[PAGE 143]                                                    THE VITAL BODY


                                  PART IV

              RELATION OF VITAL BODY TO SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT




[PAGE 144]                                                    THE VITAL BODY

                                  CHAPTER I

                             AN IMPORTANT FACTOR


   IN  ORDER  TO PROGRESS SPIRITUALLY,  MAN MUST FURTHER DEVELOP  HIS  VITAL
BODY.

   We  are now getting ready for the fast approaching Aquarian Age with  its
great intellectual and spiritual development.  This requires an awakening of
the dormant vital body, whose keyword is repetition.

   The Ego has several instruments:   a dense body,  a vital body,  a desire
body,  and a mind.  These are its tools and upon their quality and condition
depends  how much or how little it can accomplish in its work  of  gathering
experience in each life.  If the instruments are poor and dull there will be
but little spiritual growth and the life will e a barren one,  so far as the
Spirit is concerned.

   The higher life (initiation) does not commence,  however,  until the work
on the vital body begins.  The means used for bringing that into activity is
Love,  or rather Altruism.   The former word has been so abused that  it  no
longer conveys the meaning here required.

   The  second  help  which humanity how has is the Religion of the Son--the


[PAGE 145]                                               AN IMPORTANT FACTOR

Christian religion, the object of which is union with Christ by purification
and control of the vital body.

   While the invisible vehicles, especially the vital body, are asleep,  man
may  pursue a materialistic career;  but one this vehicle has been  awakened
and has tasted the bread of life,  it is like the physical body,  subject to
hunger--soul  hunger--and its cravings will not be denied save after an  ex-
ceedingly hard struggle.

   It has been stated here that humanity, the largest part of them at least,
are working today upon their desire bodies, and trying to curb their desires
by means of law.  Where occult development is to take place, however,  where
a  man  is to become a pioneer,  it is the vital body that is to  be  worked
upon,  and the vital body is particular and peculiarly acted upon by repeti-
tion.

   It is necessary to work upon and educate the vital body in such a  manner
that it may be used in soul-flights.  This vehicle, as we know,  is composed
of  the  four ethers.   It is by means of this body that we  manipulate  the
densest of all our vehicles, the physical body, which we usually think of as
the whole man.   The chemical and life ethers form a matrix for our physical
bodies.   Each  molecule of the physical body is embedded in a  meshwork  of
ether which permeates and infuses it with life.

   Through these ethers the bodily functions, such as respiration, etc., are
carried on,  and the density and consistency of these matrices of ether  de-
termine the state of  health.  But  the part of the vital body formed of the


[PAGE 146]                                                    THE VITAL BODY

two higher ethers,  the light ether and the reflecting ether, is what we may
term the soul body;  that is to say, it is more closely linked with the  de-
sire body and the mind and also more amenable to the Spirit's touch than are
the two lower ethers.   It is the vehicle of intellect,  and responsible for
all that makes man, man.  Our observations, our aspirations,  our character,
etc.,  are due to the work of the Spirit in these two higher  ethers,  which
become  more or less luminous according to the nature of our  character  and
habits.   Also,  as the dense body assimilates particles of  food  and  thus
gains  in flesh,  so the two higher ethers assimilate our good deeds  during
life and thus grow in volume as well.

   According to our doings in this present life we thus increase or decrease
that which we brought with us at birth.  If we are born with a good  charac-
ter,  expressed in these two higher ethers,  it will not be easy for  us  to
change  this  because the vital body has become very,  very set  during  the
myriads of years through which we have evolved it.  On the other hand, if we
have been lazy and negligent and indulgent in the habits which we call evil,
if  we have formed a bad character in past lives,  then it is  difficult  to
overcome because of this set nature of the vital body,  and it will  require
years  of constant effort to change its structure.   This is the reason  the
Western Wisdom Teaching says that all mystic development begins with the vi-
tal body.

   Each time we give ourselves in service to others we add to the lustre  of
our soul bodies which are built of ether.  It  is  the Christ ether that now


[PAGE 147]                                               AN IMPORTANT FACTOR

floats this sphere of ours, and let us remember that if we ever want to work
for His liberation, we must in sufficient numbers evolve our own soul bodies
to the point where they may float the earth.  Thus we may take up His burden
and save Him the pain of physical existence.

   Apart from the fact that the Eastern School of Occultism bases its teach-
ings on Hinduism, while the Western Wisdom School espouses Christianity, the
religion of the West,  there is ONE GREAT FUNDAMENTAL,  IRRECONCILABLE  DIS-
CREPANCY between the teachings of the modern representatives of the East and
those  of the Rosicrucians.   According to the version of Eastern  Occultism
the vital body--which is called LINGA SHARIRA--is comparatively unimportant,
for it is incapable of development as a vehicle of consciousness.  It serves
only as an avenue for the solar force,  "prana,"  and as a link between  the
physical body and the desire body, which is called KAMA RUPA,  also the "as-
tral body."  This, they say, is the vehicle of the Invisible Helper.

   The  Western Wisdom School teaches as its fundamental maxim that ALL  OC-
CULT DEVELOPMENT BEGINS WITH THE VITAL BODY,  and the writer,  as its public
representative,  has therefore been busy since the inception of our movement
trying  to gather and disseminate knowledge concerning the four  ethers  and
the vital body.  Much information was given in the COSMO-CONCEPTION and suc-
ceeding books,  but the monthly lessons and letters give the results of  our
researches up to date.  We are constantly parading this vital body (vital in


[PAGE 148]                                                    THE VITAL BODY

a  double  sense) before the minds of the students so that  by  knowing  and
thinking  about it as well as by reading and heeding the "nice  little  ser-
mons"  which we use to wrap this information in,  they may consciously,  and
unconsciously,  weave the Golden Wedding Garment.   We would advise  all  to
study these lessons carefully year after year; there may be much dross,  but
there is gold among them.

   We  have here the account of how the STIGMATA or punctures were  produced
in the Hero of the Gospels,  though the location is not quite correctly  de-
scribed, and the process is represented in a narrative form differing widely
from the manner in which these things really happen.   But we stand here be-
fore  one of the mysteries which must remain sealed for the profane,  though
the  underlying mystical facts are as plain as daylight to those  who  know.
The physical body is not by any means the real man.   Tangible,  solid,  and
pulsating  with life as we find it,  it is really the most dead part of  the
human being,  crystallized into a matrix of finer vehicles which are  invis-
ible  to  our ordinary physical sight.   If we place a basin of water  in  a
freezing temperature,  the water soon congeals into ice, and when we examine
the  ice,  we find that it is made up of innumerable little crystals  having
various geometrical forms and lines of demarcation.  There are etheric lines
of forces which were present in the water before it congealed.

   As the water was hardened and moulded along these lines,  so our physical
bodies have congealed and solidified along the etheric lines of force of our


[PAGE 149]                                               AN IMPORTANT FACTOR

invisible vital body,  which is thus in the ordinary course of life inextri-
cably  bound to the physical body, waking or sleeping,  until  death  brings
dissolution  of the tie.   But as intuition involves the liberation  of  the
REAL  MAN from the body of sin and death that he may soar into  the  subtler
spheres at will and return to the body at his pleasure,  it is obvious  that
before than can be accomplished,  before the object of initiation can be at-
tained,  the interlocking grip of the physical body and the etheric  vehicle
which  is so strong and rigid in ordinary humanity,  must be dissolved.   As
they are most closely bound together in the palms of the hands,  the  arches
of  the feet,  and the head, occult schools concentrate their  efforts  upon
severing the connection at these three points,  and produce the stigmata in-
visibly.

   Exoteric Masonry,  which is only the husks of the Mystic Order formed  by
the Sons of Cain,  has in modern times attracted the masculine element  with
its  positively polarized physical vehicles, and educated them  in  industry
and statecraft, thus controlling the material development of the world.  The
sons  of Seth,  constituting themselves the Priestcraft,  have worked  their
spell  over the positive vital bodies, of the feminine element  to  dominate
spiritual development.  And whereas, the sons of Cain, working through Free-
masonry  and kindred movements,  have openly fought for the temporal  power,
the  priestcraft  has fought as strenuosly and perhaps more  effectively  by
stealth to retain their hold upon  spiritual  development  of  the  feminine


[PAGE 150]                                                    THE VITAL BODY

element.

   As mankind advances in evolution, the vital body becomes more permanently
positively polarized,  giving to both sexes a greater desire for  spiritual-
ity,  and though we change from the masculine to feminine in  alternate  em-
bodiments,  positive polarity of the vital body is becoming more  prenounced
regardless of sex.   This accounts for the growing tendency towards Altruism
which  is even being brought out by the suffering entailed by the great  war
we  are now fighting (1918),  for all agree that the nations are seeking  to
obtain a lasting peace where the swords may be made into plowshares, and the
spears into pruning hooks.

