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A CALL TO THE "AWAKENED" FROM "THE UNSEEN AND UNKNOWN," FOR

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A CALL TO THE "AWAKENED" FROM "THE UNSEEN AND UNKNOWN," FOR AN ESOTERIC COLLEGE, AND FOR G.....R DEPT. NO. 1.
by Vidya-Nyaika.
G.N.K.R. No. 502
1888

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THE PHILOSOPHICAL LIBRARY OF PROFESSOR GEORGE S. MORRIS,

PROFESSOR IN THE UNIVERSITY,

1870-1889.

Presented to the University of Michigan.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1888, by Hiram E. Butler, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.


Bhagavad Gita, Chap, iv., v. 38. — " There is nothing on earth as sacred as Knowledge; this the man benefitted by right performance of action realizes within himself in course of time." —Chap. V., v. 8. — " Absorbed in right Knowledge the knower of truth feels 'I am doing nothing,' while seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, sleeping, breathing." — Chap. VII., v. 6. — "I am the
whole universe, the Origin and End."

Proverbs, Chap. IV., v. 7. — "Wisdom is the principal thing: therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding." — Chap. XV., v. 14. "The heart of him that hath understanding seeketh Knowledge." — Chap. VIII., v. 10. " Receive — Knowledge rather than choice gold."

EXPLANATION OF G.N.K.R ANNOUNCEMENT NO. 501, TO THE "AWAKENED," AND OF THE G.N.K.R AND THE OBJECT OF PANTOGNOMOS, ALSO A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM THE " INTERIOR OF THE INMOST" Of G..... R Department No. 1,

by Vidya-Nyaika.

This book is the 502 G. N. K. R — the 2nd G R, and the authorized announcement of the "Secret Scientific Association," and of the G.....R, for the special use of ADHYAPAKA in G.....R Dept. No. 1, for the embodiment of the Esoteric Principles, and for directly aiding in the building of the
College Esoteric,

V.N., Boston, Dec, 1st, 1888.

ALSO Requirements for Membership, and Objects OF THE SOCIETY ESOTERIC, BY Prof. H. E. Butler.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction: A Call to the Occident from the "Unseen and Unknown": The Wise Will Understand!
• The G.N.K.R
o The History of the Laws of Ens, Movens, and Om
o Why Were the Laws to Be Kept Secret?
o Why Confined to a Select People?
o Why Organized Under Special Departments?
o What is the G.N.K.R?
o What Are Its Opportunities?
o Its Objects
o Why Must It Be Done?
o Neither Reason Nor Judgment is the Correct Guide of Man
o A Search for New Facts
o The Most Important Feature of the G...K..
o The Practice and Development of the Condition of Sambudhism
• The Object of Pantognomos, in Organizing the Three Branches of the G.N.K.R, Explained From the G.....R Standpoint
o The Work of Pantognomos
• Special Message From the "Interior of the Inmost," of G.....R Department No. 1, Under Adhy-Apaka
o Special Notice
• The Society Esoteric
o The Objects of Creation
o Objects and Methods of the Society Esoteric
o Extracts From the Esoteric
o Some Reasons For Building the Esoteric College

You have heard of the attempt to find the "universal solvent," and the "philosopher's stone," and the "elixir vitae," — these are but playthings in the laboratory of the Mahopanishada! Here will be taught all the laws of matter and spirit reduced to a mathematical and physical quantitative basis. The mysteries from the modus operandi of the Infinite Will and Consciousness to that of sensation and life will be studied as we now study chemistry and botany! Here will be studied the Forces and explained the Laws and taught the verities contained in all the wonders and mysteries of the years gone by! The sacred orgies of Dionysus — the mystic symbols of the Brotherhood — the thaumaturgist's art — the customs of the women of Thessaly and Epirus — the rites of Sabazius — the mental states of the seership of the ancient Pythoness and the modern Hypnot, Clairvoyant and Medium — the Favatma of the Hindoo Yogni and the Sammadhi of the Hindoo worship — the Isvara of the ancient Yogins — the "communion" of Plotinus and Apollonius of Ephesus — the mystery of the Priestesses of Isis, and of the Vestal virgins robed in white — the beauty of the "Holy Form" — the magic of the "mystic wand" — the rythm of the "solar dance" — the mystery of the Sybils, Seers, Signs, and Sigils; of Talismans, Amulets and Charms, and all that progress used to frighten or amuse the infant races of the world. The sacred vault where Menes taught the Knights of Truth, the rythmic tone of Memnon to the sun, the sacred well within the mighty pyramid where old Arabic priests divined the fate of men, the Bo tree's silent shade where fakirs sit and think, the Sal tree's whispering leaves — the silent caves in mountainside hid far from all the haunts of men — the brazen posts within the Temple of the Sun — Aaron's golden bells — the tinklings in the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus and Augustus — the brazen bowls of the mysteries for calling the kora — the wonders of mesmerism — the seven hundred thousand rolls thought to have been burned in Caesar's time — all these are just as active now, and potent too, as when in medieval days they stirred the social currents of the world. We will understand why the priestesses of northern Germany were led by their hierophants to the roar of tumultuous waters, or why the priestesses of Dodona placed themselves under the oak of the Pelasgian Zeus and listened to the rustling of the leaves, the murmuring of a spring, or the monotonous lullaby of a brook; — why the Rosicrucians and Druids sought the aeolian tones of a wind-swept harp — why the breath of AEolus worked enchantments upon the minds, of the Grecian poets, or why the beautiful blue of the sky inspired the Buddhists of Ceylon to thought, prophecy, and song. Is it all a dream that Epimenides could separate his body from his soul and wander among the star-isles of the milky-way? or that Appollonious could stand before the Dominitian crowd and appear in the grotto of the Hill of Puteoli? Is it all a fancy that the adepts can render themselves invisible, or that the mystic Simon Magus flew off into the air before a multitude of witnesses? Is levitation a physical possibility, and is it a laudable ambition to become the greatest of the Meipo? Are the Pyramids understood, and the thoughts in the cave-temples of Ellora and Elephanta explored? Can the sacred Vach still resound? Is there a real Helicon and was Olympus a fable?

