CLAIRVOYANCE

 BY

 C. W. LEADBEATER

 SECOND EDITION

 LONDON

 THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY

 1903

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CONTENTS

CHAPTER I. PAGEWHAT CLAIRVOYANCE IS. 5

CHAPTER II. SIMPLE CLAIRVOYANCE: FULL 29

CHAPTER III. SIMPLE CLAIRVOYANCE: PARTIAL 50

CHAPTER IV. CLAIRVOYANCE IN SPACE: INTENTIONAL 58

CHAPTER V. CLAIRVOYANCE IN SPACE: SEMI-INTENTIONAL 83

CHAPTER VI. CLAIRVOYANCE IN SPACE: UNINTENTIONAL 87

CHAPTER VII. CLAIRVOYANCE IN TIME: THE PAST 96

CHAPTER VIII. CLAIRVOYANCE IN TIME: THE FUTURE 131

CHAPTER IX. METHODS OF DEVELOPMENT 163

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CLAIRVOYANCE

CHAPTER I. 

WHAT CLAIRVOYANCE IS. 

Clairvoyance means literally nothing more than "clear-seeing, " and itis a word which has been sorely misused, and even degraded so far asto be employed to describe the trickery of a mountebank in a varietyshow. Even in its more restricted sense it covers a wide range ofphenomena, differing so greatly in character that it is not easy togive a definition of the word which shall be at once succinct andaccurate. It has been called "spiritual vision, " but no renderingcould well be more misleading than that, for in the vast majority ofcases there is no faculty connected with it which has the slightestclaim to be honoured by so lofty a name. 

For the purpose of this treatise we may, perhaps, define it as thepower to see what is hidden from ordinary physical sight. It will beas well to premise that it is very frequently (though by no meansalways) accompanied by what is called clairaudience, or the power tohear what would be inaudible to the ordinary physical ear; and we willfor the nonce take our title as covering this faculty also, in orderto avoid the clumsiness of perpetually using two long words where onewill suffice. 

Let me make two points clear before I begin. First, I am not writingfor those who do not believe that there is such a thing asclairvoyance, nor am I seeking to convince those who are in doubtabout the matter. In so small a work as this I have no space for that;such people must study the many books containing lists of cases, ormake experiments for themselves along mesmeric lines. I am addressingmyself to the better-instructed class who know that clairvoyanceexists, and are sufficiently interested in the subject to be glad ofinformation as to its methods and possibilities; and I would assurethem that what I write is the result of much careful study andexperiment, and that though some of the powers which I shall have todescribe may seem new and wonderful to them, I mention no single oneof which I have not myself seen examples. 

Secondly, though I shall endeavour to avoid technicalities as far aspossible, yet as I am writing in the main for students of Theosophy, Ishall feel myself at liberty sometimes to use, for brevity's sake andwithout detailed explanation, the ordinary Theosophical terms withwhich I may safely assume them to be familiar. 

Should this little book fall into the hands of any to whom theoccasional use of such terms constitutes a difficulty, I can onlyapologize to them and refer them for these preliminary explanations toany elementary Theosophical work, such as Mrs. Besant's _AncientWisdom_ or _Man and His Bodies_. The truth is that the wholeTheosophical system hangs together so closely, and its various partsare so interdependent, that to give a full explanation of every termused would necessitate an exhaustive treatise on Theosophy as apreface even to this short account of clairvoyance. 

Before a detailed explanation of clairvoyance can usefully beattempted, however, it will be necessary for us to devote a littletime to some preliminary considerations, in order that we may haveclearly in mind a few broad facts as to the different planes on whichclairvoyant vision may be exercised, and the conditions which renderits exercise possible. 

We are constantly assured in Theosophical literature that all thesehigher faculties are presently to be the heritage of mankind ingeneral--that the capacity of clairvoyance, for example, lies latentin every one, and that those in whom it already manifests itself aresimply in that one particular a little in advance of the rest of us. Now this statement is a true one, and yet it seems quite vague andunreal to the majority of people, simply because they regard such afaculty as something absolutely different from anything they have yetexperienced, and feel fairly confident that they themselves, at anyrate, are not within measurable distance of its development. 

It may help to dispel this sense of unreality if we try to understandthat clairvoyance, like so many other things in nature, is mainly aquestion of vibrations, and is in fact nothing but an extension ofpowers which we are all using every day of our lives. We are livingall the while surrounded by a vast sea of mingled air and ether, thelatter inter-penetrating the former, as it does all physical matter;and it is chiefly by means of vibrations in that vast sea of matterthat impressions reach us from the outside. This much we all know, butit may perhaps never have occurred to many of us that the number ofthese vibrations to which we are capable of responding is in realityquite infinitesimal. 

Up among the exceedingly rapid vibrations which affect the ether thereis a certain small section--a _very_ small section--to which theretina of the human eye is capable of responding, and these particularvibrations produce in us the sensation which we call light. That is tosay, we are capable of seeing only those objects from which light ofthat particular kind can either issue or be reflected. 

In exactly the same way the tympanum of the human ear is capable ofresponding to a certain very small range of comparatively slowvibrations--slow enough to affect the air which surrounds us; and sothe only sounds which we can hear are those made by objects which areable to vibrate at some rate within that particular range. 

In both cases it is a matter perfectly well known to science thatthere are large numbers of vibrations both above and below these twosections, and that consequently there is much light that we cannotsee, and there are many sounds to which our ears are deaf. In the caseof light the action of these higher and lower vibrations is easilyperceptible in the effects produced by the actinic rays at one end ofthe spectrum and the heat rays at the other. 

As a matter of fact there exist vibrations of every conceivable degreeof rapidity, filling the whole vast space intervening between the slowsound waves and the swift light waves; nor is even that all, for thereare undoubtedly vibrations slower than those of sound, and a wholeinfinity of them which are swifter than those known to us as light. Sowe begin to understand that the vibrations by which we see and hearare only like two tiny groups of a few strings selected from anenormous harp of practically infinite extent, and when we think howmuch we have been able to learn and infer from the use of thoseminute fragments, we see vaguely what possibilities might lie beforeus if we were enabled to utilize the vast and wonderful whole. 

Another fact which needs to be considered in this connection is thatdifferent human beings vary considerably, though within relativelynarrow limits, in their capacity of response even to the very fewvibrations which are within reach of our physical senses. I am notreferring to the keenness of sight or of hearing that enables one manto see a fainter object or hear a slighter sound than another; it isnot in the least a question of strength of vision, but of extent ofsusceptibility. 

For example, if anyone will take a good bisulphide of carbon prism, and by its means throw a clear spectrum on a sheet of white paper, andthen get a number of people to mark upon the paper the extreme limitsof the spectrum as it appears to them, he is fairly certain to findthat their powers of vision differ appreciably. Some will see theviolet extending much farther than the majority do; others willperhaps see rather less violet than most, while gaining acorresponding extension of vision at the red end. Some few there willperhaps be who can see farther than ordinary at both ends, and thesewill almost certainly be what we call sensitive people--susceptible infact to a greater range of vibrations than are most men of the presentday. 

In hearing, the same difference can be tested by taking some soundwhich is just not too high to be audible--on the very verge ofaudibility as it were--and discovering how many among a given numberof people are able to hear it. The squeak of a bat is a familiarinstance of such a sound, and experiment will show that on a summerevening, when the whole air is full of the shrill, needle-like criesof these little animals, quite a large number of men will beabsolutely unconscious of them, and unable to hear anything at all. 

Now these examples clearly show that there is no hard-and-fast limitto man's power of response to either etheric or aerial vibrations, butthat some among us already have that power to a wider extent thanothers; and it will even be found that the same man's capacity varieson different occasions. It is therefore not difficult for us toimagine that it might be possible for a man to develop this power, andthus in time to learn to see much that is invisible to his fellow-men, and hear much that is inaudible to them, since we know perfectly wellthat enormous numbers of these additional vibrations do exist, and aresimply, as it were, awaiting recognition. 

The experiments with the Röntgen rays give us an example of thestartling results which are produced when even a very few of theseadditional vibrations are brought within human ken, and thetransparency to these rays of many substances hitherto consideredopaque at once shows us one way at least in which we may explain suchelementary clairvoyance as is involved in reading a letter inside aclosed box, or describing those present in an adjoining apartment. Tolearn to see by means of the Röntgen rays in addition to thoseordinarily employed would be quite sufficient to enable anyone toperform a feat of magic of this order. 

So far we have thought only of an extension of the purely physicalsenses of man; and when we remember that a man's etheric body is inreality merely the finer part of his physical frame, and thattherefore all his sense organs contain a large amount of ethericmatter of various degrees of density, the capacities of which arestill practically latent in most of us, we shall see that even if weconfine ourselves to this line of development alone there are enormouspossibilities of all kinds already opening out before us. 

But besides and beyond all this we know that man possesses an astraland a mental body, each of which can in process of time be arousedinto activity, and will respond in turn to the vibrations of thematter of its own plane, thus opening up before the Ego, as he learnsto function through these vehicles, two entirely new and far widerworlds of knowledge and power. Now these new worlds, though they areall around us and freely inter-penetrate one another, are not to bethought of as distinct and entirely unconnected in substance, butrather as melting the one into the other, the lowest astral forming adirect series with the highest physical, just as the lowest mental inits turn forms a direct series with the highest astral. We are notcalled upon in thinking of them to imagine some new and strange kindof matter, but simply to think of the ordinary physical kind assubdivided so very much more finely and vibrating so very much morerapidly as to introduce us to what are practically entirely newconditions and qualities. 

It is not then difficult for us to grasp the possibility of a steadyand progressive extension of our senses, so that both by sight and byhearing we may be able to appreciate vibrations far higher and farlower than those which are ordinarily recognised. A large section ofthese additional vibrations will still belong to the physical plane, and will merely enable us to obtain impressions from the etheric partof that plane, which is at present as a closed book to us. Suchimpressions will still be received through the retina of the eye; ofcourse they will affect its etheric rather than its solid matter, butwe may nevertheless regard them as still appealing only to an organspecialized to receive them, and not to the whole surface of theetheric body. 

There are some abnormal cases, however, in which other parts of theetheric body respond to these additional vibrations as readily as, oreven more readily than, the eye. Such vagaries are explicable invarious ways, but principally as effects of some partial astraldevelopment, for it will be found that the sensitive parts of the bodyalmost invariably correspond with one or other of the _chakrams_, orcentres of vitality in the astral body. And though, if astralconsciousness be not yet developed, these centres may not be availableon their own plane, they are still strong enough to stimulate intokeener activity the etheric matter which they inter-penetrate. 

When we come to deal with the astral senses themselves the methods ofworking are very different. The astral body has no specializedsense-organs--a fact which perhaps needs some explanation, since manystudents who are trying to comprehend its physiology seem to find itdifficult to reconcile with the statements that have been made as tothe perfect inter-penetration of the physical body by astral matter, the exact correspondence between the two vehicles, and the fact thatevery physical object has necessarily its astral counterpart. 

Now all these statements are true, and yet it is quite possible forpeople who do not normally see astrally to misunderstand them. Everyorder of physical matter has its corresponding order of astral matterin constant association with it--not to be separated from it except bya very considerable exertion of occult force, and even then only tobe held apart from it as long as force is being definitely exerted tothat end. But for all that the relation of the astral particles one toanother is far looser than is the case with their physicalcorrespondences. 

In a bar of iron, for example, we have a mass of physical molecules inthe solid condition--that is to say, capable of comparatively littlechange in their relative positions, though each vibrating with immenserapidity in its own sphere. The astral counterpart of this consists ofwhat we often call solid astral matter--that is, matter of the lowestand densest sub-plane of the astral; but nevertheless its particlesare constantly and rapidly changing their relative position, movingamong one another as easily as those of a liquid on the physical planemight do. So that there is no permanent association between any onephysical particle and that amount of astral matter which happens atany given moment to be acting as its counterpart. 

This is equally true with respect to the astral body of man, which forour purpose at the moment we may regard as consisting of twoparts--the denser aggregation which occupies the exact position of thephysical body, and the cloud of rarer astral matter which surroundsthat aggregation. In both these parts, and between them both, there isgoing on at every moment of time the rapid inter-circulation of theparticles which has been described, so that as one watches themovement of the molecules in the astral body one is reminded of theappearance of those in fiercely boiling water. 

This being so, it will be readily understood that though any givenorgan of the physical body must always have as its counterpart acertain amount of astral matter, it does not retain the same particlesfor more than a few seconds at a time, and consequently there isnothing corresponding to the specialization of physical nerve-matterinto optic or auditory nerves, and so on. So that though the physicaleye or ear has undoubtedly always its counterpart of astral matter, that particular fragment of astral matter is no more (and no less)capable of responding to the vibrations which produce astral sight orastral hearing than any other part of the vehicle. 

It must never be forgotten that though we constantly have to speak of"astral sight" or "astral hearing" in order to make ourselvesintelligible, all that we mean by those expressions is the faculty ofresponding to such vibrations as convey to the man's consciousness, when he is functioning in his astral body, information of the samecharacter as that conveyed to him by his eyes and ears while he is inthe physical body. But in the entirely different astral conditions, specialized organs are not necessary for the attainment of thisresult; there is matter in every part of the astral body which iscapable of such response, and consequently the man functioning in thatvehicle sees equally well objects behind him, beneath him, above him, without needing to turn his head. 

There is, however, another point which it would hardly be fair toleave entirely out of account, and that is the question of the_chakrams_ referred to above. Theosophical students are familiar withthe idea of the existence in both the astral and the etheric bodies ofman of certain centres of force which have to be vivified in turn bythe sacred serpent-fire as the man advances in evolution. Though thesecannot be described as organs in the ordinary sense of the word, sinceit is not through them that the man sees or hears, as he does inphysical life through eyes and ears, yet it is apparently very largelyupon their vivification that the power of exercising these astralsenses depends, each of them as it is developed giving to the wholeastral body the power of response to a new set of vibrations. 

Neither have these centres, however, any permanent collection ofastral matter connected with them. They are simply vortices in thematter of the body--vortices through which all the particles pass inturn--points, perhaps, at which the higher force from planes aboveimpinges upon the astral body. Even this description gives but a verypartial idea of their appearance, for they are in realityfour-dimensional vortices, so that the force which comes through themand is the cause of their existence seems to well up from nowhere. Butat any rate, since all particles in turn pass through each of them, itwill be clear that it is thus possible for each in turn to evoke inall the particles of the body the power of receptivity to a certainset of vibrations, so that all the astral senses are equally active inall parts of the body. 

The vision of the mental plane is again totally different, for in thiscase we can no longer speak of separate senses such as sight andhearing, but rather have to postulate one general sense which respondsso fully to the vibrations reaching it that when any object comeswithin its cognition it at once comprehends it fully, and as it weresees it, hears it, feels it, and knows all there is to know about itby the one instantaneous operation. Yet even this wonderful facultydiffers in degree only and not in kind from those which are at ourcommand at the present time; on the mental plane, just as on thephysical, impressions are still conveyed by means of vibrationstravelling from the object seen to the seer. 

On the buddhic plane we meet for the first time with a quite newfaculty having nothing in common with those of which we have spoken, for there a man cognizes any object by an entirely different method, in which external vibrations play no part. The object becomes part ofhimself, and he studies it from the inside instead of from theoutside. But with _this_ power ordinary clairvoyance has nothing todo. 

The development, either entire or partial, of any one of thesefaculties would come under our definition of clairvoyance--the powerto see what is hidden from ordinary physical sight. But thesefaculties may be developed in various ways, and it will be well to saya few words as to these different lines. 

We may presume that if it were possible for a man to be isolatedduring his evolution from all but the gentlest outside influences, andto unfold from the beginning in perfectly regular and normal fashion, he would probably develop his senses in regular order also. He wouldfind his physical senses gradually extending their scope until theyresponded to all the physical vibrations, of etheric as well as ofdenser matter; then in orderly sequence would come sensibility to thecoarser part of the astral plane, and presently the finer part alsowould be included, until in due course the faculty of the mental planedawned in its turn. 

In real life, however, development so regular as this is hardly everknown, and many a man has occasional flashes of astral consciousnesswithout any awakening of etheric vision at all. And this irregularityof development is one of the principal causes of man's extraordinaryliability to error in matters of clairvoyance--a liability from whichthere is no escape except by a long course of careful training under aqualified teacher. 

Students of Theosophical literature are well aware that there are suchteachers to be found--that even in this materialistic nineteenthcentury the old saying is still true, that "when the pupil is ready, the Master is ready also, " and that "in the hall of learning, when heis capable of entering there, the disciple will always find hisMaster. " They are well aware also that only under such guidance can aman develop his latent powers in safety and with certainty, since theyknow how fatally easy it is for the untrained clairvoyant to deceivehimself as to the meaning and value of what he sees, or evenabsolutely to distort his vision completely in bringing it down intohis physical consciousness. 

It does not follow that even the pupil who is receiving regularinstruction in the use of occult powers will find them unfoldingthemselves exactly in the regular order which was suggested above asprobably ideal. His previous progress may not have been such as tomake this for him the easiest or most desirable road; but at any ratehe is in the hands of one who is perfectly competent to be his guidein spiritual development, and he rests in perfect contentment that theway along which he is taken will be that which is the best way forhim. 

Another great advantage which he gains is that whatever faculties hemay acquire are definitely under his command and can be used fully andconstantly when he needs them for his Theosophical work; whereas inthe case of the untrained man such powers often manifest themselvesonly very partially and spasmodically, and appear to come and go, asit were, at their own sweet will. 

It may reasonably be objected that if clairvoyant faculty is, asstated, a part of the occult development of man, and so a sign of acertain amount of progress along that line, it seems strange that itshould often be possessed by primitive peoples, or by the ignorant anduncultured among our own race--persons who are obviously quiteundeveloped, from whatever point of view one regards them. No doubtthis does appear remarkable at first sight but the fact is that thesensitiveness of the savage or of the coarse and vulgar Europeanignoramus is not really at all the same thing as the faculty of hisproperly trained brother, nor is it arrived at in the same way. 

An exact and detailed explanation of the difference would lead us intorather recondite technicalities, but perhaps the general idea of thedistinction between the two may be caught from an example taken fromthe very lowest plane of clairvoyance, in close contact with thedenser physical. The etheric double in man is in exceedingly closerelation to his nervous system, and any kind of action upon one ofthem speedily reacts on the other. Now in the sporadic appearance ofetheric sight in the savage, whether of Central Africa or of WesternEurope, it has been observed that the corresponding nervousdisturbance is almost entirely in the sympathetic system, and that thewhole affair is practically beyond the man's control--is in fact asort of massive sensation vaguely belonging to the whole etheric body, rather than an exact and definite sense-perception communicatedthrough a specialized organ. 

As in later races and amid higher development the strength of the manis more and more thrown into the evolution of the mental faculties, this vague sensitiveness usually disappears; but still later, when thespiritual man begins to unfold, he regains his clairvoyant power. Thistime, however, the faculty is a precise and exact one, under thecontrol of the man's will, and exercised through a definitesense-organ; and it is noteworthy that any nervous action set up insympathy with it is now almost exclusively in the cerebro-spinalsystem. 

On this subject Mrs. Besant writes:--"The lower forms of psychism aremore frequent in animals and in very unintelligent human beings thanin men and women in whom the intellectual powers are well developed. They appear to be connected with the sympathetic system, not with thecerebro-spinal. The large nucleated ganglionic cells in this systemcontain a very large proportion of etheric matter, and are hence moreeasily affected by the coarser astral vibrations than are the cells inwhich the proportion is less. As the cerebro-spinal system develops, and the brain becomes more highly evolved, the sympathetic systemsubsides into a subordinate position, and the sensitiveness to psychicvibrations is dominated by the stronger and more active vibrations ofthe higher nervous system. It is true that at a later stage ofevolution psychic sensitiveness reappears, but it is then developed inconnection with the cerebro-spinal centres, and is brought under thecontrol of the will. But the hysterical and ill-regulated psychism ofwhich we see so many lamentable examples is due to the smalldevelopment of the brain and the dominance of the sympathetic system. "

Occasional flashes of clairvoyance do, however, sometimes come to thehighly cultured and spiritual-minded man, even though he may neverhave heard of the possibility of training such a faculty. In his casesuch glimpses usually signify that he is approaching that stage in hisevolution when these powers will naturally begin to manifestthemselves, and their appearance should serve as an additionalstimulus to him to strive to maintain that high standard of moralpurity and mental balance without which clairvoyance is a curse andnot a blessing to its possessor. 

Between those who are entirely unimpressible and those who are in fullpossession of clairvoyant power there are many intermediate stages. One to which it will be worth while to give a passing glance is thestage in which a man, though he has no clairvoyant faculty in ordinarylife, yet exhibits it more or less fully under the influence ofmesmerism. This is a case in which the psychic nature is alreadysensitive, but the consciousness is not yet capable of functioning init amidst the manifold distractions of physical life. It needs to beset free by the temporary suspension of the outer senses in themesmeric trance before it can use the diviner faculties which are butjust beginning to dawn within it. But of course even in the mesmerictrance there are innumerable degrees of lucidity, from the ordinarypatient who is blankly unintelligent to the man whose power of sightis fully under the control of the operator, and can be directedwhithersoever he wills, or to the more advanced stage in which, whenthe consciousness is once set free, it escapes altogether from thegrasp of the magnetizer, and soars into fields of exalted vision whereit is entirely beyond his reach. 

Another step along the same path is that upon which such perfectsuppression of the physical as that which occurs in the hypnotictrance is not necessary, but the power of supernormal sight, thoughstill out of reach during waking life, becomes available when thebody is held in the bonds of ordinary sleep. At this stage ofdevelopment stood many of the prophets and seers of whom we read, whowere "warned of God in a dream, " or communed with beings far higherthan themselves in the silent watches of the night. 

Most cultured people of the higher races of the world have thisdevelopment to some extent: that is to say, the senses of their astralbodies are in full working order, and perfectly capable of receivingimpressions from objects and entities of their own plane. But to makethat fact of any use to them down here in the physical body, twochanges are usually necessary; first, that the Ego shall be awakenedto the realities of the astral plane, and induced to emerge from thechrysalis formed by his own waking thoughts, and look round him toobserve and to learn; and secondly, that the consciousness shall be sofar retained during the return of the Ego into his physical body as toenable him to impress upon his physical brain the recollection of whathe has seen or learnt. 

If the first of these changes has taken place, the second is of littleimportance, since the Ego, the true man, will be able to profit by theinformation to be obtained upon that plane, even though he may nothave the satisfaction of bringing through any remembrance of it intohis waking life down here. 

Students often ask how this clairvoyant faculty will first bemanifested in themselves--how they may know when they have reachedthe stage at which its first faint foreshadowings are beginning to bevisible. Cases differ so widely that it is impossible to give to thisquestion any answer that will be universally applicable. 

Some people begin by a plunge, as it were, and under some unusualstimulus become able just for once to see some striking vision; andvery often in such a case, because the experience does not repeatitself, the seer comes in time to believe that on that occasion hemust have been the victim of hallucination. Others begin by becomingintermittently conscious of the brilliant colours and vibrations ofthe human aura; yet others find themselves with increasing frequencyseeing and hearing something to which those around them are blind anddeaf; others, again, see faces, landscapes, or coloured cloudsfloating before their eyes in the dark before they sink to rest; whileperhaps the commonest experience of all is that of those who begin torecollect with greater and greater clearness what they have seen andheard on the other planes during sleep. 

Having now to some extent cleared our ground, we may proceed toconsider the various phenomena of clairvoyance. 

They differ so widely both in character and in degree that it is notvery easy to decide how they can most satisfactorily be classified. Wemight, for example, arrange them according to the kind of sightemployed--whether it were mental, astral, or merely etheric. We mightdivide them according to the capacity of the clairvoyant, taking intoconsideration whether he was trained or untrained; whether his visionwas regular and under his command, or spasmodic and independent of hisvolition; whether he could exercise it only when under mesmericinfluence, or whether that assistance was unnecessary for him; whetherhe was able to use his faculty when awake in the physical body, orwhether it was available only when he was temporarily away from thatbody in sleep or trance. 

