Part 10

In the previous three divisions of this chapter we have had under our consideration causes of diseases originating in the terrestrial part of the human constitution; this and the following deals with his spiritual part.

“There are two subjects in man, one is a material, the other a spiritual being (thought-body), impalpable, invisible, subject to its own diseases (discords); one belonging to the material, the other to the spiritual world, each having its own states of consciousness, perception and memory, its own associations with beings of its kind. Nevertheless, both are one during this life, and the spirit influences the body; but not the body the spirit. Therefore if the spirit is diseased, it is of no use to doctor the body; but if the body is diseased, it can be cured by administering remedies to the spirit.” (Lib. “Paramir.,” I., iv., 4 and 7.)

This spiritual part, or the thought-body of man, is the vehicle for the reincarnating spirit, when the spiritual individuality evolves a new personality upon the earth. For the purpose of understanding what is said in the following division of this chapter, it will be necessary to understand the theory of Reincarnation, of which we can only present an outline within the space of this work. H. P. Blavatsky says that which reincarnates is:

“The Spiritual thinking Ego, the permanent principle in man, or that which is the seat of the Manas. It is not ATMA, or even ATMA-BUDDHI, which is the individual or divine man, but MANAS; for Atman is the Universal All, and becomes the Higher Self of man only in conjunction with BUDDHI, its vehicle, which links IT to the individuality (or the divine Man).”

The resurrection of the physical body is a modern superstition in which none of the ancient philosophers or real Christians ever believed.

Will.

“Will” comes from willan, desire; but is quite distinct from that selfish desire which is the result of the fancies of the brain; the true will is a strong power which comes from the centre, the heart, and in its highest aspect it is that creative power which called the world into existence. All the voluntary and involuntary actions in nature and in the organism of man originate in the action of will, whether or not we are conscious of it.

“You do not know a tithe of the real power of the will.” (Paracelsus, “Paramir.,” I., iv., 8.)

Upon the physical plane the will acts, so to say, unconsciously, carrying out blindly the laws of nature, causing attractions, repulsions, guiding the mechanical, chemical and physiological functions of the body without man’s intelligence taking any part in the process. Man is himself a manifestation of will, and the will (spirit) in him can perform many things without depending on the intellectual activity of the brain; all of which is left unexplained by modern physiology, although it cannot deny the facts. Thus an experienced pianist does not require to determine first which movement he should give to the muscles of his fingers before striking a key; but he does this instinctively after his spirit has been educated to it. Rope-walking, gymnastic feats and acts of all kinds are the products of a trained will, and would be impossible without that. They may be superintended by the intellect, but are not guided by it. Its sphere of action is limited to that of the body in which it dwells.

In its higher aspect the will is a conscious power, manifesting itself as emotions, virtues and vices of various kinds. Its sphere of action extends as far as the sphere of the influence of the individual mind. Thus the will of a superior person exercises an influence over his inferiors, a teacher over his pupils, a general over his army, a sage over the world.

In its highest aspect the will manifests itself as a self-conscious power, capable of acting far beyond the limits of the corporeal form from which it issues, constituting, so to say, an independent organized spiritual being acting under the guidance of the intelligence of the person from whom it is born. Strange as this assertion may appear, it is nevertheless true, and the now accepted phenomena of “hypnotism” have opened the door to the understanding of such phenomena. An investigation into this subject would bring us within the realm of magic, spiritism, witchcraft, sorcery, etc., etc., which does not belong to our present purpose, and which has been treated in a previous work.

As an evil will is the cause of many diseases, so is a good will a great remedy for curing them. While two fools hypnotizing each other will produce a mixture of folly, the magic power of the self-conscious benevolent will of an enlightened physician is able to arouse the confidence and restore health in many cases where all the remedies of the pharmacopœia are of no avail, and the cultivation of this power is therefore of supreme importance, even more so than a knowledge of all the details in regard to the action of drugs. Science and wisdom should be cultivated together, but not the former at the expense of the latter.

Imagination.

“Imagination” means the power of the mind to form images; from the shadowy images of a dream up to the corporeal and living images formed by the power of an Adept. This faculty, which was well known to the ancient sages who were in possession of it, is almost entirely ignored by popular medical science, which in spite of its recent discoveries of what is now called “suggestion,” does not yet seem to suspect the extent of its power. It is a power whose application cannot be taught to those who do not possess it, and there are very few who have this power developed; for our present generation is of a pre-eminently adamic (terrestrial) and impotent kind; leading a dream-life, and being itself composed of dreams, its imagination is as feeble as a dream. The real power of active and effective imagination belongs to the spiritual inner man, who in the vast majority of mankind has not yet awakened to life. Only when men and women have entered into the true life—in other words, when the spirit in them will have become self-conscious—will they be able to possess and to exercise spiritual powers, such as constituted the Arcana of Theophrastus Paracelsus, on which there has been so much speculation in modern literature and yet so little really known—the stumbling block and fruitful source of error for so many of our modern surface observers.

We do not blame popular medical science for not knowing that which it does not know; but we believe that the presumption of those who figure temporarily as the representatives of science, and who dogmatically pronounce useless and absurd everything which they do not possess, ought not to be encouraged. It is not so very long since recognised science laughed at the rotundity of the earth, and declared officially that no meteors could fall from the sky “because there were no stones in heaven;” denounced the belief in “psychic phenomena” as being a degrading superstition, and ridiculed the idea of building steamboats and telegraphs, etc. These errors originate not from science, but from stupid ignorance and self-conceit; they are the result of human infirmities, which exist now as in times of old, and can be cured only by the development of a superior power for knowing the truth.

