day, as it is in +Spain. It only faces different ways.</p> +<p>Spain is <i>compelled</i> to redeem her <i>past</i>; America +to guard and protect her <i>future</i>.</p> +<p>It is, from first to last, a Psychological Problem.</p> +<p>It is an analysis by fire, in the crucible of fate +and destiny, to determine <i>accurately</i> the measure +of values to the Individual, to Society, and to +Civilization. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_47' name='page_47'></a>47</span></p> +<p>No man, woman or child, no society, no civilization +ever has, or ever can, escape this issue.</p> +<p>It is the design on the trestle-board of Time.</p> +<p>It is the Modulus of both God and Nature +regarding Man.</p> +<p>It is the Theorem of Psychology.</p> +<p>It involves the Evolution and Destiny of the +Human Soul.</p> +<p>As civilization in many places showed an advancing +tendency from the darkness, despotism and +brutality of the Dark Ages, the “Robber Barons” +began to disappear. Their slogan was, “He may +seize who hath the power and he may hold who +can.” Serfdom also began slowly to recede. +Popery and Priestcraft assumed the rôle of these +Barons, changed the slogan from brute force (reserving +that for emergencies) to “Divine Prerogative,” +“Infallibility” (later), and pagan mummeries +in the name of “Religion.”</p> +<p><i>The result, to the common people, remained unchanged</i> +to the present day—poverty, ignorance, +and oppression.</p> +<p>Popery boasts that it never changes, never relents, +nor forgives an enemy, nor forgets an injury, +nor fails to “get even,” like any brute, whenever +she can. And this <i>Power</i> is not only the assumed +custodian of the religion of Jesus, but stands in the +place of it, as a substitute, and the world tolerates +it in the name of <i>Religion</i>!</p> +<p>As a problem in Psychology, we have been considering +the nature, use, and measure of values +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_48' name='page_48'></a>48</span> +of the resources, faculties, capacities, and powers +of man as an Individual Intelligence.</p> +<p>Facing opportunities, we have seen that there is +a Law of Use and Responsibility which cannot +be evaded.</p> +<p>Institutions and societies of men are, one and +all, from first to last, under the same law. It is +simply an aggregate, into which not a new principle +enters, nor one principle is changed. The +recognized and scientifically determined value of +man to himself, is the measure of his value to the +State.</p> +<p>The reverse proposition is equally true.</p> +<p>The value of any Institution to the individual, +or to the State, must be measured and determined +in the same way and under the same law.</p> +<p>It may thus be seen that Institutions, like +Popery, are deeply involved in this Law of Use and +Measure of Values. This is simply making use +of, and putting in practice, these basic principles.</p> +<p><i>Of what use to man</i>, measured by these scientific +standards of value, are Popery and Priestcraft?</p> +<p>I answer unhesitatingly and unqualifiedly <i>An +unmitigated Curse!</i></p> +<p>This answer is justified by all history, and is as +true and as exact to-day, up to the latest act and +message from Rome, as it was during the horrors +of the Inquisition; and there are evidence and specific +statements to show that Rome would re-establish +the “Holy Inquisition” to-day, <i>if she dared and +had the power</i>. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_49' name='page_49'></a>49</span></p> +<p>It is this power, exercised through fear, on the +basis of ignorance and superstition so instilled by +what Popery calls “Religious Education,” that +prevents the majority of fourteen millions in +America to-day, as everywhere and in all time, from +exercising their prerogative and doing their duty +as <i>Individuals</i>.</p> +<p>Is it not plain, therefore, how impossible it is to +separate the Individual and the Social status?</p> +<p>Psychology and Sociology are departments of +one Science, viz.: the Science of Man, Anthropology. +Individuals and Institutions are under one law, +one law of use, one measure of values.</p> +<p>He who ignores, evades, or belittles these plain +issues and scientific principles, can settle with the +law in his own time, though he cannot evade them +always.</p> +<p>Note.—During the last week of the year 1910, the daily papers +announced that before the beginning of 1911 <i>every Priest in the +Diocese</i> was required to take an oath to oppose and resist <i>Modernism</i> +and to <i>obey</i> in all things the dictum and dogmas of His Holiness. +As everyone knows that under the term <i>Modernism</i> is included all +progress, investigation, and civilization condemned by the Vatican, +everything that even questions the dogmas and despotism of Rome, +the meaning of this required <i>oath</i> is plain.</p> +<p>It is doubtless renewed by reason of (among others) a book,—“Letters +to His Holiness by a Modernist,” which, written seemingly by a Priest, +makes exceeding plain the meaning of Modernism and the relation +of the Vatican thereto. The book marks an epoch in the close of the +old year and the beginning of the new, and Rome has acted accordingly. +She can delay the stream of progress as she has always done, +but she cannot turn it backward. It will eventually overwhelm her.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<a name='V_SUMMARY_AND_CONCLUSIONS' id='V_SUMMARY_AND_CONCLUSIONS'></a> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_50' name='page_50'></a>50</span> +<h2>CHAPTER V</h2> +<h3>SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS</h3> +</div> + +<p>The problem of the continued conscious life +of man after the death of the physical body, +concerns the <i>where</i> and the <i>how</i>, and does not, and +need not, concern us at all now. It is, literally, an +“after consideration.”</p> +<p>Who and what man is, here and now, is the +real problem. Only when, or in the degree in +which, we master this problem, can we really know +anything definitely of the other.</p> +<p>The complete separation of these two problems, +and the exact definition and formulation of each, +is the first step on the road to knowledge of the +Science of the Soul.</p> +<p>For the time being, in the study of Psychology, +“other worldliness” should be absolutely abandoned.</p> +<p>Almost everyone finds it difficult to do this. +Many find it impossible.</p> +<p>The fear and uncertainty with which almost +everyone faces the inevitable, the loss of friends, +the broken lute, the empty chair, the lonely life—all +these make us cry out in anguish—<i>where</i> +and <i>how</i> and <i>when</i>, and overlook the “<i>what are +we</i>?” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_51' name='page_51'></a>51</span></p> +<p>So-called Religion in all time has almost hopelessly +mixed and confused these problems.</p> +<p>The various concepts and doctrines of rewards +and punishments hereafter, have put ulterior +motives in the place of actual values, weakened +the will and hindered man from doing his best.</p> +<p>A still further confusion follows, in the measure +of assets, that leads to time-serving and false values.</p> +<p>Satisfy the average individual that “death ends +all” and he will cry, “Let us eat, drink, and be +merry, for to-morrow we die,” notwithstanding the +fact that he sees others who have “gone the pace,” +realized only “dust and ashes,” declared it “all a +mistake,” and that if they had the chance they +would “do it all the other way.”</p> +<p>Remember, we are dealing with <i>actual values</i> +here and now, divested of both fear and anticipation +of the hereafter.</p> +<p>On the other hand, who ever saw an individual +die, who had led a clean, upright, kindly life, indulge +in regret or remorse, or declare life a disappointment +or a failure?</p> +<p>The first is anchored to the physical plane by +insatiate appetite and passion, or desire to reform, +which might soon be forgotten.</p> +<p>The other has found sweetness and joy in life, +in conscious growth, in doing good; and his soul +is illumined and transfigured as the body fails and +he approaches another plane, and this often independent +of any formulated religious belief.</p> +<p>It all depends on what the man is <i>within</i> himself, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_52' name='page_52'></a>52</span> +his intrinsic character, his <i>real self</i>; and no +matter where he goes, that character, that self, +goes with him. It <i>is</i> Himself.</p> +<p>The “change in a moment, in the twinkling of +an eye,” is not in the <i>man</i> and cannot be. It is in +the plane, or sphere, or world he inhabits, or to +which he goes. It is a change of garments, of +habitat, of houses in which we live—if we live +at all.</p> +<p>This much we <i>know</i>, and should not forget or +confuse it. We know it, as we know that “twice +two are four”; that fire will burn, or that bodies, +unsupported, fall to the ground. We know it +from the fact of our own self-conscious identity. +Radically or suddenly to change that essentially is +to annihilate <i>us</i>.</p> +<p>The preacher says, “Study the Bible.” He +might say, “Study yourself!” The preacher says, +“Look to Jesus.” He might say, “Look within!” +The preacher says, “Repent and pray.” I would +say, “After an inventory of your inner possessions, +clean up the house and <i>go to work</i> to improve it in +every way.”</p> +<p>When “cleaning day” is well under way, if the +“sure-enough” preacher drops in, and you show +him the house and what you are trying your best +to do, he will just start “Old Hundred,” and will +be too happy for anything else.</p> +<p>I am not criticising the preacher, nor opposing +religion, but getting ready for it, laying the foundation +of Morals and the building of character. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_53' name='page_53'></a>53</span> +“Religion” cannot do this. <i>You</i> and <i>I</i> have to do +it, or it is never done.</p> +<p>Without this work of <i>ours</i>, religion is little +more, or else, than passing emotion or lasting +superstition, “lip service,” cant, hypocrisy, and then +cold heartless dogmatism, a measure and jingling +of words that never touch the heart, but leave the +individual ready to throw stones and light brands +of torture: a case-hardening of the affections +and the aspirations, that wraps the soul like the +bandages of the mummied Pharaohs, a mere petrifaction.</p> +<p>We know, or may know, as much actually and +scientifically of the growth of the soul as of the +growth of the body. The average individual knows +more of the soul than of the body, but his knowledge +is in confusion. It is a matter of hourly, +daily, life-long, and changing <i>experience</i>. He +knows little of physiology, except feelings, sensations, +desires, and results. How and why the +mechanism of the body works he knows not.</p> +<p>Body and soul are organically identified, intimately +associated and interwoven, and act and +react on each other. They are functionally synchronous +in all movements. The analogies between +them are numberless and easily traced.</p> +<p>The physician and physiologist does not stop +to inquire, “What <i>is</i> Life” and refuse to move till +someone gives a satisfactory answer; yet he is +dealing with Life in its numberless manifestations +in the human, organism continually. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_54' name='page_54'></a>54</span></p> +<p>But this same physician is likely to debate and +deny the existence of the Soul, demanding that you +define and demonstrate it.</p> +<p>The term “Individual Intelligence” is as definite, +specific, and demonstrable in Psychology as +the term “Life” in Physiology.</p> +<p>We are alive and we possess a certain degree or +measure of intelligence. These are facts in our +conscious experience.</p> +<p>We may shape or mold our lives. We may +do this according to our ideals, or we may drift with +the tides of circumstance, or of passion and caprice, +and this is what most persons do.</p> +<p>So also with that intelligence which is the guiding +light in our lives. It may illumine our pathway, +or it may flash and fitfully glare, with the shadows, +rendering our pathway obscure and uncertain, +illusory and deceitful, or dangerous and fearful.</p> +<p>The soul is in the body; and this light of intelligence +is in the soul, its center, its very essence.</p> +<p>All else in us, and round about us, is diversity and +multiplicity. This light of intelligence in us is <i>One</i> +and unchanging.</p> +<p>Our experience in life, however varied and diversified, +is co-ordinated and unified by this Intelligence +in us. It is that which puts all our experiences together +and views them through a single lens. It +stands by itself alone, and all else pays tribute +to it.</p> +<p>It is the pronoun “I” and it stands for, speaks +and acts for, all else in us. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_55' name='page_55'></a>55</span></p> +<p>It is not alone the only <i>unity</i> in us, but it is that +which unifies all the rest, uses the “possessive case,” +and may subordinate all else in us to its Will.</p> +<p>Does it, then, do violence to common sense and +hourly experience, or is it any stretch of the imagination +to speak of this unity as an entity, and call it +the human soul?</p> +<p>If we live after the change called death, in a +spiritual world, in place of the physical we now inhabit, +and with a spiritual or refined body to correspond +with that plane of refined or etherialized substance, +the Individual Intelligence must function in +that body and on that plane as it does now in the +physical body on the physical plane.</p> +<p>Either something very like this takes place, or +we cease to exist as a self-conscious individual +intelligence. There must remain and continue +man’s self-conscious identity.</p> +<p>Furthermore, if this be true, the <i>real nature</i> of +this individual intelligence we call the <i>Self</i>, in the +last analysis, is likely to be as much a mystery as +ever. We may know <i>who we are</i> without knowing +<i>what it is</i>.</p> +<p>Now the composite nature of man, as we know +it, not only justifies all these analogies, but seems +to show that the modulus, the germ at least, of +the spiritual body exists now within the physical; +that it does not disintegrate when the physical body +dies, but separates and coheres more closely than +ever; and is still inhabited or possessed by the +individual intelligence. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_56' name='page_56'></a>56</span></p> +<p>Moreover, it has often been seen by clairvoyants +at the time of death, thus verifying the Biblical +declaration, “there is a natural (physical) body, +and there is a spiritual body.”</p> +<p>The composite structures of man’s organism +above referred to are well known. They are +called “systems.” The bony or Osseous system, +the muscular system, the circulatory system, the +lymphatic system, and the two nervous systems, +serve as illustrations of the composite nature of +man.</p> +<p>All of these “systems” more or less inter-penetrate +and diffuse each other.</p> +<p>There is also a chemico-vital, kinetic, or magnetic +body, diffused through and inter-penetrating all +the rest. This gives the contrast between the living +organism (with the flush of health upon the cheek +and the light of intelligence in the eyes), and a +corpse.</p> +<p>Death is often instantaneous, while decomposition +often waits for days.</p> +<p>There is a still further analogy regarding a +single function, like a sensory or motor impulse, +passing to or from the central brain, the organ +of consciousness. The journey is one of relays +and orderly sequences.</p> +<p>This is proven in a great variety of forms of +paresis. I cannot, as an individual intelligence, +<i>directly</i> move my hand any more than I can move a +mountain. I conceive the object or act and set the +will in motion. The impulse traverses the nerves, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_57' name='page_57'></a>57</span> +is transferred to the muscle, and then, when the +circuit is complete, <i>I</i> move my hand.</p> +<p>The gap between my conscious intelligent wish +and will, and my physical hand, is very great. +One is metaphysical, the other physical. There is, +therefore, a point of correlation where the one is +converted into the other.</p> +<p>The knowledge of these facts, and of this orderly +sequence and correlation, constitutes the Science of +pathology and enables us to locate the lesion or +disease. I cannot move my hand, and the pathologist +locates the “short-circuit” in brain, or +nerve, or “terminal plate,” or muscle, as the case +may be.</p> +<p>Now it is this <i>system</i> of <i>composite systems</i> that +deserves special attention. We know that it exists +as a series of relays and refining processes. In +disease it is interrupted, or out of joint, or broken +down.</p> +<p>Health means harmony, concord, rhythm between +every part, and the power of the one individual +intelligence to use it all, to act or refrain from +action, and to hold and maintain through all, repose, +equilibrium, and self-mastery.</p> +<p>The physical body we know to be a thing of +sense and time. We know its beginning, its gestation, +its entrance and exit on this material plane. +Its secrets are all involved in the subtle relations +it bears to the soul that inhabits, unifies, and utilizes +it.</p> +<p>The Individual Intelligence, Ego, Soul, or +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_58' name='page_58'></a>58</span> +Entity, is as patent to us in our <i>awareness of self</i> +as is the body it inhabits. It is our <i>very self</i>. +Our knowledge of it is a <i>direct personal experience</i>, +so direct, immediate, and constant that we overlook +its significance.</p> +<p>I can see no reason to imagine that a human +being, passing from the earthly plane and consciously +living on the spiritual plane and recognizing +itself as the same individual, would be any +wiser as to the exact nature and origin of the +Individual Intelligence than he is now; though his +field of vision and range of conscious experience +had so immeasurably increased and expanded.</p> +<p>If he had solved this problem of <i>ultimates</i>, he +would be at the end of his thread of life and would +compass the Infinite. He would be no longer +Man, but God.</p> +<p>So, from all these considerations, and from all +directions, we come back to human evolution, the +upward and onward journey of the human soul.</p> +<p>As man’s health, usefulness, and happiness here +depend on the perfection and utility of the physical +body he inhabits, and its maintenance in health +and harmony, have we the least reason to imagine +that the same individual, dwelling on the spiritual +plane, will not be under the same of analogous +laws and relations there, since we have assumed +the persistence and conscious identity of the soul +there as here?</p> +<p>I hold, therefore, that man possesses, now and +here, the structure of a <i>Spiritual</i> Body; and that the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_59' name='page_59'></a>59</span> +“growth of the soul” and our status and relation +to the soul, and our status and relation to the life +after death on the spiritual plane, depend <i>very +largely</i> on the character and integrity of this spiritual +body, the “house we have builded.”</p> +<p>The whole of life, therefore, here, is what gestation +of the infant body is before birth. When the +child is born it is a separate personality, a distinct +individuality.</p> +<p>There has been woven into its organism a distinct +and synchronous correspondence with that of the +mother.</p> +<p>During gestation it has passed through every +plane of organic life, from <i>amœba</i>, or mollusk, to +man.</p> +<p>It is thus in touch with every phase and quality +of life. It epitomizes them all, transcends them all, +and <i>may co-ordinate</i> them all.</p> +<p>On the other hand, the individual intelligence of +the child, a distinct and separate <i>unity</i>, is in vital, +spiritual, and synchronous relation to that of the +mother that enfolds it.</p> +<p>It is either building or rejuvenating a new +spiritual body, as the “essential form” of the +physical, organic, chemical, and kinetic or magnetic +body.</p> +<p>What we call “Life,” or “Vitality,” runs like +a “dominant chord” in the harmonic scale of the +whole. Each part, organ, and function is related to +every other and to the whole by definite vibrations +and the laws of harmony. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_60' name='page_60'></a>60</span></p> +<p>If, from the beginning, it is an “unwelcome +child,” the higher and subtler elements of the +mother’s nature, and all her emotions are turned +against it, are discordant and not constructive and +harmonic.</p> +<p>Discord is thus ingrained at the foundations and +woven into the “subtle body” of the child.</p> +<p>Nature is so persistent in its determination to +preserve and perpetuate the human race, that the +building of the organic body of the child goes on; +and the Individual Intelligence is so potent that it +often triumphs over these prenatal obstructions, but +by no means always. If “there <i>is</i> a spiritual body” +in the mother organism during the present life, +as I am <i>entirely satisfied</i> there is; and if the child +is laying the foundation and weaving the pattern +and fabric of a spiritual body of its own for the +present life and that immediately beyond; then +these psychological influences and conditions are +of <i>transcendent importance</i> and <i>may</i> be largely +determined by our intelligent choice.</p> +<p>A higher race of beings will never inhabit this +earth till these fundamental laws are recognized +and regarded.</p> +<p>We may illustrate and symbolize this spiritual +habitation we are building by the over-tones and +the harmonics in music.</p> +<p>Its nature and function and the whole process of +building and development are a refining and purifying +process.</p> +<p>It may be conceived in the vito-magnetic field +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_61' name='page_61'></a>61</span> +of man, as that which is in nearest relation and +closest touch with the soul, the Individual Intelligence, +and through, and by which the soul acts.</p> +<p>Being in synchronous relation with the physical +organs and functions, like a chord in music, a high +with a lower tone (but still harmonic), the <i>direct</i> +vehicle and agent of the soul would be this spiritual +body; and when the physical body or vehicle dies, +or is cast off, the spiritual body <i>with the soul</i> +escapes.</p> +<p>Empirical evidence along just these lines is so +abundant in the annals of every people, and in all +ages, that it is unnecessary to quote it here. Whole +volumes are filled with it, outside the annals of +Spiritualism and the Psychical Society, and antedating +them by centuries and millenniums.</p> +<p>The most important consideration is that the +building of character by voluntary choice and personal +effort, the “growth of the soul,” and the +evolution of this spiritual body are <i>inseparable</i>. +This trinity which is man, is <i>potentially</i> (and may +be <i>actually</i>) a <i>unity</i>.</p> +<p>The evolutionary and devolutionary lines run in +precisely opposite directions, are easily differentiated +and defined, are usually recognized by observation +and by the individual himself. It is very +difficult and takes a long time to deceive ourselves +with regard to the upward or downward trend of +our own life, till we have blunted by misuse and +degraded all the finer faculties, capacities, and +powers of our being. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_62' name='page_62'></a>62</span></p> +<p>A quickened conscience, a moral uplift, a desire +to do right, a noble ideal, mark the beginning; but +self-study, a rigid and persistent self-analysis, taking +account of stock of all our resources and capacities, +all our real possessions and opportunities, is +the scientific process by which man may become +master of his own life and evolve to higher and +still higher planes of being, even here in the present +life.</p> +<p>The question of rewards and punishments hereafter, +and what we may expect, or hope, or fear, +that we will <i>get</i>, will sink into utter nothingness +before the great and ever-growing question of what +we <i>are</i>, and what we are determined to <i>become</i>.</p> +<p>Incidentally with this dominating impulse and determination +will be the growth and development of +the spiritual body, and the intuition and guiding +light of the Individual Intelligence. We shall become +consciously <i>aware</i> of this as a constant personal +experience demanding no further proof. It +is <i>knowledge</i> of the soul <i>direct</i>.</p> +<p>Every faculty, capacity, and power of the soul +will be our willing servant.</p> +<p>This is Constructive Psychology, and is a normal +evolution under both Natural and Divine Law: +“Living the Life that we may know the doctrine.”</p> +<p>It is practical, scientific Psychology worked out +and demonstrated in the Laboratory of Life. Religions +and Revelations will no longer be mysteries, +but open books; for we shall be in touch with their +source and at-one with their inspiration. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_63' name='page_63'></a>63</span></p> +<p>This is what is meant by “The School of Natural +Science.”</p> +<p>Nor is it an idle speculation, nor merely a thing +“devoutly to be wished.”</p> +<p>If the whole nature of man is built and operated +under law; if he is, as he seems to be, an aggregate +of all substances, an epitome of all principles and +processes; then it follows that to understand these +laws, processes and correspondences, is to become +<i>master</i> of them and of life.</p> +<p>Wonderful as have been the discoveries in nature’s +finer forces and in applied science, all that science +has discovered or invented, or art has devised, is +like children’s toys, when compared with the subtle +and marvelous mechanism of man’s organism.</p> +<p>The rhythmic beating of the heart, synchronous +with respiration and the circulation of the blood, +are sufficient illustrations. But even this concerns +the vehicle, not the driver; the instrument, not the +player upon this “harp of a thousand strings.”</p> +<p>When it comes to the mental and psychical realm, +cognition is direct and immediate. We become +“aware” of relations and processes, of sequences +and powers, by intuition, as we are <i>aware</i> of the +Self.</p> +<p>This is <i>apperception</i> in its highest sense. Not +through the mind, which is a <i>process</i> and a function, +but through that which uses, controls and dominates +the mind, viz.: the Individual Intelligence, the Soul.</p> +<p>In the mind, in daily life, <i>we</i> weigh and measure, +reason, choose, compare, and adjust. In intuition +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_64' name='page_64'></a>64</span> +or apperception it is borne in, or comes like a +flash of light, and seems as if “we always knew +it.”</p> +<p>We may somewhat haltingly describe the process, +but we can never impart the knowledge to another, +because it is an <i>individual experience</i>. As easily +could another feel, sense, and <i>realize</i> the pain of +thrusting our finger into the fire, as to receive +vicariously, from us, a <i>real</i> physical experience.</p> +<p>Here lies the difficulty, often the impossibility, +of the teacher or the Master, in imparting his +knowledge.</p> +<p>I am <i>entirety satisfied</i> that by personal effort +and experience along these lines of normal higher +evolution, there comes a time and a degree of unfoldment +and power when, from knowledge and +self-mastery, the Master—the Individual Intelligence—having +evolved and learned to <i>control</i> the +spiritual body, can consciously and deliberately pass +out of the physical body and return to it at will. +He can do this as consciously and completely as +it occurs at death; can go where he pleases, within +the range of his unfoldment or spiritual experience, +and retain conscious memory of it all after his return +to the physical body.</p> +<p>And suppose this all to be true, how can he +demonstrate the fact, or transmit the experience to +another; and particularly if that other declared to +begin with that, “the whole process is absurd and +impossible”?</p> +<p>Nor is mere credulity here a highway to knowledge. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_65' name='page_65'></a>65</span> +It is merely the opposite pole of incredulity, +and both are begotten by ignorance.</p> +<p>Analogy and the basic principles and laws of +scientific psychology are very different matters +indeed. They point in this direction like a theorem +in mathematics. The principles and laws being +grasped and apprehended, the solution becomes +only a question of <i>work</i>; and at every step the law +is verified, “Backward and forward it still spells +the same.”</p> +<p>What is this but the <i>methods</i> of Natural Science +applied to Psychical Science upon the basis of the +Unity of Natural Phenomena and Universal Law?</p> +<p>There is nothing to prevent any of us from starting +on this upward journey of the soul, if we +choose; and never till we do, shall we really begin +to <i>know</i>, to realize our birthright, and progress toward +the realm of eternal day.</p> +<p>The science of ethics, the basis of morals, is the +starting point, the first step; and <i>leading the life</i>, +the way. And there is no climbing up some other +way. So said the Master of Galilee, and so say +the real Masters in all times.</p> +<p>When Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and +the Life,” he doubtless meant that these were all +<i>in him</i>, and he at-one with them.</p> +<p>When Jesus said, “I and the Father are <i>one</i>. +No one cometh to the Father but by me,” he doubtless +referred to this at-one-ment as the only way +by which the natural man—Adam—could become +the Spiritual man—<i>Christos</i>. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_66' name='page_66'></a>66</span></p> +<p>When he said, “The kingdom of heaven is within +you,” he undoubtedly meant that “heaven” is a +condition, a harmonic state, and not a place.</p> +<p>We undoubtedly create our own “hell” and our +own “heaven,” and people them with “devils” or +with “angels.”</p> +<p>True Science and true Religion clasp hands, and +are like the two hands of the one body of Truth. +They check each other, supplement each other, +harmonize each other.</p> +<p>Superstition and blind dogma are the enemies +of true Science; Religion—never.</p> +<p>Science and Religion are the handmaids of +Truth; because both are the children of Divinity, +the agents of Light and of Eternal Progress for +Man.</p> +<p>This building of character, this growth of the +soul, this Harmonic of Evolution, is a matter of +<i>work</i>; of personal endeavor, of valid, real, personal +experience.</p> +<p>Its results are our <i>real</i> possessions, our “treasure +in heaven” that nothing can ever destroy. Life +and Death may ebb and flow, and come and go; +but <i>we</i> may, if we will, go on forever; or we may +turn the other way and go down to death. <i>Some +day</i> every human soul will elect, choose, and +decide and then start on the journey, North or +South.</p> +<p>This is the meaning of Soul, of Individual Intelligence, +of Rational Volition, of Personal Responsibility. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_67' name='page_67'></a>67</span></p> +<p>It is the Science of Nature aligned with Divinity, +and compassing Humanity.</p> +<p>The purpose of these outlines, suggestions, +analogies, and inferences, is to show that this life +is a period of gestation, in close analogy and comparable +with that of the child <i>in utero</i>; that with the +web and woof of character, organ and function, +impulse and use, opportunity and destiny, we are +building a spiritual body, the <i>immediate vehicle</i> of +the soul, as literally as is the physical body on the +outer material plane; that the laws of Spiritual +health and vitality are as concrete, apprehensible, +and demonstrable as those of physiology.</p> +<p>Normal use under law develops health, harmony, +and strength, in the one case as in the other, +demonstrably; and these laws, accurately formulated +and demonstrated, constitute the School of +Natural Science, accessible to all prepared to receive +and wisely use them; advancement depending on +progress, thoroughness, and loyalty, in all preceding +degrees.</p> +<p>Is it worth while?</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<a name='VI_THE_CROSS_IN_RELIGION_AND_THE_CRUX_IN_SCIENCE_WITH_THE_GREAT_WORK_IN_AMERICA' id='VI_THE_CROSS_IN_RELIGION_AND_THE_CRUX_IN_SCIENCE_WITH_THE_GREAT_WORK_IN_AMERICA'></a> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_68' name='page_68'></a>68</span> +<h2>CHAPTER VI</h2> +<h3>THE CROSS IN RELIGION AND THE CRUX IN SCIENCE WITH THE GREAT WORK IN AMERICA</h3> +</div> + +<p>With the progress of civilization and the general +growth and diffusion of intelligence +everywhere, there is one problem upon which all else +focalizes, though the fact seems to be seldom clearly +apprehended or realized.</p> +<p>Not only do science and religion face each other +at one point, but the life of each is at that one +point involved. It is not only the often recognized +“conflict between Religion and Science,” which was +long ago worn threadbare. It is the fact that both +Science and Religion are out of joint with themselves.</p> +<p>The battle-ground may, in a broad way, be named +Psychology. All problems and all discussions of +the real issues arise from, involve, or center around, +the nature, laws that govern, and destiny of the +Human Soul.</p> +<p>From the very nature of these problems, their +intricacy and diversity, they remained the latest in +the categories of Science to be seriously investigated. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_69' name='page_69'></a>69</span></p> +<p>For the same reasons they have been the subject +of dogma and revelation in religion, with doors +slammed in the face of all investigation as not only +useless, but wicked, and often made dangerous.</p> +<p>Between the agnosticism of Science, and the +dogmatism of Religion, knowledge has been crucified, +and there it hangs to-day, a crux to the one, +and the Cross to the other: The same problem, +only facing different ways.