[PAGE 142]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                    SELFISHNESS THE CAUSE OF ALL SICKNESS


                              QUESTION NO. 49.

   IN  TANNHAUSER YOU SAY SICKNESS ATTENDS SOUL GROWTH TO A GREATER OR  LESS
EXTENT.  I ALSO SEE IN LECTURE NO. 11, SPIRITUAL SIGHT AND INSIGHT, THAT YOU
SAY DISEASE IS A MANIFESTATION OF IGNORANCE, AND THAT IN PROPORTION THAT THE
CHRIST IS FORMED IN US WE ATTAIN TO HEALTH.   THESE TWO PASSAGES DON'T  SEEM
RECONCILABLE TO MY MIND.

   ANSWER:   They are nevertheless very much reconcilable.  Until the Christ
life  illimines us from within we do not comprehend,  neither do we  follow,
the  laws of nature,  and consequently we contract diseases by our  ignorant
contravention  of these laws.   As Emerson puts it,  a man who is sick is  a
scoundrel in the act of being found out;  he has broken the laws of  nature.
That  is why it is necessary that the gospel of christ should  be  preached.
all  of us should learn to love our God with our whole heart and  our  whole
soul and our brother as ourselves, for all our trouble in the world, whether
we  recognize it or not,  comes from the one great fact of our  selfishness.
if  the alimentative function is deranged,  what is the reason?   Is it  not
that we have overtaxed our system because we have been angered and exhausted
our nervous force by trying to get someone to serve our selfish ends, and we
feel  resentful because we have not succeeded?  In every case selfishness is


[PAGE 143]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

the prime cause of diseases, sorrows, and pains.  Selfishness is the supreme
besetting sin of ignorance.


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


                      NATURE OF WHITE BLOOD CORPUSCLES

                               QUESTION NO. 50


   YOU  SAY IN COSMO THAT THE WHITE BLOOD CORPUSCLES ARE NOT THE  POLICEMENT
OF THE SYSTEM.  WHAT THEN IS THEIR ORIGIN AND MISSION?

   ANSWER:   To make this clear to the average reader it is first  necessary
to say that besides the dense body which is visible to all of us,  there are
finer vehicles which interpenetrate this organism and which are the  springs
to its activities.   One is the vital body,  composed of ether and concerned
in  building the dense body by the food which we take into the  system.   It
controls all the vital functions, such as respiration, digestion,  assimila-
tion,  etc.,  and works thought the sympathetic  nervous  system.   Another,
still finer vehicle,  is called the desire body.  This is the vehicle of our
emotions,  feelings,  and desires which expands the energies stored  in  the
dense  body  by  the  vital  processes  through  control  of  the   cerebro-


[PAGE 144]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

spinal  or  voluntary  nervous  system.   In  its  activities  this   desire
body is constantly destroying and breaking down tissue built up by the vital
body and it is the war between these two vehicles which causes what we  call
consciousness in the physical world.   The etheric forces in the vital  body
act in such a manner that they convert as much of the food as possible  into
blood, and this is the highest expression of the vital body.

   In the lower animals, from the birds on downward,  which are entirely un-
der the guidance of an invisible guardian called the Group Spirit, the blood
is nucleated,  but in the higher mammals which are upon the threshold of in-
dividualization,  and  particularly in man, who has  become  an  individual,
indwelling Spirit, there are no nuclei in the blood corpuscles.  Even in the
foetus,  which  is formed under the sole guidance of the mother  during  the
first three weeks,  and therefore has nucleated blood corpuscles in that pe-
riod,  they  cease to be formed as soon as the Ego which is to live  in  the
body enters.   This happens about twenty-one days after conception,  and  by
the  time of the quickening the indwelling Ego in the foetus  has  destroyed
all the nucleated corpuscles.  From henceforth none are formed,  for the Ego
must  be  master  of its vehicle.   That is the the case where  there  is  a
nucleus  or center in the blood corpuscles which affords a foothold for  an-
other Spirit.  It is easily demonstrated that the life is in the blood,  for
while we may sometimes with impunity amputate an arm or limb,  we cannot de-
plete the body of blood without also killing it.


[PAGE 145]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

   Thus the blood is the particular vehicle of the Ego,  and as in the  past
aeons of development we have crystallized matter in order to form our  dense
body,  so also it is destined that now we must etherealize our  vehicles  in
order that we may lift ourselves and the world out of the realm of material-
ity  and into the spiritual.   Naturally, therefore,  the Ego aims first  to
make  the blood gaseous,  and to the spiritual sight,  this red  unnucleated
blood is not a fluid,  but a gas, It is  not argument against this assertion
the the moment we prick our skin the blood comes out as a liquid.   The  mo-
ment we open up the try-cock of a steam boiler the gas also condenses into a
liquid,  but  if we make a model steam engine of glass and look at  the  way
steam  works there we shall see only the piston move backward  and  forward,
driven by an invisible agent,  live steam.   Similarly as the live steam di-
rect from the boiler is invisible and gaseous, so also the live blood in the
human  body is a gas,  and the higher the state of development of any  given
Ego, the more ethereal it is able to make the blood.

   When  by the vital processes,  food has reached this  highest  alchemical
state,  the process of condensation begins and the blood-gas is formed  into
tissue in the various organs to replace what has been wasted or destroyed by
the  activities of the body.   The spleen is the gateway of the vital  body.
There  the  solar  force  which abounds in the surrounding atmosphere enters


[PAGE 146]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

in a constant stream,  to aid us in the vital processes,  and there also the
war between the desire body and the vital body is waged most fiercely.

   Thoughts  of  worry,  fear,  and anger interfere with  the  processes  of
evaporation in the spleen.   A speck of plasm is the result,  and this is at
once  seized upon by a thought elemental which forms a nucleus and  embodies
itself therein.  Then it commences to live a life of destruction, coalescing
with other waste products and decaying elements whenever formed,  making the
body  a charnel house instead of the temple of an indwelling living  Spirit.
We  may therefore say that every white corpuscle which has been taken by  an
outside entity is to the Ego a lost opportunity.  The more of these lost op-
portunities there are in the body, the less is the body under control of the
Ego.   Therefore,  we find them present in larger numbers in diseased people
than in those possessing health.   It may also be said that the person of  a
jovial  good  nature or one who is devoutly religious and  has  an  absolute
faith and trust in divine providence and love,  will register many less lost
opportunities, or white blood corpuscles, than those who are always worrying
and fretting.


[PAGE 147]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

                         THE CAUSE AND CURE OF COLDS

                              QUESTION NO. 51.

   WILL YOU KINDLY GIVE US YOUR VIEW CONCERNING THE CAUSE AND CURE OF COLDS?

   ANSWER:   We  live  in  an age of germs and  serums.   Every  disease  is
supposed  to have its micro-oraganism and an antidote is given either  as  a
preventive or a curative.  One may even be innoculated for a cold, and it is
claimed that if the operation is successful one is henceforth immune.   Per-
haps  some  day  all  the  different antidotes  may  be  compounded  into  a
elixir-vitae  which  will  make us immune from the whole  horde  of  dreaded
germs!  Seriously, what an anomaly this condition is.  Man has conquered the
whole  world and stricken terror into the hearts of all the creatures  which
he can reach by the various devices he has made for their destruction.  Even
the largest of creatures fly before him in fear, but he himself is afraid of
creatures so minute that he can see them only by the help of the most power-
ful  microscope.   These  little microbes are so dreaded that  some  of  the
ablest  men of the world spend their whole lives in efforts to restrain  the
ravages of the minute foe.

   It is true that micro-organisms exist, but it is also true that they can-
not obtain a foothold in any organism which is in a state of normal  health.
It is only when from other  causes  our  bodies have become debilitated that


[PAGE 148]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

disease germs are able to get a foothold at all and commence their  destruc-
tive  processes.   Those who are in radiant health,  and we use this  phrase
literally,  may go without fear into any plague camp, even if there are more
germs on a square inch of the patient's bodies than there are people in  all
the world.  So long as the man is in radiant health they cannot affect him.

   To make our meaning clear concerning this phrase, radiant health, we must
reiterate the fact so often insisted upon, a fact which science is beginning
to discover, that our bodies are interpenetrated by the ether in such volume
that  under most conditions it radiates from the body.   One who is  endowed
with the spiritual sight sees within the dense physical body another vehicle
resembling it exactly,  organ for organ, and formed of ether.   He sees also
that  through the spleen there is a continued influx of etheric  life  force
which undergoes a chemical change in the solar plexus and is then circulated
through  the  whole body as a pale rose-colored fluid with a  slight  purple
tinge.   This  etheric fluid radiates from the whole periphery of  the  body
through every pore of the skin,  carrying with it an enormous amount of  the
poisonous  gases which are generated by the food we take into  our  systems,
selected  usually because it pleases either the eyes or the  palate,  rather
than for the nutritional value which it contains.

   So long as this vital radiation of the etheric lifeforce is  sufficiently
strong  it  not  only  carries  away  the  poisons  from the body, but keeps


[PAGE 149]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

deleterious  organisms from entering,  on the same principle which makes  it
impossible  for  flies  or other insects to find entrance  into  a  building
through an aperture where an exhaust fan is sending a current outward.   But
the  moment  the exhaust fan is stopped, the way is opened for  the  various
classes of insects which infest our buildings.  Similarly, if for any reason
the human organism becomes unable to assimilate a sufficient amount of vital
force  to  keep  up this radiating emanation it is  also  possible  for  the
dreaded  micro-organisms  to enter and obtain a foothold in the  body  where
they  then commence their ravages,  to the further detriment of health.   In
view  of  these facts the prevention of disease narrows itself down  to  the
problem of how to keep the system from becoming clogged so that the  radiant
life-force  may have an unimpeded flow.   When the diseased conditions  have
set  in  the curative process must have the effect of  opening  the  clogged
channels to be successful.

   Dr.  Harvey W. Wiley, former chief of the Bureau of Chemistry at Washing-
ton,  is reported as having said that the best way to cure a cold is to take
a bottle of cough medicine, set it on the table in the patient's room,  open
all  the windows and throw the bottle of medicine through one of  them.   In
other words,  instead of taking cough and cold remedies, use plenty of pure,
fresh air.   Without doubt there is much wisdom in this advice,  but it dies
not go far enough.  If he had said, "Bring in also a good dinner, breakfast,


[PAGE 150]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

and supper for the patient and throw them after the bottle of medicine,"  he
would  have  come much closer to a cure of the cold.   For it may  be  said,
without  fear of successful contradiction,  that the greatest number of  the
disease to which the flesh is said to be heir come from taking too much food
and not the right kind, also from lack of mastication.   This latter perhaps
is the greatest of our sins.