***

It was plainly seen by those who were conversant with the Laws at the period of their discovery, that they contained many facts and many Laws, and a knowledge of many Forces that would prove dangerous to society if they were made known to the world. There are those who contend that all knowledge is too sacred to be kept a secret — that all that can be known by any man should be known by all. If this were true, then all people would be capable of living up to the ethical standard; and the Terra del Fuegian and Australian savage would be capable of utilizing the same knowledge and philosophy suitable to the most advanced people of the white race. If this were true, then the higher trusts capable of being discharged by the best and wisest men among us, would be safe and effective for good in the hands of the lower races. If it were true that all that can be known by the highest minds should be taught to the lowest, then there would be no wisdom in teaching to the people of the Messianic Cycle a different line of knowledge than to those of the Kali-Yug, or to those of the Great Cycle. Suppose for instance that a body of people were in the possession of a secret that would enable them to manufacture foods at no expense; suppose foods were free to all in consequence thereof, what would be the effect upon society? Those having attained that development and that higher consciousness prompting them to be ever busy in attaining a higher culture, would be benefitted and would have more time to devote to the good of the world; and those who had not reached that stage of evolution, would betake themselves to a warmer climate where they needed no clothes, and would cease to be active; they would quit work, enterprise would cease, and retrogradation would ensue. The necessity of maintaining life by means of food compels people and all animals to keep busy — without action life cannot exist — and if foods could be had without effort the majority of the human race would cease to be occupied in the various enterprises and industries through which the necessary experience is obtained to enable them to take a higher step in their upward way. Perhaps no greater mistake could be made than to publish a process for making foods as inexpensive as air and water.

***

[A]nd where shall we go for the desired knowledge? Shall we ask a priest? Shall we consult a book? Shall we ask some professor? Suppose none of these can tell us, what shall we do? If they tell us, how shall we find out whether to rely upon their dictum or not — shall we accept human testimony? Or shall we go to Nature and interrogate her, through the sacred language of experiment, and receive from the Infinite All the answer to our questionings. Reason is the only Oracle that enables us to judge what to do under given conditions AS WE UNDERSTAND THE CONDITIONS. We can only understand the conditions by interrogating Nature. We interrogate Nature when we make an experiment. Nature answers us in the result of the experiment; and Reason correlates and arranges these results and facts, and both the facts and the reasonings are part of Nature. Nature is the evolved being of the all, and Nature depends upon the properties and limitations of Matter and Motion, and therefore, when we read the phenomena of Matter and Force we are learning from the highest of possible sources of truth — there can be no higher and better source.

***

A new and accurate classification of science is needed whereon to base a more extensive system of inductions and deductions than has as yet fallen to the lot of the world. In order that this may be done so as to include all facts and all aspects of each fact, and that the conconcomitant experiments may be performed systematically, without losing the connection they bear to each other and to the general body of science, it will be essential that it shall all be conducted by a central mind capable of taking a comprehensive view of the domain of nature, and at the same time, be able to consider the meaning of each special fact. Now, no one mind can, by any possibility, hold in solution a sufficient number of these many classes of facts to make possible the complete inductive and deductive working of all natural phenomena. To carry on an extensive chain of reasoning extending over the realms of several different sciences, requires that many more facts shall be considered than any one mind can retain. But if the central mind can have each mental faculty supplemented by a specialist in that department of knowledge over which that particular faculty has eminent domain, then these specialists can hold in their memories all the facts in the realm of human knowledge. If each department of science be represented by the greatest living master of that department, and these masters be all placed in one building wherein they can hold direct communion with the head mind, then it will be possible for the central mind to pass in review, by the assistance of these specialists, all of the facts and known phenomena. That central mind will be EKPHORON, and the three or four hundred members will be Hierarchs.

***

The phenomena of Mind are just as subject to the control of definite forces as are the functions of the liver or of the ganglia. The application of the laws governing the brain will produce a different order of thought than that to which we are accustomed. We are not independent of immutable law in our most evanescent thought. We are not free agents. Our choice is governed by impulses and stimuli beyond our control; all mental tendencies and all mind operations are the result of adequate and efficient causes — they are always the result of an adequate cause — to deny this is to assume that something can take place without a cause, and this would be the introduction of chance into the universe. To admit that the mental operations are the result of a cause, is to admit that we are not free agents. If mind is the result of a cause, then it follows that those operations and conditions which are known as mental and emotional are the effect of a force. The Laws prove that all possible forces are vibratory, and therefore, intellection, in all its forms and stages is the result of vibratory forces, and must be transformed into other vibratory forces in the process of thought.

***

The Hierarchy will possess a power apart from their work in the Temple. Such a body of men selected from the best and the ablest minds in the world, and subjected to a training such as no one has ever had before, will ultimately become a social factor of the highest importance capable of wielding the widest and most beneficent influence over the affairs of humanity. These Pontiffs of Science belong to the world and to no particular country, they cannot be influenced by sectional strife and turmoil nor bribed by party or sectarian feelings. In constant contact with Nature, and in daily use of the reasoning faculties under circumstances best calculated to develop them, they will acquire a wisdom and a prudence in judgement, that will enable them to enter a community unseen and unknown and often turn the torrent of vandalism and riot, in more peaceful and economic directions.

***

Gigantic undertaking! Momentous enterprise!...In comparison with this the Pyramids of Egypt and Yucatan, the Pharos of Alexandria, the Walls and Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Temple of Diana at Ephesus, the Statue of the Olympian Jupiter, the Mausoleum of Artemisia, the Colossus at Rhodes, the Aqueducts of ancient Rome, the Stone Walls of China, the Cave Temples of Ellora and Elephanta, and the Sacred Temples of Central India dwindle into insignificance.