</p> +<p>And yet the Reconciliation is not far to seek. +It is difficult for the average churchman, or theologian, +to apprehend and remember, that a <i>fact</i>, in +nature or in life, is one thing; and that the <i>interpretation</i>, +or <i>explanation</i> put upon that fact, by any +man, or body of men, is another thing entirely. +Here is where Belief, Dogma, and Heresy come in. +As soon as one denies the interpretation, he is +accused of denying the fact, no matter how illogical +or absurd the interpretation may be, on the one +hand, or how openly he admits the fact as the basis +of his own conclusions, on the other.</p> +<p>Few individuals will be found nowadays who +deny the <i>fact</i> of the birth, life, mission, and death +of Jesus of Nazareth. But the interpretations read +into the fact differ so widely as to result in almost +numberless sects, and an endless war of words. +All this theological wrangling may be focalized at +one point, almost on a single word. Did Jesus of +Nazareth differ in kind or in <i>Degree</i>, from the rest +of Humanity?</p> +<p>If he had “a like nature with ours,” as he and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_70' name='page_70'></a>70</span> +his disciples took the utmost pains to declare, and +to demonstrate, then he differed in <i>degree</i> of unfoldment, +and was indeed, our Elder Brother; He +differed as the holy differs from the unholy; as +the pure differs from the impure; as the kind and +charitable differ from the unkind and the uncharitable. +It is just at this point that all the +theological juggling comes in, in the effort to reconcile +contradictions and irreconcilable paradoxes, +under the designation—Mystery, Miracle, and +Faith. Few theologians would admit that it is +desirable, even if possible, that the mystery and +miracle should disappear, and that wisdom and +understanding should take their place. In other +words, that Jesus should be proved an evolution +under both natural and divine law, as the result of +“Living the Life.”</p> +<p>Bear in mind that we are dealing with <i>Interpretations</i> +only, and with the opinions of men; and +that there is nothing “sacred” or “holy” about +these opinions, no matter how they may be hedged +about by dogma, or ecclesiastic authority. The +Immaculate Conception; the Virgin Birth; the +Resurrection of the physical body, and the Vicarious +Atonement, are each and all Dogmas; the opinions +of men, in <i>interpreting</i> the mystery, and miracle, +they have assigned to the nature of Jesus, in what +they call the “plan,” or the “Scheme of Salvation.”</p> +<p>If the nature of Jesus were radically and essentially +different from ours; if he differed from us in +<i>kind</i>, instead of in <i>degree</i>; if he were “very God,” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_71' name='page_71'></a>71</span> +instead of a perfected man, as the result of “Living +the Life”; then he can have little in common with +us; and, so far as “like natures,” “common temptations,” +and human sympathies, and destinies, are +concerned, he might as well have been born on the +planet Mars.</p> +<p>But suppose that psychic and spiritual science +could so define the faculties, capacities, and powers +of man, and the nature and laws of the human +soul, as to demonstrate the fact that Jesus became +<i>Christos</i> through “living the life,” and “doing the +will of the Father,” in strict conformity to both +Natural and Divine Law, thus revealing the fact +that these <i>potencies</i> are <i>latent</i> in every human +soul: that it does not depend so much upon what +we <i>believe</i>, as upon what we <i>do</i>; not so much upon +what we <i>profess</i>, as upon what we <i>are</i>; not so much +upon what Jesus did for us, as upon what we do +for ourselves and for others, in strict analogy with +the life and the teachings of Jesus. Would not +Jesus become, indeed and in truth, a <i>Living Example</i>, +in place of a “Blood Offering”?</p> +<p>Theology ignores and sophisticates <i>Personal +Responsibility</i>, which everything else, and every +experience in life, justifies and enforces as the basis +of Morals.</p> +<p>On the other hand, so-called Psychic Science +misapprehends, belittles, and sophisticates the +Human Will, the prime Motor Power of Man. It +then confuses Rational Volition and Domination by +juggling with the words <i>Suggestion</i> and <i>Hypnosis</i>. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_72' name='page_72'></a>72</span></p> +<p>This reveals the fact that they have no rational +concept whatever of the psychical nature of man, +not even a “working hypothesis” of the Human +Soul. Theologians affirm, “Science” denies, and +so they still face each other in this Twentieth Century +with “A war of words,” though, to a considerable +extent, they have ceased making faces and +calling each other names, because there is a deeper +struggle going on.</p> +<p>The Theological Hierarchy, worldly-wise in every +generation, has dropped the cry of <i>Heresy</i> and +gone to the very foundations of our civilization. +They are sapping and mining the foundations of +civil Liberty, the “self-evident truths,” and the +“Inalienable Rights,” upon which this government +was founded.</p> +<p>Here is a thoroughly-organized, relentless determination, +openly declared, and well under way +to destroy our “Free Public Schools,” and substitute +that “Organized Ignorance,” the Parochial +Schools, as the first step in reuniting Church and +State, through dogmatic authority instilled into the +youths of this country. Not one citizen in a thousand +seems to realize what is here being attempted, +how thoroughly organized it is, or what immense +progress in this direction has already been made; +or, if they know, they do not seem to care.</p> +<p>It may thus be seen what practical and vital +issues we are facing and how much is involved in +the “Cross of Religion,” and the “Crux of Science.”</p> +<p>Intelligence, Education, the Light of Science, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_73' name='page_73'></a>73</span> +and the Illumination of true Religion, are pitted +in a conflict with Ignorance, Superstition, and Fear; +dogmatism, degeneration, and devolution.</p> +<p>Science and Religion represent different departments +in human interests and the life of man. So +far as they are each true, they must eventually, +and inevitably clasp hands, instead of working at +cross-purposes.</p> +<p>Actual knowledge of the human soul, as a Science +of psychology, on the one hand; and the duty of +man to himself, to his fellows, and to God, and +the destiny of the human soul as essential religion, +on the other; must constitute the basis of union, +and the point of agreement.</p> +<p>The accredited psychology of to-day has hitherto +failed to demonstrate any actual knowledge of the +human soul, or even to postulate its existence, as a +fact in nature.</p> +<p>The theologies and religions of to-day appeal +largely to superstition and fear, and support their +dogmas by “revelations,” the diverse interpretations +of which have segregated religions into a +large number of sects with no bond of union or +basis of agreement.</p> +<p>Competition here, in securing proselytes, differs +little, except in name, from that everywhere in +evidence between commercial organizations. It is +hardly “the survival of the fittest,” but rather, as +everywhere, and in all ages, the triumph of the +most powerful, aggressive, and unscrupulous. The +Roman Hierarchy is still in the lead, with its Pope +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_74' name='page_74'></a>74</span> +“infallible,” and anathematizing all progress and +enlightenment, under the designation of “Modernism,” +and all its energy exerted to perpetuate +the “Dark Ages.”</p> +<p>It is thus that priestcraft masquerades in the +name of religion to enslave the human soul. Still +outside this Babel of religion and science, lie numberless +cults and organizations professing both liberty +and enlightenment along the lines of man’s +spiritual nature, not one of which puts forth any +<i>clear and definite theorem</i> of the human soul. With +mere assertions, instead of demonstrated facts, and +appealing often to the desire for wealth, health, and +comfort in their followers, they often declare that +one has only to “<i>demand</i>” these things, in order to +have them. Justice and the law of compensation +are often entirely ignored, and the methods employed +are <i>un</i>moral, to say the least, almost without +exception, unscientific, and wholly empirical.</p> +<p>Occasionally we find “Leaders,” or “Official +Heads,” whose colossal ignorance of either moral +or spiritual Law, is only equaled by their monumental +egotism, and this does not prevent them +from gaining proselytes, and amassing fortunes in +their own name.</p> +<p>It would be difficult to see how many of these +cults differ, either in principle or practice, or in the +results wrought out in their disciples, from the +Priestcraft already referred to.</p> +<p>They advertise an open thoroughfare, and seem +to promise something for nothing, but from the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_75' name='page_75'></a>75</span> +vicarious atonement, up or down the scale, the +votaries pay in “mint, anise, and cummin,” while +ignorantly blind to the weightier matters of the law.</p> +<p>To one who for half a century has studied these +personal and social problems, and witnessed the +rise and fall of many of these cults, from the Fox +Sisters and Spiritualism, to Braid and Hypnotism, +while Priestcraft and Popery, like Tennyson’s brook, +“go on forever,” it all seems pitiful that mankind +must pay so dearly for freedom, enlightenment, and +knowledge.</p> +<p>And yet, when the real teacher comes, the rabble +so long exploited cry, “Away with him,” “Crucify +him.” When the rabble at last repent, Priestcraft +shifts its tactics and deifies the sacrifice, which it +instigated, and so perpetuates the eternal tragedy.</p> +<p>Those familiar with the “Seeking after God,” +and for real knowledge of the essential nature of +man, in all ages, are aware that there have always +been, in every age, those who have achieved it. +It has been known, or rather concealed, under many +names. Its possessors and teachers have been reviled, +persecuted, crucified, and thus their work has +been hindered and often defeated.</p> +<p>The ignorant and superstitious feared it. The +vicious, ambitious, and time-serving hated it, because +it prevented the few from dominating and exploiting +the many; liberating, as it does, the earnest +seeker after truth and enlightenment from the +bondage of ignorance, dogma, superstition, and +fear, in every form. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_76' name='page_76'></a>76</span></p> +<p>Hence Institutional Religions, Schools of Philosophy, +Coteries, Syndicates, and many other organizations +of men, constituted to dominate and +rule the masses, have been the sworn foes of individual +liberty and enlightenment, and of the +“Illuminati,” or real teachers in every age, and a +perpetual menace to their work.</p> +<p>Real knowledge of the nature and destiny of +man, has first to be discovered, then recovered, and +possessed. To become available, it must be simplified, +formulated, and finally promulgated in some +form, so as to reach those ready and capable of +receiving it.</p> +<p>It must be sought earnestly and deservedly. The +candidate must demonstrate that he is duly and +truly prepared, worthy, and well qualified. Every +step in advance is determined by his understanding +and use of what he has hitherto received.</p> +<p>The real possession of this sublime wisdom is an +evolution from within and not something communicated +from without.</p> +<p>It is, literally, the building of character and +the growth of the soul, as the highway of knowledge.</p> +<p>To discover, possess, exemplify, and promulgate +this knowledge, this higher evolution of the Individual +Intelligence, in the face of all obstacles and +difficulties, has been known and designated for +ages as the <i>Magnum Opus</i>, the “Great Work.” It +is, indeed, the greatest work either known, permitted +or possible to man. It solves the riddle of the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_77' name='page_77'></a>77</span> +Sphinx of Life and makes Man Master of his own +destiny.</p> +<p>Such a Master lives in a new world, untrammeled +by the things of sense and time. He has +indeed, “lived the life to know the doctrine,” and +can say with Jesus, in sincerity and truth, “I, and +the Father, are One,” because we are <i>at-one</i>.</p> +<p>There is not a particle of evidence in history, in +philosophy, or in science, to show that anyone has +ever reached such knowledge, liberation, and enlightenment, +in any other way than that in which +Jesus attained it; viz.: by renouncing the ordinary +ambitions of life, wealth, fame, and power, and by +overcoming selfishness and the lusts of the flesh; +devoting their lives to the good of mankind, “without +the hope of fee or reward.” As the whole work +is a spiritual unfoldment, and from beginning to +end a refining process, it is easy to see how and why +the conditions are what they are, and have always +been the same.</p> +<p>This is why those who have no apprehension or +conception of the process, can see only mystery +and miracle in the result.</p> +<p>If anyone cites the so-called “black magicians” +of Egypt, and of antiquity, to refute the moral code +as the essential condition of attainment, they will +find that these priests and “magi climbing up +some other way,” and whom Jesus designated as +“thieves and robbers,” could never function or pass +beyond the so-called “astral plane.” Here is where +the Sibyl and the “virgin seer” came in. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_78' name='page_78'></a>78</span></p> +<p>This is clearly shown in that little book “The +Idyll of the White Lotus,” as in several of Bulwer’s +novels. Hypnotism and Ceremonial Magic, as revealed +in the writings of Abbé Constant, represent +ambition for knowledge and power without “living +the life,” and at any cost to mankind. These +<i>Margraves</i> have often existed, sealed their own +fate, and “gone to their own place.” H. P. +Blavatsky referred to them as “lost souls,” or +“soulless individuals.” They are also graphically +described in “The Strange Story of Arinzeman.”</p> +<p>There was always the “Right-hand Path,” and +the “Left-hand Path.”</p> +<p>Even a slight familiarity with ancient literatures +and philosophies reveals the fact, that all these +things have been known for ages. The subtlety +of the Hindoo mind has been such as to leave no +phase of mental or psychic phenomena uninvestigated.</p> +<p>To the casual and uninstructed reader, it often +seems like an endless and hopeless jungle, and he is +unable to bring order out of the seemingly endless +confusion.</p> +<p>There is not a single percept or concept in what +is now called “New Thought,” that may not be +found repeated with almost endless variations thousands +of years ago.</p> +<p>Reference has already been made to the conditions +imposed upon the student who aspires to know, +and to become. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_79' name='page_79'></a>79</span></p> +<p>The obligations upon the teacher are no less +stringent, for both are, from first to last, working +under both natural and spiritual law to which they +are bound to conform.</p> +<p>To be possessed of such knowledge the teacher +must have abandoned worldly ambition, the love +of wealth, and the applause of men. All motives +of time-serving and self-seeking must assail him in +vain. He becomes the almoner of the treasure-house +of Light and Knowledge. He must exemplify +what he teaches. If he can impart his knowledge, +or assist an aspiring and worthy brother, it +must be in the way he has himself received it, +“without money and without price,” or any “hope +of reward or fee,” and the brother so receiving, in +his own degree, must be ready to pass it on under +precisely the same terms and conditions.</p> +<p>The teacher, therefore, must be in a position to +give or to withhold; promulgate or conceal; teach +or refuse to teach; governed solely by Truth and +Law, and the solemn obligation under which he has +himself received it.</p> +<p>The meaning of the saying, “strait is the gate +and narrow is the way, and few there be who find +it,” may thus be made apparent.</p> +<p>Fragments of this wisdom are found scattered +through the ages, with here and there one who has +achieved it.</p> +<p>For two or three centuries the early Christian +Church undertook to work on these lines, and instituted +three degrees, as abundantly shown in the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_80' name='page_80'></a>80</span> +writings of many of the so-called “Christian, or +Church Fathers.”</p> +<p>Jesus said to his disciples, “I have many things +to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.” +And again, “The works that I do, ye shall do also, +and greater things than these shall ye do, because +I go to the Father.” And again, “Unto you it is +given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of +heaven, but to them who are without, it is not +given.”</p> +<p>Mysteries, indeed, to the ignorant monks who +were already wrangling over creed, and dogmas, +and who, in 325 at the First Council at Nice, +fought it out surrounded by the soldiers of the +Pagan Emperor, Constantine; and thus settled the +“orthodox <i>interpretation</i>,” of what they were +wholly incompetent to understand. Their successors +are still engaged in the same wrangle of +interpretation, so far as the “Infallible Pope,” and +dogma of obedience, at Rome has been unable to +suppress it.</p> +<p>Somewhere between the middle of the first and +second centuries, an effort at union and reconciliation +arose from another quarter. Ammonius Saccas, +a Neo-Platonist, endeavored to unite men of different +cults and beliefs on the lines of the Great Work, +precisely as the Philalethean Society is doing in +New York to-day; but his movement was soon +engulfed and lost sight of by the tide of Ecclesiasticism, +or suppressed by the soldiers of Constantine.</p> +<p>I am not attempting a history, for that would +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_81' name='page_81'></a>81</span> +fill volumes. I am only giving a few sidelights of +the Great Work.</p> +<p>In the Tenth Century, at Baghdad, a society +was formed admitting Jews, Christians, Mohammedans, +and atheists, with a similar purpose.</p> +<p>During the time of Martin Luther, John Reuchlin +made a similar attempt. Both Reuchlin and +Luther were pupils of Trithemius, the Abbot of St. +Jacob’s at Würzburg, one of whose books I possess, +printed in the year 1600, and also another book, +“The Theosophical Transactions of the Philadelphian +Society,” printed in London in 1697. Browning’s +“Paracelsus” gives a splendid outline of the +philosophy and teachings of Trithemius, and rescues +Paracelsus with all who can understand, from the +vile slanders of his monkish enemies; and Robert +Browning wrote his “Paracelsus” at the age of +twenty-three! Can you wonder why so few “understand +Browning”?</p> +<p>For more than fifteen hundred years mankind +has been involved between the speculations of Philosophy, +on the one hand, and the creeds and +dogmas of Theology, on the other.</p> +<p>There was also the deliberate destruction of +ancient monuments, scrolls, and records, by religious +fanatics. Diocletian, in A.D. 296, burned the +books of the Egyptians. Cĉsar burned 700,000 +Rolls at Alexandria, and Leo Isaurus 300,000 at +Constantinople in the eighth century. Then came +the Mohammedans, who destroyed the remainder of +the accessible scrolls at Alexandria. Gangs of +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_82' name='page_82'></a>82</span> +fanatical Monks, Christian and Pagan, roamed +over Europe destroying and defacing everything +upon which they could lay their hands, as witnesses +against their dogmas and superstitions. Even to-day, +in India, it is difficult for Europeans to gain +access to genuine ancient records. The records of +these barbarities are still fresh in the minds of the +guardians of sacred lore.</p> +<p>Even with such a record for thousands of years, +Ecclesiasticism is as arrogant and rampant as ever +to-day. The wonder is, that there is anything left +but barbarism.</p> +<p>Two writers declare that the most ancient and +valuable of the records of the Alexandrian Library +were kept in secret crypts known only to the highest +officials, and preserved still in secret crypts +known only to the Illuminati. In Baalbec and all +through the East to-day these underground temples +are being explored, and even the fragments found +excite wonder and admiration. Ignorant Barbarians +may be destructive on general principles, but +fanatical Ecclesiasticism has ever been destructive +of all light, knowledge and civilization, through +insane hatred or pure “cussedness”! We need +only to regard intelligently what it has done, and is +doing for Southern Europe to-day.</p> +<p>Can you wonder that the real science of the +Human Soul found little recognition, or that it was +denied as possible to man?</p> +<p>As already shown, the Science of to-day has +neither recognized nor worked up to it; and the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_83' name='page_83'></a>83</span> +Theology of to-day covers it with fable, mystery, +and miracle as of old.</p> +<p>In spite of both these the “Philalethean Society” +exists, the “Seekers after God” were never more +numerous than now, and the <i>Magnum Opus</i>, the +Great Work, was never, in the whole history of man, +more in evidence than it is to-day.</p> +<table summary='poetry' style='margin:0 auto'><tr><td> +<p style='margin: 0 0 0 0.0em;'>“Truth crushed to Earth shall rise again,</p> +<p style='margin: 0 0 0 0.0em;'>The Eternal years of God are hers.”</p> +</td></tr></table> + +<p>Can it be that there is no great truth back of all +these struggles and aspirations of the human soul? +That there is no possible realization back of these +soulful endeavors?</p> +<p>Is Tantalus, after all, the creator and Father of +Man? inspired only by love of disappointment, +defeat, and despair, in his children?</p> +<p><i>For one, I do not believe it.</i></p> +<p>To plant these aspirations in the soul of man, +and doom them to everlasting disappointment and +defeat, would brand the creator of man as an +Infinite Liar, instead of a Loving Father.</p> +<p>The earnest student must first learn to recognize, +and to discriminate; for the “blind leaders of the +blind” are always legions.</p> +<p>This power of discrimination, to which I have +referred, goes deeper, and means far more, than +most persons ever realize, and this is why so many +are continually deceived.</p> +<p>It is the light of understanding, of spiritual intelligence, +within the soul of man. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_84' name='page_84'></a>84</span></p> +<p>It may be likened to a traveler in a foreign +country, and a strange land, suddenly hearing one +speaking fluently his own language, his native +tongue. It is impossible to deceive him. In this +case, however, it is not the mere words, the inflection +or pronunciation, but the ideas, sentiments, +and principles expressed.</p> +<p>“Liberty, Fraternity, Equality,” for example; +or sympathy, Charity, and loving kindness.</p> +<p>The “sign of the Master” is at once recognized +by one already prepared to receive and to understand +it. The soul that really desires truth and +wisdom above all things, has thereby developed the +power to recognize it.</p> +<p>This is the discrimination referred to. It is not +what someone else tells you, or what another claims. +It is what <i>you</i> discern and recognize, and the teaching +and the life are in perfect harmony, like chords +in music; and they strike a harmonic chord in you, +that may be first a surprise, and soon a great joy +and a bright light.</p> +<p>It is not a question of authority, and of credentials, +but of intrinsic reality. You must know +how to assay and test the gold yourself. This is +where the “Alchemy of the Great Work” comes +in, and here lies the beginning of Adeptship, the +preparation for the “Great Work.” I can demonstrate +this from a score of old books, some of +them going back many centuries.</p> +<p>It has also been symbolized and picturegraphed +’til the imagination ran riot, and ingenuity and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_85' name='page_85'></a>85</span> +fancy became lost, like ideas in a fantasy of words.</p> +<p>I know of but one place, one Institution, in +modern times, where these essential truths of the +Great Work have been preserved as a consistent +whole, and that is in the symbolism of Free Masonry, +but the craft long ago lost the real interpretation, +though many to-day are on the lines that +lead to it.</p> +<p>The whole symbolism and ritual of the Blue +Lodge in Masonry is, from beginning to end, +<i>a symbol of the journey of the human soul on this +earth</i>, from darkness to light; from sin to righteousness; +from ignorance to wisdom and understanding.</p> +<p>In other words, it is an exact <i>theorem</i> and solution +of the <i>Magnum Opus</i>; a symbol of the philosophy +and accomplishment of the GREAT +WORK.</p> +<p>The science and the theology of the present +day have been briefly contrasted. Neither of them +pretends to give us any real science of the human +soul.</p> +<p>Science says frankly she “does not know.” Theology +bids us believe and obey; trust and hope. +Philosophy speculates and reasons, while amusing +itself with the kaleidoscope of “postulates” and +“categories.”</p> +<p>Science must deal with facts, demonstrate their +actuality, and classify them; that is, find their +natural order and sequence.</p> +<p>In psychology, the facts are <i>within</i> the realm of +consciousness, and therefore their demonstration is +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_86' name='page_86'></a>86</span> +a matter of individual experience. This is why +psychology differs from all other sciences.</p> +<p>No one can transfer his individual experiences +directly to another. He can describe how he gained +them, and give the result and conclusions, and here +is where those who know nothing of the real problem, +are often both incredulous and contemptuous. +The only answer to these is, “they are joined to +their idols, let them alone.” “They would not believe +though one arose from the dead,” and yet we +are told again and again that the “School of +Natural Science” is the “school of personal experience.”</p> +<p>It may be well to reflect a moment, and ask +ourselves, how it is that we really know anything? +Is it not through personal experience? Real +knowledge comes, and can come, in no other way.</p> +<p>No teacher of the real science of psychology can +ever transmit or transfer his knowledge to another. +All he can do is to describe the methods, and steps, +by which he acquired it, and assist the student in +acquiring it for himself in the same way, or under +the same processes and laws.</p> +<p>We have only to reflect on the ordinary experiences +of life, to realize that this is a universal +principle and rule. In the deeper science of the +soul, and the higher life, instead of this law being +relaxed, it becomes all the more binding.</p> +<p>Do not the principles that adhere in atom, molecule +and mass, still hold in worlds and solar systems? +Is not this precisely what is meant by “The +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_87' name='page_87'></a>87</span> +Reign of Law”? If man were built upon some +other scheme or plan than the rest of nature, how +could he apprehend or adjust himself to Nature? +The very <i>concept</i> of miracle is <i>lawlessness</i>, and +mystery is but another name for <i>ignorance</i>.</p> +<p>Knowledge means experience and apprehension +of Law.</p> +<p>Neither can the laws of Nature and the laws of +God be at cross-purposes, for that would make +harmony impossible and inconceivable.</p> +<p>The confusion and discord are all in us, and the +Great Work means adjustment, harmony, and then +Knowledge.</p> +<p>It is the journey of the human soul on the +Royal Highway to Light, Liberation, and Eternal +Day.</p> +<p>For many centuries those who have achieved this +Wisdom, this “Great Work,” have been trying to +make it accessible to mankind, and to place it in +such form that the ethical, scientific, and philosophical +principles involved, and upon which it is based, +should not again be lost. Every such effort has +hitherto failed.</p> +<p>The scientific spirit of the present age, in a very +broad way, seemed to offer a new and a more advantageous +opportunity; for the whole process is +one of strict science.</p> +<p>The Psychology of the present day has become +involved in phenomena and automatism, and is in no +sense <i>constructive</i>. It is one thing to build theories, +and quite a different thing to systematize demonstrated +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_88' name='page_88'></a>88</span> +facts, through the recognition of co-ordinate +relations, and underlying law.</p> +<p>The work is open and accessible to all who manifest +real interest, an open mind, and who have the +intelligence and discrimination to recognize the character +of the work. It has never, in the history of +man, been open in any other way, on any other +terms, or to any other individuals.</p> +<p>Those who can fill these requirements constitute +to-day a larger number than have before existed +at any one time, for perhaps many centuries.</p> +<p>The “School of Natural Science” is in evidence. +The “Great Work” is carefully outlined.</p> +<p>There is no bar to one’s making a beginning on +the path, except indifference, incredulity, preoccupation, +or prejudice; and these need not be in the +least disturbed, for they will be kindly and courteously +passed by.</p> +<p>Arguments, controversy, and proselyting, have +no part in the Great Work, as there is no organization, +and no personal ambitions to serve.</p> +<p>Those who speak a common language, are inspired +by a common purpose, and aspire to a common and +universal good, will, soon or late, find themselves +associated together and co-operating.</p> +<p>It is like a chorus of voices when an old song +is started that we loved in childhood. Each takes +up the strain, falls into his own part, and helps +to swell the harmony, from the joy of his own +heart.</p> +<p>Those who “never did like the song,” will +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_89' name='page_89'></a>89</span> +“quietly steal away.” Both Swedenborg and +Emerson have sufficiently illustrated the “Law of +Correspondencies,” and “compensation,” to reveal +the basis of all harmonious human associations, +whether on the earth, or on other planes of being. +Hence the “Harmonics of Evolution,” was the +forerunner of the “Great Work.”</p> +<p>The pitiable byplay and claptrap of “Affinities” +so often seen and heard nowadays, where all +previous obligations are ignored, and personal responsibilities +set at naught, only serve to emphasize +the real law of harmony and constructive evolution, +by showing what it is not.</p> +<p>The Great Work digs to the very foundations +of life, and all human associations, and reveals the +Good, the True, and the Beautiful, in the building +of character, and the adornment of the Temple +of the Human Soul.</p> +<p>This is indeed——</p> +<table summary='poetry' style='margin:0 auto'><tr><td> +<p style='margin: 0 0 0 0.0em;'>“Eternal Progress moving on,</p> +<p style='margin: 0 0 0 0.0em;'>From state to state the spirit walks.”</p> +</td></tr></table> + +<p>Death is neither the end nor the beginning. It +is only a change in pitch, a shifting of keys, and +the same old Song of Life goes on, if we have +but learned the score, and caught the harmony.</p> +<p>Salvation is not a thing accomplished once for +all. We have only to consider the monotony, the +poverty of invention, and imagination, of those who +have tried to portray the joy of the Redeemed in +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_90' name='page_90'></a>90</span> +heaven, in order to realize what a bore it would soon +become, if that were all.</p> +<p>Inspiration, achievement, and eternal progress, +with more and more helpfulness to others, with +plane after plane achieved, revealing plane after +plane beyond—does not this appeal far more +strongly to the highest and best in us all?</p> +<p>And pray, what is this, but the <i>Great Work</i>, that +I have tried herein to outline, and as taught and +lived by Jesus, and every great Master the world +has ever known? Each has achieved in his own +degree, worded it in his own way, and “stepped +out of sunlight into shade, to make more room for +others.”</p> +<p>Long before the birth of Jesus, it was said, “The +wise and peaceful ones live, renewing the earth like +the coming of Spring.” And having themselves +crossed the ocean of embodied existence, help all +those who try to do the same thing, without personal +motive.</p> +<p>I have endeavored to give a general outline of +the Great Work, drawn from history, tradition, +philosophy, and symbolism, down to the present +year of grace. I find many corroborations, many +things pointing in the same general direction. But +I find but one concise and definite <i>formulation</i> of +the <i>scientific theorem</i>, in which the outline is clear, +and the analogy complete, and thereby made accessible +and apprehensible to the open-minded and intelligent +student.</p> +<p>Such students need experience no real difficulty +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_91' name='page_91'></a>91</span> +in finding a clew to the labyrinth of life, or, as our +ancient brothers put it in regard to the <i>Magnum +Opus</i>—“a key to the closed palace of the king.”</p> +<p>This is the purpose of the “Harmonic Series” +of books. They need rest upon no authority beyond +the intrinsic evidence of truth, on every page. If +they are not consistent in themselves, then they +must fall in pieces. The only appeal to the reader +is: read them carefully, analyze your own mind and +soul, and come to your own conclusions. If they +find no response, no answering chord in you, +then they were written for someone else, or in +vain.</p> +<p>One further consideration remains to be noted at +this time, as the question is sure to arise: “How +about woman in the Great Work?” Seldom in the +past has she received recognition, since the earliest +days in Old India, though here and there have been +the most noble women.</p> +<p>I heard Anna Dickinson, many years ago, open +one of her famous lectures with these words, “I +claim for man and woman alike, the right to attempt +and win. I claim for man and woman alike, the +right to attempt and fail.”