All these distinctions are of importance, and we shall have to takethem all into consideration as we go on, but perhaps on the whole themost useful classification will be one something on the lines of thatadopted by Mr. Sinnett in his _Rationale of Mesmerism_--a book, by theway, which all students of clairvoyance ought to read. In dealing withthe phenomena, then, we will arrange them rather according to thecapacity of the sight employed than to the plane upon which it isexercised, so that we may group instances of clairvoyance under somesuch headings as these:

1. Simple clairvoyance--that is to say, a mere opening of sight, enabling its possessor to see whatever astral or etheric entitieshappen to be present around him, but not including the power ofobserving either distant places or scenes belonging to any other timethan the present. 

2. Clairvoyance in space--the capacity to see scenes or events removedfrom the seer in space, and either too far distant for ordinaryobservation or concealed by intermediate objects. 

3. Clairvoyance in time--that is to say, the capacity to see objectsor events which are removed from the seer in time, or, in other words, the power of looking into the past or the future. 

CHAPTER II. 

SIMPLE CLAIRVOYANCE: FULL. 

We have defined this as a mere opening of etheric or astral sight, which enables the possessor to see whatever may be present around himon corresponding levels, but is not usually accompanied by the powerof seeing anything at a great distance or of reading either the pastor the future. It is hardly possible altogether to exclude theselatter faculties, for astral sight necessarily has considerablygreater extension than physical, and fragmentary pictures of both pastand future are often casually visible even to clairvoyants who do notknow how to seek specially for them; but there is nevertheless a veryreal distinction between such incidental glimpses and the definitepower of projection of the sight either in space or time. 

We find among sensitive people all degrees of this kind ofclairvoyance, from that of the man who gets a vague impression whichhardly deserves the name of sight at all, up to the full possession ofetheric and astral vision respectively. Perhaps the simplest methodwill be for us to begin by describing what would be visible in thecase of this fuller development of the power, as the cases of itspartial possession will then be seen to fall naturally into theirplaces. 

Let us take the etheric vision first. This consists simply, as hasalready been said, in susceptibility to a far larger series ofphysical vibrations than ordinary, but nevertheless its possessionbrings into view a good deal to which the majority of the human racestill remains blind. Let us consider what changes its acquisitionproduces in the aspect of familiar objects, animate and inanimate, andthen see to what entirely new factors it introduces us. But it must beremembered that what I am about to describe is the result of the fulland perfectly-controlled possession of the faculty only, and that mostof the instances met with in real life will be likely to fall farshort of it in one direction or another. 

The most striking change produced in the appearance of inanimateobjects by the acquisition of this faculty is that most of them becomealmost transparent, owing to the difference in wave-length of some ofthe vibrations to which the man has now become susceptible. He findshimself capable of performing with the utmost ease the proverbial featof "seeing through a brick wall, " for to his newly-acquired vision thebrick wall seems to have a consistency no greater than that of alight mist. He therefore sees what is going on in an adjoining roomalmost as though no intervening wall existed; he can describe withaccuracy the contents of a locked box, or read a sealed letter; with alittle practice he can find a given passage in a closed book. Thislast feat, though perfectly easy to astral vision, presentsconsiderable difficulty to one using etheric sight, because of thefact that each page has to be looked at _through_ all those whichhappen to be superimposed upon it. 

It is often asked whether under these circumstances a man sees alwayswith this abnormal sight, or only when he wishes to do so. The answeris that if the faculty is perfectly developed it will be entirelyunder his control, and he can use that or his more ordinary vision atwill. He changes from one to the other as readily and naturally as wenow change the focus of our eyes when we look up from our book tofollow the motions of some object a mile away. It is, as it were, afocussing of consciousness on the one or the other aspect of what isseen; and though the man would have quite clearly in his view theaspect upon which his attention was for the moment fixed, he wouldalways be vaguely conscious of the other aspect too, just as when wefocus our sight upon any object held in our hands we yet vaguely seethe opposite wall of the room as a background. 

Another curious change, which comes from the possession of this sight, is that the solid ground upon which the man walks becomes to a certainextent transparent to him, so that he is able to see down into it to aconsiderable depth, much as we can now see into fairly clear water. This enables him to watch a creature burrowing underground, todistinguish a vein of coal or of metal if not too far below thesurface, and so on. 

The limit of etheric sight when looking through solid matter appearsto be analogous to that imposed upon us when looking through water ormist. We cannot see beyond a certain distance, because the mediumthrough which we are looking is not perfectly transparent. 

The appearance of animate objects is also considerably altered for theman who has increased his visual powers to this extent. The bodies ofmen and animals are for him in the main transparent, so that he canwatch the action of the various internal organs, and to some extentdiagnose some of their diseases. 

The extended sight also enables him to perceive, more or less clearly, various classes of creatures, elemental and otherwise, whose bodiesare not capable of reflecting any of the rays within the limit of thespectrum as ordinarily seen. Among the entities so seen will be someof the lower orders of nature-spirits--those whose bodies are composedof the denser etheric matter. To this class belong nearly all thefairies, gnomes, and brownies, about whom there are still so manystories remaining among Scotch and Irish mountains and in remotecountry places all over the world. 

The vast kingdom of nature-spirits is in the main an astral kingdom, but still there is a large section of it which appertains to theetheric part of the physical plane, and this section, of course, ismuch more likely to come within the ken of ordinary people than theothers. Indeed, in reading the common fairy stories one frequentlycomes across distinct indications that it is with this class that weare dealing. Any student of fairy lore will remember how often mentionis made of some mysterious ointment or drug, which when applied to aman's eyes enables him to see the members of the fairy commonwealthwhenever he happens to meet them. 

The story of such an application and its results occurs so constantlyand comes from so many different parts of the world that there mustcertainly be some truth behind it, as there always is behind reallyuniversal popular tradition. Now no such anointing of the eyes alonecould by any possibility open a man's astral vision, though certainointments rubbed over the whole body will very greatly assist theastral body to leave the physical in full consciousness--a fact theknowledge of which seems to have survived even to medięval times, aswill be seen from the evidence given at some of the trials forwitchcraft. But the application to the physical eye might very easilyso stimulate its sensitiveness as to make it susceptible to some ofthe etheric vibrations. 

The story frequently goes on to relate how when the human being whohas used this mystical ointment betrays his extended vision in someway to a fairy, the latter strikes or stabs him in the eye, thusdepriving him not only of the etheric sight, but of that of the denserphysical plane as well. (See _The Science of Fairy Tales_, by E. S. Hartland, in the "Contemporary Science" series--or indeed almost anyextensive collection of fairy stories. ) If the sight acquired had beenastral, such a proceeding would have been entirely unavailing, for noinjury to the physical apparatus would affect an astral faculty; butif the vision produced by the ointment were etheric, the destructionof the physical eye would in most cases at once extinguish it, sincethat is the mechanism by means of which it works. 

Anyone possessing this sight of which we are speaking would also beable to perceive the etheric double of man; but since this is sonearly identical in size with the physical, it would hardly be likelyto attract his attention unless it were partially projected in tranceor under the influence of anęsthetics. After death, when it withdrawsentirely from the dense body, it would be clearly visible to him, andhe would frequently see it hovering over newly made graves as hepassed through a churchyard or cemetery. If he were to attend aspiritualistic séance he would see the etheric matter oozing out fromthe side of the medium, and could observe the various ways in whichthe communicating entities make use of it. 

Another fact which could hardly fail soon to thrust itself upon hisnotice would be the extension of his perception of colour. He wouldfind himself able to see several entirely new colours, not in theleast resembling any of those included in the spectrum as we atpresent know it, and therefore of course quite indescribable in anyterms at our command. And not only would he see new objects that werewholly of these new colours, but he would also discover thatmodifications had been introduced into the colour of many objects withwhich he was quite familiar, according to whether they had or had notsome tinge of these new hues intermingled with the old. So that twosurfaces of colour which to ordinary eyes appeared to match perfectlywould often present distinctly different shades to his keener sight. 

We have now touched upon some of the principal changes which would beintroduced into a man's world when he gained etheric sight; and itmust always be remembered that in most cases a corresponding changewould at the same time be brought about in his other senses also, sothat he would be capable of hearing, and perhaps even of feeling, morethan most of those around him. Now supposing that in addition to thishe obtained the sight of the astral plane, what further changes wouldbe observable?

Well, the changes would be many and great; in fact, a whole new worldwould open before his eyes. Let us consider its wonders briefly in thesame order as before, and see first what difference there would be inthe appearance of inanimate objects. On this point I may begin byquoting a recent quaint answer given in _The Vāhan_. 

"There is a distinct difference between etheric sight and astralsight, and it is the latter which seems to correspond to the fourthdimension. 

"The easiest way to understand the difference is to take an example. If you looked at a man with both the sights in turn, you would see thebuttons at the back of his coat in both cases; only if you usedetheric sight you would see them _through_ him, and would see theshank-side as nearest to you, but if you looked astrally, you wouldsee it not only like that, but just as if you were standing behind theman as well. 

"Or if you were looking etherically at a wooden cube with writing onall its sides, it would be as though the cube were glass, so that youcould see through it, and you would see the writing on the oppositeside all backwards, while that on the right and left sides would notbe clear to you at all unless you moved, because you would see itedgewise. But if you looked at it astrally you would see all the sidesat once, and all the right way up, as though the whole cube had beenflattened out before you, and you would see every particle of theinside as well--not _through_ the others, but all flattened out. Youwould be looking at it from another direction, at right angles to allthe directions that we know. 

"If you look at the back of a watch etherically you see all the wheelsthrough it, and the face _through them_, but backwards; if you look atit astrally, you see the face right way up and all the wheels lyingseparately, but nothing on the top of anything else. "

Here we have at once the keynote, the principal factor of the change;the man is looking at everything from an absolutely new point of view, entirely outside of anything that he has ever imagined before. He hasno longer the slightest difficulty in reading any page in a closedbook, because he is not now looking at it through all the other pagesbefore it or behind it, but is looking straight down upon it as thoughit were the only page to be seen. The depth at which a vein of metalor of coal may lie is no longer a barrier to his sight of it, becausehe is not now looking through the intervening depth of earth at all. The thickness of a wall, or the number of walls intervening betweenthe observer and the object, would make a great deal of difference tothe clearness of the etheric sight; they would make no differencewhatever to the astral sight, because on the astral plane they would_not_ intervene between the observer and the object. Of course thatsounds paradoxical and impossible, and it _is_ quite inexplicable to amind not specially trained to grasp the idea; yet it is none the lessabsolutely true. 

This carries us straight into the middle of the much-vexed question ofthe fourth dimension--a question of the deepest interest, though onethat we cannot pretend to discuss in the space at our disposal. Thosewho wish to study it as it deserves are recommended to begin with Mr. C. H. Hinton's _Scientific Romances_ or Dr. A. T. Schofield's _AnotherWorld_, and then follow on with the former author's larger work, _ANew Era of Thought_. Mr. Hinton not only claims to be able himself tograsp mentally some of the simpler fourth-dimensional figures, butalso states that anyone who will take the trouble to follow out hisdirections may with perseverance acquire that mental grasp likewise. Iam not certain that the power to do this is within the reach ofeveryone, as he thinks, for it appears to me to require considerablemathematical ability; but I can at any rate bear witness that thetesseract or fourth-dimensional cube which he describes is a reality, for it is quite a familiar figure upon the astral plane. He has nowperfected a new method of representing the several dimensions bycolours instead of by arbitrary written symbols. He states that thiswill very much simplify the study, as the reader will be able todistinguish instantly by sight any part or feature of the tesseract. Afull description of this new method, with plates, is said to be readyfor the press, and is expected to appear within a year, so thatintending students of this fascinating subject might do well to awaitits publication. 

I know that Madame Blavatsky, in alluding to the theory of the fourthdimension, has expressed an opinion that it is only a clumsy way ofstating the idea of the entire permeability of matter, and that Mr. W. T. Stead has followed along the same lines, presenting the conceptionto his readers under the name of _throughth_. Careful, oft-repeatedand detailed investigation does, however, seem to show quiteconclusively that this explanation does not cover all the facts. It isa perfect description of etheric vision, but the further and quitedifferent idea of the fourth dimension as expounded by Mr. Hinton isthe only one which gives any kind of explanation down here of theconstantly-observed facts of astral vision. I would therefore venturedeferentially to suggest that when Madame Blavatsky wrote as she did, she had in mind etheric vision and not astral, and that the extremeapplicability of the phrase to this other and higher faculty, of whichshe was not at the moment thinking, did not occur to her. 

The possession of this extraordinary and scarcely expressible power, then, must always be borne in mind through all that follows. It laysevery point in the interior of every solid body absolutely open to thegaze of the seer, just as every point in the interior of a circle liesopen to the gaze of a man looking down upon it. 

But even this is by no means all that it gives to its possessor. Hesees not only the inside as well as the outside of every object, butalso its astral counterpart. Every atom and molecule of physicalmatter has its corresponding astral atoms and molecules, and the masswhich is built up out of these is clearly visible to our clairvoyant. Usually the astral of any object projects somewhat beyond the physicalpart of it, and thus metals, stones and other things are seensurrounded by an astral aura. 

It will be seen at once that even in the study of inorganic matter aman gains immensely by the acquisition of this vision. Not only doeshe see the astral part of the object at which he looks, which beforewas wholly hidden from him; not only does he see much more of itsphysical constitution than he did before, but even what was visibleto him before is now seen much more clearly and truly. A moment'sconsideration will show that his new vision approximates much moreclosely to true perception than does physical sight. For example, ifhe looks astrally at a glass cube, its sides will all appear equal, aswe know they really are, whereas on the physical plane he sees thefurther side in perspective--that is, it appears smaller than thenearer side, which is, of course, a mere allusion due to his physicallimitations. 

When we come to consider the additional facilities which it offers inthe observation of animate objects we see still more clearly theadvantages of the astral vision. It exhibits to the clairvoyant theaura of plants and animals, and thus in the case of the latter theirdesires and emotions, and whatever thoughts they may have, are allplainly shown before his eyes. 

But it is in dealing with human beings that he will most appreciatethe value of this faculty, for he will often be able to help them farmore effectually when he guides himself by the information which itgives him. 

He will be able to see the aura as far up as the astral body, andthough that leaves all the higher part of a man still hidden from hisgaze, he will nevertheless find it possible by careful observation tolearn a good deal about the higher part from what is within hisreach. His capacity of examining the etheric double will give himconsiderable advantage in locating and classifying any defects ordiseases of the nervous system, while from the appearance of theastral body he will be at once aware of all the emotions, passions, desires and tendencies of the man before him, and even of very many ofhis thoughts also. 

As he looks at a person he will see him surrounded by the luminousmist of the astral aura, flashing with all sorts of brilliant colours, and constantly changing in hue and brilliancy with every variation ofthe person's thoughts and feelings. He will see this aura flooded withthe beautiful rose-colour of pure affection, the rich blue ofdevotional feeling, the hard, dull brown of selfishness, the deepscarlet of anger, the horrible lurid red of sensuality, the livid greyof fear, the black clouds of hatred and malice, or any of the otherhundredfold indications so easily to be read in it by a practised eye;and thus it will be impossible for any persons to conceal from him thereal state of their feelings on any subject. 

These varied indications of the aura are of themselves a study of verydeep interest, but I have no space to deal with them in detail here. Amuch fuller account of them, together with a large number of colouredillustrations, will be found in my work on the subject _Man Visibleand Invisible_. 

Not only does the astral aura show him the temporary result of theemotion passing through it at the moment, but it also gives him, bythe arrangement and proportion of its colours when in a condition ofcomparative rest, a clue to the general disposition and character ofits owner. For the astral body is the expression of as much of the manas can be manifested on that plane, so that from what is seen in itmuch more which belongs to higher planes may be inferred withconsiderable certainty. 

In this judgment of character our clairvoyant will be much helped byso much of the person's thought as expresses itself on the astralplane, and consequently comes within his purview. The true home ofthought is on the mental plane, and all thought first manifests itselfthere as a vibration of the mind-body. But if it be in any way aselfish thought, or if it be connected in any way with an emotion or adesire, it immediately descends into the astral plane, and takes toitself a visible form of astral matter. 

In the case of the majority of men almost all thought would fall underone or other of these heads, so that practically the whole of theirpersonality would lie clearly before our friend's astral vision, sincetheir astral bodies and the thought-forms constantly radiating fromthem would be to him as an open book in which their characteristicswere writ so largely that he who ran might read. Anyone wishing togain some idea as to _how_ the thought-forms present themselves toclairvoyant vision may satisfy themselves to some extent by examiningthe illustrations accompanying Mrs. Besant's valuable article on thesubject in _Lucifer_ for September 1896. 

We have seen something of the alteration in the appearance of bothanimate and inanimate objects when viewed by one possessed of fullclairvoyant sight as far as the astral plane is concerned; let us nowconsider what entirely new objects he will see. He will be consciousof a far greater fulness in nature in many directions, but chiefly hisattention will be attracted by the living denizens of this new world. No detailed account of them can be attempted within the space at ourdisposal; for that the reader is referred to No. V. Of the_Theosophical Manuals_. Here we can do no more than barely enumerate afew classes only of the vast hosts of astral inhabitants. 

He will be impressed by the protean forms of the ceaseless tide ofelemental essence, ever swirling around him, menacing often, yetalways retiring before a determined effort of the will; he will marvelat the enormous army of entities temporarily called out of this oceaninto separate existence by the thoughts and wishes of man, whethergood or evil. He will watch the manifold tribes of the nature-spiritsat their work or at their play; he will sometimes be able to studywith ever-increasing delight the magnificent evolution of some of thelower orders of the glorious kingdom of the devas, which correspondsapproximately to the angelic host of Christian terminology. 

But perhaps of even keener interest to him than any of these will bethe human denizens of the astral world, and he will find themdivisible into two great classes--those whom we call the living, andthose others, most of them infinitely more alive, whom we so foolishlymisname the dead. Among the former he will find here and there onewide awake and fully conscious, perhaps sent to bring him somemessage, or examining him keenly to see what progress he is making;while the majority of his neighbours, when away from their physicalbodies during sleep, will drift idly by, so wrapped up in their owncogitations as to be practically unconscious of what is going onaround them. 

Among the great host of the recently dead he will find all degrees ofconsciousness and intelligence, and all shades of character--fordeath, which seems to our limited vision so absolute a change, inreality alters nothing of the man himself. On the day after his deathhe is precisely the same man as he was the day before it, with thesame disposition, the same qualities, the same virtues and vices, saveonly that he has cast aside his physical body; but the loss of that nomore makes him in any way a different man than would the removal of anovercoat. So among the dead our student will find men intelligent andstupid, kind-hearted and morose, serious and frivolous, spiritually-minded and sensually-minded, just as among the living. 

Since he can not only see the dead, but speak with them, he can oftenbe of very great use to them, and give them information and guidancewhich is of the utmost value to them. Many of them are in a conditionof great surprise and perplexity, and sometimes even of acutedistress, because they find the facts of the next world so unlike thechildish legends which are all that popular religion in the West hasto offer with reference to this transcendently important subject; andtherefore a man who understands this new world and can explain mattersis distinctly a friend in need. 

In many other ways a man who fully possesses this faculty may be ofuse to the living as well as to the dead; but of this side of thesubject I have already written in my little book on _InvisibleHelpers_. In addition to astral entities he will see astralcorpses--shades and shells in all stages of decay; but these need onlybe just mentioned here, as the reader desiring a further account ofthem will find it in our third and fifth manuals. 

Another wonderful result which the full enjoyment of astralclairvoyance brings to a man is that he has no longer any break inconsciousness. When he lies down at night he leaves his physical bodyto the rest which it requires, while he goes about his business inthe far more comfortable astral vehicle. In the morning he returns toand re-enters his physical body, but without any loss of consciousnessor memory between the two states, and thus he is able to live, as itwere, a double life which yet is one, and to be usefully employedduring the whole of it, instead of losing one-third of his existencein blank unconsciousness. 

Another strange power of which he may find himself in possession(though its full control belongs rather to the still higher devachanicfaculty), is that of magnifying at will the minutest physical orastral particle to any desired size, as though by a microscope--thoughno microscope ever made or ever likely to be made possesses even athousandth part of this psychic magnifying power. By its means thehypothetical molecule and atom postulated by science become visibleand living realities to the occult student, and on this closerexamination he finds them to be much more complex in their structurethan the scientific man has yet realised them to be. It also enableshim to follow with the closest attention and the most lively interestall kinds of electrical, magnetic, and other etheric action; and whensome of the specialists in these branches of science are able todevelop the power to see those things whereof they write so facilely, some very wonderful and beautiful revelations may be expected. 

This is one of the _siddhis_ or powers described in Oriental books asaccruing to the man who devotes himself to spiritual development, though the name under which it is there mentioned might not beimmediately recognizable. It is referred to as "the power of makingoneself large or small at will, " and the reason of a description whichappears so oddly to reverse the fact is that in reality the method bywhich this feat is performed is precisely that indicated in theseancient books. It is by the use of temporary visual machinery ofinconceivable minuteness that the world of the infinitely little is soclearly seen; and in the same way (or rather in the opposite way) itis by temporarily enormously increasing the size of the machinery usedthat it becomes possible to increase the breadth of one's view--in thephysical sense as well as, let us hope, in the moral--far beyondanything that science has ever dreamt of as possible for man. So thatthe alteration in size is really in the vehicle of the student'sconsciousness, and not in anything outside of himself; and the oldOriental book has, after all, put the case more accurately than we. 

Psychometry and second-sight _in excelsis_ would also be among thefaculties which our friend would find at his command; but those willbe more fitly dealt with under a later heading, since in almost alltheir manifestations they involve clairvoyance either in space or intime. 

I have now indicated, though only in the roughest outlines, what atrained student, possessed of full astral vision, would see in theimmensely wider world to which that vision introduced him; but I havesaid nothing of the stupendous change in his mental attitude whichcomes from the experiential certainty as to the existence of the soul, its survival after death, the action of the law of karma, and otherpoints of equally paramount importance. The difference between eventhe profoundest intellectual conviction and the precise knowledgegained by direct personal experience must be felt in order to beappreciated. 

CHAPTER III. 

SIMPLE CLAIRVOYANCE: PARTIAL. 

The experiences of the untrained clairvoyant--and be it rememberedthat that class includes all European clairvoyants except a veryfew--will, however, usually fall very far short of what I haveattempted to indicate; they will fall short in many different ways--indegree, in variety, or in permanence, and above all in precision. 

Sometimes, for example, a man's clairvoyance will be permanent, butvery partial, extending only perhaps to one or two classes of thephenomena observable; he will find himself endowed with some isolatedfragment of higher vision, without apparently possessing other powersof sight which ought normally to accompany that fragment, or even toprecede it. For example, one of my dearest friends has all his lifehad the power to see the atomic ether and atomic astral matter, and torecognize their structure, alike in darkness or in light, asinter-penetrating everything else; yet he has only rarely seenentities whose bodies are composed of the much more obvious lowerethers or denser astral matter, and at any rate is certainly notpermanently able to see them. He simply finds himself in possession ofthis special faculty, without any apparent reason to account for it, or any recognizable relation to anything else: and beyond proving tohim the existence of these atomic planes and demonstrating theirarrangement, it is difficult to see of what particular use it is tohim at present. Still, there the thing is, and it is an earnest ofgreater things to come--of further powers still awaiting development. 

There are many similar cases--similar, I mean, not in the possessionof that particular form of sight (which is unique in my experience), but in showing the development of some one small part of the full andclear vision of the astral and etheric planes. In nine cases out often, however, such partial clairvoyance will at the same time lackprecision also--that is to say, there will be a good deal of vagueimpression and inference about it, instead of the clear-cut definitionand certainty of the trained man. Examples of this type are constantlyto be found, especially among those who advertise themselves as "testand business clairvoyants. "

Then, again, there are those who are only temporarily clairvoyantunder certain special conditions. Among these there are varioussubdivisions, some being able to reproduce the state of clairvoyanceat will by again setting up the same conditions, while with others itcomes sporadically, without any observable reference to theirsurroundings, and with yet others the power shows itself only once ortwice in the whole course of their lives. 