***

This involves the conception of the directive tendency in Nature. This directive and designing action being the result of the Eternal Organism coextensive and coeternal with Matter and Motion, and being the necessary and inevitable and uncaused result of a condition of things that could not have been otherwise. This is not the teleogical conception of a designer independent of Nature and the universal entity; but the universal entity and the universal motion being uncaused, were eternally organized as a coherent Whole filling all Space; and this Infinite All, exhibiting as the result of motion Infinite consciousness, intellection, love, wisdom and WILL. The eternal uncaused entity filling all Space — the ENS — and the eternal uncaused motion of that entity — the MOVENS — and the eternal uncaused result (Consciousness and WILL) — the OM — were not the result of design or the product of creation or evolution. In accordance with the great principle of the conservation of energy, and in accordance with the properties of matter and motion, and according to the definite laws of Force, this Infinite Will acts eternally in a physical and quantitative manner by actions and reactions within itself, and these actions and reactions are just as susceptible of mathematical formulation as are the laws of light, or of thought and intuition.

***

Optimism is the compulsory belief of the universe. Life must be accepted as an inexorable Fact. Suicide runs counter to the direction of Nature.

***

To those who are in need of a temporary support while mastering the new conception and while discontinuing their belief in the anthropomorphic ideas of God; and to the masses who cannot attain the highest reaches of the logical faculty without a long system of preparatory culture; and to all those who still retain lingering remains of a former fetichism, it may be well to supply their former belief temporarily with the conception that Space is filled with a vast coherent aggregation of matter of a dual nature, consisting of an atomic organism of galaxies floating in an atomolic organism of ether globes, and that it is thus analogous to those living organisms which we know to be conscious and intelligent, and that this Infinite Organism has the power of renewing itself continually. That, as far as we know, intelligence increases with the complexity of the structure, and that this Infinite Whole that fills all space is infinitely complex compared with any living organism, and must therefore be infinitely intelligent. That as a Whole it produces evolution and order and this shows direction — which is in keeping with the assumption of Personal Theism apart from Nature. This Infinite All is Omnipresent, Omnipotent, Omniscient — the first and the last — the creator of worlds, and all they contain, and in every respect the giver of every good.

***

Department No. 1 and the Esoteric College have in their possession a secret by which they will be enabled to prepare all the animal foods and all possible animal nutrients by a direct process of growth — utilizing air, water and sunshine without degenerating the purity of the substance, by its organization into organs and tissues capable of being diseased; and without being required to kill any living thing. The ethical value of this fact is of prime importance to all those who desire to make the covenant with all created existence. The murdering of animals in order that we may eat them is becoming morally repulsive to all those who are trying to live the higher life, and shocks the finer senses of all those who are trying to develop the intuitions. To those who are trying to make attainments, it is necessary to avoid the killing of any living thing; and to avoid eating the karma of animals. All vegetable products are made by the same general process, without agriculture, and the production of the foods required by the Association will be limited to the use of the Association....and for the protean requirements of the many classes of minds that will be brought together when "the people shall be called up into the Mountain."

***

Angry, malicious, revengeful, and passionate people give off from their bodies a vapor, and certain rays of vibratory force capable of producing chemical effects upon saturated papers placed within the same room. Melancholy people give off a different vibratory force and a different chemical vapor. Unhappy people saturate their rooms with vapors of a different nature than either of the others mentioned. All the mental states produce results of this kind, corresponding to the state; and these vapors and rays given off by people during these conditions are capable of producing similar mental, bodily, and spiritual effects upon other people placed in the same room or in their presence. The experiments of Prof. Jaeger of Jena have been much extended by a knowledge of the new laws, and it is demonstrable that a room in which unhealthy, unhappy or immoral people have lived is forever unfit for the habitation of those who are purer and better, and slowly diseases the body, mind, and morals of those dwelling in it. All these conditions will be eliminated from the precincts of the college. As soon as a person becomes unhappy or diseased or inharmonious they will be taken to a hospital, removed from the neighborhood of the sanctuary and out of the village.

***

Activity is the law of life. The object of reincarnation is the acquisition of experience and knowledge; and do not think the great Schoolmaster will send you to this earth-school and allow you to be promoted before you have learned all the earth has to teach you.

***

The College will be devoted to the training and teaching of the esoteric principles and the matters above mentioned. It will ultimate the organization of a body of people in accordance with Messianic Principles, as governed by the higher light of the present age. In unison with this object, Department No. 1 of the G.....R will contribute knowledges, methods, means, and will seek to gather through this source experimental knowledge relating to sambudhisms, intuitions, desires, prayers and will power, and the principles of devotion and love, in accordance with that of the Messianic Cycle. The object of Department No. 1, is the collection of the sum of knowledge relating to this subject, under head of the Messianic Cycle, for the use of the College Esoteric, and for the use of the Archives of the G.N.K.R.

***

The Society Esoteric has demonstrated that its culture cannot well be carried beyond a certain point under the influences of a mixed society, in a city in the midst of all kinds of miasms, diseases, psychisms, and all adverse influences. "Westward the course of empire takes its way," and westward, upon the mountains, the Esoteric College will find its location, and will embody the highest culture of the Messianic Cycle, under the immediate tuition of teachers raised up for the purpose by Yahveh.

***

The College Esoteric will be devoted to the principles before described, and to the scientific study of the phenomena connected with the faculties commonly called Intuition, Sammadhi, Sambudhism, Inspiration, and development of the conditions necessary for the production of a unison with other minds and with the universal Sensorium.

***

In order to effect the embodiment of the College, the Culture, and the Department, it will be necessary to start the enterprise immediately; and that those who have its organization in charge, shall commence at once the collection of the materials, methods, processes, assistants; and that they visit, according to promise, the occult schools of the Orient, and obtain therefrom the additional instructors, secret knowledges, and the necessary alliance for the proper presentation of the Culture. Practice in the higher mind powers, and methods of soul culture, require definite connections with persons at a distance, working in harmony with us. There are those in the Orient who have awaited for long centuries, the opportunity for occidental alliances and connections; and VIDYA-NYAIKA has the promise from those who always fulfill, that the Messianic Department shall have the assistance of those who have valuable occult knowledge to communicate, to those who are ready to receive, and prepared to practice.

