Clairvoyance

Contents

PART L

LESSON I.

Clairvoyance, Its Definition and Office

Introduction

These Teachings constitute one of a series. It forms a rationale or system of instruction for the unfoldment of the spiritual gift (the natural endowment of all souls), commonly designated Clairvoyance. This System of Philosophy is the simple solution of the mooted question of human clairvoyance. These Teachings are neither abnormal nor supernatural in origin, nor are they to be regarded as unnatural. They appeal to the reason and are the corollary of Nature's Law and Causation.

Inspiration may be misunderstood, even denied, yet it is the most natural force in the world. Were it otherwise, it could not be. All thought is inspirational in character, source and end, and when truly analyzed establishes not only an a priori knowledge but the eternality of soul. Thought really is spirit vibration, and has its source, not in the brain, nor in any of its agencies or subordinate instrumentalities, but in spirit. To understand this, it must be realized that even organism has its origin in spirit This we can both affirm and prove, for the soul is the basis, as it is the law, of all its functions. Organism and organs presuppose their spiritual prototype. Man as an entity, immured in matter, is to be analyzed spiritually as well as materially; he is to be considered, not as an inverted pyramid, but in his true relation to what he is, as w r ell as what he manifests, that is, what is externalized. Organism is what it is, bcause soul is what it is. Never is man what he is because organism is what it is. Spirit, the organizer and seat of intelligence, makes not only organism but organization possible. Thus the brain is acted upon, never does it act per se. Thus organism obeys, never does it govern spirit. The brain demonstrates the existence of spirit, not its evolution or involution. Its office is to manifest spirit as a mirror reflects the image of a form. In itself it is nonexistent, non-creative, non-evolutionary. Thought shines through it as light through a lens. The brain neither creates nor produces thought — it but reflects it.

Thought as the effect of spirit is twofold in its mode of manifestation. Always remember it is from spirit, whether the spirit be on this plane or another, incarnate or excarnate, as these words are generically understood. Experience is thought realization. It is more than demonstration. Tuition is experience; intuition is inspiration. Tuition is inspiration realized. A line of demarcation should be drawn between intuition and inspiration as universally or philosophically interpreted and understood. Intuition is the source of truth from within — this we designate Divine Inspiration. Inspiration is thought from a spirit or from spirits in or out of the material form. When in the mortal form such inspiration may be called telepathy or thought transference, and is often induced by hypnotism. When not so induced, it is the direct or indirect transference of thought from plane to plane, through medial and harmonial conditions.

That inspiration is possible to-day, as it was demonstrable throughout the history of the past, evidence of a various kind could be cited, all of which is unnecessary when the source of thought as interpreted by the true System of Divinity is fully understood.

CLAIRVOYANCE.

To Our Beloved Classes Throughout the World:

Beloved Ones: To you we extend our greetings. We meet you, as it were, across the silvery ocean of this life, beyond the valley of the shadow of death on this side of immortal life, not as strangers or sojourners in a strange land, but as those who feel the kinship of spirit, who have awakened to the law of life and soul, and who realize that time and space, nor life or death, nor principality, height or depth, can separate spirits. In this sacred marriage of our spiritual natures by aspiration and spirituality, by spheres and planes of reciprocal love, we are one, though seemingly disassociated and separated by death. We stand within the veil, ever drawn to you, our love for you and our devotion to the cause of Humanity, our consecration to the Supreme Good, as firm and persistent as when in the earth life. We played amid the shadows of the outward world as you now do and we listened to the music of the spheres as Nature vibrated it. Step by step, our unfoldment was realized, but little did we dream that every act, as every thread in the shuttle that moves to and fro in the loom of life, formed the character of our spiritual being. This is the lesson of error,the aim of evil, that, possessed of being, the soul should rise into its final expression, its apotheosis. The exercise of each organ, nerve, function, sense, faculty, perception of being, is for one purpose. All subordinate or collateral aims pay tribute to this purpose. It shines as the day star w T hen all other orbs of light are destroyed. It towers as a flame, unquenchable and divine, when all other fires within the bosom are extinguished. It attracts as it fashions the soul in every plane and sphere, and it is the light that lighteth everyone that cometh into the world, It io CLAIRVOYANCE.