    We know that our dense body gravitates towards the center of the  Earth,
therefore a change must take place;  also Paul tells us that flesh and blood
cannot inherit the Kingdom of Heaven.  But he also points out that we have a
SOMA PSUCHICON (mistranslated natural body),  a SOUL BODY,  and this is made
of  ether,  which is lighter than air and therefore capable  of  levitation.
This is the Golden Wedding Garment, the Philosopher's Stone,  or the  Living
Stone,  spoken of in some of the ancient philosophies as the  Diamond  Soul,
for it is luminous,  lustrous, and sparkling--a priceless gem.   It was also
called the ASTRAL BODY by the mediaevil alchemists,  because of the  ability
it conferred upon the one who had it to transverse the starry regions.   But
it  is  not to be confounded with the desire body which some of  the  modern
pseudo-occultists mistakenly call the astral body.   This vehicle,  the soul
body,  will  eventually  be  evolved  by humanity as a whole, but during the


[PAGE 151]                                               AN IMPORTANT FACTOR

change  from the Aryan Epoch to the ethereal conditions of the New  Galilee,
there  will be pioneers who precede their brethren as the  Original  Semites
did in the change from Atlantis to Aryana.   Christ mentioned this class  in
Matthew,  11th chapter,  12th verse,  when He said:   "The Kingdom of Heaven
sufferith violence,  and the violent take it by force."   That is not a cor-
rect translation.   It ought to be, "The Kingdom of the Heavens has been in-
vaded"  (the Greek is BIAXERTAI) "and invaders seize on her."  Men and women
already have learned through a holy,  helpful life to lay aside the body  of
flesh and blood, either intermittently or permanently, and to walk the skies
with winged feet,  intent upon the business of their Lord, clad in the ethe-
real wedding garment of the new dispensation.

   Repetition is the keynote of the vital body and the extract of the  vital
body is the Intellectual Soul, which is the pabulum of the Life Spirit,  the
true Christ Principle in man.   As it is the particular work of the  Western
World to evolve this Christ Principle, to form the Christ within that it may
shine  through  the material darkness of the present  time,  reiteration  of
ideas is absolutely essential.

   A  very  small impact is made upon the vital body when ideas  and  ideals
filter into it through the auric envelope,  but whatever it gets from study,
sermons,  lectures, or reading is of a more lasting nature, and many impacts
in the same direction create impressions  which are powerful for good or for


[PAGE 152]                                                    THE VITAL BODY

ill according to their nature.

   From the Angeles she could get no information;  they work with the  dense
body,  but not directly; they use the vital body as transmitter,  and cannot
make  themselves  understood  to a reasoning brain-being.   They  get  their
knowledge  without reasoning,  for they send out their whole love  in  their
work  and cosmic wisdom flows in in return.   Man also creates by love,  but
his love is selfish;  he loves because he desires cooperation in generation;
the  other  half he selfishly keeps to build his own organ  of  though,  the
brain,  and he also uses that half selfishly to think,  because  he  desires
knowledge.   Hence he must work and reason to gain wisdom,  but in  time  he
will arrive at a much higher stage than either Angel or Archangel.   He will
then have passed beyond the need of the lower creative organs;  he will cre-
ate by means of the larynx, and be able to "mask the word flesh."

   Reason is the product of selfishness.   It is generated by the mind given
by the "Powers of Darkness,"  in a brain built by selfishly keeping half the
sex-force,  and promoted by the selfish Lucifers,  hence it is "the seed  of
the serpent," and although transmuted to wisdom through pain and sorrow,  it
must give way to something higher: to intuition,  which means TEACHING  FROM
WITHIN.   That  is  a spiritual faculty,  equally present  in  all  Spirits,
whether functioning for the time being as  man  or  woman,  but it expresses


[PAGE 153]                                               AN IMPORTANT FACTOR

itself most prominently in those incarnated in a female organism,  for there
the counterpart of the Life Spirit--the vital body--is male, positive.   In-
tuition,  the faculty of the Life Spirit,  may therefore properly be  called
"the woman's seed," whence all altruistic tendencies spring, and whereby all
nations  are being slowly but surely drawn together in a Universal  Brother-
hood of love, regardless of race, sex, or color.

   That which is now the PHYSICAL BODY was the first vehicle acquired by man
as a thought form; it has undergone an immense period of evolution and orga-
nization  until it is now the splendid instrument which serves his  so  well
here;  but it is hard, set, and difficult to act upon.  The next vehicle ac-
quired was the VITAL BODY,  which has also gone through a long period of de-
velopment and has condensed to the consistency of ether.  The third vehicle,
the DESIRE BODY, has been comparatively lately acquired and is in a state of
comparative flux.   Lastly,  there is the mind, which is only as an unformed
cloud,  not worthy of the name of vehicle,  being as yet but a link  between
the three vehicles of man and the Spirit.

   These three vehicles,  the physical, vital,  and desire bodies,  together
with  the link of mind,  are the tools of the Spirit in its evolution,  and,
contrary to the common conception,  the ability of the Spirit to investigate
the higher realms does not depend upon the finest of these bodies as much as
upon the denser.  The proof of this assertion is close at hand,  and indeed,
anyone who has every seriously tried has had this proof himself.  If not, he
may  have  it  forthwith simply by following the directions for changing the


[PAGE 154]                                                    THE VITAL BODY

condition of his mind.   Let us say that person has formed certain habits of
thought  which  he does not like.  Perhaps after a religious  experience  he
finds  that  in spite of all his desires these habits of  thought  will  not
leave him.   But if he decides to cleanse his mind so that it shall  contain
nothing but pure and good thoughts, he may do this by simply refusing to ad-
mit impure thoughts.   He will find that after a week or two his mind is no-
ticeably  cleaner than at the commencement of his effort;  that it holds  by
preference the religious thoughts he is seeking to generate in it.   Even  a
most  abnormally degenerate mind can be thoroughly cleansed inside of a  few
months.   This is actual knowledge to many who have tried it, and anyone who
wishes and is sufficiently persistent may have the same experience and enjoy
a clean mind in a very short time.

   As much of the vital body as has been worked upon by the Life Spirit, be-
comes the Intellectual Soul, and it builds the Life Spirit, because that as-
pect of the threefold Spirit has its counterpart in the vital body.

   In  ordinary  life  most  people live to eat,  they  drink,  gratify  the
sex-passion in an unrestrained manner, and lose their tempers on the slight-
est provocation.   Though outwardly these people may be very  "respectable,"
they are, nearly every day of their lives, causing almost utter confusion in
their organization.   The entire period of sleep is spent by the desire  and
the  vital  bodies  in repairing the damage done in the day time, leaving no


[PAGE 155]                                               AN IMPORTANT FACTOR

time for outside work of any kind.  But as the individual begins to feel the
needs of the higher life, control sex force and temper,  and cultivate a se-
rene  disposition,  there is less disturbance caused in the vehicles  during
waking  hours;  consequently less time is required to repair  damage  during
sleep.   Thus it becomes possible to leave the dense body for  long  periods
during  sleeping hours,  and function in the inner worlds in the higher  ve-
hicles.   As the desire body and the mind are not yet organized, they are of
no  use as separate vehicles of consciousness.   Neither can the vital  body
leave the dense body,  as that would cause death, so it is evident that mea-
sures must be taken to provide an organized vehicle which is fluidic and  so
constructed  that it will meet the needs of the Ego in the inner  worlds  as
does the dense body in the Physical World.

   The vital body is such an organized vehicle,  and if some means could  be
found  to loosen it from the dense body without causing death,  the  problem
would  be solved.   Besides,  the vital body is the seat of memory,  without
which  it would be impossible to bring back into our physical  consciousness
the  remembrance  of  super-physical experiences and thus  obtain  the  full
benefit of them.

   We  remember that the Hierophants of the old Mystery  Temples  segregated
some  of  the  people into castes and tribes such as the  Brahmins  and  the
Levites,  for  the purpose of providing bodies for the use of such  Egos  as
were  advanced enough to be ready for initiation.   This was done in such  a
manner that the vital  body  became  separable  into  two parts, as were the


[PAGE 156]                                                    THE VITAL BODY

desire  bodies of all humanity at the beginning of the Earth  Period.   When
the  Hierophant took the pupils out of their bodies he left one part of  the
vital body,  comprising the first and second ethers,  to perform the  purely
animal  functions  (they are the only ones active during sleep),  the  pupil
taking with him a vehicle capable of perception,  because of its  connection
with  the sense-centers of the dense body;  and also capable of memory.   It
possessed these capabilities because it was composed of the third and fourth
ethers, which are the mediums of sense-perception and memory.

   This is,  in fact, that part of the vital body which the aspirant retains
from life to life, and immortalizes as the Intellectual Soul.

   Since Christ came and "took away the sin of the World"  (not of the indi-
vidual), purifying the desire body of our planet, the connection between all
human  dense and vital bodies has been loosened to such an extent  that,  by
training, they are capable of separation as above described.  Therefore ini-
tiation is open to all.