***

P. S. — Neither Prof. Butler nor The Society Esoteric are responsible for the philosophical opinions and statements expressed by VIDYA-NYAIKA in the foregoing pages; neither are the G.N.K.R and the G.....R or VIDYA-NYAIKA, responsible for the philosophical or religious opinions expressed in the pages following these, by Prof. Butler, the Founder of The Society Esoteric in Boston, and the Originator of the Esoteric College, who has been appointed ADHY-APAKA of Department No. 1 of the G.....R. This Dep. No. 1, The Society Esoteric and the College are one in purpose, belief, method, and philosophy, and are working for the immediate building of the College, in accordance with the statements of the special message from the "interior of the innermost," and the following pages. The Society Esoteric is not responsible for the dictum of the G.....R or vice versa.

***

Some of our Christian friends may say that this is a Buddhistic movement; but if you will take the trouble to examine it, you will find it far more a Christian work, than that of all the Christian churches together, and that its teachings are those of your own Bible, in its true meanings. We are prepared to demonstrate that the Bible is a grand store of scientific knowledge, and that we believe its teachings more fully than any Christian minister in our land, because we have received instructions in its real teachings, as well as in those of the other systems of religion, and we are prepared to say, that God is the Author of all true religious thought, and wherever there is an honest, devout soul, there God's Angels are sent with a knowledge of the truth — no matter whether it is Christian by name, Mohammedan, Brahman, Buddhist, or a native Indian.

***

"Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free." John, VIII, 32.

***

[T]o know the Laws and the Methods of the Creative Mind is truth, it is scientific knowledge.

**

God is Spirit, the all present, unchangeable essence and source of all things. "The Everlasting Father" is the free Spirit: God "the Everlasting Mother" gathers and forms that Divine Essence into a body, and the unchangeable Spirit is the life thereof; its consciousness is not individual, but universal; therefore, as a primate, man is not. The form being only a thought-form of Deity, man through experience obtains knowledge of his limited sphere of service; this individualizes him and forms out of the original elements a soul made up of knowledges gained by experience. Thus the man is the experience, and the experience is the man. The life is the God that animates and serves the man; the knowledge is derived by experiences from God; for all things are of God, and all law is only the methods of the Infinite.

***

The masters and mystics of every age and nationality have united with the biblical idea that all men are members of one body and that each is a part of a whole. This fact is scientifically demonstrated by Solar Biology, where it is made evident to any reasonable mind that the true order is for man to come into a conscious realization of that oneness.

***

We know that there are two distinct classes in the world, the Religious and the Scientific. The religious predominates; but religion without science is blind and ignorant, science without religion is cold and heartless. Religion is the feminine mind, science is the masculine — they must marry, and the wife must be a helpmeet to the husband, and the husband the head, in the intellectual sphere, then, they together, will dwell in an eden superior to anything that has preceded it.

***

We are led to observe some of the reasons why mankind have not as yet reached the unit of true progress. And one especially is, that man has endeavored to travel alone, isolated, distinct, and separate from his sister woman. This as a rule is the way the ancient sages have endeavored to make attainments, not being able to grasp the idea of unity through God's presence in this dual relation; but Jesus, the great Master, came with higher light and deeper perception regarding the sphere of woman, teaching that in the beginning they were not two but one, and thus in a fuller degree was inaugurated a religious system which placed man and woman side by side at the altar of spiritual communion; and thus in the new cycle of progress, in the new temple of humanity, woman must have her true and coequal place with man, as the two in spiritual oneness become the true and essential unit of higher evolution."

***

[W]hile the law of procreation is dominant it allows the body barely enough vitality to run the machinery, and when its own force is exhausted it dies out and carries down the body with it. Therefore if we would have higher life, or even a proper measure of physical life, we must take control of this function, and not allow it to use us, exhaust itself, and carry the body down to death....[A]sk the physiologist if celibate animals do not reabsorb this vital principle, and physically profit thereby? Was not that the method of all the great masters of antiquity? Was this not the secret of their greatness? Certainly it was. It has been demonstrated in all ages by the few who became masters over themselves and the forces of nature. We see this in the example and masterly powers of Jesus, he also being a celibate; so we see that it was not only possible, but necessary, before great attainments could be made.

***

The spirit of God is a consuming fire and burns on the altar of reproduction.

***

But the life principle that I began to speak of a few moments ago, is only obtainable when all these barriers, thrown up by the peculiarities and idiosyncrasies of one's nature, are broken down by the only way that has ever existed or will exist to free ourselves from them, namely, by a Covenant with God. We have heard old people, when we were children, talking about witches selling themselves to the devil. I know I used to hear old people talking about these things when I was a boy. There is truth in this thought. A person has to virtually sell himself, soul, body and spirit, to whatever sphere of life he desires to become eminent in. While men and women stand in their own ego, and through their own will-power manifest their selfhood, they will find that they are in a constant struggle, a struggle that it is impossible for any man or any woman that ever lived or will live, probably, to maintain themselves in, and remain consistent with their own highest reason.

***

"The ultimate to which we are calling your attention, towards which we are laboring, is to bring about a new world where the people will be prepared to live under the controlling influences of the infinite Mind....they will be as it were 'psychologized' by the infinite Mind. That is, their whole thought, their whole desire, and all that they are or hope to be, will be so linked to the Will of the universe that their wills and the will of God will be absolutely one."

***

Those having been faithfully complied with and the point gained where all waste of the vital fluids is stopped, we are ready to seek methods to escape the IMPRISONMENT IN THE NARROW CONFINES OF THE PHYSICAL BODY.

***

"This again necessitates another belief, viz. that there are ages of development through which time all souls — or all but those who through occult knowledge make the superior attainments — must reincarnate, until the end of the age, when the planets will come into positions that will produce mental conditions that will turn the minds of the most mature toward the Divine laws and methods of attainment, and will give them a desire to reach the high goal. And all those who do, will be gathered together in one place where they will form one body in perfect harmony and unity of thought, feeling, and action; and through the spiritual powers and knowledge possessed by them they will never die, but when their body is sufficiently refined they can transmute it to soul-force and leave the earth at will."

