Even those mediums who are confined to the family circle can scarcely rise above the quality of that circle, and hence although pure and noble messages are from time to time given through such mediums, yet even these mediums, becoming surrounded by spirits in their own likeness, are apt to reflect ideas and sentiments consistent with their own desires; and hence may be, and often are, the victims of misplaced confidence. It must be evident that undeveloped spirits who come from a metaphysical world to teach us earthly wisdom must often be less capable of doing so than embodied spirits who, living in a physical world, use with modesty that truth and reason which are given to them. Moreover, those souls which, apart from divine desires, leave the body and associate with spirits, generally encounter those no better, and often worse than themselves, and are thus seduced to evil, and this even by spirits assuming the form of angels of light; hence mediumship is a dangerous possession, and is only for those whose lives are pure, unselfish, and holy. But mediums whose lives are pure, unselfish, and holy, may sometimes reveal to men the wisdom of angels. All that is claimed by mediums is the reverse of the powers claimed by the adept. The medium is negative but the adept is positive. He refuses to submit his body to the use of others, but so brings his body under the control of his own soul that he can project his soul and spirit, and, while living on this earth, act as if he were a disembodied spirit. Hence the adept can consciously see the minds of others. He can act by his soul force on external spirits. He can accelerate the growth of plants and quench fire, and, like Daniel, subdue ferocious wild. beasts. He can send his soul to a distance, and there not only read the thoughts of others, but speak to and touch these distant objects; and not only so, but he can exhibit to his distant friends his spiritual body in the exact likeness of that of the flesh. Moreover, as the adept acts by the power of his spirit, he can, as a unitive force, create out of the surrounding multiplex atmosphere, the likeness of any physical object, or he can command physical objects to come into his presence. These statements will not be credited by those ignorant of such things, but the writer asserts that these statements are absolute facts. Mesmerism, as being within the reach of scientific experimentation, throws great light on occult phe nomena. The mesmeric sensitive as a clairvoyant can see the thoughts of others, and can read print in closed spaces; and the mesmeriser can at times order the entranced soul or spirit of the sensitive to travel to a distance, and then not only see those there present, but touch them. The mesmeric sensitive thus resembles the medium in so far as she is passive, but she differs both from the medium and from the adept in this, that her soul or spirit is under the control of a being living on this earth—instead of being under the control of foreign spirits, as with mediums, or under the control of her own spirit as with the adepts. As the adept can only obtain spiritual power after the severest discipline and self-control, he becomes thus trained to control his spiritual desires. But should he fail to do so, and become the victim of selfish desires, he becomes an evil magician, and then his fall is as that of Lucifer. Mesmeric healing appears to me to be of three degrees: 1st. As mere animal magnetism the diseased or negative subject by receiving this positive magnetism is strengthened. 2nd. The magnetiser by using will force, can so act on the brain and mind of the sensitive as to alter molecular action, and thus heal disease. 3rd. The wholesome, pure, and benevolent man or woman, by simply placing the hands on the patient, and calmly desiring the blessing of God, would seem to become sometimes as a medium for the transmission of spiritual benevolence. The power of oriental adepts to heal disease rests, it is said, chiefly on the power of the will, but the power of Christ and his disciples to heal disease was the power of the love and will of God. The Christian Alchemists asserted that their power to convert the lower metals into gold, and to create precious stones, consisted in the use as a basis of that ultimate unitive in matter which was reached by a series of successive fermentations, by which the ulti mate spirit was distilled; and so, also, they asserted that the regenerated and sanctified body, soul and spirit of man, were also thus reached by a successive series of deaths and resurrections. Jesus of Nazareth being filled with the Holy Spirit became the Christ, the only-begotten and well-beloved son of God, par excellence, the complete and perfect spiritual man, and thus the saviour of the souls of those who, regarding Him as the Way, the Truth, and the Life, become one with Him as He is one with the Father. This position Christ obtained through perfect submission to the will of God, and He thereby obtained spiritual gifts and powers beyond all possibility to soul force. If we become one with Him as He was one with God, then we shall also, after a measure, possess like gifts. Those saints who entirely surrendered self to the will of God, being filled with the Spirit, became luminous, healed diseases, and wrought miracles. The oriental adept sometimes "scales the heavens by violence," and at other times by the pure desire of the soul, but the saints ascended to heaven, as did Elijah, by the power of the love of God. The sacrifice of Christ is self-sacrifice, and is the sacrifice of the soul and body to the will and love of God, and this is the only true method of salvation by Christ. Thus religion and morality are nothing more and nothing less than love to God and love to man. Or the spirit of the Son seeking the spirit of God the Father, and "as the Father worketh hitherto," so we desire now to work. No form of Christianity can be true which ignores or under-estimates the deep significance of the miracles of Christ, for such miracles are inseparable from the truly divine life, and exhibit the divine possibilities contained in the triune manhood. This is Theosophy, that "the Will of God be done on Earth, as in Heaven." By miracles, I mean the power of the One Spirit to supplant all secondary forces, whether the spirit manifest itself as when the Spirit of God moving on the face of the waters called life into existence and the earth out of chaos; or when the Spirit of Christ healed diseases and cast out demons, or changed water into wine, or passed into a closed chamber, "the door being shut;" or when the spirit of man, when like Christ, it does like works, because he has gone to the Father. X. *** The Holy Spirit of the Lord A The Spirit of Man at one with the will of God B | The Spirit acts with Divine Reason C | The Spirit Vision, or Clairvoyance, or Intuition -X The River of Oblivion. D | The Soul's Revery or day dreaming C The Imagination B The Rational Soul A The Soul or will force This diagram, the initial hint of which I got from |
