[PAGE 70]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                              QUESTION NO. 33.

   WHAT ARE DREAMS?   HAVE THEY ALL A SIGNIFICANCE, AND HOW CAN WE INVITE OR
INDUCE DREAMS?

   ANSWER:   In  the waking state,  the different vehicles of the  Ego,  the
mind,  desire body, vital body and dense body are all concentric.   They oc-
cupy the same space,  and the Ego functions outwardly in the Physical World.
But at night,  during the dreamless sleep,  the Ego,  clothed in the  desire
body and the mind,  withdraws,  leaving the physical and the vital body upon
the  bed,  there being no connection between the higher and  the  lower  ve-
hicles, save a thin, glistening thread, called the silver cord.  It happens,
however,  that  at  times the Ego has been working so  interestedly  in  the
Physical World and the desire body has become so stirred up that it  refuses
to leave the lower vehicles and is only half withdrawn.  Then the connection
between  the  sense  centers of the desire body and the sense centers of the


[PAGE 71]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

physical brain are partly ruptured.   The Ego sees the sights and scenes  of
the Desire World which, in themselves, are extremely fantastic and illusory,
and  they  are transmitted to the brain centers without being  connected  by
reason.  From this condition come all the foolish and fantastic dreams which
we have.

   It happens at times, however, that when the Ego is altogether outside the
dense body,  as in dreamless sleep, it sees an event concerning itself about
to materialize,  for coming events cast their shadows before,  and ere  any-
thing happens in the material world it has already happened in the spiritual
worlds.   If,  upon awaking from such an experience, the Ego succeeds in im-
pressing the brain with what it has seen,  we have a prophetic dream,  which
in  due  time will come true,  or which the Ego,  if its Fate  permits,  may
modify by a new action.  For instance, if warned of an accident, it may take
steps to counteract the impending calamity.

   Regarding the second part of the question,  "How can we invite or  induce
dreams,"  we may say that, of course, it is of no advantage to invite or in-
duce dreams of the confused and fantastic kind, and,  as for the other kind,
there  comes a time in a man's life when he begins to live the higher  life.
Then, gradually, by certain exercises, he evolves the faculty of leaving his
body consciously at night or at any other time.   He is then perfectly  con-
scious in the invisible worlds.   He can go wherever he pleased to the  ends
of the earth in minutes of time and as he learns how to consciously work  in
those invisible worlds,  h does not "dream"  any longer,  but lives  another
life that is fuller or more real than the one he now lives.


[PAGE 72]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                              QUESTION NO. 34.

   WHAT IS SLEEP AND WHAT CAUSES THE BODY TO GO TO SLEEP?

   ANSWER:   During the daytime the vital body specializes the colorless so-
lar fluid which is all about us, through the organ we call the spleen.  This
vitality permeates the whole body and is seen by the clairvoyant as a  fluid
of  a  pale rose color,  having been transmuted upon entering  the  physical
body.  It flows along every nerve, and when it is sent out by the brain cen-
ters  in  particularly large quantities it moves the muscles  to  which  the
nerves lead.

   The  vital body may be said to be built of points which stick out in  all
directions, inward, outward, upward and downward, all through the body,  and
each  little  point goes through the center of one of  the  chemical  atoms,
causing it to vibrate at a higher rate than its natural speed.   This  vital
body interpenetrates the dense body from birth to death under all conditions
except when, for instance, the blood circulation stops in a certain part, as
when  we rest a hand upon the edge of a table for some time and it "goes  to
sleep," as we say.  Then, if clairvoyant, we may see the etheric hand of the
vital body hanging down below the visible hand as a glove,  and the chemical
atoms  of the hand relapse into their natural slow rate of vibration.   When
we slap the hand to cause it to "wake up," as we say, the peculiar prickling
sensation  we feel is caused by the points of the vital body which then  re-
enter the sleeping atoms of the hand and start them into renewed vibration.

   The vital body leaves the dense body in a similar manner when a person is
dying.   Drowning persons who have been resuscitated experience  an  intense
agony caused by the entrance of these points, which they feel as a prickling


[PAGE 73]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

sensation.

   During the daytime,  when the solar fluid is being absorbed by the man in
great quantities, these points of the vital body are blown out or distended,
as it were, by the vital fluid, but as the day advances and poisons of decay
clog the physical body more and more, the vital fluid flows less rapidly; in
the evening there comes a time when the points in the vital body do not  get
a full supply of the life giving fluid; they shrivel up and the atoms of the
body move more sluggishly in consequence.  Thus the Ego feels the body to be
heavy, dull and tired.  At last there comes a time when, as it were, the vi-
tal body collapses and the vibrations of the dense atoms become so slow that
the Ego can no longer move the body.  It is forced to withdraw in order that
its vehicle may recuperate.  Then we say the body has gone to sleep.

   Sleep  is not an inactive state,  however; if it were there would  be  no
difference in feeling in the morning and no restorative power in sleep.  The
very word RESTORATION implies activity.

   When a building has become dilapidated from constant wear and tear and it
is  necessary to renovate and restore it, the tenants must move out to  give
the  workmen full play.   For similar reasons the Ego moves out of its  ten-
ement at night.   As the workmen work upon the building,  to make it fit for
re-occupancy,  so the Ego must work upon its building before it will be  fit
to reenter.  And such a work is done by us during the nighttime, although we
are not conscious of it in our waking state.   It is this activity which re-
moves  the poisons from the system,  and as a result the body is  fresh  and
vigorous in the morning when the Ego enters at the time of waking.


[PAGE 74]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                              QUESTION NO. 35.

   DO THE ROSICRUCIANS BELIEVE IN MATERIA MEDICA, OR DO THEY FOLLOW CHRIST'S
METHOD OF HEALING?

   ANSWER:   It  is generally acknowledged by the  best  practitioners  that
materia  medica is an empirical science;  that drugs do not act in the  same
way on all person, and that, therefore, it is necessary for the physician to
experiment  with  his patients.   Hence materia  medica  is  unsatisfactory.
Drugs cannot be relied upon to do the work at all times.

   Observation shows that while all oxen will thrive on grass, and all lions
are content with a diet of flesh,  we find in the human being that there  is
always an individuality which makes each different from all the rest of  his
kind; and this peculiarity of the human race arises from the fact that while
each  species of animals is the expression of one single group spirit  which
guides  the separate animals FROM WITHOUT,  there is in each human being  an
individual INDWELLING spirit,  an Ego, and therefore one man's meat is often
another's poison.

   It  is only when materia medica takes this point into consideration  that
it  can be of real service in all cases,  and the way to find out the  pecu-
liarities of the spirit that dwells in the patient body is to cast his horo-
scope to see when the times are propitious for the administration of  drugs,
giving  the appropriate HERBS at the proper time.   Pracelsus did that,  and
therefore he was always successful with his patients;  he never made a  mis-
take.   There are some who use astrology for that purpose today; the writer,
for instance,  has thus used it in diagnosis in many cases.  He has then al-
ways  been  able  to see the crises in the patient's  condition,  the  past,
present and the future;  and  has  thus  been  able to afford much relief to


[PAGE 75]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

persons suffering from various illnesses.  It is to such uses that astrology
should be put,  and not degraded into fortune telling for the sake of  gold,
for, like all spiritual sciences, it ought to be used for the benefit of hu-
manity,  regardless of mercenary considerations.   If physicians would study
the science of astrology,  they would thus with a very slight effort be able
to diagnose their patient's condition in a manner altogether impossible from
the ordinary diagnostician's point of view.   Some physicians are waking  up
to that fact and have discovered by their experiences that the heavenly bod-
ies have an influence upon the human frame.   For instance,  when the writer
was in Portland, Oregon, a physician mentioned as his observation that when-
ever it was possible for him to perform an operation while the moon was  in-
creasing in light, that is to say, going from the new to the full moon,  the
operation was always successful and no complications would set in.   On  the
other hand, he had found that when circumstances compelled him to perform an
operation when the moon was going from the full to the dark there was  great
danger  of trouble,  and that such operations were never as satisfactory  as
those performed while the light of the moon was increasing.

   There  is also a tendency among physicians more and more to cure by  sug-
gestion, giving to the patient a harmless pill and a good suggestion.  Every
mother,  whether she knows the potency of suggestion or not, at times uncon-
sciously applies it in the case of her child.  If the little one falls,  she
may be her suggestion cause it to either cry or laugh.   If she says to  the
little one,  "Oh, you poor little baby, you've hurt yourself very bad,  that
poor little head of yours," the child will commence  to  cry; but if, on the


[PAGE 76]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

other hand,  she points to the floor and exclaims, "Oh,  dear,  how you hurt
that poor floor, why that is too bad--kiss it!" the child will be very sorry
it hurt the floor, thinking not at all of its own lesions.

   In  a  similar  manner the physician influences his patient,  and  it  is
criminal  for a physician to enter the sickroom with a gloomy  mien,  asking
the  patient  to make his will,  telling him that he has not long  to  live.
Those things act upon the patient in a manner far greater than realized, and
many  a  physician has thus killed those whom he might have saved.   On  the
other hand,  if he is cheerful and comes into the sickroom with a smile  and
an encouraging word,  if he gives a harmless cure and a good suggestion  the
patient  is apt to recover where otherwise he might succumb to the  disease.
Thus,  suggestion is far beyond materia medica.  The faith which the patient
has  in  the physician will work wonders, either for good or for  evil,  and
faith was the method which Christ used in his healing.  If the inquirer will
look up the instances where the Christ healed the sick in the Bible, he will
find that there was always a question concerning the faith of the one  seek-
ing healing.  To each applicant the Christ said, "According to thy faith, be
it unto you."

   That skepticism destroyed even His power is,  perhaps,  most evident from
the passage where we are told that He journeyed to His native city and found
that a prophet is not without honor save in his own country.   This story is
told  in  the thirteenth chapter of Matthew, also by Mark,  and it  is  sig-
nificant that the last verse in the thirteenth chapter of Matthew says  that
He  did NOT do many mighty works because of their unbelief.   Mark tells  us
that because of their skepticism He was only able to heal a very few  people
by laying His hands upon them.