***

"Life is as though we were placed in a long corridor, impregnable walls on either side (composed by the limits of our capacity), forcing circumstances behind us — which are the needs and conditions of life. The inevitable destiny for which we were made lies at the far end of the corridor; circumstances, like an army of spears, force us on slowly, but with ever-present persistency. Now we can choose in this state whether we will move forward only as we are forced by the point of the spear, rush blindly against the walls and injure ourselves, or place our eye on the inevitable end, and make all haste in reaching it."

***

O God, into thy hands have we committed all we are, all we have or will ever be entrusted with, to be used for thy beloved children, asking naught for self; and if we are permitted to see thy people enjoying the good Thou hast prepared for them, we shall be satisfied. Now into Thy hands we commit the result of this our effort. Do Thou dispose the people according to Thy wisdom, for the work is Thine, the people are thine, and we Thy servants to be commanded, and we will obey. Amen.

-- A Call to the "Awakened" From "The Unseen and Unknown," For An Esoteric College, and For G.....R Dept No. 1, by Vidya-Nyaika

Re: A CALL TO THE "AWAKENED" FROM "THE UNSEEN AND UNKNOWN,"

PostPosted: Sat Sep 26, 2015 7:50 pm
by admin
To The "Awakened"

INTRODUCTION.

A CALL TO THE OCCIDENT FROM THE "UNSEEN AND unknown": THE WISE WILL UNDERSTAND!

To those who have developed a Soul-Consciousness; who have seen the "Lights"; and who have pierced the "Shadows": — Peace and Greeting!

Art thou conscious of the presence within thyself of an actor more or less independent of inherited bodily peculiarities and acquired habits? Has your consciousness ever been able to pervade all portions of your body? Have you recognized within yourself the existence of possibilities that have never been called out by the circumstances and experiences of your earth-life? Do you feel that you are in possession of powers that have never been utilized in the present sphere of your duties? Have you felt emotions and had the memory of sensations that could not have been the result of any of your known experiences? If so, ask yourself whence you derived those powers and feelings — seeing that you could not have developed them by any of your known past actions. Think long upon these things, for they will ultimately bring to your understanding a unique and a special message! Have you ever felt the sense of immeasurable age? Have you searched for antique relics within your soul? Has the breath of a higher spiritual life ever swept through the halls of your memory and removed the dust from those ineffaceable hieroglyphs carved upon your ego by the successive personalities through which you have passed on your upward way? Has the enchantment of an aeolian tone ever thrown you into a reverie filled with a nameless melancholy and accompanied with an indistinct recollection of other times and places?

If you have ever had such retrospective states of consciousness, try and recall them and, if possible, reproduce them by reproducing the mental and emotional conditions which brought them about before, and if they recur dwell upon them for a long time — the curtain may rise!

Have you ever upon visiting a new place felt you had been there before? Have you returned to that place all alone free from anxiety and disease and awaited the recurrence of memories belonging to another life-history? Did you ever awake with a "memory that you had slept very pleasantly?" Have you ever felt upon learning a new truth "that sometime and somewhere you knew that before?" Have ideas ever dawned within your mind that were not the result of a reasoning process? Have you had convictions of the truth of statements that you were unable to comprehend? Have you believed in matters that were contrary to the verdict of your understanding and experience? Have you practised passivity of mind and observed the phantorama passing through your consciousness? Did the images come in a regular and systematic order, and was that order the result of your own will or was it not? Have you ever been the spectator of your own actions, and have you ever disapproved of your own conduct?

Art thou searching for light? Then thou must go within thyself and calm every gust of passion and every breath of evil desire, or the first flickering of the flame will be blown out, — and if it is, it will require many long, long years to relight it! Art thou conscious of something within thee which often thinks and wills for thee in a manner contrary to thine own desire, and hast thou not a greater respect for that something than thou hast for thyself? Canst thou realize that "something" to be thy true self? Study these hints — for they are but mere hints, and if you belong to that class of people who are to become acquainted with themselves you will have revealed to you that which cannot be described by human speech.

The above hints belong to the domain of the G.....R,

but the Lights and the Shadows belong to the domain of the G...K.. Perhaps less than one person in a million is able to see more than two of these lights, or more than one kind of the shadows. These faculties belong to the next Cycle, and the sixth and seventh of the lights will perhaps be seen by no one until after the commencement of the next Kali-Yug (about 1900) and the several new Cycles that have the period of their commencement about that time. The Lights and Shadows are the first phenomena of certain ultra-psychic faculties peculiar to the next age of development. There are many phases of soul-consciousness; — you may possess some of them and not be aware of your power; your phase may be of a kind incapable of being aided by others; and again the consciousness of such a power may never dawn within you until, while looking into the eyes of your Master, you have heard words fraught with a meaning not conveyable by speech alone.

To all persons in search of truth it will be said by the G ..... R: " Go and make the acquaintance of those whose business it is to administer to the soul, and if they fail to reach the chord within your nature that you know exists, then you must seek someone else; and if all other methods fail come to the representatives of one of the departments of the G.....R." The First Department under ADHY-APAKA is at present accessible to all persons having mental and moral integrity; and the capacity to pass membership in the G.....R Dep. No. 1 must be preceded by the capacity to pass the tests and requirement of the inner circle of the Society Esoteric. To such persons there will be given an opportunity of access to a member of the G...K.. , and there will come the Peace that comes of a knowledge of the how and the why of many of those phenomena they do not at present understand; and if they prove worthy there will come a time when they will be greeted by one who will whisper into their ears a wild, weird word, and the veil of the Sammadhic Isis will be lifted, and that which you do not now comprehend will daily become more and more clear.

To those who have entered the "Path''; who have conquered the "Evils"; who have gained the "Right Desires"; — a word of Consolation and of Hope!

Do not think you have entered the Path because you have started out in search for the Truth, or because you have resolved to live a better and a higher life, or because you have decided upon a course of action. A long series of impartial self-dissections must precede your entrance into the Path; you must have had an introduction to your Soul, and you must have freed yourself from all attachments. Do not think you are walking in the Path because you are outwardly conforming to the course of action and demeanor common to those who are walking in the sacred way. Your path cannot be marked out for you; — your special work lies in another part of the great field of action. You are losing development while you are doing the work of another; your will is asleep while you are being guided by another.