   Baron Munchausen,  the celebrated champion prevaricator, relates how when
he visited the Moon he found that the people cooked their food as we do, but
instead  of sitting down to the table and eating it bit by bit  they  simple
opened  the door in the left side and put the foot into their stomachs.   We
have  not reached that point at present,  but we are very close to it.   The
way  in which the average American bolts his food is deplorable to  say  the
least.   The quick lunch rooms with their comfortable stools where is is im-
possible  to rest and relax while partaking of the so-called food are a  na-
tional menace.   Everyone who sits down at one of these places seems  intent
upon  setting  a record for swallowing the greatest amount of  food  in  the
shortest possible time.  And the abominable methods of preserving everything
on ice for many months in order that certain middle men and large  wholesal-
ers  may make prices soar for their personal profits is adding in  no  small
measure  to the dangers of ill-health which threaten every community in  the
so-called  civilized  world where these questionable modern methods  are  in
vogue.  From  these  "pure"  foods  surcharged  with poisons, we endeavor to


[PAGE 151]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

build our bodies and this, as is well-known, as accomplished by transforming
as  much thereof as possible to blood while the rest is to be eliminated  as
waste.

   It is custom of the medical profession to see that the proper elimination
of waste takes place, no matter what the nature of the disease may be.  Any-
one  who  attempts  to break up a cold must necessarily  imitate  this  wise
method and see that the proper excretory function is stimulated to the high-
est possible degree,  for that is one important method of freeing the system
and enabling the life-force to flow through it again.  The other part of the
food which is transformed into blood does not remain in the fluid state  but
is  evaporated or even etherealized according to the development of the  Ego
in  whose  it flows.   It surges through the whole body as steam  through  a
boiler, and when it comes in contact with the cold air through pores clogged
by a surplus amount of food poison and partly anesthetized so as to be unre-
sponsive  to  the  nervous impulse which  otherwise  closes  them  partially
against the chill,  the blood is liquefied or partly liquefied and becomes a
burden  and a clog to that part of the blood stream which is  not  affected.
As a result,  micro-organisms are generated which form the pus we sense as a
cold.

   A  person  who is injured and loses a quantity of blood feels  weak.   So
does  the  person  whose  blood has been chilled within him and for the same


[PAGE 152]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

reason,  but he who has a cold must further expend effort to get rid of  the
deleterious waste before he can be cured.   Gluttony,  bad food,  and faulty
mastication  are not the only causes of colds.   It is a fact well-known  to
every occultist that all that is in the visible world is a manifestation  of
something that was pre-existent in the invisible realms of nature,  and cold
is no exception.   When we know that there is an immutable law of cause  and
effect  and that there can be no effect without an underlying  and  adequate
cause,  we may easily realize the truth of this statement.   It is also cer-
tain that nothing can come to us which we have not in some way deserved, and
therefore if we look for causes in the invisible realm,  we shall find  that
they must naturally have to do with ourselves.

   The cold that we sense here, and which is a disagreeable manifestation to
us, is an outcome of something that existed within ourselves previously, but
what?   To this question it may be confidently affirmed that our our own at-
titude of mind is an all-important factor in the state of health.  This also
is  well-known to medical science and all observing persons.   A man who  is
habitually optimistic, whose mouth has an upward turn at the corners, always
on the verge of expanding into a bread smile, will be found to be singularly
immune from colds as well as other diseases.   On the other hand the  person
with  the drooping mouth and the drawn face,  who is always  worrying  about
things that never materialize,  who sees an enemy in every human being,  and
persistently  holds  an  attitude  of anger and malice toward his fancied or


[PAGE 153]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

real enemies,  but that very attitude of mind shrinks into a shell and  pre-
vents  assimilation of the radiant etheric life-forces.   He is therefore  a
prey to all the ills to which the flesh is heir.  Nor can he be cured by all
the medicine ever made until he learns to abandon his dark outlook on  life.
These cases are of course extreme,  and there are all gradations as well  as
mixtures of the two natures.   However, it will be found that all the health
of a person varies with his view of life in almost exact ratio.

   From the foregoing remarks we may therefore draw the following deduction:
the  best  preservative of health is an optimistic attitude  of  mind  which
looks upon life fearlessly and sees a friend in everyone.

   There  should also be circumspection and discrimination in the matter  of
food.   We must avoid excess.   It is better to eat tool little than to have
too  much,  and we should make it a point to have comfortable seat where  we
may relax the body while we leisurely masticate our food.

   Proper  attention should also be paid to the matter of  elimination,  and
when it is not up to normal certain foods which contain a superabundance  of
cellulose should be taken to promote this perfect action.

   To sum up in a sentence:  be cheerful,  be temperate in food.   Cheerful-
ness,  temperance in food,  and right elimination are a compound which would
cure almost all the ills to which flesh is the heir.


[PAGE 154]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                           THE FOOD OF THE FUTURE

                              QUESTION NO. 52.

   SINCE  EVOLUTIONARY PROGRESS DEMANDS CHANGES IN MAN'S FOOD FROM  TIME  TO
TIME,  WILL YOU KINDLY INDICATE SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FOOD OF THE  FU-
TURE?

   ANSWER:  At the present time food taken internally is broken down and de-
composed  by heat inside the body.  Thus the chemical ether permeating  each
particle  of food combines with the chemical ether of our vital  body.   The
food magnetized by the Sun working in the plant is thereby assimilated,  and
remains with us until this magnetism is exhausted.   The more directly  food
comes  to us from the soil,  the more solar magnetism it  contains.   Conse-
quently,  it "stays with us" the longest when eaten uncooked.  When food has
gone  through the process of cooking,  a part of the ether it  contained  is
lost, as a number of the finer particles are dissolved by heat and ascend in
the kitchen as odor from whatever food it comes.   Consequently the cells of
cooked food remain a shorter time as a pert of our body than in the case  of
an uncooked food,  and food which has already been assimilated by the animal
has very little chemical ether of its own (except milk which is obtained  by
a  vital process and has a greater quantity of ether than any  other  food).
Hence  with regard to the flesh of animals it may be said that most  of  the
chemical  ether  in  the  fodder  has gone into the vital body of the animal


[PAGE 155]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

before  it was killed,  and at its death the vital body leaves the  carcass.
Therefore flesh putrefies very much quicker than vegetables and "stays  with
us" only a short time after we eat it.

   Death  and  disease are largely due to the fact that we subsist  on  food
composed of cells robbed of their individual chemical ether obtained  during
plant assimilation.  This is different and not to be confused with the plan-
etary chemical ether which permeates mineral, plant, animal,  and man.   But
the flesh food deprived by death of the individual vital body which ensouled
the animal during life is really reduced to its chemical mineral form and as
such  is  of small value in vital processes.   In fact,  it is  a  detriment
thereto  and ought to be eliminated from the system as quickly as  possible.
But being mineral,  these particles of flesh are dead and difficult to move.
Therefore,  they accumulate gradually.   Even a part of the plant food which
is  ash and mineral stays in our system,  so there is a gradual  process  of
clogging which we describe as growth.   This is because we rob the plant  or
other  food of its chemical ether.   Were we like the plants and capable  of
impregnating the mineral with ether we would really be able to assimilate it
and grow to giant statures, but as it is, the dead material accumulates more
and more until finally growth is stopped, because our powers of assimilation
become less and less efficient.

   In the future we shall not digest our food inside the body,  but  extract
the chemical ether and inhale it  through the nose where it comes in contact


[PAGE 156]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

with the pituitary body.  This is the general organ or assimilation and pro-
moter  of growth.   Then our body will become more and  more  ethereal,  the
life processes will not be hindered by clogging waste and consequently  dis-
ease will gradually disappear and life be lengthened.   It is significant in
this connection that often cooks feel no inclination to eat because the pun-
gent odor of cooking satisfies them to a great extent.

   Science is gradually learning the truths previously taught by occult sci-
ence  and  their attention is being more and more directed to  the  ductless
glands which will give them the solution of many mysteries.   However,  they
do  not seem to be aware as yet that there is a physical connection  between
the pituitary, the principal organ or assimilation, and therefore of growth,
and  the adrenals,  which eliminate the waste and assimilate  the  proteins.
These are also physically connected both with the spleen and the thymus  and
thyroid glands.   It is significant in this connection from the astrological
point  of view,  that the pituitary body is ruled by Uranus,  which  is  the
higher octave of Venus, the ruler of the solar plexus where the seed atom of
the  vital body is located.   Thus Venus keeps the gate of the  vital  fluid
coming direct from the Sun through the spleen,  and Uranus is warder of  the
gate  where  enters  the physical food.   It is the blending  of  these  two
streams  which produces the latent power stored up in our vital  body  until
converted to dynamic energy by the martial desire nature.


[PAGE 157]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

                                 SECTION IV

                           QUESTIONS DEALING WITH

                              INVISIBLE WORLDS



[PAGE 158]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY





                          DIAGRAM NUMBER 1

      THE RELATIVE PERMANENCY OF THE VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE WORLDS 
            [Ilustrated by comparison with a stereopticon.] 


|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|  WORLD    |  WORLD    |REGION OF |    REGION      |  DESIRE   | PHYSICAL  |
|   OF      |   OF      |ABSTRACT  |      OF        |           |           |
| DIVINE    |  LIFE     |THOUGHT & |    CONCRETE    |  WORLD    |   WORLD   |
| SPIRIT    | SPIRIT    |  IDEAS   |    THOUGHT     |           |           |
|----------------------------------|----------------------------------------|
|7 REGIONS  | 7 REGIONS |   THE    |7    REGIONS    | 7 REGIONS |  7 REGIONS|
|           |           |7 | 6 | 5 | 4  | 3 | |2 |1 |           |           |
|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|[1]        |           |          |MIND|           |           |        [2]|
|           |           |          |  | |           |           |           |
|           |           |          |  | |  THOUGHT  |           |[SEE NOTE  |
|           |           | THE IDEA |  | |   FORM    |           |   BELOW]  |
|           |           |      |   |  | |    |      |           |   THE     |
|   WILL    |IMAGINATION|     /|\  | \|/|   /|\     | DESIRE AT | PHYSICAL  |
|    |      |     |     |      |   |  | |    |      |  PRESENT  |   SHIP    |
|   /|\     |    /|\    |[SEE NOTE | \|/|    |      | THE MAIN- |   /|\     |
|    |      |     |     |  BELOW]  |  | | [SEE NOTE | SPRING TO |    |      |
|   /|\     |    /|\    |      |   | [3]|   BELOW]  |   ACTION  |   /|\     |
|    |      |     |     |     /|\  |    |   /|\     |    |      |    |      |
|   /|\          /|\           |---|---------|          /|\         /|\     |
|    |      |     |     |          |    |           |    |      |    |      |
|    |      |     |--------------------------------------|      |    |      |
|    |      |           |          |    |           |           |    |      |
|    |      |           |          |    |           |           |    |      |
|    |---------------------------------------------------------------|      |
|[4]        |       SPIRIT         |              MATTER        |        [5]|
|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|[6]        |           |          |    |           |           |        [7]|
|           |           |          |    |           |           |           |
|           |           | THE SLIDE|THE |           |           | PROJECTION|
|           |           |   |      |LENS|           |           |  SCREEN   |
|           |           |  \|/     | |  |           |           |           |
|           |           |          |\|/ |           |           |           |
|           |           |          | |  |           |           | [SEE NOTE |
|           |           |[SEE NOTE |\|/ |           |           |  BELOW]   |
| OPERATOR  |  LIGHT    |  BELOW]  |[8] |  LIGHT    |  LIGHT    |           |
|           |[DRAWING OF|          |    |  RAYS     |  RAYS     |           |
|           |A LIGHT    |          |    |           |           |           |
|           |  BULB]    |   THE    |    |           |           |   THE     |
|           |           |PERMANENT | |  |           |           | EVANESCENT|
|           |           | PICTURE  |/|\ |           |           |  SHADOW   |
|           |           |          | |  |           |           |           |
|           |           |          | |  |           |           |           |
|[9]        |           |      A STEREOPTICON       |           |       [10]|
|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|