To the first of these subdivisions belong those who are clairvoyantonly when in the mesmeric trance--who when not so entranced areincapable of seeing or hearing anything abnormal. These may sometimesreach great heights of knowledge and be exceedingly precise in theirindications, but when that is so they are usually undergoing a courseof regular training, though for some reason unable as yet to setthemselves free from the leaden weight of earthly life withoutassistance. 

In the same class we may put those--chiefly Orientals--who gain sometemporary sight only under the influence of certain drugs, or by meansof the performance of certain ceremonies. The ceremonialist sometimeshypnotizes himself by his repetitions, and in that condition becomesto some extent clairvoyant; more often he simply reduces himself to apassive condition in which some other entity can obsess him and speakthrough him. Sometimes, again, his ceremonies are not intended toaffect himself at all, but to invoke some astral entity who will givehim the required information; but of course that is a case of magic, and not of clairvoyance. Both the drugs and the ceremonies are methodsemphatically to be avoided by any one who wishes to approachclairvoyance from the higher side, and use it for his own progress andfor the helping of others. The Central African medicine-man orwitch-doctor and some of the Tartar Shamans are good examples of thetype. 

Those to whom a certain amount of clairvoyant power has comeoccasionally only, and without any reference to their own wish, haveoften been hysterical or highly nervous persons, with whom the facultywas to a large extent one of the symptoms of a disease. Its appearanceshowed that the physical vehicle was weakened to such a degree that itno longer presented any obstacle in the way of a certain modicum ofetheric or astral vision. An extreme example of this class is the manwho drinks himself into delirium tremens, and in the condition ofabsolute physical ruin and impure psychic excitation brought about bythe ravages of that fell disease, is able to see for the time some ofthe loathsome elemental and other entities which he has drawn roundhimself by his long course of degraded and bestial indulgence. Thereare, however, other cases where the power of sight has appeared anddisappeared without apparent reference to the state of the physicalhealth; but it seems probable that even in those, if they could havebeen observed closely enough, some alteration in the condition of theetheric double would have been noticed. 

Those who have only one instance of clairvoyance to report in thewhole of their lives are a difficult band to classify at allexhaustively, because of the great variety of the contributorycircumstances. There are many among them to whom the experience hascome at some supreme moment of their lives, when it is comprehensiblethat there might have been a temporary exaltation of faculty whichwould be sufficient to account for it. 

In the case of another subdivision of them the solitary case has beenthe seeing of an apparition, most commonly of some friend or relativeat the point of death. Two possibilities are then offered for ourchoice, and in each of them the strong wish of the dying man is theimpelling force. That force may have enabled him to materializehimself for a moment, in which case of course no clairvoyance wasneeded or more probably it may have acted mesmerically upon thepercipient, and momentarily dulled his physical and stimulated hishigher sensitiveness. In either case the vision is the product of theemergency, and is not repeated simply because the necessary conditionsare not repeated. 

There remains, however, an irresolvable residuum of cases in which asolitary instance occurs of the exercise of undoubted clairvoyance, while yet the occasion seems to us wholly trivial and unimportant. About these we can only frame hypotheses; the governing conditions areevidently not on the physical plane, and a separate investigation ofeach case would be necessary before we could speak with any certaintyas to its causes. In some such it has appeared that an astral entitywas endeavouring to make some communication, and was able to impressonly some unimportant detail on its subject--all the useful orsignificant part of what it had to say failing to get through into thesubject's consciousness. 

In the investigation of the phenomena of clairvoyance all these variedtypes and many others will be encountered, and a certain number ofcases of mere hallucination will be almost sure to appear also, andwill have to be carefully weeded out from the list of examples. Thestudent of such a subject needs an inexhaustible fund of patience andsteady perseverance, but if he goes on long enough he will begin dimlyto discern order behind the chaos, and will gradually get some idea ofthe great laws under which the whole evolution is working. 

It will help him greatly in his efforts if he will adopt the orderwhich we have just followed--that is, if he will first take thetrouble to familiarize himself as thoroughly as may be with the actualfacts concerning the planes with which ordinary clairvoyance deals. If he will learn what there really is to be seen with astral andetheric sight, and what their respective limitations are, he will thenhave, as it were, a standard by which to measure the cases which heobserves. Since all instances of partial sight must of necessity fitinto some niche in this whole, if he has the outline of the entirescheme in his head he will find it comparatively easy with a littlepractice to classify the instances with which he is called upon todeal. 

We have said nothing as yet as to the still more wonderfulpossibilities of clairvoyance upon the mental plane, nor indeed is itnecessary that much should be said, as it is exceedingly improbablethat the investigator will ever meet with any examples of it exceptamong pupils properly trained in some of the very highest schools ofoccultism. For them it opens up yet another new world, vaster far thanall those beneath it--a world in which all that we can imagine ofutmost glory and splendour is the commonplace of existence. Someaccount of its marvellous faculty, its eneffable bliss, itsmagnificent opportunities for learning and for work, is given in thesixth of our Theosophical manuals, and to that the student may bereferred. 

All that it has to give--all of it at least that he can assimilate--iswithin the reach of the trained pupil, but for the untrainedclairvoyant to touch it is hardly more than a bare possibility. Ithas been done in mesmeric trance, but the occurrence is of exceedingrarity, for it needs almost superhuman qualifications in the way oflofty spiritual aspiration and absolute purity of thought andintention upon the part both of the subject and the operator. 

To a type of clairvoyance such as this, and still more fully to thatwhich belongs to the plane next above it, the name of spiritual sightmay reasonably be applied; and since the celestial world to which itopens our eyes lies all round us here and now, it is fit that ourpassing reference to it should be made under the heading of simpleclairvoyance, though it may be necessary to allude to it again whendealing with clairvoyance in space, to which we will now pass on. 

CHAPTER IV. 

CLAIRVOYANCE IN SPACE: INTENTIONAL. 

We have defined this as the capacity to see events or scenes removedfrom the seer in space and too far distant for ordinary observation. The instances of this are so numerous and so various that we shallfind it desirable to attempt a somewhat more detailed classificationof them. It does not much matter what particular arrangement we adopt, so long as it is comprehensive enough to include all our cases;perhaps a convenient one will be to group them under the broaddivisions of intentional and unintentional clairvoyance in space, withan intermediate class that might be described as semi-intentional--acurious title, but I will explain it later. 

As before, I will begin by stating what is possible along this linefor the fully-trained seer, and endeavouring to explain how hisfaculty works and under what limitations it acts. After that we shallfind ourselves in a better position to try to understand the manifoldexamples of partial and untrained sight. Let us then in the firstplace discuss intentional clairvoyance. 

It will be obvious from what has previously been said as to the powerof astral vision that any one possessing it in its fulness will beable to see by its means practically anything in this world that hewishes to see. The most secret places are open to his gaze, andintervening obstacles have no existence for him, because of the changein his point of view; so that if we grant him the power of movingabout in the astral body he can without difficulty go anywhere and seeanything within the limits of the planet. Indeed this is to a largeextent possible to him even without the necessity of moving the astralbody at all, as we shall presently see. 

Let us consider a little more closely the methods by which thissuper-physical sight may be used to observe events taking place at adistance. When, for example, a man here in England sees in minutestdetail something which is happening at the same moment in India orAmerica, how is it done?

A very ingenious hypothesis has been offered to account for thephenomenon. It has been suggested that every object is perpetuallythrowing off radiations in all directions, similar in some respectsto, though infinitely finer than, rays of light, and that clairvoyanceis nothing but the power to see by means of these finer radiations. Distance would in that case be no bar to the sight, all interveningobjects would be penetrable by these rays, and they would be able tocross one another to infinity in all directions without entanglement, precisely as the vibrations of ordinary light do. 

Now though this is not exactly the way in which clairvoyance works, the theory is nevertheless quite true in most of its premises. Everyobject undoubtedly is throwing off radiations in all directions, andit is precisely in this way, though on a higher plane, that theākāshic records seem to be formed. Of them it will be necessary to saysomething under our next heading, so we will do no more than mentionthem for the moment. The phenomena of psychometry are also dependentupon these radiations, as will presently be explained. 

There are, however, certain practical difficulties in the way of usingthese etheric vibrations (for that is, of course, what they are) asthe medium by means of which one may see anything taking place at adistance. Intervening objects are not entirely transparent, and as theactors in the scene which the experimenter tried to observe wouldprobably be at least equally transparent, it is obvious that seriousconfusion would be quite likely to result. 

The additional dimension which would come into play if astralradiations were sensed instead of etheric would obviate some of thedifficulties, but would on the other hand introduce some freshcomplications of its own; so that for practical purposes, inendeavouring to understand clairvoyance, we may dismiss thishypothesis of radiations from our minds, and turn to the methods ofseeing at a distance which are actually at the disposal of thestudent. It will be found that there are five, four of them beingreally varieties of clairvoyance, while the fifth does not properlycome under that head at all, but belongs to the domain of magic. Letus take this last one first, and get it out of our way. 

1. _By the assistance of a nature-spirit. _--This method does notnecessarily involve the possession of any psychic faculty at all onthe part of the experimenter; he need only know how to induce somedenizen of the astral world to undertake the investigation for him. This may be done either by invocation or by evocation; that is to say, the operator may either persuade his astral coadjutor by prayers andofferings to give him the help he desires, or he may compel his aid bythe determined exercise of a highly-developed will. 

This method has been largely practised in the East (where the entityemployed is usually a nature-spirit) and in old Atlantis, where "thelords of the dark face" used a highly-specialized and peculiarlyvenomous variety of artificial elemental for this purpose. Informationis sometimes obtained in the same sort of way at the spiritualistic_séance_ of modern days, but in that case the messenger employed ismore likely to be a recently-deceased human being functioning more orless freely on the astral plane--though even here also it is sometimesan obliging nature-spirit, who is amusing himself by posing assomebody's departed relative. In any case, as I have said, this methodis not clairvoyant at all, but magical; and it is mentioned here onlyin order that the reader may not become confused in the endeavour toclassify cases of its use under some of the following headings. 

2. _By means of an astral current. _--This is a phrase frequently andrather loosely employed in some of our Theosophical literature tocover a considerable variety of phenomena, and among others that whichI wish to explain. What is really done by the student who adopts thismethod is not so much the setting in motion of a current in astralmatter, as the erection of a kind of temporary telephone through it. 

It is impossible here to give an exhaustive disquisition on astralphysics, even had I the requisite knowledge to write it; all I needsay is that it is possible to make in astral matter a definiteconnecting-line that shall act as a telegraph-wire to conveyvibrations by means of which all that is going on at the other end ofit may be seen. Such a line is established, be it understood, not by adirect projection through space of astral matter, but by such actionupon a line (or rather many lines) of particles of that matter aswill render them capable of forming a conductor for vibrations of thecharacter required. 

This preliminary action can be set up in two ways--either by thetransmission of energy from particle to particle, until the line isformed, or by the use of a force from a higher plane which is capableof acting upon the whole line simultaneously. Of course this lattermethod implies far greater development, since it involves theknowledge of (and the power to use) forces of a considerably higherlevel; so that the man who could make his line in this way would not, for his own use, need a line at all, since he could see far moreeasily and completely by means of an altogether higher faculty. 

Even the simpler and purely astral operation is a difficult one todescribe, though quite an easy one to perform. It may be said topartake somewhat of the nature of the magnetization of a bar of steel;for it consists in what we might call the polarization, by an effortof the human will, of a number of parallel lines of astral atomsreaching from the operator to the scene which he wishes to observe. All the atoms thus affected are held for the time with their axesrigidly parallel to one another, so that they form a kind of temporarytube along which the clairvoyant may look. This method has thedisadvantage that the telegraph line is liable to disarrangement oreven destruction by any sufficiently strong astral current whichhappens to cross its path; but if the original effort of will werefairly definite, this would be a contingency of only infrequentoccurrence. 

The view of a distant scene obtained by means of this "astral current"is in many ways not unlike that seen through a telescope. Humanfigures usually appear very small, like those on a distant stage, butin spite of their diminutive size they are as clear as though theywere close by. Sometimes it is possible by this means to hear what issaid as well as to see what is done; but as in the majority of casesthis does not happen, we must consider it rather as the manifestationof an additional power than as a necessary corollary of the faculty ofsight. 

It will be observed that in this case the seer does not usually leavehis physical body at all; there is no sort of projection of his astralvehicle or of any part of himself towards that at which he is looking, but he simply manufactures for himself a temporary astral telescope. Consequently he has, to a certain extent, the use of his physicalpowers even while he is examining the distant scene; for example, hisvoice would usually still be under his control, so that he coulddescribe what he saw even while he was in the act of making hisobservations. The consciousness of the man is, in fact, distinctlystill at this end of the line. 

This fact, however, has its limitations as well as its advantages, and these again largely resemble the limitations of the man using atelescope on the physical plane. The experimenter, for example, has nopower to shift this point of view; his telescope, so to speak, has aparticular field of view which cannot be enlarged or altered; he islooking at his scene from a certain direction, and he cannot suddenlyturn it all round and see how it looks from the other side. If he hassufficient psychic energy to spare, he may drop altogether thetelescope that he is using and manufacture an entirely new one forhimself which will approach his objective somewhat differently; butthis is not a course at all likely to be adopted in practice. 

But, it may be said, the mere fact that he is using astral sight oughtto enable him to see it from all sides at once. So it would if he wereusing that sight in the normal way upon an object which was fairlynear him--within his astral reach, as it were; but at a distance ofhundreds or thousands of miles the case is very different. Astralsight gives us the advantage of an additional dimension, but there isstill such a thing as position in that dimension, and it is naturallya potent factor in limiting the use of the powers of its plane. Ourordinary three-dimensional sight enables us to see at once every pointof the interior of a two-dimensional figure, such as a square, but inorder to do that the square must be within a reasonable distance fromour eyes; the mere additional dimension will avail a man in Londonbut little in his endeavour to examine a square in Calcutta. 

Astral sight, when it is cramped by being directed along what ispractically a tube, is limited very much as physical sight would beunder similar circumstances; though if possessed in perfection it willstill continue to show, even at that distance, the auras, andtherefore all the emotions and most of the thoughts of the peopleunder observation. 

There are many people for whom this type of clairvoyance is very muchfacilitated if they have at hand some physical object which can beused as a starting-point for their astral tube--a convenient focus fortheir will-power. A ball of crystal is the commonest and mosteffectual of such foci, since it has the additional advantage ofpossessing within itself qualities which stimulate psychic faculty;but other objects are also employed, to which we shall find itnecessary to refer more particularly when we come to considersemi-intentional clairvoyance. 

In connection with this astral-current form of clairvoyance, as withothers, we find that there are some psychics who are unable to use itexcept when under the influence of mesmerism. The peculiarity in thiscase is that among such psychics there are two varieties--one in whichby being thus set free the man is enabled to make a telescope forhimself, and another in which the magnetizer himself makes thetelescope and the subject is simply enabled to see through it. In thislatter case obviously the subject has not enough will to form a tubefor himself, and the operator, though possessed of the necessarywill-power, is not clairvoyant, or he could see through his own tubewithout needing help. 

Occasionally, though rarely, the tube which is formed possessesanother of the attributes of a telescope--that of magnifying theobjects at which it is directed until they seem of life-size. Ofcourse the objects must always be magnified to some extent, or theywould be absolutely invisible, but usually the extent is determined bythe size of the astral tube, and the whole thing is simply a tinymoving picture. In the few cases where the figures are seen as oflife-size by this method, it is probable that an altogether new poweris beginning to dawn; but when this happens, careful observation isneeded in order to distinguish them from examples of our next class. 

3. _By the projection of a thought-form. _--The ability to use thismethod of clairvoyance implies a development somewhat more advancedthan the last, since it necessitates a certain amount of control uponthe mental plane. All students of Theosophy are aware that thoughttakes form, at any rate upon its own plane, and in the vast majorityof cases upon the astral plane also; but it may not be quite sogenerally known that if a man thinks strongly of himself as presentat any given place, the form assumed by that particular thought willbe a likeness of the thinker himself, which will appear at the placein question. 

Essentially this form must be composed of the matter of the mentalplane, but in very many cases it would draw round itself matter of theastral plane also, and so would approach much nearer to visibility. There are, in fact, many instances in which it has been seen by theperson thought of--most probably by means of the unconscious mesmericinfluence emanating from the original thinker. None of theconsciousness of the thinker would, however, be included within thisthought-form. When once sent out from him, it would normally be aquite separate entity--not indeed absolutely unconnected with itsmaker, but practically so as far as the possibility of receiving anyimpression through it is concerned. 

This third type of clairvoyance consists, then, in the power to retainso much connection with and so much hold over a newly-erectedthought-form as will render it possible to receive impressions bymeans of it. Such impressions as were made upon the form would in thiscase be transmitted to the thinker--not along an astral telegraphline, as before, but by sympathetic vibration. In a perfect case ofthis kind of clairvoyance it is almost as though the seer projected apart of his consciousness into the thought-form, and used it as a kindof outpost, from which observation was possible. He sees almost aswell as he would if he himself stood in the place of his thought-form. 

The figures at which he is looking will appear to him as of life-sizeand close at hand, instead of tiny and at a distance, as in theprevious case; and he will find it possible to shift his point of viewif he wishes to do so. Clairaudience is perhaps less frequentlyassociated with this type of clairvoyance than with the last, but itsplace is to some extent taken by a kind of mental perception of thethoughts and intentions of those who are seen. 

Since the man's consciousness is still in the physical body, he willbe able (even while exercising the faculty) to hear and to speak, inso far as he can do this without any distraction of his attention. Themoment that the intentness of his thought fails the whole vision isgone, and he will have to construct a fresh thought-form before he canresume it. Instances in which this kind of sight is possessed with anydegree of perfection by untrained people are naturally rarer than inthe case of the previous type, because of the capacity for mentalcontrol required, and the generally finer nature of the forcesemployed. 

4. _By travelling in the astral body. _--We enter here upon an entirelynew variety of clairvoyance, in which the consciousness of the seer nolonger remains in or closely connected with his physical body, but isdefinitely transferred to the scene which he is examining. Though ithas no doubt greater dangers for the untrained seer than either of themethods previously described, it is yet quite the most satisfactoryform of clairvoyance open to him, for the immensely superior varietywhich we shall consider under our fifth head is not available exceptfor specially trained students. 

In this case the man's body is either asleep or in trance, and itsorgans are consequently not available for use while the vision isgoing on, so that all description of what is seen, and all questioningas to further particulars, must be postponed until the wandererreturns to this plane. On the other hand the sight is much fuller andmore perfect; the man hears as well as sees everything which passesbefore him, and can move about freely at will within the very widelimits of the astral plane. He can see and study at leisure all theother inhabitants of that plane, so that the great world of thenature-spirits (of which the traditional fairy-land is but a verysmall part) lies open before him, and even that of some of the lowerdevas. 

He has also the immense advantage of being able to take part, as itwere, in the scenes which come before his eyes--of conversing at willwith these various astral entities, from whom so much information thatis curious and interesting may be obtained. If in addition he canlearn how to materialize himself (a matter of no great difficulty forhim when once the knack is acquired), he will be able to take part inphysical events or conversations at a distance, and to show himself toan absent friend at will. 

Again, he has the additional power of being able to hunt about forwhat he wants. By means of the varieties of clairvoyance previouslydescribed, for all practical purposes he could find a person or aplace only when he was already acquainted with it, or when he was put_en rapport_ with it by touching something physically connected withit, as in psychometry. It is true that by the third method a certainamount of motion is possible, but the process is a tedious one exceptfor quite short distances. 

By the use of the astral body, however, a man can move about quitefreely and rapidly in any direction, and can (for example) findwithout difficulty any place pointed out upon a map, without eitherany previous knowledge of the spot or any object to establish aconnection with it. He can also readily rise high into the air so asto gain a bird's-eye view of the country which he is examining, so asto observe its extent, the contour of its coast-line, or its generalcharacter. Indeed, in every way his power and freedom are far greaterwhen he uses this method than they have been in any of the previouscases. 

A good example of the full possession of this power is given, on theauthority of the German writer Jung Stilling, by Mrs. Crowe in _TheNight Side of Nature_ (p. 127). The story is related of a seer who isstated to have resided in the neighbourhood of Philadelphia, inAmerica. His habits were retired, and he spoke little; he was grave, benevolent and pious, and nothing was known against his characterexcept that he had the reputation of possessing some secrets that wereconsidered not altogether _lawful_. Many extraordinary stories weretold of him, and amongst the rest the following:--

"The wife of a ship captain (whose husband was on a voyage to Europeand Africa, and from whom she had been long without tidings), beingoverwhelmed with anxiety for his safety, was induced to addressherself to this person. Having listened to her story he begged her toexcuse him for a while, when he would bring her the intelligence sherequired. He then passed into an inner room and she sat herself downto wait; but his absence continuing longer than she expected, shebecame impatient, thinking he had forgotten her, and softlyapproaching the door she peeped through some aperture, and to hersurprise beheld him lying on a sofa as motionless as if he were dead. She of course did not think it advisable to disturb him, but waitedhis return, when he told her that her husband had not been able towrite to her for such and such reasons, but that he was then in acoffee-house in London and would very shortly be home again. 

"Accordingly he arrived, and as the lady learnt from him that thecauses of his unusual silence had been precisely those alleged by theman, she felt extremely desirous of ascertaining the truth of the restof the information. In this she was gratified, for he no sooner sethis eyes on the magician than he said that he had seen him before on acertain day in a coffee-house in London, and that he told him that hiswife was extremely uneasy about him, and that he, the captain, hadthereon mentioned how he had been prevented writing, adding that hewas on the eve of embarking for America. He had then lost sight of thestranger amongst the throng, and knew nothing more about him. "

We have of course no means now of knowing what evidence Jung Stillinghad of the truth of this story, though he declares himself to havebeen quite satisfied with the authority on which he relates it; but somany similar things have happened that there is no reason to doubt itsaccuracy. The seer, however, must either have developed his facultyfor himself or learnt it in some school other than that from whichmost of our Theosophical information is derived; for in our case thereis a well-understood regulation expressly forbidding the pupils fromgiving any manifestation of such power which can be definitely provedat both ends in that way, and so constitute what is called "aphenomenon. " That this regulation is emphatically a wise one isproved to all who know anything of the history of our Society by thedisastrous results which followed from a very slight temporaryrelaxation of it. 

I have given some quite modern cases almost exactly parallel to theabove in my little book on _Invisible Helpers_. An instance of a ladywell-known to myself, who frequently thus appears to friends at adistance, is given by Mr. Stead in _Real Ghost Stories_ (p. 27); andMr. Andrew Lang gives, in his _Dreams and Ghosts_ (p. 89), an accountof how Mr. Cleave, then at Portsmouth, appeared intentionally on twooccasions to a young lady in London, and alarmed her considerably. There is any amount of evidence to be had on the subject by any onewho cares to study it seriously. 

This paying of intentional astral visits seems very often to becomepossible when the principles are loosened at the approach of death forpeople who were unable to perform such a feat at any other time. Thereare even more examples of this class than of the other; I epitomize agood one given by Mr. Andrew Lang on p. 100 of the book lastcited--one of which he himself says, "Not many stories have such goodevidence in their favour. "

"Mary, the wife of John Goffe of Rochester, being afflicted with along illness, removed to her father's house at West Malling, aboutnine miles from her own. 

"The day before her death she grew very impatiently desirous to seeher two children, whom she had left at home to the care of a nurse. She was too ill to be moved, and between one and two o'clock in themorning she fell into a trance. One widow Turner, who watched with herthat night, says that her eyes were open and fixed, and her jawfallen. Mrs. Turner put her hand upon her mouth, but could perceive nobreath. She thought her to be in a fit, and doubted whether she weredead or alive. 