   The finer part of the desire body,  which constitutes the Emotional Soul,
is capable of separation in most people (in fact, it possessed that capabil-
ity even before Christ came) and thus when,  by concentration and the use of
the proper formula, the finer parts of the vehicles have been segregated for
use during sleep,  or at any other time,  the lower parts of the desire  and
vital bodies are still felt to carry on the processes of restoration in  the
dense vehicle, the mere animal part.

   That  part  of  the  vital body which goes out is highly organized, as we


[PAGE 157]                                               AN IMPORTANT FACTOR

have seen.   It is an exact counterpart of the dense body.   The desire body
and  the mind,  not being organized,  are of use only because they are  con-
nected  with the highly organized dense body.   When separated from it  they
are but poor instruments,  therefore before man can withdraw from the  dense
body, the sense-centers of the desire body must be awakened.

   The  aspirant to the higher life cultivates the faculty of  becoming  ab-
sorbed at will in any subject he chooses,  or rather not a subject  usually,
but a very simple object, which he imagines.  Thus when the proper condition
or  point  of absorption has been reached where his  senses  are  absolutely
still, he concentrate his though upon the different sense-centers of the de-
sire body and they start to revolve.

   We should be very thankful for the material instrument which we have, for
that is the most valuable of all our vehicles.   While it is perfectly  true
that our physical body is the lowest of all our vehicles,  it is also a fact
that this vehicle is the most finished of our instruments,  and without that
the  other  vehicles would be of little use to us at this time.   For  while
this splendidly organized instrument enables us to meet the thousand and one
conditions here, our higher vehicles are practically unorganized.  The vital
body is formed organ for organ as our dense physical body,  but until it has
been trained by esoteric exercises it is not a fit instrument to function in
alone.   The  desire body has only a number of sense centers which  are  not
even active in the great majority  of  people, and as for the mind, it is an


[PAGE 158]                                                    THE VITAL BODY

unformed cloud with the great majority.  We should aim today to spiritualize
the physical instrument, and we should realize that we must train our higher
vehicles before they can be of use.   For the great mass of people that will
take a long,  long time.  Therefore, it is best to do the duty that is close
to  our  hands.   Then we hasten the day when we shall be able  to  use  the
higher vehicles, for that day depends upon ourselves.

   We have all become so much more impregnated with materialism than we  re-
alize,  and it hinders us in our quest.   As students of  transcential  phi-
losophy,  we have accustomed ourselves to regard individual and intermittent
life in an ethereal body possible for attainment for the few,  but that  the
whole human race may live permanently for a whole epoch in the air!   Truly,
it made me hold my breath when I realized that the Bible means exactly  what
it  ways when it states that WE SHALL MEET THE LORD IN THE AIR AND  BE  WITH
HIM FOR THE AGE.

   When  Christianity shall have fully spiritualized the vital body a  still
higher step will be the Religion of the Father,  who as the highest Initiate
of the Saturn Period will help man to spiritualize the dense body which  was
started  in the Saturn Period.   Then even brotherhood will be  transcended;
there will be neither me nor thee,  for all will be consciously One in  God,
and  man will have been emancipated by the help of Angels,  Archangels,  and
higher Powers.


[PAGE 159]                                   EFFECT OF PRAYER, RITUALS, ETC.

                                 CHAPTER II

                  EFFECT OF PRAYER, RITUALS, AND EXERCISES


   PRAYER,  RITUALS,  AND EXERCISES ARE OF VALUE IN SPIRITUALIZING THE VITAL
BODY.

   If,  by continual prayer,  we obtain forgiveness for the injuries we have
inflicted  upon others and if we make all the restitution  possible,  purify
our vital bodies by forgiving those who have wronged us,  and eliminate  all
ill feeling, we save ourselves much postmortem misery, besides preparing the
way for Universal Brotherhood,  which is particularly dependent upon victory
of the vital body over the desire body.   In the form of memory,  the desire
body impresses upon the vital body the idea of revenge.  An even temper amid
the various annoyances of daily life indicates such a victory, therefore the
aspirant should cultivate control of the temper,  as it includes such a vic-
tory,  therefore the aspirant should cultivate control of the temper,  as it
includes  work on both bodies.   The Lord's Prayer includes this  also,  for
when  we see that we are injuring others, we look about and try to find  the
cause.   Loss of temper is one of the causes and it originates in the desire
body.

   Most people leave physical life with the same temperament they bring into
it,  but the aspirant must systematically conquer all attempts of the desire
body to assume mastery.  That can be done by concentration upon high ideals,


[PAGE 160]                                                    THE VITAL BODY

which strengthens the vital body and is much more efficacious than the  com-
mon prayers of the Church.  The occult scientist uses concentration in pref-
erence to prayer, because the former is accomplished by the aid of the mind,
which is cold and unfeeling,  whereas prayer is usually dictated by emotion.
Where  it is dictated by a pure unselfish devotion to high ideals prayer  is
much higher than cold concentration.   It can never be cold,  but bears upon
the pinions of Love the outpourings of the mystic to the Deity.

   The next highest, the Life Spirit, prays to its counterpart, the Son, for
its counterpart in the lower nature, the vital body:   "Forgive us our tres-
passes as we forgive those who trespass against us."

   The  prayer dealing with the needs of the vital body is "Forgive  us  our
trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us."

   The vital body is the seat of memory.   In it are stored the subconscious
records of all the past events of our life, good or ill, including all inju-
ries inflicted or sustained and benefits received, or bestowed.  We remember
that  the record of the life is taken from those pictures immediately  after
leaving the dense body at death,  and that all the sufferings of post-mortem
existence are the results of events these pictures portray.

   The vital body being the storehouse of the panorama of our life,  our own
sins  and  the  wrong  we  have  suffered  at  the hands of others are there


[PAGE 161]                                   EFFECT OF PRAYER, RITUALS, ETC.

inscribed,  hence the fifth prayer, "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive
those who trespass against us," enunciated the needs of the vital body,  and
be  it noted that this prayer teaches the doctrine of the remission of  sins
in the words,  FORGIVE US,  and the Law of Consequence in the words,  AS  WE
FORGIVE, making our own attitude to others the measure of our emancipation.

   That  (The Rosicrucian Prayer) is the kind of a prayer that  lifts,  that
ennobles  a  man,  and the more a man or woman cultivates that  attitude  of
mind,  and entertains those lofty aspirations, the more he or she is lifting
the two higher ethers out of the vital body.  The churches say, "pray, pray,
pray," and they are well within the occult teaching, for in that way the vi-
tal  body is being worked upon by the constant repetition of  lofty  aspira-
tions.

   That  is the way everything acts that has only a vital body;  so when  we
wish to act upon the vital body we must do it by this method of  repetition.
We  have the four ethers present in our vital body and the two lower  ethers
take  care of the physical functions, as we remember particularly  from  the
lecture  on SPIRITUAL SIGHT AND INSIGHT.   We saw there that the two  higher
ethers had to be taken out when we wanted to function in the higher  worlds;
and  this repeated impact is what makes the division between the  two  lower
and  the two higher ethers possible.   That is where the churches are  still
factors in spiritual development, because they tell the devotee that he must


[PAGE 162]                                                    THE VITAL BODY

pray without ceasing.   But we are not to pray unselfishly,  and in  harmony
with  the Universal Good.   When we pray for rain and our neighbor  for  dry
weather chaos must prevail,  if prayers were to be granted.   Neither let us
imagine that God is to be bargained with, as would seem to be the conception
of  some who are loudest at prayer meetings.   There is a certain  spiritual
attitude  attained  which the mystic knows so well when he enters  into  his
closet.

   Law is a curb on the desire nature,  but where occult or rather spiritual
advancement  is contemplated,  the spiritualization of the vital  body  must
also be accomplished.  And that is attained by means of art and religion, in
OFT-REPEATED IMPACTS, for the keynote of the vital body is REPETITION, as we
can  see by looking at the plants which have only a dense body and  a  vital
body.   There  stem  and leaf follow each other in  upward  succession;  the
plants keep growing them alternately.   It was the vital body that built the
vertebrae  of  the human spine one after the other by  constant  repetition.
And memory,  for instance,  which is one of the faculties of the vital body,
is strengthened and developed by constant iteration and reiteration.

   When the Protestants left the Catholic Church they truly left many of the
abuses behind,  but they also left almost everything of value.   They  aban-
doned  the ritual which everyone may know and understand regardless of  poor
enunciation upon the party  of the preacher.  Knowing the ritual,  the laity
could send their thoughts in the same direction as the thought of the priest


[PAGE 163]                                   EFFECT OF PRAYER, RITUALS, ETC.

who as reading,  and thus an enormous volume of identical spiritual  thought
was massed together and projected upon the community for good or evil.