[PAGE 77]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

   The open mind is an essential requisite to all investigation and  skepti-
cism  is absolutely fatal to the attainment of knowledge.   As an  illustra-
tion,  we  may mention that the writer was in Columbus a few  years  go  and
there  went to a lecture by Professor Hyslop,  the Secretary of the  Society
for  Physical Research.   The subject of the lecture was "New Evidence of  a
Future Life."   The writer was astonished to find that Prof.  Hyslop did not
present  in his lecture one single point which had not been brought  out  in
the  last  twenty years in the reports of the Society to which  he  belongs.
But  the solution came after the lecture,  when a question brought  out  the
fact that Prof. Hyslop did not believe in anything that had been said in the
Society's reports.  HE DID NOT BELIEVE IN THE RESULTS OBTAINED BY ANYONE BUT
HIMSELF.   This evidence which he had just presented had been  collected  by
him;  therefore it was new to him and he expected his audience to  take  his
word, although he himself was unwilling to take the word of anyone else, and
as an illustration of how skepticism acts, he unconsciously gave a very fine
example,  when he related that, going to a medium on a certain day,  Richard
Hodgson, deceased, spoke through the medium and Prof Hyslop commenced to ask
questions which,  though quite simple,  Mr.  Hodgson had great difficulty in
answering.   Prof. Hyslop at last impatiently said, "Why, what is the matter
with you,  Richard; when you were alive you were quick enough; why can't you
answer now?"   "Then,"  said Prof. Hyslop, came the answer,  quick as light-
ning,  "Oh,  every  time I get into your wretched atmosphere  I  go  all  to
pieces."   Prof.  Hyslop could not understand the reason why, but anyone who
has seen a pupil before a Board of Examiners which has made up its mind that
he  is  a  dunce will know why, and understand that it  was  Prof.  Hyslop's
critical skeptical attitude of mind  which  caused  Richard  Hodgson's great


[PAGE 78]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

difficulty  in communicating.   We may,  therefore,  say that we believe  in
materia medica when used in conjunction with astrology and also in  Christ's
method of healing,  which is Faith Cure, and in the power of suggestion  and
the  various other systems of healing.  They all contain some truth,  though
unfortunately  many are made into fads and carried to extremes.   Then  they
lose  their power for good and become menaces to those who  might  otherwise
have been benefited.

                               ---------------

                              QUESTION NO. 36.

   SINCE SUFFERING IS THE RESULT OF OUR OWN ACTIONS,  DO YOU THINK IT  WRONG
TO TAKE MEDICINE TO REMOVE PAIN IF ONE IS NOT HOPELESSLY ILL OR DYING?

   ANSWER:   This question reveals an attitude of mind that is extremely de-
plorable;  as well ask if it is right to try to save one's self if drowning,
for  falling  in the water is also an effect of some  self-generated  cause.
Certainly,  it  is  our duty to take medicine  administered  by  a  properly
qualified  person,  or attempt to cure the ills from which we suffer in  any
other way possible that appeals to us.  We should be doing  decidedly  wrong


[PAGE 79]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

if we allowed our physical instrument to deteriorate for lack of proper care
and attention.   It is the most valuable tool we possess,  and unless we use
it  circumspectly and care for it,  we are amenable to the law of cause  and
effect for that neglect.

   A  question such as this reveals an altogether erroneous idea of the  law
of cause and effect.  It is our duty to try to rise above conditions instead
of allowing circumstances to guide our lives.   There is a beautiful  little
poem which aptly enunciates this idea:

   "One ship sails east and another sails west
         With the self same winds that blow;
   "Tis the set of the sail and not the gale
         Which determines the way they go.

   "As the winds of the sea are the ways of Fate
         As we voyage along through life,
   "Tis the act of the soul which determines the goal
         And not the calm or the strife."

   If we endeavor to turn the sails of our bark of life aright, we shall al-
ways be able to modify if not to altogether change conditions,  and make our
lives  what  we will instead of sitting supinely waiting for the  clouds  to
pass by, because we have made those clouds ourselves.  The very fact that we
have made them ought to be an inspiration to give us the courage and  energy
to unmake them, or push them away as quickly as possible.


[PAGE 80]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                              QUESTION NO. 37.

   WHAT FORM OF HEALING DO YOU ADVISE,  PHYSICIANS OR PRACTITIONERS,  AS  IN
THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE BELIEF?

   ANSWER:  That depends upon the nature of the sickness and the temperament
of the patient.  If it is a case of a broken leg, a surgeon is obviously the
one to call.   If there is an internal disorder and it is possible to get  a
broad minded physician, then in certain cases he is the one to get.  If,  on
the other hand, a mental healer, Christian Science healer or anyone else who
is spiritually minded can be brought in,  THEY MAY HELP A PERSON WHO IS HIM-
SELF STRONG IN FAITH,  for,  as a tuning fork which is of certain pitch will
respond  when another tuning fork of the same pitch is struck,  so will  the
person  filled with faith respond to the ministrations of these  last  named
ones.  But where faith in their methods is lacking in the patient, it is far
better  to send for a regular physician in whom the patient has  confidence,
for health or sickness depends almost altogether upon the state of the mind,
and in the conditions of sickness where a person is thwarted in his  prefer-
ences.   Besides,  whatever good there is in any system of healing,  the ef-
fects upon a certain person will be beneficial or the reverse in exact  pro-
portion to this faith in its healing power.



[PAGE 81]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

                              QUESTION NO. 38.

   WHAT IS YOUR OPINION IN REGARD TO FASTING AS A MEANS OF CURING DISEASE?

   ANSWER:   We may readily conceive that there are more people in the  West
who die from over eating than from getting too little food.   And under cer-
tain conditions fasting for a day or two is undoubtedly beneficial, but just
as there are gourmands and gluttons,  so there are also others who go to the
opposite extreme and fast to excess.  There lies a great danger.  The better
way  is  to eat in moderation and to eat the proper kinds of food;  then  it
will not be necessary to fast at all.

   If  we study the chemistry of food we shall find that certain foods  have
properties of value to the system under certain conditions of disorder,  and
taken  properly  food is really medicine.  All the citric  fruits,  for  in-
stance,  are splendid antiseptics.   They cleanse and purify the  alimentary
canal.  THUS THEY PREVENT DISEASE.  All the cereals, particularly rice,  are
anti-toxins; they will kill disease and the germs of putrefaction.  Thus, by
knowing  these  medicinal  properties of the different foods,  we  may  very
readily secure a supply of that which we need to cure our ordinary  ailments
by food instead of by pasting.


[PAGE 82]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                              QUESTION NO. 39.

   DO  YOU CONSIDER IT WRONG TO TRY TO CURE A BAD HABIT,  SUCH AS,  FOR  IN-
STANCE, DRUNKENNESS, BY HYPNOTISM?

   ANSWER:   Most decidedly yes.  Looked at from the standpoint of one life,
such  methods as for instance those employed by the healers of the  Immanual
movement,  are undoubtedly productive of an immense amount of good.  The pa-
tient is seated in a chair,  put into a sleep and there he is given  certain
so called "suggestions."  He rises and is cured of his bad habit; from being
a drunkard he becomes a respectable citizen who cares for his wife and  fam-
ily, and upon the face of it the good seems to be undeniable.

   But looking at it from the deeper standpoint of the occultist,  WHO VIEWS
THIS LIFE AS ONLY ONE IN MANY, and looking at it from the effect it has upon
the invisible vehicles of man, the case is vastly different.   When a man is
put  into a hypnotic sleep,  the hypnotist makes passes over him which  have
the  effect of expelling the ether from the head of his dense body and  sub-
stituting  the ether of the hypnotist.   The man is then under  the  perfect
domination of another;  he has no free will, and,  therefore,  the so called
"suggestions"  are in reality COMMANDS which the victim has no choice but to
obey.  Besides, when the hypnotist withdraws his ether and wakens the victim
he is unable to remove all the ether he put into him.  To use a simile, as a
small part of the magnetism infused into an electric dynamo before it can be
started for the first time is left behind and remains as residual  magnetism
to excite the fields of the  dynamo  every  time  it  is started up, so also


[PAGE 83]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

there remains a small part of the ether of the hypnotist's vital body in the
medulla  oblongata of the victim,  which is a club the hypnotist holds  over
him all his life,  and it is due to this fact that suggestions to be carried
out  at  a period subsequent to the awakening of the victim  are  invariably
followed.

   Thus  the victim of a hypnotic healer does not overcome the bad habit  by
his  own strength,  but is as much chained in that respect as if he were  in
solitary confinement,  and although in this life he may seem to be a  better
citizen, when he returns to earth he will have the same weakness and have to
struggle until at last he overcomes it himself.

                              QUESTION NO. 40.


   ARE  THERE ANY METHODS OF ERADICATING THE CALCAREOUS MATTER  WHICH  COMES
INTO OUR BODIES BY WRONG METHODS OF DIET?

   ANSWER:   The question shows that the inquirer is aware that  our  bodies
are gradually hardening from childhood to old age,  on account of the chalky
substances contained in most of the foods  we  usually  nourish  our  bodies


[PAGE 84]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

upon.  This calcareous matter is primarily deposited in the walls of the ar-
teries  and  veins,  causing  what is known to  the  medical  profession  as
arterio-sclerosis  or hardening of the arteries.   The arteries of a  little
child are extremely soft and elastic,  like a rubber tube,  but gradually as
we advance through childhood, youth and on toward old age,  the walls of the
arteries  become harder in consequence of the deposits of chalk left by  the
passing  blood.   Thus in time they may become as stiff and unelastic  as  a
pipe stem.  There is a condition which is called pipe-stem artery.   The ar-
teries  then  become brittle and may break,  causing hemorrhage  and  death.
Therefore it is said truly that a man is as old as his arteries.   If we can
clear  the arteries and capillaries of this earthy matter,  we  may  greatly
prolong life and the usefulness of our body.

   From the occult standpoint,  of course it is no matter whether we live or
die,  as the saying is,  for death to us does not mean annihilation but only
the shifting of the consciousness to other spheres;  nevertheless,  when  we
have brought a vehicle through the useless years of childhood,  past the hot
years of youth,  and have come to the time of discretion when we are  really
beginning to gain experience, then the longer we can prolong the time of ex-
perience the more we may gain.   For that reason it is of a certain value to
prolong the life of the body.

   In order to accomplish that result,  we must first select the foods  that
are least impregnated with the choking substances which cause the induration
of  arteries and capillaries.   These may be briefly stated to be the  green
vegetables and all fruits.   Next,  it is of importance to seek to eradicate
the choking matter which we have already absorbed, if that is possible,  but
science has not yet found any food or  medicine  that  will  with  certainty


[PAGE 85]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

produce that effect.   Electric baths have been found to be exceedingly ben-
eficial  but not entirely satisfactory.   Buttermilk is the best  agent  for
eradicating  this earthy substance,  and next comes grape juice.   If  taken
continually and in generous quantities,  these substances will  considerably
ameliorate the hardened condition of the arteries.

                              QUESTION NO. 41.