is the light of Divinity that unrolls the shadows of life and death, truth and error, love and evil, in relative spheres of expression. It is the interpretation of the unchanging Law, of the Logos of religion, of the unspoken words of Mystics, of the knowledge of Science. It is, it governs Being. It is the Will of God. All success, material and spiritual, must be one with it or they fail in their ideals. No superficial planes or height of being will avail to make it other than a consuming flame when shadows play in its aureole. Civilization, progress, history, are measured by it. It is the absolute standard of light. As science is evidenced by demonstration, so consciousness in its sphere of realization expresses the truth, this law, this apotheosis. As all drops of rain, as all springs, creeks and rivers are subject to the law of specific gravity of their elements and all tend to equipoise, so souls, in segregation and schools, move toward one end and one affinitization. Reality dictates the modes of spirit and psychic manifestation and expression. Life in every plane and sphere is harmonial and the exact illustration of the numerals in mathematical relations. Geometry is the exponent of the soul's progress in the light of the square, triangle, star or double triangle and circle. Thus matter serves spirit and both reflect and obey the law that geometrizes mathematics. Mathematics illustrates Religion as Science evidences Inspiration. When either mathematics or inspiration are comprehended, or when their law of relation is perceived, the conflict between spirit and matter, religion and science, spiritualism and materialism, is at an end, their integrity of essence and form will then be perceived and established.

All thought in forms of tuition, intuition and inspiration, in outward symbols of manifestation and realization, are predicates of the soul's progress. Progress means "liter-

CLAIRVOYANCE, n

ally going in," and the path of life is literally a going in from the night of ignorance and unconsciousness (and we use the word as expressing a degree of light and knowledge) into the day of truth, and hence illumination or the attainment of Divinity or soul realization. Thus manifestation and expression of spirit are for this purpose and this purpose only. Culture must then be radical, spiritual, as well as artistic, social and political, if it shall fulfill the end of Being. Education must be comprehensive, must include the science of the soul as well as matter, must include the philosophy of inspiration, as spiritualism teaches and reveals it, as well as sensuous knowledge, it must reach in as well as out for the surpassing light of Ra, if it is to lead mankind to a real height or an absolute attainment of spirit. To exist is not to live, as to die is not to reach oblivion or Heaven. Life is consciousness of duty and of duty obeyed and done. Thus all efforts for unfoldment should advance the spirit one degree nearer to deity. Thus, all attempt to confer with the denizens of another world should be for higher understanding of the Law of Being. Thus, every desire for spiritual or medial advancement, for the practical understanding and use of mediumship, whether of the mental or material character, should be for the purpose of leading mankind to a knowledge of the truth.

And as we draw near to you through these, our inspirations, we would impress upon your minds the necessity of thus co-laboring with us, that as light illumines you, so may it reflect unto others, that it may not come to pass in this century, as it was written of the first when the humble Nazarene walked the earth, "The light shone into the darkness but the darkness apprehended it not;" rather, that it may be said of you, 'The exceeding glory of the light shone all about them, so that men felt it to be good to be with them."

This is the light which is revealed in the unfoldment of clairvoyance the science and philosophy of which we shall seek to teach you. Enter the temple of the spirit without fear, with clean hearts, and bow at the shrine where Love dictates her inspirations, and as each lesson is given to you accept of its inspirations and gradually the scales will fall from your outward eyes and the veil that conceals the spirit of your loved ones, even the angels, will be rent asunder, and you will be permitted to walk and talk with them. May "White Rose" teach you that angel love will lead you from above as it will inspire you from within until all things are fulfilled. White Rose, the Guiding Inspiration.