"The next morning the dying woman told her mother that she had been athome with her children, saying, I was with them last night when I wasasleep. '

"The nurse at Rochester, widow Alexander by name, affirms that alittle before two o'clock that morning she saw the likeness of thesaid Mary Goffe come out of the next chamber (where the elder childlay in a bed by itself), the door being left open, and stood by herbedside for about a quarter of an hour; the younger child was therelying by her. Her eyes moved and her mouth went, but she said nothing. The nurse, moreover, says that she was perfectly awake; it was thendaylight, being one of the longest days in the year. She sat up in bedand looked steadfastly on the apparition. In that time she heard thebridge clock strike two, and a while after said: 'In the name of theFather, Son and Holy Ghost, what art thou?' Thereupon the apparitionremoved and went away; she slipped on her clothes and followed, butwhat became on't, she cannot tell. "

The nurse apparently was more frightened by its disappearance than itspresence, for after this she was afraid to stay in the house, and sospent the rest of the time until six o'clock in walking up and downoutside. When the neighbours were awake she told her tale to them, andthey of course said she had dreamt it all; she naturally enough warmlyrepudiated that idea, but could obtain no credence until the news ofthe other side of the story arrived from West Malling, when people hadto admit that there might have been something in it. 

A noteworthy circumstance in this story is that the mother found itnecessary to pass from ordinary sleep into the profounder trancecondition before she could consciously visit her children; it can, however, be paralleled here and there among the large number ofsimilar accounts which may be found in the literature of the subject. 

Two other stories of precisely the same type--in which a dying mother, earnestly desiring to see her children, falls into a deep sleep, visits them and returns to say that she has done so--are given by Dr. F. G. Lee. In one of them the mother, when dying in Egypt, appears toher children at Torquay, and is clearly seen in broad daylight by allfive of the children and also by the nursemaid. (_Glimpses of theSupernatural_, vol. Ii. , p. 64. ) In the other a Quaker lady dying atCockermouth is clearly seen and recognized in daylight by her threechildren at Settle, the remainder of the story being practicallyidentical with the one given above. (_Glimpses in the Twilight_, p. 94. ) Though these cases appear to be less widely known than that ofMary Goffe, the evidence of their authenticity seems to be quite asgood, as will be seen by the attestations obtained by the reverendauthor of the works from which they are quoted. 

The man who fully possesses this fourth type of clairvoyance has manyand great advantages at his disposal, even in addition to those alreadymentioned. Not only can he visit without trouble or expense all thebeautiful and famous places of the earth, but if he happens to be ascholar, think what it must mean to him that he has access to all thelibraries of the world! What must it be for the scientifically-mindedman to see taking place before his eyes so many of the processes of thesecret chemistry of nature, or for the philosopher to have revealed tohim so much more than ever before of the working of the great mysteriesof life and death? To him those who are gone from this plane are dead nolonger, but living and within reach for a long time to come; for himmany of the conceptions of religion are no longer matters of faith, butof knowledge. Above all, he can join the army of invisible helpers, andreally be of use on a large scale. Undoubtedly clairvoyance, even whenconfined to the astral plane, is a great boon to the student. 

Certainly it has its dangers also, especially for the untrained;danger from evil entities of various kinds, which may terrify orinjure those who allow themselves to lose the courage to face themboldly; danger of deception of all sorts, of misconceiving andmis-interpreting what is seen; greatest of all, the danger of becomingconceited about the thing and of thinking it impossible to make amistake. But a little common-sense and a little experience shouldeasily guard a man against these. 

5. _By travelling in the mental body. _--This is simply a higher and, as it were, glorified form of the last type. The vehicle employed isno longer the astral body, but the mind-body--a vehicle, therefore, belonging to the mental plane, and having within it all thepotentialities of the wonderful sense of that plane, so transcendentin its action yet so impossible to describe. A man functioning in thisleaves his astral body behind him along with the physical, and if hewishes to show himself upon the astral plane for any reason, he doesnot send for his own astral vehicle, but just by a single action ofhis will materializes one for his temporary need. Such an astralmaterialization is sometimes called the māyāvirūpa, and to form itfor the first time usually needs the assistance of a qualified Master. 

The enormous advantages given by the possession of this power are thecapacity of entering upon all the glory and the beauty of the higherland of bliss, and the possession, even when working on the astralplane, of the far more comprehensive mental sense which opens up tothe student such marvellous vistas of knowledge, and practicallyrenders error all but impossible. This higher flight, however, ispossible for the trained man only, since only under definite trainingcan a man at this stage of evolution learn to employ his mental bodyas a vehicle. 

Before leaving the subject of full and intentional clairvoyance, itmay be well to devote a few words to answering one or two questions asto its limitations, which constantly occur to students. Is itpossible, we are often asked, for the seer to find any person withwhom he wishes to communicate, anywhere in the world, whether he beliving or dead?

To this reply must be a conditional affirmative. Yes, it is possibleto find any person if the experimenter can, in some way or other, puthimself _en rapport_ with that person. It would be hopeless to plungevaguely into space to find a total stranger among all the millionsaround us without any kind of clue; but, on the other hand, a veryslight clue would usually be sufficient. 

If the clairvoyant knows anything of the man whom he seeks, he willhave no difficulty in finding him, for every man has what may becalled a kind of musical chord of his own--a chord which is theexpression of him as a whole, produced perhaps by a sort of average ofthe rates of vibration of all his different vehicles on theirrespective planes. If the operator knows how to discern that chord andto strike it, it will by sympathetic vibration attract the attentionof the man instantly wherever he may be, and will evoke an immediateresponse from him. 

Whether the man were living or recently dead would make no differenceat all, and clairvoyance of the fifth class could at once find himeven among the countless millions in the heaven-world, though in thatcase the man himself would be unconscious that he was underobservation. Naturally a seer whose consciousness did not range higherthan the astral plane--who employed therefore one of the earliermethods of seeing--would not be able to find a person upon the mentalplane at all; yet even he would at least be able to tell that the mansought for was upon that plane, from the mere fact that the strikingof the chord as far up as the astral level produced no response. 

If the man sought be a stranger to the seeker, the latter will needsomething connected with him to act as a clue--a photograph, a letterwritten by him, an article which has belonged to him, and isimpregnated with his personal magnetism; any of these would do in thehands of a practised seer. 

Again I say, it must not therefore be supposed that pupils who havebeen taught how to use this art are at liberty to set up a kind ofintelligence office through which communication can be had withmissing or dead relatives. A message given from this side to such anone might or might not be handed on, according to circumstances, buteven if it were, no reply might be brought, lest the transactionshould partake of the nature of a phenomenon--something which could beproved on the physical plane to have been an act of magic. 

Another question often raised is as to whether, in the action ofpsychic vision, there is any limitation as to distance. The replywould seem to be that there should be no limit but that of therespective planes. It must be remembered that the astral and mentalplanes of our earth are as definitely its own as its atmosphere, though they extend considerably further from it even in ourthree-dimensional space than does the physical air. Consequently thepassage to, or the detailed sight of, other planets would not bepossible for any system of clairvoyance connected with these planes. It _is_ quite possible and easy for the man who can raise hisconsciousness to the buddhic plane to pass to any other globebelonging to our chain of worlds, but that is outside our presentsubject. 

Still a good deal of additional information about other planets can beobtained by the use of such clairvoyant faculties as we have beendescribing. It is possible to make sight enormously clearer by passingoutside of the constant disturbances of the earth's atmosphere, and itis also not difficult to learn how to put on an exceedingly highmagnifying power, so that even by ordinary clairvoyance a good deal ofvery interesting astronomical knowledge may be gained. But as far asthis earth and its immediate surroundings are concerned, there ispractically no limitation. 

CHAPTER V. 

CLAIRVOYANCE IN SPACE: SEMI-INTENTIONAL. 

Under this rather curious title I am grouping together the cases ofall those people who definitely set themselves to see something, buthave no idea what the something will be, and no control over the sightafter the visions have begun--psychic Micawbers, who put themselvesinto a receptive condition, and then simply wait for something to turnup. Many trance-mediums would come under this heading; they either insome way hypnotize themselves or are hypnotized by some"spirit-guide, " and then they describe the scenes or persons thathappen to float before their vision. Sometimes, however, when in thiscondition they see what is taking place at a distance, and so theycome to have a place among our "clairvoyants in space. "

But the largest and most widely-spread band of these semi-intentionalclairvoyants are the various kinds of crystal-gazers--those who, asMr. Andrew Lang puts it, "stare into a crystal ball, a cup, a mirror, a blob of ink (Egypt and India), a drop of blood (among the Maories ofNew Zealand), a bowl of water (Red Indian), a pond (Roman andAfrican), water in a glass bowl (in Fez), or almost any polishedsurface" (_Dreams and Ghosts_, p. 57). 

Two pages later Mr. Lang gives us a very good example of the kind ofvision most frequently seen in this way. "I had given a glass ball, "he says, "to a young lady, Miss Baillie, who had scarcely any successwith it. She lent it to Miss Leslie, who saw a large square, old-fashioned red sofa covered with muslin, which she found in thenext country-house she visited. Miss Baillie's brother, a youngathlete, laughed at these experiments, took the ball into the study, and came back looking 'gey gash. ' He admitted that he had seen avision--somebody he knew under a lamp. He would discover during theweek whether he saw right or not. This was at 5. 30 on a Sundayafternoon. 

"On Tuesday, Mr. Baillie was at a dance in a town some forty milesfrom his home, and met a Miss Preston. 'On Sunday, ' he said, 'abouthalf-past five you were sitting under a standard lamp in a dress Inever saw you wear, a blue blouse with lace over the shoulders, pouring out tea for a man in blue serge, whose back was towards me, sothat I only saw the tip of his moustache. '

"'Why, the blinds must have been up, ' said Miss Preston. 

"'I was at Dulby, ' said Mr. Baillie, and he undeniably was. "

This is quite a typical case of crystal-gazing--the picture correct inevery detail, you see, and yet absolutely unimportant and bearing noapparent signification of any sort to either party, except that itserved to prove to Mr. Baillie that there was something incrystal-gazing. Perhaps more frequently the visions tend to be of aromantic character--men in foreign dress, or beautiful thoughgenerally unknown landscapes. 

Now what is the rationale of this kind of clairvoyance? As I haveindicated above, it belongs usually to the "astral-current" type, andthe crystal or other object simply acts as a focus for the will-powerof the seer, and a convenient starting-point for his astral tube. There are some who can influence what they will see by their will, that is to say they have the power of pointing their telescope as theywish; but the great majority just form a fortuitous tube and seewhatever happens to present itself at the end of it. 

Sometimes it may be a scene comparatively near at hand, as in the casejust quoted; at other times it will be a far-away Oriental landscape;at others yet it may be a reflection of some fragment of an ākāshicrecord, and then the picture will contain figures in some antiquedress, and the phenomenon belongs to our third large division of"clairvoyance in time. " It is said that visions of the future aresometimes seen in crystals also--a further development to which wemust refer later. 

I have seen a clairvoyant use instead of the ordinary shining surfacea dead black one, produced by a handful of powdered charcoal in asaucer. Indeed it does not seem to matter much what is used as afocus, except that pure crystal has an undoubted advantage over othersubstances in that its peculiar arrangement of elemental essencerenders it specially stimulating to the psychic faculties. 

It seems probable, however, that in cases where a tiny brilliantobject is employed--such as a point of light, or the drop of bloodused by the Maories--the instance is in reality merely one ofself-hypnotization. Among non-European nations the experiment is veryfrequently preceded or accompanied by magical ceremonies andinvocations, so that it is quite likely that such sight as is gainedmay sometimes be really that of some foreign entity, and so thephenomenon may in fact be merely a case of temporary possession, andnot of clairvoyance at all. 

CHAPTER VI. 

CLAIRVOYANCE IN SPACE: UNINTENTIONAL. 

Under this heading we may group together all those cases in whichvisions of some event which is taking place at a distance are seenquite unexpectedly and without any kind of preparation. There arepeople who are subject to such visions, while there are many others towhom such a thing will happen only once in a life-time. The visionsare of all kinds and of all degrees of completeness, and apparentlymay be produced by various causes. Sometimes the reason of the visionis obvious, and the subject matter of the gravest importance; at othertimes no reason at all is discoverable, and the events shown seem ofthe most trivial nature. 

Sometimes these glimpses of the super-physical faculty come as wakingvisions, and sometimes they manifest during sleep as vivid oroft-repeated dreams. In this latter case the sight employed is perhapsusually of the kind assigned to our fourth subdivision of clairvoyancein space, for the sleeping man often travels in his astral body tosome spot with which his affections or interests are closelyconnected, and simply watches what takes place there; in the former itseems probable that the second type of clairvoyance, by means of theastral current, is called into requisition. But in this case thecurrent or tube is formed quite unconsciously, and is often theautomatic result of a strong thought or emotion projected from one endor the other--either from the seer or the person who is seen. 

The simplest plan will be to give a few instances of the differentkinds, and to intersperse among them such further explanations as mayseem necessary. Mr. Stead has collected a large and varied assortmentof recent and well-authenticated cases in his _Real Ghost Stories_, and I will select some of my examples from them, occasionallycondensing slightly to save space. 

There are cases in which it is at once obvious to any Theosophicalstudent that the exceptional instance of clairvoyance was speciallybrought about by one of the band whom we have called "InvisibleHelpers" in order that aid might be rendered to some one in sore need. To this class, undoubtedly, belongs the story told by Captain Yonnt, of the Napa Valley in California, to Dr. Bushnell, who repeats it inhis _Nature and the Supernatural_ (p. 14). 

"About six or seven years previous, in a mid-winter's night, he had adream in which he saw what appeared to be a company of emigrantsarrested by the snows of the mountains, and perishing rapidly by coldand hunger. He noted the very cast of the scenery, marked by a huge, perpendicular front of white rock cliff; he saw the men cutting offwhat appeared to be tree-tops rising out of deep gulfs of snow; hedistinguished the very features of the persons and the look of theirparticular distress. 

"He awoke profoundly impressed by the distinctness and apparentreality of the dream. He at length fell asleep, and dreamed exactlythe same dream over again. In the morning he could not expel it fromhis mind. Falling in shortly after with an old hunter comrade, he toldhis story, and was only the more deeply impressed by his recognizingwithout hesitation the scenery of the dream. This comrade came overthe Sierra by the Carson Valley Pass, and declared that a spot in thePass exactly answered his description. 

"By this the unsophistical patriarch was decided. He immediatelycollected a company of men, with mules and blankets and all necessaryprovisions. The neighbours were laughing meantime at his credulity. 'No matter, ' he said, 'I am able to do this, and I will, for I verilybelieve that the fact is according to my dream. ' The men were sentinto the mountains one hundred and fifty miles distant direct to theCarson Valley Pass. And there they found the company exactly in thecondition of the dream, and brought in the remnant alive. "

Since it is not stated that Captain Yonnt was in the habit of seeingvisions, it seems clear that some helper, observing the forlorncondition of the emigrant party, took the nearest impressionable andotherwise suitable person (who happened to be the Captain) to the spotin the astral body, and aroused him sufficiently to fix the scenefirmly in his memory. The helper may possibly have arranged an "astralcurrent" for the Captain instead, but the former suggestion is moreprobable. At any rate the motive, and broadly the method, of the workare obvious enough in this case. 

Sometimes the "astral current" may be set going by a strong emotionalthought at the other end of the line, and this may happen even thoughthe thinker has no such intention in his mind. In the rather strikingstory which I am about to quote, it is evident that the link wasformed by the doctor's frequent thought about Mrs. Broughton, yet hehad clearly no especial wish that she should see what he was doing atthe time. That it was this kind of clairvoyance that was employed isshown by the fixity of her point of view--which, be it observed, isnot the doctor's point of view sympathetically transferred (as itmight have been) since she sees his back without recognizing him. Thestory is to be found in the _Proceedings of the Psychical ResearchSociety_ (vol. Ii. , p. 160). 

"Mrs. Broughton awoke one night in 1844, and roused her husband, telling him that something dreadful had happened in France. He beggedher to go to sleep again, and not trouble him. She assured him thatshe was not asleep when she saw what she insisted on telling him--whatshe saw in fact. 

"First a carriage accident--which she did not actually see, but whatshe saw was the result--a broken carriage, a crowd collected, a figuregently raised and carried into the nearest house, then a figure lyingon a bed which she then recognized as the Duke of Orleans. Graduallyfriends collecting round the bed--among them several members of theFrench royal family--the queen, then the king, all silently, tearfully, watching the evidently dying duke. One man (she could seehis back, but did not know who he was) was a doctor. He stood bendingover the duke, feeling his pulse, with his watch in the other hand. And then all passed away, and she saw no more. 

"As soon as it was daylight she wrote down in her journal all that shehad seen. It was before the days of electric telegraph, and two ormore days passed before the _Times_ announced 'The Death of the Dukeof Orleans. ' Visiting Paris a short time afterwards she saw andrecognized the place of the accident and received the explanation ofher impression. The doctor who attended the dying duke was an oldfriend of hers, and as he watched by the bed his mind had beenconstantly occupied with her and her family. "

A commoner instance is that in which strong affection sets up thenecessary current; probably a fairly steady stream of mutual thoughtis constantly flowing between the two parties in the case, and somesudden need or dire extremity on the part of one of them endues thisstream temporarily with the polarizing power which is needful tocreate the astral telescope. An illustrative example is quoted fromthe same _Proceedings_ (vol. I. , p. 30). 

"On September 9th, 1848, at the siege of Mooltan, Major-General R----, C. B. , then adjutant of his regiment, was most severely and dangerouslywounded; and, supposing himself to be dying, asked one of the officerswith him to take the ring off his finger and send it to his wife, whoat the time was fully one hundred and fifty miles distant atFerozepore. 

"'On the night of September 9th, 1848, ' writes his wife, 'I was lyingon my bed, between sleeping and waking, when I distinctly saw myhusband being carried off the field seriously wounded, and heard hisvoice saying, "Take this ring off my finger and send it to my wife. "All the next day I could not get the sight or the voice out of mymind. 

"'In due time I heard of General R---- having been severely wounded inthe assault of Mooltan. He survived, however, and is still living. Itwas not for some time after the siege that I heard from GeneralL----, the officer who helped to carry my husband off the field, thatthe request as to the ring was actually made by him, just as I heardit at Ferozepore at that very time. "

Then there is the very large class of casual clairvoyant visions whichhave no traceable cause--which are apparently quite meaningless, andhave no recognizable relation to any events known to the seer. To thisclass belong many of the landscapes seen by some people just beforethey fall asleep. I quote a capital and very realistic account of anexperience of this sort from Mr. W. T. Stead's _Real Ghost Stories_(p. 65). 

"I got into bed but was not able to go to sleep. I shut my eyes andwaited for sleep to come; instead of sleep, however, there came to mea succession of curiously vivid clairvoyant pictures. There was nolight in the room, and it was perfectly dark; I had my eyes shut also. But notwithstanding the darkness I suddenly was conscious of lookingat a scene of singular beauty. It was as if I saw a living miniatureabout the size of a magic-lantern slide. At this moment I can recallthe scene as if I saw it again. It was a seaside piece. The moon wasshining upon the water, which rippled slowly on to the beach. Rightbefore me a long mole ran into the water. 

"On either side of the mole irregular rocks stood up above thesea-level. On the shore stood several houses, square and rude, whichresembled nothing that I had ever seen in house architecture. No onewas stirring, but the moon was there and the sea and the gleam of themoonlight on the rippling waters, just as if I had been looking on theactual scene. 

"It was so beautiful that I remember thinking that if it continued Ishould be so interested in looking at it that I should never go tosleep. I was wide awake, and at the same time that I saw the scene Idistinctly heard the dripping of the rain outside the window. Thensuddenly, without any apparent object or reason, the scene changed. 

"The moonlit sea vanished, and in its place I was looking right intothe interior of a reading-room. It seemed as if it had been used as aschoolroom in the daytime, and was employed as a reading-room in theevening. I remember seeing one reader who had a curious resemblance toTim Harrington, although it was not he, hold up a magazine or book inhis hand and laugh. It was not a picture--it was there. 

"The scene was just as if you were looking through an opera-glass; yousaw the play of the muscles, the gleaming of the eye, every movementof the unknown persons in the unnamed place into which you weregazing. I saw all that without opening my eyes, nor did my eyes haveanything to do with it. You see such things as these as it were withanother sense which is more inside your head than in your eyes. 

"This was a very poor and paltry experience, but it enabled me tounderstand better how it is that clairvoyants see than any amount ofdisquisition. 

"The pictures were _apropos_ of nothing; they had been suggested bynothing I had been reading or talking of; they simply came as if I hadbeen able to look through a glass at what was occurring somewhere elsein the world. I had my peep, and then it passed, nor have I had arecurrence of a similar experience. "

Mr. Stead regards that as a "poor and paltry experience, " and it mayperhaps be considered so when compared with the greater possibilities, yet I know many students who would be very thankful to have even somuch of direct personal experience to tell. Small though it may be initself, it at once gives the seer a clue to the whole thing, andclairvoyance would be a living actuality to a man who had seen eventhat much in a way that it could never have been without that littletouch with the unseen world. 

These pictures were much too clear to have been mere reflections ofthe thought of others, and besides, the description unmistakably showsthat they were views seen through an astral telescope; so either Mr. Stead must quite unconsciously have set a current going for himself, or (which is much more probable) some kindly astral entity set it inmotion for him, and gave him, to while away a tedious delay, anypictures that happened to come handy at the end of the tube. 

CHAPTER VII. 

CLAIRVOYANCE IN TIME: THE PAST. 

Clairvoyance in time--that is to say, the power of reading the pastand the future--is, like all the other varieties, possessed bydifferent people in very varying degrees, ranging from the man who hasboth faculties fully at his command, down to one who only occasionallygets involuntary and very imperfect glimpses or reflections of thesescenes of other days. A person of the latter type might have, let ussay, a vision of some event in the past; but it would be liable to themost serious distortion, and even if it happened to be fairly accurateit would almost certainly be a mere isolated picture, and he wouldprobably be quite unable to relate it to what had occurred before orafter it, or to account for anything unusual which might appear in it. The trained man, on the other hand, could follow the drama connectedwith his picture backwards or forwards to any extent that might seemdesirable, and trace out with equal ease the causes which had led upto it or the results which it in turn would produce. 

We shall probably find it easier to grasp this somewhat difficultsection of our subject if we consider it in the subdivisions whichnaturally suggest themselves, and deal first with the vision whichlooks backwards into the past, leaving for later examination thatwhich pierces the veil of the future. In each case it will be well forus to try to understand what we can of the _modus operandi_, eventhough our success can at best be only a very modified one, owingfirst to the imperfect information on some parts of the subject atpresent possessed by our investigators, and secondly to theever-recurring failure of physical words to express a hundredth parteven of the little we do know about higher planes and faculties. 

In the case then of a detailed vision of the remote past, how is itobtained, and to what plane of nature does it really belong? Theanswer to both these questions is contained in the reply that it isread from the ākāshic records; but that statement in return willrequire a certain amount of explanation for many readers. The word isin truth somewhat of a misnomer, for though the records areundoubtedly read from the ākāsha, or matter of the mental plane, yetit is not to it that they really belong. Still worse is thealternative title, "records of the astral light, " which has sometimesbeen employed, for these records lie far beyond the astral plane, andall that can be obtained on it are only broken glimpses of a kind ofdouble reflection of them, as will presently be explained. 

Like so many others of our Theosophical terms, the word ākāsha hasbeen very loosely used. In some of our earlier books it was consideredas synonymous with astral light, and in others it was employed tosignify any kind of invisible matter, from mūlaprakriti down to thephysical ether. In later books its use has been restricted to thematter of the mental plane, and it is in that sense that the recordsmay be spoken of as ākāshic, for although they are not originally madeon that plane any more than on the astral, yet it is there that wefirst come definitely into contact with them and find it possible todo reliable work with them. 