</p> +<p>It seems to me to-day, as it did more than thirty +years ago, that this is the whole problem in a nutshell, +and that any number of words could add nothing +to the statement.</p> +<p>The Great Work is as open to woman as to +man, and on the same terms. They have perhaps +more to overcome in some directions, and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_92' name='page_92'></a>92</span> +men more in others. This is like saying, “man and +woman are different,” that is all.</p> +<p>One thing is certain; there will never be an +ideal social state on earth, or a heaven anywhere, +except as men and women <i>co-operate</i> together for +the happiness of each, and the highest, noblest, +cleanest good of all, and this is only another phase +or department of the Great Work.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<a name='VII_THE_MODULUS_OF_NATURE_AND_THE_THEOREM_OF_PSYCHOLOGY' id='VII_THE_MODULUS_OF_NATURE_AND_THE_THEOREM_OF_PSYCHOLOGY'></a> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_93' name='page_93'></a>93</span> +<h2>CHAPTER VII</h2> +<h3>THE MODULUS OF NATURE AND THE THEOREM OF PSYCHOLOGY</h3> +</div> + +<p>The Science of Psychology, like any other +science, must deal with demonstrated facts, +classify them, and systematize the resulting categories.</p> +<p>Strictly logical conclusions drawn from categories +of facts so derived, deserve the name of Science.</p> +<p>Science is, therefore, a definite method of arriving +at exact conclusions. No other method can legitimately +bear the name of science.</p> +<p>No one pretends to dispute the conclusions logically +involved in the Binomial Theorem; or in the +Parallelogram of forces; or in correlative mechanical +equivalents; or in many of the known laws of chemistry +and physiology.</p> +<p>When, however, we come to mental processes and +psychical phenomena, the facts are so redundant, +and so differently reported and apprehended, that +argument, belief and prejudice, credulity and incredulity, +overshadow and drown with a war of +words all clear, scientific methods or conclusions.</p> +<p>But if man, as a whole, is a fact in nature; or if +“God made Man a Living Soul,” then the whole +nature of man exists under law, and is apprehensible +to science. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_94' name='page_94'></a>94</span></p> +<p>Man’s function as a scientist is to read, to reflect, +to weigh, to measure, and to understand.</p> +<p>There are those who object to Natural Science as +applied to “Divine” things. They would preserve +the mystery, and seem to prefer miracle and dogma +to knowledge and law.</p> +<p>Their preference is to be respected, even though +ignorance and superstition result. Since the domain +of science, in America at least, is no longer restricted +by ecclesiastic law, the conflict between Religion and +Science has gradually disappeared, and the conflict +is rather that between knowledge and ignorance, +with ignorance on the wane.</p> +<p>“Things settled by long use, if not absolutely +good, at least fit well together.”</p> +<p>This transition period seems confusing to many +earnest souls with its “New Thought,” its “occultisms” +and its “Lo here’s” and “Lo there’s.” But +through and beneath it all, may be heard a note of +harmony, the promise and the potency of the triumph +of light and knowledge.</p> +<p>We may not know the final results, but every +sincere and earnest seeker may have the peaceful +assurance that he is on the open highway that +leads to the noblest and the best.</p> +<p>The assurance of knowledge but makes clearer +the revelations of faith.</p> +<p>That “absentee God”—of which Carlyle wrote, +has been discerned as the Universal Intelligence, +and equally Love and Law.</p> +<p>Among recent writers and books on the subject +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_95' name='page_95'></a>95</span> +of psychology, Professor Hugo Münsterberg’s +“Psychotherapy” occupies a very high place. It +appeals especially to the physician, more familiar +than others with morbid psychical states. Here I +can look back on almost half a century of experience, +the most active, in dealing with these cases.</p> +<p>But I am at present less concerned with mental +pathology and therapy, than with the general psychological +basis; the <i>causative</i> categories upon which +they are based, and which occupy the first half of +Münsterberg’s book.</p> +<p>Dividing the whole subject—the content of consciousness, +all the faculties, capacities and powers, +all processes and sequences—into two general groups +or classes, the <i>purposive</i> and the <i>causal</i>, Münsterberg +declares that “the <i>causal</i> view only is the view +of psychology”; “the <i>purposive</i> view lies outside of +psychology.” (P. 14.)</p> +<p>I hold, that without the <i>purposive</i> view equally +included and co-ordinated, there can be no such +thing as Scientific Psychology. Half views will +hardly admit of synthetic generalizations.</p> +<p>The complete separation here instituted, between +the purposive and causal factors, in itself, for purposes +of definition and study, need not be objected +to, if it were consistently carried out, which it is +not. He so nearly pre-empts the whole ground for +the <i>causal</i>, giving scant courtesy to the <i>purposive</i>, +merely a few crumbs of comfort, so that it cannot +be said to be ignored altogether, and drops the +scientific method entirely in dealing with it; assenting +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_96' name='page_96'></a>96</span> +to moral precepts and principles, without a +clew to any scientific basis, that one must object +to the <i>name</i>—Psychology—as being applied to it +at all. It contains no hint of a “knowledge of the +Soul.”</p> +<p>It is the Vito-Motor mechanism of the Mind. +The Automatism of the elements, incidents, changes, +and sequences of our states of consciousness; based +upon, and including all that we know of physiology. +Along these lines, Münsterberg’s work has probably +never been equaled. It is concise, comprehensive, +and exhaustive.</p> +<p>His physical, physiological, and mental syntheses +are well-nigh complete.</p> +<p>Whenever, in the future, what he calls “the <i>purposive</i> +view” shall be resurrected from the obscurity +and nescience to which he has assigned it, and +really habilitated in the garb of Science, and recognized +as the lawful spouse of the <i>causal</i>, we shall +indeed have a true Psychology, a Science of the +Human Soul.</p> +<p>Münsterberg neither scouts nor denies the possibility +of such a future discovery. In the meantime, +his viewpoint, and necessarily some of his conclusions +and generalizations, are one-sided, and out of +focus.</p> +<p>Emphasizing the <i>causal</i> as he does, this could +hardly be otherwise; and from this point of view, +and for this reason, his practical Psychotherapy is +purely empirical.</p> +<p>We need not deny his facts, or his results, even +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_97' name='page_97'></a>97</span> +when mixed with hypnosis, more than he does the +“cures” in “Christian Science,” “Faith Cures,” +at Lourdes, or by the “laying on of hands.” All +these things are too well known, and not one of them +deserves the name of Science. They are solely +empirical methods. Münsterberg’s broader view +and deeper analysis give to his methods great prominence, +and he can point to no results that transcend +the others. These facts and these results +are as old as the history of man. They have, +even as he points out, constituted epidemics of +“cure.”</p> +<p>There is, moreover, a scientific view and method +regarding what he calls the purposive view which +he overlooks entirely, and which by emphasis of the +causal, makes seemingly impossible. It is our purpose +to try and make this clear.</p> +<p>His analysis of Suggestion, though largely automatic, +is well-nigh exhaustive. Awareness, and Attention, +are illustrated copiously; but not clearly +differentiated as they may be, and actually are in +the experience of individual life.</p> +<p>Fortunately, and wisely, he eliminates the “Subconscious” +as having no real meaning or scientific +value as now used.</p> +<p>But it might be applied to the Mental awareness +of physiological automatism (bodily habits, often +beginning in an act of will, or attention; writing, +speaking, music, dancing, and the like, and in less +degree, all life impulses and movements below the +line of attention or awareness). +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_98' name='page_98'></a>98</span></p> +<p>If, by courtesy, these might be called sub-conscious, +then there is another group above the +habitual plane of awareness, that, by equal courtesy, +might be called Supra-conscious. But, unless it is +remembered, as Münsterberg points out, that, regardless +of phenomena, <i>Consciousness is one</i>, these +terms can only lead to confusion.</p> +<p>Certain cases designated “multiple” or “dissociated +personalities” have only served to increase +this confusion still further; and more especially, +when the effort has been made to patch them together, +or to control them from without, by hypnosis. +The well-known case of “Sally,” reported +by Dr. Morton Prince, stands at last, as a “personally +conducted” psychological excursion, with +Sally still preserving her incognito, and as much +a mystery as ever.</p> +<p>That automatism incident to all progressive organization +and perfection of function, and through +which physical, physiological, mental, and psychic +synthesis becomes possible, has been allowed to +usurp the place of the “Builder of the Temple,” +the “Driver of the Chariot,” and the “Player” upon +the “Harp of a thousand strings.” Harmony and +equilibrium are incidents resulting from <i>causative</i> +processes! We need only to know the construction, +relations of parts, and principles involved in the +vibrations of the Harp, in order to understand and +appreciate the music. The player, the musician—drunk, +or sober, tone-blind or genius—is a mere +incident, and however <i>purposive</i> or competent, is +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_99' name='page_99'></a>99</span> +admitted by courtesy only, and warned not to interfere +too much with the Harp!</p> +<p>To build, and keep in order, and tune the Harp, +constitutes the science of music. Some day, when +we have leisure and inclination, we may turn our +attention to the Musician, but that day seems far +off. We admit that his function is <i>purposive</i>. He, +no doubt, has designs on the Harp, and upon us, but +we are handling musical instruments at present, +and if he objects to our calling ourselves “Musicians” +(psychologists) he is impertinent, and +should study the science of music, or keep silent.</p> +<p>I am not “begging the question” in regard to the +human soul. I am simply emphasizing the fact of +the Individual Intelligence, which, at the point of +equilibrium, sweeps the strings with that harmony +which is the soul of music.</p> +<p>This Harp of a thousand strings, is indeed, “fearfully +and wonderfully made.” Its physics and +kinetics; its consonants and dissonants; its shifting +keyboards; its changes in pitch, rhythm, and harmony +from atom and molecule, to neurons, cells and +mass; with the tides of life—blood, plasma, water, +air, magnetism—sweeping the whole at every breath +or pulse beat, to the cry of the builder—Life—“out +with the old! in with the new!” and yet the +<i>conscious identity</i> in health, typically unchanged +and unchanging—<i>causative</i>, <i>designed</i>, <i>scientific</i>—yea +verily! and <i>purposive</i>, <i>human</i>, <i>intelligent</i>, +<i>spiritual</i>, <i>divine</i>, but a dead corpse, given over to +decomposition the moment it is bereft of that something +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_100' name='page_100'></a>100</span> +we feel, and know, and name—the <i>Individual +Intelligence</i>—the Master Musician; or the staggering, +drunk, crazy fiddler, with this Harp of a thousand +strings, twanging perhaps in a mad-house!</p> +<p>Put the house in order; analyze, and classify; +adjust the furniture with the handmaids of science, +art, and beauty in evidence and at call; but for +goodness’ sake! stop hypnotizing the musician—“Just +a little”—under the fallacy or the pretense of +<i>strengthening</i> the Will by <i>weakening</i> it just a little +more! This is “giving your patients fits, because +you are death on fits”! Rescue Science from this +atheromatous degeneration, and then suppress the +dabblers in “black magic” who pose as Hypnotists, +as Münsterberg advises.</p> +<p>For clear intelligence and exhaustive analysis, +Münsterberg’s “Psychotherapy” is a masterpiece, +but his psychic equation of <i>causative</i> and <i>purposive</i>, +with all his mathesis, not only remains unsolved, +but leads to confusion, from the false light shed on +the unknown quantity, and his failure to indicate +the gnosis; the demarcation between automatism +and purposive Intelligence.</p> +<p>That this confusion exists in the daily life of the +average individual whose evolution is still incomplete; +that it constitutes a large per cent. of all +cases of “dominant ideas,” obsessions, riotous emotions +and passions; that it is nowhere recognized +and defined in modern psychology, or made synthetically +clear in modern philosophy, all these lapses +make it all the more necessary that it should be +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_101' name='page_101'></a>101</span> +clearly defined and made plain as the basis of +Scientific Psychology.</p> +<p>In addition to all this, if Münsterberg’s conclusions +and applications are unsound because psychologically +unscientific at the point; for example, +where he almost hesitatingly indorses hypnosis, +however qualified or safeguarded, he is certain to be +quoted as authority on the subject by those who will +ignore all his qualifications to justify the practice.</p> +<p>In order to meet these imperative conditions, the +attempt to formulate any philosophy of psychology +will not be made.</p> +<p>Even were such an attempt made successfully, +that would remove the discussion from the field of +science, where it should by all means remain. What +we need is a real science of life, and this should +involve the whole mental and psychical realm, and +lead ultimately to a knowledge of the human soul.</p> +<p>Recognized facts in common experience only +need be appealed to, though different values will +have to be placed upon some of these facts as their +importance is made plain.</p> +<p>We begin with the fact of consciousness. What +it is, we do not know. What it means and does, +we know very largely and broadly. In itself, it is +purely passive. It never acts. Like space, it is the +“all container.” It is the background, the theatre +of our intelligence.</p> +<p>With the individual intelligence, plus, or with +consciousness, we have awareness. This is perception, +or cognition, still negative. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_102' name='page_102'></a>102</span></p> +<p>These basic conditions, faculties and capacities, +are like a company of soldiers on parade. Now +comes the “word of command”—<i>Attention</i>!</p> +<p>Latent consciousness—awareness—now becomes +concentrated, focalized on one point, one feeling, +or emotion, or act. The soldiers “dress up,” glance +down the line, and are ready to act. Then comes +the action, the movement, the drill, or the fight.</p> +<p>The drill master is also a soldier, but he is in +command. He is called the Will. Without him and +his recognized authority, the soldiers may be a mob, +or a rabble. With him, they “fall in line,” give +“attention,” “dress up,” and are ready to act.</p> +<p>These are facts, and are basic and primary in our +conscious <i>awareness</i> and <i>attention</i> in consciousness; +the one negative, though inclusive; the other positive, +and motor, or active.</p> +<p>In his “Psychotherapy” under the heading “The +Subconscious,” Münsterberg has much to say upon +the meaning and differentiation of awareness, attention, +and recognition, but he fails to point out in +direct relation, at this point, the primary power—the +Will, moved by the Individual Intelligence.</p> +<p>Later in his work the will is recognized and +frequently referred to, but from beginning to end +he makes it incidental, rather than basic. When +he comes to broad groups of psychic phenomena, or +pathological symptoms, the sounding board of +Rational Volition is cracked and there is where +hypnosis slips in.</p> +<p>Broad as he has laid his foundations in physical +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_103' name='page_103'></a>103</span> +and physiological synthesis, he loses sight of its +importance in the psychological; regarding as an +incident that which is a basic principle of prime +importance. Schopenhauer went, perhaps, as far +to the opposite extreme. Perhaps “the truth will +be found in the middle of the road.”</p> +<p>The heir apparent, the prince regent, the lawful +Sovereign, by heredity, by the laws of Nature, and +“by the Will of God,” in this Tabernacle of Man, +is the Individual Intelligence; no matter whether +we recognize or dispute his rightful authority. His +Prime Minister is the Human Will; whether conspiring +against, or co-operating with, the King. +We may analyze the foundation of the kingdom, +and the affairs of state, and designate them as +<i>causative</i>, or <i>purposive</i>. We may see monarchy, or +anarchy; democracy or republicanism; we may dethrone +the king, and turn the state, literally, into +a mad-house; but all the facts of nature, conscious +awareness, and Scientific Psychology, cry, with one +voice, Hail to the King! Long Live the King! +I! Me! Mine! Myself! A fact so basic, that +it is as patent to the child as to the man.</p> +<p>Now comes the Juggler, the little Joker. Münsterberg +has sufficiently revealed the variety-stage, +“the Subconscious,” and his biography of the various +individual players and troupes is very elaborate. +They are, one and all, <i>Suggestions</i>. And +suggestion is the “Juggler,” and the “little +Joker.”</p> +<p>After the Intelligence and the Will, our awareness +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_104' name='page_104'></a>104</span> +finds subjects and objects, ideas, images, pictures, +percepts and concepts.</p> +<p>That all these, both within and without, are +Suggestive; that one idea, or image, or object, +suggests another, or others, no one will deny, who +has ever <i>thought</i> about his own thinking. It is like +saying, all mental pictures are composite; the elements +of many kinds coming from many sources.</p> +<p>So far, <i>Suggestion</i> is all right. It is awareness +of an idea, percept, concept, or act awakened, called +to attention by another, with the question, how +does it strike you? what do you think of it? what, +if anything, do you wish, or propose to do about it?</p> +<p>It is purely negative, and suggests action or +inhibition, without the slightest domination.</p> +<p>Remember that the Will—rational Volition—is +that power, which, from the point of attention +enables the individual to act, or refuse to consider, +as he pleases.</p> +<p>If I suggest to my friend here in my library, that +it is near train time; that he can go if he chooses or +remain with me all night, he is free to act on the suggestion +and go or stay as he chooses. I have called +to his attention certain facts of time, place, or circumstance, +but left his will untrammeled. If I am +tired of him and wish him to go, or really wish him +to stay, in either case it is still a suggestion, because +I have left him free to act or not. But in +this case certain tones of my voice, not direct by +touching the will, but coloring the feelings or emotions, +color both his preferences and my own. Even +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_105' name='page_105'></a>105</span> +persuasion, the power of another example, the placing +of certain views or considerations before another, +all these but make the more clear and specific the +suggestion. They reach the will through the inside, +in the realm of ideation, and not from the outside, +in the way of domination. All these things are +essential elements in social intercourse.</p> +<p>If, however, I have a motive in wishing my +friend to go, or to stay, and have determined in my +own mind which it shall be; ignoring or overriding +his own choice; and if I use my will, or passes, or +touch his eyes, or forehead, with the purpose of +concentrating <i>his</i> attention or will, on <i>my</i> wish, or +idea, or command, it is no longer free choice with +him, but domination; no longer suggestion, but +hypnosis, pure and simple.</p> +<p>The confusion and juggling at this point has been +made the sole excuse for hypnotism, through belittling +or ignoring the importance, normal action, +and supremacy of the human will.</p> +<p>No one denies that the exchange or forcible expression +of ideas, percepts, mental pictures, or concepts, +is suggestive. But the normal individual is +free to accept or reject them.</p> +<p>Education, bias, prejudice, and the like, have +also much to do in determining results.</p> +<p>But the moment you interfere with the free +choice of the individual and dominate toward your +choice, regardless of his own, you enter the realm +of hypnosis; deprive him, just to that degree, of +free choice, and might as well call it “fiddlesticks” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_106' name='page_106'></a>106</span> +as “suggestion.” It is domination, the mastery, +so far as it goes or exists at all, of the will, voluntary +powers, and sensory organs of one individual, by the +will of another; thus reversing completely the process +of nature.</p> +<p>To dominate the will of another is to weaken it. +Timidity, apprehension, fear, are in inverse ratio +to confidence, self-assurance, courage, and self-control.</p> +<p>Health, happiness, and self-development lie +along the lines of man’s higher evolution, and the +basic principle, the primary power, the minister of +state, is the rational and intelligent Will.</p> +<p>The scientific theorem of Psychology can be +nothing else than Nature’s Modulus of Man, with +its root in Universal Intelligence. Man individualizes +and involves this Intelligence as he evolves +form, function, adaptation, and adjustment, and at +least secures and maintains perfect equilibrium.</p> +<p>This is Nature’s Modulus, else the whole of human +life is purposeless and meaningless.</p> +<p>Given, then, an Individual Intelligence, endowed +with self-consciousness; with Rational Volition, the +power to choose and to act or refuse to act; how +shall it master its environment; adapt itself to any +conditions; secure adjustment and become <i>Master</i>?</p> +<p>The starting point and the keynote from first +to last is Self-Control.</p> +<p>Then come high Ideals, intelligent choice, and the +will backed by discrimination and judgment. These +lead to understanding and wisdom. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_107' name='page_107'></a>107</span></p> +<p>The “courage of one’s convictions,” can be +neither conceited nor blatant egotism, but a readiness +to assume full responsibility of motives, acts, +and results.</p> +<p>This recognition of Personal Responsibility is +what we call <i>Conscience</i>. It is the Judgment-seat +of the Individual Intelligence in the Kingdom of its +own Soul, or realm of consciousness. The moment +this throne totters, or is obscured, devolution begins, +and degeneration, insanity, and Inferno lie that way.</p> +<p>It does not change one principle involved, or +weaken either Modulus or Theorem when we reflect +that most equations are ended by death, long before +being brought to successful solution. For the +time they are certainly interrupted.</p> +<p>Neither do the babel of tongues, the theories, +theologies, or philosophies change either Modulus +or Theorem, because they are grounded in demonstrated +facts, recognized, either vaguely or clearly, +in the conscious experience of every intelligent +thinking man and woman.</p> +<p>Constructive Psychology, based upon Science, for +the building of character by persistent effort, increasing +continually all personal resources, means +the normal higher evolution of man.</p> +<p>So-called religions and the life after death have +been purposely left unconsidered.</p> +<p>If we really have a Science of the Soul—the Individual +Intelligence—based upon psychological +facts, demonstrated in the daily experience of every +healthy individual, it touches religion at its most +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_108' name='page_108'></a>108</span> +vital point, viz.: ethics or morals. If these ethical +principles are true and demonstrable, they must +constitute the foundation of religion as of ethics. +If morals are strengthened and made clear, and +Personal Responsibility as Conscience, is recognized +and accepted, the Vicarious Atonement will have +to go, and Theologians will have to change their +mystical and miraculous interpretations from Vicarious +Atonement to personal at-one-ment with +<i>Christos</i>.</p> +<p>The “miraculous conception,” and “virgin birth,” +held equally in regard to Christna centuries before, +and also the literal resurrection of the physical +body will have to be otherwise explained.</p> +<p>The purposive view as one full term of the +psychological equation, will find uniform law and +order in place of the credulous legends of ignorant +and superstitious monks, while the Divine Man will +be taken down from the cross and restored to the +heart of humanity, as the Modulus of Nature, +<i>realized</i> as a normal evolution, under natural and +spiritual law.</p> +<p>Salvation from sin, ignorance, superstition, and +fear, will be recognized as the result of “Leading +the Life,” and Vicarious only through a divine +example; or, if you please, <i>legitimate Suggestion</i>; +with personal effort, rational volition, and personal +responsibility working in harmony toward the desired +result. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_109' name='page_109'></a>109</span></p> +<hr class='silver' /> + +<div class='ce'> +<p style=' font-size:1.4em;'>SECTION TWO</p> +<p style=' font-size:1.4em;'>THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE</p> +</div> + +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<a name='VIII_OUR_INDEBTEDNESS_TO_ANCIENT_INDIA' id='VIII_OUR_INDEBTEDNESS_TO_ANCIENT_INDIA'></a> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_111' name='page_111'></a>111</span> +<h2>CHAPTER VIII</h2> +<h3>OUR INDEBTEDNESS TO ANCIENT INDIA</h3> +</div> + +<p>It is more than thirty years since in Southern +Europe, England, and America, a genuine +Renaissance of Vedic literature, philosophy, and +religion began to assume a popular form and to +become accessible to the general reading public.</p> +<p>Scholars, like Sir William Jones, had for the +past century been familiar with the ancient civilization +and the Vedic literature and the study of Sanscrit +had made some progress in the Universities.</p> +<p>The idea, however, that these antiquities had any +vital interest to us, beyond curious myths and obsolete +superstitions, had not been perceived, much less +admitted.</p> +<p>The antiquity of man, and the Philosophy of +Evolution, had opened new fields for thought, and +necessitated a revision of all previous concepts of +man and nature.</p> +<p>Old records and interpretations were everywhere +revised, and the interpretations of the Mosaic +records were challenged at every point.</p> +<p>Popular religions were up in arms and were +compelled to adjust themselves to the new régime.</p> +<p>But even after this century of progress and enlightenment, +it has scarcely yet dawned on the mind +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_112' name='page_112'></a>112</span> +of theologians that the challenge of science was, +after all, insignificant, compared with that which +was to come, and for which modern science had +paved the way.</p> +<p>The whole realm of theology, and the foundations +of religion, were to undergo revision.</p> +<p>Facts incontestable were being gathered and proofs +established beyond all possible denial, or controversy, +that all modern theologies and religions were copied +and adapted from Vedic and ante-Vedic sources, +antedating our present era by more than two +thousand years.</p> +<p>The superficial and devout churchman, whose +faith is fortified on the one hand by superstition, and +on the other at least borders on fanaticism, is apt +to be resentful in the presence of these facts, and, +falling back on the infallibility and plenary inspiration +of the Bible, to declare that if his own superficial +interpretations are questioned or denied, Religion +will be done for and mankind left in utter +darkness.</p> +<p>He does not perceive that the facts of nature +and the essentials of religion are one thing, and +man’s <i>interpretation</i> of them another thing entirely.</p> +<p>He does not perceive how these ignorant and +superstitious interpretations of men have set at +naught the real life of Jesus and the teachings of +the Christ.</p> +<p>He does not realize how doctrine has usurped +the place of duty, and dogmatism has hardened +the soul of man. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_113' name='page_113'></a>113</span></p> +<p>One thing, however, is inevitable. Facts and +evidence as to origin, analogies, and adaptation +of the Christian Mysteries from ancient India, +are widely known, and the time has come +when these mysteries are being examined as to +their intrinsic meaning and their bearing on the +daily life of man and the progress of the human +race.</p> +<p>The author of this little book has only attempted +a bare outline of these great facts, and to put them +in such shape that the reader may perceive their +general bearing, and the sources whence they are +derived.</p> +<p>The following extracts made almost at random, +the quantity of evidence being so redundant, from +Jacolliot’s “Bible in India,” a translation of which +was made in this country as early as 1873, and Prof. +Max Müller’s Lectures, “India, What Can It Teach +Us?” printed here more than a quarter of a century +ago, will give the reader the evidence and the +assurance that these ancient sources of wisdom are +scarcely yet known in outline to the Western +World.</p> +<p>Jacolliot spent many years in India, studying its +present civilization and its ancient lore, while Prof. +Max Müller derived his knowledge largely from +study of Sanscrit and the Vedanta.</p> +<p>“Soil of Ancient India, cradle of humanity, hail! +Hail, venerable and efficient nurse, whom centuries +of brutal invasion have not yet buried under the dust +of oblivion! Hail, fatherland of faith, of love, of +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_114' name='page_114'></a>114</span> +poetry, and of science. May we hail a revival of thy +past in our Western future.</p> +<p>“I have dwelt ’midst the depths of your mysterious +forests, seeking to comprehend the language of your +lofty nature, and the evening airs that murmured +’midst the foliage of banyans and tamarinds whispered +to my spirit these three magic words: Zeus, +Jehovah, Brahma.</p> +<p>“I have inquired of Brahmins and priests under +the porches of temples and ancient pagodas, and +they have replied:</p> +<p>“‘To live is to think, and to think is to study +God, who is all, and in all....</p> +<p>“‘To live is to learn, to learn is to examine and +to fathom in all their perceptible forms the innumerable +manifestations of celestial power.</p> +<p>“‘To live is to be useful; to live is to be just; +and we learn to be useful and just in studying this +book of the Vedas, which is the word of eternal +wisdom, the principle of principles as revealed to +our fathers.’” (“The Bible in India,” p. 15.)</p> +<p>Plotinus, the Neoplatonist, said: “God is not the +principal of beings, but the principle of principles.”</p> +<p>This was the Hindoo concept of <i>Para Brahm</i> +two thousand years before.</p> +<p>“In the whole world there is no study so beneficial +and so elevating as that of the Upanishads. +It has been the solace of my life—it will be the +solace of my death. [Schopenhauer, quoted by +Max Müller.] ... If I were to look over the +whole world to find out the country most richly +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_115' name='page_115'></a>115</span> +endowed with all the wealth, power and beauty that +nature can bestow—in some parts a very paradise +on earth—I should point to India. If I were +asked under what sky the human mind had most +fully developed some of its choicest gifts, has most +deeply pondered on the greatest problems of life, +and has found solutions of some of them which well +deserve the attention even of those who have studied +Plato and Kant—I should point to India. And if +I were to ask myself from what literature we, here +in Europe, we who have been nurtured almost exclusively +on the thoughts of Greeks and Romans, +and of one Semitic race, the Jewish, may draw +that corrective which is most wanted in order to +make our inner life more perfect, more comprehensive, +more universal, in fact more truly human, +a life, not for this life only, but a transfigured and +eternal life—again I should point to India.”</p> +<p>The reader should remember that this is not the +<i>opinion</i> of an ignorant enthusiast, but the mature +judgment of one of the most profound scholars +and Sanscritists in Europe in his day—Prof. Max +Müller.</p> +<p>“The study of Mythology has assumed an +entirely new character, chiefly owing to the light +that has been thrown on it by the ancient Vedic +Mythology of India.</p> +<p>“Buddhism is now known to have been the +principal source of our legends and parables.”</p> +<p>The story of the two women who claimed each +to be the mother of the same child is found literally +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_116' name='page_116'></a>116</span> +in the Kanjur, translated from the Buddhist Tripitake, +and the “Judgment of Solomon” is only a +copy of the older story.</p> +<p>“The history of all histories, and yet the mystery +of all mysteries—take religion, and where can you +study its true origin, its natural growth and its +inevitable decay better than in India, the home of +Brahmanism, the birthplace of Buddhism, and the +refuge of Zoroastrianism.</p> +<p>“Take any of the burning questions of the day—popular +education, higher education, parliamentary +representation, codification of laws, finance, emigration, +poor-law, and whether you have anything to +teach and to try, or anything to observe and to learn, +India will supply you with a laboratory such as +exists nowhere else.