NOTE:
Wherever "[SEE NOTE BELOW]" appears in the above diagram, a drawing of a 
sailboat is found.

Connect the following points with straight lines:
1-3-5 
2-3-4
6-8-10
7-8-9







[PAGE 159]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

                    CONSCIOUSNESS IN THE INVISIBLE WORLD

                              QUESTION NO. 53.

   WILL YOU PLEASE TELL ME IF MR.  HEINDEL CAN FUNCTION ON THE PLANE OF  THE
EGO?   IF SO WILL BE COMMUNICATE WITH MY EGO AND BRING ME THE FOLLOWING  IN-
FORMATION; I WANT TO KNOW WHO MY EGO IS, AND WHAT IT INTENDS TO DO WITH THIS
EARTH LIFE, ALSO HOW I CAN OBTAIN DAILY AND UNINTERRUPTED CONSCIOUSNESS WITH
IT.

   ANSWER:   While awake during earth life the Ego functions in the  visible
world as an INDWELLING Spirit,  but during the hours of sleep the Ego is  in
the  Desire World,  where it also remains for a period after  death.   Later
stages  in  the post-mortem existence are lived in the  Region  of  Concrete
Thought  which is the Second Heaven.   Above that is the Region of  Abstract
Thought,  which is called the Third Heaven, the home of the Ego,  who  takes
excursions  into earth life for the purpose of gaining experience  and  soul
growth.

   While  here on earth ties are formed with others which under the  Law  of
Causation  bring certain effects sooner or later.   These appear as fate  or
destiny.   By  our wilful or ignorant transgression of the laws of  life  we
have, in times past, accumulated a debt of evil actions which must some time
be  liquidated.   We must reap what we have sown before we can again  become
pure and free in spirit.  The knowledge of this impending fate, when part of
the  debt  is  to  be  worked out, would paralyze most of us, and to see the


[PAGE 160]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

whole ugly score would probably crush the strongest Spirit until it has  be-
come  at least partially enlightened and learned to conform to the  laws  of
nature in a certain measure.  When this great light has shone into the heart
of any man and he feels himself as a prodigal Spirit, far from our Father in
heaven,  when he cries out with his whole heart,  "I will go to my  Father,"
and this desire for union is ever before his spiritual vision,  then for the
first time he is confronted with the embodiment of his fate,  called by  oc-
cultists, "The Dweller of the Threshold."

   This  entity meets the aspirant at the door between the visible  and  the
invisible  world.   When he dares to step out into this world which  he  has
previously only seen by spiritual sight, he is confronted by this Dweller on
the Threshold and cannot pass until he has acknowledged it.   Each  neophyte
must  face this gruesome spectator as Glyndon did in Bulwer Lytton's  novel,
"Zanoni."   It is hidden from ordinary humanity,  even between death and re-
birth, but the neophyte, as said, must not only face it, acknowledge if, and
dare  to pass it.   He must take a solemn vow to do the things necessary  to
liquidate the debt of which that is an embodiment,  also the vow of  silence
concerning all therein involved.

   When you ask to know who your Ego is,  you are asking for just the infor-
mation which the Dweller on the Threshold to the invisible world hides  from
you under the beneficent  law of nature which no one is privileged to break.


[PAGE 161]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Until  you  have attained the spiritual strength to pass him and  learn  for
yourself,  this must therefore remain hidden from you.  Even then there will
not  be an uninterrupted conscious intercourse between the higher  self  and
the  personality.   That belongs to a much later stage in evolution when  we
shall  have fully spiritualized our vehicles into soul essence.   Therefore,
there is only one way for you to find out,  and that is by earnest  applica-
tion to the problem yourself.   If you continue to seek you shall find,  but
remember,  there is no royal road to this knowledge.   No one can give it to
you ready-made,  or SELL it to you,  and all we who have gone before can  do
for anyone is to show him the way and encourage him to walk it regardless of
all set backs and obstacles,  confident that what man had done,  man can do.
Each has the same divine power and is as able to succeed as anyone else.


[PAGE 162]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                   PEOPLE IN THE DESIRE WORLD SEE THE SUN

                              QUESTION NO. 54.

   DO  THE PEOPLE OF THE DESIRE WORLD OR ETHERIC REGION SEE THE SUN WE  SEE,
AND DO NOT THESE REGIONS GO ROUND WITH THE WORLD AT ITS ATMOSPHERE?   IF SO,
WHY WOULD IT NOT MAKE DARKNESS AND DAY THERE ALSO?

   ANSWER:   The reason why we have day and night,  light and  darkness,  is
that the earth is opaque to our physical sight.  Therefore,  when the Sun is
on the opposite side of the earth we cannot look through this physical globe
and  see  the  light,  nor can we perceive the  light-rays  which  penetrate
through it,  by out physical sight,  though there is such an invisible light
by  which  psychometers and clairvoyants see just as well in that  which  we
call  darkness as in that which we call light.   It is true that  the  atmo-
sphere  of  the earth revolves with it, and so does the desire  stuff  which
constitutes the Desire World of our planet.   However,  those who have  shed
the  mortal could and are in the Desire World see through the earth just  as
easily as we see through a pane of glass.  Furthermore,  the greater part of
them are usually so far outside the physical earth that even the direct rays
of  the Sun would not be obstructed by the mineral globe upon which we  live
in  our physical bodies.   For these reason there is neither day  nor  night
there.   Neither  are there seasons which depend in a measure upon  what  we
call  day,  but  there is everlasting day and  everlasting  light  in  those
worlds.


[PAGE 163]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

                              A DREAM PROBLEM

                              QUESTION NO. 55.

   A  GENTLEMEN IN SOUND PHYSICAL AND MENTAL HEALTH HAS HAD A  DREAM  ALMOST
EVERY NIGHT FOR SOME TIME,  AND IN THE DREAM STATE HE ADDRESSES AN  ASSEMBLY
COMPOSED  MAINLY  OF HIS FRIENDS AND ACQUAINTANCES.   IN THE COURSE  OF  HIS
SPEECH  HE EXPLAINS THAT HE IS DREAMING AND THAT ALL THE PEOPLE  BEFORE  HIM
ARE CREATURES OF HIS DREAMS.   SOME ONE IN THE AUDIENCE ASKS HIM WHAT  PROOF
HE  HAS TO GIVE THAT HE IS RIGHT IN HIS ASSERTION,  AND TO THIS  HE  REPLIES
THAT HE WILL THINK OVER THE QUESTION WHEN HE WAKES,  AND STATES THAT HE WILL
EXPLAIN HIS REASONS WHEN HE MEETS THEM IN DREAMLAND THE NEXT TIME.  THEY ALL
LAUGH  AT HIM AND CALL HIM A LUNATIC.   THIS DREAM PUZZLES HIM  CONSIDERABLY
AND HE IS ANXIOUS TO KNOW HOW HE MAY CONVINCE THOSE DREAM CREATURES THAT THE
EXPERIENCE IS REALLY A DREAM.

   ANSWER:   In  order  to be able to  judge  intelligently  concerning  the
various  states of consciousness of man--waking,  dream sleep,  etc.--it  is
necessary  to  know the constitution and the function of various  finer  ve-
hicles which,  with the dense body, make up that complex being which we call
man.

   We find in the world four kingdoms:   the mineral,  which is  practically
devoid  of feeling though it may respond to and react to stimuli,  can  feel
neither love nor hate.  Under  the  steam  hammer or in the furnace its form


[PAGE 164]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

and  composition may be changed,  but it gives no sign of emotion  whatever.
Its  consciousness is like that of the human being in the deepest trance  or
in death, when only the physical body is present.

   The plant is different.  It lives and breathes.   It inhales carbon diox-
ide  which  forms  a large part of its body.   It exhales  the  life  giving
oxygen.   The sap flows in its stem and leaves.   In short,  it exhibits the
same phenomena of life that we do in dreamless sleep,  because in that state
our  dense body is interpenetrated by a vital body composed of ether  and  a
similar vehicle interpenetrates the physical stem,  leaves,  and branches of
the plant.   But the plant knows no emotion neither.  Love, hate,  joy,  and
sorrow are foreign to it,  for it has no desire body such as that  possessed
by  animal or man.   Because of the possession of these vehicles animal  and
man  are  also able to move about and to aim to gratify their  desires.   To
this end man uses mind,  a vehicle not possessed by the animal,  and in  the
waking state all his vehicles are concentric,  interpenetrating one another,
enable him to live,  move,  and reason.   But the very act of going to sleep
means a reversion to the consciousness of the plant, and therefore it neces-
sarily  involves  a separation of the higher and lower  vehicles.   The  Ego
clothed in the mind and the desire body withdraws, leaving the physical body
interpenetrated by the vital body, upon the bed.

   There are times,  however,  when we have become so absorbed in our  daily
affairs, or when we have been tired out,  that  the  Ego cannot accomplish a


[PAGE 165]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

complete separation of the higher vehicles from the lower.   Then the desire
body still interpenetrates the brain centers,  because the relative position
of the various vehicles, so to speak, askew.