   IS NOT NATURE GUILTY OF FREQUENT PHYSICAL MALFORMATIONS IN THE PLANT  AND
ANIMAL  WORLD  AS WELL AS IN THE HUMAN RACE,  AND CAN THERE BE  A  PERFECTLY
WHOLE AND SANE INTELLIGENCE WITH A FORCEFUL WILL IN A DISEASED OR  MALFORMED
BODY?

   ANSWER:   We would ask, what do you mean by nature?   Bacon says that na-
ture and God differ only as the print and the seal.   Nature is the  visible
symbol of God, and we are too apt to think of nature nowadays in a material-
istic  sense.   Back of every manifestation in nature there are forces,  NOT
BLIND FORCES,  BUT INTELLIGENCES.  Perhaps an illustration will enable us to
realize our relation to them.

   Supposing we have materials and tools;  we are engaged in making a  table
and  a  dog  is  sitting  looking  at  us.  Then the dog, a being of a lower


[PAGE 86]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

kingdom,  will gradually see us planing the wood and putting the top on  the
legs;  it will see the table coming into existence by degrees;  it may watch
the process,  though it may not know the use of the table and may not under-
stand what is in our minds while we are fashioning the table.  It simply be-
holds a manifestation, it sees us working and views the results.   Supposing
further,  for the sake of illustration,  the dog could see the materials and
how  they  were gradually being shaped into a table,  but could not  see  us
working and putting the various pieces together to form this table; then the
dog  would  be  in about the same relation to us as we  are  to  the  nature
forces.   What we speak of as electricity,  as magnetism,  as  expansion  in
steam,  etc.,  are intelligences which work unseen to us when certain condi-
tions are brought about.  Nature spirits build the plants, form the crystals
of  the  rock,  and with numerous other hierarchies are working  around  and
about us unseen, but nevertheless busy in making that which we call nature.

   These  are all evolving beings,  like ourselves,  and the very fact  that
they  are evolving shows that they are imperfect and therefore apt  to  make
mistakes which naturally result in malformations,  so that it may be said in
answer  to the question that the invisible intelligences which make what  we
call nature are guilty of frequent mistakes as well as we.

   As to the second part of the question,  whether there can be a  perfectly
whole and sane intelligence with a forceful will in a diseased or  malformed
body,  we may say "yes,  undoubtedly,"  but as the expression of that intel-
ligence  is  dependent  upon  the  efficiency  of  its  instrument  it  may,
naturally, be hampered by the physical deformity, on the same principle that
no  matter  how  skilled  the  workman is, his efficiency depends in a great


[PAGE 87]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

measure upon the condition of his tools.

                              QUESTION NO. 42.


   WHAT IS THE EFFECT OF VACCINATION FROM THE OCCULT POINT OF VIEW?

   ANSWER:  Bacteriologists have discovered that many diseases are caused by
microorganisms which invade our body,  and also that when this invading army
begins to create a disturbance the body commences to manufacture germs of an
opposing nature or a substance which will poison the invaders.  It is then a
question of which are the strongest, the invaders or the defenders.   If the
defending  microbes  are more numerous than the invaders or  if  the  poison
which  is noxious to the invaders is manufactured in sufficient  quantities,
the patient recovers.  If the defenders are vanquished or the body is unable
to  manufacture a sufficient quantity of the serum necessary to  poison  the
invaders,  the patient succumbs to the disease.   It was further  discovered
that  when a certain person has once successfully recovered from a  specific
malady, he is immune from renewed  attacks  of  that  disease for the reason


[PAGE 88]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

that he has in his body the serum which is death to the germs that cause the
disease he has once weathered.

   From the above facts certain conclusions were drawn:

   (1)  If a healthy person is inoculated with a few of the germs of a  cer-
tain disease he will contract that disease in a mild form.   He will then be
able to develop the saving serum and thus he will become immune to that dis-
ease in the future.

   THAT IS THE PHILOSOPHY OF VACCINATION AS A MEANS OF PREVENTING DISEASE.

   (2)  When a person has contracted a disease and is unable to  manufacture
a  sufficient quantity of the serum which will destroy the  invading  micro-
organisms, his life may be saved by inoculation with the serum obtained from
another who has become immune.

   As  it is not easy to get such antitoxins or cultures from human  beings,
these  germ-cultures and poisons have been obtained from animals,  and  much
has  been written both for and against the use of such methods  of  fighting
disease.   With these are are not here concerned; the inquirers asks for the
occult viewpoint, which goes deeper than the questions at issue as seen from
the  material side of life.   There are undoubtedly cases where disease  has
been  prevented by vaccination and cases where death has been  prevented  by
the use of antitoxin;  there are also cases where vaccination and  antitoxin
have caused the fatality they were designed to prevent,  but that is  beside
the  question.   From the occult viewpoint vaccination and the use of  anti-
toxin  OBTAINED BY THE PROCESSES IN USE IN BACTERIOLOGICAL INSTITUTES is  to
be deplored.   These methods work a wrong on the helpless animals and POISON
THE HUMAN BODY, making it difficult for the Ego to use its instrument.

   If  we  study  the  chemistry  of  our food we shall find that nature has


[PAGE 89]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

provided all necessary medicine, and if we eat right we shall be immune from
disease without vaccination.

   When in normal health the body specializes a far greater quantity of  the
solar energy than it can use.   The surplus is radiated from the whole  sur-
face  of the body with great force and prevents the entrance of  microorgan-
isms which lack the strength to battle against this outwelling current, nay,
more!  on the same principle than an exhaust fan will gather up particles of
dust in a room and hurl them outward does this vital fluid cleanse the  body
of inimical matter,  dangerous germs included.  It must not surprise us that
this  force  is  intelligent and capable of selecting  the  materials  which
should be eliminated, leaving the beneficial and useful.   Scientists recog-
nize this fact of selective osmosis.   They know that while a sieve will al-
low any particle of matter to pass through which is smaller than the mesh of
the sieve, the kidneys, for instance, will keep certain fluids of use to the
body,  while allowing waste products to pass.  In a similar manner the vital
fluid  makes a distinction,  it rids the body of the poisons and  impurities
generated inside and repels similar products from without.

   This emanation has been called N-rays, or Odic fluid,  by scientists  who
have  discovered it by means of chemical reagents which render it  luminous.
During the process of digestion it is weakest, for then an extra quantity of
the  solar energy is required for use inside the body in the  metabolism  of
the food;  it is the cementing factor in assimilation.  The heartier we have
eaten,  the greater is the quantity of vital fluid expended WITHIN THE  BODY
and  the weaker the eliminative and protective outrushing  current.   Conse-
quently  we  are  in  the  greatest  danger  from  an invasion by an army of


[PAGE 90]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

inimical microorganisms when we have gorged ourselves.

   On  the other hand,  if we eat sparingly and choose the foods  which  are
most easily digestible,  the diminution of the protective vital current will
be correspondingly minimized and our immunity from disease will be much  en-
hanced without the necessity of poisoning our body with vaccine.

                              QUESTION NO. 43.

   IF,  AS YOU STATE,  THE EGO DWELLS IN THE BLOOD, IS NOT THEN THE PRACTICE
OF BLOOD TRANSFUSION FROM A HEALTHY TO A DISEASED PERSON DANGEROUS/  DOES IT
AFFECT OR INFLUENCE THE EGOS IN ANY WAY, AND IF SO, HOW?

   ANSWER:   Among the latest discoveries of science is haemolysis--the fact
that  inoculation of blood from the veins of a higher animal into one  of  a
lower species,  destroys the blood of the lower animal and causes its death.
Thus  the blood of man injected into the veins of any animal is fatal.   But
from  man  to man it is found that transfusion may take place,  although  at
times there are deleterious effects.


[PAGE 91]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

   In olden days people married in the family;  it was then looked upon with
horror if one should "seek after strange flesh."   When the sons of God mar-
ried the daughters of men,  that is to say,  when the subjects of one leader
married outside the tribe,  there was great trouble,  they were cast off  by
their leader and destroyed,  for at that time certain qualities that we  now
possess  were to be developed in humanity and were thus implanted in  a  the
common blood which ran pure in the family or small tribe.  Later on when man
was  to  be brought down into more material conditions,  international  mar-
riages  were commanded and,  from that time on,  it has been looked upon  as
equally horrible if persons within the same family united in marriage.

   The old Vikings would not allow anyone to marry into their family  unless
they  had  first  gone through the ceremony of mixing blood to  see  if  the
transfusion  of the blood of the stranger into their family was  detrimental
or otherwise.  All this was because in earlier times humanity was not as in-
dividualized  as it is today.   They were more under the domination  of  the
race  spirit  or family spirit,  which dwelt in their blood,  as  the  group
spirit  of animals does in the blood of animals.   Later  the  international
marriages were given to free humanity from that yoke and make every separate
Ego sole master of its own body without outside interference.

   Science has lately found that the blood of different people has different
crystals,  so that it is possible now to tell the blood of a negro from  the
blood of a white man;  but there will come a day when they will know a still
greater difference, for just as there is a difference in the crystals formed
by the different races, so there is also a difference in the crystals formed
by each individual man.  The thumb-marks of no two people are alike,  and it
will be found in time that the blood of each human  being  is different from


[PAGE 92]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

the blood of every other individual.  This difference is already evident  to
the occult investigator, and it is only a question of time when science will
make the discovery, for the distinguishing features are becoming more marked
as  the  human  being  grows  less  and  less  dependent,   more  and   more
self-sufficient.

   This change in the blood is most important and in time,  when it has  be-
come more marked,  it will be productive of most far-reaching  consequences.
It is said that "nature geometrizes,"  and nature is but the visible  symbol
of  the invisible God whose offspring and image we are.   Being made in  His
likeness,  we are also beginning to geometrize, and naturally we starting on
the  substance where we,  the human spirits,  the Egos,  have  the  greatest
power, namely, in our blood.

   When the blood courses through the arteries,  which are deep in the body,
it  is a gas;  but loss of heat nearer the surface of the body causes it  to
partially condense,  and in that substance the Ego is learning to form  min-
eral crystals.   In the Jupiter Period we shall learn to invest them with  a
low  form of vitality and set them out from ourselves as  plant-like  struc-
tures.   In the Venus Period we shall be able to infuse desire into them and
make them like animals.  Finally, in the Vulcan Period, we shall give them a
mind and rule over them as race spirits.

   At  the present time we are at the very beginning of this  individualiza-
tion of our blood.   Therefore it is possible at present to transfuse  blood
from one human being to another,  but the day is near at hand when that will
be impossible.  The blood of a white man will kill all who stand lower,  and
the blood of an advanced person will poison the less cultured.  The child at
present receives its supply of blood from the parents,  stored in the thymus


[PAGE 93]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

gland, for the years of childhood.  But the time will come when the Ego will
be  too  far individualized to function in blood not  generated  by  itself.
Then  the present mode of generation will have to be superseded  by  another
whereby the Ego may create its own vehicle without the help of parents.