   Those who go to a Catholic church understanding the ritual are still  to-
day  able  to  unite their thoughts in spiritual conclave  and  keep  within
memory that which has been gone through.  Thus they are every time adding  a
little to the spiritualization of their vital bodies,  while the  Protestant
church members have been affected only in their emotional natures,  and that
effect is soon thrown out.  The Bible tells us to pray without ceasing,  and
many have scoffed saying that if God is omniscient He knows whereof we  have
need  without our prayer,  and if He is not,  He can most likely not be  om-
nipotent,  and therefore our prayers are not granted,  so that it is useless
to pray.  But that command was indited from a knowledge of the nature of the
vital body,  which needs that repetition in order that it may be  spiritual-
ized.

   Before a ritual can have its maximum effect,  however,  those who are  to
grow thereby must become attuned to it.   This involves work on their  vital
bodies while those vehicles are still in the making.

   It  is a matter of occult knowledge that birth is a fourfold  event,  and
that birth of the physical body is only one step in the process.   The vital
body  also undergoes a development analogous to the intrauterine  growth  of
the dense body.  It is born about the seventh year of life.  During the next
seven years the desire body is ripened and comes to birth at about the four-
teenth year, when adolescence is reached, and the  mind  is  born at twenty-


[PAGE 164]                                                    THE VITAL BODY

one, when the age of manhood and womanhood commences.

   These  occult facts are well known to the Catholic Hierarchy,  and  while
the Protestant ministers work upon the emotional nature, which is ever seek-
ing  something  new and sensational without realizing the  futility  of  the
struggle  and  the  fact that it is this most rampant  vehicle  that  drives
people  FROM  the churches in search of something more new and  more  sensa-
tional,  the  occultly informed Catholic Hierarchy concentrates  its  effort
upon the children.  "Give us the child up to its seventh year and it is ours
forever,"  they say, and they are right.  During these important seven years
they impregnate the plastic vital bodies of their charge with their views by
means of repetition.  The repeated prayers, the time and tune of the various
chants,  and the incense,  all have a powerful effect on the  growing  vital
body.

   Thus  all  efforts to elevate humanity by work upon the  unstable  desire
body are and must always prove futile.  This the occult schools of all  ages
have recognized and they have therefore addressed themselves to the changing
of  the vital body by working with its keynote,  which is  repetition.   For
that  purpose,  they have written various rituals suited to humanity at  the
different stages of its development and in that way they have fostered  soul
growth,  slowly but surely,  and regardless of whether man was aware that he
was being worked upon in that manner or not.   The Ancient Atlantean Mystery
Temple,  which we speak of as the Tabernacle in the Wilderness,  had certain
rites  prescribed  in  the  mount  by  the  divine  hierarch  who  was their


[PAGE 165]                                   EFFECT OF PRAYER, RITUALS, ETC.

particular teacher.   Certain rites were performed during week days.   Other
rites  were used on the Sabbath,  and again other rites at the times of  the
new moons and on the great solar festivals.   Nor was it within the province
of any one from the high priest down,  to alter this ritual,  under pain  of
penalty of death.

   During sleep the currents of the desire body flow,  and its vortices move
and  spin with enormous rapidity.   But as soon as it enters the dense  body
its  currents  and vortices are almost stopped by the dense matter  and  the
nerve currents of the vital body which carry messages to and from the brain.
It is the object of this exercise to still the dense body to the same degree
of inertia and insensibility as in sleep, although the Spirit within is per-
fectly awake, alert and conscious.  Thus we make a condition where the sense
centers of the desire body can begin to revolve while inside the dense body.

   The latter (concentration an retrospection) will prove barren of  result,
unless accompanied by constant acts of love, for love will be the keynote of
the  coming age as law is of the present order.   The intense expression  of
the  former quality increases the phosphorescent luminosity and  density  of
the ethers in our vital bodies,  the fiery streams sever the tie to the mor-
tal coil,  and the man, once born of water upon his emergence from Atlantis,
is now born of the spirit into the kingdom of God.  The dynamic force of his
love has opened a way to the land of love,  and indescribable is the rejoic-
ing  among  those  already  there  when  new  invaders  arrive, for each new


[PAGE 166]                                                    THE VITAL BODY

arrival hastens the coming of the Lord and the definite establishment of the
Kingdom.

   It is a mystic maxim that "all spiritual development begins with the  vi-
tal body."   This is next in density to our dense body.  Its keynote is REP-
ETITION, and it is the vehicle of habits, hence somewhat difficult to change
or  influence,  but once a change has been effected and a habit acquired  by
repetition,  its  performance becomes automatic to a certain  extent.   This
characteristic is both good and bad in respect to prayer, for the impression
registered in the ethers of this vehicle will impel the aspirant to faithful
performance of his devotions AT STATED TIMES,  even though he may have  lost
interest in the exercise and his prayers are mere forms.  If it were not for
this  habitforming tendency of the vital body,  aspirants would wake  up  to
their  danger as soon as the real love began to wane,  and it would then  be
easier  to retrieve the loss and keep on the Path.   Therefore the  aspirant
should  carefully examine himself from time to time to see if he  still  has
wings  and power wherewith swiftly and surely to lift himself to his  Father
in  Heaven.   The wings are tow in number;  LOVE AND  ASPIRATION  are  their
names, and the irresistible power which propels them in intense earnestness.
Without  these  and an intelligent understanding to direct  the  invocation,
prayer is only a babble;  properly performed it is the most powerful  method
of soul growth known.

   The  atoms in such backward race bodies are vibrating at  an  exceedingly
low  rate,  and  when  the  course of time one of these people develops to a


[PAGE 167]                                   EFFECT OF PRAYER, RITUALS, ETC.

point where it is possible to further him upon the path of attainment, it is
necessary to raise this vibratory pitch of the atom so that the vital  body,
which  is the medium of occult growth, may to a certain extent be  liberated
from the deadening force of the physical atom.   This result is attained  by
means of breathing exercises,  which in time accelerate the vibration of the
atom,  and  allow the spiritual growth necessary to the individual  to  take
place.

   Years  ago,  when the writer started on the Path and was inbued with  the
characteristic impatience common to ardent seekers after knowledge,  he read
of  the breathing exercises published by Swami Vivekananda and commenced  to
follow  directions,  with the result that after two days the vital body  had
been  pulled out of the physical.   This produced a sensation of walking  on
air,  of being unable to get the feet down on solid ground;  the whole  body
seemed to be vibrating at an enormous pitch.   Common sense then came to the
rescue.   The exercises were stopped,  but it was fully two weeks before the
normal condition of walking on the ground with a firm step was  experienced,
and before the abnormal vibrations ceased.

   The  vital body is like a mirror or,  rather,  like the film of a  moving
picture; it pictures alike the world without according to our faculty of ob-
servation,  and the ideas of the indwelling Spirit from within according  to
the clarity and training of the mind.   Devotion and discrimination,  other-
wise emotion and intellect,  decide  our attitude toward these pictures, and


[PAGE 168]                                                    THE VITAL BODY

their balanced action leads to a well rounded development.   When evolved to
a certain point they inevitably bring about a process of purification.   The
man will realize that in order to attain the goal he must lay aside whatever
clogs the wheels of progress.   A good mechanic aims to have the best  tools
and keep them in perfect order,  for he knows their value in producing  good
work.   Our bodies are tools of the Spirit,  and in proportion as  they  are
clogged they hinder its manifestation.  Discrimination teaches us what  hin-
ders,  and devotion to the higher life helps to eliminate undesirable habits
or traits of character by superseding mere desire.


[PAGE 169]                                                    THE VITAL BODY

                                 CHAPTER III

                             ANCIENT INITIATION

   IN  ANCIENT TIMES,  CERTAIN CEREMONIES WERE PERFORMED IN THE  TEMPLES  TO
BRING ABOUT THE CLEAVAGE OF THE VITAL BODY.

   In  the  ancient  Mystery  Temples the main  truths  now  taught  by  The
Rosicrucian Fellowship concerning the vital body were given to the  aspirant
to  initiation.   He  learned that this vehicle was  composed  of  the  four
ethers:   the chemical ether,  which is necessary to assimilation;  the life
ether,  which furthers growth and propagation; the light ether, which is the
vehicle of sense perception;  and the reflecting ether,  which is the recep-
tacle of memory.

   The aspirant was thoroughly instructed in the functions of the two  lower
ethers as compared with the two higher.  He knew that all the purely  animal
functions of the body depended upon the density of the two lower ethers  and
that the two upper ethers composed the soul body--the vehicle of service  in
the  invisible  world.   He aspired to cultivate this  glorious  garment  by
self-abnegation, curbing the propensities of the lower nature by will power,
just as we do today.

   But some,  who were overzealous to attain, no matter how,  forgot that it
is  only by service and unselfishness that the Golden Wedding Garment,  com-
posed of the two higher ethers, is  grown.  They  thought  the occult maxim,


[PAGE 170]                                                    THE VITAL BODY

"Gold in the crucible,  dross in the fire;  light as the winds,  higher  and
higher,"  meant only that so long as the dross of the lower nature  was  ex-
pelled,  it did not matter how it was done.   And they reasoned that as  the
chemical ether is the agent of assimilation, it could be eliminated from the
vital  body by starving the physical body.   They also thought that  as  the
life ether is the avenue of propagation, they could by living celibate lives
starve it out.  They would then have only the two higher ethers, or at least
these would be much larger in volume than the two lower.