   In that condition reason is out of the question, and the human conscious-
ness  is  similar to that of the animal which has no mind and  is  therefore
constitutional incapable of logic.   That is why even the most grotesque and
absurd things seem perfectly natural to the dreamer,  who accepts them with-
out  question  just  as the animal does,  and  dreams  experienced  in  that
relative condition of man's vehicles are usually absurd in the extreme.  But
as civilization progresses and egoism becomes superseded by altruism, a dif-
ferent division of the vehicles is made.  A part of the vital body  composed
of the two higher ethers, which are vehicles of sense perception and memory,
is  taken  along  during the night.  Then the illusory  stage  of  dreamland
ceases, and man becomes, as it were, a creature of two existences--one lived
out of the body in dreamland, where he comports himself in a reasonable man-
ner,  using judment concerning his own actions,  and those of  other  people
whom  he may meet.   As he has not learned to focus his  consciousness  when
leaving or entering the body,  he is not able at all times to accomplish the
proper separation of his vehicles,  nor to bring back a reliable memory pic-
ture of what has occurred.  Initiation into the inner spheres alone supplies
the necessary knowledge.


[PAGE 166]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

   Evidently the gentleman in question has his reasoning faculties with  him
in dreamland,  but it not yet aware of the facts concerning that world.   He
is  mistaken in supposing that the audience which he addresses is  simply  a
"creature of his dreams," and is not at all impossible, if he were to gather
courage  and  ask some of those whom he has seem in his dreams if  they  at-
tended such and such a gathering,  that the answer would be in the  affirma-
tive.   Moreover, if at the time this reply reaches him it is still possible
for  him to get together with the people whom he saw in his dreams and  pre-
pare  them  for the question before he puts it to them in the day  time,  he
will  almost  certainly find someone who will remember and who  has  carried
through this identical experience of which he has been writing.

   Seeing  then that dream life is not an illusory existence but a  reality,
there  is no way of proving to the people of dreamland that it is  an  illu-
sion.


[PAGE 167]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

                              THE TRANCE STATE

                              QUESTION NO. 56.

   IF  IT  IS POSSIBLE TO PRODUCE ARTIFICIALLY BY DRUGS OR OTHERWISE,  AS  I
HAVE  READ,  THE  VARIOUS MYSTIC STATES,  HOW IS THE ASPIRANT  TO  KNOW  THE
GENUINE FROM THE COUNTERFEIT?   HOW DISTINGUISH BETWEEN SPIRITUAL ENLIGHTEN-
MENT AND PSYCHIC INTOXICATION?

   ANSWER:   Many scientific investigators engaged in psychic research  have
frustrated  their  object by carrying scepticism to an  absurd  extreme,  so
that, as one expressed it in the hearing of the writer, he would not believe
in  ghosts even if he were to see one,  because there are no ghosts  and  he
would  know  that the thing which he thought to be a ghost must be  only  an
halluncination.  They are like the redoubtable Celt who professed to have an
open  mind willing to be convinced and then added with all the intensity  he
could put into the phrase:  "But show me the man who can do it."

   This much good the Psychic Research Movement has done,  however:   it has
collected an immense amount of facts, which are highly valuable in the study
of  the hidden phases of life when we examine them apart from the  construc-
tion which the scientific investigators have put upon them.

   Among other things it has been noticed in a number of cases where the me-
dium was to all appearance entirely ignorant and  uneducated that the trance


[PAGE 168]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

condition brought out accomplishments which astonished those present  beyond
words.   There is one case on record where a servant girl, who in the normal
state was most stupid and uneducated,  delivered a discourse in Hebrew of  a
most  scholarly nature while under the trance condition,  and  the  question
presents  itself  as to how these things are possible.   There is  only  one
theory which can give an adequate explanation covering all the facts in  ev-
ery  case,  namely,  that we have all come up to our present status  in  the
scale of evolution through many days in the great school of life;  each life
we have learned some lessons, and we are constantly learning more.   Thus we
have  in  the course of time acquired a vast amount of  knowledge  which  is
growing day by day and life by life.

   Our vehicles also have become better, more sensitive and refined,  but no
body on earth is capable of expressing all that the indwelling Spirit knows.
Nor  is  it intended by divine Hierarchies who guide our evolution  that  it
should, for this versatility would prevent us from concentrating our efforts
upon  the particular lessons we need to learn here in a particular  environ-
ment.   Take,  for instance, the case quoted of the stupid servant girl whom
the  trance medium showed to be a scholar.   Judging from the facts  of  the
case she had, in the opinion of the writer, a brilliant mind in a former ex-
istence, but was probably proud, arrogant, and overbearing.  Hence it became
necessary to teach her a lesson in humility, and  she  was  born in a humble


[PAGE 169]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

environment where no educational advantages were offered her.  Therefore the
brain  because dull and she drifted into the condition of  servitude  little
short of slavery,  which is so prevalent in Central Europe,  that she  might
learn a much needed lesson in humanity.

   This  class of cases shows then a possession of a much greater amount  of
knowledge  and experience which lies latent and hidden in  every  individual
and  which is accessible when the normal sense of the body has been  stilled
for the time being.

   We  may also not that this phenomenon differs very sharply and  radically
from the psychic activities observable under Spirit control.   According  to
the writer's observation of hundreds of cases,  when a medium is  controlled
by the Spirit, the Ego of the medium clothed in its finer vehicles is driven
out  of the body,  and the controlling Spirit then stands behind the  victim
manipulating the tongue and the limbs through the medulla oblongata, causing
it to move or to speak just as desired.  The "light of life" is then seen as
a flaming torch rising from the spinal canal and the medulla, where is heard
a sound somewhat resembling the humming of an alternating current are light.
Another  sounding light projected by the controlling Spirit overshadows  and
overwhelms  the first light and by that means holds the physical body in  an
unconscious condition.  But it is really painful to hear the frantic buzzing
of the victim's LIGHT OF LIFE, struggling against the aggressor.


[PAGE 170]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

   This  phenomenon is absent in the class of cases where the trance is  in-
duced by suggestion or auto-suggestion.  There also the Ego is driven out of
its dense body,  and may be seen standing against it manipulating the  limbs
and the organs of speech and using the body according to its desire, as well
as this extraneous position permits.   But in this class of cases the  LIGHT
OF LIFE hums it song serenely and contentedly; there is no warring influence
perceptible such as where there is an obsessing or controlling Spirit.  Thus
the person with spiritual sight may easily differentiate between this  class
and  the other.   NOR DOES THE PHENOMENON OF TRANCE DIFFER IN  THIS  RESPECT
WHEN  IT HAS BEEN INDUCED BY DRUGS,  at least as far as the writer has  been
able to observe, except in this particular, of course, that it is impossible
for the Spirit to return to its vehicle until the drug has worn off.

   "But  how is the aspirant to know the genuine from the  counterfeit,  how
distinguish  between genuine spiritual enlightenment and  psychic  intoxica-
tion?"  asks  our  correspondent.   The trance state  is  never  a  mark  of
spiritual enlightenment, no matter how induced.  It is a morbid and abnormal
condition,  not  to be emulated by anyone seeking  spiritual  enlightenment.
There  is only one true path to firsthand knowledge,  only one right way  to
spiritual enlightenment, and that is BY CULTIVATION OF YOUR OWN SOUL POWERS.
Build your soul body by patient persistence in well doing,  enlighten others
who know less than you wish the little knowledge you now possess,  look  for
opportunities to serve others in the small and menial things,  as well as in


[PAGE 171]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

the greater,  according to your ability and opportunity.   Then seem day you
will  cease  to see through a glass darkly and you will  know  for  yourself
without depending upon others.

                     CONTACT WITH RELATIVES DURING SLEEP

                              QUESTION NO. 57.

   DURING SLEEP DOES ONE ACTUALLY COME IN CONTACT WITH RELATIVES AND FRIENDS
WHO HAVE BEEN OUT OF THE BODY FOR TWENTY YEARS,  OR IS IT SIMPLY THE WORKING
OF MEMORY?

   ANSWER:   The usual time of duration of one's stay in the  Desire  World,
after leaving the body at death,  is one-third the length of the life  lived
in the body, but this measure is only a general guide.  There are many cases
in  which the stay is shortened or lengthened.   For instance,  if a  person
follows The Rosicrucian Fellowship exercises, particularly the RETROSPECTION
in the evening,  he may in this scientific manner,  provided he is very ear-
nest and sincere in performance thereof, entirely obviate the necessity of a
purgatorial  experience.  The pictures  of  scenes  where  he  wronged some-


[PAGE 172]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

one  would  have  been  wiped  away from the seed atom in his heart by  con-
trition, and thus there would be, for him, no purgatorial expiation.   where
he had done something commendable, that would be absorbed as pabulum for the
soul, and this would materially shorten, if not entirely free to devote him-
self to the service of humanity in the beyond,  and as such he might  remain
in these lower regions.  However, they would not, for him, constitute Purga-
tory  of the First Heaven.   Many of the most devout disciples do  this  hu-
manitarian work for a number of years after passing over.

   There  are some,  however,  who go the Second Heaven at once.   The  soul
growth  attained  during the life of helpfulness which freed them  from  the
purgatorial and First Heaven existence also enables them to carry on certain
investigations there and go through a certain schooling which will fit  them
for  a higher and better position as helpers of humanity in a  future  life.
This class, therefore, could not be seen by any friend or relative going out
of the body during sleep.

   There are other classes who, so to speak,  become immortal in evil.   Not
quite  that,  but the interlocking of their vital and desire  bodies  forces
them  to  stay in the lower regions of the invisible world  nearest  to  the
physical  world  in  which  we  live,  thoroughly explained in the series of


[PAGE 173]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

lessons which we are issuing to students on "THE WEB OF DESTINY."

   This  class  may consequently be met with for a  considerable  number  of
years  after they have passed away from the body.   It is indeed  a  curious
fact that sometimes these evil persons are sought by former friends who have
passed  out  of the body and need help to contact the physical  world.   The
writer  remembers such an instance occurring a few years ago,  when an  aged
relative was about to pass over to the other side.   She looked forward very
anxiously to seeing her mate who had gone on before her.   But as he had al-
ready reached the First Heaven, his arms and body had passed away,  and only
the head remained.   Therefore he would scarcely be able to show himself  to
her when she had passed over,  much less influence conditions at the time of
the passing,  and these were far from being to his liking.   Certain  things
were  being  done to retard the severance of the Spirit from the  flesh  and
considerable distress was occasioned to the passing person thereby.