</p> +<p>“And in the study of the history of the human +mind, and the study of ourselves, of our true selves, +India occupies a place second to no other country. +Whatever sphere of the human mind you may select +for your special study, whether it be language, or +religion, or mythology, or philosophy, whether it +be laws or customs, primitive art or primitive +science, everywhere, you have to go to India, +whether you like it or not, because some of the +most valuable and most instructive materials in the +history of man are treasured up in India, and in +India only.</p> +<p>“Sleeman tells us men (in India) adhere habitually +and religiously to the truth, and ‘I have had +before me hundreds of cases,’ he says, ‘in which a +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_117' name='page_117'></a>117</span> +man’s property, liberty, and life have depended +upon his telling a lie, and he has refused to tell it.’ +Could many an English judge say the same?” +(Remarks by Prof. Müller.)</p> +<p>Prof. Müller quotes from an Arabian writer of +the thirteenth century, “The Indians are innumerable, +like grains of sand, free from all deceit and +violence. They fear neither death nor life.”</p> +<p>And again, from Marco Polo, in the thirteenth +century, “You must know, Marco Polo says, that +these Abralaman (Hindoos) are the best merchants +in the world, and the most truthful, for they would +not tell a lie for anything on earth.”</p> +<p>“In the sixteenth century Abu Fazl, the minister +of the Emperor Akbar, says in his ‘Ayin Akbari,’ +‘The Hindus are religious, affable, cheerful, lovers +of justice, given to retirement, able in business, admirers +of truth, grateful and of unbounded fidelity, +and their soldiers know not what it is to fly from +the field of battle.’”</p> +<p>(How badly these “poor heathen” were in need +of the Jesuit missionary, and the British government +and civilization!)</p> +<p>Prof. Müller quotes Warren Hastings regarding +the Hindus in general, as follows, “They are gentle +and benevolent, more susceptible of gratitude for +kindness shown them, and less prompted to vengeance +for wrongs inflicted, than any people on +the face of the earth—faithful, affectionate, submissive +to legal authority.”</p> +<p>Bishop Heber said, “The Hindus are brave, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_118' name='page_118'></a>118</span> +courteous, intelligent, most eager for knowledge and +improvement, sober, industrious, dutiful to parents, +affectionate to their children, uniformly gentle and +patient, and more easily affected by kindness and +attention to their wants and feelings than any +people I ever met with.”</p> +<p>Elphinstone said, “No set of people among the +Hindus are so depraved as the dregs of our own +great towns.” (It might have been wiser to have +employed English missionaries at home.)</p> +<p>Sir Thomas Munro bears even stronger testimony. +He writes, “If a good system of agriculture, unrivaled +manufacturing-skill, a capacity to produce +whatever can contribute to either convenience or luxury, +schools established in every village for teaching +reading, writing and arithmetic, the general practice +of hospitality, and charity among each other, +and above all, a treatment of the female sex full +of confidence, respect, and delicacy, are among the +signs which denote a civilized people—then the +Hindus are not inferior to the nations of Europe—and +if civilization is to become an article of trade +between England and India, <i>I am convinced that +England will gain by the import cargo</i>.</p> +<p>“Even at the present moment, after a century +of English rule and English teaching, I believe +that Sanskrit is more widely understood in India, +than Latin was in Europe at the time of Dante.</p> +<p>“There are thousands of Brahmans, even now, +when so little inducement exists for Vedic studies, +who know the whole of the Rig-Veda by heart, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_119' name='page_119'></a>119</span> +and can repeat it, and what applies to the Rig-Veda, +applies to many other books.” (Ten thousand and +seventeen hymns.)</p> +<p>Speaking of other and later literature, Prof. +Müller says, “It is different with the ancient literature +of India, the literature dominated by the Vedic +and Buddhistic religions. That literature opens to +us a chapter in what has been called the Education +OF THE HUMAN RACE, TO WHICH WE CAN FIND NO PARALLEL +anywhere else. Whoever cares for the historical +growth of our language, that is, of our thoughts; +whoever cares for the intelligible development of +religion and mythology, whoever cares for the first +foundation of what in later times we call the sciences +of astronomy, metronomy, grammar and etymology; +whoever cares for the first intimations of philosophical +thought; for the first attempts at regulating +family life, village life, and state life, as founded +on religion, ceremonial, tradition and contact +(Samaya), must in future pay the same attention +to the literature of the Vedic period as to the literature +of Greece and Rome and Germany.</p> +<p>“I maintain then that for a study of man, or, if +you like, for a study of Aryan humanity, there is +nothing in the world equal in importance with the +Veda.</p> +<p>“The aristocracy of those who know—<i>di color +che sanno</i>—or try to know, is open to all who are +willing to enter, to all who have a feeling for the +past; an interest in the genealogy of our thoughts, +and a reverence for the ancestry of our intellect, who +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_120' name='page_120'></a>120</span> +are, in fact, historians in the true sense of the word, +i.e. inquirers into that which is past, but not lost.</p> +<p>“But if we mean by primitive the people who +have been the first of the Aryan race to leave behind +literary relics of their existence on earth, +then I say the Vedic poets are primitive; the +Vedic language is primitive; the Vedic religion is +primitive, and, taken as a whole, <i>more primitive +than anything else that we are ever likely to recover +in the whole history of our race</i>....</p> +<p>“For this reason, because the religion of the +Veda was so completely guarded from all strange +infection, it is full of lessons which the student of +religion could learn nowhere else.”</p> +<p>The foregoing quotations have been made from a +little volume, “India: What Can It Teach Us?” +published by Funk and Wagnalls in 1883, and sold +at 25 cents, so that these statements of Prof. Max +Müller have been accessible for more than a quarter +of a century.</p> +<p>Since 1883, however, we have heard more and +more of the “Wisdom of Old India.”</p> +<p>The whole Theosophical movement, degenerate as +it may have become in some directions, and much +as it has been misinterpreted, and ridiculed and +exploited in others, was primarily a sincere and +earnest attempt “to bring the Secret Doctrine of +ancient India within reach of Western students,” to +promote the brotherhood of man; the study of ancient +philosophy and the psychical powers latent in +man. There are thousands of intelligent and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_121' name='page_121'></a>121</span> +earnest students all over the world who have been +uplifted, illuminated, and encouraged by these +studies. When the true history of the present epoch +comes to be written, there can be no shadow of +doubt as to the recognition that will be accorded to +H. P. Blavatsky and her aims, her life, and her +work.</p> +<p>But such movements as are going on in the +world, continually change their base, their methods, +and their prospective. While the new awakening +unmistakably goes back to old India, and compels a +review and a readjustment of all our knowledge, +and all our hopes and aims, another spirit has +entered our intellectual realm, and compelled attention +and recognition.</p> +<p>It has made for itself a habitation and a name, +and nothing less than a cataclysm can altogether +overthrow it.</p> +<p>It is the Genius of Scientific Criticism, Research, +and Demonstration.</p> +<p>The “Mistakes of Moses” may indeed be paralleled +by those of modern physical science, and these +are being revealed side by side with those of theology +and dogmatic assertion.</p> +<p>It has hardly yet dawned upon the mind of the +physical scientist that the concept of the psychical +and spiritual life and nature of man comprises, +with the world of matter and form, a complete +theorem of human life. He is often as incredulous, +resentful, and contemptuous as the creed-bound +religionist at the approach of more light, and the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_122' name='page_122'></a>122</span> +suggestion that all these essential problems were +included and solved ages ago in ancient Aryavarta; +and that “the few who know,” the ancient order +of the <i>Illuminati</i>, now designated the “School of +Natural Science,” has treasured this knowledge for +ages.</p> +<p>The Vedas are not only ancient, but complicated +and diffuse, and the busy life of the modern student +will hardly suffice for the mastery of their wisdom, +or the understanding of their secrets.</p> +<p>When, however, this ancient wisdom is condensed +and epitomized, in perfect harmony with the concepts, +the methods, and the demonstrations of +Natural Science, the “Jewel in the Lotus,”—to use +a Vedic synonym,—will appear in all its beauty and +glory, to all who have eyes to see, and ears to +hear, with determination to “honor every truth by +use,” and loyal service.</p> +<p>In the foregoing quotations it may be seen what +this real knowledge did for the people of ancient +India in building character on constructive lines, +promoting justice, equity, charity, and kindness +among the common people, and the teeming millions +of India, when our Saxon and Norman ancestors +were still barbarians, and before the Jew or the +Christian were even dreamed of.</p> +<p>In the following quotations from Jacolliot’s +“Bible in India,” an outline will be given as to the +source of some of our myths, pantheons, and +religions.</p> +<p>These brief and imperfect outlines from two small +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_123' name='page_123'></a>123</span> +and generally forgotten books, ought to satisfy any +intelligent and unbiased student how completely the +general thesis may be demonstrated from the ancient +records themselves.</p> +<p>The books from which these quotations are made +are like kindergarten primers for the use of beginners.</p> +<p>The present writer’s interest in and study of +Theosophy and the Secret Doctrine were instigated +by Schopenhauer’s “World as Will and Idea.” +He found how largely Schopenhauer had drawn +from the Upanishads (see previous quotation), and +how little, after all, his “Philosophy” had utilized +the ancient Wisdom. Hence he resolved to seek +the ancient sources of knowledge, and has been trying +his best to apprehend and utilize them, the +hoarded wisdom of the ages.</p> +<p>He is not in the least anxious to gain recognition +for, or to seek to rehabilitate old India, for its own +sake. She speaks for herself, through the centuries +of the past, and will continue to speak and to influence +all coming time.</p> +<p>Jacolliot shows, however, a little irritation at this +point over the suppression of facts, the brutality of +marauding invaders, and the wholesale and brazen +appropriation without the least credit to India’s +store of wisdom.</p> +<p>The present writer is, however, exceedingly +desirous that his fellow-students in the West should +discover, recognize, and utilize this ancient mine of +wisdom for themselves. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_124' name='page_124'></a>124</span></p> +<p>Its day of recognition is just now at the dawn, +and the most pressing problems concerning the real +nature, the spiritual possibilities, and the eternal +destiny of the soul of man, are pressing and burning +questions to-day.</p> +<p>That these problems do not wait solution by +modern physical science and physio-psychology, but +await only the understanding and acceptance of +every earnest and intelligent student, is easily +demonstrated. It challenges the world to-day, as +it has not done before for many millenniums, and +the issues are to be tried out to a scientific demonstration.</p> +<p>The preferences and prejudices of partisans will +not be consulted, nor will they in the least interrupt +the progress, nor interfere with the solution.</p> +<p>The question is no longer, “What think ye of +Jesus?” but “What <i>know</i> ye of your own +soul?” A new faith will supersede the old superstitions.</p> +<p>Faith, from the viewpoint of Natural Science, is +“the soul’s intuitive <i>conviction</i> of that which both +reason and conscience approve.” Blind faith, or +belief, is ever the handmaid of superstition. The +new faith is the harbinger, the promise, and the +potency of knowledge, the anchor of the soul, and +the armor of righteousness.</p> +<p>This is indeed the language of confidence, and it +should be put to the test of science and experience.</p> +<p>The scornful and the contemptuous are not even +<i>invited</i>! They are left alone with their Idols. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_125' name='page_125'></a>125</span></p> +<p>Coming now more directly to the splendid work +of Jacolliot, one thing I think ought to be apparent +to every honest and intelligent reader of “The +Bible in India,” and that is, that its author is in +no sense a partisan of Hinduism, but a searcher +and witness for the simple Truth as he finds and +apprehends it.</p> +<p>He puts aside mystery, miracle, and Divine +Revelation, as dispassionately in the Vedic, Brahmanical, +and Buddhistic cults, as in the Mosaic and +Christian. Belief in God, and reverence for Truth +in the light of reason and conscience, shine from +every page of his work.</p> +<p>To flippantly call him an “atheist,” or a “destroyer +of holy things,” as though that were in any +sense an answer to his thesis, and which formerly +was the rule, and may even now be attempted in +certain quarters, will simply brand the bigot as +by no means intelligent—if indeed honest—who attempts +it. The majority of such sectarians have +grown wise or prudent enough to ignore all such +issues.</p> +<p>There has been a great change in public sentiment +since Jacolliot went to India as an earnest +student of these subjects, and in the nearly forty +years since he wrote this book.</p> +<p>The saying that “Truth passes through three +phases before being accepted,” specially applies +here. First, people say, “It is not true.” Second, +“It contradicts Scripture,” and when it at last is +triumphant, that “<i>Everybody knew it before</i>.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_126' name='page_126'></a>126</span></p> +<p>The truths of which Jacolliot writes have already +reached at least the beginning of the third stage. +Of course, “Everybody” here means those who +read, and think, and dare to use conscience and +reason.</p> +<p>In referring to a religious debate between a missionary +and a Brahman, and the universal interest +manifested among all classes as to the outcome of +the encounter, “hooting the vanquished in either +case with strict impartiality,” Jacolliot adds, “We +shall be less surprised at this when it is known +that there is not a Hindoo, whatever his rank or +caste, who does not know the principles of the +Holy Scripture, that is, the Vedas, and who does +not <i>perfectly know how to read and write</i>.”</p> +<p>Three hundred and forty millions of people, +thousands of them pariahs and outcasts, sharing +refuse with the dogs, with no rights that any one +else is bound to respect, bowing their faces in the +dust when a Brahman passes ten paces away—and +yet everyone can read and write!</p> +<p>Max Müller said he had had in his study at +Oxford a young Hindoo who could repeat the whole +of the Mahabharata <i>without missing a word or an +inflection</i> from beginning to end.</p> +<p>These are some of the <i>remnants</i> in the decline of +old India after thousands of years of Brahman rule +and slavish domination of the people to preserve +their own exclusive caste and exploitation. Western +people have yet to learn the inevitable tendency, +and the invariable rule of exploitation of the people, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_127' name='page_127'></a>127</span> +by a dominant priesthood, and the poverty and +degradation of the masses that always results. +It has never once failed in this result in three +thousand years.</p> +<p>The whole of Southern Europe is already awakening +to a realization of this result to-day. It is +accomplished in the name of “Religion” by those +who call themselves “Viceregents of God,” and +who arrogantly trample on the rights of conscience, +and the freedom of man.</p> +<p>Brahmanism first set the example as originators +of this slavish abomination.</p> +<p>The studies and investigations of Jacolliot in +India, go back to the Vedic or pre-Brahmanic age; +then to the rise, development, and slow decline of +Brahmanism; then the epoch of Christna; the influence +of Buddha, and his being driven out of +India by the powerful Brahmans; and finally, to +the present poverty and degradation of the millions +through foreign invasion and domination.</p> +<p>The ruling Brahmans had neither thought nor +desire for <i>Constructive Nationality</i>. In their pride +and lust for power and gold, even in their just +pride over their inheritance from Vedic ancestors, +and wisdom, Patriotism was unknown to them. +Invaders contended with them in robbing and enslaving +the people.</p> +<p>The people who despised and hated the foreign +invader dare not, even yet, to rise against their +real despoilers—the Brahmans—or defy or break +their power. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_128' name='page_128'></a>128</span></p> +<p>It is the Vedic literature, and the earliest, or +pre-Brahmanic time that Jacolliot lauds so highly, +and in which he finds and demonstrates, the existence +of the sources of all human knowledge.</p> +<p>It will be ignorant folly, therefore, for the bigot +and the sectarian to attempt to answer or oppose +him, by referring to the condition of the people +of India as it is to-day.</p> +<p>Jacolliot simply shows the causes that have led +to the present degradation.</p> +<p>It is <i>priestcraft</i>, despite the Vedic wisdom, and +the missions and teaching of Christna and Buddha.</p> +<p>All this Jacolliot demonstrates beyond all controversy.</p> +<p>The bulk of his work consists in demonstrating +the source of Greek and Roman Mythology, Language, +Law, Philosophy, etc., and equally of every +Jewish and Christian doctrine and tradition.</p> +<p>Jacolliot shows that as the French code is copied +or adapted from the Justinian, so equally the Justinian +was derived from that of Manu, many centuries +previously. And what is true of Law is +equally true of philosophy, theology, morals, and the +principles of science, art, architecture, and all the +rest.</p> +<p>The Hindoos were demoralized by the priests, but +the moral degradation extended even to them, and +the arms they employed were turned against +themselves.</p> +<p>“The first result of the baneful domination of +priests in India was the abasement and moral +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_129' name='page_129'></a>129</span> +degradation of woman, so respected and honored +during the Vedic period.</p> +<p>“If you would reign over the persons of slaves, +over brutalized intelligence, the history of these infamous +epochs presents a means of unequaled simplicity. +<i>Degrade and demoralize the woman</i>, and +you will soon have made of man a debased creature, +without energy to struggle against the darkest +despotisms; for, according to the fine expression +of the Vedas, ‘the woman is the soul of humanity.’”</p> +<p>As did the Brahman priesthood, when through +greed and ambition they forsook the ancient wisdom, +so do the priesthood of Rome, with their +celibacy added to the abominations and opportunities +of the confessional.</p> +<p>Search the records of all time, and the traditions +and customs of every people, and you will find +nowhere else such recognition and reverence paid +to woman as in the early Vedic days.</p> +<p>“Let it be well understood,” says Jacolliot, “that +it was but sacerdotal influence and Brahminical +decay that, in changing the primitive condition of +the East, reduced woman to a state of subordination +which has not yet disappeared from our social +system.</p> +<p>“Let us read these maxims taken at hazard from +the sacred books of India.” (I quote only a few.) +“Man is strength—woman is beauty; he is the +reason that governs, but she is the wisdom that +moderates; the one cannot exist without the other, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_130' name='page_130'></a>130</span> +and hence the Lord created them two, for the one +purpose.</p> +<p>“He who despises woman, despises his mother.</p> +<p>“Who is cursed by a woman, is cursed by God.</p> +<p>“The tears of woman call down the fire of heaven +on those who make them flow.</p> +<p>“The songs of women are sweet in the ears of +the Lord; men should not, if they wish to be heard, +sing the praise of God without women.</p> +<p>“Women should be protected with tenderness, +and gratified with gifts, by all who wish for length +of days.</p> +<p>“It was at the prayer of a woman that the +Creator pardoned man; cursed be he who forgets +it.” (See the Vedic “Garden of Eden.”)</p> +<p>Moses, trained only in the decay of the old +religion by the degenerate priests of Egypt, while +drawing his legend of creation from the ancient +Vedic source, reverses all this and places the blame +of the “Fall” on woman, and the women of the +Bible are more often concubines and prostitutes +than Love’s pure evangels as in the ancient days. +Jacolliot proves this from many citations, as witness +also the following: (Numbers, Chapter XXI.)</p> +<p>“And Moses was enraged against the chief officers +of the army, against the tribunes, and the centurions +who returned from battle.</p> +<p>“And he said unto them, Why have you saved +the women and the children?</p> +<p>“Slay therefore all the males amongst the children, +and the women who have been married. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_131' name='page_131'></a>131</span></p> +<p>“But reserve for yourselves all the young girls +who are still virgins.”</p> +<p>Moses spoke “in the name of God,” as does his +Holiness at Rome to-day. Comment is hardly +necessary. A few more quotations from the Vedas:</p> +<p>“A virtuous woman needs no purification, for +she is never defiled, even by contact with impurity.</p> +<p>“Women should be shielded by fostering solicitude +by their fathers, their brothers, their husbands, +and the brothers of their husbands, if they hope +for great prosperity.</p> +<p>“When women are honored, the divinities are +content, but where they are not honored, all undertakings +fail.”</p> +<p>The sacerdotal caste in Egypt followed the inspiration +of the Brahmans, and took care to make +no change in that situation.</p> +<p>And Moses followed the example of the priests +of Egypt, where woman was a slave or a prostitute +in the temples as out.</p> +<p>The degeneracy of a people, the decay of religion, +and the degradation of woman are inseparable, and +it is so-called “religion” that institutes the change, +and sets the pace, “down the steep descent.”</p> +<p>The Brahmans “forgot God” and instituted the +worship of saints and holy men, and mythological +characters, just as Rome does to-day. The women +of America to-day by a consensus of public opinion +should make auricular confession <i>disreputable</i>.</p> +<p>Excommunication, which is such a power in the +hands of Rome, is merely a subterfuge and substitute +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_132' name='page_132'></a>132</span> +for the degradation of “outcasts,” and pariahs, +instituted by the Brahman priests to terrify the +disobedient and retain their power.</p> +<p>If the reader cares to know the danger and the +degradation to woman fostered and protected +through the Confessional by the Celibate Roman +priesthood, he should read “The History of Auricular +Confession,” by De Lasteyrie, translated into +English and printed in London in 1848. Now and +then a Pope or a council undertook to institute reform, +but found, as in Spain, prostitution of women +by priests through the confessional so widespread +and universal that they more often gave up the +attempt through fear of scandal and contempt for +the Church itself.</p> +<p>Lecky, in his “History of European Morals,” +records the case of “the abbot-elect of St. Augustine, +at Canterbury, who in 1171 was found on investigation +to have <i>seventeen illegitimate children in a +single village</i>; or, an abbot of St. Pelayo, in Spain, +who in 1130 was proved to have kept no less than +seventy concubines; or Henry III, Bishop of Liège, +who was deposed in 1274 for having sixty-five +illegitimate children.” (History of European Morals. +P. 350.)</p> +<p>If the reader remarks that “this is ancient history,” +he should remember that a celibate priesthood +to-day have the same opportunity, through +the secrecy and power of the Confessional, as ever.</p> +<p>I have barely touched on this disgusting but all-important +question on the general thesis of Jacolliot, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_133' name='page_133'></a>133</span> +viz.: “The first result of the baneful domination of +priests in India was the abasement and moral +degradation of woman.”</p> +<p>Rome, who derived her religious code from +paganized Egypt, added celibacy to the opportunities +and inducements for the degradation of +woman. Rome never attained the heights from +which the Brahman priesthood plunged into debauchery. +Even to-day in the festivals in the +Brahman temples wholesale orgies of prostitution +are sometimes found, as witnessed and recorded by +Jacolliot. From the first, Brahman priests have +married and reared families. Their degradation +and debauchery, therefore, cannot be charged to +their original “Divine Revelation,” but to their +corruption of it.</p> +<p>I have given a few brief quotations among hundreds +recorded by Jacolliot as to the respect and +veneration accorded to woman in early Vedic times, +and in the Laws of Manu.</p> +<p>“The Brahman may not approach the altar of +sacrifice <i>but with a soul pure, in a body undefiled</i>.</p> +<p>“Spirituous liquors beget drunkenness, neglect of +duty, and they profane prayer.</p> +<p>“The antiquity of India stands forth to establish +its priority of religious legislation in prohibiting to +priests the use of spirituous liquors, and especially +in forbidding the pleasures of love when they are +about to offer sacrifice.</p> +<p>“The woman whose words and thoughts and person +are pure is a celestial balm. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_134' name='page_134'></a>134</span></p> +<p>“Happy shall he be whose choice is approved by +all the good.</p> +<p>“It is ordained that a devotee shall choose a wife +from his own class.</p> +<p>“The Brahman who marries a woman who is not a +virgin, who is a widow, or divorced by her husband, +or who is not known as a virtuous woman, cannot be +permitted to offer sacrifice, for he is impure, and +nothing can cleanse him from his impurities.”</p> +<p>And Jacolliot adds, “It is not recorded, says +the divine Manu, that a Brahman has ever, even by +compulsion, married a girl of low class.</p> +<p>“Let the Brahman espouse a Brahmine, says +the Veda.</p> +<p>“Let him take a well-formed virgin, of an agreeable +name, of the graceful carriage of the swan, +or of the young elephant, whose body is covered with +light down, her hair fine, her teeth small, and her +limbs charmingly graceful.”</p> +<p>Jacolliot compares these early Vedic injunctions +with Leviticus, Chapter XXI, and the absurdities +introduced by Moses as to a “crooked nose or a +squint eye.”</p> +<p>Woman here in the West is just emerging from +the slavery and degradation of ages, and she <i>ought</i> +to know that that degradation was not the handicap +of barbaric and undeveloped races, so far as the +Aryan race is concerned, but a demoralization and +degradation instituted by priests, in the name of +religion, through which they have sought to rule the +world, and so far as institutional religions are concerned, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_135' name='page_135'></a>135</span> +woman has had to progress <i>in spite of +them</i>.</p> +<p>Without the aid and influence of woman to-day, +neither Protestant nor Roman Church could exist +at all, as witness almost any Sabbath service where +women outnumber men often ten to one.</p> +<p>One day woman will be wise enough and brave +enough to dictate terms, as she did ages ago in old +Aryavarta. When that day comes, and the really +Divine Motherhood planted in every true woman’s +soul is recognized by man and woman alike, God +grant that she may thenceforth hold the fort till the +Kali-Yuga is at full tide, and the Spiritual Evolution +of our present Humanity is fully accomplished.</p> +<p>In the meantime the world will have learned to +<i>know</i> Jesus, who and what he was, and how he +became the Christ, and will have joined in his +Divine Mission to man, as the teeming millions +joined in old India under Christna ages ago.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<a name='IX_HERO_WORSHIP_AND_FOLKLORE' id='IX_HERO_WORSHIP_AND_FOLKLORE'></a> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_136' name='page_136'></a>136</span> +<h2>CHAPTER IX</h2> +<h3>HERO WORSHIP AND FOLKLORE</h3> +</div> + +<p>The history of every people, of all time, and +of every religion of which we have any record, +reveals a similar origin, course, and destiny.</p> +<p>We of the present day have the advantage of +these records upon which to institute comparisons, +ascertain relations, and draw conclusions.</p> +<p>True, the partisans and postulants of all these +religions at the present day will claim exception +in favor of their own cult, and regard as sacrilegious +and profane any attempt to institute comparisons +and draw general conclusions.</p> +<p>Any attempt to persuade them of their error +would be useless.</p> +<p>The essentials of their religion will not be called +in question, but on the other hand, they will find +that it is impossible to escape from the habitual +and universal tendencies in which they are involved.</p> +<p>However veritable may have been the original +revelations, the tendencies and habits of weaving +around them the traditions and superstitions of +folklore seem to have been inevitable and universal.</p> +<p>It is the province of Science to ascertain the facts +in any given case, to institute comparisons, and to +draw deductions and generalizations dispassionately +and relentlessly. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_137' name='page_137'></a>137</span></p> +<p>It is thus that every tradition, superstition, creed, +dogma, and revelation comes under review, and is +placed on trial.</p> +<p>True science has no preconceived notion, no foregone +conclusion. Each subject examined must tell +its own story and in its own way, and stand or fall +measured by intrinsic evidence and revealed fact.</p> +<p>To this tribunal every episode in the life of man +and the history of the human race must at last +come.</p> +<p>What are the <i>facts</i>? What do they reveal and +signify?</p> +<p>To most religionists this method and aim of +science seem as relentless and dogmatic as their own +creed or dogmas.</p> +<p>It is a sifting and discriminative process, that, +while relentless, is in the end eminently Just, and +in the end will be found to be the revealer of all +that is essential and true in religion itself.</p> +<p>In itself, science is not and never can be a religion.</p> +<p>It is a <i>method</i> only, which, like a search-light, +reveals all religions in all their essentials, and +places them in their true light.</p> +<p>Religion <i>per se</i> is an essential element in the +nature and life of man and of the human race.</p> +<p>Science is a method, a way of procedure in the +intelligent mind of man in its search for truth.</p> +<p>Religion is vital, essential, basic. It is born of the +relation which inheres in the kinship of the individual +intelligence to the Universal Spirit of Nature and of +all life. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_138' name='page_138'></a>138</span></p> +<p>Science is the intelligent and rational use of the +mental powers of man.</p> +<p>Religion is intuitional, spiritual perception, involving +the heart, the affections. Man aspires, +worships, adores, and by the light of Faith or +intuitive conviction, recognizes that which he cannot +explain and cannot get rid of if he tries.</p> +<p>Science is the just weight and measure of things +seen, and of the natural causes of phenomena.</p> +<p>Religion—the evidence of things unseen. Religion, +as a <i>fact</i>, can never be explained away by +Science.</p> +<p>The so-called science that assumes or undertakes +to do that, is materialism and nescience.</p> +<p>Superstition is the false interpretation of religion, +and folklore and tradition are the accretions +that gather around the foundations and original +revelations of religion, and lead at last to obscuration +and the need of a new revelation.</p> +<p>Each genuine new “revelation” is but the rehabilitation +of the primeval religion in which accretions, +false interpretations, and dogmatic assertions +are cast aside.</p> +<p>Religion represents man’s endeavor to apprehend +and interpret the unseen; that “something +more” and “something beyond” the visible, the +sensuous, and the tangible.</p> +<p>It is this conscious <i>awareness</i> of something more +and something beyond the visible and the tangible, +that furnishes man with a conception of God and +of the human soul. This is a natural intuition, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_139' name='page_139'></a>139</span> +inseparable from the <i>awareness</i> of self. It lies at +the foundation like man’s self-conscious identity, and +can neither be explained nor explained away.</p> +<p>Here lies the root of all religions. The imagery +of man’s imagination, in his effort to apprehend the +unseen, and to formulate the unknown, gives rise +to myths, allegory, tradition, folklore, and in the +end, to superstition, creed, and dogma.</p> +<p>Then come priestcraft, oppression, persecution. +The death of religion, the deification of the revealer +or <i>Avatar</i>, and the substitution of the priesthood +as of divine authority, in place of the <i>revealer</i> or the +revelation.