If you happen to be in the Path, do not therefore conclude that you have found the Right Way. The path will ultimately lead you into the way if you do not falter, but you will continue to fail until you have conquered the Evils forever, and severed all attachments that prevent your progress. He who has mastered the Evils is a greater warrior than all the Caesars, Attilas, Hannibals, Alexanders, and Napoleons! If for one year your cerebral fibres have not been congested with the debris deposited by Anger, Hate, Malice, and Revenge; if for one year you have been absolutely free from the despotism of Ambition and Fear; if for one year you have been free from the pestilence and poison of Anxiety, Sorrow, Grief, and Restlessness, do not therefore conclude that you have conquered the Evils. Perhaps circumstances were such that you were not tempted strongly; — as long as there are any possible conditions capable of reproducing them you have not conquered them.

To have conquered the Evils does not signify that you have the Right Desires. The elimination of the evils is a negative virtue; it is simply the curing of diseases, the rectification of abnormal conditions. Right desires cannot exist as long as the evils find a place in the human soul. To have been undisturbed by those outward circumstances which bring about the evils, — not because you have conquered their power of affecting you, but because you have been in conditions and surroundings where these disturbing causes did not exist, — is not to have conquered the evils!

As long as there are any conditions, possible in this earth-life, capable of momentarily disturbing the quietness of your mind and soul you have not attained that Peace which is the only atmosphere in which the right desires can exist, or in which they can bloom and bear fruit! Serenity can only be obtained by desiring it for a long time, and then the desire must be connected with a purpose having for its object the good of the human race! The desire for knowledge increases with its attainment, and the desire for power grows with the recipient's capacity to judiciously utilize it for the good of humanity and of all creatures. These three are the basis of all the right desires. Those who are permitted to learn the Mahopanishada will recognize in these desires the most perfect of all prayers, and will know why they are so, and what a prayer is, and how it operates upon the universal consciousness. They will know that a perpetual desire is a continuous prayer, and that it operates like all other forces with an effect proportional to its intensity and to the time during which it acts. To this class of people enough of the Secret Knowledge will be taught to enable them to comprehend the how and the why of the action of the evils and the desires, and of the methods for the elimination of the one and the inculcation of the other. The principles of the culture are rationalized. When you understand the how and the why of a thing, — for instance of the evil effects of anger, — when you understand it as well as a physicist understands the laws of sound and of hearing, then you will have more confidence and zeal in your work. When you know as well why and how the desires benefit you, as the chemist knows why and how the sun's rays benefit plants, then you will be able to apply the right desires to the perfection of your own soul-growth, and you will be able to do it understandingly and rationally. The laws of prayer have a physical side, and are capable of systemized and quantitative applications in the production of results regarding our own soul-growth. Its effect is both objective and subjective, — it is a physical condition capable of utilizing certain forces by virtue of harmonic attunement with the forces called into play, and a condition capable of exciting the influx of the forces in accordance with the need of the organism making the prayer. This order of knowledge completes that wonderful culture which first recognized the necessity for the extermination of the Evils and the inculcation of the Right Desires; it extends those empirical rules into laws and systemizes the culture of the East and makes of it an exact science!

To those who have enlisted in the great battle for the eternal Truths and who have heard the Voice that speaks only in the Silence: — a Work and a Promise!

There are those who have enlisted in the great battle for Truth, but have not conquered the Evils; they do themselves and the world good for a time and then fall out of the ranks. Their assistance in accomplishing the elevation of humanity is not therefore any the less desirable. Those who are not able to make attainments are often glad for the opportunity of giving financial and manual assistance. The good done by such persons is always one step on their upward course. Truth is that which makes us free; it is the voice of the Infinite All.

To have enlisted, means more than to have made a resolution that from this time on you intend to devote a certain amount of your energies to the destruction of error and to the promulgation of Truth. It must be your highest aim to possess more of that accurate knowledge of ALL THAT IS, and it must be the work of your life to extend that knowledge and to teach it to others. It is a recognized Law of Nature that you will only receive as you are able to use and as fast as you do use; and to obtain more truth you must constantly teach what you get to others and apply it to practice in your own life. If it has not been the main work of your life, for at least several years past, to extend among the people of the world a more accurate knowledge of the belief and conviction you have; — if it is not the dearest joy of your life a to bring to the understanding of another a new truth, then you do not belong to this class of people. It is to be supposed that during this time you have taught many errors; there can be no ratio between finite and infinite knowledge, and as long as you do not possess infinite knowledge you are liable to teach some error.

If you are engaged in the work of spreading the truth you will be willing to make a sacrifice for its sake, and to abandon any theory for the sake of a single fact; for a fact is a portion of the word of the Infinite. If you are engaged in this great battle you are incapable of intolerance, bigotry, prejudice, and egotism. You will be ready to make any sacrifice whatever for the sake of truth. You will give all you are, all you have, and all you hope to be, for the opportunity of acquiring the truth, and you will make it the business of your life to put it into practice as fast as you receive it, and to teach it to others as fast as you understand it yourself. Are you capable of applying these tests to yourself? Would you sacrifice social position, wealth, fame, and popularity for the sake of what you believe to be true? Let the Infinite be your Judge, and let your Inmost be the criterion regarding the advisability of presenting yourself to the preliminary examinations for entrance into the G.....R for further knowledge and means. If you have heard the Voice that speaks in the Silence you will not need to be told what it is, or where to find it; and if you have not heard it you must seek for it in the expanse of your own soul — patiently, ardently, prayerfully seek for it — until you find it: and if you hear it follow its promptings, — for it is the Voice of Yahveh.