This subject of the records is by no means an easy one to deal with, for it is one of that numerous class which requires for its perfectcomprehension faculties of a far higher order than any which humanityhas yet evolved. The real solution of its problems lies on planes farbeyond any that we can possibly know at present, and any view that wetake of it must necessarily be of the most imperfect character, sincewe cannot but look at it from below instead of from above. The ideawhich we form of it must therefore be only partial, yet it need notmislead us unless we allow ourselves to think of the tiny fragmentwhich is all that we can see as though it were the perfect whole. Ifwe are careful that such conceptions as we may form shall be accurateas far as they go, we shall have nothing to unlearn, though much toadd, when in the course of our further progress we gradually acquirethe higher wisdom. Be it understood then at the commencement that athorough grasp of our subject is an impossibility at the present stageof our evolution, and that many points will arise as to which no exactexplanation is yet obtainable, though it may often be possible tosuggest analogies and to indicate the lines along which an explanationmust lie. 

Let us then try to carry back our thoughts to the beginning of thissolar system to which we belong. We are all familiar with the ordinaryastronomical theory of its origin--that which is commonly called thenebular hypothesis--according to which it first came into existence asa gigantic glowing nebula, of a diameter far exceeding that of theorbit of even the outermost of the planets, and then, as in the courseof countless ages that enormous sphere gradually cooled andcontracted, the system as we know it was formed. 

Occult science accepts that theory, in its broad outline, as correctlyrepresenting the purely physical side of the evolution of our system, but it would add that if we confine our attention to this physicalside only we shall have a very incomplete and incoherent idea of whatreally happened. It would postulate, to begin with, that the exaltedBeing who undertakes the formation of a system (whom we sometimescall the Logos of the system) first of all forms in His mind acomplete conception of the whole of it with all its successive chainsof worlds. By the very act of forming that conception He calls thewhole into simultaneous objective existence on the plane of Histhought--a plane of course far above all those of which we knowanything--from which the various globes descend when required intowhatever state of further objectivity may be respectively destined forthem. Unless we constantly bear in mind this fact of the realexistence of the whole system from the very beginning on a higherplane, we shall be perpetually misunderstanding the physical evolutionwhich we see taking place down here. 

But occultism has more than this to teach us on the subject. It tellsus not only that all this wonderful system to which we belong iscalled into existence by the Logos, both on lower and on higherplanes, but also that its relation to Him is closer even than that, for it is absolutely a part of Him--a partial expression of Him uponthe physical plane--and that the movement and energy of the wholesystem is _His_ energy, and is all carried on within the limits of Hisaura. Stupendous as this conception is, it will yet not be whollyunthinkable to those of us who have made any study of the subject ofthe aura. 

We are familiar with the idea that as a person progresses on theupward path his causal body, which is the determining limit of hisaura, distinctly increases in size as well as in luminosity and purityof colour. Many of us know from experience that the aura of a pupilwho has already made considerable advance on the Path is very muchlarger than that of one who is but just setting his foot upon itsfirst step, while in the case of an Adept the proportional increase isfar greater still. We read in quite exoteric Oriental scriptures ofthe immense extension of the aura of the Buddha; I think that threemiles is mentioned on one occasion as its limit, but whatever theexact measurement may be, it is obvious that we have here anotherrecord of this fact of the extremely rapid growth of the causal bodyas man passes on his upward way. There can be little doubt that therate of this growth would itself increase in geometrical progression, so that it need not surprise us to hear of an Adept on a still higherlevel whose aura is capable of including the entire world at once; andfrom this we may gradually lead our minds up to the conception thatthere is a Being so exalted as to comprehend within Himself the wholeof our solar system. And we should remember that, enormous as thisseems to us, it is but as the tiniest drop in the vast ocean of space. 

So of the Logos (who has in Him all the capacities and qualities withwhich we can possibly endow the highest God we can imagine) it isliterally true, as was said of old, that "of Him and through Him, andto Him are all things, " and "in Him we live and move and have ourbeing. "

Now if this be so, it is clear that whatever happens within our systemhappens absolutely within the consciousness of its Logos, and so we atonce see that the true record must be His memory; and furthermore, itis obvious that on whatever plane that wondrous memory exists, itcannot but be far above anything that we know, and consequentlywhatever records we may find ourselves able to read must be only areflection of that great dominant fact, mirrored in the denser mediaof the lower planes. 

On the astral plane it is at once evident that this is so--that whatwe are dealing with is only a reflection of a reflection, and anexceedingly imperfect one, for such records as can be reached thereare fragmentary in the extreme, and often seriously distorted. We knowhow universally water is used as a symbol of the astral light, and inthis particular case it is a remarkably apt one. From the surface ofstill water we may get a clear reflection of the surrounding objects, just as from a mirror; but at the best it is only a reflection--arepresentation in two dimensions of three-dimensional objects, andtherefore differing in all its qualities, except colour, from thatwhich it represents; and in addition to this, it is always reversed. 

But let the surface of the water be ruffled by the wind and what do wefind then? A reflection still, certainly, but so broken up anddistorted as to be quite useless or even misleading as a guide to theshape and real appearance of the objects reflected. Here and there fora moment we might happen to get a clear reflection of some minute partof the scene--of a single leaf from a tree, for example; but it wouldneed long labour and considerable knowledge of natural laws to buildup anything like a true conception of the object reflected by puttingtogether even a large number of such isolated fragments of an image ofit. 

Now in the astral plane we can never have anything approaching to whatwe have imaged as a still surface, but on the contrary we have alwaysto deal with one in rapid and bewildering motion; judge, therefore, how little we can depend upon getting a clear and definite reflection. Thus a clairvoyant who possesses only the faculty of astral sight cannever rely upon any picture of the past that comes before him as beingaccurate and perfect; here and there some part of it _may_ be so, buthe has no means of knowing which it is. If he is under the care of acompetent teacher he may, by long and careful training, be shown howto distinguish between reliable and unreliable impressions, and toconstruct from the broken reflections some kind of image of theobject reflected; but usually long before he has mastered thosedifficulties he will have developed the mental sight, which renderssuch labour unnecessary. 

On the next plane, which we call the mental, conditions are verydifferent. There the record is full and accurate, and it would beimpossible to make any mistake in the reading. That is to say, ifthree clairvoyants possessing the powers of the mental plane agreed toexamine a certain record there, what would be presented to theirvision would be absolutely the same reflection in each case, and eachwould acquire a correct impression from it in reading it. It does nothowever follow that when they all compared notes later on the physicalplane their reports would agree exactly. It is well known that ifthree people who witness an occurrence down here in the physical worldset to work to describe it afterwards, their accounts will differconsiderably, for each will have noticed especially those items whichmost appeal to him, and will insensibly have made them the prominentfeatures of the event, sometimes ignoring other points which were inreality much more important. 

Now in the case of an observation on the mental plane this personalequation would not appreciably affect the impressions received, forsince each would thoroughly grasp the entire subject it would beimpossible for him to see its parts out of due proportion; but, except in the case of carefully trained and experienced persons, thisfactor does come into play in transferring the impressions to thelower planes. It is in the nature of things impossible that anyaccount given down here of a vision or experience on the mental planecan be complete, since nine-tenths of what is seen and felt therecould not be expressed by physical words at all; and, since allexpression must therefore be partial, there is obviously somepossibility of selection as to the part expressed. It is for thisreason that in all our Theosophical investigations of recent years somuch stress has been laid upon the constant checking and verifying ofclairvoyant testimony, nothing which rests upon the vision of oneperson only having been allowed to appear in our later books. 

But even when the possibility of error from this factor of personalequation has been reduced to a minimum by a careful system ofcounter-checking, there still remains the very serious difficulty whichis inherent in the operation of bringing down impressions from a higherplane to a lower one. This is something analogous to the difficultyexperienced by a painter in his endeavour to reproduce athree-dimensional landscape on a flat surface--that is, practically intwo dimensions. Just as the artist needs long and careful training ofeye and hand before he can produce a satisfactory representation ofnature, so does the clairvoyant need long and careful training before hecan describe accurately on a lower plane what he sees on a higher one;and the probability of getting an exact description from an untrainedperson is about equal to that of getting a perfectly-finished landscapefrom one who has never learnt how to draw. 

It must be remembered, too, that the most perfect picture is inreality infinitely far from being a reproduction of the scene which itrepresents, for hardly a single line or angle in it can ever be thesame as those in the object copied. It is simply a very ingeniousattempt to make upon one only of our five senses, by means of linesand colours on a flat surface, an impression similar to that whichwould have been made if we had actually had before us the scenedepicted. Except by a suggestion dependent entirely on our ownprevious experience, it can convey to us nothing of the roar of thesea, of the scent of the flowers, of the taste of the fruit, or of thesoftness or hardness of the surface drawn. 

Of exactly similar nature, though far greater in degree, are thedifficulties experienced by a clairvoyant in his attempt to describeupon the physical plane what he has seen upon the astral; and they arefurthermore greatly enhanced by the fact that, instead of havingmerely to recall to the minds of his hearers conceptions with whichthey are already familiar, as the artist does when he paints men oranimals, fields or trees, he has to endeavour by the very imperfectmeans at his disposal to suggest to them conceptions which in mostcases are absolutely new to them. 

Small wonder then that, however vivid and striking his descriptionsmay seem to his audience, he himself should constantly be impressedwith their total inadequacy, and should feel that his best effortshave entirely failed to convey any idea of what he really sees. And wemust remember that in the case of the report given down here of arecord read on the mental plane, this difficult operation oftransference from the higher to the lower has taken place not once buttwice, since the memory has been brought through the interveningastral plane. Even in a case where the investigator has the advantageof having developed his mental faculties so that he has the use ofthem while awake in the physical body, he is still hampered by theabsolute incapacity of physical language to express what he sees. 

Try for a moment to realize fully what is called the fourth dimension, of which we said something in an earlier chapter. It is easy enough tothink of our own three dimensions--to image in our minds the length, breadth and height of any object; and we see that each of these threedimensions is expressed by a line at right angles to both of theothers. The idea of the fourth dimension is that it might be possibleto draw a fourth line which shall be at right angles to all three ofthose already existing. 

Now the ordinary mind cannot grasp this idea in the least, though somefew who have made a special study of the subject have gradually cometo be able to realize one or two very simple four-dimensional figures. Still, no words that they can use on this plane can bring any image ofthese figures before the minds of others, and if any reader who hasnot specially trained himself along that line will make the effort tovisualize such a shape he will find it quite impossible. Now toexpress such a form clearly in physical words would be, in effect, todescribe accurately a single object on the astral plane; but inexamining the records on the mental plane we should have to face theadditional difficulties of a fifth dimension! So that theimpossibility of fully explaining these records will be obvious toeven the most superficial observation. 

We have spoken of the records as the memory of the Logos, yet they arevery much more than a memory in an ordinary sense of the word. Hopeless as it may be to imagine how these images appear from Hispoint of view, we yet know that as we rise higher and higher we mustbe drawing nearer to the true memory--must be seeing more nearly as Hesees; so that great interest attaches to the experience of theclairvoyant with reference to these records when he stands upon thebuddhic plane--the highest which his consciousness can reach evenwhen away from the physical body until he attains the level of theArhats. 

Here time and space no longer limit him; he no longer needs, as on themental plane, to pass a series of events in review, for past, presentand future are all alike simultaneously present to him, meaningless asthat sounds down here. Indeed, infinitely below the consciousness ofthe Logos as even that exalted plane is, it is yet abundantly clearfrom what we see there that to Him the record must be far more thanwhat we call a memory, for all that has happened in the past and allthat will happen in the future is _happening now_ before His eyes justas are the events of what we call the present time. Utterlyincredible, wildly incomprehensible, of course, to our limitedunderstanding; yet absolutely true for all that. 

Naturally we could not expect to understand at our present stage ofknowledge how so marvellous a result is produced, and to attempt anexplanation would only be to involve ourselves in a mist of words fromwhich we should gain no real information. Yet a line of thought recursto my mind which perhaps suggests the direction in which it ispossible that that explanation may lie: and whatever helps us torealize that so astounding a statement may after all not be whollyimpossible will be of assistance in broadening our minds. 

Some thirty years ago I remember reading a very curious little book, called, I think, _The Stars and the Earth_, the object of which was toendeavour to show how it was scientifically possible that to the mindof God the past and the present might be absolutely simultaneous. Itsarguments struck me at the time as decidedly ingenious, and I willproceed to summarize them, as I think they will be found somewhatsuggestive in connection with the subject which we have beenconsidering. 

When we see anything, whether it be the book which we hold in ourhands or a star millions of miles away, we do so by means of avibration in the ether, commonly called a ray of light, which passesfrom the object seen to our eyes. Now the speed with which thisvibration passes is so great--about 186, 000 miles in a second--thatwhen we are considering any object in our own world we may regard itas practically instantaneous. When, however, we come to deal withinterplanetary distances we have to take the speed of light intoconsideration, for an appreciable period is occupied in traversingthese vast spaces. For example it takes eight minutes and a quarterfor light to travel to us from the sun, so that when we look at thesolar orb we see it by means of a ray of light which left it more thaneight minutes ago. 

From this follows a very curious result. The ray of light by which wesee the sun can obviously report to us only the state of affairswhich existed in that luminary when it started on its journey, andwould not be in the least affected by anything that happened thereafter it left; so that we really see the sun not as he _is_, but as hewas eight minutes ago. That is to say that if anything important tookplace in the sun--the formation of a new sun-spot, for instance--anastronomer who was watching the orb through his telescope at the timewould be quite unaware of the incident while it was happening, sincethe ray of light bearing the news would not reach him until more thaneight minutes later. 

The difference is more striking when we consider the fixed stars, because in their case the distances are so enormously greater. Thepole star, for example, is so far off that light, travelling at theinconceivable speed above mentioned, takes a little more than fiftyyears to reach our eyes; and from that follows the strange butinevitable inference that we see the pole star not as and where it isat this moment, but as and where it was fifty years ago. Nay, ifto-morrow some cosmic catastrophe were to shatter the pole star intofragments, we should still see it peacefully shining in the sky allthe rest of our lives; our children would grow up to middle age andgather their children about them in turn before the news of thattremendous accident reached any terrestrial eye. In the same way thereare other stars so far distant that light takes thousands of years totravel from them to us, and with reference to their condition ourinformation is therefore thousands of years behind time. 

Now carry the argument a step farther. Suppose that we were able toplace a man at the distance of 186, 000 miles from the earth, and yetto endow him with the wonderful faculty of being able from thatdistance to see what was happening here as clearly as though he werestill close beside us. It is evident that a man so placed would seeeverything a second after the time when it really happened, and so atthe present moment he would be seeing what happened a second ago. Double the distance, and he would be two seconds behind time, and soon; remove him to the distance of the sun (still allowing him topreserve the same mysterious power of sight) and he would look downand watch you doing not what you _are_ doing now, but what you _were_doing eight minutes and a quarter ago. Carry him away to the polestar, and he would see passing before his eyes the events of fiftyyears ago; he would be watching the childish gambols of those who atthe very same moment were really middle-aged men. Marvellous as thismay sound, it is literally and scientifically true, and cannot bedenied. 

The little book went on to argue logically enough that God, beingalmighty, must possess the wonderful power of sight which we havebeen postulating for our observer; and further, that beingomnipresent, He must be at each of the stations which we mentioned, and also at every intermediate point, not successively butsimultaneously. Granting these premises, the inevitable deductionfollows that everything which has ever happened from the verybeginning of the world _must_ be at this very moment taking placebefore the eye of God--not a mere memory of it, but the actualoccurrence itself being now under His observation. 

All this is materialistic enough, and on the plane of purely physicalscience, and we may therefore be assured that it is _not_ the way inwhich the memory of the Logos acts; yet it is neatly worked out andabsolutely incontrovertible, and as I have said before, it is notwithout its use, since it gives us a glimpse of some possibilitieswhich otherwise might not occur to us. 

But, it may be asked, how is it possible, amid the bewilderingconfusion of these records of the past, to find any particular picturewhen it is wanted? As a matter of fact, the untrained clairvoyantusually cannot do so without some special link to put him _en rapport_with the subject required. Psychometry is an instance in point, and itis quite probable that our ordinary memory is really only anotherpresentment of the same idea. It seems as though there were a sort ofmagnetic attachment or affinity between any particle of matter and therecord which contains its history--an affinity which enables it to actas a kind of conductor between that record and the faculties of anyonewho can read it. 

For example, I once brought from Stonehenge a tiny fragment of stone, not larger than a pin's head, and on putting this into an envelope andhanding it to a psychometer who had no idea what it was, she at oncebegan to describe that wonderful ruin and the desolate countrysurrounding it, and then went on to picture vividly what wereevidently scenes from its early history, showing that thatinfinitesimal fragment had been sufficient to put her intocommunication with the records connected with the spot from which itcame. The scenes through which we pass in the course of our life seemto act in the same manner upon the cells of our brain as did thehistory of Stonehenge upon that particle of stone: they establish aconnection with those cells by means of which our mind is put _enrapport_ with that particular portion of the records, and so we"remember" what we have seen. 

Even a trained clairvoyant needs some link to enable him to find therecord of an event of which he has no previous knowledge. If, forexample, he wished to observe the landing of Julius Cęsar on theshores of England, there are several ways in which he might approachthe subject. If he happened to have visited the scene of theoccurrence, the simplest way would probably be to call up the image ofthat spot, and then run back through its records until he reached theperiod desired. If he had not seen the place, he might run back intime to the date of the event, and then search the Channel for a fleetof Roman galleys; or he might examine the records of Roman life atabout that period, where he would have no difficulty in identifying soprominent a figure as Cęsar, or in tracing him when found through allhis Gallic wars until he set his foot upon British land. 

People often enquire as to the aspect of these records--whether theyappear near or far away from the eye, whether the figures in them arelarge or small, whether the pictures follow one another as in apanorama or melt into one another like dissolving views, and so on. One can only reply that their appearance varies to a certain extentaccording to the conditions under which they are seen. Upon the astralplane the reflection is most often a simple picture, thoughoccasionally the figures seen would be endowed with motion; in thislatter case, instead of a mere snapshot a rather longer and moreperfect reflection has taken place. 

On the mental plane they have two widely different aspects. When thevisitor to that plane is not thinking specially of them in any way, the records simply form a background to whatever is going on, just asthe reflections in a pier-glass at the end of a room might form abackground to the life of the people in it. It must always be borne inmind that under these conditions they are really merely reflectionsfrom the ceaseless activity of a great Consciousness upon a far higherplane, and have very much the appearance of an endless succession ofthe recently invented _cinematographe_, or living photographs. They donot melt into one another like dissolving views, nor do a series ofordinary pictures follow one another; but the action of the reflectedfigures constantly goes on, as though one were watching the actors ona distant stage. 

But if the trained investigator turns his attention specially to anyone scene, or wishes to call it up before him, an extraordinary changeat once takes place, for this is the plane of thought, and to think ofanything is to bring it instantaneously before you. For example, if aman wills to see the record of that event to which we beforereferred--the landing of Julius Cęsar--he finds himself in a momentnot looking at any picture, but standing on the shore among thelegionaries, with the whole scene being enacted around him, preciselyin every respect as he would have seen it if he had stood there in theflesh on that autumn morning in the year 55 B. C. Since what he sees isbut a reflection, the actors are of course entirely unconscious ofhim, nor can any effort of his change the course of their action inthe smallest degree, except only that he can control the rate at whichthe drama shall pass before him--can have the events of a whole yearrehearsed before his eyes in a single hour, or can at any moment stopthe movement altogether, and hold any particular scene in view as apicture as long as he chooses. 

In truth he observes not only what he would have seen if he had beenthere at the time in the flesh, but much more. He hears andunderstands all that the people say, and he is conscious of all theirthoughts and motives; and one of the most interesting of the manypossibilities which open up before one who has learnt to read therecords is the study of the thought of ages long past--the thought ofthe cave-men and the lake-dwellers as well as that which ruled themighty civilisations of Atlantis, of Egypt or Chaldęa. What splendidpossibilities open up before the man who is in full possession of thispower may easily be imagined. He has before him a field of historicalresearch of most entrancing interest. Not only can he review at hisleisure all history with which we are acquainted, correcting as heexamines it the many errors and misconceptions which have crept intothe accounts handed down to us; he can also range at will over thewhole story of the world from its very beginning, watching the slowdevelopment of intellect in man, the descent of the Lords of theFlame, and the growth of the mighty civilisations which they founded. 

Nor is his study confined to the progress of humanity alone; he hasbefore him, as in a museum, all the strange animal and vegetable formswhich occupied the stage in days when the world was young; he canfollow all the wonderful geological changes which have taken place, and watch the course of the great cataclysms which have altered thewhole face of the earth again and again. 

In one especial case an even closer sympathy with the past is possibleto the reader of the records. If in the course of his enquiries he hasto look upon some scene in which he himself has in a former birthtaken part, he may deal with it in two ways; he can either regard itin the usual manner as a spectator (though always, be it remembered, as a spectator whose insight and sympathy are perfect) or he may oncemore identify himself with that long-dead personality of his--maythrow himself back for the time into that life of long ago, andabsolutely experience over again the thoughts and the emotions, thepleasures and the pains of a prehistoric past. No wilder and morevivid adventures can be conceived than some of those through which hethus may pass; yet through it all he must never lose hold of theconsciousness of his own individuality--must retain the power toreturn at will to his present personality. 

It is often asked how it is possible for an investigator accurately todetermine the date of any picture from the far-distant past which hedisinters from the records. The fact is that it is sometimes rathertedious work to find an exact date, but the thing can usually be doneif it is worth while to spend the time and trouble over it. If we aredealing with Greek or Roman times the simplest method is usually tolook into the mind of the most intelligent person present in thepicture, and see what date he supposes it to be; or the investigatormight watch him writing a letter or other document and observe whatdate, if any, was included in what was written. When once the Roman orGreek date is thus obtained, to reduce it to our own system ofchronology is merely a matter of calculation. 

Another way which is frequently adopted is to turn from the sceneunder examination to a contemporary picture in some great andwell-known city such as Rome, and note what monarch is reigning there, or who are the consuls for the year; and when such data are discovereda glance at any good history will give the rest. Sometimes a date canbe obtained by examining some public proclamation or some legaldocument; in fact in the times of which we are speaking the difficultyis easily surmounted. 

The matter is by no means so simple, however, when we come to dealwith periods much earlier than this--with a scene from early Egypt, Chaldęa, or China, or to go further back still, from Atlantis itselfor any of its numerous colonies. A date can still be obtained easilyenough from the mind of any educated man, but there is no longer anymeans of relating it to our own system of dates, since the man will bereckoning by eras of which we know nothing, or by the reigns of kingswhose history is lost in the night of time. 

Our methods, nevertheless, are not yet exhausted. It must beremembered that it is possible for the investigator to pass therecords before him at any speed that he may desire--at the rate of ayear in a second if he will, or even very much faster still. Now thereare one or two events in ancient history whose dates have already beenaccurately fixed--as, for example, the sinking of Poseidonis in theyear 9564 B. C. It is therefore obvious that if from the generalappearance of the surroundings it seems probable that a picture seenis within measurable distance of one of these events, it can berelated to that event by the simple process of running through therecord rapidly, and counting the years between the two as they pass. 

Still, if those years ran into thousands, as they might sometimes do, this plan would be insufferably tedious. In that case we are drivenback upon the astronomical method. In consequence of the movementwhich is commonly called the precession of the equinoxes, though itmight more accurately be described as a kind of second rotation ofthe earth, the angle between the equator and the ecliptic steadily butvery slowly varies. Thus, after long intervals of time we find thepole of the earth no longer pointing towards the same spot in theapparent sphere of the heavens, or in other words, our pole-star isnot, as at present, [Greek: a] Ursę Minoris, but some other celestialbody; and from this position of the pole of the earth, which caneasily be ascertained by careful observation of the night-sky of thepicture under consideration, an approximate date can be calculatedwithout difficulty. 

In estimating the date of occurrences which took place millions ofyears ago in earlier races, the period of a secondary rotation (or theprecession of the equinoxes) is frequently used as a unit, but ofcourse absolute accuracy is not usually required in such cases, roundnumbers being sufficient for all practical purposes in dealing withepochs so remote. 