                              QUESTION NO. 44.

   WHAT ARE THE CAUSES OF INSANITY?

   ANSWER:   To answer that question would require volumes,  but we may  say
that from the occultist's standpoint there are four classes of insanity.

   Insanity is always caused by a break in the chain of vehicles between the
Ego and the physical body.   This break may occur between the brain  centers
and the vital body, or it may be between the vital and desire body,  between
the desire body and the mind, or between the mind and the Ego.   The rupture
may be complete or only partial.

   When  the break is between the brain centers and the vital body,  or  be-
tween that and the desire body,  we have the idiots.   When the break is be-
tween the desire body and the mind, the violent and  impulsive  desire  body


[PAGE 94]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

rules and we have the raving maniac.   When the break is between the Ego and
the mind, the mind is the ruler over the other vehicles and we have the cun-
ning maniac,  who may deceive his keeper into believing that he is perfectly
harmless until he has hatched some diabolical, cunning scheme.   Then he may
suddenly show his deranged mentality and cause a dreadful catastrophe.

   There is one cause of insanity that it may be well to explain,  as it  is
sometimes possible to avoid it.   When the Ego is returning from the  invis-
ible world toward reembodiment,  it is shown the various incarnations avail-
able.   It sees the coming life in its great and general events,  much as  a
moving picture passing before its vision.   Then it is given the choice usu-
ally,  of several lives.   It sees at that time the lessons it has to learn,
the  fate it has generated for itself in past lives,  and what part of  that
fate it will have to liquidate in each of the embodiments offered.   Then it
makes its choice and is guided by the agents of the Recording Angels to  the
country and family where it is to live its coming life.

   This  panoramic view is seen in the Third Heaven where the Ego  is  naked
and  feels  spiritually above sordid material considerations.   it  is  much
wiser then than it appears here on earth,  where it is blinded by the  flesh
to an inconceivable extent.   Later, when conception has taken place and the
Ego  draws into the womb of its mother,  on about the eighteenth  day  after
that  event,  it comes in contact with the etheric mold of its new  physical
body which has been made by the Recording Angels to give the brain formation
that will impress upon the Ego the tendencies necessary to work out its des-
tiny.

   There the Ego sees again the pictures of its COMING life, as the drowning


[PAGE 95]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

man perceives the pictures of his PAST life--in a flash.   At that time  the
Ego is already partially blind to its spiritual nature,  so that if the com-
ing life seems to be a hard one, it will oftentimes shrink from entering the
womb and making the proper brain connections.   It may endeavor to draw  it-
self out quickly and then,  instead of being concentric as the vital and the
dense  bodies should be,  the vital body formed of ether may be  drawn  par-
tially  above the head of the dense body.   In that case the connection  be-
tween  the sense centers of the vital body and the dense body are  disrupted
and the result is congenital idiocy, epilepsy, St. Vitus dance,  and similar
nervous disorders.

   The  inharmonious relation between the parents which sometimes exists  is
often the last straw that makes an Ego feel that it cannot enter such an en-
vironment.  Therefore, it cannot be too seriously impressed upon prospective
parents that during the gestatory period it is of the utmost importance that
every thing should be done to keep the mother in a condition of  contentment
and harmony.  For it is a very hard task for the Ego to go through the womb;
it taxes all its sensibilities to the very utmost,  and inharmonious  condi-
tions in the home it is entering are,  of course an added source of  discom-
fort which may result in the above named dreadful state of affairs.



[PAGE 96]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                              QUESTION NO. 45.

   WHEN AN INSANE PERSON DIES, WILL HE STILL BE INSANE IN THE DESIRE WORLD?

   ANSWER:   That depends upon where the break is, for insanity is a rupture
in the vehicles between the Ego and the physical body,  and this derangement
may  occur  between the Ego and the mind,  between the mind and  the  desire
body,  or between the desire body and the vital body,  and also between  the
latter and the dense body.   If the break is between the dense and the vital
body or between that and the desire body,  the Ego will be perfectly sane in
the Desire World immediately after death, because it has then discarded  the
two vehicles which were afflicted.

   Where the break occurs between the desire body and the mind,  the  desire
body is, as a matter of course, still rampant, and often causes the Ego much
trouble during its existence in the Desire World; for the Ego, of course, is
at no time insane.   What appears as insanity arises from the fact that  the
Ego has no control over its vehicles; the worst of all, obviously,  is where
the  mind itself has become affected and the Ego is tied to the  personality
for a long time until these vehicles are worn away.


[PAGE 97]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

                                 SECTION II

                           QUESTIONS DEALING WITH

                              LIFE AFTER DEATH


[PAGE 98]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS





                                  DIAGRAM 6


                                   POWER
                                    /\
      1ST COSMIC PLANE             /  \
                                  /    \
                                 /      \
                                /        \
                               /  SUPREME \
                              /    BEING   \
                     THE WORD/--------------\ MOTION
                   THE      SEVEN   |  GREAT       LOGOI
   *-----------*---------*----------*-----------*-----------*------------*    
---|-----------|---------|----------|-----------|-----------|------------|---
   |           |         |          |           |           |            |   
   |           |         |          |           |           |            |
*******     *******   *******    *******     *******     *******      *******
                                                                         |
2ND COSMIC PLANE                                                         *
-------------------------------------------------------------------------|---
                                                                         |
                                                                         |
                                                                      ********
                                                                      |
3RD COSMIC PLANE                                                      *
----------------------------------------------------------------------|------
                                                                      |
                                                                      |
                                                                      |
                                                                   *******
                                                                   |
4TH COSMIC PLANE                                                   *
-------------------------------------------------------------------|---------
                                                                   |
                                                                   |
                                                                *******
                                                                |   
5TH COSMIC PLANE                                                *
----------------------------------------------------------------|------------
                                                                |
                                                                |
                                                             *******
                                                             |
6TH COSMIC PLANE                                          |--*
----------------------------------------------------------|--|---------------
                                                          |  |
7TH COSMIC PLANE                                          |  |
INCLUDES ALL BELOW THE ABOVE LINE,                        |******
THE SEVEN WORLDS BEING                                    |  \|/
SUBDIVISIONS OF IT.                 |---------------------|   |
                                    |                         |>GODS OF
                                    |                           OTHER SOLAR
                                   WILL                         SYSTEMS
                                   /\
                                  /  \
                                 /    \
1 THE WORLD OF GOD              /      \
                               /        \
                              /          \
                             /     GOD    \
                      WISDOM/-------|------\ACTIVITY
                                    |
   |-----------|---------|----------|-----------|-----------|------------|
   |           |         |          |           |           |            |
   |           |         |          |           |           |            |
URANUS      SATURN     JUPITER    EARTH        MARS       VENUS       MERCURY
   *           *         *          *           *           *            *
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2 THE WORLD OF VIRGIN SPIRITS
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
3 THE WORLD OF DIVINE SPIRIT
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
4 THE WORLD OF LIFE SPIRIT
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
5 THE WORLD OF THOUGHT
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
6 THE WORLD OF DESIRE
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
7 THE PHYSICAL WORLD
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------







[PAGE 99]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

                              QUESTION NO. 46.

   WHAT IS THE USE OF KNOWING ABOUT THE AFTER-DEATH STATE,  WHAT HAPPENS  IN
THE INVISIBLE WORLD, AND ALL THESE THINGS?  IS IT NOT FAR BETTER TO TAKE ONE
WORLD AT A TIME?  SUFFICIENT UNTO THE DAY IS THE TROUBLE THEREOF.   WHY BOR-
ROW MORE?

   ANSWER:   If we knew beyond a doubt that at some time we should be forced
to leave our country and go to another place to live for a great many  years
before we would be allowed to return,  would it not be a good policy for  us
to acquaint ourselves with the language,  the customs,  and the laws of that
country?   Thus equipped we would not feel so strange,  and we would be able
to  take advantage of whatever opportunities for growth and study we  should
find  there;  we would not be apt to run contrary to its laws and  get  into
trouble in consequence of our ignorance,  and in many similar ways it  would
be to our advantage to know about that country.

   The foregoing illustrates aptly our position with regard to the Invisible
Worlds.   After death we shall find ourselves there,  and if we are able now
to obtain information concerning the conditions there,  it will surely  ben-
efit us greatly.   In the first place, there is the advantage that knowledge
will take away from us the fear of death,  because we never fear that  which
we  know.   In the second place,  by knowing about Purgatory and  the  First
Heaven,  and  by  knowing  about  the  evening  exercise where we review the


[PAGE 100]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

happenings  of the day IN REVERSE ORDER, we may live our Purgatory here  and
now in small doses,  obtaining the forgiveness of sins instead of waiting to
expiate our evil deeds;  and if we take advantage of our knowledge we  shall
be living in an attitude such as we would not attain before entering the fu-
ture lives, by assimilating daily the good that we have done and expurgating
the  evil.   Thus we shall be able to go soaring through Purgatory  and  the
First Heaven immediately after death.

   By  knowing what we are expected to accomplish in the Second  Heaven,  we
can  more intelligently apply ourselves to the work there;  we gain  greater
consciousness of that realm by familiarizing ourselves with it daily.   Thus
in  various ways we shall be fitting ourselves to become invisible  helpers,
to  live consciously all the time and shorten our evolution by  millions  of
years.

                              QUESTION NO. 47.

   IS THERE ANY LIMIT OF TIME SET TO THE EARTH LIFE BEFORE WE ARE BORN?

   ANSWER:  Yes, at the time when the Ego is coming to rebirth, it forms the
creative  archetype of its physical form in the Second Heaven with the  help
of the Creative Hierarchies.  That archetype is  a singing, vibrating thing,


[PAGE 101]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

which  is  set into vibration by the Ego with a certain  force  commensurate
with the length of the life to be lived upon earth, and until that archetype
ceases  to vibrate the FORM which is built of the chemical  constituents  of
the earth will continue to live.

   The law of cause and effect,  however, is the arbiter of the way the life
is to be lived,  and certain opportunities for spiritual growth are set  be-
fore  the Ego at various points in its earth life.   If these  opportunities
are made use of, the life will continue along the straight path,  but if not
it diverges, as we might say, into a blind alley where the life then is ter-
minated  by  the creative hierarchies,  which destroy the archetype  in  the
Heaven World.   Thus we may say that the ultimate length of an earth life is
determined before we are born physically,  but the life may be shortened  if
we neglect certain opportunities.  There is also the possibility in the case
of a few,  where the life has been thoroughly lived,  where it has been very
full, and where the person has endeavored in all cases to live up to his op-
portunities,  that more life may be infused into the archetype than had been
done in the first place, and so the life may be prolonged, but as said, that
is only in exceptional cases.