</p> +<p>Jove, Orpheus, Jehovah, and at last Jesus, are +enthroned beyond the clouds, and priest or church +assume the earthly prerogative, speak in their place, +assume dogmatic authority, promise heaven and +happiness for obedience, and dire penalties for disobedience, +and resort to persecution to maintain +their authority.</p> +<p>The traditions, mythologies, and folklore of all +the past have thus arisen. The creeds and dogmas +of the present constitute the effort of man to assume +exclusive dominion, and to exercise divine authority +over the masses of mankind. It is only another +form of the ambition of individuals for wealth, fame +or power, lifting them to a “class” above the toiling, +suffering, and sorrowing masses.</p> +<p>There are exceptional individuals all along the +way, who conceive, hold, and exercise the spirit of +the Master, and sink self in the service of man, and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_140' name='page_140'></a>140</span> +but for these the organized priesthood would be +execrated by mankind long before.</p> +<p>The organized church deifies, where the true +disciple humanizes and helps mankind in the name +and in the spirit of the Master.</p> +<p>This is the spirit, the origin, the genius and the +history of every Avatar, of Christna, and all the +Buddhas, the Saviors and Redeemers of history.</p> +<p>The orthodox Christian of to-day, whether Catholic +or Protestant, will be likely to admit the foregoing +outline except as it applies to his own religion. +Whereas it is abundantly proven to-day regarding +his own religion as nowhere else in history.</p> +<p>The histories of former religions are vague, distant, +and so covered over by tradition, myth, and +folklore, as to be difficult to trace.</p> +<p>The beginnings, history, and progress of the +Christian religion are comparatively nearer at hand, +and the process above outlined readily demonstrable.</p> +<p>Not only so, but the recognition of the facts and +processes is everywhere in evidence.</p> +<p>This fact, however, by no means ends the controversy.</p> +<p>Traditions, creeds, and dogmas die hard, and +fight to the last extremity. Nothing else known to +man fights so desperately and dies so hard as an +organized priesthood, and beyond this, they are +upheld by the ignorance, superstition, the fear, and +the faith of the masses.</p> +<p>Their adherents often believe and assume that +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_141' name='page_141'></a>141</span> +they have discovered final truths, essential and unalterable +verities. They undertake to support and +to maintain these by dogmatic authority, a holy +book, a “thus sayeth the Lord.”</p> +<p>“There it is, down in black and white.” No +further evidence is required.</p> +<p>To question such authority is to be damned. To +believe, accept, and to conform, is to be <i>saved</i>.</p> +<p>Difference of opinion and of interpretation inevitably +arise, even among those who dare not question +the ultimate authority and genuineness of the +original revelation. Hence arise sects, schisms, and +theological warfare.</p> +<p>Notwithstanding all this, the original revelation +becomes a matter of thorough investigation and of +criticism.</p> +<p>The so-called “higher criticism” had already discovered +errors in translation, and contradictions in +interpretation, resulting in a “revised edition” of +the sacred books, while under the name “<i>Pragmatism</i>,” +certain metaphysical writers and accredited +teachers have undertaken to determine essential +meanings and interpretations, and to submit religious +revelations, creeds, dogmas, and theologies to +critical analysis.</p> +<p>How far this analysis has gone, and how little of +the original interpretation actually remains, only +they are aware who keep abreast of current thought, +and who with open mind care more for the simple +truth than for custom, tradition, theologies, and the +folklore of the past. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_142' name='page_142'></a>142</span></p> +<p>Dogmatic theological authority is completely +undermined, and its days are numbered.<a name="FNanchor_1" id="FNanchor_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> +<p>With the masses there is the habitual unrest, the +feeling of uncertainty, the social upheaval, with the +inevitable tendency to confusion and anarchy. A +new religion is already in the formative stage, a +new Avatar inevitable.</p> +<p>It is to be less a repudiation than a revision and +rehabilitation of the old religion.</p> +<p>People everywhere are looking for the new revelation, +for the coming of <i>Christos</i>, for the new +Avatar, and few are aware that he is already +here.</p> +<p>It should be borne strictly in mind that in every +instance in the past, the advent of the Avatar has +been unattended by signs and wonders, has come +upon the stage of human action in the most commonplace +way, and that myth, miracle, and folklore +have followed as time went on.</p> +<p>To the people of his time Jesus was the “son of +the carpenter,” whose family was obscure. He came +“eating with publicans and sinners.”</p> +<p>Jesus, the demigod of to-day, was unknown and +undreamed of in Galilee. Philo Judĉus seems never +to have heard of him.</p> +<p>What and who Jesus was, and what he did, is +separated from what the church and theologians +have made of him by a gulf that seems almost +impassable, and yet this gulf has already been +bridged and passed.</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_143' name='page_143'></a>143</span></div> +<p>The new Avatar has for its mission the rehabilitation +of Jesus as he actually existed, divested of all +myth and miracle, while the mission for which he +came, and the doctrines for which he lived and died +are to be completely restored to mankind in their +purity.</p> +<p>The old Hindoos would call this transformation a +“reincarnation of Vishnu,” a “new Avatar.”</p> +<p>It will mean Jesus the divine Man, the master, +<i>Christos</i>, restored to the heart of Humanity from +the mysticism and miracle of monks and theologies, +from the superstitions and folklore of the multitude.</p> +<p>This means a reconstruction and a restatement of +the religion of Jesus.</p> +<p>Jesus remaining what he actually was and is, it +will be the province of Natural Science to explain +and to demonstrate by natural and spiritual law, +how, without mystery or miracle, Jesus became the +Master <i>Christos</i> and so remains to-day.</p> +<p>Natural Science is not the invention of man, more +than is the law of gravitation, the law of equilibrium, +or the binomial theorem. Man may discover these +laws from the phenomena of Nature, and demonstrate +their existence and mode of operation like +any others.</p> +<p>It is a question of dispassionate and intelligent +apprehension and demonstration.</p> +<p>All actual progress of man up to the present +time lies along these lines. Beyond this all is conjecture +and guess-work. Natural Science, however, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_144' name='page_144'></a>144</span> +is far more than modern physical science so-called. +It includes physical, mental, moral, and spiritual +science.</p> +<p>Its <i>methods</i> everywhere and at all times are the +same.</p> +<p>It may theorize, but never dogmatize, and it must +<i>demonstrate</i> at every step. Facts must not only +support the theorem, but demonstrate the conclusions +as inevitable, and the basis of all such actual +demonstration must be a verifiable individual experience, +with formulated laws and processes for its +repetition, just as in physical science, in chemistry, +and mathematics. Nothing less than this on any +plane or in any department of investigation can +enable the individual to declare “<i>I Know</i>.”</p> +<p>Demonstration is the sign manual of knowledge; +Dogmatism the arrogance of ignorance.</p> +<p>It is impossible to make these radical distinctions +too clear and specific.</p> +<p>When this method of Natural Science is applied +to the investigation of religions, tradition is separated +from fact, dogma from demonstration, miracle +from natural law, mythology and folklore are +found to be the fabric woven by the imagination +of mankind around the receding revelations, deifying +their authors, and mingling fact with fable, till the +originals become unrecognizable.</p> +<p>Romance and superstition become substitutes for +simple Faith, moral law, and social Justice.</p> +<p>To question or to repudiate the dogmas of +superstition becomes a “mortal sin,” even when +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_145' name='page_145'></a>145</span> +the most plain and specific moral or ethical obligations +are entirely subverted or reversed by dogmatic +authority.</p> +<p>It is thus that the original revelation is subverted +and at last overthrown.</p> +<p>From first to last, the whole fabric is claimed +to be “sacred and divine,” and to question it, +“sacrilege” and “profanation of holy things.” +Thus, that which seemed originally as wings to the +toiling, sorrowing children of men, becomes at last +a “millstone about the neck,” a “burden grievous +to be borne.”</p> +<p>Then comes protest, repudiation, reform, and +usually a new revelation, embodying the primitive +faith, and adapting it to modern times and conditions.</p> +<p>This is, in brief, the history of the Avatars of +Ancient India, the Buddhas and the Zoroasters of +later centuries; of the Greek Orpheus; of the legends +and folklore clustering around many of the sages +of Israel, and though in a less miraculous fashion, +of Confucius and Laotse. But most patent of all +does this principle apply to the founder of the +Christian religion, because less ancient and more +readily verifiable.</p> +<p>Though no new Avatar is yet recognized, the +<i>spirit</i> of <i>modern science</i> does not hesitate to repudiate +myth, miracle, and superstition, and to insist +on fact and natural law.</p> + +<hr style='width: 10%; border:none; border-bottom:1px solid black; clear:both; margin: 2em auto 1em 0' /> + +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_1' id='Footnote_1'></a><a href='#FNanchor_1'><span class='label'>[1]</span></a> +<p style='font-size: small'>See President Eliot’s latest utterances.</p></div> + +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<a name='X_CORROBORATIVE_EVIDENCE' id='X_CORROBORATIVE_EVIDENCE'></a> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_146' name='page_146'></a>146</span> +<h2>CHAPTER X</h2> +<h3>CORROBORATIVE EVIDENCE</h3> +</div> + +<p>The devout and conscientious believers in the +Christian Religion of to-day often view with +sorrow and alarm the encroachments of modern +science.</p> +<p>Unable to prevent these encroachments, they +stubbornly resent them. Once admitted, it seems +to them that nothing sacred or worthy the name of +Religion would remain. To shift to other and more +ancient faiths can never be considered at all, for +the “higher criticism” and “pragmatism” have left +them all in even a worse plight.</p> +<p>It seems to these devout souls like the death of +religion itself, and its elimination from the life of +man.</p> +<p>The intuitive basis and the intrinsic necessity of +religion in some form have already been considered.</p> +<p>This point is often overlooked or ignored by the +Iconoclasts.</p> +<p>Their position would seem to be, “Unravel the +superstition, disprove the possibility of miracle, and +let the deluge come if it must.”</p> +<p>Neither pragmatism nor higher criticism has been +in any large sense constructive, but more largely +destructive. The really spiritual element in all +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_147' name='page_147'></a>147</span> +religions, already referred to, is generally lost +sight of.</p> +<p>Modern psychology is no nearer a science of the +soul, than are folklore and superstition to true +religion. It should be recognized and granted once +for all that psychology, as a department of modern +physical science, has no substitute whatever to offer +in the place of Religion.</p> +<p>It is gathering facts, classifying, and labeling +psychic phenomena.</p> +<p>Here and there an advanced scientist, like Sir +Oliver Lodge, ignores tradition, repudiates orthodox +scientific restraints, and steps over the border +of actual or implied nihilism.</p> +<p>This smug nihilism with its superior air of scientific +wisdom, is often only the opposite pole of the +dogmatic certitude of the churchman. Actual +knowledge of the human soul is quite as far removed +from the one as from the other. Credulity and Incredulity +simply annul each other; often make faces +at each other; while Progress stalks alone in the +middle of the road, a “tramp” or a “vagabond,” +like Paracelsus, “reading the leaves of the book +of Nature,” laughing at poverty, fleeing from persecution, +yet <i>knowing</i>, and “becoming a light to +man forever.”</p> +<p>The consensus of opinion among the presidents +and professors in the leading colleges and universities +of this country, their unhesitating and unqualified +denial or repudiation of the claims set up +by the church regarding revelation and the basic +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_148' name='page_148'></a>148</span> +dogmas of the Christian Religion, and which his +“Holiness” of the Vatican designates as “Modernism,” +reveal, not only the “signs of the times,” +but show indisputably that modern education has +shaken itself free from the superstitions of the +past, and repudiated the old restraints to free +thought and modern progress.</p> +<p>Orthodoxy in religious matters has often nothing +to do in determining college curriculums, in the +selection of presidents, or in filling the chairs.</p> +<p>Bright young men and women, the advanced +students of the schools of to-day, who are to become +the leaders of thought and the teachers of to-morrow, +find little restraint and no formative element in +the creeds and dogmas that in the past have been +so much in evidence, and so constraining. Intensity +of feeling has given place to breadth and inclusiveness, +and under the name of “Comparative Religions,” +ancient faiths and modern, are classified, +and studied like fossils in the different ages of the +past.</p> +<p>The “crusader impulse” has rather settled down +in each individual breast, as the master passion, to +do, to dare, and to become something more and +better than the individual, or than the past has +hitherto known. Such a general period of intellectual +activity, with so few restraints, history nowhere +else records, and the world has never before +known.</p> +<p>Here lie the elements, the impulses, and the +formative stage of the new Avatar. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_149' name='page_149'></a>149</span></p> +<p>At this stage of our discussion it is of exceeding +interest and importance to bear in mind one great +fact. The average intelligent student of to-day +may take this fact tentatively, reserving final judgment +till accumulative evidence becomes satisfactory +and conclusive.</p> +<p>No one who is dominated by shallow incredulity, +and who attempts to close this door contemptuously, +will ever arrive at the real truth. The judgment +of such individuals is simply worthless, +notwithstanding the smug conceit of their own +opinions.</p> +<p>The important fact referred to, is the demonstrated +existence, all through the ages, of the so-called +<i>Mysteries</i>.</p> +<p>Their existence is beyond all question. What +they concealed and taught is sometimes difficult to +determine.</p> +<p>There were also the genuine and the spurious +Mysteries, and a fair appreciation of their origin, +purpose, methods, and genius, as illustrated by +Plato, Pythagoras, Zoroaster, and nearly every +great sage of antiquity, leaves no possible doubt +that in these “Secret Orders” were preserved the +loftiest and the most profound mental and spiritual +achievements of all previous human history.</p> +<p>If there were no other evidence in existence at +the present day except the traditions, landmarks, +ritual, and Genius of Freemasonry, a careful and +intelligent study of that Ancient Order would be +sufficient. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_150' name='page_150'></a>150</span></p> +<p>Whether one Mason in a thousand to-day apprehends +and realizes this fact, has nothing whatever to +do with the real question. The evidence is there, and +the indifference or superficial intelligence of numbers +cannot alter it.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<a name='XI_CONCEPTIONS_AND_PORTENTS_OF_AN_AVATAR' id='XI_CONCEPTIONS_AND_PORTENTS_OF_AN_AVATAR'></a> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_151' name='page_151'></a>151</span> +<h2>CHAPTER XI</h2> +<h3>CONCEPTIONS AND PORTENTS OF AN AVATAR</h3> +</div> + +<p>The conflict between Science and Religion has +been thoroughly thrashed out during the last +half century, and the “reign of law,” and orderly, +and progressive evolution, have made for themselves +a habitation and a name that nothing is likely to +overthrow.</p> +<p>It is recognized that every effect has a sufficient +and a commensurate cause, not <i>en bloc</i>, but in +matter, energy, mind, and spirit. Action and reaction +are definite mathematical processes. The +parallelogram of force tends everywhere to equilibrium +and secures further action and new processes +under universal law.</p> +<p>The “special creation” theory—everything made +out of nothing by a personal God—is no longer +regarded as tenable by intelligent individuals, +though miracle and special providence are often +included in accounting for the vicissitudes of life, +just as the so-called scientist superficially and flippantly +uses the word “coincidence,” as though it +really explained anything.</p> +<p>“The rational order that pervades the universe,” +as Prof. Huxley defined the concept and aim of +scientific discovery, has steadily gained ascendancy, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_152' name='page_152'></a>152</span> +until it dominates and measures individual intelligence.</p> +<p>The criticism is still occasionally made that this +means Pantheism, overlooking the fact that in all +mythologies and cosmologies, an ideal and pure +theism was recognized as lying back of and beyond +the pantheons of the gods and the deification of the +powers of Nature.</p> +<p>This was true in the Greek, Persian, Egyptian, +and Hindoo mythologies. Back of the many, and +beyond the transient and contending divinities, +was the <i>One</i>, postulated, but unknown and changeless.</p> +<p>Every religion known to man, with the advancing +civilization of a people, copied, modified, adopted, +and adapted the mythology and folklore of +some pre-existing religion and people. This is +readily demonstrable with the Hebrew, Greek, +and later Christian dispensations, notwithstanding +the most strenuous and persistent determination +to deny, disprove, and destroy the ancient +records.</p> +<p>It is embodied in the etymology of the very names +of heroes, gods, and demigods. A new language +arising with any people <i>de novo</i> can nowhere be +found.</p> +<p>Phonetics and picturegraphs, the various alphabets +and glyphs, are mixed and modified, but never +invented nor altogether changed.</p> +<p>Complicated as they may be, it is thus that +philology, ethnology, theology, and anthropology +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_153' name='page_153'></a>153</span> +constitute a consistent whole, the mythology and +folklore of mankind. This reveals the practical +unity and solidarity of the human race.</p> +<p>The tradition and prophecy among the ancient +Hebrews of the coming of the Messiah, the portents +that heralded, and the signs and wonders that preceded +or accompanied his appearance, are merely +translations or adaptations from previous eras, +Buddhas, or Avatars.</p> +<p>Whether Christian or non-Christian, the object +of the advent is always identical.</p> +<p>The light of the spirit having become enfeebled +or obscured, the people are left in darkness and +given over to sin and wickedness. Moral ruin +seems inevitable unless there is a divine influx, a +new Avatar, or Buddha, or Advent of the God-man.</p> +<p>God incarnates himself as the son of Mary, and +Jesus says, “I am come a light into the world that +whosoever believeth in me should not abide in +darkness.”</p> +<p>Christna says, “Though I am unborn, and my +nature is eternal, and I am the Lord also of all +creatures, yet taking control of my nature-form, I +am born by my illusive power. For whenever piety +decays, O son of Bharata, and impiety is in the +ascendant, then I produce myself. For the protection +of good men, for the destruction of evildoers, +for the re-establishment of piety, I am born +from age to age.” (Bhagavadgita.)</p> +<p>The historical Buddha taught that he was only +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_154' name='page_154'></a>154</span> +one of a long series of Buddhas, who appear at +intervals in the world, and who all teach the same +system. After the death of each Buddha his religion +flourishes for a time and then decays, till at last +it is completely forgotten and wickedness and violence +rule the earth. The names of twenty-four +of these Buddhas who appeared previous to Gautama +have been handed down to us, just as the “second +coming of Christ” is believed in and referred to +among the Christians.</p> +<p>Even the Mohammedan Koran refers to this +succession of prophets and messengers of Allah. +The same is true of the Parsis.</p> +<p>“I have said that I first of all chose Abad, and +after him I sent thirteen prophets in succession, all +called Abad. By these fourteen prophets the world +enjoyed prosperity.”</p> +<p>“Tradition informs us that when these auspicious +prophets and their successors behold evil to prevail +among mankind, they invariably withdraw from +among them—as they could not endure to behold or +hear wickedness.”</p> +<p>This is precisely what happened to Egypt after +the ambitious priesthood had gained the ascendency. +The Master Builders retired.</p> +<p>Bonwick says (“Egyptian Belief and Modern +Thought”): “What is commonly called the <i>Christ +idea</i> of humanity, thus appears to have been the +hope and consolation of the ancient Egyptians so +many thousand years ago.”</p> +<p>That which thus appears and disappears, dies +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_155' name='page_155'></a>155</span> +out and is born again, is the spiritual light in the +soul of man.</p> +<p>The diversity of man’s intellectual activities exercise, +elaborate, and deepen his mental perceptions, and +these largely concern the things of sense and time, +his appetites, passions, desires, and ambitions.</p> +<p>Back of and beyond all these lie the things of the +spirit. On the physical plane of life the former +obscure and crowd out the latter, which are thus +continually in need of renewal.</p> +<p>In adapting the new revelation to the conditions +of life on the physical plane, it is intellectualized +and theologized. Pundits and theologians undertake +to <i>explain</i> what it all means and how it happened +to be. Hence arise wrangles, disputes, and +finally creeds, dogmas, and persecution.</p> +<p>“Men fight like devils for the love of God.” +This is the ultimate history of every religion known +to man.</p> +<p>Meantime, the soul of man, a spiritual being +dwelling in a material body on the physical plane, +is seeking real knowledge of spiritual things.</p> +<p>This real knowledge is an experience of the soul. +It concerns, and is comprised in, the <i>living of a life</i>. +It is more than mind or intellect. It is <i>knowledge</i> +gained by experience. “This only I know, that +whereas I was blind, now I see.”</p> +<p>“Whether in the body or out of the body, I know +not, but I saw things impossible to utter.”</p> +<p>Gradually man’s <i>idea</i> of God and his conception +of Nature have changed and enlarged. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_156' name='page_156'></a>156</span></p> +<p>Man, as a spiritual being, is part of a spiritual +universe. He has been able to harmonize his concept +of God and Nature progressively as he has +gained larger views and deeper insight of both. +He is no longer a puppet of infinite caprice, nor +a somewhat “improved animal.”</p> +<p>The idea of man as a “fallen god” with the +capacity to regain his heavenly estate, is far nearer +the truth.</p> +<p>As man advances in knowledge through the combined +experiences of his spiritual nature and his +physical embodiment, his beliefs change, his horizon +enlarges, and his concepts become elevated and +purified. The past is apprehended and utilized and +the future intelligently anticipated. He begins to +understand.</p> +<p>This means the recognition of law and order, +permanency, <i>Foundation</i>, and stability.</p> +<p>The birth stories, the portents, signs and wonders +that announce, accompany, or follow the birth of a +Messiah or Avatar, are almost identical. A common +instinct seems to have led all scripture-compilers +to infer a simultaneous stimulus of nature +and man upon the appearance of what the Hindoo +calls an Avatar.</p> +<p>Men, too, seem prepared to expect such an advent +as its necessary time approaches. It is an instinct +which tells them that “the darkest hour precedes +the dawn.”</p> +<p>In the Christian scriptures the premonitions and +birth stories are found largely in the Apocryphal +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_157' name='page_157'></a>157</span> +books. Doubtless the copying and substitution +from the lives of Christna and Buddha were too +plain.</p> +<p>At the death of Jesus the seismic, astral, and +cosmic disturbances are graphically described, as +befitting the death of a god. “The veil of the temple +was rent in twain,” etc.</p> +<p>The simple fact is that mankind feels instinctively +in the soul the far-reaching influences at work. +The spiritual nature is stirred to its depths, and +when he tries to describe what he sees and feels, +his emotions, fears, or aspirations being at white +heat, his imagination draws from the folklore of +other times, races, and religions, to express what +he so powerfully, but vaguely senses.</p> +<p>But beyond all this, the time of great religious +revivals and social upheavals is likely to coincide +with seismic disturbance, tidal waves and the like, +owing to the conjunction of planets under the +general law of cycles. Man is completely involved +with and evolved from the bosom of Nature. His +freedom is determined by knowledge and obedience +to Law.</p> +<p>From the mystic Hymns of Orpheus, with the +legends of Gods, demigods, and heroes, and the +personification of the varied powers of man and +nature, arose the Greek Pantheon, which, in poetic +concept, romantic and dramatic embodiment and +expression, as a concise and complete whole, has +probably never been equaled by man.</p> +<p>True, every essential element, under a different +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_158' name='page_158'></a>158</span> +name and detail, may be found elsewhere, but never +equaled in concise and constructive folklore and +mythology.</p> +<p>But running underneath all this, like a vein of +gold under the mountain, was the philosophy of +Plato. Grasping the <i>One</i> from the many, Unity +from the fantastic diversity, he came to the individual +experience of the human soul and its +conscious mastership over the body and the things +of sense and time.</p> +<p>Civic pride, patriotism, and heroism, walked side +by side with dialectics, and the pantheon of the +gods and the achievements of warriors rivaled each +other on the stage, as themes for the poetic philosopher +and dramatist.</p> +<p>Mythology and folklore here furnished a background +from which the philosophy of the mysteries +and the real science of life gained a hearing.</p> +<p>Plato and Pythagoras generalized, and with many +reservations represented that which they had been +taught in the mysteries of Egypt.</p> +<p>Greece, with its triumphs in literature, in the +drama and in art, and all its magnificent civilization, +knew no Avatar.</p> +<p>Jacolliot, in his “Bible in India,” has shown +conclusively that not only the whole Greek pantheon, +its folklore and mythology, and even its civil code +were adopted from the Laws of Manu and the far +older Aryan civilization, including even the names +of heroes.</p> +<p>The fame of Greece rests upon its <i>Genius for +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_159' name='page_159'></a>159</span> +Construction</i> in Art and Architecture and the +Drama, and upon the open door it gave to Philosophy. +There was no dominant priesthood to +close the door of progress.</p> +<p>It utilized all the past and built and beautified +the present.</p> +<p>It bequeathed no creed nor dogma to the future, +and yet its civilization was transcendent and is +immortal.</p> +<p>It had its canons of Art and of Architecture. +These it demonstrated by constructive work. It +illustrated, explained and exemplified, but it did +not argue nor dogmatize.</p> +<p>The world for two thousand years has been +“going back to Greece” and trying to explain how +it all happened, just as we have been trying to +explain Goethe’s “Faust.”</p> +<p>Genius is transcendent and immortal.</p> +<p>With the decline of Greece there arose the Genius +of the Tiber, Imperial Rome, and the Cĉsars.</p> +<p>Rome created an <i>Avatar</i> out of the “Babe of +Bethlehem.” Having enthroned Jehovah, it proceeded +to deify Jesus, and then by substitution to +take the place of both.</p> +<p>Imperial Rome, the “Scarlet Mother of the +Tiber,” assumed the government and dictatorship +of the world. Imperial, dogmatic, relentless, the +arbiter of the fate of humanity on earth and beyond.</p> +<p>Here was arbitrary, relentless <i>power</i> at any cost, +to be maintained on any terms. “The end always +justified the means.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_160' name='page_160'></a>160</span></p> +<p>In the civilization of Greece, the Individual, the +citizen was first, and association and co-operation +built the State.</p> +<p>With Rome the Individual is nothing but a pawn, +an accessory to the Church. It was and is the +Church first, last, and all the time. The Individual +can claim no right nor prerogative except as a concession +from the Church.</p> +<p>The contrast is extreme and absolute between the +Genius of Greece and that of Rome.</p> +<p>As the Genius of Greece was adapted from the +older Aryan, so also was that of Rome, from the +Brahmans, through Egypt.</p> +<p>Among the various Avatars of old India designated +as “Incarnations of Vishnu,” Siva “<i>the destroyer</i>,” +was often in evidence.</p> +<p>Rome proceeded to adopt the Hindoo Trinity—Brahma, +Vishnu, and Siva—(the Creator, the Preserver, +and the Destroyer), and to so shape its +creed and dogmas as to secure and maintain the +power of Mother Church, simply with a change of +names—“Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.”</p> +<p>It has enslaved nations and slaughtered millions +in order to maintain its power. For more than fifteen +hundred years it has maintained its relentless +warfare against the inalienable rights of the Individual, +and the inevitable progress of humanity.</p> +<p>It has escaped the execration of the world only +by its priestly trick of deifying Jesus and sophisticating +every doctrine that he taught. Supporting +its pretensions by Mariolatry, the Auricular +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_161' name='page_161'></a>161</span> +Confession, and its army of spies and inquisitors, +it has dominated mankind, impoverished whole +nations, devastated provinces and murdered all who +opposed its progress wherever and whenever it has +gained civil power.</p> +<p>Rome is to-day the literal and visible reincarnation +of <i>Siva</i>, the <i>Avatar of Destruction</i>. She has +originated nothing. Her mass and all her ritualistic +mummeries are adopted from paganism at its worst +stage and in its most degenerate form, and she +awaits the fate that befell Egypt and all her +predecessors, “Sodom, Gomorrah, and the cities of +the plain.”</p> +<p>Protestantism has hitherto “protested” only in +part. Refusing Mariolatry and auricular confession, +Protestantism, by accepting the miraculous +conception, the deification of Jesus and the vicarious +atonement, has kept Rome in countenance.</p> +<p>When these are swept away, and their doom is +already declared by the leaders of thought in nearly +all our institutions of higher learning, the Roman +<i>Avatar</i> will stand revealed in all its nakedness and +villainy to the execration of mankind. It is this +“<i>Modernism</i>” that “His Holiness” so much fears +and is trying to arrest. It is too late, unless +civilization and the march of time move backward.</p> +<p>The most amazing thing about it all is, how the +world, with its present intelligence and culture, can +be so indifferent to this most aggressive, cruel, and +relentless Avatar of all the ages, instead of repelling +it with contempt and execration. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_162' name='page_162'></a>162</span></p> +<p>Thirty-seven Italian Cardinals,<a name="FNanchor_2" id="FNanchor_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> proud and arrogant, +rule the Church, elect the Pope, and assume +dictatorship of the earth, as also arbiters of human +destiny, here and hereafter. America, the corn-bin +of this modern Egypt, by courtesy has <i>one cardinal</i>, +just to keep her in countenance.</p> +<p>The effrontery is cyclopean, but our supineness +and indifference are deplorable and inexcusable.</p> +<p>Shipping her impoverished, degraded, criminal, +and priest-ridden hordes to America by the million +every year, Rome is massing her army for the +overthrow of our government and all our present +civilization. With her dogma of obedience, her +army now <i>votes</i> and will, by and by, <i>fight</i> under +the dictatorship of the Cardinals at Rome. Already +undermining our Public Free Schools, boycotting +the public press, with their army of Jesuit spies +and secret assassins of every liberty prized by man, +the “merry war” goes on right under our eyes, and +we sleep and dream and blindly assume that “there +is no danger.”