The accurate reading of the records, whether of one's own past livesor those of others, must not, however, be thought of as an achievementpossible to anyone without careful previous training. As has beenalready remarked, though occasional reflections may be had upon theastral plane, the power to use the mental sense is necessary beforeany reliable reading can be done. Indeed, to minimize the possibilityof error, that sense ought to be fully at the command of theinvestigator while awake in the physical body; and to acquire thatfaculty needs years of ceaseless labour and rigid self-discipline. 

Many people seem to expect that as soon as they have signed theirapplication and joined the Theosophical Society they will at onceremember at least three or four of their past births; indeed, some ofthem promptly begin to imagine recollections and declare that in theirlast incarnation they were Mary Queen of Scots, Cleopatra, or JuliusCęsar! Of course such extravagant claims simply bring discredit uponthose who are so foolish as to make them but unfortunately some ofthat discredit is liable to be reflected, however unjustly, upon theSociety to which they belong, so that a man who feels seething withinhim the conviction that he was Homer or Shakespeare would do well topause and apply common-sense tests on the physical plane beforepublishing the news to the world. 

It is quite true that some people have had glimpses of scenes fromtheir past lives in dreams, but naturally these are usuallyfragmentary and unreliable. I had myself in earlier life an experienceof this nature. Among my dreams I found that one was constantlyrecurring--a dream of a house with a portico over-looking a beautifulbay, not far from a hill on the top of which rose a graceful building. I knew that house perfectly, and was as familiar with the position ofits rooms and the view from its door as I was with those of my home, in this present life. In those days I knew nothing aboutreincarnation, so that it seemed to me simply a curious coincidencethat this dream should repeat itself so often; and it was not untilsome time after I had joined the Society that, when one who knew wasshowing me some pictures of my last incarnation, I discovered thatthis persistent dream had been in reality a partial recollection, andthat the house which I knew so well was the one in which I was bornmore than two thousand years ago. 

But although there are several cases on record in which somewell-remembered scene has thus come through from one life to another, a considerable development of occult faculty is necessary before aninvestigator can definitely trace a line of incarnations, whether theybe his own or another man's. This will be obvious if we remember theconditions of the problem which has to be worked out. To follow aperson from this life to the one preceding it, it is necessary firstof all to trace his present life backwards to his birth and then tofollow up in reverse order the stages by which the Ego descended intoincarnation. 

This will obviously take us back eventually to the condition of theEgo upon the higher levels of the mental plane; so it will be seenthat to perform this task effectually the investigator must be able touse the sense corresponding to that exalted level while awake in hisphysical body--in other words, his consciousness must be centred inthe reincarnating Ego itself, and no longer in the lower personality. In that case, the memory of the Ego being aroused, his own pastincarnations will be spread out before him like an open book, and hewould be able, if he wished, to examine the conditions of another Egoupon that level and trace him backwards through the lower mental andastral lives which led up to it, until he came to the last physicaldeath of that Ego, and through it to his previous life. 

There is no way but this in which the chain of lives can be followedthrough with absolute certainty: and consequently we may at once putaside as conscious or unconscious impostors those people who advertisethat they are able to trace out anyone's past incarnations for so manyshillings a head. Needless to say, the true occultist does notadvertise, and never under any circumstances accepts money for anyexhibition of his powers. 

Assuredly the student who wishes to acquire the power of following upa line of incarnations can do so only by learning from a qualifiedteacher how the work is to be done. There have been those whopersistently asserted that it was only necessary for a man to feelgood and devotional and "brotherly, " and all the wisdom of the ageswould immediately flow in upon him; but a little common-sense will atonce expose the absurdity of such a position. However good a childmay be, if he wants to know the multiplication table he must set towork and learn it; and the case is precisely similar with the capacityto use spiritual faculties. The faculties themselves will no doubtmanifest as the man evolves, but he can learn how to use them reliablyand to the best advantage only by steady hard work and perseveringeffort. 

Take the case of those who wish to help others while on the astralplane during sleep; it is obvious that the more knowledge they possesshere, the more valuable will their services be on that higher plane. For example, the knowledge of languages would be useful to them, forthough on the mental plane men can communicate directly bythought-transference, whatever their languages may be, on the astralplane this is not so, and a thought must be definitely formulated inwords before it is comprehensible. If, therefore, you wish to help aman on that plane, you must have some language in common by means ofwhich you can communicate with him, and consequently the morelanguages you know the more widely useful you will be. In fact thereis perhaps no kind of knowledge for which a use cannot be found in thework of the occultist. 

It would be well for all students to bear in mind that occultism isthe apotheosis of common-sense, and that every vision which comes tothem is not necessarily a picture from the ākāshic records, nor everyexperience a revelation from on high. It is better far to err on theside of healthy scepticism than of over-credulity; and it is anadmirable rule never to hunt about for an occult explanation ofanything when a plain and obvious physical one is available. Our dutyis to endeavour to keep our balance always, and never to lose ourself-control, but to take a reasonable, common-sense view of whatevermay happen to us; so shall we be better Theosophists, wiseroccultists, and more useful helpers than we have ever been before. 

As usual, we find examples of all degrees of the power to see intothis memory of nature, from the trained man who can consult the recordfor himself at will, down to the person who gets nothing butoccasional vague glimpses, or has even perhaps had only one suchglimpse. But even the man who possesses this faculty only partiallyand occasionally still finds it of the deepest interest. Thepsychometer, who needs an object physically connected with the past inorder to bring it all into life again around him, and thecrystal-gazer who can sometimes direct his less certain astraltelescope to some historic scene of long ago, may both derive thegreatest enjoyment from the exercise of their respective gifts, eventhough they may not always understand exactly how their results areproduced, and may not have them fully under control under allcircumstances. 

In many cases of the lower manifestations of these powers we find thatthey are exercised unconsciously; many a crystal-gazer watches scenesfrom the past without being able to distinguish them from visions ofthe present, and many a vaguely-psychic person finds picturesconstantly arising before his eyes without ever realizing that he isin effect psychometrizing the various objects around him as he happensto touch them or stand near them. 

An interesting variant of this class of psychics is the man who isable to psychometrize persons only, and not inanimate objects as ismore usual. In most cases this faculty shows itself erratically, sothat such a psychic will, when introduced to a stranger, often see ina flash some prominent event in that stranger's earlier life, but onother similar occasions will receive no special impression. Morerarely we meet with someone who gets detailed visions of the past lifeof everyone whom he encounters. Perhaps one of the best examples ofthis class was the German writer Zschokke, who describes in hisautobiography this extraordinary power of which he found himselfpossessed. He says:--

"It has happened to me occasionally at the first meeting with a totalstranger, when I have been listening in silence to his conversation, that his past life up to the present moment, with many minutecircumstances belonging to one or other particular scene in it, hascome across me like a dream, but distinctly, entirely involuntarilyand unsought, occupying in duration a few minutes. 

"For a long time I was disposed to consider these fleeting visions asa trick of the fancy--the more so as my dream-vision displayed to methe dress and movements of the actors, the appearance of the room, thefurniture, and other accidents of the scene; till on one occasion, ina gamesome mood, I narrated to my family the secret history of asempstress who had just before quitted the room. I had never seen theperson before. Nevertheless the hearers were astonished, and laughedand would not be persuaded but that I had a previous acquaintance withthe former life of the person, inasmuch as what I had stated wasperfectly true. 

"I was not less astonished to find that my dream-vision agreed withreality. I then gave more attention to the subject, and as often aspropriety allowed of it, I related to those whose lives had so passedbefore me the substance of my dream-vision, to obtain from them itscontradiction or confirmation. On every occasion its confirmationfollowed, not without amazement on the part of those who gave it. 

"On a certain fair-day I went into the town of Waldshut accompanied bytwo young foresters, who are still alive. It was evening, and, tiredwith our walk, we went into an inn called the 'Vine. ' We took oursupper with a numerous company at the public table, when it happenedthat they made themselves merry over the peculiarities and simplicityof the Swiss in connection with the belief in mesmerism, Lavater'sphysiognomical system and the like. One of my companions, whosenational pride was touched by their raillery, begged me to make somereply, particularly in answer to a young man of superior appearancewho sat opposite, and had indulged in unrestrained ridicule. 

"It happened that the events of this person's life had just previouslypassed before my mind. I turned to him with the question whether hewould reply to me with truth and candour if I narrated to him the mostsecret passages of his history, he being as little known to me as I tohim? That would, I suggested, go something beyond Lavater'sphysiognomical skill. He promised if I told the truth to admit itopenly. Then I narrated the events with which my dream-vision hadfurnished me, and the table learnt the history of the youngtradesman's life, of his school years, his peccadilloes, and, finally, of a little act of roguery committed by him on the strong-box of hisemployer. I described the uninhabited room with its white walls, whereto the right of the brown door there had stood upon the table thesmall black money-chest, etc. The man, much struck, admitted thecorrectness of each circumstance--even, which I could not expect, ofthe last. "

And after narrating this incident, the worthy Zschokke calmly goes onto wonder whether perhaps after all this remarkable power, which hehad so often displayed, might not really have been always the resultof mere chance coincidence!

Comparatively few accounts of persons possessing this faculty oflooking back into the past are to be found in the literature of thesubject, and it might therefore be supposed to be much less commonthan prevision. I suspect, however, that the truth is rather that itis much less commonly recognized. As I said before, it may very easilyhappen that a person may see a picture of the past without recognizingit as such, unless there happens to be in it something which attractsspecial attention, such as a figure in armour or in antique costume. Aprevision also might not always be recognized as such at the time; butthe occurrence of the event foreseen recalls it vividly at the sametime that it manifests its nature, so that it is unlikely to beoverlooked. It is probable, therefore, that occasional glimpses ofthese astral reflections of the ākāshic records are commoner than thepublished accounts would lead us to believe. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

CLAIRVOYANCE IN TIME: THE FUTURE. 

Even if, in a dim sort of way, we feel ourselves able to grasp theidea that the whole of the past may be simultaneously and activelypresent in a sufficiently exalted consciousness, we are confronted bya far greater difficulty when we endeavour to realize how all thefuture may also be comprehended in that consciousness. If we couldbelieve in the Mohammedan doctrine of kismet, or the Calvinistictheory of predestination, the conception would be easy enough, butknowing as we do that both these are grotesque distortions of thetruth, we must look round for a more acceptable hypothesis. 

There may still be some people who deny the possibility of prevision, but such denial simply shows their ignorance of the evidence on thesubject. The large number of authenticated cases leaves no room fordoubt as to the fact, but many of them are of such a nature as torender a reasonable explanation by no means easy to find. It isevident that the Ego possesses a certain amount of previsionalfaculty, and if the events foreseen were always of great importance, one might suppose that an extraordinary stimulus had enabled him forthat occasion only to make a clear impression of what he saw upon hislower personality. No doubt that is the explanation of many of thecases in which death or grave disaster is foreseen, but there are alarge number of instances on record to which it does not seem toapply, since the events foretold are frequently exceedingly trivialand unimportant. 

A well-known story of second-sight in Scotland will illustrate what Imean. A man who had no belief in the occult was forewarned by aHighland seer of the approaching death of a neighbour. The prophecywas given with considerable wealth of detail, including a fulldescription of the funeral, with the names of the four pall-bearersand others who would be present. The auditor seems to have laughed atthe whole story and promptly forgotten it, but the death of hisneighbour at the time foretold recalled the warning to his mind, andhe determined to falsify part of the prediction at any rate by beingone of the pall-bearers himself. He succeeded in getting mattersarranged as he wished, but just as the funeral was about to start hewas called away from his post by some small matter which detained himonly a minute or two. As he came hurrying back he saw with surprisethat the procession had started without him, and that the predictionhad been exactly fulfilled, for the four pall-bearers were those whohad been indicated in the vision. 

Now here is a very trifling matter, which could have been of nopossible importance to anybody, definitely foreseen months beforehand;and although a man makes a determined effort to alter the arrangementindicated he fails entirely to affect it in the least. Certainly thislooks very much like predestination, even down to the smallest detail, and it is only when we examine this question from higher planes thatwe are able to see our way to escape that theory. Of course, as I saidbefore about another branch of the subject, a full explanation eludesus as yet, and obviously must do so until our knowledge is infinitelygreater than it is now; the most that we can hope to do for thepresent is to indicate the line along which an explanation may befound. 

There is no doubt whatever that, just as what is happening now is theresult of causes set in motion in the past, so what will happen in thefuture will be the result of causes already in operation. Even downhere we can calculate that if certain actions are performed certainresults will follow, but our reckoning is constantly liable to bedisturbed by the interference of factors which we have not been ableto take into account. But if we raise our consciousness to the mentalplane we can see very much farther into the results of our actions. 

We can trace, for example, the effect of a casual word, not only uponthe person to whom it was addressed, but through him on many others asit is passed on in widening circles, until it seems to have affectedthe whole country; and one glimpse of such a vision is far moreefficient than any number of moral precepts in impressing upon us thenecessity of extreme circumspection in thought, word, and deed. Notonly can we from that plane see thus fully the result of every action, but we can also see where and in what way the results of other actionsapparently quite unconnected with it will interfere with and modifyit. In fact, it may be said that the results of all causes at presentin action are clearly visible--that the future, as it would be if noentirely new causes should arise, lies open before our gaze. 

New causes of course do arise, because man's will is free; but in thecase of all ordinary people the use which they will make of theirfreedom can be calculated beforehand with considerable accuracy. Theaverage man has so little real will that he is very much the creatureof circumstances; his action in previous lives places him amid certainsurroundings, and their influence upon him is so very much the mostimportant factor in his life-story that his future course may bepredicted with almost mathematical certainty. With the developed manthe case is different; for him also the main events of life arearranged by his past actions, but the way in which he will allow themto affect him, the methods by which he will deal with them and perhapstriumph over them--these are all his own, and they cannot be foreseeneven on the mental plane except as probabilities. 

Looking down on man's life in this way from above, it seems as thoughhis free will could be exercised only at certain crises in his career. He arrives at a point in his life where there are obviously two orthree alternative courses open before him; he is absolutely free tochoose which of them he pleases, and although some one who knew hisnature thoroughly well might feel almost certain what his choice wouldbe, such knowledge on his friend's part is in no sense a compellingforce. 

But when he _has_ chosen, he has to go through with it and take theconsequences; having entered upon a particular path he may, in manycases, be forced to go on for a very long way before he has anyopportunity to turn aside. His position is somewhat like that of thedriver of a train; when he comes to a junction he may have the pointsset either this way or that, and so can pass on to whichever line hepleases, but when he _has_ passed on to one of them he is compelled torun on along the line which he has selected until he reaches anotherset of points, where again an opportunity of choice is offered to him. 

Now, in looking down from the mental plane, these points of newdeparture would be clearly visible, and all the results of each choicewould lie open before us, certain to be worked out even to thesmallest detail. The only point which would remain uncertain would bethe all-important one as to which choice the man would make. Weshould, in fact, have not one but several futures mapped out beforeour eyes, without necessarily being able to determine which of themwould materialize itself into accomplished fact. In most instances weshould see so strong a probability that we should not hesitate to cometo a decision, but the case which I have described is certainlytheoretically possible. Still, even this much knowledge would enableus to do with safety a good deal of prediction; and it is notdifficult for us to imagine that a far higher power than ours mightalways be able to foresee which way every choice would go, andconsequently to prophesy with absolute certainty. 

On the buddhic plane, however, no such elaborate process of consciouscalculation is necessary, for, as I said before, in some manner whichdown here is totally inexplicable, the past, the present, and thefuture, are there all existing simultaneously. One can only acceptthis fact, for its cause lies in the faculty of the plane, and theway in which this higher faculty works is naturally quiteincomprehensible to the physical brain. Yet now and then one may meetwith a hint that seems to bring us a trifle nearer to a dimpossibility of comprehension. One such hint was given by Dr. OliverLodge in his address to the British Association at Cardiff. He said:

"A luminous and helpful idea is that time is but a relative mode ofregarding things; we progress through phenomena at a certain definitepace, and this subjective advance we interpret in an objective manner, as if events moved necessarily in this order and at this precise rate. But that may be only one mode of regarding them. The events may be insome sense in existence always, both past and future, and it may be wewho are arriving at them, not they which are happening. The analogy of atraveller in a railway train is useful; if he could never leave thetrain nor alter its pace he would probably consider the landscapes asnecessarily successive and be unable to conceive their co-existence. .. . We perceive, therefore, a possible fourth dimensional aspect about time, the inexorableness of whose flow may be a natural part or our presentlimitations. And if we once grasp the idea that past and future may beactually existing, we can recognize that they may have a controllinginfluence on all present action, and the two together may constitute the'higher plane' or totality of things after which, as it seems to me, weare impelled to seek, in connection with the directing of form ordeterminism, and the action of living beings consciously directed to adefinite and preconceived end. "

Time is not in reality the fourth dimension at all; yet to look at itfor the moment from that point of view is some slight help towardsgrasping the ungraspable. Suppose that we hold a wooden cone at rightangles to a sheet of paper, and slowly push it through it point first. A microbe living on the surface of that sheet of paper, and having nopower of conceiving anything outside of that surface, could not onlynever see the cone as a whole, but he could form no sort of conceptionof such a body at all. All that he would see would be the suddenappearance of a tiny circle, which would gradually and mysteriouslygrow larger and larger until it vanished from his world as suddenlyand incomprehensibly as it had come into it. 

Thus, what were in reality a series of sections of the cone wouldappear to him to be successive stages in the life of a circle, and itwould be impossible for him to grasp the idea that these successivestages could be seen simultaneously. Yet it is, of course, easy enoughfor us, looking down upon the transaction from another dimension, tosee that the microbe is simply under a delusion arising from its ownlimitations, and that the cone exists as a whole all the while. Ourown delusion as to past, present, and future is possibly notdissimilar, and the view that is gained of any sequence of events fromthe buddhic plane corresponds to the view of the cone as a whole. Naturally, any attempt to work out this suggestion lands us in aseries of startling paradoxes; but the fact remains a fact, nevertheless, and the time will come when it will be clear as noondayto our comprehension. 

When the pupil's consciousness is fully developed upon the buddhicplane, therefore, perfect prevision is possible to him, though he maynot--nay, he certainly will not--be able to bring the whole result ofhis sight through fully and in order into this light. Still, a greatdeal of clear foresight is obviously within his power whenever helikes to exercise it; and even when he is not exercising it, frequentflashes of fore-knowledge come through into his ordinary life, so thathe often has an instantaneous intuition as to how things will turn outeven before their inception. 

Short of this perfect prevision we find, as in the previous cases, that all degrees of this type of clairvoyance exist, from theoccasional vague premonitions which cannot in any true sense be calledsight at all, up to frequent and fairly complete second-sight. Thefaculty to which this latter somewhat misleading name has been givenis an extremely interesting one, and would well repay more carefuland systematic study than has ever hitherto been given to it. 

It is best known to us as a not infrequent possession of the ScottishHighlanders, though it is by no means confined to them. Occasionalinstances of it have appeared in almost every nation, but it hasalways been commonest among mountaineers and men of lonely life. Withus in England it is often spoken of as though it were the exclusiveappanage of the Celtic race, but in reality it has appeared amongsimilarly situated peoples the world over. It is stated, for example, to be very common among the Westphalian peasantry. 

Sometimes the second-sight consists of a picture clearly foreshowingsome coming event; more frequently, perhaps, the glimpse of the futureis given by some symbolical appearance. It is noteworthy that theevents foreseen are invariably unpleasant ones--death being thecommonest of all; I do not recollect a single instance in which thesecond-sight has shown anything which was not of the most gloomynature. It has a ghastly symbolism which is all its own--a symbolismof shrouds and corpse-candles, and other funereal horrors. In somecases it appears to be to a certain extent dependent on locality, forit is stated that inhabitants of the Isle of Skye who possess thefaculty often lose it when they leave the island, even though it beonly to cross to the mainland. The gift of such sight is sometimeshereditary in a family for generations, but this is not an invariablerule, for it often appears sporadically in one member of a familyotherwise free from its lugubrious influence. 

An example in which an accurate vision of a coming event was seen somemonths beforehand by second-sight has already been given. Here isanother and perhaps a more striking one, which I give exactly as itwas related to me by one of the actors in the scene. 

"We plunged into the jungle, and had walked on for about an hourwithout much success, when Cameron, who happened to be next to me, stopped suddenly, turned pale as death, and, pointing straight beforehim, cried in accents of horror:

"'See! see! merciful heaven, look there!'

"'Where? what? what is it?' we all shouted confusedly, as we rushed upto him and looked round in expectation of encountering a tiger--acobra--we hardly knew what, but assuredly something terrible, since ithad been sufficient to cause such evident emotion in our usuallyself-contained comrade. But neither tiger nor cobra wasvisible--nothing but Cameron pointing with ghastly, haggard face andstarting eyeballs at something we could not see. 

"'Cameron! Cameron' cried I, seizing his arm, "'for heaven's sake, speak! What is the matter?'

"Scarcely were the words out of my mouth when a low, but very peculiarsound struck on my ear, and Cameron, dropping his pointing hand, saidin a hoarse, strained voice, 'There! you heard it? Thank God it'sover' and fell to the ground insensible. 

"There was a momentary confusion while we unfastened his collar, and Idashed in his face some water which I fortunately had in my flask, while another tried to pour brandy between his clenched teeth; andunder cover of it I whispered to the man next to me (one of ourgreatest sceptics, by the way), 'Beauchamp, did _you_ hear anything?'

"'Why, yes, ' he replied, a curious sound, very; a sort of crash orrattle far away in the distance, yet very distinct; if the thing werenot utterly impossible, I could have sworn it was the rattle ofmusketry. '

"'Just my impression, ' murmured I; 'but hush! he is recovering. '

"In a minute or two he was able to speak feebly, and began to thank usand apologize for giving trouble; and soon he sat up, leaning againsta tree, and in a firm, though still low voice said:

"'My dear friends, I feel I owe you an explanation of my extraordinarybehaviour. It is an explanation that I would fain avoid giving; but itmust come some time, and so may as well be given now. You may perhapshave noticed that when during our voyage you all joined in scoffing atdreams, portents and visions, I invariably avoided giving any opinionon the subject. I did so because, while I had no desire to courtridicule or provoke discussion, I was unable to agree with you, knowing only too well from my own dread experience that the worldwhich men agree to call that of the supernatural is just as realas--nay, perhaps, even far more real than--this world we see about us. In other words, I, like many of my countrymen, am cursed with the giftof second-sight--that awful faculty which foretells in visioncalamities that are shortly to occur. 

"'Such a vision I had just now, and its exceptional horror moved me asyou have seen. I saw before me a corpse--not that of one who has dieda peaceful natural death, but that of the victim of some terribleaccident; a ghastly, shapeless mass, with a face swollen, crushed, unrecognizable. I saw this dreadful object placed in a coffin, and thefuneral service performed over it. I saw the burial-ground, I saw theclergyman: and though I had never seen either before, I can pictureboth perfectly in my mind's eye now; I saw you, myself, Beauchamp, allof us and many more, standing round as mourners; I saw the soldiersraise their muskets after the service was over; I heard the volleythey fired--and then I knew no more. '

"As he spoke of that volley of musketry I glanced across with ashudder at Beauchamp, and the look of stony horror on that handsomesceptic's face was not to be forgotten. "

This is only one incident (and by no means the principal one) in avery remarkable story of psychic experience, but as for the moment weare concerned merely with the example of second-sight which it givesus, I need only say that later in the day the party of young soldiersdiscovered the body of their commanding officer in the terriblecondition so graphically described by Mr. Cameron. The narrativecontinues:

"When, on the following evening, we arrived at our destination, andour melancholy deposition had been taken down by the properauthorities, Cameron and I went out for a quiet walk, to endeavourwith the assistance of the soothing influence of nature to shake offsomething of the gloom which paralyzed our spirits. Suddenly heclutched my arm, and, pointing through some rude railings, said in atrembling voice, 'Yes, there it is! that is the burial-ground I sawyesterday. ' And when later on we were introduced to the chaplain ofthe post, I noticed, though my friends did not, the irrepressibleshudder with which Cameron took his hand, and I knew that he hadrecognized the clergyman of his vision. "

As for the occult rationale of all this, I presume Mr. Cameron'svision was a pure case of second-sight, and if so the fact that thetwo men who were evidently nearest to him (certainly one--probablyboth--actually touching him) participated in it to the limited extentof hearing the concluding volley, while the others who were not soclose did not, would show that the intensity with which the visionimpressed itself upon the seer occasioned vibrations in his mind-bodywhich were communicated to those of the persons in contact with him, as in ordinary thought-transference. Anyone who wishes to read therest of the story will find it in the pages of _Lucifer_, vol. Xx. , p. 457. 