[PAGE 102]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                              QUESTION NO. 48.

   IS IT POSSIBLE TO SHORTEN THE TIME BETWEEN DEATH AND A NEW BIRTH,  SO  AS
TO HASTEN ONE'S EVOLUTION, AND, IF SO, HOW?

   ANSWER:   Yes, it is possible for everyone who will take the pains to re-
view this life every day, IN THE REVERSE ORDER,  from evening until morning,
judging himself for the things he has done amiss,  promising himself to rec-
tify  his mistakes and doing it to the best of his endeavor.   When he  does
that  he will eradicate the sins he has committed from his life and he  will
steadily  become a very much better man or woman than those who do not  per-
form  this simple exercise.   Thus the sins which would otherwise be  expur-
gated in Purgatory have been already dealt with in life and so the  Purgato-
rial  existence  will  be materially shortened.  When at  the  time  of  the
evening exercise,  the man reviews the good he has done and promises himself
to endeavor to do even better in the future he is also assimilating the good
he  has  done each day,  and will therefore make enormous  strides  in  soul
growth  so  that he will also obviate the necessity for life  in  the  First
Heaven.  Such a man will then be definitely treading the path of initiation;
he is then in reality outside the ordinary laws which govern mankind, for he
is a helper in evolution and will,  therefore,  be given the opportunity  to
return  to  earth in that capacity much sooner than would otherwise  be  the
case.


[PAGE 103]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

                              QUESTION NO. 49.

   ARE THERE ANY SEASONS AND TIMES, AGES AND EPOCHS, IN THE OTHER WORLD?

   ANSWER:   No.  We might say that there it is all one long day.   There is
no  time,  for that which makes time here is the rotation of the earth  upon
its axis and its orbital revolution around the sun.   These motions make day
and  night,  summer and winter,  heat and cold,  etc.,  because the  earth's
opaque and solid composition renders it impervious to the rays of light  and
heat  emitted by the sun,  so that one-half of the earth is always cold  and
dark.   But in that other world nothing is opaque nor solid,  hence there is
neither  heat  nor cold,  there is neither summer nor winter,  there  is  no
light, there is no night, but it is one long bright day.

   Therefore,  we often find that those who have passed out by death,  while
fully  remembering their past earth life,  will have no sense of time  since
passing  out,  and may sometimes ask the question as to the length  of  time
which has elapsed since that event.

   There is only one method there of gauging time,  and this is used by  the
trained clairvoyant in fixing events when he is reading in the memory of na-
ture,  namely,  by  astrology,  by noting the positions of  the  stars.   Of
course,  if the event he is looking for is something which happened in  his-
torical times,  he may readily fix the year of the occurrence by noting some
historical  event which happened at the same time,  but where he has  to  go
back for many thousands of years, as, for instance, when he wishes to deter-
mine the time of the Atlantean floods, he uses  particularly  the precession


[PAGE 104]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

of the equinoxes, which is the motion of the sun backward through the twelve
signs of the zodiac,  a motion that requires about twenty-six thousand years
to bring the sun once around the circle.  He may then read back to the times
of  the Atlantean floods,  counting how many of such periods  of  twenty-six
thousand  years elapsed between the first flood and the second,  the  second
and the third,  and then the years from then to our present time.   If he is
ignorant of the stellar science, he cannot do that, so that is one more rea-
son why the student of occultism should familiarize himself with astronomy.

                              QUESTION NO. 50.

   DOES  A PERSON WHO HAS BEEN BURIED ALIVE BECOME CONSCIOUS OF  HIS  CONDI-
TION?   AND  HOW DOES THE SPIRIT GET BACK TO THE BODY WHEN IT  LIES  IN  THE
GRAVE?

   ANSWER:   It is evident from the changed position of corpses  in  coffins
that sometimes when a body has been buried before the spirit had  definitely
left it,  that spirit has returned to the body and moved that body about  in
agonizing attempts to obtain the necessary air.  And, of course,  that would
show consciousness had been regained in the body.  The spirit, of course, is


[PAGE 105]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

not  at  all hindered by the solid nature of the earth and the  coffin  from
coming  and going,  a spirit passes just as easily through a wall  or  other
opaque or dense obstacle as we pass through the air.

                              QUESTION NO. 51.

   WHY DO CHILDREN DIE?

   ANSWER:  There are many causes for the death of children.  We will give a
few of the principal ones.  In the first place, when an Ego returns to earth
life,  it is drawn to a certain family because it can there get the environ-
ment which is calculated to further its progress, and where it may liquidate
a  certain  amount of the fate generated by itself in  previous  existences.
Then  when  parents make such radical changes in their lives  that  the  Ego
would not be able to get that experience, or liquidate that fate, the Ego is
usually withdrawn and sent to another place where it may get the right  con-
ditions for its growth at that time.  Or it may be withdrawn for a few years
and reborn in the same family when it is seen that the conditions can be ob-
tained  there at that late time.   But there is a cause that is  responsible
for infant mortality  which  lies  much  farther  back,  namely, in previous


[PAGE 106]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

lives,  and to understand this cause it is necessary to know something about
what takes place at death and immediately after.

   When  a spirit is passing out of the body,  it takes with it  the  desire
body,  the mind and the vital body,  and the vital body is at that time  the
storehouse  for the pictures of the past life.   These are then etched  into
the  desire  body during the three and one-half days  immediately  following
death.   Then the desire body becomes the arbiter of man's destiny in Purga-
tory and the First Heaven.   The pains caused by expurgation of evil and the
joy caused by the contemplation of the good in life are carried over to  the
next life as conscience to deter man from perpetuating the mistakes of  past
lives  and to entice him to do that which caused him joy in the former  life
more abundantly.

   When  those  next of kin to a dying person who are present in  the  death
chamber  burst  into hysterical lamentations at the time the  spirit  passes
out,  and keep that up for the next few days,  the spirit which is  at  that
time  in exceedingly close touch with the Physical World will be much  moved
by the grief of the dear ones,  and will not be able to focus its  attention
closely upon the contemplation of its past life,  and thus the etching  made
in  the  desire body will not be as deep as it would if the  passing  spirit
were left in peace and undisturbed.   Consequently the sufferings in  Purga-
tory  will not be as keen nor will the pleasures in the First Heaven  be  as
great  as otherwise and therefore,  when the Ego returns to earth  life,  it
will  have  lost a certain part of the experience from  the  previous  life.
that is to say,  the voice of conscience will not speak with the same empha-
sis as would have been the case had the Ego been left undisturbed by  lamen-
tations.

   In order to compensate for this lack, the Ego is then  usually brought to


[PAGE 107]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

birth among the same friends who lamented over it, and it is then taken away
from  them while yet in the years of childhood.   Then it enters the  Desire
World,  but,  of course, a little child has not committed any sins that need
to be expurgated and so its desire body and the mind remain intact;  it then
goes  directly into the First Heaven to wait until a new embodiment  offers,
but  this  waiting time is used to school it directly in the effect  of  the
different emotions,  both good and evil.   And often a relative meets it and
takes  it in charge,  having the task of teaching it that which it had  lost
through  the lamentation that person indulged in,  or else it is  taught  by
others.   At any rate, the loss is more than made up, so that when the child
returns to the second birth it will have as full a moral growth as it  would
have  had under ordinary circumstances had there been no lamentation at  the
time when it passed out.



[PAGE 107]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

                              QUESTION NO. 52.

   WHAT IS THE CAUSE OF THE VAST NUMBER OF DEATHS WHICH OCCUR IN INFANCY AND
CHILDHOOD?

   ANSWER:   When the man passes out at death,  he takes with him the  mind,
desire body, and vital body, the latter being the storehouse of the pictures


[PAGE 108]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

of  his past life.   And during the three and one-half days following  death
these  pictures  are etched into the desire body to form the  basis  of  the
man's  life in Purgatory and the First Heaven where the evil  is  expurgated
and the good assimilated.   The experience of the life itself is  forgotten,
as we have forgotten the process of learning to write, but have retained the
faculty.  So the cumulative extract of all his experiences, both during past
earth  lives and past existencies in Purgatory and the various heavens,  are
retained  by  the man and form his stock in trade in the  next  birth.   The
pains he has sustained speak to him as the voice of conscience,  the good he
has done gives him a more and more altruistic character.

   Now, when the three and a half days immediately following death are spent
by  the man under conditions of peace and quiet,  he is able to  concentrate
much more upon the etching of his past life and the imprint upon the  desire
body  will be deeper than if he is disturbed by the hysterical  lamentations
of  his relatives or from other causes.  And he will then experience a  much
keener feeling for either good or bad in Purgatory and in the First  Heaven,
and in after lives that keen feeling will speak to him with no  unmistakable
voice;  but where the lamentations of relatives take away his  attention  or
where  a  man passes out by an accident perhaps in a crowded  street,  in  a
train  wreck,  theater fire,  or under other harrowing circumstances,  there
will, of course, be no opportunity for him to properly concentrate;  neither
can  he  concentrate upon a battle field if he is slain there,  and  yet  it
could not be just that he should lose the experiences of his life on account
of  passing out in such an untoward manner,  so the law of cause and  effect
provides a compensation.


[PAGE 109]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

   We usually think that when a child is born it is born and that is the end
of it; but as during the period of gestation the dense body is shielded from
the  impact of the outside world by being placed within the protecting  womb
of  the mother until it has arrived at sufficient maturity to meet the  out-
side conditions, so are also the vital body, desire body and mind in a state
of gestation and are born at later periods because they have not had as long
an evolution behind them as the dense body and, therefore, it takes a longer
time  for them to arrive at a sufficient state of maturity to  become  indi-
vidualized.   The vital body is born at the seventh year, when the period of
excessive growth marks its advent.   The desire body is born at the time  of
puberty,  the fourteenth year, and the mind is born at twenty-one,  when the
child is said to have become a man or woman--to have reached majority.