</p> +<p>Read the history of the Crusaders, of the Protestant +Reformation and of the “Holy Inquisition,” +and if further enlightenment is needed, study the +origin, history, and denouement of all the Avatars +of the past, the fate of Egypt, the cities of the +plain, where paganism and a degenerate priesthood +usurped the place of pure and undefiled +religion, and literally wiped from the map of the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_163' name='page_163'></a>163</span> +world the civilizations of the past. <i>Nemesis</i> is written +in letters of flame across the starry heavens, as +an atonement for the blood of nations and the +degeneracy and diabolism of an ambitious, cruel, +relentless, and unrestrained priesthood. And it is +all being literally repeated to-day without the +novelty of a new idea, or method, or device, or +motive. It is <i>The Reincarnation of the Avatar of +Siva, the Destroyer</i>.</p> + +<hr style='width: 10%; border:none; border-bottom:1px solid black; clear:both; margin: 2em auto 1em 0' /> + +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_2' id='Footnote_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_2'><span class='label'>[2]</span></a> +<p style='font-size: small'>At the death of Pope Leo there were 65 Cardinals, 39 of whom were Italians.</p></div> + +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<a name='XII_PORTENTS_OF_THE_PRESENT_TIME' id='XII_PORTENTS_OF_THE_PRESENT_TIME'></a> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_164' name='page_164'></a>164</span> +<h2>CHAPTER XII</h2> +<h3>PORTENTS OF THE PRESENT TIME</h3> +</div> + +<p>There is no disguising nor denying the fact +that during the past half century institutional +religion in the West has steadily lost its hold upon +the great mass of the people. Creeds and dogmas +are denied and repudiated.</p> +<p>The “higher criticism” represents the reluctant +yielding of theologians to the existing conditions. +In order to maintain any hold whatever upon the +people and retain a semblance of the old faith, they +have revised and modified beliefs and interpretations, +and relaxed completely the former demand +for the confession of faith and acceptance of the +old creeds. Mere general verbal assent admitting +of many mental reservations is now often deemed +sufficient.</p> +<p>In the meantime, the living of the life and the +doing of the work demanded by Jesus have come +more and more into demand and general recognition.</p> +<p>The “Emmanuel Movement,” now gaining such +recognition and making such rapid progress, is +sufficient evidence at this point.</p> +<p>With the Church of Rome no such change is +manifest. By keeping its people in ignorance, by +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_165' name='page_165'></a>165</span> +condemning all change or any improvement under +the name of “Modernism,” and by insisting upon +the dogma of infallibility and blind obedience, Rome +thus far has resisted all change and refused all +compromise.</p> +<p>The change in Protestantism represents the +growth of intelligence, the recognition of the rights +of conscience, and individual and intellectual freedom.</p> +<p>The stability so apparent in Romanism relies +solely on Ignorance, Superstition, and Fear, enforced +by the dogma of “<i>Infallibility</i>,” and reinforced +by the power of “Excommunication” and +the penalty of “Anathema.”</p> +<p>The unity and stability of the Roman Church, +thus secured by force, will presently be found to be +apparent only. It could only work and hold in +the dark ages. Internal division and dissension, +now known to exist, await only some fresh act of +oppression, or some new abomination, or abuse of +political power, to disrupt its solidarity.</p> +<p>In the meantime physical science has steadily +advanced, opening new avenues of wealth, industry, +and opportunity, and so developing the resources +of this Western world.</p> +<p>But more important and far-reaching still have +been the discoveries regarding the finer forces of +nature.</p> +<p>The wonderful development and application of +discoveries in Electricity have not only opened a +new world previously unknown and unsuspected, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_166' name='page_166'></a>166</span> +but have seemed to endow these subtle forces almost +with an intelligence of their own. Crass +materialism is dead and space practically annihilated.</p> +<p>If a single wire or a vibrating disc cannot +originate intelligent speech, it can retain, repeat, +and transmit the qualities, tones and inflections of +the human voice in a way that seems miraculous and +uncanny. It is thus that our concepts of nature +have been enlarged, refined, and actually spiritualized. +“Brutal” and “dead” matter are no +longer in evidence nor even mentioned.</p> +<p>With the advent of modern spiritualism came +another group of phenomena. Making the largest +allowance for fraud, self-deception, and all the +vagaries of the imagination, no intelligent individual, +familiar with the phenomena, will attempt to +deny the extension of man’s psychic world of consciousness +and the manifestation of intelligence in +ways and under conditions previously unknown. +The identification of these intelligences, always +difficult, and generally problematical, need not here +be discussed at all. The facts and the phenomena +are all that we are here concerned with.</p> +<p>The most important consideration regarding all +these phenomena is that they do not <i>develop</i>, but on +the contrary <i>dominate</i> the individual. They are, +in fact, altogether subjective. The medium may +put himself in the negative or passive condition to +be controlled, but he cannot <i>command</i> nor <i>control</i> +the influence nor the “entity” that influences him, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_167' name='page_167'></a>167</span> +and eventually he loses the power to resist it, and +likewise the power of self-control.</p> +<p>Science demands <i>facts</i>, and here are facts in +abundance. These facts supplement the discoveries +in electricity and nature’s finer forces, and pass +from physics to metaphysics, from physiology to +psychology, and push back the veil of the unseen, +and hitherto unknown, many degrees.</p> +<p>The trend of all this progress, and of these discoveries, +is exceedingly plain.</p> +<p>Our concepts of Nature, of Life, and of Man +have been almost immeasurably enlarged, refined, +and elevated.</p> +<p>Expectancy is in the air. “What next is going +to happen?” is the question everywhere asked. The +conditions and portents, in a general way, are those +that herald a new Avatar; an Avatar now, of science +rather than of religion; of knowledge rather than of +faith, and this knowledge is to be of spiritual things, +the foundations of which are already in evidence.</p> +<p>This science is not to be time-serving, but man-serving; +not so much a renewal of faith as a revelation +of knowledge; less anxious for the glory of +God than for the elevation of man, which is the +more direct and certain way of honoring Divinity.</p> +<p>This does not mean the decay nor the repudiation +of religion, but a <i>realization</i> of <i>true</i> religion, such +as heretofore prophets have foretold, revelation has +forecast, and toward which humanity has toiled +and journeyed in sorrow and pain; the very religion +that Jesus lived and taught. “A clean life, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_168' name='page_168'></a>168</span> +an open mind, an unveiled spiritual perception, a +brotherliness for all, and human life a journeying +upward toward the realms of eternal day, ‘with no +night there, and no sorrow.’”</p> +<p><i>And why not?</i> If man can conceive it, why may +he not <i>realize</i> it? The “Old Adam” as an excuse +is exploded. The “New Adam” is indeed “a +quickening spirit.”</p> +<p>Nothing is plainer nor more demonstrable at the +present day than the fact that mankind is slowly +but surely shaking off the traditions and the superstitions +that have bound it in the past, rising above +the myths and the folklore of every age and clime, +and awaking as if from slumber, to behold a new +day and a new world.</p> +<p>This awakening is even more in evidence and +remarkable in the case of woman than of man. +Progress here during the last decade has been such +as the world has never before seen on any such +scale, and it means more to the elevation of humanity +than anyone has hitherto been able to forecast +or to measure.</p> +<p>In the meantime social and economic conditions +with the great masses of the people are very far +from what they should be.</p> +<p>Unrest and confusion are strongly in evidence. +On the whole, there is far less suffering and destitution +than ever before. Oppression and abominations +meet with quick and powerful protest from all +classes, when exposed, and at least temporary relief +is quick to follow. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_169' name='page_169'></a>169</span></p> +<p>The blame is confined to no one class, rich or +poor. The equitable distribution of wealth, resources, +and opportunity that have developed beyond +all precedent during the last half century, +requires time. Justice and equity are not dead, +but everywhere in evidence, dominating mankind +at large. Public sentiment was never more keen +and never nearer right than to-day. There is +general confusion, however, as to methods and ways +and means. The cunning shark and the selfish +brute resort to concealment, cunning and subterfuge, +to deceive the people and often succeed for a time, +only to meet with condemnation and execration +later. Injustice is often in evidence, but it is +neither rampant nor dominant. It stands in fear +of public sentiment.</p> +<p>These, in brief and in outline, are the conditions, +the portents, to-day, everywhere in evidence:</p> +<p>1. The decay of creeds and dogmas.</p> +<p>2. Great progress in Science, Art, and the Crafts.</p> +<p>3. Immense discoveries regarding Nature’s finer +forces and the psychical powers latent in man.</p> +<p>4. Great expectancy as to new revelations.</p> +<p>5. Unprecedented increase in wealth and the development +of natural resources.</p> +<p>6. Enfranchisement of woman, and immense +progress as to her rights and opportunities.</p> +<p>7. Economic Justice recognized and aimed at, +and fortified by public sentiment, with strong efforts +to secure and maintain it.</p> +<p>The present age or epoch is not one of darkness, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_170' name='page_170'></a>170</span> +but of light; not of discouragement, but of hope. +It is neither retrograde nor stagnant, but progressive +to a degree never before witnessed in the history +of man on so large a scale and involving all +classes and so many people at one time.</p> +<p>Organized or institutional religion alone is on +the wane. Evidence and utility are everywhere +demanded. Nothing is sacred simply because it is +old; nor true merely because it is dogmatically +asserted so to be.</p> +<p>Holy books, holy men, and holy days are matters +of evidence, and not of blind credence.</p> +<p>What will the new religion—the new revelation—be? +and whence will it come?</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<a name='XIII_THE_SEPARABLE_SOUL_IN_FOLKLORE' id='XIII_THE_SEPARABLE_SOUL_IN_FOLKLORE'></a> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_171' name='page_171'></a>171</span> +<h2>CHAPTER XIII</h2> +<h3>THE SEPARABLE SOUL IN FOLKLORE</h3> +</div> + +<p>Belief in a separable soul in man is virtually +universal. Such belief is found amongst the +lowest races, and in the few instances where it has +not been clearly discovered it is admitted that it may +still exist and be disguised by the native meaning +of words or signs that escape the explorer.</p> +<p>The universality of this belief has often been +urged as an evidence of its validity and proof of the +soul’s existence.</p> +<p>Modern physical science deduces this belief from +the phenomena of daily life and the analogies of +individual experience, thus giving precedence to +material causes for mental concepts, or universal +ideas. This view is, I think, entitled to the most +careful consideration, but it cannot once for all +be admitted, nor is it consistent with the general +theory and progress of evolution that the phenomenal +stands to the noumenal, the actual to the +ideal, as cause to effect. These two groups of experiences +are alternate and coincident; and, as to +priority, it is only the old question in a new form, +as to which was first, the bird that laid the egg, or +the egg that hatched the bird.</p> +<p>This distinction is particularly pertinent to the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_172' name='page_172'></a>172</span> +present subject, for the reason that by the method +of modern physical science, in dealing with the +belief in the existence of the soul, the whole of +this universal belief is swept away. Its origin is +found in the ignorance, superstition, and false +analogies of barbarous races, and the inference is +that the belief can only linger as a remnant of +superstition among civilized men. This method prejudges +the whole question, and (while it must +readily be admitted that the opposite method equally +prejudges it), my contention is for neither the one +nor the other, but for the careful consideration and +final blending of both. If at first sight these two +theories, which form the basis of the working +hypothesis of the materialist and the spiritist, seem +paradoxical and wholly irreconcilable, with careful +consideration and unbiased investigation of both +sides of the problem the paradox will disappear.</p> +<p>With both the lowest and the highest races not +only do we find the existence of belief in the existence +of a separable soul in man, but of ghosts, +gods, genii, a spirit of the air, and hierarchies of +celestial and infernal beings.</p> +<p>In this regard, philosophers like Plato and Pythagoras, +the intellectual giants of the human race, +may be said to have elaborated and specialized the +rude conceptions of the Fiji Islander, and to vie +with him in peopling space with invisible entities +and potencies. In spite of the dictum of science, +the world, intelligent and ignorant alike, believes, +and will continue to believe, in the reality of the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_173' name='page_173'></a>173</span> +unseen universe, and the Platonic doctrine of +“emanation” and the “world of divine ideas” not +only begin where modern physical science leaves off, +but at this very point science either begs the question, +or ignores it entirely.</p> +<p>How things come to be what they are, and to +evolve as they do, science nowhere declares. It +simply takes things as it finds them, and dubs the +ultimate and antecedent causation the <i>Unknowable</i>. +The philosophy of Plato, it is true, reaches at last +the unknowable and the incomprehensible, but only +after revealing another universe, the metaphysical +and spiritual, entirely unknown to, or ignored or +derided by the materialist.</p> +<p>It is, however, from this invisible realm that all +visible things have come forth, the two being not +only under absolute and universal law, but bearing +everywhere definite analogies to each other. Hence +Plato says, “God geometrizes.” Absolute mathematics +determines the relations of atoms to suns, +and the circulation of the blood in man to the +revolutions of suns and solar systems.</p> +<p>A further general consideration remains to be +noted before taking up the evidence of belief in +the separable soul, and that is, the evolutionary life-wave +of humanity on our earth.</p> +<p>The progress of man for some millions of years +past has by no means been a straightforward climbing +from barbarism to civilization. The wave of +evolution has ebbed and flowed. While at one +place man has slowly emerged from savagery, at +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_174' name='page_174'></a>174</span> +another he has as surely sunk to it. Continents +and islands have risen from and again sunk to +the bottom of the sea, bearing the races of men in +their upheavals or descent, and cataclysmic and +seismic or volcanic upheavals have blotted out in a +day the accumulated progress of centuries. The +poles of the earth have shifted with results to the +life of the globe more awful than the imagination +can portray. Bodies of people like our North +American Indians represent the remains of many +peoples, as in Russia or India to-day, fragments +of many nationalities are being absorbed in +one.</p> +<p>Bearing in mind, therefore, that owing to many +causes a nation may descend to barbarism or disappear +entirely, we shall find everywhere the fragments +and decay of the old belief no less than the +dawn of the new. A noble creed, or a philosophical +concept of a highly advanced race, may exist as a +transformed and degrading superstition with a +race, or a fragment of a people, undergoing degeneracy.</p> +<p>Every religion known to man has gone through +just this transformation. The tendency is innate +and inevitable and no civilization or religion has +ever yet been able long to resist it. If we bear +this in mind we shall be less surprised at anthropogeneses, +cosmogeneses or psychologies found sometimes +among otherwise rude or savage peoples, and +be better able to understand the incongruities and +lack of symmetry in their evolution. It would be +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_175' name='page_175'></a>175</span> +easy to cite instances and draw comparisons at +this point.</p> +<p>Bearing in mind, then, these general considerations +underlying all interpretation, and nowhere +more applicable than to our present subject, the +following illustrations of belief in the separable +soul, gleaned largely from Spencer’s “Descriptive +Sociology,” may be of interest. It is drawn largely +from the lower civilizations, as all are more or less +familiar with the mythologies of the Greeks, +Babylonians, Phœnicians, etc., all of which are +accessible. The material available is embarrassing +on account of its magnitude alone.</p> +<p>Oscar Peschel, in his “Races of Man,” says that +“perhaps the Brazilian Botocudos, of all the inhabitants +of the world, are most nearly in the +primitive state, and yet,” he adds, “possibly we may +be altogether mistaken in this regard, as their +languages are very imperfectly known.”</p> +<p>Humboldt rescued the Caribs from such an impeachment +and declares that their language “combines +wealth, grace, strength, and gentleness. It +has expressions for abstract ideas, for Futurity, +Eternity, and Existence, and enough numerical +terms to express all possible combinations of our +numerals.” It might be noted in passing that it +was these same Brazilian natives that the Portuguese +settlers sought to decimate by spreading +smallpox and scarlet fever amongst them, as the +English colonists in Tasmania shot the natives +when they had no better food for their dogs. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_176' name='page_176'></a>176</span></p> +<p>Hariot says that “many of the Indian natives +of North and South America believe that the soul, +after its separation from the body, enters into a +wide path crowded with spirits which are journeying +toward a region of eternal repose. They have +to cross an impetuous river on a trembling wicker +bridge which is very dangerous.”</p> +<p>Some Greenlanders believe that the soul can go +astray out of the body for a considerable time. +Some believe that they can leave their souls at home +when going on a journey, and others believe in the +migration of souls.</p> +<p>Belief in the soul and a future state is universal +among the Indians of North America. All are +familiar with the tradition of the “Happy Hunting +Ground.” With them the future life is patterned +after the present.</p> +<p>Schoolcraft says that the Chippewas believe that +there are duplicate souls, one of which remains with +the body, while the other is free to depart on excursions +during sleep. After death the soul departs +to the Indian Elysium and a fire is kept burning +on the newly-made grave for four days, the time +required for the soul to reach its destination.</p> +<p>The Dakotas stand in great fear of the spirits +of the dead, who they think have power to injure +them, and they recite prayers and give offerings to +appease them.</p> +<p>The Mandans, according to Schoolcraft, have +anticipated Prof. Lloyd’s Etidorhpa, even to the +beautiful maiden. They believe that they were the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_177' name='page_177'></a>177</span> +first people created on the earth, and that they +first lived inside the globe. They raised many vines, +one of which having grown up through a hole in the +earth, one of the young men climbed up until he +crawled out on the bank of the river where the +Mandan village stands. (Jack and the bean stalk.) +The young man returned to the nether world and +piloted several of his companions to the outer +world, and among them two very beautiful virgins. +Among those who tried to get up was a very +large and fat woman, who was ordered by the +chiefs to remain behind. Her curiosity prompted +her secretly to make the trial. The vine broke +under her weight and she was badly hurt by the +fall, but did not die, and was ever after in disgrace +for having cut off all communication with the +upper world. Those who had already ascended built +the Mandan village, and when these die they expect +to return to the nether world from which they came. +They also believe the earth a great tortoise, and +have a tradition of a universal deluge.</p> +<p>The Indians of Guiana believe in the immortality +of the soul, as do also the Arawaks. The +Brazilians are said by Spix and Martins to have +had no religious belief whatever before mingling with +the civilized races. The Guaranis believed in a soul +which remained in the grave with the body.</p> +<p>The Patagonians believe in a country of the +dead which they call Alhue Mapu and they kill the +horses of the deceased in order that their owner may +ride in Alhue Mapu. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_178' name='page_178'></a>178</span></p> +<p>From the beliefs of the Negritto and Malayo-Polynesian +races, I glean the following: The Fuegians +believe in a superior being, and in good and +evil spirits, in dreams, omens, signs, etc. Fitzroy +says he could not satisfy himself that they had any +idea of the immortality of the soul.</p> +<p>The Veddahs believe in the guardianship of the +spirits of the dead, who visit them in dreams and +minister to them in sickness, and they have ceremonies +of invocation.</p> +<p>Eyra says some at least of the Australians believe +in the existence and separability of the soul.</p> +<p>The Tasmanians believed in a future life as a +tradition of a primitive religion, and Bonwick says +they conversed with the spirits of the dead.</p> +<p>The New Caledonians believe that white men +are the spirits of the dead, and that they bring +sickness. They believe that the soul on leaving +the body goes to the Bush, and every fifth month +they have a “spirit night” or “grand concert of +spirits.” The gods of the New Caledonians are +their ancestors, whose relics they keep and idolize.</p> +<p>The Fijians believe in a separable soul, and dying +is by them described by the same terms as sunset.</p> +<p>Belief in a future state among them is said by +Siemann to be universal. In Fiji heaven the inhabitants +plant, live in families, fight, and so repeat +the incidents of life on earth. They believe +that the spirit of men, while still alive, may leave +the body and trouble other people when asleep.</p> +<p>The Sandwich Islanders believe that the spirit +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_179' name='page_179'></a>179</span> +of the departed hovers about his former home, +appears to his relatives in dreams, and they worship +an image which they believe to be in some +way connected with the departed. They regard +the spirit of one of their ancient kings as a tutelar +deity, and the king and the priest were believed +to be descended from the gods.</p> +<p>The Tahitians believe in a separable soul which, +on leaving the body, is seized by other spirits and +conducted to the state of night, where it is by +degrees eaten by the gods. A few escape this fate, +while others, after being three times eaten, become +immortal.</p> +<p>The Tongons believe that the human soul is the +more ethereal part of the body and that it exists +in Bolotoo in the form and likeness of the body +the moment after death.</p> +<p>The Samoans believe that the spirits of the dead +have power to return and to cause disease and +death in other members of the family, hence all +are anxious to part with the dying on good terms.</p> +<p>The New Zealanders believe that during sleep +the mind leaves the body, and that dreams are the +objects seen during its wanderings. They believe +in two separate abodes for departed spirits, the sky, +and the sea, and that the abodes of souls are to be +approached only down the face of a steep precipice—Cape +Maria Van Dieman.</p> +<p>The Dyaks have great difficulty in distinguishing +sleep from death. They believe that the soul during +sleep goes on an expedition of its own, and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_180' name='page_180'></a>180</span> +sees, hears, and talks. They believe in spirits, +omens, and in all that occurs in dreams as real and +literally true.</p> +<p>The Sumatrans believe in spirits and superior +beings, and are said to have a vague idea of the +immortality of the soul, and the Malays believe in +spirits, good and bad, and seem to have a vague +idea of a separable soul.</p> +<p>The Mexicans believed in a separable soul, and +distinguished three different abodes for it after +death.</p> +<p>Landa says the people of Yucatan have always +believed more firmly in the immortality of the soul +than other people, though they were less advanced +in civilization. They believed that after death there +would be a better life, which the soul would enjoy +after its separation from the body. They worshiped +their dead kings as gods. The mythology +of the people of Guatemala, Honduras, and +Nicaragua is extensive and complicated and their +National Book, the Popol Vuh, possesses intense +interest for the student. There can be no doubt +that these people believed in a separable soul, as +did also the Chibchas.</p> +<p>It was the belief of the ancient Peruvians that +the soul leaves the body during sleep, and that the +soul itself cannot sleep, but that dreams are what +the soul sees in the world while the body sleeps. +Waitz says they believed in the transmigration of +human souls into the bodies of animals.</p> +<p>In the case of the Arabians the primitive belief, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_181' name='page_181'></a>181</span> +which was Sabianism, has been altered far less +by Mohammedan invasion than most persons suppose. +Burton says Mohammed and his followers +conquered only the more civilized Bedouins, and +Baker says that the Arabs are unchanged, and that +the theological opinions which they now hold are +the same as those which prevailed in remote ages, +and of this belief the soul and its immortality +formed a part.</p> +<p>In general the Hill Tribes of India share in the +universal belief in the soul, in spirits, gods, and +devils, though of many of these tribes little is +really known in modern times.</p> +<p>Nearly all our North American Indians (I can +find no exceptions) bury objects with their dead, +such as food implements, jewelry, etc., and kill +the horses of the deceased that he may ride in the +Happy Hunting Ground.</p> +<p>With the Carib’s death his wife and captives were +killed, and food utensils, etc., were buried with +him.</p> +<p>A curious custom prevailed with some Brazilian +tribes. After burying food, utensils, arms, etc., +with the body, a month after death the body was +disinterred, put in a pan over a fire, the volatile +substances driven off, the black residue reduced to +powder and mixed with water and drunk by the +company.</p> +<p>The Patagonians bury all the possessions of the +deceased with the body.</p> +<p>With the Hottentots, widows lose one joint of +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_182' name='page_182'></a>182</span> +a finger as an offering to the deceased husband +every time they re-marry.</p> +<p>With the Kaffirs, the hut and utensils of the +deceased are burnt. The East Africans offer +prayer to the dead.</p> +<p>The Congo people bury ornaments, utensils, arms, +etc., and embalm the body after one or two years. +The body of the chief must be carried in a straight +line from the hut to place of burial, and if trees +or huts impede the passage, they are cut down.</p> +<p>The Coast Negroes bury property with the body +and have a ceremony like an Irish wake, as do also +the Abyssinians.</p> +<p>With the Ashantis, gold dust and utensils are +buried and human sacrifices occur.</p> +<p>The wives of the Fijians are strangled that they +may attend their lords in the new country.</p> +<p>The people of Malagasy bury in vaults 10×12, +and 7 feet high, and put in a large quantity of +property.</p> +<p>With the ancient Mexicans, wives, slaves, concubines, +and chaplains were slaughtered to attend the +deceased.</p> +<p>The Arabs fasten the camels to the grave of +their master.</p> +<p>The Todas cremate the dead and slaughter the +whole herd of buffalo belonging to him, in order +to secure them to him in the after life.</p> +<p>I have by no means given a complete category +of the primitive and barbarous peoples who believe +in a separate soul, and who believe in a future +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_183' name='page_183'></a>183</span> +state much like the present and in conformity with +that belief bury arms, ornaments, and utensils with +the dead or place them on the grave, and who +slaughter horses, camels, wives, slaves, etc., in order +that the deceased may retain his possessions. How +far these customs extend in case of the death of +woman I do not know, but as with most of these +people the women are regarded as chattels of the +males, the case is doubtless very different.</p> +<p>Now as to the origin of these beliefs and customs, +their causes naturally fall into two categories, +the physical and the metaphysical. Modern biological +science regards the whole question from +the physical side almost exclusively, and facts and +experiences that belong largely or exclusively to +the metaphysical realm are warped out of their +natural order to fit the theory of interpretation.</p> +<p>Every savage observes not only that he casts +a shadow, but that shadows attend all inanimate +objects that stand so as to intercept the light, and +as shadows move as do objects that gives rise to the +idea of animation. Hence we have genii, dryads, +naiads, ghosts, angels, demons, etc. To fortify this +belief we have echoes, which give voice to animate +and inanimate objects. Movement and voice are +the universal accompaniment of animation.</p> +<p>The part played by the breath, and its sudden +cessation at death, are believed to contribute to the +belief in invisible existences.</p> +<p>The beating of the heart, and its cessation at +death, adds another link to the chain of phenomena, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_184' name='page_184'></a>184</span> +going to show that <i>something</i> leaves the body at +death. This may be the origin of the sacrifice +of the hearts of captives to the gods, +or to a deceased warrior or chief as with the ancient +Mexicans, with the belief that the heart is the +seat of the soul, and the soul of the captive or +victim shall attend the departed chief in the other +world.</p> +<p>But the most important place should doubtless +be assigned to dreams as giving rise to belief in +the world of spirits. Dreams are universal amongst +men, and animals like the dog also dream.</p> +<p>Most if not all primitive people are also aware +that fasting promotes dreaming, and while many of +them practice long fasting, partly, no doubt, to +increase fortitude and bodily endurance, in very +many cases it is known to be practiced for the purpose +of promoting dreams. Beyond this voluntary +fasting there is the enforced fast due to famine or +the scarcity of food.</p> +<p>It will be noticed in many of the cases cited +how much stress is laid on the phenomena of dreams +and how literally they are interpreted.</p> +<p>Among civilized races and those wise in philosophy +dreams play a very important part, and are +classified as monitorial, prophetic, etc., etc. The +habit in modern times of regarding dreams as altogether +fantastic and unreal, is unscientific. In the +mingling of the real and the apparently unreal, +in the dream state, while the experience itself is +always real to the dreamer, lies undoubtedly the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_185' name='page_185'></a>185</span> +source of many beliefs that influence the lives of +men.</p> +<p>Dreaming must be regarded as one of the states +of consciousness, and hence, of whatsoever stuff +dreams are made, they represent an actual experience +of the individual. No greater mistake +can be made than the belief that no experience is +real save that which brings us in contact with gross +matter through the agency of the five senses. The +world of ideas and the creations of the imagination +are in fact no more evanescent than matter itself. +Here impermanency differs only in time. All in +time pass away.</p> +<p>I hold that dreams, in general, show more +clearly the nature of the soul, and the experiences +of the waking state show the office of the bodily +organism, and that each <i>on its own plane</i> is as valid +as the other.</p> +<p>In other words, “the soul is such stuff as dreams +are made of.” It does not hold true, nor need it, +that the experiences in dreams shall be true and +valid on the physical plane, though this is often the +case, or that the experiences of the physical plane +shall be literally repeated in dreams, which, nevertheless, +frequently happens.</p> +<p>It is an undeniable fact that the experiences +of the conscious ego in man compass the subjective +no less than the objective planes of being. +That the subjective avenues should be closed +when the ego is functioning on the physical +plane through the bodily organs by aid of +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_186' name='page_186'></a>186</span> +the senses, is quite as remarkable as that the +physical avenues should be closed when in dreams, +or trance, or syncope, or under anaesthetics, the ego +functions on the subjective planes.</p> +<p>I hold, therefore, that here, more than anywhere +else, is the source of not only belief in the existence +of the soul, but of the relatively uniform conceptions +everywhere attained. The common experience of +man on the one plane is as easily accounted for as +on the other, and individual experience differs no +more widely in the one case than in the other. +So also is the persistence of the human type, or the +<i>genus</i>, involved in the one case no less than in the +other.