   In  his anxiety over this condition the husband of the lady  secured  as-
sistance from a friend whose interlocking vital and desire body made it easy
for  him to manifest.   This Spirit took a heavy cane standing in the  room,
and knocked a book out of the hand of the passing lady's daughter,  which so
frightened those present that they stopped their demonstration, allowing the
mother to pass out.   The poor man who performed this phenomenon had already
been more than twenty years in the invisible world, and so far as the writer
can  perceive  there  seemed to be no sign of dissolution of  the  sin  body
wherein  he had clothed himself;  he may remain there for perhaps  twice  or
three times as long.

                NATURE OF CREATURES SEEM IN DELIRIUM TREMENS

                              QUESTION NO. 58.

   WHAT  IS THE NATURE OF THE GROTESQUE AND HIDEOUS THINGS SEEM  BY  PERSONS
SUFFERING FROM DELIRIUM TREMENS?   ARE THEY ONLY TEMPORARY CREATURES OF  THE
IMAGINATION,  OR HAVE THEY ACTUAL EXISTENCE IN THE LOWER PART OF THE  DESIRE
WORLD?  AND HOW COMES IT THAT DRUNKARD IS ENDOWED WITH SPIRITUAL SIGHT?

   ANSWER:   We will take the latter part of the question first, for then it
will also appear what the things are which are seen in delirium tremens.

   In the first place,  let us realize that there are several kinds of Spir-
its.   There is the Ego,  a true spark from the Divine Fire,  now hidden be-
neath a number of opaque coverings:  mind, desire body, vital body, and last
but  not least,  the most opaque of them all,  the dense body--the  veil  of
flesh  which  most  effectively  shuts  out the Spirit from the divine  con-


[PAGE 175]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

sciousness and confines it to the narrow limits of a brain and body.

   By  the  process  of evolution these vehicles  are  being  spiritualized.
Their  vibrations are being raised,  and by degrees the Ego is beginning  to
find itself,  as the prodigal found himself,  far away from the Father,  and
desirous of returning.  Then by certain definite processes,  he is gradually
reawakening  cosmic consciousness.   The divine power of organs  which  have
served him as spiritual media in the far past,  are reawakened to new activ-
ity.   This  is  particularly the case with the pituitary  body  and  pineal
gland.  When he has learned to vibrate these little organs, he has developed
a new sense which we may call spiritual vision,  for then he sees the Invis-
ible  World and the occupants thereof.   There are other steps by  which  he
may, after awhile, become a full-fledged citizen of these realms while still
living  in the physical body,  which he can them leave or reenter  at  will.
With this phase of the subject we are not at the present time concerned.  Be
it noted,  however, that only a Spirit can set these little organs in vibra-
tion, or reawaken their latent activities.

   Where there is coin there is usually an imitation base metal.  The Spirit
also  has  its  counterfeit.   The true divine Spirit  is  an  emanation  in
God--not  FROM God,  but IN God.   It is a Spirit of Life.   But a  spurious
spirit  is  also obtained by fermentation and decay.   This is a  spirit  of
DEATH.  We  name it alcohol.  This drug, being spirit, also has the power to


[PAGE 176]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

raise  the  vibrations of the little organs spoken of,  but being  the  base
product of a base process,  it cannot but degrade the individual Spirit with
whom it comes in contact.   Therefore drunkards generate low thoughts  which
clothe  themselves in hideous forms.  Various sub-human classes of  Spirits,
also sometimes ensoul thought forms thus generated and keep them alive for a
long time,  feeding on the fumes of blood in slaughter houses,  or the  odor
from the brewers' fermenting vats and the rum sellers' aging whiskey, not to
speak  of  the  despicable desires emanating from frequenters  of  such  low
places.

   Therefore,  when  a person has so saturated himself  with  this  spurious
spirit of alcohol that the little organs of spiritual vision have had  their
vibratory  rate  accelerated to such a degree that the Spirit world  can  be
perceived,  he naturally sees that which is akin to him.   As tuning  forks,
when  struck,  set other tuning forks of identical pitch into vibration,  so
also  everyone is attracted to others of the same nature.   These  grotesque
and hideous figures are really etheric and interetheric,  between the Desire
World  and  the ether,  penetrating both.   They are not a  product  of  his
imagination,  but realities of a more or less lasting nature created by  the
drunkards and sensualists of the two worlds.




[PAGE 177]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

                             CELESTIAL VISITORS

                              QUESTION NO. 59.

   WHY  IS IT THAT CLAIRVOYANTS GIVE SUCH DIFFERING VIEWS AND IDEAS OF  WHAT
THEY SEE IN THE INVISIBLE WORLDS THAT IT IS UTTERLY IMPOSSIBLE TO  RECONCILE
THEIR ACCOUNTS?

   ANSWER:   This question has been thoroughly explained in THE  ROSICRUCIAN
COSMO-CONCEPTION.   It hinges to a considerable extent upon the fact that in
the invisible world forms are so plastic that they can change their shape in
the  twinkling of an eye,  thus giving the untrained seer an entirely  wrong
idea.  Hence training is absolutely necessary to observation there as where,
but you are mistaken in the idea that ALL disagree.   There are a  consider-
able  number  of people who have developed the spiritual sight,  or  perhaps
have  acquired it involuntarily,  but who nevertheless see things alike  and
thus corroborate one another's statements.  We have,  for instance before us
the  review of a book written by a hospital nurse who had  been  present  at
many deathbeds and there observed exactly the same thing that we have  writ-
ten in our various books for the last ten years.   The book is called,  "The
Ministry of Angels,"  a term which the author applies not only to the  great
Hierarchy  next  above  humanity,  as the term is used  in  THE  ROSICRUCIAN
COSMO-CONCEPTION,  but  to all human beings who have passed beyond the veil.


[PAGE 178]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

However, apart from that the book is full of experiences which have been du-
plicated  by the writer in thousands of instances.   We may take a  few  in-
stances  from the resume of this book, given in THE OCCULT REVIEW,  to  show
the  similarity  of the experiences of this lady with our teachings  as  set
forth in the Rosicrucian literature.

   When she was about eighteen years of age, a girl friend called Maggie was
suddenly taken very ill and died in her arms.   Immediately after her hearth
had ceased to beat,  she says,  "I distinctly saw ascend from her body some-
thing  in appearance like smoke or steam as it rises from a kettle in  which
water is boiling."   The emanation rose only a little distance and there re-
solved  itself into a form like that of my friend who had just  died.   This
form,  shadowy at first,  gradually changed until it became well defined and
clad in a pearly white,  cloud-like robe,  beneath which the outlines of the
figure were distinctly visible.  The face was that of my friend,  but glori-
fied  with no trace upon it of the spasm of pain which had seized  her  just
before she died."

   This is just as we have taught:  at the moment of death,  when the silver
cord  has been ruptured in the heart, the vital body rises out  through  the
sutures in the skull and hovers a few feet above the body.   Writing on  the
subject of deathbeds of the patients she nursed, she remarks that often, ir-
respective  of  the  physical  condition or frame of mind of the dying, just


[PAGE 179]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

before the end came they would seem to recognize someone who was not of them
at the bedside and who was unseen by them.

   "I have seen,"  she says,  "a woman who had been in a comatose state  for
hours,  suddenly open her eyes with a look of glad surprise,  stretch  forth
her  hands as though to grasp invisible hands outstretched toward  her,  and
then with what seemed a sigh of relief, expire.   I have seen a man who  had
been writhing in agony,  suddenly grow calm, direct his eyes with an expres-
sion  of joyful recognition to what to those observing him was only  vacancy
and, uttering a name in tones of greeting, breathe his last breath.

   "I recall the death of a woman who was the victim of that most dread dis-
ease,  malignant cancer.   Her sufferings were excruciating and  she  prayed
earnestly that death might speedily come to her.   In her agony suddenly her
suffering appeared to cease,  the expression of the face which a moment  be-
fore had been distorted by pain changed to one of radiant joy.   Leaping up-
wards  with a glad light in her eyes,  she raised her hands  and  exclaimed.
'Oh,  Mother dear, you have come to take me home.  I am so glad,' and in an-
other moment her physical life had ceased."

   At  first the author was not able to see these invisible beings  herself,
but  gradually she developed the spiritual sight,  so that she actually  did
see  those who came to meet the dying from the realms of Spirit life and  to
welcome them into another state of experience.


[PAGE 180]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

   "The first time I received the ocular proof," she says, "was at the death
of L.,  a sweet girl of seventeen,  who was a personal friend of mine.   She
was a victim of consumption.   She suffered no pain,  but the weariness that
comes from extreme weakness and debility was heavy upon her and she  yearned
for rest.

   "A  short  time before she expired I became aware that two  Spirit  forms
were standing by the bedside,  one on either side of it.   I did not  notice
them enter the room.   They were standing by the bedside when they first be-
came visible to me, but I could see them as distinctly as I could see any of
the human occupants of the room.  In my own heart I have always called these
bright beings from another world ANGELS, and as such I shall hereafter speak
of  them.   I recognized their faces as those of two girls who had been  the
closest friends of the girl who was dying.   They had passed away a year be-
fore and were then about her own age.

   "Just before they appeared, the dying girl exclaimed,  'IT HAS GROWN SUD-
DENLY DARK,  I cannot see anything,' but she recognized them immediately,  a
smile beautiful to see lit up her face as she stretched forth her hands  and
in joyful tones exclaimed,  'Oh,  you have come to take me away;  I am glad,
for I am very tired.'

   "The two angels extended each a hand, one grasping the dying girl's right
hand,  the other her left.  Their faces were illumined by a smile more radi-
antly beautiful even than that  of  the  face  of  the  girl who was so soon


[PAGE 181]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

to  find  the rest for which she longed.   She did not speak again  but  for
nearly a minute her hands remained outstretched, grasped by the hands of the
angels,  and she continued to gaze at them with the glad light in  her  eyes
and  the smile on her face.   The angels seemed to relax their grasp of  the
girl's  hands which then fell back on the bed.   A sigh came from  her  lips
such  as one might give who resigns himself gladly to a much  needed  sleep,
and in another moment she was what the world calls dead.   That sweet  smile
with  which  she at first recognized the angels was still stamped  upon  her
features."

   You  will notice that in this last instance the dying girl  speaks  about
the  room  growing dark,  and these and many other facts are taught  in  THE
ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION and elsewhere in our literature.   So far as we
know,  nowhere  else has such thorough and definite information  been  given
concerning the passage of the Spirit from the land of the living to the land
of the living dead.