Memory.

The third great power of the spirit manifested in the mind is the power of memory, which is, in fact, the power of man’s spirit to visit those places within the sphere of his mind where the impressions of former experiences are preserved, and thus to bring them again within the field of consciousness. Whatever function the physical brain may exercise in using this faculty of the spirit, the brain is no more the memory than the eye the sight; it is merely an instrument for perception, but not the perceiver nor the object of perception, nor the perception itself. To remember a thing is to see its impression or image in the astral light; to recollect a thing is to gather together one’s own attention at the place where its impression is stored up in the mind, and the power which enables a person to do so is the relation which exists between the creator and his creatures; man having formed a thought or idea, or perceived an image, is able to recollect it, because the impression is his creation—having issued from himself, it is a part of his world.

It depends upon the degree of spiritual power of perception in man, whether he can clearly and vividly see these images in the Astral Light, or whether they appear to him dim, uncertain and indistinct; but in the vast majority of men and women in our present generation this power of perceiving does not penetrate deeper nor rise higher than the Astral Light, while the spiritually developed man can penetrate deeper, and behold the memories of not only his present incarnation, but also those referring to his previous states of existence.

Will, Imagination and Memory are the cause of many diseases and such may be caused by one’s perverted use of those faculties, or by being practised upon another. A thought of any kind, be it wicked or virtuous, if rendered strong and substantial by the consent of the will, becomes born in the inner world as an elemental being, which grows by being cultivated, so that it may ultimately obsess its own father and produce visible effects upon the physical frame. The imagination of animals produces change in the colour of their offspring, the imagination of a mother can produce marks upon the child; the recollection of evil events and keeping such memories constantly in the mind gives rise to melancholy, ill temper, and despondency, anger, greed, lust, avarice, etc. All forms of evil will produce not only morbid states of the mind, but also certain definite changes in the physical body; all of which offer a vast field for a science of psychology in the future. An exposition of such a mental science cannot be attempted within the limited space of this work; but there already exists a vast amount of literature on this subject ignored by official science.

V.—ENS DEI.

Diseases arising from eternal Retribution.

A definition of the word “Deus,” God, is an impossibility, because it refers to a state beyond the conception of the limited mind. Eckhart says:—“A god of whom I could conceive would not be a god, but a limited creature.” We can therefore only say, God is the universal will in its highest aspect as divine love; which is the supreme law and the life of all things. A necessary consequence of the action of divine law is divine justice; because it would be impossible to imagine how one being could be favoured without doing injustice to another, and thus depriving the law of universal divine love of its unity and equality. This divine law of justice, according to which every cause created by a rational being returns with all its effects to its creator, is called in the East the law of Karma, and may be translated as the law of Eternal Retribution. H. P. Blavatsky says:—

“Karma is the unerring law which adjusts effect to cause, on the physical, mental, and spiritual planes of being. As no cause remains without its due effect from greatest to least, from a cosmic disturbance down to the movement of your hand, and as like produces like, Karma is that law which adjusts wisely, intelligently and equitably each effect to its cause, tracing the latter back to its producer.”

This law of Karma is in common parlance called the Will of God; which means the action of divine justice throughout the universe, and it is the cause not only of social evils, distinctions of classes in society, of the unequal distribution of wealth and comfort, good luck and misfortune, but also of defects of character, mental abnormalities and physical diseases.

All diseases in fact are effects of the law of Karma, the effects of causes, which are all based upon one universal Law; but this is not to be understood as if it meant “fatality,” or as if nothing could be done to cure such effects; for Karma is also the source of good, and if the patient finds a physician able to cure him, it proves that it was his Karma to find him and that he should be cured by him.

“All health and all disease comes from God, who also furnishes the remedy. Each disease is a purgatory, and no physician can effect a cure until the time of that purgatory is over. Ignorant physicians are the devils of that purgatory; but a wise physician a redeeming angel and a servant of God. The physician is a servant of nature, and God is its Lord. Therefore no physician ever performs a cure unless it is the will of God curing the patient through him.” (“Paramir.,” I., C. iv., 2 and 7.)

To know the theory of a thing is a science, to know how to use it successfully is art. It was the view of the ancient philosophers, and it will also be the view of the physician of the future, that Medicine is not merely a science but a holy art, and that a mere science without true goodness and wisdom is without real value. The practice of medicine must be based not merely upon scientific theories in regard to the laws of that part of nature which is its lowest plane of manifestation, the plane of physical appearances; but at the bottom of all science must be the recognition of eternal Truth itself. Health and disease in man are not determined by physical laws alone, such as govern the lowest orders of being; neither are the laws of Nature created by Nature; but all natural laws are the outcome of spiritual law acting in Nature, and in those kingdoms where intelligence plays a part, where the will begins to become free and individual responsibility takes place, a more direct action of divine law becomes manifest. Although therefore a knowledge of the laws of physical nature is extremely useful and necessary, the student of medicine should above all cultivate nobility and spirituality of character, such as is the result of the recognition of the fundamental law of Divine Wisdom, upon which is based all the order and harmony that exists in the world. Thus the practice of medicine has for its foundation not a merely technical side, and is not merely a trade or profession, which anybody may enter who chooses for the purpose of making a living; but it requires for its legitimate object the employment of such faculties as are the result of a development of the higher and nobler elements, the spiritual part in the constitution of man.

IV.