Unto such persons there will be given a glorious work, in accordance with their peculiar faculties and tastes, and this work will belong to the elevation of the Race and the emancipation and perfection of the Ego. This work will not be an arbitrary assignment of duties. The selection will be made by the devotee; — the methods, knowledges, and the means will be supplied by the Secret Scientific Association: but this association will not extend help, or divulge any secrets, except to those who have forever eliminated from their lives the "evils"; gained the "right desires "; and devoted their time to the teaching of truth. Those of the Third Class will be placed under conditions wherein they will be able to select that course in life consistent with the higher hygiene. The work that will be given to them will call out all their capabilities, bring into play all their aspirations and emotions, and will satisfy all their sentiments of moral and altruistic duty, and that will develop all their faculties, and utilize all their capabilities.

The essential condition of the higher hygiene is to have a purpose in life, — one that causes all other duties to seem insignificant and all other purposes to be comparatively trivial; and if this purpose is based upon a thorough conviction of the truth of that which the work involves, then the domination of mind by such a motive will eradicate all weakness and disease, and death will be impossible until the purpose has been accomplished. Such a purpose must be consistent with the highest aspirations of the soul. If it is founded upon faith it is well; but it cannot be as strong as if founded upon a thorough understanding of the laws and causes of the matters in hand. That which we know is more certain to us than that which is a matter of faith. While it is the great purpose of our lives to teach that which we absolutely know — (not that which we have reason to believe) while it is the mission of our lives to accomplish that which our understanding tells us can be accomplished, and the fulfillment of which will realize all our dearest dreams; while we are busy with a work in which all our convictions are centred and from which all our pleasures are derived, we will not be sick, and we will continually grow in strength and in spiritual and intellectual beauty. This is the first element of the higher hygiene: the selection of a vocation congenial to the growth of the soul.

This work will not be arbitrarily assigned but will be determined under exact experimental conditions. This work will belong to one of the Departments of the movement of the G.N.K.R and will lead you directly into the special path which you are to follow, and which no one can select for you. Do not think you can call upon a member of the G.....R and enlist and immediately have revealed to you a knowledge too sacred to be misunderstood; and it cannot be understood without a long previous preparation and a long course of study; and is a work too important to be commenced by one who may drop it under difficulties, — a work that can only be entrusted to those who will devote to its accomplishment the entire value and strength of their lives.

To those who have been "interiorly illuminated", and who have dedicated themselves to the "Guidance": — a Revelation and a Secret!

The interior illumination cannot be the result of a few weeks' practice, or the outcome of a few months' instruction under favorable circumstances; it must be the result of transmitted hereditary acquirements, of the experiences of former lives, and of a long preparatory course. Those who are illuminated can present themselves to the management of the inner circle of the Society Esoteric, which is preparatory to the Dep. No. 1. under ADHYAPAKA of the G.....R and if favorable development is observed, there will be an opportunity offered for obtaining the revelation and the secret. But do not think you can make this the object of your entrance into the Society: those who desire power only for the novelty of it will never obtain it; — those who desire to comply with the requirements for membership simply to possess the knowledge of what the revelation may be, or rather as a matter of curiosity, will never be able to receive the knowledge they expect. It is a great responsibility to possess a knowledge of matters not belonging to the public, and it involves a sacred and a serious duty. The dedication of your life and all that you are, and have, and hope to be, to the Guidance is a matter of more serious import than anything you can do in this life. It must not be the result of a sudden impulse, but the outcome of a slow growth. No one should covenant complete obedience to the guidance of the Inmost, until for some time it has already been the trusted guide of all their actions: much less should they dedicate all they are, have, and hope to be, to any special work, or to the guidance of the master, or to the guidance of the Supreme Spirit, until they have thoroughly comprehended its meaning and full significance. Those whose lives prove that they have dedicated their all to the Guidance, will with the permission of ADHY-APAKA be enabled to meet and talk with VIDYA-NYAIKA, and if the applicant proves able to receive he will have explained that which will give him the confidence that comes of complete understanding of the methods, means, and possibilities at the disposal of the Department No. 1, G.....R and also of The Society Esoteric. There will be revealed to him, among other things, the proof that the ultimation of the religious work contemplated is not an impracticable dream, — that the means for accomplishing such an undertaking will be placed at the disposal of the Society as soon as they are able to use the means. Such a person will know that an ideal city can in reality be built, and that it is going to be built, and that the necessary knowledge, methods and means are at hand, waiting the assistance of the proper people. The secret by which it will be accomplished will be made plain, and the applicant can add to his faith the assurance of accurate knowledge, and to his zeal the strength of complete conviction. To this class of people there will be given a knowledge of some sacred secrets; and they will thereby know that the desired ultimates are not based upon religious and philosophical hypotheses merely; but are the outgrowth also of accurate scientific investigation. The laws of adverse psychic conditions are capable of physical demonstration; and the presence of people not leading the higher life in a community of high ethical standards is detrimental, not only to the purer and better, but also to those who are lower in the scale of attainment; and the reasons for this will appear plain. The sanitary conditions necessary for the higher life will be explained in a manner new to the scientists of the age; and those who hear the revelation will comprehend the necessity of forming a special colony or community wherein there can be maintained the conditions, various and complex in their kind, essential to the higher growth of people belonging to the new cycle.

The next two classes of people belong to two different methods of culture and to two separate lines of work, and from their number will be selected the membership of that organization to which the three branches of the G.N.K.R are contributory, and which will not find permanent embodiment until after 1896.

To those who have removed the "Veil" from the "Sacred Shrine," and who have cast their "Lives" as an "Offering" into the "Flame" that forever burns up on the "Om-Altar " in the "Inmost"; — A "Mission" and a "Glory"!

After the "awakened" have conquered the "evils" and gained the "right desires," and have entered the "path" to do and to die for the eternal Truth; when they have heard the "voice" and have been interiorly "illuminated"; and when they have dedicated themselves to the "guidance"; and when they have mastered all available accurate exoteric knowledge relating to these several subjects, and have learned the "revelation," they can commence the removal of the Veil from the Sacred Shrine. And then, O joy of duty! O worship through action!