FIRST PRINCIPLES.

Follow and obey them.

1. Tranquilize the spiritual, mental and material conditions by becoming at one with the spirit. This is attained by approaching the spirit in an aspirational or prayerful mood; by being receptive to inspirations as the earth is receptive to rays of light; by being passive or negative in spirit, viz., positive to spirit incarnate and vibrations which play in the sea of materiality, and negative to spirit excarnate and vibrations which play in the sea of ethereality; by being calm and restful, not impatient, anxious, worldly, selfish in your duty to the spirit. Prepare, as it were, a mental state as smooth and glassy and as unruffled and unmarred by contrary vibrations as the placid bosom of a lake. Thus on or into the mind, as a mirror, the image of thought through the process of clairvoyance will appear as the Guiding Spirit wishes.

2. The vision will be assisted in concentration by fixing the eye on a clear glass filled with clear water (aqua pura), and watching, as it were, the scenes that appear and disappear. This is simply suggested as an aid and not as a necessity for those whose minds are distracted and whose vision will not respond to the will or spirit Place the glass on a stand and have about it, when impressed, fresh flowers. Sit at least six feet from the stand. Change the water at eacfc sitting.

3. Sit uniformly at stated times and place and three times a week, thirty minutes each time. Have the atmosphere in the room cool and fresh and free of all animal and vegetable impurities.

4. Sit in a dimly lighted room and alternate with total darkness. When sitting in the dark, correlate all impressions, that is, subjective phenomena, with all manifestations, or objective phenomena, of the spirit. Observe the "lights," forms, faces, symbols, names, places, that are shown to you and watch the development or developing process through which you are taken. Note how conditions are prepared for the reflection of an idea in the mind and thence (through mind) on matter. Observe how faces, figures, etc., are formed out of the magnetic waves that play in your atmosphere and perceive how, by holding the thought, the spirits weave about it a form or image with which they clothe it, and which, when fully manifest, becomes an etherealization or a materialization.

5. Sit alone. Avoid promiscuous circles and influences. Sit with and follow the guidance of no media, lest your development be destroyed, the forces scattered and the guidance set at naught.

6. Sit when conditions can be best adapted to the work at hand. The morning or evening hours are the best.

7. Sit facing the East, that you may be in line with the spiritual or electrical wave currents which move eastward from the West. At night sleep with head to the North by East.

8. A very light lunch before retiring is allowed.

9. Be uniform in diet, sleep,, habits, recreations.

11. Live a pure, unselfish life, as spirituality has much to do with clairvoyance. It furnishes a clear atmosphere for the spirit and thus extends the range of vision by furnishing a lucidity for definition and penetration.

12. Music is a valuable accessory and helps to bring about the necessary concentration.

13. As unfoldment means a gradual attainment of Divinity, clairvoyance is subject to the law that governs Divinity. Do not force results, but remember that though you are unaware, you through effort are reaching the end in view, and by holding the forces, and cooperating with (and not by grieving) the spirit, you will attain to that soul elevation where, as in a mirror, the spiritual universe will appear reflected. This w 7 ill be neither a mirage of the vision nor a delusion of the senses, but a fact of Being. Go often with the Son of Man, the Teacher of Galilee, to the mountains and not only pray there but breathe the lessons of the heights.

14. Keep the body and clothes you wear clean.

15. During the process of unfoldment, go where the best music and lectures may be heard and where paintings and scenery of a high order may be seen. Above all, live a simple, natural life, and keep close to Mother Nature.

16. Read the best books on all subjects that lie within your sphere, and seek for knowledge everywhere. Mediumship, and its unfoldment, depend for its practice upon inspiration and education.

A WORD ABOUT THE EXPERIMENTS.

