Sepharial

“ We all have the same laws of thought and the same general constitution. Humanity comprehends us all within the bonds of a single nature. Yet despite these facts we are divided by differences of opinion, of emotion, of sympathy, of taste and faculty. It is probable that these differences obtain in spheres immeasurably higher than our own, the sole element of consent being the recognition of dependence upon a Higher Power. God is the co-ordinating centre in a universe of infinite diversity. ”

“ Water will wear away a rock by continual fretting, though nobody doubts that water is softer than a rock, and if the barrier between this and the soul-world be like granite, yet the patient and persistent action of the determined mind will sooner or later wear it away, the last thin layer will break and the light of another world will stream through, dazzling our unaccustomed eyes with its bright effulgence. ”

“ I should be the last to allow the study of psychism to usurp the legitimate place in life of intellectual and spiritual pursuits, and I look with abhorrence upon the flippant use made of the psychic faculties by a certain class of pseudo-occultists who serve up this kind of thing with their five o'clock tea. But I regard an ordered psychism as a most valuable accessory to intellectual and spiritual development and as filling a natural place in the process of unfoldment between that intellectualism that is grounded in the senses and that higher intelligence which receives its light from within. ”

“ I think it right, therefore, to regard the quest of clairvoyance as a legitimate occupation, providing that it is purposeful and carried out with a right spirit, while not being allowed to interfere with the proper performance of one's ordinary duties in life. For it is possible to become over-zealous and even morbid over these mysteries of human life, and to become so obsessed by the idea of their importance as practically to render oneself unfitted for any ordinary pursuits, thereby producing an isolation that is in the best sense unprofitable. ”

“ If we regard clairvoyance as a normal faculty we are more likely to treat it normally than if we give it a paramount and exceptional value and seek to beatify those in whom it appears. I am convinced from experience that it is both normal and educable though not usually active in the large majority of people. I am also of the opinion that it is not peculiar, except in its higher functions, to human beings. I have known animals to possess this faculty; in a higher degree I have seen humans in the exercise of it. ”

“ The suggestion that the clairvoyant faculty is latent in all of us has no doubt been responsible for much misunderstanding, and not a little disappointment; but I doubt if it is so far removed from the truth as that which makes the possession of the faculty a certain sign of a superior degree of evolution. Although the faculty of clear vision brings us into more intimate conscious relations with a new order of existence, where the past and future, the distant and the near, would seem to be brought into immediate perception, it does not therefore confer upon us a higher degree of spirituality. ”

“ Personally I find the past to be located on my left and the future on my right hand, but others inform me that the habit of mind, places the past behind and the future in front of them, while others again have the past beneath their feet and the future over their heads. ”

“ Mental stability, self-possession and confidence in one's own soul-faculties must be the firm rock on which all revelation should rest. The element of doubt either negatives results or opens the door to the ingress of all manner of deceptive impressions.
Integrity of purpose is imperative. The purer the intention and motive of the seer the more lucid will be the vision accorded. No reliable vision can be obtained by one whose nature is not inherently truthful. ”

“ The brain will now be felt to palpitate spasmodically, as if opening and closing again in the coronal region; there will be a tightening of the scalp about the base of brain, as if the floor of the cerebrum were contracting; the seer will catch his breath with a spasmodic sigh and the first vision will stand out clear and life-like against the azure screen of space. ”

“ Auto-suggestion, at least, can hardly be regarded in the category of objections, since we cannot auto-suggest that which does not first of all arise as an image in the mind. It is in the spontaneous and automatic production of auto-suggested impressions that the phenomena of clairvoyance very largely consist; only we have to remember that the suggesting self is a more considerable quantity than the personality to which these suggestions are made, and is in touch with a world immeasurably greater and in every sense less limited than that to which the person is externally related. ”

“ Looked at from whatever point of view we may choose, the phenomena of clairvoyance cannot be adequately explained without recourse to psychology on the one hand and occultism on the other. Psychology is needed in order to explain the nature and faculty of the human soul, and occultism to define for us the nature of that universal mirror in which the whole category of human events, both past and future, are reflected. Having decided upon a course of experiments with a crystal or mirror, the best of the kind should be obtained. ”

“ Every movement we make displaces air but our sense of touch does not inform us of it, but if we stand in a sunbeam the dust particles will show that it is so. Our sense of feeling will not register above certain degrees of heat or below certain degrees of cold. Sensation, moreover, is not indefinitely sustained, as anyone may learn who will follow the ticking of a watch for five minutes continuously.
But quite apart from the sense and range of our perceptions, the equality of a sense-impression is found to vary with different persons, affecting them each in a different way. ”

“ We cannot, however, assert anything with certainty, seeing that proof must always require that a thing must be brought within our range of perception before we can admit it as fact. The future has many more wonderful revelations in store for us, no doubt. But there is really nothing more wonderful than human faculty which discovers these things in Nature, things that have always been in existence but until now have been outside our range of perception. The ultra-solid world may exist. ”

“ Psychic tradition is as important a fact as is physical heredity. The latter is a factor of immense importance as affecting the constitution and quality of the organism in and through which the soul is required to function. But psychic tradition is that which determines the power and faculty brought to bear upon the physical organism. Past evolution is not a negligible quantity, and its effects are never wasted or lost to the individual. We are what we are by reason of what we have already been, as well individually as racially. ”

“ But we are dealing with a new stage in evolutional progress--the waking up of new forces in ourselves and the prospective use of a new set of faculties. It is of course open to anybody to experiment blindly, and none will seek to deter them save those who have some knowledge of the attendant dangers, and which knowledge alone can help us to avoid. I should consider the man more fool than hero who, in entire ignorance of mechanics and aeronautics, stepped on board an aeroplane and started the engines running. ”