   To that end they practiced all the austerities they could think of, fast-
ing  among others.   By this unnatural process the body lost its health  and
became emaciated.  The passional nature, which sought gratification by exer-
cise of the propagative function,  was stilled by castigation.   It is  true
that in this horrible manner the lower nature seemed to be subjected; and it
is also true that when the bodily functions were thus brought to a very  low
ebb, visions, or rather hallucinations, were the reward of these people; but
true  spirituality  has never been attained by defiling or  destroying  "the
temple of God," the body, and fasting may be as immoral as gluttony.

   There  can be no doubt concerning the power of holy water prepared  by  a
strong and magnetic personality.   It takes on or absorbs the effluvia  from
his  vital body,  an the people who use it become amenable to his rule in  a
degree commensurate to their sensitiveness.   Consequently the Brazen Lavers
in the ancient Atlantean Mystery Temples, where the water was  magnetized by


[PAGE 171]                                                ANCIENT INITIATION

divine Hierarchs of immeasurable power,  were a potent factor in guiding the
people  in  accordance  with the wishes of these ruling  powers.   Thus  the
priests were in perfect subjection to the mandates and dictates of their un-
seen  spiritual  leaders,  and through them the people were made  to  follow
blindly.  It was required of the priests that they wash their hands and feet
before  going into the Tabernacle proper.  If this command was  not  obeyed,
death  would follow immediately on the priest entering the  Tabernacle.   We
may  therefore say that as the keyword of the Brazen Altar  was  "justifica-
tion," so the central idea of the Brazen Laver was "consecration."

   When death came Moses' face SHONE and Buddha's body became ALIGHT.   They
all reached the stage when the Spirit begins to shine from within--but  they
they died.

   The Race Spirit took special care of certain sects of people, for example
the Levites among the Jews,  who were destined specially for priesthood  and
they were herded around the temples and were specially bred to be the  fore-
runners and teachers of their brethren.  Their system of mating and  regula-
tion  of the sex life of these special proteges produced a more lax  connec-
tion between the vital body and the dense body which was necessary in  order
that  initiation might take place and help man to advance.   As long as  the
Race Spirit  works  with  us  we  are  under  the  law,  we  are  only over-


[PAGE 172]                                                    THE VITAL BODY

coming  the  influence  of  the desire body; therefore, Paul says well, that
the law was until Christ--not until Christ came 2,000 years ago,  but "until
Christ be formed in you."   When we release ourselves from the toils of  the
desire body and live up to the vibrations of the vital body,  we become  im-
bued  by the Christ Spirit.   Then and only then do we rise out of  the  na-
tional, the separating principle.  Then do we become capable of being broth-
ers to men.

   When Parsifal started to go with Gurnemanz to the Castle of the Grail, he
asked Gurnemanz:   "Who is the Grail?"  "That tell we not,  but if thou hast
been of him bidden,  From thee the truth will not stay hidden.   The  search
but  severs from him wider when he himself is not its guider."   That  means
that in the olden times,  in the time before Christ came,  only a chosen few
could  follow the path of initiation.   Nobody could seek that  path--nobody
could get beyond the point where the rest of humanity were--safe a few  cho-
sen ones,  such as were the priests and the Levites.   These were brought to
the temples, and there herded together.  They were married to one another in
a  certain  way;  certain people were mated with a  definite  end  in  view,
namely, that they might develop the proper laxity between the vital body and
the  dense body that is necessary to initiation.   A separation has to  take
place  in order that we may lift the two higher ethers out,  and  leave  the
other two.   That could not be done with the ordinary humanity.   They  were
yet much in bondage to the desire body.  They must wait until a later time.


[PAGE 173]                                                ANCIENT INITIATION

   As ether is the avenue of vital, creative forces,  and as Angels are such
expert builders of ether,  we may readily understand that they are eminently
fitted to be warders of the propagative forces in plant,  animal,  and  man.
All through the Bible we find them thus engaged:  Two ANGELS came to Abraham
and announced the birth of Isaac,  they PROMISED a child to the man who  had
obeyed God.   Later THESE SAME ANGELS destroyed Sodom for ABUSE OF THE  CRE-
ATIVE FORCE.  ANGELS foretold TO THE PARENTS of Samuel and Samson, the birth
of these giants of brain and brawn.  To Elizabeth came the ANGEL (not  Arch-
angel) Gabriel and announced the birth of John.   Later he appeared also  to
Mary with the message that she was chosen to bear Jesus.



[PAGE 174]                                                    THE VITAL BODY

                                 CHAPTER IV

                      POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE DEVELOPMENT


   SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT MAY BE POSITIVE, AS IN ADEPTS,  INITIATES,  AND IN-
VISIBLE HELPERS; OR NEGATIVE, AS IN THE CASE OF MEDIUMSHIP.

   THE VITAL BODY OF EVERY INITIATE IS ALWAYS POSITIVELY POLARIZED,  as that
makes it better and more receptive instrument for the vibrations which  come
from the Life Spirit, whose counterpart the vital body is.

   It is sometimes asked why Initiates are always men.  They are not; in the
lower degrees there are many women,  but when an Initiate is able to  choose
his  sex  he usually takes the positive masculine body,  as the  life  which
brought  him  to  initiation has spiritualized his vital body  and  made  it
positive  under  all conditions,  so that he has then an instrument  of  the
highest efficiency.

   There  are women Initiates,  and sometimes even Initiates of the  Greater
Mysteries  take  upon themselves a feminine body for the sake of  a  special
work which they desire to accomplish.  It is true,  however,  that those who
have advanced so far that they have a choice regarding sex usually prefer  a
male  body,  an the reason is not far to seek.   Woman has a positive  vital
body but a negative dense body and is, therefore, somewhat at a disadvantage


[PAGE 175]                                 POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE DEVELOPMENT

in the world as at present constituted.   Striving for the higher ideals and
living the higher life, we spiritualize the vital body and transmute it into
soul  which is always positive--a power usable regardless of  sex--and  when
the Initiate wears a masculine body also,  he is thoroughly positive in  the
Physical  World  and has a better chance for advancement than when  using  a
feminine vehicle.

   Hence one who lives upon a flesh diet must replenish his food supply very
often; such material would therefore be unsuitable for the purpose of build-
ing a body that has to wait for some time before the Adept enters it.   Food
consisting of vegetables, fruits, and nuts, particularly when these are ripe
and  fresh,  is interpenetrated by a great deal of the ether which  composes
the vital body of the plant.   These are much easier to subdue and to incor-
porate into the polity of the body, also they stay much longer there  before
the individual cell life can assert itself.   Therefore the Adept who wishes
to build a body ready to wear before he leaves the old one, naturally builds
it of fresh vegetables, fruits, and nuts, taking them into the body which he
uses daily where they become subjected to his will, a part of himself.

   Regarding the effect from the occult standpoint of this polarization,  we
may learn much from certain customs in so-called secret societies.   As  you
know,  such organizations always place at the door a guard who is instructed
to  deny  admittance  to anyone not supplied with the  proper  password  and
signs,  and  that  words  very  well  so far as the people are concerned who


[PAGE 176]                                                    THE VITAL BODY

function  only in their physical body.  But the so-called secrets  of  these
organizations  are not in any sense secrets to those who are able  to  enter
their places of assembly in their vital bodies.   It is otherwise in a  true
esoteric order such as, for instance, the Rosicrucians.  No guard is on duty
at  the door of the Temple when the Mystic Midnight Mass is said each  night
of  the week.   The door is wide open to all who have learned to  speak  the
open sesame.   But that is not a spoken password; the initiate who desire to
attend  must  know  how to attune his soul body to the  particular  rate  of
vibration maintained on that night.  Furthermore,  this vibration differs on
the  various  nights of the week so that those who have  learned  to  attune
themselves to the vibration maintained on Saturday night when the first  de-
gree meets are as effectually barred from entering the Temple with those who
carry on the work Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, etc., as any ordinary person.

   Therefore,  "The Path of Preparation" precedes "The Way  of  Initiation."
Persistence,  Devotion, Observation, and Discrimination are means of attain-
ment,  for by these the vital body is sensitized.   By persistence and devo-
tion the chemical and the life ethers become capable of taking care of vital
functions  in the dense body during sleep.   A cleavage takes place  between
those  two  ethers and the two higher,  the light ether and  the  reflecting
ether.  When the latter two have been sufficiently spiritualized by observa-
tion  and discrimination,  a simple formula given by the Teacher enable  the
disciple  to  take  them  out  with  his  higher bodies at will.  He is thus


[PAGE 177]                                 POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE DEVELOPMENT

equipped with a vehicle of sense perception and memory.   Whatever knowledge
he  possesses  in  the material world is then  available  in  the  spiritual
realms, and he brings back to the physical brain, memories of his experience
while without the dense body.   This is necessary in order to function  out-
side  the dense body with full consciousness of both the Physical World  and
the Desire World, for the desire body is unorganized as yet, and did not the
vital body leave its imprint on the desire body at death,  we could have  no
consciousness in the Desire World during post-mortem existence.