It is not intended that the experiments which follow each lesson should be applied abstractly; rather, they should be tried in all conditions of life and environments, as they are susceptible to manifold variations and implications. They are both esoteric and exoteric in character and touch necessarily upon the field occupied by Psychometry. However, if the student will apply himself diligently to them, caring the most for successful results, and the least for predisposed prejudices as to their impracticability or for the antecedent condemnation of the Mother Grundys of both Physical, Social and Psychological Science or the ipse dixit of self-elected infallibility, that spirit of research and consecration will bring their rewards,

LESSON I.

Clairvoyance. Its Definition and Office.

In this series of Teachings we shall not attempt nor seek to effect the impossible. We are aware that clairvoyance, together with every other gift of the spirit, is the natural possession of all beings; we are aware that, whatever may be its definition or office, it has a place in the domain or Nature, as is attested by the history of the alleged "miraculous"; we are aware that though it is a faculty or possession of the mind denied by the agnostic and material scientist on the general ground that spirit as such has no existence separable from brain or organism (which position has been proven false by the recent phenomena of hypnotism, mind reading and telepathy) ; yet we maintain that clairvoyance is the natural seeing of all creatures. The seemingly Strange and inexplicable phenomena of clairvoyance, though repudiated by certain scientists as the result of abnormal action of the mind or as the effect of hallucination and hysteria, have made a very profound impression on a more earnest class of scientists, who, like the eminent Prof. Alfred Wallace, Crookes, Zollner and others, have applied an intuitive test, nay, have applied even a material test, and found them to belong to a psychic realm, in short, found them to be just what they purported to be. The mental as well as the physical phases or forms of the spiritual manifestations respond to their specific tests and prove by so doing their sphere or place in the range of Nature's phenomena. The Spirit, whatever may be the hypothesis of its origin or composition, is one of Nature's possessions, and by this we mean, it, as truly as any so-called elements, has a sphere in the universe and is explicable by her unchanging law.

By Nature, we mean the realm inclusive of all forms of life. Spirit demonstrates its being as well as powers through the medium of Nature, and in the sea of her causation or law, it expresses itself. Whatever may be its wonderful and eternal endowment, Nature receives the reflection of it in her realm of causes and effects. She is the sea in which spirit swims, as ether is the medium that permeates all matter, and into this sea, as a mirror, the spirit reveals itself. The subtle and indivisible consciousness, inexplicable to both the scientist and philosopher, manifests here in Nature with no less concern for and obedience to Law as the elementary compositions of matter and force. Psychology, as well as physics, belongs to Nature and her processes, and there is naught anywhere in the domain of being that is not comprehended by Nature. This being at once admitted and true, the difficulty in the way of a clear and perfect understanding of spirit in the sphere and light of its phenomena has been, first, the limitations which men of science or theology put to Nature and the ability of Nature to reveal or manifest spirit through her processes, and, secondly, the lack of perception of the interior workings or divine immanency which establishes the phenomenal world in and on the noumenal world. That there is uniform causation in Nature, or that Nature herself must be uniform in her causation, follows the rejection of the alleged supernatural or interposition or interference of Deity; and that such is the natural order, experience and knowledge prove; but, that in the consideration of causation, however uniform, where there is unchanging law, science or theology should affirm the impossibility of spirit power as spiritual manifestations exhibit it, that it is no part and corollary of this causation, is unquestionably presumptuous, if not prejudical in the extreme.