   That  which has not been quickened cannot die,  and so when a child  dies
before  the birth of the desire body it passes out into the invisible  world
in the First Heaven.   It cannot ascend into the Second and Third Heaven be-
cause the mind and desire body are not born and will not die,  so it  simply
waits in the First Heaven until a new opportunity for embodiment offers, and
where it has died in its previous life under the before-mentioned  harrowing
circumstances,  by accident or upon the battle field or where  the  lamenta-
tions of relatives rendered it impossible for it to gain as deep an  impres-
sion of the evil committed and the good accomplished as would have been  the
case  had it died in peace,  it is instructed when it has died in  the  next
life as a child in the effects of passions and desires so that it learns the
lessons then which it should have learned in the Purgatorial life had it re-
mained  undisturbed.  It  is  then  reborn  with  the  proper development of


[PAGE 110]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

conscience so that it may continue its evolution.

   As in the past man has been exceedingly warlike and not at all careful of
the  relatives  who passed out at death because of  his  ignorance,  holding
wakes over those who died in bed, which were few, perhaps, compared to those
who died on the battle field,  there must necessarily on that account be  an
enormous amount of infant mortality, but as humanity arrives at a better un-
derstanding  and realizes that we are never so much our brother's keeper  as
when  he is passing out of this life and that we can help him enormously  by
being quiet and prayerful,  so also will infant mortality cease to exist  on
such a large scale as at present.

                              QUESTION NO. 53.

   DOES THE CREMATION OF THE DENSE BODY AFTER DEATH AFFECT THE SPIRIT IN ANY
WAY?

   ANSWER:   During life and in the waking state of consciousness,  the  ve-
hicles  of the Ego are all together and concentric,  but at death  the  Ego,
clothed in the mind and desire body, withdraws from the dense body,  and  as
the vital functions are at an end, the vital body also  is  taken out of the


[PAGE 111]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

dense body, leaving it inanimate upon the bed.  One little atom in the heart
is taken out and the rest of the body disintegrates in due course.   But  at
that  time there is an extremely important process going on,  and those  who
attend  the passing spirit in the death chamber should be very careful  that
the  utmost quiet reigns there and in the whole house,  for the pictures  of
the whole past life which have been stored in the vital body are passing be-
fore the eye of the spirit in a slow and orderly progression, IN REVERSE OR-
DER,  from death back to birth.  This panorama of the past life lasts from a
few  hours  to  three and one-half days.   The time is  dependent  upon  the
strength of the vital body which determines how long a man could keep  awake
under the most severe stress.   Some persons can work for fifty,  sixty  and
seventy hours before they fall down exhausted,  while others are capable  of
keeping awake only a few hours.   The reason why it is important that  there
should be quiet in the house of death during the three and one-half days im-
mediately  following death is this:   During that time the panorama  of  the
past  life is being etched upon the desire body which will be the man's  ve-
hicle while he stays in Purgatory and the First Heaven,  where he is reaping
the good or ill that he has sown, according to the deeds done in the body.

   Now,  where the life has been full of events and the man's vital body  is
strong,  a longer time will be given to this etching than  under  conditions
where  the vital body is weak,  but DURING ALL THAT TIME THE DENSE  BODY  IS
CONNECTED  WITH THE HIGHER VEHICLES BY THE SILVER CORD AND ANY HURT  TO  THE
DENSE  BODY  IS FELT IN A MEASURE BY THE SPIRIT.   So that  embalming,  post
mortem examinations and cremation are all felt.  therefore,  these should be
avoided during the first three and one-half days after  the  time  of death,


[PAGE 112]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

for when the panorama has been fully etched into the desire body,  then  the
silver cord is broken,  the vital body gravitates back to the dense body and
there  is no more connection with the spirit,  which is then free to  go  on
with its higher life.

   When the body is buried,  the vital body disintegrates slowly at the same
time as the dense body,  so that when,  for instance,  an arm has decayed in
the  grave,  the etheric arm of the vital body which hovers over  the  grave
also disappears, and so on until the last vestige of the body is gone.   But
where  cremation is performed the vital body disintegrates at once,  and  as
that  is  the  store-house of the pictures of the past  life,  which,  being
etched  upon the desire body to form the basis of life in Purgatory and  the
First  Heaven,  this would be a great calamity where cremation is  performed
before  the  three and a half days are past.   Unless help were  given,  the
passing  spirit  could not hold it together.  And that is part of  the  work
that is done by the invisible helpers for humanity.   Sometimes they are as-
sisted by nature spirits and others detailed by the Creative Hierarchies  or
leaders of humanity.   There is also a loss where one is cremated before the
silver cord has broken naturally,  the imprint upon the desire body is never
as deep as it would otherwise have been,  and this has an effect upon future
lives, for the deeper the imprint of the past life upon the desire body, the
keener the sufferings in Purgatory for the ill committed and the keener also
the  pleasure in the First Heaven which results from the good deeds  of  the
past  life.   It is these pains and pleasures of our past lives that  create
what  we call conscience,  so that where we have lost in suffering  we  lose
also the realization of wrong which is to deter us in future lives from com-
mitting the same mistakes over and over again.  Therefore,  the  effects  of


[PAGE 113]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

the premature cremation are very far reaching.  Sad it is to say, that while
we have a science of birth with obstetricians,  trained nurses,  antiseptics
and  everything  else necessary to the comfort and well being  of  a  little
stranger,  we sadly lack a science of death to help us to care for  the  de-
parting friends of a lifetime.

                              QUESTION NO. 54.

   IS A PERSON HAS LOST HIS MEMORY THROUGH NERVOUS SHOCK OR FEVER DOES  THAT
AFFECT HIS VITAL BODY AND PREVENT HIM FROM GETTING THE RECORD OF HIS LIFE IN
THE THREE DAYS IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING DEATH?

   ANSWER:   No.   Memory is of three kinds:  There is,  in the first place,
the  record which is made by our senses.  We look about us in the world,  we
see  and hear things,  these impressions are engraven upon the cells of  our
brain and we are able to consciously call them back--yet not always,  but in
varying degree, for this memory is extremely unreliable and capricious,  and
were this the only method of gaining a record of our lives the law of  cause
and  effect would be invalidated--our after life would not be a sequence  of
what we have done or left undone in the past.


[PAGE 114]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

   There must be another memory, and this is what scientists have called the
subconscious mind.   Just as ether carries to the camera of the photographer
a  record  of the surrounding landscape and imprints it upon  the  sensitive
plate  to the minutest detail,  regardless of whether the  photographer  ob-
served  these details or not,  so also does the same ether which  carries  a
picture  to our eye and imprints it upon the retina carry into our  lungs  a
similar picture which then is absorbed by the blood, and as the blood passes
through the heart this record is indelibly inscribed upon the sensitive seed
atom which is located in the left ventricle of the heart near the apex.  The
forces  of that seed atom are taken out by the spirit at death  and  contain
the record of the whole life to the minutest detail, so that,  regardless of
whether we have observed the facts in a certain scene or not, they are, nev-
ertheless, there.

   George  du Maurier has written a story called "Peter  Ibbetson,"  wherein
this  theory  of  the  subconscious memory is  very  clearly  shown.   Peter
Ibbetson,  a  prisoner in an English penitentiary,  learned  how  to  "dream
true,"  that is to say, by putting his body in a certain position he learned
how  to  lock the currents of ether within himself so that at night  he  was
able  at will to keep in touch with any scene IN HIS PAST LIFE that  he  de-
sired to; there he would see himself as a spectator (grown man that he was),
and he would also see himself among his parents and playmates and in the en-
vironment  as he was at the time that scene was enacted.   He would see  the
whole  scene with many more details than he had been able to observe at  the
time when the events took place in this material world.   That was  because,
under  these circumstances,  he could get in touch wit his own  subconscious
memory.   HE WOULD HAVE BEEN UNABLE TO GAIN ANY INFORMATION  CONCERNING  THE
FUTURE,  but  the  past  had been inscribed upon the tablet of his heart and


[PAGE 115]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

was,  therefore,  accessible under the proper conditions.   It is from  this
subconscious  memory  that the record of life is taken after death,  and  as
that  is  dependent upon the breath alone,  it continues regardless  of  all
other circumstances while life is in the body, and though a man may lose his
conscious memory and become unable to recall past events AT WILL,  the  sub-
conscious memory contains them all and will give them up at the proper time.

                              QUESTION NO. 55.

   IF A DISEMBODIED SPIRIT CAN PASS THROUGH A WALL, CAN IT ALSO PASS THROUGH
A MOUNTAIN AND THE EARTH, AND CAN IT SEE WHAT IS INSIDE?

   ANSWER:  That depends upon what kind of a disembodied spirit the enquirer
has in mind.  When a man dies, he is just the same as he was before with the
exception that he has no dense body and, therefore, it is perfectly possible
for  him to pass through a wall or mountain either.   But he is not able  to
pass through the earth.

   It  is  a well known fact that,  though most  clairvoyants  and  ordinary
psychics are capable of  telling much about the sights and the scenes of the


[PAGE 116]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

Desire World, there is very little information at hand concerning the inside
of the earth,  for it is found by ordinary clairvoyants that if they attempt
to  enter  the earth there is something like the same effect as when  a  man
hurls  himself against a wall.   That is because the earth is the body of  a
great  spirit and that spirit may not be approached in its  inner  recesses,
except by the path of initiation.   There are nine layers of varying  thick-
ness in the earth around the core,  which forms,  as it were,  a tenth part,
and  the Lesser Mysteries are the gate which leads to that  innermost  core.
There are nine degrees in the Lesser Mysteries,  and in each degree the can-
didate becomes able to penetrate into the corresponding layer of the  earth,
while the tenth initiation belongs to the Greater Mysteries where there  are
four divisions.  The first teaches all that can be known by man in the Earth
Period;  the second of the great initiations would bring him  the  knowledge
that  will be gained by all humanity at the end of the Jupiter  Period;  the
third of the great initiations would bring him the wisdom attained by human-
ity at the end of the Venus Period,  and the fourth would end his  evolution
in  the present scheme.   He would have the same standing  as humanity  will
have at the end of the Vulcan Period.  Then he will know all that the  earth
will contain in this embodiment and its future manifestations.   The  lesser
Mysteries  will  also have taught him the evolution he went through  in  the
three  periods previous to our present Earth Period.   It is  these  secrets
which are locked up in the earth,  until man has opened the door himself  in
the proper manner, so that no spirit, whether in the body or discarnate, can
see  what  is inside the earth until the gate of initiation has  opened  its
latent faculties.


[PAGE 117]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

                              QUESTION NO. 56.

   DO WE MEET OUR LOVED ONES AFTER DEATH, EVEN IF THEY HAVE HELD A DIFFERENT
BELIEF FROM OUR OWN?  OR PERHAPS, BEEN ATHEISTS?

   ANSWER:   Yes,  we certainly meet them and we know them,  for there is no
transforming  power in death.   The man will appear just as he was here  be-
cause  he thinks of himself as being of that shape,  but the place where  we
meet, of course depends upon several things.