   The  author  comments  on the materialistic  attitude  of  relatives  and
friends when brought face to face with the presence of death,  and she  fre-
quently  felt keenly the hopelessness of convincing them of the  reality  of
what  she herself was able to witness.  In the above instance the father  of
the  girl was an entire skeptic and had convinced himself that there was  no
future life.   His daughter's last words,  the smile that lit up her face as
she recognized the girl friends who had come to take her Spirit away, he re-
garded  as  evidence  of  a  disordered  imagination.  It was not,  however,


[PAGE 182]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

always so.   In the case of a patient who was dying of pneumonia,  his  wife
was  seated by his bedside and he called her to draw her attention to  their
little boy who had died at the age of five or six years and who was  waiting
for him.  "Look, how he smiles and holds out his hands to me," he exclaimed,
"cannot you see him?"  Though she could not see him like her husband she re-
marked afterwards,  "I am very glad that he saw B. before he died.   I shall
now  be able to think of them as always together and happy,  and when I  re-
ceive my own summons I know they will both come for me."

   Eventually our hospital nurse gave up her hospital work and took up  pri-
vate  nursing.   On one occasion she accompanied a friend to the house of  a
lady who had been an invalid for many years and needed a nurse.   It was her
friend,  however,  who was engaged as the nurse.   "When I met her my  heart
went out to her at once,"  says the author,  "for in a moment there were re-
vealed to me the depth and tenderness of her saintly soul.   How I know not.
I cannot explain it.   This woman,  I said to myself,  is the friend I  have
long been seeking and the great hope came to me that I might win her friend-
ship."

   The aspiration was not realized in this world, however,  but was destined
to receive satisfaction in one of those strange friendships in which one  of
the two friends is on this side of the veil and one on the other.   "In  the
course of time," she writes, "quite a while after her death, she became more


[PAGE 183]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

intimately my friend than any friend I had who belonged to this life.   When
she appeared to me it was not to vanish almost immediately but to stay  with
me  and converse with me as plainly and naturally as could any human  being.
When  she was with me I could see her as plainly as I could see any  of  the
everyday objects of life,  and she disclosed to me an individuality just  as
pronounced  as  that of any person possessed of strong  characteristics  who
still dwelt on this earth."

   By  means of this lady whom she came to look upon as her guardian  angel,
she was taken in trance to visit many scenes and people in the other  world,
and in particular describes her visits to what she terms the heavenly garden
and her friend's rest chamber there where she came to rest and meditate.  We
may  regard these descriptions as symbolic, but experience is none the  less
experience,  and sensation none the less sensation,  though we thus describe
it.   Symbolism is in fact in many cases the means by which certain emotions
are  interpreted by our consciousness which would be unable to realize  them
in any other form.

   "My guardian angel,"  our author writes,  "led me through one of the  en-
trances  and I found myself in a spacious chamber filled with subdued  light
and  in which the various shades of color were blended in such perfect  har-
mony  that it impressed one as some beautiful and soothing music  made  vis-
ible.  The  walls  were  hung  with  cloudlike  draperies  in  which greens,


[PAGE 184]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

pinks,  crimsons,  and golds were blended so artistically that there was no-
where a jarring note of color,  but the draperies were unlike any of earth's
fabrics.  They were distinctly visible to me, but they offered no resistance
to my touch.   It was like thrusting my hand into a cloud.   In the  chamber
there were several couches that displayed the same soothing, harmonious col-
oring.   Many  plants and beautiful flowers were bestowed about  the  place.
'This,' said my guardian angel, 'is my rest chamber where I come to rest and
meditate, and you shall come here and rest with me often.'"

   This  region,  the Summerland of the Spiritualists,  with its houses  and
flowers,  its  garden of rest,  has also been described in  THE  ROSICRUCIAN
COSMO-CONCEPTION and other books.   Thus all along the line there is perfect
agreement between this particular author and the present writer as to  facts
and observations regarding death and the invisible worlds.

   Then  we  are told that she was taken thence by her friend to  visit  the
toiling millions in some city of the earth to whose sufferings the  dwellers
in the heavenly garden went to minister.  Here she visited a factory and ob-
served  that she and her companions passed through walls and  partitions  as
they went from one department to another of the huge building, neither brick
walls nor steel beams offering the slightest resistance to their bodies.  "I
often used to wonder,"  she remarked, "how Spirits entered houses and  rooms
in which no doors were opened, and how they left them when all  exists  were


[PAGE 185]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

closed."  Now she appeared to understand what to us on earth are solid walls
appear,  when approached close by one in the Spirit body, as though composed
of something like fog,  and to the passage of the Spirit body through  them,
they  present  just as little impediment as does fog to the passage  of  the
physical body.   Many things,  she observes, that are insoluble mysteries to
the human understanding,  appear just as little mysteries to the Spirit fac-
ulties  as  seem to us here the common things and  experiences  of  everyday
life.  To find one's progress here stopped by a brick wall occasions no sur-
prise,  and similarly it occasions no surprise to one in the Spirit body  to
find that the brick wall presents no impediment.   We come here to a problem
of  the fourth dimension which puzzles many in this world and on which  this
curious  record,  which in part reads like a phantasy of  fairyland,  throws
some  strange  light.   This also has been covered in  a  number  of  places
throughout the Rosicrucian literature.

   Another incident of a somewhat similar character in the light it helps to
throw  on this strange mystery of interpenetrating planes is  given  towards
the close of this narrative.   In one of her visits to celestial regions our
author makes the acquaintance of a man she terms "the mentor."   The  mentor
gave  her a bouquet of flowers which she desired to take with her to  earth.
"When I returned in my Spirit body to my home," she says,  "I placed them in
a vase, but when next morning in my physical body I went to  look  at them I


[PAGE 186]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

discovered  that thought I could see them as plainly as when the mentor  had
handed  them to me,  and could still smell their exquisite  fragrance,  they
were not palpable to my touch.   My hands passed through them as they  would
through a ray of light,  and still they remained unbroken with not a  single
petal deranged.   Save myself,  no member of my household could see them  or
smell them.   The angels," she adds, and here is a very curious point,  "who
visit me in my house can handle them as we do earthly flowers,  but the lat-
ter,  of which I always have some in my house, they cannot handle.  They see
them  just as I see them but they offer no resistance to their touch."   She
asks in bewilderment, "Which is the world of solid reality, and which of in-
tangible appearances, our world or the Spirit world?"

   These points have also been covered in the Rosicrucian literature, and we
would refer our readers to the story called "Facing the Firing Squad"  which
appeared in the November,  1917,  number of "Rays from the Rose Cross,"  and
gives a description of the last hours of a spy, how he meets death and after
the  transition visits a sister.   During the journey to his  sister's  home
thousands  of miles from the place where he met his death,  it  puzzled  him
that the air seemed to be peopled with Spirit forms floating through the air
just  like  himself and the Rosicrucian who accompanied him.   At  first  he
tried to avoid them but found it impossible.  He braced himself for a colli-
sion,  when  to  his  surprise  he  found  that  these  people floated right


[PAGE 187]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

through  him  and his companion just as if they had no  existence  whatever.
This  filled him for the moment with consternation and  bewilderment,  until
the  Rosicrucian,  observing his dilemma, laughed reassuringly and bade  him
not to mind.  That was the custom in the land of the living dead,  for there
all  forms  are so plastic that they easily interpenetrate  one  another  at
times, and there is no danger whatever of losing one's identity.

   Arrived at the home of his sister they found her seated in a  comfortable
living  room  and the spy impulsively rushed over to her and  embraced  her,
only  to find to his dismay that she was absolutely unaware of his  presence
and  that  HIS  HANDS INSTEAD OF GRASPING HER FORM WENT  RIGHT  THROUGH  IT.
Again he turned to the Rosicrucian  and asked what he should do to make him-
self  felt,   for  this  impalpability  of  a  so-called  solid  body  again
non-plussed him.   The directions were given and the method used by the liv-
ing dead to attract attention of those in the physical world described.

   Thus there are a thousand and one points of agreement between a number of
people who are capable of functioning both in the visible and the  invisible
worlds.   Moreover,  this war is greatly increasing the number of those  who
can perform this feat and eventually we shall all be able to do so, from the
least to the greatest.   It will be as normal a faculty as sight or hearing.
Thus  gradually we are becoming more and more acquainted with the  invisible
worlds and the points of agreement are already far in  excess  of the points 


[PAGE 188]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

of divergence.   Hence there should be no difficulty in accepting the stories
from the unseen on that account.


                          WHY GROUP SPIRITS SUFFER

                              QUESTION NO. 60.

   ANIMALS BOTH WILD AND DOMESTIC SUFFER MANY THINGS, AND WE ARE TAUGHT THAT
THE  GROUP SPIRITS SUFFER MORE INTENSELY.  WHY IS THIS?   DO GROUP  SPIRITS,
LIKE US, SUFFER FROM THEIR OWN MISDEEDS?

   ANSWER:  It seems very difficult to conceive that such glorious beings as
the  Archangels--who  are Group Spirits and Race Spirits--can do  wrong,  at
least  in  the sense that we with our limited understanding attach  to  that
word.   Christ is the highest Initiate among the Archangels,  and as we know
that  "He suffered in all things as we,  being tempted,  yet  without  sin,"
there is evidently a higher law.   What that is we shall sense when we  con-
sider  the relation of the Group Spirits to the animals of their species  in
the light of the law of analogy, which is the masterkey to all mysteries.


[PAGE 189]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

   The following illustration from the COSMO will probably make the  differ-
ence  clear between man with his indwelling Spirit and the animal  with  its
Group Spirit:

   Let us imagine a room divided by means of a curtain representing the  De-
sire World, and the other the Physical.  There are two men in the room,  one
in each division;  they cannot see each other nor can they get into the same
division.   There are, however, ten holes in the curtain, and the man who is
in  the  division  representing the Desire World can  put  his  ten  fingers
through these holes in the other division,  representing the Physical World.
He  now furnishes an excellent example of the Group Spirit which is  in  the
Desire  World.   The fingers represent the animals which belong to one  spe-
cies.   He  is  able to move them as he wills,  but he cannot  use  them  as
freely, nor as intelligently as the man who is walking about in the physical
division uses his body.

   The latter sees the fingers that are thrust through the curtain.   He ob-
serves  that they all move,  but he cannot see the connection between  them.
To  him  it appears as if they were all separate and distinct from  one  an-
other.   He cannot see that they are the fingers of the man behind the veil,
and are governed in their movements by his intelligence.  If he hurts one of
the  fingers he does not hurt them as much as the man on the other  side  of
the curtain.   If an animal is hurt it suffers,  but not to the extent  that
the Group Spirit does, because it has no individualized consciousness.