Spirit may copy or plagiarize the uniform causation in its own laboratories where, as in seances for the display of all kinds of materialization, spirit excarnate repeat them by processes both chemical and natural, though subtler and finer in sphere and action, just as a chemist recombines the elements of hydrogen, sulphur and oxygen into a formula of sulphuric acid, or in a more simple way combines hydrogen and oxygen to form water. This we call copying or plagiarizing Nature. The elements exist and cannot be recreated by any spirit incarnate or excarnate, but through a knowledge of Nature, her law and processes spirit can combine and recombine by Nature's own formula what is eternal and inherent in herself. So, in like manner, the spiritual manifestations of the seance room which bear a likeness to the forms of Nature in the garden of the earth compare really with all physical phenomena of Nature, inasmuch as they are fashioned after them, are, in plain words, materialized and de-materialized by compliance with her law. It takes spirit on either plane to affect the result. The question which we shall ask the materialist to answer is, what does he know of Nature per se, or beyond the horizon of visible causes and effects which he terms Nature? He knows absolutely nothing. Without access to the knowledge which inspiration, intuition or the so-called dead give, he sees, as he examines, but the hemisphere of the universe, one and that the shadowy or phenomenal side of life. He knows naught of another world or form of life beyond the change called death. He doubts, he denies, he condemns all such affirmation of knowledge on the part of his equally wise, perhaps wiser opponent, and with ignorance and denial as his weapons, he seeks to answer intelligently the above question. We hold that he has no right to attempt to answer the question at all without investigating the grounds of his opponent, and then not, unless, freed from pride and prejudice, he will accept what is demonstrable to his reason.

And what we here say concerning the material forms of the spiritual phenomena, plagiarized from Nature by excarnate spirit in the seance room of media, is equally true of the higher order of phenomena, the mental, such as clairvoyance and clairaudience, which are but kinds of the same phenomena of spirit, are explicable by law. Seeing and hearing spiritually is not impossible when it is remembered that it is the only kind of seeing and hearing that is possible ; but when even the seeing or hearing becomes inexplicable by the formula of science, when it must be accounted for by a causation, larger and more comprehensive than that of the books of the Royal Academy of Science, even then, it is none the less natural, none the less within the domain of Nature, none the less the effect of causation. The fact is, the word causation, as the word God, has been made a fetish and an unalterable and immovable concept of human understanding, whereas, the growing mind of man has given it each day and year a larger and more inclusive realm of definition. Mankind no longer accepts but rejects the mythology of the Israelites, Greeks, Romans, Hindus, Indians, but religion has not become less a fact by the disintegration and destruction of fetishism. So, also, in the realm of science and philosophy, systems of thought have been devised by noble minds and each created a concept or formula of truth, yet larger and deeper, seemingly, grew the ocean of truth as each life touched its waters. The ocean received the river of each one's thoughts, but lost apparently not an atom of itself.

So to this same causation we turn for the definition and interpretation of clairvoyance. And, possessed of its facts or phenomena, you have a right to reject any system of religion, science, or philosophy that first repudiates them and then denies clairvoyance as manifest, demonstrated and established by them; so that there should be no barrier to progress in the accumulation of knowledge and the freedom of the soul's life and expression of thought. This is the true scientific spirit that should characterize our attitude to truth and demand a conformity, not to obsolete formulas of science or theology, but to facts, a readjustment of thought and thinking to the truth that must now as always shape its present and future definitions. Clairvoyance is really, by definition, clear seeing. It is the awakened and awakening consciousness, and as such comprehends all that is designated by eyes, senses, faculties, intuition, mind and spirit. Among the Greeks it was likened to Apollo, who bore the flame of Jove around the world in a torch of piercing light, and by the Egyptians it was likened to the all-seeing eye that never slept. Consciousness, as we here designate clairvoyance, is the most inclusive synonym that could possibly be employed to illustrate "seeing;" for between seeing and perceiving, or "seeing through" anything, there is but a slight shade of difference of thought or meaning. To see anything, as the phrase is commonly used, is to see the outw r ard form or proportions, and thus to understand the superficial definition ; to see through anything is to see it not only in outward form but in essence, or as it is, and thus to perceive it and receive a true conception or definition of it.