   In  the first place if we have lived a very religious life,  so  that  we
shall  have no existence at all in Purgatory and but a very short  existence
in  the First Heaven,  going almost directly to the Second Heaven,  whereas,
the one whom we love was of such a nature that he would have a long stay  in
the Desire World,  then,  of course,  we should not meet until he arrived in
the  Second Heaven.   If we pass out shortly after our friend,  the  meeting
would not take place for perhaps twenty years; but then, that would not mat-
ter for in those regions a person is entirely unconscious of time.

   The materialistic friend,  if he had lived a good moral life,  as we usu-
ally find that those people do, would remain in the fourth region of the De-
sire World for a certain number of years, according to the length of time he
had lived,  and would then pass into the Second Heaven,  though he would not
have  there  as full and as perfect a consciousness as that possessed  by  a
person who had been dwelling on the realities of life.

   We  would see him,  know him and be associated with him for centuries  in
the work upon our future environment,  and there he would not be materialis-


[PAGE 118]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

tic at all,  for when the spirit arrives in that region, it is not under the
delusions which sometimes envelop it here in this material world.   Each and
every  one knows himself as a spiritual being and feels the memory  of  this
earth life as we feel a bad dream.   The spirit,  upon entering that  world,
wakes up to its own true nature in any case.


                              QUESTION NO. 57.

   DO WE RECOGNIZE LOVED ONES WHO HAVE PASSED OUT THROUGH THE GATE OF DEATH?

   ANSWER:  Yes, we certainly do.  When a man passes out of this body, he is
exactly the same as he was before.  There is no difference whatever,  except
that he has no physical body; he sees himself in the Desire World, and as he
retains  in his consciousness a picture of himself as he looked  here,  this
desire  body will at once take the shape possessed by the physical body,  so
that  anyone who had known him in earth life will also know him when he  has
passed over into the beyond.   Besides,  it may be well to add that there is
no  transforming power in death--that man is also mentally and  morally  the
same  person.  We  often  hear  people  who have loved some one speak of the


[PAGE 119]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

dear, departed angel, even if they conceded that he was very much of a devil
here in earth life,  but they usually think it irreverent to refer to him as
such  when  he has passed out.  The fact remains,  nevertheless,  that  only
those who were good here are good there.

                              QUESTION NO. 58.

   DOES THE MAN WHO COMMITS SUICIDE STAY LONGER IN PURGATORY THAN THE PEOPLE
WHO DIE NATURALLY?

   ANSWER:   When the Ego is coming down to rebirth it descends through  the
Second Heaven.   There is is helped by the Creative Hierarchies to build the
archetype  for its coming body,  and it instills into that archetype a  life
that will last for a certain number of years.   These archetypes are  hollow
spaces and they have a singing, vibratory motion which draws the material of
the Physical World into them and sets all the atoms in the body to vibrating
in  tune  with a little atom that is in the heart,  called  the  seed  atom,
which,  like a tuning fork,  gives the pitch to all the rest of the material
in the body.  At the time when the full life has been lived on the earth the
vibrations in the archetype cease, the  seed  atom  is  withdrawn, the dense


[PAGE 120]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

body goes to decay and the desire body,  wherein the Ego functions in Purga-
tory and the First Heaven, takes upon itself the shape of the physical body.
Then  the man commences his work of expiating his evil habits and  deeds  in
Purgatory and assimilating the good of his life in the First Heaven.

   The foregoing describes the ordinary conditions when the course of nature
is undisturbed, but the case of the suicide is different.  He has taken away
the seed atom, but the hollow archetype still keeps on vibrating.  Therefore
he feels as if he were hollowed out and experiences a gnawing feeling inside
that can best be likened to the pangs of intense hunger.   Material for  the
building  of a dense body is all around him,  but seeing that he  lacks  the
gauge of the seed atom,  it is impossible for him to assimilate that  matter
and build it into a body.   This dreadful hollowed-out feeling lasts as long
as  his ordinary life should have lasted.  Thus the law of cause and  effect
teaches him that it is wrong to play truant from the school of life and that
it cannot be done with impunity.   Then in the next life,  when difficulties
beset his path,  he will remember the sufferings of the past which  resulted
from  suicide  and go through with the experience that makes  for  his  soul
growth.


[PAGE 121]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

                              QUESTION NO. 59.

   DOES A GOOD MAN HAVE TO GO THROUGH PURGATORY AND BE CONSCIOUS OF ALL  THE
EVIL THERE BEFORE HE CAN GET INTO THE FIRST, SECOND AND THIRD HEAVEN;   AND,
IF SO, ISN'T THAT AN UNDESERVED PUNISHMENT FOR HIM?

   ANSWER:  The inquirer should get away from the idea of punishment.  There
is no such thing as punishment.  Whatever happens to a man is in consequence
of immutable,  invariable laws,  and THERE IS NO PERSONAL GOD WHO GIVES  RE-
WARDS OR PUNISHMENTS AS HE SEES FIT, ACCORDING TO AN INSCRUTABLE WILL OR ANY
OTHER SUCH METHOD.   When the Ego invests itself with bodies, or when it di-
vests itself of its vehicles, this is done on the very same principle and by
the very same laws that govern, for instance, in the case of a planet.  When
a  planet is being formed from the central firemist,  a crystallization  has
taken place at the poles where motion is the slowest.  The crystallized mat-
ter  is thrown out by centrifugal force and flies into space because  it  is
heavier than the rest of the firemist.   For similar reasons,  when the body
of the spirit which is densest has become so crystallized and heavy that the
spirit can no longer use it to gain experience the process of disrobement is
accomplished  by the centrifugal force which naturally eliminates the  dense
body  first.   That is what we call death.   Then the spirit is free  for  a
time, but the coarsest desire matter which was the embodiment for the lowest
passions and desires must also be thrown off,  and it is the forcible  ejec-
tion  of  low desires that causes pain in Purgatory  where  the  centrifugal
force of repulsion is the strongest.  If a man has any of that coarse matter
in his desire body, naturally he will have to stay in  Purgatory and undergo


[PAGE 122]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

the  process of purgation before he can enter the First Heaven.   There  the
centripetal  force of attraction whirls all the good in the life  inward  to
the  spiritual center,  where it is assimilated as soul power available  for
the use of the spirit in its next earth life as conscience.   Thus our  stay
in  Purgatory depends upon how much of the coarse desire matter there is  in
the man,  and a good man naturally would have very little or nothing of that
kind.   Therefore, he would have no life to speak of in Purgatory;  he would
pass directly through those regions into the Heaven World.

                              QUESTION NO. 60.

   WHAT IS THE CONDITION OF THE VICTIM OF A MURDER AND THE VICTIM OF AN  AC-
CIDENT SUBSEQUENT TO DEATH?

   ANSWER:   There is no such thing as an accident at least where the  acci-
dent terminates fatally.   The life of any person in its ultimate length  is
ordinarily decreed before birth,  but there are certain points of life where
there is as it were a parting of the ways,  where certain opportunities  for
growth  are  placed  before  the  person, which he may either take or leave.


[PAGE 123]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Where he fails to use his opportunities, the life,  as it were,  runs into a
blind alley, and terminates shortly afterward.

   That,  however,  is not usually the case in an accident, but there may be
certain  reasons which make it desirable that the man should be cast out  of
his body in a violent manner.  He is then in the same position as all others
when they have passed out; he commences his Purgatorial existence at once.

   The case of the victim of murder,  like the case of the suicide,  is dif-
ferent.  Man, on account of his divine nature, is the only being who has the
prerogative of causing disorder in the scheme of his unfoldment,  and as  he
may  end his own life by an act of will,  so may he also end the life  of  a
fellow  creature  before its time has come.   The suffering of  the  suicide
would also be the suffering of the murdered,  for the archetype of his  body
would keep on gathering material which it would be impossible for him to as-
similate;  but in his case,  the intervention of other agencies prevent  the
suffering and he will be found floating about in his desire body, in a coma-
tose state, for the length of time that he would ordinarily have lived.   If
the murderer is brought to justice,  as we say,  and suffers capital punish-
ment,  the magnetic attraction will bring him together with his victim,  who
will constantly remain before his gaze,  and that is really a much more  se-
vere  punishment  than any which we could mete out to him;  but  the  victim
knows naught of the presence of its slayer.


[PAGE 124]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                              QUESTION NO. 61.


   WHERE IS HEAVEN?

   ANSWER:  The Christ said "Heaven is within," and yet we are shown that at
the time when He left His disciples, he ASCENDED into heaven.  to understand
this,  we must analyze the constitution of a planet,  and according  to  the
hermetic action "as above so below,"  we shall understand better if we first
analyze the constitution of man.

   The  man  has first the DENSE BODY which we see with our eyes,  but  that
dense body is not as solid as it appears;  in fact it is permeated by a num-
ber of invisible vehicles.   It is composed of the solids,  the liquids  and
the gases of THE CHEMICAL REGION, but these, science tells us, are interpen-
etrated  by ether,  for man's body is no different from all other things  in
the world, and in the densest solid as in the rarest gas, science says,  and
says truly, every little atom is vibrating in a sea of ether.  This ether is
still  physical matter;  a consideration portion is specialized by  man  and
forms  an exact counterpart of our dense body,  besides protruding about  an
inch and a half beyond the periphery of our visible body.   It was this part
that the doctors in Boston weighed by placing dying people on scales.   They
noted  that when the last breath was drawn something having weight left  the
body and the side of the scales which had the weight on it fell to the floor
with startling suddenneess.   The newspaper reporters claimed that the  doc-
tors had weighed the soul,  but what they did weigh was this VITAL BODY COM-
POSED OF ETHER which leaves the body at death.

   We have a still finer vehicle called THE DESIRE BODY,  WHICH IS  COMPOSED
OF WHAT OCCULTISTS CALL DESIRE STUFF,  and  it may be seen by one having the


[PAGE 125]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

sixth sense unfolded as an egg-shaped cloud enveloping the dense body on all
sides,  so that the latter is located in the center of the desire  body,  as
the  yolk is in the center of the egg,  with the difference only that  while
the  white envelops the yolk but does not interpenetrate,  THIS DESIRE  BODY
PERMEATES  BOTH THE VITAL BODY AND THE DENSE BODY IN EVERY NOOK AND  CRANNY.
There is a still finer material in the makeup of man which we may call "mind
stuff," composed of the coarsest material of the world of thought, the mate-
rial wherein we form our concrete thoughts, and this envelops the indwelling
Ego.