[PAGE 190]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

   The  dense body in which we function is composed of numerous cells,  each
having separate cell-consciousness, though of a very low order.  While these
cells  form part of our body they are subject to and dominated by  our  con-
sciousness.  An animal Group Spirit functions in a spiritual body which con-
sists  of a varying number of Virgin Spirits imbued for the time being  with
the  consciousness of the Group Spirit.   The latter directs them,  watching
over  them  and helping them to evolve.   As its wards  progress  the  Group
Spirit  also  evolves,  undergoing a series of metamorphoses,  in  a  manner
similar to that in which we grow and gain experience by taking into our bod-
ies the cells of the food we eat,  thereby also raising their  consciousness
by enduing them with ours for a time.

   This Group Spirit dominates the action of the animals in its charge until
the  Virgin Spirits shall have gained self-consciousness and  become  human.
Then they will gradually manifest wills of their own,  gaining more and more
freedom  from  the Group Spirit and becoming responsible for their  own  ac-
tions.   The Group Spirit will continue to influence them, although in a de-
creasing degree,  as Race,  Tribe, Community,  and Family Spirits until each
individual  has  become capable of acting in full harmony with  Cosmic  Law.
Then  each Ego will be free and independent of interference,  and the  Group
Spirits will enter a higher phase of evolution.

   In the light of the foregoing elucidation of the relationship between the
Group Spirit and the animals, it is evident that the sufferings  experienced


[PAGE 191]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

through its proxies have the same purpose as the sufferings we experience on
account of our direct mistakes,  namely,  to teach it to avoid whenever pos-
sible undesirable conditions which are productive of pain.   The man without
a gun sees lots of animals when he walks about the fields; they flock to Mt.
Ecclesia  and other places where the Group Spirit tells them they are  safe.
The  man  with the gun truly has to hunt,  for the Group  Spirit  warns  its
charges of his approach.   Besides,  the Group Spirit clothes its species in
fur or feathers colored to resemble the ground, the trees, or leaves,  so as
to render them as inconspicuous as possible to those who would hunt them and
thereby cause them pain.   Thus,  because of the desire to avoid pain to it-
self it exercises its ingenuity to guard its charges.   We are not prepared,
however,  to aver that the desire to escape pain is the prime motive of  the
Group Spirit in guarding its charges, but the two are linked together as the
cause and effect.

   But what about the animals slaughtered for food,  and the poor  creatures
tortured  in the vivisection hells?   How about the poor horses starved  and
beaten by inhuman drivers?   What is the Group Spirit doing to protect  them
and  save itself the pain incident to their condition?   It can educate  the
wild animals of the field to save themselves by various methods,  but domes-
tic  animals must present a problem of considerable difficulty to the  Group
Spirit.   It  has   the  power  to  withhold  the  seed  atom  necessary  to


[PAGE 192]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

fertilization to preserve the purity of its tribe,  and does so in the  case
of hybrids.  However, the prime purpose of existence is experience, so it is
forced  to admit the Spirits under its guardianship to birth  through  their
legitimate channels even though they are thereby exposed to atrocious treat-
ment at the hands of man.  Man must and will help the animals at some future
time  to  atone for his present wrong-doing, and he will have  to  help  the
present minerals when they have become animals.   The Law of Consequence  is
just and can be depended upon to balance the scales.   In the meantime,  the
Group  Spirits are learning sympathy and compassion.   The Race Spirits  are
learning the same thing through human suffering caused by industrial and na-
tional  warfare.   Eventually the day will come when the lion will lie  down
with the lamb,  eating grass with the ox,  when the child may play  unharmed
with the serpent,  when men will beat their swords into plowshares and their
spears into pruning hooks,  when there will be "peace on earth and good will
among  men."   True,  that will require great changes,  mental,  moral,  and
physical, but "though the mills of the Gods grind slowly, they grind exceed-
ing small."   Divine power has wrought cosmos from chaos;  we have therefore
reason to trust in its benevolent purpose and believe in its omnipotence  to
overcome all obstacles in the way of realizing what now appears utopian.


[PAGE 193]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

                         NATURE OF THE DESIRE WORLD

                              QUESTION NO. 61.

   THE  COSMO  SAYS  THAT  THE  DESIRE  WORLD  IS  FLUID,  AND  COMPOSED  OF
EVERCHANGING LIGHT AND COLOR.  IS IT NOT CORRECT TO PICTURE THE DARKEST COL-
ORS AT THE LOWEST REGIONS GRADUALLY BLENDING INTO THE LIGHTER COLORS AND  IN
THE REGION OF SOUL POWER FINDING PURE WHITE LIGHT?

   ANSWER:   Yes, in one sense you are right.  Color depends upon vibration,
the rapidity of the rate and wave length.   For instance,  in the colors  of
the  spectrum red has a much longer wave length and a slower rate of  vibra-
tion than violet,  which is at the other end of the solar spectrum,  but the
colors in the Desire World are not at all the same colors that we see  here.
Here color is caused by the reflection of the Sun's rays in the  atmosphere.
There  light  is a property of matter.  One might almost say that  from  the
viewpoint  of  that world desire stuff is light and light is  desire  stuff.
That is not quite correct, but almost so.

   Furthermore,  the colors which we would call dark there are brighter than
the brightest sunlight here.  That is why we do not see them.  Our eyes can-
not respond to that rate of vibration.   You should not consider the  Desire
World  being above and higher than the Physical World in the sense of  space
being  involved.  The  desire  matter  is  here.  It  interpenetrates  every


[PAGE 194]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

physical  atom.   Even the ether is pervaded by it,  and the  dark,  to  the
spiritual sight almost black, chemical ether,  seems almost inseparable from
the lowest grade of desire stuff.   They are so dense that they seem  nearly
gaseous, and it has often been a wonder to the writer that people cannot see
them and the beings moving therein.

                   ATTITUDE OF GROUP SPIRITS TO EACH OTHER

                               QUESTION NO. 62

   ARE GROUP SPIRITS ENEMIES ON THE SPIRITUAL PLANE AS THEIR CHARGES SUCH AS
WOLVES AND SHEEP ARE ON THIS PLANE?

   ANSWER:   No, there is no enmity connected with the whole matter,  either
in the visible or invisible world.  The wolf does not hate the sheep it eats
any more than the ox hates the grass.   It is simply a question of obtaining
the food wherewith to sustain life,  and the work of the Group Spirits  with
their charges is furthered in no small measure by the resulting game of hide
and seek, played by the beasts of prey and their quarries.

   THE  MAIN  OBJECT OF EXISTENCE IS THE EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS, and the


[PAGE 195]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

ingenuity  displayed by one class of animals in capturing another,  the  pa-
tient concentration of the cat watching the mousehole,  and the many  varied
schemes  used by other animals to catch the unwary,  are easily  counterbal-
anced  by the vigilance displayed by the animals preyed upon in  their  wild
state,  when they are totally dependent upon the group Spirits to save  them
from  their  pursuers.   If there were not this struggle for  existence  the
evolution  of  consciousness would be much more long-drawn than  it  is  and
therefore the predatory habits of the carnivorous animals serve a good  pur-
pose in nature as well as all other seeming anomalies.

                            UNDINES AND MERMAIDS

                              QUESTION NO. 63.

   IS THERE ANY FOUNDATION FOR THE BELIEF IN MERMAIDS?  IF SO, WHAT IS THEIR
ORIGIN?  WHAT PURPOSE DO THEY SERVE?

   ANSWER:   Undines,  mermaids,  and mermen are not figments of the  fancy.
They  are real.   We are so fond of looking upon this world as a  great  big
perpetual motion machine, and we try to explain everything on one scientific


[PAGE 196]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

theory  or another.   People will say that the sun heats up the ocean,  that
the  water evaporates,  rises into colder strata,  and there condenses  into
clouds,  which are moved over the lands by wind,  and when condensed  suffi-
ciently,  the seawater falls as rain.   Then it runs back to the sea as riv-
ers, and that is all there is to it.

   Yes,  but how could all this happen without somebody being at the head of
it  and  somebody working at it.   We know very well a building is  made  of
bricks.   one brick is laid on top of another,  and it is built to  whatever
height  is desired.   But the bricks do not get up there  themselves.   They
have to be carried, and it is the same in the economy of nature.   The work-
men,  the nature spirits,  are found everywhere.   They have their work  and
evolution  just as we have and everything in nature is an  orderly  process.
These undines,  mermaids,  and mermen are concerned with the condensation of
the  water  and with the work of keeping the things in the water  in  order,
building  up plants and such like things, just the same as the gnomes  build
the flowers on land.   We say that a plant grows, but just as bricks have to
be put together in a house, so the atoms have to be put together in plants.

   In the case of human beings,  those who are in the Second heaven are pre-
paring to build new bodies, and they learn to build better bodies by working
on us to build these bodies.   Later they come back to earth wit added expe-
rience and that helps them to build a better body next time.  Similarly, the
little nature  spirits  we call gnomes help to build the plants and flowers,


[PAGE 197]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

and the sylphs are the agents in carrying up the water that has been  broken
up by the undines, into the skies where it condenses into clouds.   Then the
sylphs are the cause of the winds and move the clouds about and bring  about
the storms and the rain.   Thus one department in nature works with the oth-
ers.  The salamanders are the fire spirits and perhaps the least known,  but
they also have their work to do in breaking up earth conditions,  etc.   You
remember  Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream."  That is an actual  fact.
It is this way:   at the winter solstice when everything is dead,  when  the
earth  is  asleep under its winter blanket,  the new impulse  to  life,  the
Christ Life, is poured into the earth and begins to work out towards the pe-
riphery,  bringing life to seeds in the ground and giving them the  vitality
the need to sprout.   It also infuses vitality in all beings that live  upon
the earth.  This Christ Life takes birth at the winter solstice when the Sun
is  at  its lowest point of declination.  Thus in the winter  we  have  more
spirituality,  for that divine life impulse comes to us anew every year  and
the  Savior  is thus born to save His people from the cold and  famine  that
would result if the Sun were always in that southern part of declination.

   The  impulse is spiritual for there is no physical activity going  on  in
nature at that time.   On the other hand,  in summer all is activity in  the
world.  The summer solstice  is  the apex of the physical impulse, and it is


[PAGE 198]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

at  that time that the nature spirits have their festival.   They  do  enjoy
themselves,  and  glory and feel thankful that they have brought  forth  and
that  that they have helped to work this miracle of fecundation and  expres-
sion of all physical things that have come to birth.  At that time the fruc-
tification begins,  the fruit begins to ripen,  and then we go down  towards
the harvest,  which is at the fall equinox.   So these nature spirits have a
great work to do.   It is not only true that they ARE, but they play a very,
very important part in the world's work.