Scores of examples of similar nature to these might easily becollected. With regard to the symbolical variety of this sight, it iscommonly stated among those who possess it that if on meeting a livingperson they see a phantom shroud wrapped around him, it is a sureprognostication of his death. The date of the approaching decease isindicated either by the extent to which the shroud covers the body, orby the time of day at which the vision is seen; for if it be in theearly morning they say that the man will die during the same day, butif it be in the evening, then it will be only some time within a year. 

Another variant (and a remarkable one) of the symbolic form ofsecond-sight is that in which the headless apparition of the personwhose death is foretold manifests itself to the seer. An example ofthat class is given in _Signs before Death_ as having happened in thefamily of Dr. Ferrier, though in that case, if I recollect rightly, the vision did not occur until the time of the death, or very near it. 

Turning from seers who are regularly in possession of a certainfaculty, although its manifestations are only occasionally fully undertheir control, we are confronted by a large number of isolatedinstances of prevision in the case of people with whom it is not inany way a regular faculty. Perhaps the majority of these occur indreams, although examples of the waking vision are by no meanswanting. Sometimes the prevision refers to an event of distinctimportance to the seer, and so justifies the action of the Ego intaking the trouble to impress it. In other cases, the event is onewhich is of no apparent importance, or is not in any way connectedwith the man to whom the vision comes. Sometimes it is clear that theintention of the Ego (or the communicating entity, whatever it may be)is to warn the lower self of the approach of some calamity, either inorder that it may be prevented or, if that be not possible, that theshock may be minimized by preparation. 

The event most frequently thus foreshadowed is, perhaps notunnaturally, death--sometimes the death of the seer himself, sometimesthat of one dear to him. This type of prevision is so common in theliterature of the subject, and its object is so obvious, that we needhardly cite examples of it; but one or two instances in which theprophetic sight, though clearly useful, was yet of a less sombrecharacter, will prove not uninteresting to the reader. The followingis culled from that storehouse of the student of the uncanny, Mrs. Crowe's _Night Side of Nature_, p. 72. 

"A few years ago Dr. Watson, now residing at Glasgow, dreamt that hereceived a summons to attend a patient at a place some miles fromwhere he was living; that he started on horseback, and that as he wascrossing a moor he saw a bull making furiously at him, whose horns heonly escaped by taking refuge on a spot inaccessible to the animal, where he waited a long time till some people, observing his situation, came to his assistance and released him. 

"Whilst at breakfast on the following morning the summons came, andsmiling at the odd coincidence (as he thought it), he started onhorseback. He was quite ignorant of the road he had to go, but by andby he arrived at the moor, which he recognised, and presently the bullappeared, coming full tilt towards him. But his dream had shown himthe place of refuge, for which he instantly made, and there he spentthree or four hours, besieged by the animal, till the country peopleset him free. Dr. Watson declares that but for the dream he should nothave known in what direction to run for safety. "

Another case, in which a much longer interval separated the warningand its fulfilment, is given by Dr. F. G. Lee, in _Glimpses of theSupernatural_, vol. I. , p. 240. 

"Mrs. Hannah Green, the housekeeper of a country family inOxfordshire, dreamt one night that she had been left alone in thehouse upon a Sunday evening, and that hearing a knock at the door ofthe chief entrance she went to it and there found an ill-looking tramparmed with a bludgeon, who insisted on forcing himself into the house. She thought that she struggled for some time to prevent him so doing, but quite ineffectually, and that, being struck down by him andrendered insensible, he thereupon gained ingress to the mansion. Onthis she awoke. 

"As nothing happened for a considerable period the circumstance of thedream was soon forgotten, and, as she herself asserts, had altogetherpassed away from her mind. However, seven years afterwards this samehousekeeper was left with two other servants to take charge of anisolated mansion at Kensington (subsequently the town residence of thefamily), when on a certain Sunday evening, her fellow-servants havinggone out and left her alone, she was suddenly startled by a loud knockat the front door. 

"All of a sudden the remembrance of her former dream returned to herwith singular vividness and remarkable force, and she felt her lonelyisolation greatly. Accordingly, having at once lighted a lamp on thehall table--during which act the loud knock was repeated withvigour--she took the precaution to go up to a landing on the stair andthrow up the window; and there to her intense terror she saw in theflesh the very man whom years previously she had seen in her dream, armed with the bludgeon and demanding an entrance. 

"With great presence of mind she went down to the chief entrance, madethat and other doors and windows more secure, and then rang thevarious bells of the house violently, and placed lights in the upperrooms. It was concluded that by these acts the intruder was scaredaway. "

Evidently in this case also the dream was of practical use, as withoutit the worthy housekeeper would without doubt from sheer force ofhabit have opened the door in the ordinary way in answer to the knock. 

It is not, however, only in dream that the Ego impresses his lowerself with what he thinks it well for it to know. Many instancesshowing this might be taken from the books, but instead of quotingfrom them I will give a case related only a few weeks ago by a lady ofmy acquaintance--a case which, although not surrounded with anyromantic incident, has at least the merit of being new. 

My friend, then, has two quite young children, and a little while agothe elder of them caught (as was supposed) a bad cold, and sufferedfor some days from a complete stoppage in the upper part of the nose. The mother thought little of this, expecting it to pass off, until oneday she suddenly saw before her in the air what she describes as apicture of a room, in the centre of which was a table on which herchild was lying insensible or dead, with some people bending over her. The minutest details of the scene were clear to her, and sheparticularly noticed that the child wore a white night-dress, whereasshe knew that all garments of that description possessed by her littledaughter happened to be pink. 

This vision impressed her considerably, and suggested to her for thefirst time that the child might be suffering from something moreserious than a cold, so she carried her off to a hospital forexamination. The surgeon who attended to her discovered the presenceof a dangerous growth in the nose, which he pronounced must beremoved. A few days later the child was taken to the hospital for theoperation, and was put to bed. When the mother arrived at the hospitalshe found she had forgotten to bring one of the child's night-dresses, and so the nurses had to supply one, which was _white_. In this whitedress the operation was performed on the girl the next day, in theroom that her mother saw in her vision, every circumstance beingexactly reproduced. 

In all these cases the prevision achieved its result, but the booksare full of stories of warnings neglected or scouted, and of thedisaster that consequently followed. In some cases the information isgiven to someone who has practically no power to interfere in thematter, as in the historic instance when John Williams, a Cornishmine-manager, foresaw in the minutest detail, eight or nine daysbefore it took place, the assassination of Mr. Spencer Perceval, thethen Chancellor of the Exchequer, in the lobby of the House ofCommons. Even in this case, however, it is just possible thatsomething might have been done, for we read that Mr. Williams was somuch impressed that he consulted his friends as to whether he oughtnot to go up to London to warn Mr. Perceval. Unfortunately theydissuaded him, and the assassination took place. It does not seem veryprobable that, even if he had gone up to town and related his story, much attention would have been paid to him, still there is just thepossibility that some precautions might have been taken which wouldhave prevented the murder. 

There is little to show us what particular action on higher planes ledto this curious prophetic vision. The parties were entirely unknown toone another, so that it was not caused by any close sympathy betweenthem. If it was an attempt made by some helper to avert the threateneddoom, it seems strange that no one who was sufficiently impressiblecould be found nearer than Cornwall. Perhaps Mr. Williams, when on theastral plane during sleep, somehow came across this reflection of thefuture, and being naturally horrified thereby, passed it on to hislower mind in the hope that somehow something might be done toprevent it; but it is impossible to diagnose the case with certaintywithout examining the ākāshic records to see what actually took place. 

A typical instance of the absolutely purposeless foresight is thatrelated by Mr. Stead, in his _Real Ghost Stories_ (p. 83), of hisfriend Miss Freer, commonly known as Miss X. When staying at a countryhouse this lady, being wide awake and fully conscious, once saw adogcart drawn by a white horse standing at the hall door, with twostrangers in it, one of whom got out of the cart and stood playingwith a terrier. She noticed that he was wearing an ulster, and alsoparticularly observed the fresh wheel-marks made by the cart on thegravel. Nevertheless there was no cart there at the time; but half anhour later two strangers _did_ drive up in such an equipage, and everydetail of the lady's vision was accurately fulfilled. Mr. Stead goeson to cite another instance of equally purposeless prevision whereseven years separated the dream (for in this case it was a dream) andits fulfilment. 

All these instances (and they are merely random selections from manyhundreds) show that a certain amount of prevision is undoubtedlypossible to the Ego, and such cases would evidently be much morefrequent if it were not for the exceeding density and lack of responsein the lower vehicles of the majority of what we call civilizedmankind--qualities chiefly attributable to the gross practicalmaterialism of the present age. I am not thinking of any profession ofmaterialistic belief as common, but of the fact that in all practicalaffairs of daily life nearly everyone is guided solely byconsiderations of worldly interest in some shape or other. 

In many cases the Ego himself may be an undeveloped one, and hisprevision consequently very vague; in others he himself may seeclearly, but may find his lower vehicles so unimpressible that all hecan succeed in getting through into his physical brain may be anindefinite presage of coming disaster. Again, there are cases in whicha premonition is not the work of the Ego at all, but of some outsideentity, who for some reason takes a friendly interest in the person towhom the feeling comes. In the work which I quoted above, Mr. Steadtells us of the certainty which he felt many months beforehand that bewould be left in charge of the _Pall Mall Gazette_ though from anordinary point of view nothing seemed less probable. Whether thatfore-knowledge was the result of an impression made by his own Ego orof a friendly hint from someone else it is impossible to say withoutdefinite investigation, but his confidence in it was fully justified. 

There is one more variety of clairvoyance in time which ought not tobe left without mention. It is a comparatively rare one, but thereare enough examples on record to claim our attention, thoughunfortunately the particulars given do not usually include those whichwe should require in order to be able to diagnose it with certainty. Irefer to the cases in which spectral armies or phantom flocks ofanimals have been seen. In _The Night Side of Nature_ (p. 462 _etseq. _) we have accounts of several such visions. We are there told howat Havarah Park, near Ripley, a body of soldiers in white uniform, amounting to several hundreds, was seen by reputable people to gothrough various evolutions and then vanish; and how some years earliera similar visionary army was seen in the neighbourhood of Inverness bya respectable farmer and his son. 

In this case also the number of troops was very great, and thespectators had not the slightest doubt at first that they weresubstantial forms of flesh and blood. They counted at least sixteenpairs of columns, and had abundance of time to observe everyparticular. The front ranks marched seven abreast, and wereaccompanied by a good many women and children, who were carrying tincans and other implements of cookery. The men were clothed in red, andtheir arms shone brightly in the sun. In the midst of them was ananimal, a deer or a horse, they could not distinguish which, that theywere driving furiously forward with their bayonets. 

The younger of the two men observed to the other that every now andthen the rear ranks were obliged to run to overtake the van; and theelder one, who had been a soldier, remarked that that was always thecase, and recommended him if he ever served to try to march in thefront. There was only one mounted officer; he rode a grey dragoonhorse, and wore a gold-laced hat and blue Hussar cloak, with wide opensleeves lined with red. The two spectators observed him soparticularly that they said afterwards they should recognize himanywhere. They were, however, afraid of being ill-treated or forced togo along with the troops, whom they concluded to have come fromIreland, and landed at Kyntyre; and whilst they were climbing over adyke to get out of their way, the whole thing vanished. 

A phenomenon of the same sort was observed in the earlier part of thiscentury at Paderborn in Westphalia, and seen by at least thirtypeople; but as, some years later, a review of twenty thousand men washeld on the very same spot, it was concluded that the vision must havebeen some sort of second-sight--a faculty not uncommon in thedistrict. 

Such spectral hosts, however, are sometimes seen where an army ofordinary men could by no possibility have marched, either before orafter. One of the most remarkable accounts of such apparitions isgiven by Miss Harriet Martineau, in her description of _The EnglishLakes_. She writes as follows:--

"This Souter or Soutra Fell is the mountain on which ghosts appearedin myriads, at intervals during ten years of the last century, presenting the same appearances to twenty-six chosen witnesses, and toall the inhabitants of all the cottages within view of the mountain, and for a space of two hours and a half at one time--the spectral showbeing closed by darkness! The mountain, be it remembered, is full ofprecipices, which defy all marching of bodies of men; and the northand west sides present a sheer perpendicular of 900 feet. 

"On Midsummer Eve, 1735, a farm servant of Mr. Lancaster, half a milefrom the mountain, saw the eastern side of its summit covered withtroops, which pursued their onward march for an hour. They came, indistinct bodies, from an eminence on the north end, and disappeared ina niche in the summit. When the poor fellow told his tale, he wasinsulted on all hands, as original observers usually are when they seeanything wonderful. Two years after, also on a Midsummer Eve, Mr. Lancaster saw some men there, apparently following their horses, as ifthey had returned from hunting. He thought nothing of this; but hehappened to look up again ten minutes after, and saw the figures, nowmounted, and followed by an interminable array of troops, fiveabreast, marching from the eminence and over the cleft as before. Allthe family saw this, and the manoeuvres of the force, as eachcompany was kept in order by a mounted officer, who galloped this wayand that. As the shades of twilight came on, the discipline appearedto relax, and the troops intermingled, and rode at unequal paces, tillall was lost in darkness. Now of course all the Lancasters wereinsulted, as their servant had been; but their justification was notlong delayed. 

"On the Midsummer Eve of the fearful 1745, twenty-six persons, expressly summoned by the family, saw all that had been seen before, and more. Carriages were now interspersed with the troops; andeverybody knew that no carriages had been, or could be, on the summitof Souter Fell. The multitude was beyond imagination; for the troopsfilled a space of half a mile, and marched quickly till night hidthem--still marching. There was nothing vaporous or indistinct aboutthe appearance of these spectres. So real did they seem, that some ofthe people went up, the next morning, to look for the hoof-marks ofthe horses; and awful it was to them to find not one foot-print onheather or grass. The witnesses attested the whole story on oathbefore a magistrate; and fearful were the expectations held by thewhole country-side about the coming events of the Scotch rebellion. 

"It now comes out that two other persons had seen something of thesort in the interval--_viz. _, in 1743--but had concealed it, to escapethe insults to which their neighbours were subjected. Mr. Wren, ofWilton Hall, and his farm servant, saw, one summer evening, a man anda dog on the mountain, pursuing some horses along a place so steepthat a horse could hardly by any possibility keep a footing on it. Their speed was prodigious, and their disappearance at the south endof the fell so rapid, that Mr. Wren and the servant went up, the nextmorning, to find the body of the man who must have been killed. Ofman, horse, or dog, they found not a trace and they came down and heldtheir tongues. When they did speak, they fared not much better forhaving twenty-six sworn comrades in their disgrace. 

"As for the explanation, the editor of the _Lonsdale Magazine_declared (vol. Ii. , p. 313) that it was discovered that on theMidsummer Eve of 1745 the rebels were 'exercising on the western coastof Scotland, whose movements had been reflected by some transparentvapour, similar to the Fata Morgana. ' This is not much in the way ofexplanation; but it is, as far as we know, all that can be had atpresent. These facts, however, brought out a good many more; as thespectral march of the same kind seen in Leicestershire in 1707, andthe tradition of the tramp of armies over Helvellyn, on the eve of thebattle of Marston Moor. "

Other cases are cited in which flocks of spectral sheep have been seenon certain roads, and there are of course various German stories ofphantom cavalcades of hunters and robbers. 

Now in these cases, as so often happens in the investigation of occultphenomena, there are several possible causes, any one of which wouldbe quite adequate to the production of the observed occurrences, butin the absence of fuller information it is hardly feasible to do morethan guess as to which of these possible causes were in operation inany particular instance. 

The explanation usually suggested (whenever the whole story is notridiculed as a falsehood) is that what is seen is a reflection bymirage of the movements of a real body of troops, taking place at aconsiderable distance. I have myself seen the ordinary mirage onseveral occasions, and know something therefore of its wonderfulpowers of deception; but it seems to me that we should need someentirely new variety of mirage, quite different from that at presentknown to science, to account for these tales of phantom armies, someof which pass the spectator within a few yards. 

First of all, they may be, as apparently in the Westphalian case abovementioned, simply instances of prevision on a gigantic scale--by whomarranged, and for what purpose, it is not easy to divine. Again, theymay often belong to the past instead of the future, and be in fact thereflection of scenes from the ākāshic records--though here again thereason and method of such reflection is not obvious. 

There are plenty of tribes of nature-spirits perfectly capable, if forany reason they wished to do so, of producing such appearances bytheir wonderful power of glamour (see _Theosophical Manual, No. V. _, p. 60), and such action would be quite in keeping with their delightin mystifying and impressing human beings. Or it may even sometimes bekindly intended by them as a warning to their friends of events thatthey know to be about to take place. It seems as though someexplanation along these lines would be the most reasonable method ofaccounting for the extraordinary series of phenomena described by MissMartineau--that is, if the stories told to her can be relied upon. 

Another possibility is that in some cases what have been taken forsoldiers were simply the nature-spirits themselves going through someof the ordered evolutions in which they take so much delight, thoughit must be admitted that these are rarely of a character which couldbe mistaken for military manoeuvres except by the most ignorant. 

The flocks of animals are probably in most instances mere records, butthere are cases where they, like the "wild huntsmen" of German story, belong to an entirely different class of phenomena, which isaltogether outside of our present subject. Students of the occultwill be familiar with the fact that the circumstances surrounding anyscene of intense terror or passion, such as an exceptionally horriblemurder, are liable to be occasionally reproduced in a form which itneeds a very slight development of psychic faculty to be able to seeand it has sometimes happened that various animals formed part of suchsurroundings, and consequently they also are periodically reproducedby the action of the guilty conscience of the murderer (see _ManualV. _, p. 83). 

Probably whatever foundation of fact underlies the various stories ofspectral horsemen and hunting-troops may generally be referred to thiscategory. This is also the explanation, evidently, of some of thevisions of ghostly armies, such as that remarkable re-enactment of thebattle of Edgehill which seems to have taken place at intervals forsome months after the date of the real struggle, as testified by ajustice of the peace, a clergyman, and other eye-witnesses, in acurious contemporary pamphlet entitled _Prodigious Noises of War andBattle, at Edgehill, near Keinton, in Northamptonshire_. According tothe pamphlet this case was investigated at the time by some officersof the army, who clearly recognized many of the phantom figures thatthey saw. This looks decidedly like an instance of the terrible powerof man's unrestrained passions to reproduce themselves, and to causein some strange way a kind of materialization of their record. 

In some cases it is clear that the flocks of animals seen have beensimply hordes of unclean artificial elementals taking that form inorder to feed upon the loathsome emanations of peculiarly horribleplaces, such as would be the site of a gallows. An instance of thiskind is furnished by the celebrated "Gyb Ghosts, " or ghosts of thegibbet, described in _More Glimpses of the World Unseen_, p. 109, asbeing repeatedly seen in the form of herds of mis-shapen swine-likecreatures, rushing, rooting and fighting night after night on the siteof that foul monument of crime. But these belong to the subject ofapparitions rather than to that of clairvoyance. 

CHAPTER IX. 

METHODS OF DEVELOPMENT. 

When a man becomes convinced of the reality of the valuable power ofclairvoyance, his first question usually is, "How can I develop in myown case this faculty which is said to be latent in everyone?"

Now the fact is that there are many methods by which it may bedeveloped, but only one which can be at all safely recommended forgeneral use--that of which we shall speak last of all. Among the lessadvanced nations of the world the clairvoyant state has been producedin various objectionable ways; among some of the non-Aryan tribes ofIndia, by the use of intoxicating drugs or the inhaling of stupefyingfumes; among the dervishes, by whirling in a mad dance of religiousfervour until vertigo and insensibility supervene; among the followersof the abominable practices of the Voodoo cult, by frightfulsacrifices and loathsome rites of black magic. Methods such as theseare happily not in vogue in our own race, yet even among us largenumbers of dabblers in this ancient art adopt some plan ofself-hypnotization, such as the gazing at a bright spot or therepetition of some formula until a condition of semi-stupefaction isproduced; while yet another school among them would endeavour toarrive at similar results by the use of some of the Indian systems ofregulation of the breath. 

All these methods are unequivocally to be condemned as quite unsafefor the practice of the ordinary man who has no idea of what he isdoing--who is simply making vague experiments in an unknown world. Even the method of obtaining clairvoyance by allowing oneself to bemesmerized by another person is one from which I should myself shrinkwith the most decided distaste; and assuredly it should never beattempted except under conditions of absolute trust and affectionbetween the magnetizer and the magnetized, and a perfection of purityin heart and soul, in mind and intention, such as is rarely to be seenamong any but the greatest of saints. 

Experiments in connection with the mesmeric trance are of the deepestinterest, as offering (among other things) a possibility of proof ofthe fact of clairvoyance to the sceptic, yet except under suchconditions as I have just mentioned--conditions, I quite admit, almostimpossible to realize--I should never counsel anyone to submit himselfas a subject for them. 

Curative mesmerism (in which, without putting the patient into thetrance state at all, an effort is made to relieve his pain, to removehis disease, or to pour vitality into him by magnetic passes) standson an entirely different footing; and if the mesmerizer, even thoughquite untrained, is himself in good health and animated by pureintentions, no harm is likely to be done to the subject. In so extremea case as that of a surgical operation, a man might reasonably submithimself even to the mesmeric trance, but it is certainly not acondition with which one ought lightly to experiment. Indeed, I shouldmost strongly advise any one who did me the honour to ask for myopinion on the subject, not to attempt any kind of experimentalinvestigation into what are still to him the abnormal forces ofnature, until he has first of all read carefully everything that hasbeen written on the subject, or--which is by far the best ofall--until he is under the guidance of a qualified teacher. 

But where, it will be said, is the qualified teacher to be found? Not, most assuredly, among any who advertise themselves as teachers, whooffer to impart for so many guineas or dollars the sacred mysteries ofthe ages, or hold "developing circles" to which casual applicants areadmitted at so much per head. 

Much has been said in this treatise of the necessity for carefultraining--of the immense advantages of the trained over the untrainedclairvoyant; but that again brings us back to the same question--whereis this definite training to be had?

The answer is, that the training may be had precisely where it hasalways been to be found since the world's history began--at the handsof the Great White Brotherhood of Adepts, which stands now, as it hasalways stood, at the back of human evolution, guiding and helping itunder the sway of the great cosmic laws which represent to us the Willof the Eternal. 

But how, it may be asked, is access to be gained to them? How is theaspirant thirsting for knowledge to signify to them his wish forinstruction?

Once more, by the time-honoured methods only. There is no new patentwhereby a man can qualify himself without trouble to become a pupil inthat School--no royal road to the learning which has to be acquired init. At the present day, just as in the mists of antiquity, the man whowishes to attract their notice must enter upon the slow and toilsomepath of self-development--must learn first of all to take himself inhand and make himself all that he ought to be. The steps of that pathare no secret; I have given them in full detail in _InvisibleHelpers_, so I need not repeat them here. But it is no easy road tofollow, and yet sooner or later all must follow it, for the great lawof evolution sweeps mankind slowly but resistlessly towards its goal. 