   There are various grades of spiritual sight.   One grade enables a man to
see  the ordinarily invisible ether with the myriads of beings  that  invest
that realm.   Other and higher variants give him the faculty to see the  De-
sire  World  and even the World of Thought while remaining in  the  physical
body.

   But these faculties, though valuable when exercised under full control of
the human will, are not sufficient to read the "Memory of Nature' with abso-
lute accuracy.  To do this and to make the necessary investigations in order
that one may understand how the "Web of Destiny"  is made and unmade,  it is
necessary  to  be able at will to step from the physical body  and  function
outside  in  that soul body which we have spoken of as composed of  the  two
higher ethers,  this being also invested with the desire body and the  mind.
Thus the investigator is in full possession of all his faculties,  he  knows
all  that  he  knew in the Physical World, and has the ability to bring back


[PAGE 178]                                                    THE VITAL BODY

into  the  physical consciousness the things which he has  learned  without.
When  he has this ability he must also learn to balance himself,  TO  UNDER-
STAND the things which he sees outside, for mark this:   It is not enough to
be able to step outside the body into another world and to see things there;
we  do not by that fact become omniscient any more than we  understand  what
everything is used for and how everything works here in this Physical  World
because  we live here from day to day and year to year.   It requires  study
and  application to become thoroughly familiar with the facts of the  invis-
ible world as it does with the facts of the world in which we are now living
in our physical bodies.  Therefore the book, the "Memory of Nature,"  is not
read easily at the first attempt,  or at the second either,  for just as  it
takes a child time to learn how to read our ordinary books here, so also, it
requires time and effort to decipher this wonderful scroll.

   Those  who  have the true spirituality do not fee saved one day,  in  the
seventh  heaven of ecstasy,  and the next feel themselves down in the  dumps
and miserable sinners that can never be forgiven;  for their religion is not
based upon the emotional nature which feels these things,  but is rooted  in
the  vital body which is the vehicle of reason,  set and persistent  in  the
path  it has once chosen.   As new forms are propagated through  the  second
ether of the vital body,  so the higher self,  the CHRIST WITHIN,  is formed
through this same vehicle of generation,  the vital body,  in its higher as-
pects embodied in the two upper ethers.

   But as a child  that is born into the world requires nourishment, so also


[PAGE 179]                                 POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE DEVELOPMENT

the Christ that is born WITHIN is a babe and requires to be nourished to the
full stature of manhood.   And as the physical body grows by a continual as-
similation of material from the Chemical Region,  the solids,  liquids,  and
gases, so also, as the Christ grows, will the two higher ethers grow in vol-
ume and form a luminous cloud around the man or woman sufficiently  discern-
ing to set his or her face heavenward; it will invest the pilgrim with light
so brilliant that he WALKS IN THE LIGHT, as a matter of actual fact.  By the
exercises  given in the Western Mystery School of the Rosicrucians,  it  be-
comes possible in time to detach the two higher ethers, and the man may then
step away from his physical body,  leaving it for a time invested and vital-
ized  only  by the two lower ethers;  he is then what we call  an  Invisible
Helper.

   You  will remember that Christ gave not the cup to the multitude  but  to
His  disciples  who were His messengers and servants of the Cross.   At  the
present  time those who drink from the cup of self-abnegation that they  may
use  their  force  in the service of others,  are building  that  organ  (an
etheric  organ in the throat and head) together with the soul body which  is
the Wedding Garment.   they are learning to use it in a small way as  Invis-
ible Helpers when they are out of their bodies at night,  for then they  are
taught  to  speak  the word of power which removes  disease  and  builds  in
healthy tissue.

   There is another class of people in whom the connection between the dense
and the vital bodies is more or less loose, so that the ether of their vital


[PAGE 180]                                                    THE VITAL BODY

bodies  vibrates at a higher rate then in the first class mentioned.   These
people are therefore more or less sensitive to the spiritual world.

   This class of sensitive may again be divided.   Some are weak characters,
dominated by the will of others in a NEGATIVE manner,  as mediums,  who  are
the  prey of disembodied Spirits desirous of obtaining a physical body  when
they have lost their own by death.

   The other class of sensitive are strong POSITIVE characters, who act only
from  within,  according to their own will.   They may develop into  trained
clairvoyants,  and be their own masters instead of slaves of  a  disembodied
Spirit.   In some sensitives of both classes it is possible to extract  part
of the ether which forms the vital body.   When a disembodied Spirit obtains
a subject of that nature,  it develops the sensitive as A MATERIALIZING  ME-
DIUM.   The man who is capable of extracting his own vital body by an act of
will,  becomes a citizen of two worlds, independent and free.  Such are usu-
ally known as INVISIBLE HELPERS.

   No Spirit can work in any world without a vehicle made of the material of
that world.  To function in the Physical World, to fetch and carry,  we must
have  a  dense body and a vital body;  both are made of  various  grades  of
physical matter,  solids,  liquids,  gas, and ether.  We may obtain such ve-
hicles in the ordinary way,  by going through the womb to birth,  or we  may
extract ether from the body of a medium and temporarily use that to  materi-
alize, or we may use the fumes of incense.


[PAGE 181]                                 POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE DEVELOPMENT

   This  remnant  of the hypnotist's vital body is also the  storehouse  for
commands to be carried out at a future time,  involving the performance of a
certain act, on a certain day, at a certain hour.  When the time arrives the
impulse is released like the spring of an alarm clock,  and the victim  must
carry out the command, even to murder, yet has no idea that he is influenced
by someone else.   Therefore,  hypnotism is the greatest crime on earth  and
the greatest danger to society.

   It is sometimes contended that hypnotism may be used benevolently for the
cure of drunkenness and other vices, and it is readily admitted that, viewed
solely from the material standpoint, that appears to be true.   But from the
viewpoint  of occult science it is far otherwise.   Like all other  desires,
the craving for liquor is in the desire body,  and it is the duty of the Ego
to master it by will power.   That is why he is in the school of  experience
called life,  and no man can do his moral growing for him,  any more than he
can digest another's dinner for him.  Nature is not to be cheated; each must
solve his own problems, overcome his own faults by his own will.  If, there-
fore,  a hypnotist overpowers the desire body of a drunkard,  the Ego in the
drunkard will have to learn its lesson in a future life,  if he dies  before
the hypnotist.  But if the hypnotist dies first the man will inevitably turn
to drink again,  for then the part of the hypnotist's vital body which  held
the evil desire in check gravitates back to its source, and the cure is nil.
The only way permanently to master a vice is by one's own will.


[PAGE 182]                                                    THE VITAL BODY

   The  modus  operandi of the invisible manipulator is simply to  push  the
higher vehicles out of the lower bodies of the unresisting medium,  step  in
himself  and  take  control.   When he leaves,  he also takes  part  of  the
medium's vital body to use as a key or lever next time.

   When a materializing medium is used by Spirits for the purpose of showing
themselves  to an audience,  they first extract the vital body,  or as  much
thereof as they dare, from the medium, leaving the dense body in the cabinet
in  a fearful shrunken state.   That is dreadful for people unused  to  such
phenomena to see.   With this vital body-which, by the way,  has been photo-
graphed by scientists,  as the camera will register rays that are  invisible
to the eye--they produce the desired phenomena readily, because it is a liv-
ing  thing and attracts MATTER greedily so long as it has not  collapsed  in
the manner that it does shortly after death.   They interpolate physical at-
oms of the surrounding atmosphere after making a matrix (mold) of the  vital
body  of the medium,  and thereby shape a body into any form that suits  the
Spirit materializing to take upon itself.  The vital body of a medium may be
used by any number of Spirits during a seance,  each one clothing itself  in
the plastic substance and filling out with atoms from the surrounding  atmo-
sphere,  even borrowing from the sitters who very often feel much  exhausted
upon leaving a seance room.

   In the case of the materializing medium, we may say that the influence is
always injurious.  The  materializing  Spirit  entrances the victim and then


[PAGE 183]                                 POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE DEVELOPMENT

draws the ether of the vital body out through the spleen, for the difference
between  the materializing medium and the ordinary person is the  fact  that
the connection between the vital body and the dense body is exceedingly lax,
so  that it is possible to withdraw this vital body to a very great  extent.
The  vital body is the vehicle whereby the solar currents which give us  vi-
tality are specialized.   Deprived of the vitalizing principle,  the body of
the  medium  at the time of a materialization sometimes  shrinks  to  almost
one-half  its  usual size;  the flesh becomes flabby and the spark  of  life
burns  very low.   When the seance i over and the vital body  replaced,  the
medium is awakened and in normal consciousness.  He then experiences a feel-
ing of the most terrible exhaustion and sometimes, unfortunately, resorts to
drink to revive the vital forces.  In that case, of course,  the health will
very  soon suffer and the medium will become a total wreck.   At  any  rate,
mediumship should be avoided,  for apart from this danger to the  instrument
there  are other and far more serious considerations in connection with  the
more  subtle  bodies,  and particularly in connection with  the  after-death
state.