</p> +<p>All the agencies recognized in modern evolution +tend to elevation only through differentiation, and +even the “eternal cell” of Weismann fails in explaining +permanency of form through any physical +transmission. When atavism and degeneracy are +admitted as factors, as they certainly must be, the +perpetuity of the human species fails from physical +causes alone.</p> +<p>I hold the idea of a separable soul to be innate +in the human consciousness, as a necessary deduction +from the experience of the continuity of self-consciousness +which compasses both the objective +and subjective states. This deduction from experience +occurs whenever the evolving ego has +advanced sufficiently above the animal plane to reason +on its own experience, and for this reason the +belief in the separable soul is universal. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_187' name='page_187'></a>187</span></p> +<p>It is no more strange that the experience of the +individual should be modified by traditions and the +beliefs of others regarding, for example, the dream +state, than that the experience of the individual +should in like manner be modified or shaped by +traditions and the ceremonies and usages of others +on the physical plane. The bond of unity and that +of diversity have one common root in humanity. +What we need for larger knowledge is, I think, +a recognition of the breadth and sweep of human +experience. To stop either ignoring or quibbling +over one-half of all our actual experience.</p> +<p>The inner world of thought and being is really +the habitat of the soul, while the physical body, +like the diving-bell, enables us to explore and gain +experience on another plane which otherwise must +remain to us forever unknown.</p> +<p>The limitations of space and time are unknown +to us in dreams. These are the limitations of the +fleshly casket. The consciousness of freedom, the +absence of pain and sorrow even under great trial, +are often experienced in the dream state. The +range and character of experience in the subjective +state is modified, and held in check by that of the +physical plane, and the correspondence of an emotion +to an idea, or of an act to a thought, ought to +give us the key to the two sets of experiences and +reveal the underlying basis of equilibrium.</p> +<p>A universal fact and a common experience +argue a universal nature. Like conditions everywhere +come from like causes. These are neither +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_188' name='page_188'></a>188</span> +accidental nor incidental, nor are they left to the +caprice of savages, nor to that of the more advanced +civilizations.</p> +<p>It is not at all strange that a common experience +should result in a universal belief. The range of +experience and varying vicissitudes of life on the +outer physical plane differ as widely as do those +of the dream plane, and the conscious identity +of the individual is equally preserved on both +planes.</p> +<p>I hold that here lies the origin of belief in the +existence of a soul in man, separable from the body, +and the confines of matter, space, and time, in an +actual experience of every individual. The beating +of the heart, the phenomena of respiration, the +cessation of these at death, and the shadows cast +by man and inanimate bodies serve as connecting +links between the experiences of the individual on +the subjective and objective planes of being.</p> +<p>The dream state and the experiences thence derived +are subjects for psychological science to investigate. +The experiences allotted by du Maurier +to “Peter Ibbetson” are not altogether fantastic +and unwarranted, as the records of somnambulism +and hypnotism abundantly prove. When we remember +that nothing deserving the name of Psychology +or Psychic Science exists in the western +world to-day, we need not wonder why men eminent +for investigations in other departments prove themselves +novices and dogmatists here.</p> +<p>The folklore, the traditions, and the mythology +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_189' name='page_189'></a>189</span> +of dreams would form a very interesting subject for +discussion. It is true that the literature of the +subject is fantastic, mixed with fable and often +altogether unreliable; but these difficulties offer no +more formidable bar to scientific investigation than +many another problem already classified and formulated +for systematic study.</p> +<p>I know a lady of very superior ability, the mother +of a prominent jurist, who all her life has had +distinct premonitions of many calamities and coming +events, and there are those who dream true in every +community. Fantasies, nightmare, dreams from +indigestion and delirium, form a separate class +where the dreamer is entangled in the meshes of the +bodily functions.</p> +<p>Here fasting, either voluntary or enforced, comes +in, and drugs known to the remotest times are found +to promote and to determine the character of dreams. +There are furthermore processes of mental gymnastics +whereby the thinker withdraws himself from +the bodily avenues of sense and functions at will on +the subjective plane of being.</p> +<p>“When then,” said Socrates, in the <i>Phĉdo</i>, “does +the soul light on the truth? for when it attempts to +consider anything in conjunction with the body, +it is plain that it is led astray by it.”</p> +<p>“And surely,” he continues, “the soul reasons best +when none of these things disturb it, neither hearing, +nor sight, nor pain, nor pleasure of any kind, +but it retires as much as possible <i>within itself</i>, +<i>taking leave of the body</i>, and as far as it can, not +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_190' name='page_190'></a>190</span> +communicating or being in contact with it, <i>it aims +at the discovery of that which is</i>.”</p> +<p>I hold that the most valuable triumphs of +science in the future lie in the realm of psychology, +and that by no means the least important contribution +in this direction will come from the study +of Folklore, of which belief in the separable soul, +and the phenomena and universality of the dream +state must form a very important part.</p> +<p>One final consideration is suggested not without +some degree of hesitation and diffidence. If there +be a soul in man destined to continued existence, +and if in any case perfection is the goal of evolution +as formulated by Herbert Spencer for a future +residue of the human race, then this soul in its +essential elements is without beginning in time.</p> +<p>Pre-existence and evolution necessitate repeated +re-embodiment on the physical plane, and the continuity +of self-consciousness in man I hold to be +the proof of life without beginning or end.</p> +<p>Viewed in this light, dreams and all subjective +experiences in man must mingle reminiscences of +the soul with the experiences of the present life, +and the theory of innate ideas assumes a purely +scientific form. We hence arrive at the intuition +of the soul to account for universal belief. The +experience of Socrates and the Fiji Islander agree +as to the subjective plane as perfectly as in regard +to the beating of the heart. They differ only in +degree of evolution.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<a name='XIV_FROM_CONFUSION_TO_CONSTRUCTION' id='XIV_FROM_CONFUSION_TO_CONSTRUCTION'></a> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_191' name='page_191'></a>191</span> +<h2>CHAPTER XIV</h2> +<h3>FROM CONFUSION TO CONSTRUCTION</h3> +</div> + +<p>A concise and detailed review of the past, +in the long journey of man toward civilization +and independent self-knowledge, has not been +herein attempted. Only hints, here and there, and +the barest outline have been undertaken.</p> +<p>If, however, the intelligent student will follow +these clews, he will find a mass of material and +abundant evidence to corroborate the general thesis.</p> +<p>Every great religion has had its Avatar, its Redeemer, +its <i>Christos</i>.</p> +<p>Each of these religions has adapted from its +predecessors and transformed the old, in whole or +in part, to suit the conditions and apparent needs +of the time.</p> +<p>Each of these revivals of religion has been instituted +on account of the abominations of a dominant +priesthood and the poverty and degradation +of the masses. What was at first claimed and +instituted as a Divine Revelation for the elevation +and happiness of the whole people, has openly and +shamelessly degenerated into enslavement of the +masses and the creation of a despotic and arrogant +class who enslaved both body and soul in the name +of Religion. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_192' name='page_192'></a>192</span></p> +<p>Priest, Prince, and Potentate generally, united +to terrorize through force, and by superstition and +fear, in order to retain their power.</p> +<p>The reaction has invariably resulted from economic +conditions, as in the case of the Protestant +Reformation, when the gold sent to Rome through +the shameless sale of Indulgences, threatened to +impoverish the whole of Northern Europe, and +Princes broke allegiance to the Priesthood in desperate +self-protection.</p> +<p>Then, and then only, came sufficient protest and +Reformation.</p> +<p>The religionist is apt to regard and designate +Science as “profane,” and Religion <i>per se</i>, as +essentially “holy.”</p> +<p>Nothing can be really considered “holy” that +does not elevate, encourage, and inspire the whole +human race and promote the Brotherhood of Man. +Whenever any religion fails to do this it becomes +indeed a profanation of holy things.</p> +<p>The only religion that ever became the inspiration +of a whole people, so far as history records, was +that of Christna, with the teeming millions of +India. Buddhism was driven out of India by the +powerful and unscrupulous Brahmans, and took +refuge in Ceylon, Thibet, and adjacent provinces.</p> +<p>The religion of Jesus met a similar fate from +the Jews and the Roman governors, until Pagan +Rome adapted and transformed it on the principle +of dominance and exploitation inherent in the genius +of the Latin Race. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_193' name='page_193'></a>193</span></p> +<p>Since which time no one will pretend to claim +that the Religion of Jesus has ever dominated the +human race or any large part of it.</p> +<p>Rome to-day no more represents the religion of +Jesus than the Brahmans of to-day represent that +of Christna, or Buddha, or the religion of the +Vedas.</p> +<p>Nothing is so amazing to-day as that the intelligence +of the present age fails to recognize this +fact.</p> +<p>All of these religions of the past have adapted +their teaching to the multitude through parable and +allegory. Nothing in literature can be found more +beautiful and inspiring, and at the same time comprehensible +to the commonest intelligence, than +Christna’s “Parable of the Fisherman.”</p> +<p>Christna and Buddha, like Jesus, taught to their +disciples a “Secret Doctrine,” apprehensible only +to the few. “To you it is given to know the +mysteries,” but to others, who are without, it is not +given.</p> +<p>It can readily be proven from at least a half +score of the early Church Fathers (see page 70 <i>et +seq.</i> of the author’s “Mystic Masonry”), that the +early church practiced “Initiation,” patterned after +those of the Gnostics, Therapeutia and the Mysteries +of Egypt, and divided their neophytes and postulants +into three degrees, as in Blue Lodge Masonry +to-day.</p> +<p>While the great mass of mankind to-day are +incapable of apprehending these genuine mysteries +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_194' name='page_194'></a>194</span> +of life, and of the individual soul of man, it is +doubtful if any civilization ever existed where so +many were willing and capable of understanding +them as are found here in America to-day.</p> +<p>The reason for this and the growth of intelligence +have already been outlined.</p> +<p>A new race is slowly forming here, designated by +the ancient Wisdom as the “Fifth Race,” and +called the <i>Manasic</i>, the growth of Intelligence, or +“Mind.”</p> +<p>It is above all things important that with this +development of <i>Mind</i> there should also develop that +of <i>Buddhi</i>, or Loving Kindness, the essential element +in the Universal Brotherhood of Man; a +thing largely overlooked in the modern theory of +Evolution, and ignored, or set at naught by Romanism +by its dogmas, anathemas, and persecutions. +Instead of the brotherhood of man, she has exhibited +the cruelty and rapacity of devils. (Establishment +of Roman Catholic Caste.)</p> +<p>This all-around development of the whole man, +as essential to human evolution, is everywhere insisted +upon by all the great Masters of antiquity, +and is illustrated and exemplified in the genuine +Greater Mysteries.</p> +<p>Hence, the saying in Kabala, “The wicked +<i>obey</i> the law through <i>fear</i>; the wise <i>keep</i> the law +through <i>knowledge</i>.” The Saviors all preached and +practiced the “Good Law,” and obedience to legal +mandates.</p> +<p>The explanation usually given of an Avatar by +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_195' name='page_195'></a>195</span> +the ancient Masters, as “a descent, embodiment, or +incarnation of <i>Vishnu</i>,” who is not only the “Preserver,” +but the “Rejuvenator” of mankind, is +rather a <i>blind</i>, and was an interpretation given to +the common people, or the “profane.”</p> +<p>All things—even heaven and earth—pass away, +and all things are renewed.</p> +<p>This renewal, or regeneration, through the constructive +principle of evolution, is “designed” to +be continually on higher and still higher planes.</p> +<p>It is not the range of experience, nor the growth +of intelligence alone, that elevates man, but the +progressive and constructive growth of the soul, +from the physical toward the spiritual plane of +Being.</p> +<p>This actual growth means Knowledge, Wisdom, +Understanding, Knowledge of the Law, Obedience +to its Commands, and Realization of its Rewards.</p> +<p>This Constructive Psychology is the <i>growth of +the Soul</i>.</p> +<p>Man passes, therefore, from the age of Fable, +Superstition, and Fear, to the age of Faith and +Obedience, and finally to that of actual Knowledge.</p> +<p>This <i>age of Knowledge</i>—not for all of mankind, +but for a larger number who are worthy and well-qualified, +duly and truly prepared than was ever +known at one time before—has at last dawned.</p> +<p>The question is continually asked, “Why do the +Masters of Wisdom Conceal their Knowledge?”</p> +<p>The only adequate answer is that so few are +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_196' name='page_196'></a>196</span> +ready, willing, and able to receive it in the right +way, and to use and not abuse it.</p> +<p>Those who deny that any such knowledge has +ever existed, or exists to-day, or can exist, had better +waste no time over it. They cannot alter it, nor +destroy it, as their predecessors have tried to do for +ages, often murdering or crucifying all who were +even suspected of possessing it. They might as +well try to destroy the law of gravitation, or +imagine that by murdering the foremost mathematician +of the day that they had destroyed the +science of mathematics. I am speaking of <i>Knowledge</i> +of Spiritual things.</p> +<p>A new Avatar, therefore, is not simply an individual, +though many individuals may understand +and exemplify it—the Initiated, the Illuminati—and +one man may lead in representing it.</p> +<p>To call it “the descent and embodiment, or Incarnation +of Vishnu,” in a metaphysical sense, the +Spirit (generically), that renews, rejuvenates, transforms, +and regenerates, is by no means an empty +metaphor.</p> +<p>In the same sense we speak of the “Genius of +Greece,” or of Rome, or of Civilization.</p> +<p>The <i>idea</i> is composite, and represents an underlying +and <i>universal principle and potency</i>.</p> +<p>But after all metaphor and generalization, each +Avataric movement centered around an individual +<i>Man</i>, and this <i>Man</i> embodied the principle and +undertook the special work of an evangel, or +<i>Christos</i>, or “Avatar,” amongst men. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_197' name='page_197'></a>197</span></p> +<p>Not only have there been many Avatars, and +many Buddhas, but when we realize the meaning +of these terms and the mysteries they represent, +we discover that while it may be the special mission +of one, like Christna, or Buddha, or Jesus, to undertake +the work of enlightening and redeeming any +age; there are other Masters, or Illuminati, engaged +in other work, on different planes, to promote +the same general results.</p> +<p>The result with each of the great Saviors of mankind +has been, that the common people, or the +priesthood, have eventually either crucified or deified +them.</p> +<p>In the case of Jesus they have done both. Eight +separate and deliberate attempts have already been +made to assassinate the present representative of the +School of Natural Science, who was educated in the +order of the Illuminati, and delegated by that +Order to present these great truths to the world +to-day.</p> +<p>This individual is only in the broadest <i>metaphysical</i> +sense (as already defined), an Avatar, +which, as shown, is a <i>composite idea</i>, <i>focused</i> in and +<i>represented by</i> an individual man or teacher.</p> +<p>The work of this Master is to instruct, to exemplify, +and to demonstrate, the ancient Wisdom +on Scientific lines, in keeping with the needs, the +opportunities, and the scientific spirit of the present +age.</p> +<p>He does not preach to the multitude in parables. +He undertakes to instruct the few who are ready +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_198' name='page_198'></a>198</span> +and qualified to receive such instruction, and who will +properly use and not abuse it, and he does this +“without money and without price”; “without the +hope of fee or reward.” (Herein is the Avataric +Spirit of Freemasonry.)</p> +<p>What his reward will be with the rabble, or with +the “money changers,” he knows too well, but to +such as he, fear is unknown.</p> +<p>I am speaking not <i>for</i> him, but <i>of</i> him, after the +blessed privilege of seven years of the most intimate +association, and such co-operation as I have been +capable of giving.</p> +<p>His plan and motive seem to be to get as much +as possible of this knowledge of the soul, and of +spiritual things, to the attention of the “progressive +intelligence of the present age,” in order that it +may become exemplified and diffused among all +classes, and for the benefit of the whole human +race.</p> +<p>We have passed the age of fable, and of blind +faith, and have come to the age of fact and law. +<i>Kali Yuga</i> means the Iron Age.</p> +<p>As two natures, the physical and spiritual, meet +and mingle in the constitution of man, so do his +faculties, capacities, and powers mingle and function +on the two planes, the physical and the spiritual, +though very largely on the former, with the +great majority in any age or time.</p> +<p>There is implanted in the very foundation of +man’s being the idea or the consciousness of a +separable soul. It would seem to be an intuition, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_199' name='page_199'></a>199</span> +for with nearly every people of which we have +any knowledge, no matter how near the animal +plane, the belief or the folklore of a separable soul +exists, in many cases held to be separable during +life, and in most cases believed to survive the death +of the physical body. (See folio editions of Herbert +Spencer’s “Descriptive Sociology,” and Chapter +XIII, herein.)</p> +<p>It has generally been held by scientists and commentators, +that this intuition, or belief, results +largely from dreams.</p> +<p>To say that dreams, in general, are mere fantasies, +or the results of imagination, and have no +real basis in consciousness, is folly; for dreams are +of many kinds, and present great varieties.</p> +<p>They are, moreover, both reminiscent and prophetic, +sometimes moving like any other conscious +experience, from fact to fruition, and in others, +we are unable to relate them to any other conscious +experience.[1]</p> +<p>Hypnosis and Telepathy are related to the same +states, so much so, that the modern scientist has +been constrained to coin two new terms to avoid +endless repetitions, viz.: “subliminal” and “supraliminal” +states of consciousness.</p> +<p>Bearing in mind all these subjective states and +experiences, including the whole range of so-called +mediumship, the <i>theorem</i> of the Masters and adepts +of all ages may be made exceeding plain.</p> +<p>[Footnote 1: For a very valuable and suggestive treatise on “Sleep,” see F. W. +H. Myers “Human Personality,” Chap. IV.] +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_200' name='page_200'></a>200</span></p> +<p>It consists in the <i>dominance of the Will</i> over all +conscious states.</p> +<p>This is the <i>Alpha</i> and the <i>Omega</i>—the principle, +the potency, and the act—of Mastership.</p> +<p>The mind of the Master no longer drifts in a +boundless sea of fantasy, but with rudder and +compass, he guides his ship whithersoever he would +go.</p> +<p>This does not mean that there are not still degrees +and related states and conditions of consciousness +in his experience.</p> +<p>It does mean, however, that all these states and +conditions, with all his faculties, capacities, and +powers, are <i>co-ordinated</i>, not only in his <i>awareness</i> +of them as a whole, but in the exercise of each and +its relation to the others, dominated by his own +Will.</p> +<p>He has “Mastered” them, and can incite or +repress them, while they can no longer dominate +him. Can the reader imagine such a degree of +<i>Self-Control</i>?</p> +<p>This, however, is but the beginning, as the +“Secret of Power,” and by no means the end.</p> +<p>Controlling the phases and forms of consciousness, +there comes next the determination to extend their +boundary and to <i>refine and elevate the powers of +the Soul</i>.</p> +<p>In the first case, that of co-ordination, the ancient +Wisdom admonishes the student or <i>chela</i> to “<i>make +the mind one pointed, like a light burning in a +quiet place</i>.” Light a candle and put it in a corner +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_201' name='page_201'></a>201</span> +where no draught can reach it, and the flame will +seem as though cut out of solid fire, and “one +pointed.”</p> +<p>It is at the point of refining and elevating the +individual consciousness that Ethics or Morals come +in. It is just at this point also that the <i>Path</i> is +determined.</p> +<p>What our ancient Brothers called “the power of +Will and Yoga”—self-control—<i>may</i> ignore Ethics. +Here the paths separate, and are called “the Right-hand +Path” and “the Left-hand Path,” determining +the “White” and the “Black Magician,” +about whom so much is said in all ancient scriptures +and traditions regarding “Sorcery” and “Black +Magic,” of which Egypt and Rome and Modern +Mediumship and Hypnotism, are illustrations.</p> +<p>The <i>supreme importance</i> of this natural division +or “parting of the way” reveals the real and final +reason why the Masters of the “right-hand path” +conceal their knowledge from the profane and reveal +it only after an ethical formulary has been +learned and once for all <i>ingrained</i>.</p> +<p>The “Thugs” of India are no more an idle +dream nor a bugaboo to frighten children and old +women than are the Mafia and the Roman Jesuit +to-day.</p> +<p>In Egypt the time came when these “Black +Magicians” dominated the people and drove out +those of the right-hand path who built the great +pyramid and gave to Egypt the wisdom and glory +of its prime. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_202' name='page_202'></a>202</span></p> +<p>The consciousness and power of these evil men, +however, was limited to the lower planes. Whenever +they wished to transcend these lower planes +they were powerless. Hence arose the <i>Sibyl</i>; young +boys or virgins were hypnotized, and being pure, +they could thus be inducted into a somewhat higher +plane. (See Mabel Collins’ “Idyll of the White +Lotus.”)</p> +<p>Margrave, in Bulwer’s “Strange Story,” is a +fine picture of an “adept of the left-hand path.” +He would sacrifice the whole human race in order +to gain his personal and selfish ends, just as would +“Mother Church” to-day.</p> +<p>The Master of the White Lodge would readily +lay down his life for the benefit of his fellowmen. +Herein is the vital difference.</p> +<p>Here lies the meaning and the complete antithesis +represented by <i>Christos</i> and <i>Satan</i>. Both +names are generic and Avataric, and yet, may be +personified.</p> +<p>This elevating and refining process to which I +have referred is not a matter of sentiment or +emotion, but a matter of fact, with a definite, +scientific formula.</p> +<p>In a previous chapter belief in the existence +AND SEPARABILITY OF THE HUMAN SOUL HAS BEEN SHOWN +to be virtually universal, and in some cases, even +with people of very low development, the belief is +held that the soul may be separated from the body +and reunited again during life.</p> +<p>This is, however, a <i>belief</i>, and proves nothing as +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_203' name='page_203'></a>203</span> +to <i>fact</i>, <i>science</i>, and <i>law</i>, beyond the existence of the +belief, with all the appurtenances, concomitants, and +subjective experiences of individuals thereunto belonging.</p> +<p>We thus arrive at the real <i>theorem</i> as a cold +psychological problem.</p> +<p>Can the existence and separability of the soul +of man, during his physical embodiment on earth, +and its survival of the death of the physical body, +be scientifically demonstrated as a <i>fact</i>?</p> +<p>If so, then the principles involved, the methods +employed and the whole <i>modus operandi</i> must be +capable of exact, scientific formulation, the same as +any other theorem of science.</p> +<p>Furthermore, granting that this is true, and that +it can be done according to exact formulary, the +value, the effect of such a demonstration upon the +character and the normal faculties, capacities, and +powers of the individual who undertakes and accomplishes +such a demonstration, must be revealed and +taken fully into account.</p> +<p>Does it elevate or degrade him? Is it in line +with normal evolution, and therefore, potentially the +birthright, and finally, through spiritual evolution, +the higher destiny of all men?</p> +<p>Nor is this all. The effect of the existence of +such Knowledge and of its teaching, upon communities, +as a substitute for blind superstition, credulity, +or belief, must also be taken into account.</p> +<p>It may thus be seen how much even beyond the +mere <i>fact</i> of demonstration, is included in this transcendent +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_204' name='page_204'></a>204</span> +problem; this question of all ages, “If a +man die, shall he live again?” or, “Does the real +man ever die at all?”</p> +<p>Now it is a demonstrated fact, proven in every +case of a genuine Master, and held inviolable in the +“Greater Mysteries” of every age and time, that +the ethical question above raised, as to the effect +upon individuals and society, <i>comes first</i>, and is +made a <i>test</i> of the “first step” in the way of demonstration.</p> +<p>This is the meaning of the oft repeated quotation, +the candidate for initiation must first be “worthy +and well-qualified, duly and truly prepared.”</p> +<p>This comprises and constitutes the “Lesser Mysteries,” +as in the School of Pythagoras, viz.: the +instruction of the neophyte in ethics or morals.</p> +<p>Nor is this instruction sufficient in any case. +The candidate must himself demonstrate that he has +absorbed, apprehended, and utilized such instruction +by “<i>Living the Life</i>.”</p> +<p>In other words, it must have become so ingrained +in his character as to govern absolutely +all his acts and impulses to action, i.e., automatic, +habitual, and natural.</p> +<p>In the School of Natural Science this comprises +and constitutes the “Ethical Section of the General +Formulary.”</p> +<p>In the School of Pythagoras we are informed +that students sometimes remained for years in the +“outer court,” and sometimes they failed entirely +and hopelessly, and went back to the outer world. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_205' name='page_205'></a>205</span> +Whereupon a white stone was erected to their +memory as though they were dead. They were +indeed, for the time being, dead to the School.</p> +<p>This fully answers the ethical question as to the +effect of this real knowledge on the individual and +on mankind.</p> +<p>The real Master sees to it that all that precaution +can provide, or human wisdom can suggest, is done +to insure beneficent <i>use</i> of the knowledge gained.</p> +<p>It is here that “degrees” in initiation become a +necessity. Every step, or passage of the candidate +from a lower to a higher degree, is marked and determined +finally and solely by his “proficiency in the +preceding degree.”</p> +<p>The question of Morals, or the ethical effect, +therefore, is pre-determined, and as far as possible, +solved first.</p> +<p>But even with all this wise precaution, the unprepared +and the unqualified have sometimes entered +the outer courts; and when compelled at last to +reveal their character, have turned to rend their +teachers, and have done their utmost to destroy the +School and demoralize mankind.</p> +<p>If these moral renegades could only realize the +<i>meaning to themselves</i> of thus entering the “Left-hand +Path” of devolution and of starting voluntarily +“down the deep descent,” as portrayed in +Dante’s “Inferno,” or in Ahrinzeman, they would, +indeed, hesitate long before “turning to the left,” +for inevitable destruction lies that way.</p> +<p>Here lies the scientific explanation of the “Fall +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_206' name='page_206'></a>206</span> +of Lucifer,” portrayed in some form in the pantheons +and mythologies of every philosophy and religion +known to man.</p> +<p>The ordinary “sinner” may yet possess an “average” +of all the virtues, and the ordinary “saint” +an “average” of all the vices. Concerning these +it was said, “I would have you either hot or cold, +but because ye are neither hot nor cold, I have +spewed you out of my mouth.” No lukewarm soul +ever entered the Kingdom of Heaven.</p> +<p>But a time at last comes when the soul of man, +enmeshed in the “lusts of the flesh and the deceitfulness +of riches,” <i>must make his choice</i>. He <i>realizes</i> +that he can no longer “serve two masters.” He +will make his choice knowingly, deliberately, and +voluntarily. Happy and blessed will be he if with +his whole soul, and with every impulse of his being, +he declares, “I know not what others may do, +<i>but as for me and my house, we will serve the +Lord</i>.”</p> +<p>If there are real Masters (and there are), they +have to work under both Natural and Divine Law, +and in strict harmony with the higher evolution of +the whole human race.</p> +<p>It is only a low, feeble, and undeveloped intelligence +that finds God and Nature at cross-purposes.</p> +<p>He who has found “the place of peace,” harmonized +his own nature, purified his own life, and +elevated all his desires and aspirations, has discerned +the “harmony of the morning stars,” and +caught the symphony of the heavenly hosts. In +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_207' name='page_207'></a>207</span> +other words, he is already functioning on the +Spiritual Plane.</p> +<p>This would seem to make clear the ethical problem +raised, the stress placed upon it, and how it is +met and answered by every genuine Initiate +throughout the ages.</p> +<p>It has to be solved <i>first</i> in each individual case. +Only “he who <i>lives the life</i> shall know the doctrine,” +or advance to power.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<a name='XV_THE_SCIENCE_OF_PSYCHOLOGY_AS_A_KNOWLEDGE_OF_THE_HUMAN_SOUL' id='XV_THE_SCIENCE_OF_PSYCHOLOGY_AS_A_KNOWLEDGE_OF_THE_HUMAN_SOUL'></a> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_208' name='page_208'></a>208</span> +<h2>CHAPTER XV</h2> +<h3>THE SCIENCE OF PSYCHOLOGY AS A KNOWLEDGE OF THE HUMAN SOUL</h3> +</div> + +<p>The writer of the present treatise is quite well +aware that the great majority of intelligent +and educated people at the present day will deny +that any real knowledge of the human soul as a +spiritual entity, separable from the physical body +during life and demonstrably surviving its death, +exists now, has heretofore existed, or, if possible +for man, is likely to exist for some time to come. +Some will unhesitatingly declare such a thing <i>unknowable</i> +for man.</p> +<p>I hold the firm <i>conviction</i> that this knowledge +has been for ages the possession of certain individuals, +few in number in any age or country, and +that this knowledge has resulted through conformity +to certain definite and specific requirements, +formulated under well-known laws of man’s spiritual +being, involving a definite individual experience +and resulting in a scientific and exact demonstration.</p> +<p>I ask the reader to note two points in the foregoing +statement: First, that for myself I use the +word “conviction,” and not “knowledge”; and, +second, that the demonstration of real knowledge +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_209' name='page_209'></a>209</span> +referred to, is made by, and confined to an individual, +in each instance.</p> +<p>With these individuals the knowledge is a <i>scientific +demonstration through personal experience</i>. +With me, the “firm conviction” is a matter of +“circumstantial evidence,” supported by analogy, +and fortified by empirical testimony, such as acquaint +the world with the facts and findings of +science, and which I think admit of no other consistent +and rational interpretation.</p> +<p>In the foregoing pages I have endeavored to +give outlines, analogies, and suggestions which +seem to fortify the conviction referred to.</p> +<p>While these are fragmentary and desultory, +owing to the fact that the circumstances are so +varied, the subject so vast, and the materials so +abundant, yet, taken as a whole, they seem overwhelming, +and, except to the careful, persistent, +and intelligent student, confusing.