From those who are pressing into this path the great Masters selecttheir pupils, and it is only by qualifying himself to be taught that aman can put himself in the way of getting the teaching. Without thatqualification, membership in any Lodge or Society, whether secret orotherwise, will not advance his object in the slightest degree. It istrue, as we all know, that it was at the instance of some of theseMasters that our Theosophical Society was founded, and that from itsranks some have been chosen to pass into closer relations with them. But that choice depends upon the earnestness of the candidate, notupon his mere membership of the Society or of any body within it. 

That, then, is the only absolutely safe way of developingclairvoyance--to enter with all one's energy upon the path of moraland mental evolution, at one stage of which this and other of thehigher faculties will spontaneously begin to show themselves. Yetthere is one practice which is advised by all the religionsalike--which if adopted carefully and reverently can do no harm to anyhuman being, yet from which a very pure type of clairvoyance hassometimes been developed; and that is the practice of meditation. 

Let a man choose a certain time every day--a time when he can relyupon being quiet and undisturbed, though preferably in the daytimerather than at night--and set himself at that time to keep his mindfor a few minutes entirely free from all earthly thoughts of any kindwhatever and, when that is achieved, to direct the whole force of hisbeing towards the highest spiritual ideal that he happens to know. Hewill find that to gain such perfect control of thought is enormouslymore difficult than he supposes, but when he attains it it cannot butbe in every way most beneficial to him, and as he grows more and moreable to elevate and concentrate his thought, he may gradually findthat new worlds are opening before his sight. 

As a preliminary training towards the satisfactory achievement of suchmeditation, he will find it desirable to make a practice ofconcentration in the affairs of daily life--even in the smallest ofthem. If he writes a letter, let him think of nothing else but thatletter until it is finished if he reads a book, let him see to it thathis thought is never allowed to wander from his author's meaning. Hemust learn to hold his mind in check, and to be master of that also, as well as of his lower passions he must patiently labour to acquireabsolute control of his thoughts, so that he will always know exactlywhat he is thinking about, and why--so that he can use his mind, andturn it or hold it still, as a practised swordsman turns his weaponwhere he will. 

Yet after all, if those who so earnestly desire clairvoyance couldpossess it temporarily for a day or even an hour, it is far fromcertain that they would choose to retain the gift. True, it opensbefore them new worlds of study, new powers of usefulness, and forthis latter reason most of us feel it worth while; but it should beremembered that for one whose duty still calls him to live in theworld it is by no means an unmixed blessing. Upon one in whom thatvision is opened the sorrow and the misery, the evil and the greed ofthe world press as an ever-present burden, until in the earlier daysof his knowledge he often feels inclined to echo the passionateadjuration contained in those rolling lines of Schiller's:

 Dien Orakel zu verkünden, warum warfest du mich hin In die Stadt der ewig Blinden, mit dem aufgeschloss'nen Sinn? Frommt's, den Schleier aufzuheben, wo das nahe Schreckniss droht? Nur der Irrthum ist das Leben; dieses Wissen ist der Tod. Nimm, O nimm die traur'ge Klarheit mir vom Aug' den blut'gen Schein! Schrecklich ist es deiner Wahrheit sterbliches Gefäss zu seyn!

which may perhaps be translated "Why hast thou cast me thus into thetown of the ever-blind, to proclaim thine oracle by the opened sense?What profits it to lift the veil where the near darkness threatens?Only ignorance is life; this knowledge is death. Take back this sadclear-sightedness; take from mine eyes this cruel light! It ishorrible to be the mortal channel of thy truth. " And again later hecries, "Give me back my blindness, the happy darkness of my senses;take back thy dreadful gift!"

But this of course is a feeling which passes, for the higher sightsoon shows the pupil something beyond the sorrow--soon bears in uponhis soul the overwhelming certainty that, whatever appearances downhere may seem to indicate, all things are without shadow of doubtworking together for the eventual good of all. He reflects that thesin and the suffering are there, whether he is able to perceive themor not, and that when he can see them he is after all better able togive efficient help than he would be if he were working in the dark;and so by degrees he learns to bear his share of the heavy karma ofthe world. 

Some misguided mortals there are who, having the good fortune topossess some slight touch of this higher power, are nevertheless soabsolutely destitute of all right feeling in connection with it as touse it for the most sordid ends--actually even to advertise themselvesas "test and business clairvoyants!" Needless to say, such use of thefaculty is a mere prostitution and degradation of it, showing that itsunfortunate possessor has somehow got hold of it before the moral sideof his nature has been sufficiently developed to stand the strainwhich it imposes. A perception of the amount of evil karma that may begenerated by such action in a very short time changes one's disgustinto pity for the unhappy perpetrator of that sacrilegious folly. 

It is sometimes objected that the possession of clairvoyance destroysall privacy, and confers a limit-less ability to explore the secretsof others. No doubt it does confer such an _ability_, but neverthelessthe suggestion is an amusing one to anyone who knows anythingpractically about the matter. Such an objection may possibly bewell-founded as regards the very limited powers of the "test andbusiness clairvoyant, " but the man who brings it forward against thosewho have had the faculty opened for them in the course of theirinstruction, and consequently possess it fully, is forgetting threefundamental facts: first, that it is quite inconceivable that anyone, having before him the splendid fields for investigation which trueclairvoyance opens up, could ever have the slightest wish to pry intothe trumpery little secrets of any individual man; secondly, that evenif by some impossible chance our clairvoyant _had_ such indecentcuriosity about matters of petty gossip, there is, after all, such athing as the honour of a gentleman, which, on that plane as on this, would of course prevent him from contemplating for an instant the ideaof gratifying it; and thirdly, in case, by any unheard-of possibility, one might encounter some variety of low-class pitri with whom theabove considerations would have no weight, full instructions arealways given to every pupil, as soon as he develops any sign offaculty, as to the limitations which are placed upon its use. 

Put briefly, these restrictions are that there shall be no prying, noselfish use of the power, and no displaying of phenomena. That is tosay, that the same considerations which would govern the actions of aman of right feeling upon the physical plane are expected to applyupon the astral and mental planes also; that the pupil is never underany circumstances to use the power which his additional knowledgegives to him in order to promote his own worldly advantage, or indeedin connection with gain in any way; and that he is never to give whatis called in spiritualistic circles "a test"--that is, to do anythingwhich will incontestably prove to sceptics on the physical plane thathe possesses what to them would appear to be an abnormal power. 

With regard to this latter proviso people often say, "But why shouldhe not? it would be so easy to confute and convince your sceptic, andit would do him good!" Such critics lose sight of the fact that, inthe first place, none of those who know anything _want_ to confute orconvince sceptics, or trouble themselves in the slightest degree aboutthe sceptic's attitude one way or the other; and in the second, theyfail to understand how much better it is for that sceptic that heshould gradually grow into an intellectual appreciation of the factsof nature, instead of being suddenly introduced to them by aknock-down blow, as it were. But the subject was fully consideredmany years ago in Mr. Sinnet's _Occult World_, and it is needless torepeat again the arguments there adduced. 

It is very hard for some of our friends to realize that the sillygossip and idle curiosity which so entirely fill the lives of thebrainless majority on earth can have no place in the more real life ofthe disciple; and so they sometimes enquire whether, even without anyspecial wish to see, a clairvoyant might not casually observe somesecret which another person was trying to keep, in the same way asone's glance might casually fall upon a sentence in someone else'sletter which happened to be lying open upon the table. Of course hemight, but what if he did? The man of honour would at once avert hiseyes, in one case as in the other, and it would be as though he hadnot seen. If objectors could but grasp the idea that no pupil _cares_about other people's business, except when it comes within hisprovince to try to help them, and that he has always a world of workof his own to attend to, they would not be so hopelessly far fromunderstanding the facts of the wider life of the trained clairvoyant. 

Even from the little that I have said with regard to the restrictionslaid upon the pupil, it will be obvious that in very many cases hewill know much more than he is at liberty to say. That is of coursetrue in a far wider sense of the great Masters of Wisdom themselves, and that is why those who have the privilege of occasionally enteringtheir presence pay so much respect to their lightest word even onsubjects quite apart from the direct teaching. For the opinion of aMaster, or even of one of his higher pupils, upon any subject is thatof a man whose opportunity of judging accurately is out of allproportion to ours. 

His position and his extended faculties are in reality the heritage ofall mankind, and, far though we may now be from those grand powers, they will none the less certainly be ours one day. Yet how different aplace will this old world be when humanity as a whole possesses thehigher clairvoyance! Think what the difference will be to history whenall can read the records; to science, when all the processes aboutwhich now men theorize can be watched through all their course; tomedicine, when doctor and patient alike can see clearly and exactlyall that is being done; to philosophy, when there is no longer anypossibility of discussion as to its basis, because all alike can see awider aspect of the truth; to labour, when all work will be joy, because every man will be put only to that which he can do best; toeducation, when the minds and hearts of the children are open to theteacher who is trying to form their character; to religion, when thereis no longer any possibility of dispute as to its broad dogmas, sincethe truth about the states after death, and the Great Law thatgoverns the world, will be patent to all eyes. 

Above all, how far easier it will be then for the evolved men to helpone another under those so much freer conditions! The possibilitiesthat open before the mind are as glorious vistas stretching in alldirections, so that our seventh round should indeed be a veritablegolden age. Well for us that these grand faculties will not bepossessed by all humanity until it has evolved to a far higher levelin morality as well as in wisdom, else should we but repeat once moreunder still worse conditions the terrible downfall of the greatAtlantean civilization, whose members failed to realize that increasedpower meant increased responsibility. Yet we ourselves were most of usamong those very men let us hope that we have learnt wisdom by thatfailure, and that when the possibilities of the wider life open beforeus once more, this time we shall bear the trial better. 

INDEX

 PAGE

Advantages of astral vision, 41, 65, 71 mental vision, 79 training, 20, 56, 70, 103, 116, 121

Ākāshic records, 85, 97 _et seq. _, 160

Apparitions, 54

Armies, phantom, 154

Assassination of Mr. Perceval, 151

Aspect of the records, 115

Astral body, 69 counterpart 16 current, 62 _et seq. _, 88, 95 matter, polarization of, 63 senses, 17 sight, 37 _et seq. _, 59 _et seq. _, 66 telescope, 65, 85, 103 world, 81, 103

Aura, the, 42 _et seq. _, 101

Balance, 126

Bat's cry, experiment with, 11

Battle of Edgehill, 161

Body, the astral, 69 the causal, 101

Brownies, 33

Buddhic faculty, 18, 108, 136, 139

Bull and the doctor, the story of, 147

Causal body, 101

Centres of vitality, 14, 17

Cerebro-spinal system, 22

Ceremonies used to gain clairvoyance, 52, 163

Certainty of eventual good, 174

Character, judgment of, 42

Chakrams, 14-17

Chord of a man, the, 80

Clairaudience, 6, 69 _et seq. _

Clairvoyance by drugs or ceremonies, 52 _et seq. _, 163 casual, 93 does it destroy privacy?, 171

Clairvoyance during sleep, 26 how first manifested, 26 hysterical, 53 limitations of, 79, 81, 171 meaning of word, 5 occasional flashes of, 23 of the uncultured, 21 on mental plane, 56 on trivial subjects, 55, 95, 152 partial and temporary, 54 restrictions upon, 81, 171 sadness of, 169 under mesmerism, 24, 52, 164

Clairvoyants, "test and business", 51, 170

Classification of phenomena, 27

Colours, new, 35

Common-sense in occultism, necessity of, 125

Consciousness, continuous, 46 the focus of, 31

Considerations, preliminary, 7

Contemplation, 167

Continuous consciousness, 46

Control of thought, 168

Counterpart, astral, 16

Crystal-gazing, 66, 84 _et seq. _, 127

Curative mesmerism, 165

Curiosity not permitted, 173

Current, astral, 62 _et seq. _, 88, 95

Dangers, 78

Date, how to find a, 119 _et seq. _

Dead, the, 45, 62

Death, visits at, 74 _et seq. _

Delirium tremens, 53

Dervishes, the, 163

Devas, the, 44

Development, methods of, 163 the path of, 167 regular, 19

Difference between etheric and astral sight, 36

Difficulties, 103 _et seq. _

Dimension, the fourth, 38 _et seq. _, 65, 107, 137

Distance, sight at a, 59, 81

Double, the etheric, 34

Drugs used to gain clairvoyance, 52, 163

Duke of Orleans, the story of the, 90

_Earth, the Stars and the_, 110

Edgehill, battle of, 161

Elementals, 32, 44, 162

Equation, the personal, 104 _et seq. _

Eternal now, the, 109, 137

Etheric double, the, 34 vision, 30 _et seq. _

Experiments in crystal-gazing, 66, 84 _et seq. _ with bat's cry, 11 with spectrum, 10

Extension of senses, 12

Faculties, latent, 7 buddhic, 18, 108, 136, 139

Fairy ointment, 34

Finding a stranger, 80

First manifestations of clairvoyance, 25 _et seq. _

Flocks, phantom, 154, 160, 162

Focus of consciousness, the, 31

Fourth dimension, the, 38 _et seq. _, 65, 107, 137

Freewill limited, 132 _et seq. _

Future prospects, 175

Ghosts of the gibbet, 162

Glamour, 160

Goffe, the story of Mary, 75

Helpers, invisible, 46, 74, 88, 166

Historical study, possibilities of, 114 _et seq. _

Hinton's works, 38

Housekeeper's dream, the story of the, 147 _et seq. _

How a picture is found, 116 _et seq. _ to find a date, 119 _et seq. _ to investigate, 55

Huntsman, the wild, 160

Hypnotization, self, 86

Hysterical clairvoyance, 53

Incarnations, past, 118, 123 _et seq. _

Investigate, how to, 55

Invisible helpers, 46, 74, 88, 166

Judgment of character, 42

Jung Stilling's story, 71 _et seq. _

Knowledge, the value of, 125

Latent faculties, 7

Limitations of clairvoyance, the, 79, 81, 171

Limited freewill, 132 _et seq. _

Links needed, 114

Lodge, address by Dr. Oliver, 137

Logos of the system, the, 99 _et seq. _

Magic, 53

Magnifying, the power of, 47-67

Manifestations of clairvoyance, the first, 26

Masters of Wisdom, the, 20, 167, 174

Materialization, 70

Māyāvirūpa, the, 78

Meaning of word clairvoyance, 5

Meditation, 167

Mediums, trance, 83

Mental plane clairvoyance, 56 plane sense, 18 world, 80, 104, 115

Mesmerism, clairvoyance under, 24, 62, 164 curative, 165

Methods of development, 163

Micawbers, psychic, 83

Mooltan, story of the siege of, 92

Murder, reproduction of, 161

Nature spirits, 33, 44, 61, 160

Necessity of common-sense in occultism, 125

New colours, 35

Now, the eternal, 109, 137

Occasional clairvoyance, 23

Ointment, fairy and witch, 34

Orleans, the story of the Duke of, 90

Other planets, 81

Partial and temporary clairvoyance, 54

Past incarnations, 118, 123 _et seq. _

Path of development, the, 167

Perceval, assassination of Mr. , 151

Personal equation, the, 104 _et seq. _

Phantom flocks, 154, 160, 162

Phenomena, classification of, 27 séance room, 35, 62

Philadelphian seer, the story of a, 72 _et seq. _

Physical objects, the transparency of, 32

Pictures before going to sleep, 93

Planets, other, 81

Polarization of astral matter, 63

Poseidonis, the sinking of, 120

Possibilities of historical study, 114 _et seq. _

Power of magnifying, the, 47, 67

Power of response to vibrations, 9, 11

Preliminary considerations, 7

Premonition, Mr. Stead's, 153

Prevision, 132, 139

Prospects for the future, 175

Psychic Micawbers, 83

Psychometry, 114, 127

Qualifications of the student, 166

Qualified teachers, 165

Radiations, 59

Records, ākāshic, 85, 97 _et seq. _, 160 aspect of the, 115

Regular development, 19

Reproduction of a murder, 161

Restrictions upon clairvoyance, 81, 171

Röntgen rays, the, 11

Sadness of clairvoyance, the, 169

Schiller's lines, 169

Séance-room phenomena, 35, 62

Second-sight, 140 _et seq. _ the symbolism of, 145

Seer, a Philadelphian, 72 _et seq. _

Self-hypnotization, 86

Sense, extension of, 12

Senses, astral, 17

Sight, astral, 37 _et seq. _, 59 _et seq. _, 66 at a distance, 59, 81 spiritual, 57

Sleep, clairvoyance during, 26

Society, the Theosophical, 167

Solar system, the, 99

Spectral armies, 154

Spectrum, experiment with the, 10

Spiritualistic phenomena, 35, 62

_Stars and the Earth, The_, 110

Stories of crystal-gazing, 84 _et seq. _ second sight, 132, 140 _et seq. _

Story by Jung Stilling, 72 Mr. Stead's, 93 of Captain Yonnt, 89 Mary Goffe, 75 Miss X. 's dogcart, 152 Mr. Stead's premonition, 153

Story of Souter Fell, 156-7 the bull and the doctor, 147 the Duke of Orleans, 90 the housekeeper's dream, 147 _et seq. _

Story of the siege of Mooltan, 92 the white night-dress, 149 Zschokke, 127 _et seq. _

Stranger, finding a, 80

Sympathetic system, the, 22 _et seq. _

System, the Logos of the, 99 _et seq. _

Teachers, qualified, 165

Telescope, the astral, 65, 85, 103

Temporary and partial clairvoyance, 54

Tests not given, 172

Theosophical Society, The, 167 terms, 7

Thought-control, 168

Thought-forms, 43, 67

Throughth, 39

Time only relative, 138

Training, the advantages of, 165 where to be had, 167

Trance mediums, 83

Transparency of physical objects, 32

Trivial subjects, clairvoyance on, 55, 95, 152

Uncultured, clairvoyance in the, 21

Value of knowledge, the, 125

Variable capacity of response, 10 _et seq. _

Vibrations, 9 power of response to, 11

Vision, astral, 37 _et seq. _, 59 _et seq. _, 66 etheric, 30 _et seq. _

Visions, casual, 141

Visits at death, 74 _et seq. _

Voodoo or Obeah, 163

White night-dress, the story of the, 149

Wild huntsman, the, 160

Wisdom, the Masters of, 20, 167, 174

World, the astral, 81, 103 mental, 80, 104, 115

X. 's story, Miss, 152

X Rays, 11

Yonnt's story, Captain, 89

Zschokke's story, 127 _et seq. _

PRINTED BY NEILL AND CO. , LTD. , EDINBURGH. 

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THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 

SATYĀNNĀSTI PARO DHARMAH

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THERE IS NO RELIGION HIGHER THAN TRUTH. 

_OBJECTS. _

To form a nucleus of the universal Brotherhood of Humanity, withoutdistinction of race, creed, sex, caste or colour. 

To encourage the study of comparative religion, philosophy andscience. 

To investigate unexplained laws of nature and the powers latent inman. 

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Any person desiring information as to the Theosophical Society isinvited to communicate with any one of the following GeneralSecretaries:

AMERICA: Alexander Fullerton; New York, 46 Fifth Avenue. 

BRITAIN: Bertram Keightley, M. A. (_pro tem. _); London, 28 AlbemarleStreet, W. 

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ITALY: Rome, Societą Teosofica, 70 Via di Pietra. 

GERMANY: Dr. Rudolph Steiner (_pro tem. _); 95 Kaiserallee, Friedenau, Berlin. 

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THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY is composed of students, belonging to anyreligion in the world or to none, who are united by their approval ofthe above objects, by their wish to remove religious antagonisms andto draw together men of good-will whatsoever their religiousopinions, and by their desire to study religious truths and to sharethe results of their studies with others. Their bond of union is notthe profession of a common belief, but a common search and aspirationfor Truth. They hold that Truth should be sought by study, byreflection, by purity of life, by devotion to high ideals, and theyregard Truth as a prize to be striven for, not as a dogma to beimposed by authority. They consider that belief should be the resultof individual study or intuition, and not its antecedent, and shouldrest on knowledge, not on assertion. They extend tolerance to all, even to the intolerant, not as a privilege they bestow, but as a dutythey perform, and they seek to remove ignorance, not to punish it. They see every religion as an expression of the DIVINE WISDOM, andprefer its study to its condemnation, and its practice to proselytism. Peace is their watch-word, as Truth is their aim. 

THEOSOPHY is the body of truths which forms the basis of allreligions, and which cannot be claimed as the exclusive possession ofany. It offers a philosophy which renders life intelligible, and whichdemonstrates the justice and the love which guide its evolution. Itputs death in its rightful place, as a recurring incident in anendless life, opening the gateway of a fuller and more radiantexistence. It restores to the world the science of the spirit, teaching man to know the spirit as himself, and the mind and body ashis servants. It illuminates the scriptures and doctrines of religionsby unveiling their hidden meanings, and thus justifying them at thebar of intelligence, as they are ever justified in the eyes ofintuition. 

Members of the Theosophical Society study these truths, andTheosophists endeavour to live them. Every one willing to study, to betolerant, to aim high, and to work perseveringly, is welcomed as amember, and it rests with the member to become a true Theosophist. 

BOOKS RECOMMENDED FOR STUDY. 

 s. D. An Outline of Theosophy. C. W. Leadbeater 1 0Ancient Wisdom. Annie Besant 5 0Theosophical Manuals. Seven Principles of Man. Annie Besant 1 0 Re-incarnation. Annie Besant 1 0 Karma. Annie Besant 1 0 Death--and After? Annie Besant 1 0 The Astral Plane. C. W. Leadbeater 1 0 The Devachanic Plane. C. W. Leadbeater 1 0 Man and his Bodies. Annie Besant 1 0The Key to Theosophy. H. P. Blavatsky 6 0Esoteric Buddhism. A. P. Sinnett 2 6The Growth of the Soul. A. P. Sinnett 5 0Man's Place in the Universe 2 0Man Visible and Invisible (illustrated). C. W. Leadbeater 10 6

A student who has thoroughly mastered these may study The SecretDoctrine. H. P. Blavatsky. Three volumes and separate index, £ 3. ManVisible and Invisible (illustrated). C. W. Leadbeater 10 6

 WORLD-RELIGIONS. S. D. Fragments of a Faith Forgotten. G. R. S. Mead 10 6Esoteric Christianity. Annie Besant 5 0Four Great Religions. Annie Besant 2 0Orpheus. G. R. S. Mead 4 6The Kabalah. A. E. Waite 7 6

 ETHICAL. In the Outer Court. Annie Besant 2 0The Path of Discipleship. Annie Besant 2 0The Voice of the Silence. H. P. Blavatsky 1 6Light on the Path. Mabel Collins 1 6Bhagavad-Gitā. Trans. Annie Besant 1 6Studies in the Bhagavad-Gitā 1 6The Doctrine of the Heart 1 6The Upanishats. Trans. By G. R. S. Mead and J. C. Chattopadyaya. Two Volumes, each 1 6Three Paths and Dharma. Annie Besant 2 0Theosophy of the Upanishats 3 0The Stanzas of Dayān. H. P. Blavatsky 1 6

VARIOUS. Nature's Mysteries. A. P. Sinnett 2 0Clairvoyance. C. W. Leadbeater 2 0Dreams. C. W. Leadbeater 1 6The Building of the Kosmos. Annie Besant 2 0The Evolution of Life and Form. Annie Besant 2 0Some Problems of Life. Annie Besant 1 6Thought-Power, its Control and Culture. Annie Besant 1 6The Science of the Emotions. Bhagavan Das 3 6The Gospel and the Gospels. G. R. S. Mead 4 6Five Years of Theosophy 10 0

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THE THEOSOPHICAL REVIEW. 

EDITED BY

ANNIE BESANT AND G. R. S. MEAD. 

Amongst the Regular Contributors are:

ANNIE BESANT. ALEX. FULLERTON. G. R. S. MEAD. BERTRAM KEIGHTLEY. A. P. SINNETT. C. W. LEADBEATER. DR. A. A. WELLS. MICHAEL WOOD. And other well-known Writers on Theosophy. 

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_All the above-named books are published at unit prices by THETHEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY, 3 LANGHAM PLACE, LONDON, W. , fromwhom a full catalogue of works on Theosophy and kindred subjects canbe obtained, post free, on application. _

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