   Roughly  speaking,  we may say that humanity today is  divided  into  two
classes--those  in whom the connection between the vital body and the  dense
body  is very close,  and another class where the connection is more  loose.
The former class is the ordinary person who is engaged in material  pursuits
and is altogether out of touch with the spiritual worlds.   The latter class
is  the  so-called  sensitives,  and is again divided into two classes.  One


[PAGE 184]                                                    THE VITAL BODY

class is ACTUATED BY THE WILL FROM WITHIN and is positive.   From this class
comes the trained clairvoyant and the Invisible Helper.   The other class is
negative ad is AMENABLE TO THE WILL OF OTHERS.   From this class mediums are
recruited.

   When the connection between the vital body and the dense body of a man is
somewhat lax,  he will be sensitive to spiritual vibrations, and if positive
he  will BY HIS OWN WILL develop his spiritual faculties,  live a  spiritual
life,  and in time receive the teaching necessary to become a trained clair-
voyant and a master of his faculty at nay and all times, free to exercise it
or not, as he pleases.

   If  a person has this slight laxity between the vital and  dense  bodies,
and  is  of  a negative temperament,  he is liable to  become  the  prey  of
discarnate Spirits, as a medium.  Where the connection between the vital and
dense  bodies  is  very lax,  so that it may be withdrawn,  an  the  man  is
positive,  he  may become an Invisible Helper,  capable of  taking  the  two
higher  ethers away from his dense body at WILL and using them as a  vehicle
for  sense perception and memory.   He can then function consciously in  the
spiritual  world  and bring back a recollection of everything  he  has  done
there,  so that,  for instance, when he leaves his body at night he takes up
the life in the invisible world in a fully conscious manner,  as we do  here
when we wake up in the morning after sleep and perform our various duties in
the visible world.   When a person has this lax connection between the vital
body and the dense body and is of a negative temperament,  the Spirits which
are earth-bound and seek to manifest  here  may  withdraw  his vital body by


[PAGE 185]                                 POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE DEVELOPMENT

way  of the spleen and temporarily use the ether of which it is composed  to
materialize spirit forms, returning the ether to the medium after the seance
is over.

   It is these elementals who are the originators of many of the  spiritual-
istic phenomena,  where more intelligence is displayed than can be accounted
for  by the action of soul-less shells,  particularly  at  materializations.
Though shells may take part,  phenomena are always directed by a being  with
intelligence.  The difference between a materializing medium and an ordinary
person  is that the connection between the dense body and the vital body  is
more lax in the medium, so that from the latter a part of the vital body can
be  withdrawn,  and also some of the gases and even liquids of the  medium's
dense body may be used to form the bodies of apparitions.   This  withdrawal
and the process of clothing the shells is generally performed by the elemen-
tal who extracts the vital body of the medium out through the spleen.   As a
rule,  the  body of the medium shrinks horribly in  consequence.   When  the
dense  body  is thus deprived of its vital principle,  it  becomes  terribly
exhausted,  and unfortunately the medium often seeks to restore the equilib-
rium by strong drink, becoming a confirmed drunkard.

   God is the Grand Architect of the Universe and the Initiates of the White
Schools are also archetektons, builders from the primordial essence in their
beneficent  work  for  humanity.  These  Invisible Helpers require a nucleus


[PAGE 186]                                                    THE VITAL BODY

from the patient's vital body, which is, as students of The Rosicrucian Fel-
lowship know, given to them in the effluvia from the hand, which impregnates
the  paper when the patient makes application for health and healing.   With
this  nucleus of the patient's vital body they are able to draw upon  virgin
matter for whatever they need to restore health by building up and strength-
ening the organism.

   The Black Magicians are despoilers, actuated by hatred and malice.   They
also  need a nucleus for their nefarious operations,  and this  they  obtain
most easily from the vital body at spiritualistic or hypnotic seances, where
the sitters relax, put themselves into a negative frame of mind,  drop their
jaws,  and sink their individualities by other distinctly mediumistic  prac-
tices.   Even  people who do not frequent such places are  not  immune,  for
there are certain products of the vital body which are ignorantly  scattered
by all and which may be used effectively by the Black Magicians.   Chief  in
this  category are the hair and finger nails.   The Negroes in their  voodoo
magic  use the placenta for similar evil purposes.   One  particularly  evil
man,  whose practice were exposed a decade ago, obtained from boys the vital
fluid  which he used for his demoniac acts.   Even so innocent a thing as  a
glass of water placed in close proximity to certain parts of the body of the
prospective victim,  while the Black Magician converses with him can be made
to absorb a part of the victim's vital body.  This will give the Black Magi-
cian  the  requisite  nucleus,  or it may be obtained from a  piece  of  the
person's clothing.  The same invisible  emanation  contained in the garment,


[PAGE 187]                                 POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE DEVELOPMENT

which  guides the bloodhound upon the track of a certain person,  will  also
guide the magician,  white or black, to the abode of that person and furnish
the  magician with a key to the person's system whereby the former may  help
or hurt according to his inclination.



[PAGE 189]                                                    THE VITAL BODY

                                   PART V

                           THE VITAL BODY OF JESUS


[PAGE 190]                                                    THE VITAL BODY

                                  CHAPTER I

                         AS A VEHICLE FOR THE CHRIST


   THE  VITAL  BODY OF JESUS IS VERY HIGHLY DEVELOPED AND WAS  USED  BY  THE
CHRIST DURING HIS THREE YEARS OF MINISTRY.

   We know that at death, or at any time when we have to leave this Physical
World, we give up our dense body, and our vital body, because they belong to
the Physical World.   And so Jesus,  when he had come to the age of  thirty,
when he had made his instrument fit for the use of the Great Being,  gladly,
willingly gave it away.   He left it at the Baptism as he would have stepped
out at death,  that the Christ might step in,  and that was seen to  descend
upon him a a dove.

   Christ,  as an Archangel,  had learned to build down to the desire  body,
but  he  vital body and the dense body He had never learned to  build.   The
Archangels had worked on humanity from without before,  as Group Spirits do;
but that was not enough.   The help had to come from within.   That was made
possible by the combination of Christ and Jesus,  and therefore it is  true,
in  the  very  highest sense,  in the most literal sense,  when  Paul  says:
"There  is  but  one  mediator  between  God  and  man--Christ  Jesus,   the
righteous."


[PAGE 191]                                       AS A VEHICLE FOR THE CHRIST

   It is one of our illusions that the body which we inhabit is alive.  As a
matter  of fact it is nothing of the sort.   At least there is such  a  very
small  portion  of this body which can really be said to be alive  that  our
statement is practically true.   The larger portion is absolutely asleep  if
not entirely dead.  That is a fact well-known to science, and something that
reason must teach us is so.   That is because our spiritual power is so weak
that  it cannot furnish this vehicle with life to a sufficient  extent.   In
the  measure that we fail thus to vitalize the body,  it seems like a  heavy
clod of clay,  which we must laboriously drag along with us,  until after  a
few years it crystallizes to such an extent that it is impossible for us any
longer  to  keep up the vibratory motion.  Then we are forced to  leave  the
body and it is said to die.  A SLOW process of disintegration takes place to
restore the atoms to their original free state.

   Contrast now that state of affairs when one of these same earth bodies is
taken possession of by a powerful Spirit like that of Christ.  You will find
an analogy in the case of a man being resuscitated from drowning.  There the
vital body has been extracted,  and the vibratory action of the physical at-
oms has ceased almost, if not altogether.  Then when the vital body is again
caused  to permeate the physical body it begins to prod every atom into  ac-
tion and vibration.

   This attempt to awaken the sleeping atoms causes the intensely  disagree-
able  prickling  sensation  which persons who have  been  resuscitated  from
drowning describe,  and this sensation does not cease until the physical at-
oms  have  attained a rate of vibration ONE OCTAVE BELOW that of  the  vital
body.  Then  they  are  insensate  and nothing is felt save as we ordinarily


[PAGE 192]                                                    THE VITAL BODY

feel.

   Take now the case of Christ entering the dense body of Jesus.   There the
atoms  were  moving at a speed much lower than the vibratory forces  of  the
Christ Spirit.  Consequently the acceleration had to take place,  and during
the THREE YEARS' MINISTRY this marked acceleration of the vibration of these
atoms would have shattered the body had not the powerful will of the  Master
assisted by the skill of the Essences held it together.   Had the atoms been
asleep at the time when the Christ left the body of Jesus,  the same as  our
atoms  are asleep when we leave our bodies,  a long process of  purification
would have been required to disintegrate the body.  They were,  however,  as
we  said,  highly sensitized and alive, and therefore it was  impossible  to
keep them in bondage when the Spirit had fled.  In future ages when we learn
to keep our bodies alive we shall not change atoms and, therefore, bodies so
often.   Nor when we do,  will it take so long as at present to complete the
process of purification.   The tomb was not hermetically sealed,  and  would
not offer obstruction to the passage of atoms.