</p> +<p>It must be clearly apprehended that no one +familiar with the subject can reasonably suppose, +nor has it ever been claimed by a real Master of the +“Art,” that this knowledge ever has been, or can +be, communicated to, or acquired by groups of +individuals at any time, or under any circumstances.</p> +<p>Through all the past, and at the present time, it +is designated as an <i>individual experience</i>.</p> +<p>True, the ethics, and the philosophy, and even +the principles of exact psychic science that in the +past constituted the “Lesser Mysteries,” can be, +and often have been, taught to groups, or classes. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_210' name='page_210'></a>210</span></p> +<p>In the present “School of Natural Science,” this +preparatory training constitutes the “Ethical Section.”</p> +<p>But above and beyond all the foregoing general +considerations the “empirical facts” and the “circumstantial +evidence,” if we know personally one +who claims to have had the specific instruction, the +personal experience, and to have made the scientific +demonstration referred to and outlined in the problem, +our opportunity for instruction, and for the +application of tests for validity and reasonableness +as to the whole problem, is exceedingly valuable.</p> +<p>This personal acquaintance may become the nearest +possible criterion, short of our own personal +experience, as to demonstration.</p> +<p>In previous chapters this phase of the subject +has, perhaps, been sufficiently dwelt upon.</p> +<p>The Master may say, “I know; I have had the +personal experience; I have demonstrated.”</p> +<p>The student may at last say, “I believe; I am +convinced; I am satisfied.”</p> +<p>All through the foregoing pages the effort has +continually been made to preserve clearly this distinction.</p> +<p>In tracing analogies through the history of the +past, the conditions, premonitory, present, and subsequent +to great world-movements have often been +referred to.</p> +<p>Nothing is more common or more patent than the +oft-repeated saying, “This is the age of science.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_211' name='page_211'></a>211</span> +Any great movement that undertakes at the present +day to deal with the deeper problems of individual +and social life, must fit in and conform to the +“spirit of the present age.”</p> +<p>To that platform it must appeal; in that language +it must be addressed, and by such judgment and +criterion must it stand or fall.</p> +<p>All these tests and criteria have been fully met +by the School of Natural Science, and they are +clearly outlined and set forth in the “Great Work,” +addressed to “the Progressive Intelligence of the +Age.”</p> +<p>There need be no misconception or misinterpretation +at this point.</p> +<p>It is true that superficial thinkers and readers, +enthusiasts and emotionalists, are likely to infer that +the science of the soul can now be had “for a consideration” +and in “a dozen easy lessons.”</p> +<p>All such are doomed to disappointment.</p> +<p>It is furthermore likely, if the average “physical +scientist” pays any heed at all, that he will devise +a series of “tests” and “experiments” of his own, +to fit his preconceived notion of things psychical, +with the latent conviction, at least, that he will be +able to prove the whole thing a humbug.</p> +<p>These, also, are doomed to disappointment. +Physical tests of psychical and spiritual laws and +processes are unscientific. No spiritual problem +can be solved in terms of physical matter alone.</p> +<p>So-called psychological science to-day is in the +condition of one possessing a fine piece of ground, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_212' name='page_212'></a>212</span> +and gathering materials for a house, a superstructure.</p> +<p>The ground is already covered with bricks and +stones, and sand and lumber, piled in every direction, +with the purpose of one day beginning the +work of construction, and the slogan, “Wait! Not +yet!” “Some day we are hoping to build.”</p> +<p>No architect, “no designs on the trestle-board,” +and so they go on accumulating “facts” and +“evidence” day after day, year after year, century +after century.</p> +<p>They have a “working hypothesis,” but no +definite <i>theorem</i>, and they may work till doomsday +on this line without a glimmer of real scientific +knowledge of the human soul, yet with mountains +of “facts” or of “rubbish.”</p> +<p>They can never prove the existence of a <i>spiritual +entity</i> in terms of matter on the physical plane.</p> +<p>Their work has been, and still is, of great interest +and value, but it is in no scientific sense, <i>Constructive</i>, +backed by the laws of proportion and +harmony, nor the “Canon of Architecture.”</p> +<p>The apotheosis of Natural Science is like the +“canon of proportion” in architecture, introduced +by Vitruvius (an Initiate) centuries ago. It is +the verification of Plato’s saying, “God geometrizes,” +and his concept of “the World of Divine +Ideas.”</p> +<p>Plato further declares, “He who knows not the +common things of life is a brute among men. He +who knows the common things of life is a man among +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_213' name='page_213'></a>213</span> +brutes. But he who knows all that can be learned +by diligent inquiry is a god among men.”</p> +<p>Natural Science, as shown in the Great Work, +includes scientific knowledge on all planes of being +on which the soul of man functions: The physical, +moral, psychical, and spiritual; for man is a composite +being.</p> +<p>The apotheosis of Natural Science, therefore, +is Fact, Law, Demonstration, and Knowledge; before +theory, conjecture, creed, dogma, superstition, +or fear, intuition, inspiration, revelation, and “holy +men” or “holy books” that must be accepted without +evidence, or “believed” against evidence.</p> +<p>The <i>Avatars</i> of all the past have originated great +reformations which have at last degenerated into +dogma and superstition.</p> +<p>The people, incapable of understanding the Law, +have been taught in parables, while the few in all +religions and in every age have apprehended the +law and learned the “Secret Doctrine.”</p> +<p>To-day, for the first time in centuries, for the +reasons already assigned, and in keeping with the +scientific spirit of the age, and because superstition +in power, dogma, and persecution are politically +dethroned, these great truths, this Great Work, is +openly declared and outlined so that he who wills +may apprehend.</p> +<p>Let no one say, “This is an effort to <i>deify</i> +an individual.” It <i>is</i> an effort to enthrone Truth; +to remove the barriers to the rights of conscience, +the shackles of reason, private judgment and Individual +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_214' name='page_214'></a>214</span> +Responsibility, and to free the soul of +man from all the fetters of ignorance, superstition, +and fear, in order that he may be “first a man,” +“then a Master,” and at length on a higher plane +of being, something more than man has yet realized, +or ever dreamed.</p> +<p>Something “that eye hath not seen, nor ear +heard, nor hath it yet entered into the heart of +man to conceive the glory that shall be revealed.”</p> +<p>The beginning is here and now, when man shall +achieve the Mastery of Self and really possess his +own soul, and not hold it tremblingly as a <i>pawn</i> of +some pretentious potentate of the soul.</p> +<p>The right of Light, Knowledge, and further +progress by “<i>Being a Man</i>,” and not a chattel, an +asset, a pawn, or a slave.</p> +<p>This is the coming <i>Avatar</i>, and the dawn is already +here.</p> +<p>Will the day darken, the Light be quenched? +Who can tell?</p> +<p>The redemption of Woman from the slavery of +all the past is well under way, and it is indeed a +glorious sign.</p> +<p>No lesson in history is plainer nor more readily +demonstrated than the fact that the degeneracy of +a religion and the degradation of woman go hand +in hand.</p> +<p>Demonstrate to-day in any country on earth the +status of woman as a whole, and no mistake need +be made as to the prevailing religion.</p> +<p>Woman’s political disability is another matter +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_215' name='page_215'></a>215</span> +entirely; for she is dominated by man only because, +and only so far as, she is handicapped or degraded +by the dominant religion.</p> +<p>Take woman from the churches, Protestant or +Romish, to-day, and no church could do business +for a twelvemonth.</p> +<p>For these reasons the immense and rapidly growing +movements, Women’s Clubs and the like, to-day, +are of great significance, backed and illuminated +as they are by all past history.</p> +<p>In the new movement, the School of Natural +Science, the door is as wide open to woman as +to man. I might paraphrase the slogan of the +Robber Barons of the middle ages. “<i>She</i> may +seize who hath the power, <i>She</i> may hold who +can.”</p> +<p>In the coming Illuminati woman will stand by +the side of man in all opportunity, endeavor, or +achievement.</p> +<p>In the new age woman will be something few +men have even yet dreamed of.</p> +<p>We might call this new age “<i>the Woman’s +Avatar</i>,” without doing violence to either religion, +tradition, history, or science; while the sacred +Hymns of the Vedas, with the angel of the household +and the inspirer of the soul of man, the worship +of Divinity, by both men and women, opened +a new heaven on this old earth.</p> +<p>And then—such children as will be born, without +pain, not through chance, caprice, nor under +protest, but even as they were in Greece, as an +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_216' name='page_216'></a>216</span> +offering of Love on the altar of divine man-womanhood, +with a song of joy to heaven.</p> +<p>Prof. Fiske somewhere said, “The evolution of +man by Natural Selection draws near its close, to +be followed by that of Divine Selection.”</p> +<p>The Divinity <i>in</i> man is <i>Christos</i>, the “son of the +Father,” the Divine and Eternal <i>Avatar</i>.</p> +<p>Belief is rather a superficial process, the intellect +(“mortal mind”) mingled with the emotions, +changing and evanescent. “Now you see it, and +now you don’t.” It is mingled with hope that +alternates with fear and doubt.</p> +<p>Faith, when once analyzed and apprehended, is +another thing entirely, though nearly every one, +and most writers, confuse “belief” and “faith.”</p> +<p>“Faith is the soul’s <i>intuitive conviction</i> of that +which both <i>Reason</i> and <i>Conscience</i> approve.”</p> +<p>Genuine faith rarely wavers or changes, because +it is an evolution, a “growth of the soul,” a +spiritual experience, and it becomes the “dominant +chord” in the symphony of life, determining +Harmony.</p> +<p>It is in this deliberate and discriminative sense +that I have used the term <i>conviction</i> in relation +to the Master and his “Great Work.” He never +dogmatizes, nor undertakes to “indoctrinate.”</p> +<p>In answer to a question on some deep and perplexing +problem of the soul or of the spiritual +plane, he replies, “So far as we <i>know</i>, it is so and +so.” “A new experience, or an added light, may +alter our conclusion.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_217' name='page_217'></a>217</span></p> +<p>The average individual scarcely realizes what +absolute sincerity, with no motive save Love of +Truth, and beneficence to man guided by clear intelligence, +and dominated by the rational Will, +means, or can accomplish.</p> +<p>These are the natural powers of the human soul. +There is nothing mysterious or miraculous about +them, more than in the art of music of a Beethoven +or a Paganini, or in gymnastics and the winner of +the Marathon.</p> +<table summary='poetry' style='margin:0 auto'><tr><td> +<p style='margin: 0 0 0 0.0em;'>“To <i>shape</i> and <i>use</i>, arise and fly,</p> +<p style='margin: 0 0 0 0.0em;'>The reeling Faun, the sensual feast,</p> +<p style='margin: 0 0 0 0.0em;'>Move upward, working out the beast,</p> +<p style='margin: 0 0 0 0.0em;'>And let the ape and tiger die.”</p> +</td></tr></table> + +<p>My <i>conviction</i> is strong, and my Faith unwavering.</p> +<p>“The great and peaceful ones live, regenerating +the world like the coming of spring: and having +themselves crossed the ocean of embodied existence, +help those who try to do the same thing without +personal motive.” (“Crest Jewel of Wisdom.”)</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<a name='XVI_THE_NEW_AVATAR' id='XVI_THE_NEW_AVATAR'></a> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_218' name='page_218'></a>218</span> +<h2>CHAPTER XVI</h2> +<h3>THE NEW AVATAR</h3> +</div> + +<p>From all the foregoing general considerations +it may be discerned that the “New +Avatar” is strictly that of <i>Scientific Demonstration</i>.</p> +<p>As we use terms in vogue at the present day, +it pertains to the field of Natural Science.</p> +<p>This does not imply that it is irreligious, nor +unreligious, nor sacrilegious.</p> +<p>When it is clearly apprehended it will be found +to be the only thing that harmonizes—not the Institutions +of man—but Science, Philosophy, and +Religion <i>per se</i>, as departments in human intelligence.</p> +<p>Man will thus discern “the rational order that +pervades the universe.”</p> +<p>The purpose and result of such knowledge to +man are Harmony, Enlightenment, Courage, and +Hope.</p> +<p>Man <i>is</i> the arbiter of his own destiny. He may +<i>become</i> the Master of his own Fate. Such are the +<i>Illuminati</i>, the “Masters of the Great White +Lodge,” the Benefactors of the whole human +race, the members of the “School of Natural +Science.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_219' name='page_219'></a>219</span></p> +<p>What would I have my readers do? I answer, +<i>Investigate</i>! Study! Think! Wait! Hope! Anticipate!</p> +<p>Careful, intelligent, and conscientious investigation +will determine the fact that we possess in +America to-day <i>one</i> who can fill all the requirements +that I have endeavored to designate and +portray—not as a “reincarnation” of Buddha or +Jesus, but as a “Master”—one who has been duly +instructed and prepared, who has had the personal +experience, and has made a <i>practical demonstration</i>, +that determines Mastership.</p> +<p>He has demonstrated that “there is no death,” +but transition only (except through conscious and +determined devolution, or <i>suicide of the soul</i>). +Man is, after all, and in the last analysis, a “free +moral agent.”</p> +<p>As a Member of the “Great School” he was +educated and initiated many years ago, and has +consecrated his life to this service. He has demonstrated +the separability of the soul by leaving and +returning to his body at will.</p> +<p>The School of Natural Science; the Great Work; +the Individual Representative; the conditions of +the present age; the opportunities offered; the demand +for real knowledge everywhere; the falling +in pieces of creeds and dogmas; the expectancy so +often voiced—all of these correspond intimately +with what the ancient Aryans designated as +“<i>Avataric</i>.”</p> +<p>It is not now the deification of any Individual, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_220' name='page_220'></a>220</span> +but the “<i>apotheosis of Natural Science</i>,” as the +foundation and method in the achievement of actual +knowledge.</p> +<p>From this actual knowledge will arise a new +Faith, not a new religion, but the old Religion of +Humanity, precisely as taught and lived by Jesus, +Christna, Buddha, and all the other “Redeemers,” +and real Avatars of the past.</p> +<p>The “Enemy of all Righteousness,” as already +said, have made many attempts to assassinate this +Representative of the Great School, but he goes +steadily about his own work. These enemies realize +the danger to their unholy work, but not the <i>Power</i> +back of this great movement. This they can never +destroy.</p> +<p>The day of enlightenment has come, and the cry +has gone forth, Ho! all ye who are heavy-laden, +involved in fear and doubt and uncertainty; bewildered, +discouraged, despairing, and committing +suicide! There is no death! Man is the Arbiter +of his own Fate! Look up and Live, and Hope +and <i>Realize</i>!</p> +<p>And there shall dawn for you a new heaven and +a new earth in which dwelleth Love and Peace and +Righteousness; with Jesus—the <i>Christos</i>—your +“elder Brother,” leading the way, and the downtrodden, +the poor and despised children of men, +shouting Hosanna! for the Loving Kindness that +will have taken the place of selfishness, strife, +cruelty, superstition, and Dogma.</p> +<p>Religion will no longer be a matter of mere sentiment, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_221' name='page_221'></a>221</span> +nor of emotion, of blind belief, nor of fear, +superstition, dogma, nor creed—but a <i>Great Work</i>. +So Mote it be.</p> +<p>The author of this volume can lay no claim for +it as a systematic treatise on Psychology, either +according to the rules of composition or the orderly +sequence of science.</p> +<p>It is rather a number of essays, some of which were +written without reference to publication, or the +design, at the time, of putting them together in a +single volume.</p> +<p>There is, therefore, more or less repetition, the +same subject under a different title, viewed from a +different aspect, yet involving the same principles, +motives, and aims.</p> +<p>But the subject of Psychology is so vast, so +intricate, so interesting and important, and yet, in +the average mind, so confused, and so little known, +that considerations from many sides, and even +repetitions in the application of a given principle +in various ways, are believed more likely to make +the whole subject apprehensible to the general +reader to whom it is addressed.</p> +<p>Moreover, the author believes that the time has +come when Psychology, as a <i>Constructive Science</i> +of the nature, laws, and destiny of the Human Soul, +need no longer be regarded as unknown or unattainable, +but open to all who seek it in the right way, +giving to it the consideration, time, and loyalty it +so amply deserves.</p> +<p>To such as these, it is hoped, the foregoing pages +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_222' name='page_222'></a>222</span> +may give many clews and sidelights, suggestions, +encouragement, and hope.</p> +<p>Psychology, to the Author of this volume, means +literally <i>A Knowledge of the Human Soul</i>, rather +than of treatises upon the subject, or of the opinions, +beliefs, or dogmas of men.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<a name='NOTES' id='NOTES'></a> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_223' name='page_223'></a>223</span> +<h3>NOTES</h3> +</div> + +<p>The oligarchy of creeds, and the autocrats of +Rome no more represent the “Coming of the +Son of Man,” the Divine Logos that was and is “in +the bosom of the Father in heaven,” than do the +Rockefellers, the Morgans and the Harrimans, constituting +the oligarchy of wealth, or than the political +grafters and bosses of our municipalities represent +the “New Commandment,” “that ye love +one another.” The barons of wealth have not yet +resorted directly to murder, as has Rome for ages.</p> +<p>St. Augustine says, “What is now called the +Christian religion existed among the ancients and +was not absent from the human race until Christ +came, from which time, the true Religion, which +existed already, began to be called ‘Christian.’” +(See Heckethorne’s “Secret Societies,” page 12, +Introduction.)</p> +<p>As to the basis of scientific chronology regarding +the Wisdom of the Masters, and their +indestructible records, I quote the following from +a modern student of Astrology. His method of +reckoning is correct, even though his dates may not +be absolutely exact, as he is not a “Master.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_224' name='page_224'></a>224</span></p> +<p>CHRONOLOGY AND THE “RIDDLE OF +THE SPHINX.”</p> +<p>Ancient religious symbols bear a striking resemblance +to the constellations of the heavens, +especially those of the Zodiac, and if this be their +true meaning, we have an infallible key to their +chronology. At the beginning of the Christian +Era, the constellation Aries, or Ram, occupied the +equinoctial place, being in the first degree of that +constellation. About 2150 B.C. the first degree of +Taurus, or Bull, contained the Equinox. When +the constellation Taurus, or the Bull, was in the +first division, or the equinoctial place, the people +used a symbol representing a bull, described as +giving fecundity, a deity of vegetation as at Dodona, +in their religious ceremonies. One of the statuettes +found recently in the excavations of Crete, was a +woman figured between bulls and lions, with a +dove or eagle on her head, and holding serpents in +her hand. This figure would seem to represent +mother earth between the constellations Taurus, +Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius. She is figured between +Taurus (the Bull) on one side, Leo (the +Lion) at her feet, Aquila (or Eagle) in the constellation, +Aquarius on her head, and Scorpio (or +the Serpent) in her hand; all forming the sacred +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_225' name='page_225'></a>225</span> +cross or ‘Swastika,’ with the constellations Taurus +in the vernal Equinox; Leo beneath the earth, the +Eagle or Aquarius overhead, and Scorpio held in +her hand toward the west.</p> +<p>Archĉologists place the date in which this symbol +was in use in Crete at 1100 to 1500 B.C. These +dates are included between 2150 B.C. and the year +1 A.D. By the same method we are enabled to +calculate the age of the Sphinx.</p> +<p>This Sphinx apparently represents the constellations +Leo (the Lion) and Virgo (the Virgin). It +has a lion’s body, and a woman’s head and breast. +When the Sphinx was built, it seems the spring +equinox occupied a point between these two constellations, +and as the spring, or Easter, festivals +of the ancients were held on or about March 21st +of our calendar, this Sphinx was the representation +of Leo and Virgo, the point in which the Sun +crossed the equator, or equinoctial line.</p> +<p>Now as the equinox retrogrades from east to +west in the reverse order of the constellations, as +well as the reverse order of the movement of the +planets, the Sun will not cross the equator at the +same point each year, but at a point a little to +the west, amounting to about fifty and a third +seconds of arc. At this rate the equinox will pass +backward through the constellations, making a complete +revolution in a little less than twenty-six +thousand years, or at the rate of about twenty-one +hundred and fifty years to a constellation of thirty +degrees. Now by taking the present position of +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_226' name='page_226'></a>226</span> +the equinox in the constellation Pisces, we find that +it has nearly reached the constellation Aquarius. +About 1909 years ago it was in the first point of +Aries. If we begin at its present point in Pisces, +and count back to the Junction of Leo-Virgo, we +will have to count 1909 years to first point of Aries; +2150 years to the first point of Taurus; 2150 years +to Camini; 2150 years to Cancer; 2150 years to +Leo and 2150 years to the constellation Virgo. +This indicates that the Sphinx was built 12,659 +years ago, or approximately 10,750 B.C. (John +Kilduff.)</p> +<hr class='silver' /> + +<div class='ce'> +<p style=' font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold;'>THE HARMONIC SERIES</p> +</div> + +<p><b>These are the text books of that Ancient School of Wisdom +whose members have ever been “Masters of the Law” of Life +and of Death, able at will, independently at all times, to travel +in the Spiritual World and communicate with those who live +there—your friends and our friends,—who have passed through +the gates of death and now live another life beyond the grave.</b></p> +<div class='ce'> +<p><b>Vol. I. HARMONICS OF EVOLUTION</b></p> +</div> + +<div class='ce'> +<p><i>By Florence Huntley</i></p> +</div> + +<p>This book is a clear statement of the philosophy of Individual +Life, as taught by modern Masters of the Law. Its teachings mean +the dawn of a “New Day” in the intellectual and ethical evolution +of the whole world.</p> +<p>Mrs. Huntley has sensed the very soul of mankind and understands +and explains its yearnings for what Drummond names “the +greatest thing in the world, LOVE.” 463 pages; illustrated.</p> +<div class='ce'> +<p><b>Vol. II. THE GREAT PSYCHOLOGICAL CRIME</b></p> +</div> + +<div class='ce'> +<p><i>By TK</i></p> +</div> + +<p>This remarkable book deals with the imminent dangers of the +day, and covers the most mysterious and fascinating phenomena +and experiences of human life. The author’s analysis of Hypnotism +and Mediumship is masterly and complete. For fifteen chapters, by +the most relentless and unanswerable facts, he <i>proves</i> that Hypnotism +and subjective Mediumship are vitally destructive to the +physical body and <i>the human soul</i>.</p> +<p><b>This volume carries a hope, a message, a suggestion and a +warning to all who are honestly, patiently and persistently +seeking to prove that Death does not end all. 464 pages; illustrated.</b></p> +<div class='ce'> +<p><b>Vol. III. THE GREAT WORK</b></p> +</div> + +<div class='ce'> +<p><i>By TK</i></p> +</div> + +<p>This is the book which tells <i>how</i> one must live and <i>what</i> he must +do to become able himself to demonstrate the fact of another life.</p> +<p>“<i>The Great Work</i>” <i>and</i> “<i>The Great Psychological Crime</i>” were +written by the American Representative of that “Venerable School +of Wisdom,” whose records are the most ancient at this time known +to man, and which for many thousands of years, has influenced the +civilization and work of every great nation of earth. 464 pages; +illustrated.</p> +<p><b>These books are founded upon an exact science. More +impressive, more fascinating and “stranger than fiction.” +“When a man dies, he shall live again,” is the inspiring message +of the Great Work in America,—and this message is written in +clear, concise, simple and easily readable English.</b></p> +<p>Bound in red silk, gold stamped. Price single copy, $2.00. <i>Per +set $6.00, express prepaid.</i></p> +<p>In Persian Morocco, <i>de luxe</i> edition $3.50 each. <i>The set at one +time, $10.00.</i></p> +<div class='figcenter'> +<img src='images/ad01.jpg' alt='' title='' style='width: 270px; height: 99px;' /><br /> +</div> + +<div class='ce'> +<p><b>THREE-IN-ONE</b></p> +</div> + +<p>“As beautiful a volume as the mind can imagine.”</p> +<p>The HARMONIC SERIES—Three Volumes—Bound in FULL, +PERSIAN MOROCCO (Oxford Bible style), round corners, silk +head-bands and markers, red-under-gold edges, <i>Genuine Gold +Stamped</i>. Printed on Japan French paper; several beautiful full-page +half-tones. Durable, practical, artistic. Name stamped on +cover in pure gold, if desired.</p> +<p>Price <i>de luxe</i> edition, all charges prepaid, $12.00.</p> +<p>All orders filled the same day they are received.</p> +<div class='ce'> +<p><b>INDO-AMERICAN BOOK CO. 5705 South Boulevard, Chicago, Ill.</b></p> +</div> + +<hr class='silver' /> + +<p>QUESTIONS ON NATURAL SCIENCE</p> +<div class='figleft'> +<img src='images/ad02.jpg' alt='' title='' style='width: 128px; height: 167px;' /><br /> +</div> + +<p>This volume is an aid to the study of the +“Harmonic Series.” While it commands the +attention of the casual reader of the Text +Books, it is intended more especially for +those who contemplate a closer relationship +with the philosophy and for those who <i>have +been admitted to studentship</i>.</p> +<p>To the aspiring student it opens up the +entire Harmonic Philosophy in a manner +that invites and facilitates the most intense +interest, satisfaction and progress.</p> +<p>355 pages, 20 chapters, and 3,857 carefully +formulated questions, all of which are +<i>authoratatively</i> answered in the Text Books. +Three-quarter leather, price $2.00.</p> +<p>KEY TO QUESTIONS ON NATURAL +SCIENCE. Leather, $1.00.</p> +<hr class='minor' /> + +<p>THE SPIRIT OF THE WORK</p> +<div class='figright'> +<img src='images/ad03.jpg' alt='' title='' style='width: 129px; height: 152px;' /><br /> +</div> + +<p><i>By TK.</i></p> +<p>These beautiful and inspiring essays by +the Beloved Elder Brother are now printed +in book form, for ready reference, and will +prove to be quite as interesting and helpful +to the beginner in Natural Science, as they +are useful to instructors and regularly +admitted students.</p> +<p>They unfold in simple language a wealth +of spiritual light that leads at once to a +most searching soul—analysis and readjustment +of the entire intelligence to the Constructive +Principle in Nature. Every page +breathes the very inmost meaning and spirit +of the educational work of the Great School. +If you are in earnest this book will help you. +331 pages, cloth, price $1.00.</p> +<hr class='minor' /> + +<p>THE QUESTION BOX SERIES</p> +<div class='figleft'> +<img src='images/ad04.jpg' alt='' title='' style='width: 121px; height: 156px;' /><br /> +</div> + +<p><i>By TK.</i></p> +<p>These two volumes consist of Questions +from Students and Friends of the Work of +the Great School, touching all manner of +interesting subjects, together with answers +by the TK. Volume I contains about 40 +general topics, 217 pages. Volume II has +over 75 topics and 245 pages.</p> +<p>Charming and valuable aids to readers, +students and instructors, and <b>strictly +authoritative in their teaching</b>.</p> +<p>Large, clear, beautiful type; carefully +indexed, and attractively arranged.</p> +<p>Price, $1.00 each.</p> +<hr class='minor' /> + +<p>HARMONIC BIRTHDAY BOOK</p> +<div class='figright'> +<img src='images/ad05.jpg' alt='' title='' style='width: 118px; height: 171px;' /><br /> +</div> + +<p>A large book—310 pages. There are quotations +from the “Harmonic Philosophy” for +every day in the year (with space for writing) +and the following valuable and unique +features: A section devoted to Birthstones; +Wedding Anniversaries; the Meaning of +Flowers; section devoted to the deaths of +Relatives and Friends, and a frontispiece and +beautiful half-tone portrait of <i>Florence +Huntley</i>.</p> +<p>It is really a family record, that will +increase in value with the years and become +priceless to the fortunate owner. Bound in +leather, gold stamped and embossed, gold +edges and printed on heavy parchment +paper.</p> +<p><b>Without doubt the most beautiful gift +book ever sold.</b> Price, $2.00.</p> +<hr class='silver' /> + +<p>THE DREAM CHILD (GIFT EDITION)</p> +<div class='figleft'> +<img src='images/ad06.jpg' alt='' title='' style='width: 109px; height: 157px;' /><br /> +</div> + +<p><i>By Florence Huntley</i></p> +<p>This is doubtless one of the most beautiful, +masterful and mystical books ever written. +The descriptive incidents in this book could +only emanate from the brilliant and fertile +brain of Florence Huntley.</p> +<p>Florence Huntley was the first instructed +student of the TK, dating from the year +1887; and from 1894 the Work commanded +her undivided time and effort.</p> +<p>“<i>The Dream Child</i>”—the first result of that +interest—was written in 1889, and stands for +that earlier and therefore more poetic and +less exact treatment of the Great Law than +her later writings.</p> +<p>A book that EVERYBODY reads and +re-reads with the keenest appreciation and +enthusiasm. Price $1.00</p> +<hr class='minor' /> + +<p>THE GAY GNANI OF GINGALEE.</p> +<div class='figright'> +<img src='images/ad07.jpg' alt='' title='' style='width: 98px; height: 159px;' /><br /> +</div> + +<p><i>By Florence Huntley</i></p> +<p>Only those who knew Mrs. Huntley’s +earlier humorous writings will be prepared +for such a book from the serious Author of +“<i>Harmonics of Evolution</i>.”</p> +<p>The publishers feel entirely safe in saying +there is nothing like “The Gay Gnani” in +the whole range of modern satirical fiction.</p> +<p>The most extraordinary feature of this +indescribable satire lies in Chapter XII, +“THE WAGES Of SIN IS DEATH,” contributed +by the TK. This chapter is a masterpiece +of concept, treatment and beauty, +setting forth the meaning and purpose of the +whole extravaganza.</p> +<p><b>Don’t miss reading this book.</b> Red cloth, +gold stamped. Price, $1.00.</p> +<hr class='minor' /> + +<p>ZANONI AND ZICCI</p> +<div class='figleft'> +<img src='images/ad08.jpg' alt='' title='' style='width: 119px; height: 157px;' /><br /> +</div> + +<p><i>By Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton</i></p> +<p>As a work of art this romance is one of +great power and original conception.</p> +<p>No other works of this great author have +provoked such diversity of criticism as +“<i>Zanoni</i>.” To some, this book represents a +temporary aberration of genius without +definite purpose. To others it represents surpassing, +bold and original speculation, profound +analysis of character and thrilling +interest; but <i>to the one who knows</i>, every +character in this book is recognized by a +familiar sign and symbol which, though hidden, +is nevertheless patent to the initiated.</p> +<p>The TWO books, “Zanoni” and “Zicci” in +one, <b>SPECIAL EDITION</b>, cloth, gold +stamped. Price, $1.00.</p> +<hr class='minor' /> + +<p><b>A STRANGE STORY</b> and <b>THE HAUNTED AND THE HAUNTERS</b></p> +<div class='figright'> +<img src='images/ad09.jpg' alt='' title='' style='width: 119px; height: 160px;' /><br /> +</div> + +<p>This is another of those marvelous books +by <i>Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton</i>. “A Strange +Story” is the antithesis of “Zanoni.” It is a +most absorbingly interesting story depicting +the destructive psychic practices and possibilities +against which “<i>The Great Psychological +Crime</i>” so timely warns the human +race.</p> +<p>As a matter of fact, both “A Strange +Story” and “Zanoni” are carefully veiled +exposes of the two oldest and most powerful +centers of Spiritual knowledge extant, and +are revelations of the loftiest pursuits and +the most malign practices known to human +Intelligence.</p> +<p><b>Be sure to read both of these books.</b></p> +<p>Special edition. Price, $1.00.</p> +<!-- generated by ppgen.rb version: 2.27 --> +<!-- timestamp: Sun Oct 12 08:12:04 -0600 2008 --> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The New Avatar and The Destiny of the +Soul, by Jirah D. Buck + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE NEW AVATAR *** + +***** This file should be named 26893-h.htm or 26893-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/8/9/26893/ + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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