[PAGE 199]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

                                  SECTION V

                           QUESTIONS DEALING WITH

                               SPIRITUAL SIGHT


[PAGE 200]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY




                            THE FOUR KINGDOMS

|---------|--------|---------------------------|-----------------------------|
|  PURE   |        |          WILL             | THE ONE UNIVERSAL SPIRIT:   |
|         |        |                           |                             |
|         |        |                           |MINERAL|PLANT |ANIMAL| HUMAN |
|         |        |                           | GROUP |GROUP |GROUP |  EGO  |
| SPIRIT  |        |       IMAGINATION         |SPIRIT |SPIRIT|SPIRIT||     ||
|---------|--------|---------------------------|-|   |--|   |--|   |--|     ||
|         |        |                           |7|   | ||   | ||   | ||     ||
|         |        |       ABSTRACT            |-\ - /-||   |-||   |-||     ||
| WORLD   |  EGO   |                           |6| |   ||   | ||   | ||     ||
|         |        |        THOUGHT            |---|---|\ - /-||   |-||     ||
|         |        |                           |5  |   |  |   ||   | ||     ||
|---------|--------|---------------------------|---|------|----\ - /--|     ||
|         |        |                           |4  |   |  |   |  |   ||     ||
|   OF    |        |    THE FOCUS OF MIND      |---|---|--|---|--|---|\ --- /|
|         |  MIND  |                           |3  |   |  |   |  |   |  /^\  |
|         |        |                           |---|---|--|---|--|---|--|||--|
| THOUGHT |        |                           |2  |   |  |   |  |   |  |||  |
|         |        |     CONCRETE THOUGHT      |---|---|--|---|--|---|--|||--|
|         |        |                           |1  |   |  |   |  |   |  |||  |
|---------|--------|---------------------------|---|------|------|------|||--|
|         |        |                           |7  |   |  |   |  |   |  |||  |
|         |        |        HIGHER             |---|---|--|---|--|---|--|||--|
| DESIRE  | DESIRE |                           |6  |   |  |   |  |   |  |||  |
|         |        |       DESIRES             |---|---|--|---|--|---|--|||--|
|         |        |                           |5  |   |  |   |  |   |  |||  |
|         |        |---------------------------|---|---|--|---|-\|/--|--|||--|
|         |        |                           |4  |   |  |   | /^\  |  |||  |
|         |        |             FEELING>>>>>>>|---|---|--|---|-|||--|--|||--|
| WORLD   |  BODY  |                           |3  |   |  |   | |||  |  |||  |
|         |        |          LOWER     >>>>>  |---|---|--|---|-|||--|--|||--|
|         |        |                           |2  |   |  |   | |||  |  |||  |
|         |        |         DESIRES    >>>>>  |---|---|--|---|-|||--|--|||--|
|         |        |                           |1  |   |  |   | |||  |  |||  |
|---------|--------|---------------------------|---|------|-----|||-----|||--|
|         |        |REFLECTING ETHER:MEMORY    |7  |   |  |   | |||  |  |||  |
|         |        |---------------------------|---|---|-\|/--|-|||--|--|||--|
|         | VITAL  |LIGHT ETHER:THE SENSES     |6  |   | /^\  | |||  |  |||  |
|PHYSICAL |        |---------------------------|---|---|-|||--|-|||--|--|||--|
|         |        |LIFE ETHER:PROPAGATION     |5  |   | |||  | |||  |  |||  |
|         |  BODY  |---------------------------|--\|/--|-|||--|-|||--|--|||--|
|         |        |CHEMICAL ETHER:ASSIMILATION|4 /^\  | |||  | |||  |  |||  |
|         |--------|---------------------------|--|||--|-|||--|-|||--|--|||--|
|         |        |GAS:    BREATH             |3 |||  | |||  | |||  |  |||  |
|  WORLD  | DENSE  |---------------------------|--|||--|-|||--|-|||--|--|||--|
|         |        |LIQUID: BLOOD              |2 |||  | |||  | |||  |  |||  |
|         |  BODY  |---------------------------|--|||--|-|||--|-|||--|--|||--|
|         |        |SOLID:  BONE               |1 |||  | |||  | |||  |  |||  |
|----------------------------------------------|--|||--|-|||--|-|||--|--|||--|
                                                  \|/    \|/    \|/     \|/
                                                MINERAL PLANT  ANIMAL   MAN








[PAGE 201]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

                      THE METHOD OF SPIRITUAL COGNITION

                              QUESTION NO. 64.

   WILL YOU PLEASE DISCUSS THE PROBLEM OF COGNITION?  HOW DOES THE SEER KNOW
ON THE HIGHER PLANES?  BY THIS I MEAN, (a)  HOW CAN HE DISTINGUISH BETWEEN A
THOUGHT FORM EMANATING FROM HIS OWN MIND AND (b)  THE THOUGHT FORM EMANATING
FROM  SOME  OTHER  PERSON  EITHER IN THE BODY OR  OUT,  AND  (c)   OBJECTIVE
SPIRITUAL ENTITIES?

   ANSWER:  Contrary to the opinion of people who do not know anything about
the matter this is purely a matter of training.   It is absolutely wrong  to
suppose  that because a person who has developed the spiritual sight and  is
able to see things in the worlds which are usually invisible to the ordinary
human  view in the present stage of evolution he therefore by the same  fac-
ulty knows everything.   As a matter of fact he does not know anything until
he has acquired the knowledge by investigation.   The law of analogy,  which
is the master key to all mysteries, should make this clear.   "As above,  so
below," and "as below, so above."  We see the telephone hanging on the wall;
we know how to operate it by taking down the receiver, placing it to our ear
and talking through the transmitter.  We know even in a vague way that it is
operated by electricity,  but the mechanism is a mystery to the great major-
ity.

   Similarly,  we  may turn an electric switch, see the lights flash on, and


[PAGE 202]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

the motors begin to whirl.   We see the phenomenon,  but we do not know  the
underlying  forces until by investigation we have fitted ourselves  and  ac-
quired the knowledge.   The very same conditions obtain in the Desire  World
to an even greater degree,  because of the superlative plasticity of the de-
sire stuff and the ease wherewith it is changed into different forms by  the
ensouling Spirit, whether superhuman or elemental.  On that account even the
person who has voluntary control of his spiritual sight requires a  thorough
training  and  must cultivate the faculty of seeing beyond the form  to  the
ensouling life.   It is only when he has cultivated that faculty that he  is
free from delusion and able to distinguish the true nature and status of all
the things and beings which he sees in the invisible world.   To do this  in
the most efficient manner and have the certainty of escaping illusion it  is
necessary  to cultivate the grade of spiritual sight pertaining to the  con-
crete  region of the World of Thought,  where the archetypes which  are  the
ensouling life can be seen.

   To make this clear we may call to mind that the physical sight varies  so
that there are certain beings which see perfectly under conditions which  to
us appear as darkness.   For instance owls and bats.  The eyes of fishes are
constructed so that they see under water.  The organs of spiritual sight are
also capable of being attuned to different vibrations.   Each rate of vibra-
tion produces a different grade of sight and opens up to the investigator  a
certain realm of nature.  By an exceedingly slight extension of the physical


[PAGE 203]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

sight the ethers and the beings therein become plainly visible.   This grade
of sight may be likened to the X-ray,  for objects which appear solid to the
physical sight are most easily penetrated by the etheric sight or vision.

   When  one looks at a house with etheric vision he sees right through  the
wall.  If he wants to find out what is taking place in a room on the farther
side  of the house from where he stands,  the etheric rays from his eyes  to
the object in that room pierce the walls and all other intervening  objects,
and  he sees them just as plainly as if the whole house were made of  glass.
This  grade of sight may be applied to the human body,  and it  is  possible
with  its  help to look through the whole organic structure  and  watch  its
functions in actual operation.   The writer also had the idea until recently
that the common trick of reading a letter which is enclosed in a sealed  en-
velope, perhaps in the pocket of another person was done in the same manner.
However,  stimulated by the articles on psychometry in our magazine,  he one
day took a letter addressed to himself and tried the experiment,  which suc-
ceeded beautifully, showing the person who had written the letter sitting in
his room, and giving the whole contents very nicely.   Immediately afterward
he tried another letter with etheric sight to ascertain how the result would
differ,  and it was then found to be very difficult to disentangle the writ-
ing  on account of the letter having been folded up.   There seemed to be  a
conglomerate mass of ink streaks, and it required the use of the next higher


[PAGE 204]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

grade of sight which penetrates to the Desire World before the letter  could
be distinguished and read.

   When  one looks at an object with the sight necessary to see  the  Desire
World,  even the most solid objects are also seen through and  through,  but
with  the  difference  that one sees them as it were  from  all  directions.
Thought forms such as spoken of by the enquirer would probably be clothed in
this material because no thought form can compel action save through the me-
dium  of this force--matter which we call desire stuff,  and no one who  has
not  made  a study of it can guess how many people are actuated  by  thought
forms  which  they  think  are their own, but which as  a  matter  of  fact,
originated  in the brain of some one else.  it is in this way that  what  we
call  public opinion is formed.   Strong thinkers who have certain  definite
ideas about a particular thing radiate those thought forms from  themselves,
and others less positive and not antagonistic to the view expressed in these
wandering  thought  forms catch them up and think that these  thoughts  have
originated within themselves.  Thus gradually the sentiment grows until that
which was originally started by one man has been accepted by a large part of
the community.

   To  learn positively the origin of such stray thought forms would  neces-
sitate  examination by means of the grade of sight necessary to function  in
the Region of Concrete Thought where the idea first took shape.   There  all
solid objects appear as vacuous cavities from which a basic keynote is  con-
tinually sounded and  thus  whoever  sees a thing also hears from itself the


[PAGE 205]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

whole history of its being.   Thought forms which have not yet  crystallized
into physical action or being do not present themselves to the observer as a
cavity,  but there thoughts are not silent.   They speak in a language which
is unmistakable and convey far more accurately than words can, what is their
intent  until the force which their originator expended to bring  them  into
being  has been spent.   As they sing in the key peculiar to the person  who
gave them birth it is a comparatively easy matter for the trained  occultist
to trace them to their source.

   Regarding  section "c"  of your question is it not quite clear  what  you
mean.   If you want to know how we can distinguish the thoughts of objective
spiritual  entities from our own thoughts, the foregoing method may  be  ap-
plied to all beings without any distinction whatever.   But if you mean  how
can we distinguish objective spiritual entities from thought forms,  the an-
swer  is that thought forms lack spontaneity.   They are more or  less  like
automatons.   They move and act in one direction only, according to the will
of the thinker which is the motive power within them.  The actions of objec-
tive spiritual entities are spontaneous and changeable in the same way  that
our actions or tactics are, whenever we wish or it seems desirable to change
them.


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