   This (rapid disintegration of the physical body of spiritual people)  the
writer  has not been able to verify because it is difficult to find  men  of
high spiritual proclivities who have passed out recently,  but it would seem
that this is so from the fact recorded in the Bible that the body of  Christ
was not found in the tomb when the people came to look for it.   As we  have
said before in relation to this matter, the Christ spiritualized the body of


[PAGE 193]                                       AS A VEHICLE FOR THE CHRIST

Jesus so highly,  made to so vibrant, that it was almost impossible to  keep
the  particles in place during His ministry.  This was a fact known  to  the
writer  by the teachings of the Elder Brothers and by what investigation  he
has  made of the subject in the Memory of Nature,  but the bearing  of  this
fact upon the general subject of death and the after-existence was not known
until lately.

   Upon the death of the dense body of Christ Jesus,  the seed atom was  re-
turned to the original owner,  Jesus of Nazareth,  who for some time  after-
ward,  while functioning in a vital body which he had gathered  temporarily,
taught the nucleus of the new faith which Christ had left behind.   Jesus of
Nazareth has since had the guidance of the esoteric branches which sprang up
all over Europe.

   Upon the death of the dense body of Jesus,  the seed atoms were  returned
to the original owner.   During the there years'  interval between the  Bap-
tism,  where he gave up his vehicles, and the Crucifixion, which brought the
return of the seed atoms, Jesus gathered a vehicle of ETHER, as an Invisible
Helper  gathers physical matter whenever it is necessary to materialize  all
or part of the body.   However, material not matched with the seed atom can-
not be permanently appropriated.  It disintegrates as soon as the will power
assembled in it is withdrawn,  and this was,  therefore,  only a  makeshift.
When  the seed atom of the vital body was returned,  a new body was  formed,
and  in  that  vehicle Jesus has been functioning since,  working  with  the
churches.


[PAGE 194]                                                    THE VITAL BODY

   In  1st  These.  5:23,  Paul states that man's whole  being  consists  of
Spirit,  soul, and body.  When we shed the dense body finally as Christ did,
we  shall function in a body called SOMA PSUCHICON (soul body) in  1st  Cor.
15:44.  This is the "vital body" in our literature, a vehicle made of ether,
capable of levitation,  and of the same nature as the body which Christ used
after  the Crucifixion.   This vehicle is not subject to death in  the  same
sense  a  our physical body,  and it is eventually transmuted to  Spirit  as
taught in our literature and as required by 1st Cor., 15th chapter.

   Thus we see that it is a property of the vital body to attract to  itself
physical  matter,  and it is much easier for one who leaves the body  uncon-
sciously to allow the physical particles to flow into his soul body than  to
keep them away.   The soul body, of course, is not subject to death,  decay,
or collapse.   Therefore it is very easily understood that the Christ  could
use  that vehicle to go through the walls into the room where the  Disciples
were  gathered and there draw about Him the necessary material to show  Him-
self  in a physical vehicle which was disintegrated the moment He wanted  to
leave.   However,  it is noteworthy that it is the disintegration that calls
forth an effort and not attraction of physical matter.

   Our  Elder Brothers have placed the vital body of Jesus in a  sarcophagus
of glass to protect it from the gaze of the curious or profane.   They  keep
this  receptacle  in  a  cavern  deep in the earth, where no uninitiated can


[PAGE 195]                                       AS A VEHICLE FOR THE CHRIST

penetrate.   To make assurance doubly sure, however,  vigilant watchers keep
constant guard over their precious charge;  for were that vehicle destroyed,
Christ's only avenue of egress would be cut off, and He would have to remain
a  prisoner in the earth until the Cosmic Night dissolves its  chemical  el-
ements into chaos.   Thus the mission of Christ as Savior would have failed;
His  suffering would be greatly prolonged, and our evolution would be  enor-
mously retarded.

   Christ was free to choose His vehicle of entrance into the Earth where He
is now confined, but once having chosen the vehicle of Jesus, He is bound to
leave by the same way.   Were that vehicle destroyed,  Christ must remain in
the cramping surroundings till Chaos dissolves the Earth.   This would be  a
great calamity,  and therefore,  the vehicle He once used is most  jealously
guarded by the Elder Brothers.

   In  the meantime Jesus has been the loser of all the soul  growth  accom-
plished during his thirty years on earth prior to the Baptism and  contained
in the vehicle given the Christ.  This was and is a great sacrifice made for
us,  but like all good deeds,  it will rebound to a greater glory in the fu-
ture.   This vehicle will be used by Christ when He comes to  establish  and
perfect  the Kingdom of God,  and it will be so spiritualized and  glorified
that  when it is again restored to Jesus at the time when Christ  turns  the
Kingdom  over to the Father it will be the most wonderful of all  human  ve-
hicles.

   Of course, the Earth Spirit is  not to be thought of as larger man, or as


[PAGE 196]                                                    THE VITAL BODY

having physical form other than the Earth itself.   The vital body of Jesus,
in which the Christ Spirit was focused prior to its actual ingress into  the
earth, has the ordinary human form; it is preserved and is shown to the can-
didate at a certain point in his progression.  Some day in the far future it
will again house the benevolent Christ Spirit upon His return from the  cen-
ter of the earth, when we shall have become etheric, and when He is ready to
ascend to higher spheres, leaving us to be taught of the Father, whose reli-
gion will be higher than the Christian religion.

   New we come to a point involving an important cosmic law which  underlies
various  spiritualistic phenomena and also supports the unique  teaching  of
The Rosicrucian Fellowship (and the Bible), that Christ will not return in a
dense body but in a vital body.  It also shows why He MUST return.

   Before A.D.  33 Jehovah guided our planet in its orbit and mankind on the
path of evolution FROM WITHOUT.  On Golgotha, Christ entered the earth which
he  now  guides  from within,  and will until a  sufficient  number  of  our
humanity have evolved the soul power necessary to float the earth and  guide
our  younger brothers.   This requires ability to live in vital bodies,  ca-
pable of levitation.   The vital body of Jesus through which Christ  entered
the earth is His only avenue of return to the Sun.   Hence the Second Advent
will be in Jesus' vital body.


[PAGE 197]                                       AS A VEHICLE FOR THE CHRIST

                                BIBLIOGRAPHY

ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION, pp. 25, 117, 118


CHRISTIANITY LECTURES, pp. 57-60, 62, 66, 70-73, 77, 78, 80-82, 86, 95, 100,
   109, 115, 116, 118, 122, 123, 136, 175, 176, 179, 180, 182, 185, 219,
   220, 224, 225, 227, 228, 232, 238, 248, 264, 265, 270, 276, 277, 279,
   300, 307

COSMO-CONCEPTION, pp. 10, 37, 58-64, 74, 77, 78, 88, 91-94, 97-100, 102,
   103, 108, 121, 124, 134, 135, 137-143, 166, 210-215, 217, 220, 224, 229,
   232, 240-242, 253, 255, 262, 263, 265, 266, 280, 292-294, 300, 331, 395-
   397, 404, 408, 422-424, 430, 433, 440, 441, 455, 456, 462, 463, 466, 476,
   480-483, 505

FREEMASONRY AND CATHOLICISM, pp. 12, 63, 64, 87, 89, 93, 94

GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC, pp. 9-11, 49-51, 67, 80-82, 88, 103, 104

LETTERS TO STUDENTS, pp. 37, 80, 82, 83, 91, 95, 96, 112, 113, 141-143, 181,
   182, 217

MYSTERIES OF THE GREAT OPERAS, pp. 20, 24, 25, 71, 72, 111, 112

MYSTICAL INTERPRETATION OF CHRISTMAS, p. 26


[PAGE 198]                                                    THE VITAL BODY

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS, VOLUME I, pp. 5, 19, 22, 23, 25, 58, 68-73, 82, 83,
   93-96, 106-112, 153, 168, 172, 176, 193, 194, 209, 227, 228, 232-234,
   241, 242, 256, 257, 269, 371, 373, 376

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS, VOLUME II, pp. 50, 51, 74, 75, 82, 84, 85, 129-131,
   137, 138, 143, 144, 178, 231, 279, 297, 304-306, 312, 314-317, 335-337,
   413-415, 511, 512, 530, 533, 536, 537

ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES, pp. 36, 37, 74, 122, 123, 128-131, 136, 137, 153,

   156-159, 186, 195

TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE, pp. 9, 10, 50, 72, 73, 78, 80, 82, 195, 196

WEB OF DESTINY, pp. 10, 14, 15, 18, 19, 22, 23, 27-30, 32-35, 37-42, 61, 62,
   84, 85, 99-102, 109, 113-117, 131, 132, 145


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