“ Clairvoyance, indeed, is a faculty which has no direct moral relations. It is no more the gift or property of the wise or the good man than extraordinary muscular power is an adjunct of high intelligence. And yet it is a curious fact that in all the sacred writings of the world there is a suggestion that holy men, or "Men of God," have this and other transcendent faculties, such as clairaudience and the power of healing. Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures clairaudience seems to constitute the peculiar authority of the teacher or prophet. ”

“ But as far as we know or can learn from the history of human knowledge, our senses have been the chiefest source of error. It is with considerable caution that the scientist employs the evidence from sense alone, and in the study of experimental psychology it is the sense which has first to be corrected, and which, in fact, forms the great factor in the equation. A person informs me that he can see a vision in the crystal ball before him, and although I am in the same relation with the "field" as he, I cannot see anything except accountable reflections. ”

“ What I have to say in this place is addressed especially to those who would aspire to the faculty of clear vision and in whom the psychic powers are striving towards expression. Every person whose life is not wholly sunk in material and selfish pleasures but in whom the aspiration to a higher and better life is a hunger the world cannot satisfy, has within himself the power to see and know that which he seeks behind the veil of the senses. Nature has never produced a desire she cannot satisfy. ”

“ For sooner or later, according to the degree of susceptibility or responsiveness in the subject, there will come a moment when the milky-looking clouds and dancing starlights will suddenly vanish and a bright azure expanse like an open summer sky will fill the field of vision. ”

“ Primarily, I should be disposed to regard the mere opening up of a channel of communication between the material and psychic worlds as adequate reason for the exercise of the faculty. The Gates of Heaven have to be kept open by human endeavour and the exercise of the spiritual and psychic faculties, otherwise a complete lesion and cutting off of our source of inspiration would follow. Except we aspire to the higher world that world will come no nearer to us. Action and reaction are equal and opposite. ”

“ It should rather be a matter of surprise that the faculty is still with us, that it is not wholly irresponsive to the behests of the soul. While in the course of physical evolution many important functions have undergone remarkable changes, and organs, once active and useful, have become stunted, impotent, and in some cases extinct, yet on the other hand we see that seeds which have lain dormant in arid soil for hundreds of years can spring into leaf and flower under the influence of a suitable climate. ”

“ As for those triflers who at odd moments sit for the production of what they call "phenomena," with no other object than the gratification of an inquisitive vanity, I would drive them with whips from the field of psychical research. They are people whose presence in this area of serious enquiry does no good either to the cause of truth or the service of the race, and this loose traffic of sorts in the hope of finding a new sensation would, were it transferred to another sphere of activity, deservedly receive a very ugly name. ”

“ Therefore above all things it is essential for the investigator of psychic phenomena to have an unflinching love of truth, to be resigned to the will of Heaven, to accept the revelations accorded in a spirit of grateful confidence, and to dispel all doubt and controversy by an appeal to the eyes of one's own immortal soul. ”

“ So that psychic tradition while disposing some to the speedy revelation of an already acquired faculty, disposes others to the more arduous but not less interesting work of acquiring such faculty. And because the spiritual needs of mankind are ever of primary importance, there are always to be found those in whom the power of spiritual interpretation is the dominant faculty, such persons being the natural channels of intercourse between the superior and inferior worlds. ”

“ We do not suddenly acquire faculties, we evolve them by effort and successive selection. In our upward striving for liberty we specialize along certain lines which appear to us to be those offering either the least resistance or the most ready means of self-preservation, liberty and well-being. Hence some evolve a special faculty for money-making and, as schoolboys, will be expert traders of alley-taws, jack-knives, toffee and all sorts of kickshaws. ”

“ The psychic process of picture-production is involuntary and unconscious, but the perception of the mental pictures is a perfectly conscious process and involves the exercise of an introspective faculty. The passive seer, on the contrary, is effortless, and receives impressions by reflection, the visions coming imperceptibly and having a literal interpretation. The vision is not in this case of an allegorical or symbolic nature, as is the case with the positive seer, but is an actual vision of a fact or event which has already happened or as it will transpire in the future. ”

“ The attitude of the would-be seer should not be too expectant or over-anxious about results. All will come in good time, and the more speedily if the conditions are carefully observed. It is useless to force the young plant in its growth. Take time, as Nature does. It is a great work and much patience may be needed. Nature is never in a hurry, and therefore she brings everything to perfection. The acorn becomes the sturdy oak only because Nature is content with small results, because she has the virtue of endurance. ”

“ In the case of a genuine development where the interior sense is fully opened up, the communication will be continuous and normal, as much so as ordinary conversation, and the translation of consciousness into terms of sense will be so rapid and unimpeded as to give the impression to an Englishman that he is listening to his native language and to a Frenchman that he is listening to French, though the communication may proceed from a source which renders this impossible. The universal language of humanity is neither Volapuk, nor Esperanto, nor Ido. ”

“ A ship is a symbol of trading, of voyaging, and is frequently used in the symbolical vision. If in full sail it indicates that communication with the spiritual world is about to be facilitated, that news from distant lands will come to hand, that trade will increase, that a voyage will be taken. If writing should appear on the sails it will be an additional means of enlightenment. ”

“ Therefore, despite the fact that symbolism is capable of a universal interpretation, it would appear that the images projected by the magical power of the soul must have different significations with each of us, the meanings being in some mysterious way in agreement with the nature of the person who sees them. Hence we may come to the conclusion that every person must be his own interpreter, there being no universal code for what are peculiarly individualized messages. ”

“ Any selfish desire dominating the mind, in regard to any thing or person will distort the vision and render it misleading, while a persistent self-seeking spirit will effectually shut the door to all revelation whatsoever. ”