Seeing thus leads to perceiving, and may be called the means whereby one sees. Yet what we here teach concerning seeing in contradistinction to perceiving must not be given a literal signification, but it must be taken in the broad, spiritual sense. Seeing is instrumental to perceiving, so far as material things, that is, the forms of entities, are concerned, but mind, spirit, soul, is basic to all seeing or perceiving. Organically the eye serves the so-called sense of sight; the sense of sight serves the mind; the mind serves spirit, and the spirit serves the soul in all that outworks destiny. The spirit is seemingly duplex and reflex in character and action, and by this w T e mean it is concerned with the objective and subjective realm of life. The objective is comprehended by the material and the subjective by the spiritual universe. The spirit thus constituted receives upon its lens, the mind impressions from these two realms and it perceives them, according to its lucidity or ability to realize them. Thus, while impressions from the spiritual universe are constantly impinging on the mind, just as impressions from the material universe are floating in through the organ of the eye or sense of sight or feeling (for the veritable blind can "see" by feeling and thus form definitions of objects), few, indeed, are able to define such impressions or realize them as such, or even draw a line of demarcation between those that enter from the objective and those that enter from the subjective realm.

This is due to the fact that mortals have not been so trained as to analyze impressions, or it is because of false theories of consciousness and false psychologies; thus they have regarded the mind or outward consciousness as the factor of sensation and thought, and have been concerned only with what is external, the objective or material realm of life. Cognition has as a result been limited by the necessity of the case to sensuous knowledge, and the ocean of inspiration has been regarded as a mirage of the mind, having no real existence in the desert of earth forms and life; whereas this very ocean is causal and fundamental to all that proceeds from or recedes into it. This character of the spirit or mind being once recognized, more careful attention and scrutiny can be given to all that manifests itself in it, and, more than this, a most perfect scope and definition of consciousness and the far-reaching extent of clairvoyance can be had. The objective and subjective realm are one in one perfect correlation and integrity of law. As each atom rotates on its axis in obedience to the law that revolves the planet earth and establishes the polarity of the sun, yet serves a purpose in its own sphere of action and serves it without mar or jar, so the mind acts in this twofold manner obedient to the principles that establish soul. If a definition of the forms of things as materially understood can be had through mind and the outward vision or sense of sight, surely a definition of the forms of things as spiritually understood can be had through mind and the inward vision or consciousness. If spirit is the eye that sees and perceives, then it has access to its own realm, that of spirit in the objective and subjective sense and form. This is self-evident and follows the admission that the spiritual universe is (as the facts of life, of spirit excarnate prove).

This consciousness is the center of thought radiation where impressions meet and where they are perceived and received. This fact must be understood in the very beginning of our Teachings and the relation and principle of it thoroughly mastered or what will follow will be ambiguous and confusing.

The mind is a lens of the spirit, but it is spiritual in its character and composition, more so than the sensory, as the organ of the eye is the material lens of the mind. Consciousness, in the final or absolute sense, bears just such an intermediary relation to its various subordinate lenses in the organism of soul. We teach that the soul is the primate or basis of all organism, and when this is understood in the highest sense, it cannot be said that the material form of organism does not bear a relation to organism in itself or as a function of soul.

The type is the basis ; it establishes all of its forms which are but its manifestations, and from it as to it proceed the multiplicity of relations which form the network or chain of its operations. The system of muscles, veins, nerves, might, in an organic sense, be construed to be complete, if you begin from primates, as brain, will, spirit, or the functions of brain, such as the sensory, nerves, and heart, for which they stand; yet they are correlated in order of form to the type which more really approaches and bears a similitude to organism as spiritually comprehended. Neither of them could act independently, and yet each one does an independent work. Neither of them could exist in the spirit independently, and yet each has a specific office and work in the divine arrangement. So, in this way, a similar congruity and harmony of relation and action exist between the organ eye, the sense of vision and the sensory where the sensations of outward visions are collected, and the mind, spirit and soul, in the consciousness which is the basis of them all; and the prototype is found in the spiritual counterpart which is, at once and simultaneously in action, the original basis of them. Thus, from the center of soul, the consciousness opens the mystic all-seeing eye, veiled by the arrangement which is defined by materiality or material expression.