   The world is similarly constituted.   Besides this VISIBLE WORLD which we
see,  composed  of the solids,  liquids and gases,  and  interpenetrated  by
ether,  there  is  also a DESIRE WORLD which permeates  every  part  of  the
Physical  World and reaches out into space beyond both air and ether.   Then
there  is the WORLD OF THOUGHT,  and that also penetrates every part of  our
planet,  from center to circumference, REACHING OUT INTO SPACE STILL FARTHER
THAN ANY OF THE OTHER WORLDS.

   During earth life,  man lives upon this firm,  visible earth,  but  after
death,  according to the deeds done in the body,  he may be still imprisoned
here,  as the Purgatory regions are everywhere around and about us, also be-
low in the inner recesses of the earth.  The First Heaven is also here in  a
certain  sense,  insofar as similar material to that of which it is  consti-
tuted is around and about us,  but the First Heaven itself,  the place where
the spirits who have been liberated usually dwell, is beyond our atmosphere.
The Second heaven may also be truly said to be within,  for the material  of
which  it is constituted is here and the spirits who are there  might  visit
us, yet the conditions here, the thought currents, etc., would be derogatory
to  their work and development.  Therefore,  they  prefer  to  stay  in  the


[PAGE 126]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

farthermost,  outermost  part of our planet, WHERE THE PURE  MIND  STUFF  IS
UNSULLIED BY OUR SELFISH AND DELETERIOUS THOUGHT CURRENTS.

   The Third Heaven is a place in which very few people at the present stage
of development have any consciousness,  because most of us are guided in our
thought activities more by emotions and feelings concerning concrete  things
than  by abstract thought,  which is the peculiar faculty pertaining to  the
Third Heaven.  When we think of love, we usually think of love in connection
with some person;  that is a concrete thought.  But of Love in the abstract,
very few of us are able to think.  We can think of a house, an animal, etc.,
they are concrete,  but we dislike to think of an abstract proposition  such
as,  for instance,  that the square of the hypothenuse equals the square  of
the other two sides of a triangle.  Therefore,  most of us have very  little
consciousness in the Third Heaven, and consequently very little of the mate-
rial of that world is in the makeup of our planet.


[PAGE 127]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

                              QUESTION NO. 62.

   IT IS SAID THAT THERE IS NO SORROW IN HEAVEN,  BUT IF OUR LOVED ONES  ARE
MET THERE AND THEN PASS ON,  DOES NOT THE PARTING FROM THEM INVOLVE AT LEAST
A SENSE OF DISSATISFACTION?

   ANSWER:   No, it does not, for there we see things as they are.   Here we
are blinded.  When the Ego comes into the Physical World, it is in one sense
a cause for rejoicing, as we rejoice at the birth of a child, for this world
affords us experience and material for soul growth.   But looking at it from
another  point of view,  when the Ego comes into this world and  enters  the
prison house of the dense body,  it is in the most limited condition imagin-
able,  and to rejoice at the time when the child is born and lament when  it
is liberated by death is in reality analogous to rejoicing when a friend  is
put in jail and giving way to hysterical lamentations when he is liberated.

   When the spirit passes into the heaven World,  it meets a number of those
with whom it has associated in earth life in the First Heaven,  but there it
has already become so spiritual and so much in touch with the realities that
it knows there is no death.  Therefore,  when someone passes into the beyond
there  is a rejoicing and a pleasure at the preferment of one whom  we  hold
dear,  and the knowledge that we shall meet again will certainly  take  away
any pang that might be felt by those who are left behind.


[PAGE 128]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                              QUESTION NO. 63.

   PLEASE  EXPLAIN  HOW TO CONCENTRATE IN ORDER TO HELP THOSE IN  THE  OTHER
WORLD?   DO YOU MEAN SITTING IN THE SILENCE AND SENDING OUT LOVING,  HELPFUL
THOUGHTS TO THEM?

   ANSWER:   The  ability  to send out a thought and  the  power  that  that
thought has to accomplish the purpose for which it is sent, depends upon the
definiteness  wherewith the thinker is able to visualize that which  he  de-
sires to accomplish.  And the usual occult schools, particularly those along
the  lines of Eastern thought,  advise the method of  concentration  whereby
thoughts  are  focused  upon one single point, as the rays of  the  sun  are
brought  to a focus in a magnifying glass for thus their forces are  massed,
and as the sun's rays will burn when focused, so will the thought invariably
accomplish its object when concentrated to a sufficient intensity.

   It takes long practice,  however, to learn how to do that,  and there are
very  few people in the West who are able to thus direct their  thoughts  to
any purpose.  The western religion, recognizing this disability, teaches an-
other  method  which  is much more  efficient  than  concentration,  namely,
prayer.

   Therefore,  if we wish to help those who have passed out of the body,  we
may pray earnestly for their welfare and that they may learn the lessons  of
this life thoroughly in their experiences in Purgatory and the First Heaven;
then  we  shall accomplish much more than if we try the  cold,  intellectual
method  of concentration.   The attitude of the body sometimes has  a  great
deal  to  do  with  the  intensity of the prayer, and if a kneeling position


[PAGE 129]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

seems to facilitate the act, the kneeling position should be taken.   On the
other hand, as Emerson said:

         "And though your knees are never bent
         To Heaven, your hourly prayers are sent;
         And, be they formed for good or ill,
         Are registered and answered still,"

so that the attitude of the body during the act of prayer is immaterial  ex-
cept as found to be conducive to produce the greatest intensity of  purpose;
for that is what makes the prayer effective.


                              QUESTION NO. 64.

   DO  THOSE WHO HAVE PASSED OUT OF EARTH LIFE KEEP WATCH AND WARD  OVER  US
WHO ARE LEFT BEHIND;  FOR INSTANCE, DO MOTHERS LOOK AFTER THEIR LITTLE CHIL-
DREN, OR EVEN THE LARGER ONES?

   ANSWER:   Yes, very often a mother who has recently passed out will watch
over her little children for a long time,  and instances have been  recorded
where mothers have saved their babes from dangers.  Thought not knowing con-
sciously how to materialize,  love for the little ones and intense fear  for
their  safety  caused  the  mothers  in such instances to draw to themselves


[PAGE 130]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

material so that they could be seen by the little ones.   Those whom we call
dead do not usually go away from the house where they have lived until quite
a  long time after the funeral.   They stay in the familiar rooms  and  move
about among us, although they are unseen by us.  Of course,  when their time
comes  to  go into the First Heaven,  they do not remain any longer  in  our
houses,  but very often they visit them.  When in time they enter the Second
Heaven, they are no longer conscious of this physical sphere in the sense of
having homes,  or friends,  or relatives;  they are then rather to be looked
upon as nature forces,  for the time being, for they work upon the earth and
humanity in the very same manner as the nature forces who do not take  human
embodiment.

   Thus  it  is perfectly true that they watch over their loved ones  for  a
long time after they have passed out, and it has been often noted by persons
attending  the  death of a mother whose children had passed out,  perhaps  a
number of years before, that at the time of dying she would see the children
around her bed and exclaim:   "Why,  there is Johnny,  and what a big boy he
has grown to be," and so on.  The people around the bed would probably think
that  a hallucination,  but it is not,  and it will be noted that a  certain
phenomenon always attends those visions,  namely,  when a person dies  there
comes over him a darkness which he feels descending upon him.   Many persons
pass out without again seeing the Physical World.   that is the change  from
our light vibrations to the vibrations of the Desire World,  and is  similar
to  the darkness that spread over the earth at the time of the  crucifixion.
With other people it happens that the darkness lifts after a moment and then
the person is clairvoyant, seeing  both  the  present  world  and the Desire


[PAGE 131]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

World,  and there, of course, appear the loved ones, who have been attracted
by the impending death, which is birth into their world.

   Thus  we may say that our loved ones are interested in our welfare for  a
long  time  after passing out,  but it must be remembered that there  is  no
transforming power in death;  that it does not give them any special ability
to  care for us,  and that they have no means of really influencing our  af-
fairs,  so  that  it is not quite right to look upon them  as  our  guardian
angels.   They  are merely interested spectators except in  a  few  specific
cases  where an intense love enables them to perform some slight service  in
case of great need.  That service, however, would never take the form of en-
riching us or anything like that,  but is more in the nature of a warning of
danger or the like.


[PAGE 132]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY



                                DIAGRAM 5A

|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|                              A LIFE CYCLE                                 |
|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|Mind "Essence of Right     >->->->      Desire for Experience  |           |
|Thought" & Soul-Essence  /|\|---|\|/    and Soul-Growth draws  |   WORLD   |
|of "Right Feeling"    |>->| |EGO| |>->| the Ego To Re-Birth    |           |
|built into Spirit as /|\ /|\|---|\|/ \|/                       |    OF     |
|basis for Future      |    <-<-<-<    |                        |           |
|"Right Acts"         /|\ 3RD HEAVEN  \|/                       |  ABSTRACT |
|----------------------|---------------|------------------------------------|
|Good in past life    /|\             \|/  It Gathers Materials |   AND     |
|built into the Mind   |     2ND       |   for A New Mind       |           |
|as Right Thought;    /|\             \|/                       | CONCRETE  |
|also work on New      |    HEAVEN     |                        |           |
|Environment          /|\             \|/                       |  THOUGHT  |
|----------------------|---------------|------------------------------------|
|Essence of Pain      /|\    1ST      \|/                       |           |
|built into Soul as    |    HEAVEN     |        A New           |  DESIRE   |
|Right Feeling;       /|\             \|/                       |           |
|Suffering purges      |               |     Desire Body        |  WORLD    |
|Soul                 /|\ PURGATORY   \|/                       |           |
|----------------------|---------------|------------------------------------|
|Soul views panorama  /|\             \|/ A New Vital Body      |           |
|of past life          |   THE ETHER   |  Birth of Dense Body   |           |
|                     /|\             \|/                       |           |
|-------------DEATH>>>>|---------------|------------------------------------|
| Prime of Mentality  /|\             \|/ Birth of Vital Body-- |           |
|                      |               |       Growth           |           |
|---------------------/|\<40        7>\|/-----------------------|   THE     |
| Change of life       |               |  Birth of Desire Body--|           |
|                     /|\             \|/       Puberty         | PHYSICAL  |
|----------------------| <42        14>|------------------------|           |
| Prime of Life       /|\             \|/ Birth of Mind--       |  WORLD    |
|         2nd Growth   |  33  28       |       Majority         |           |
|---------------------/|\ \/  \/   21>\|/-----------------------|           |
|                      |-<--<--<--<--<-|                        |           |
|                             /^\                               |           |
|                              |                                |           |
|                  Beginning of Serious Life                    |           |
|---------------------------------------------------------------|-----------|



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