When once it has been removed, that veil can never be replaced. There are those who will say that allusion is made to the personality, or the individuality which veils our consciousness from the recognition of the true entity of the man, or from the recognition of the Infinite will within us, and that the removal of this selfhood constitutes the removal of the "veil" which obscures true knowledge. There are others who will say that when you have conquered the passions you have removed the veil; and others will contend that this is to be accomplished by the control of the passions; and still others will believe that it means the elimination of ignorance. Some will say it is the removal of those physical and spiritual conditions which cause the higher senses and faculties to remain dormant; and there are some intuitive people who will claim that it is the removal of the effects of all "sambudhisms" and inspirations except those of the Infinite Consciousness. It may be that others will think it alludes to the obliteration of the effects of the "psychisms" of local karma. It is not the province of this paper to explain what is meant, but it certainly means all of the above and vastly more. Alas that there are those who will attempt to remove the veil and still cling to their own lives: to do so is death! Beyond this stage your life is no longer yours, — it becomes an offering and a perpetual sacrifice upon the Om-Altar, about which no one can know until by them and for them the "veil" has been removed.

To the Mission many shall be called, but few chosen; and of those that are chosen, how many shall receive the Glory?

To those who have learned from Nature her Laws, Method and Means, and who have studied and understood the Mahopanishada, and who in the Solitude have heard the pulseless Stillness break into waves of eternal Tone freighted with the aspirations and emotions of a higher and a newer life: — a priceless Jewel, a nameless Peace, and an ineffable Joy!

Those who have seen the Lights and pierced the Shadows, and have removed the Veil, and who have learned, understood, and experimentally known the exoteric portion of modern science, and have learned the secret Laws of ENS, MOVENS and OM, and have heard the eternal Tone, such persons will be taught the Mahopanishada, or the Grand Secret Knowledge and Mystic Doctrine. This is an order of knowledge that must be practiced as it is learned; to it belongs the complete understanding of the physical methods and causes of all the mysteries of the past. You have heard of the attempt to find the "universal solvent," and the "philosopher's stone," and the "elixir vitae," — these are but playthings in the laboratory of the Mahopanishada! Here will be taught all the laws of matter and spirit reduced to a mathematical and physical quantitative basis. The mysteries from the modus operandi of the Infinite Will and Consciousness to that of sensation and life will be studied as we now study chemistry and botany! Here will be studied the Forces and explained the Laws and taught the verities contained in all the wonders and mysteries of the years gone by! The sacred orgies of Dionysus — the mystic symbols of the Brotherhood — the thaumaturgist's art — the customs of the women of Thessaly and Epirus — the rites of Sabazius — the mental states of the seership of the ancient Pythoness and the modern Hypnot, Clairvoyant and Medium — the Favatma of the Hindoo Yogni and the Sammadhi of the Hindoo worship — the Isvara of the ancient Yogins — the "communion" of Plotinus and Apollonius of Ephesus — the mystery of the Priestesses of Isis, and of the Vestal virgins robed in white — the beauty of the "Holy Form" — the magic of the "mystic wand" — the rythm of the "solar dance" — the mystery of the Sybils, Seers, Signs, and Sigils; of Talismans, Amulets and Charms, and all that progress used to frighten or amuse the infant races of the world. The sacred vault where Menes taught the Knights of Truth, the rythmic tone of Memnon to the sun, the sacred well within the mighty pyramid where old Arabic priests divined the fate of men, the Bo tree's silent shade where fakirs sit and think, the Sal tree's whispering leaves — the silent caves in mountainside hid far from all the haunts of men — the brazen posts within the Temple of the Sun — Aaron's golden bells — the tinklings in the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus and Augustus — the brazen bowls of the mysteries for calling the kora — the wonders of mesmerism — the seven hundred thousand rolls thought to have been burned in Caesar's time — all these are just as active now, and potent too, as when in medieval days they stirred the social currents of the world. We will understand why the priestesses of northern Germany were led by their hierophants to the roar of tumultuous waters, or why the priestesses of Dodona placed themselves under the oak of the Pelasgian Zeus and listened to the rustling of the leaves, the murmuring of a spring, or the monotonous lullaby of a brook; — why the Rosicrucians and Druids sought the aeolian tones of a wind-swept harp — why the breath of AEolus worked enchantments upon the minds, of the Grecian poets, or why the beautiful blue of the sky inspired the Buddhists of Ceylon to thought, prophecy, and song. Is it all a dream that Epimenides could separate his body from his soul and wander among the star-isles of the milky-way? or that Appollonious could stand before the Dominitian crowd and appear in the grotto of the Hill of Puteoli? Is it all a fancy that the adepts can render themselves invisible, or that the mystic Simon Magus flew off into the air before a multitude of witnesses? Is levitation a physical possibility, and is it a laudable ambition to become the greatest of the Meipo? Are the Pyramids understood, and the thoughts in the cave-temples of Ellora and Elephanta explored? Can the sacred Vach still resound? Is there a real Helicon and was Olympus a fable? To understand the physical cause of all these phenomena and to take them from the realm of the wonderful and out of the supernatural, will not destroy their beauty, truth, and influence. To understand that Spirit and Soul are capable of being experimented upon in the laboratory, will not make spiritual knowledge less potent. To understand the real mystery of the processes of life, and to know how it is formed, will not diminish our capabilities to take care of ourselves; and to know the nature and physical cause of the Infinite Consciousness will not lead us to respect it less, or to be less devotional. It will not make us less devout, with Zoroaster as a guide, to search the starry circle of the night and read from stars, and suns, and constellations, the fateful omens of the time. To reduce the mind to a series of physical reactions, and to formulate the forces concerned in psychic phenomena, will not take them from the sphere of human use.

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[Dr. Lao] This is the Circus of Dr. Lao. We show you things that you don't know. We've spared no pains and we've spared no dough, for we wanted to give you one hell of a show! And youth may come and age may go, but no more circuses like this show. Fifteen cents. You free. Step up! Step up! Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! See Apollonius! See the Snowman! Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! See the Medusa that turns men of granite to stone! And see the Great Serpent. See him rise, see him coil, hear him hiss! See wonders never before beheld by the eyes of mortal man. See the Great Pan, the incarnation of the carnal! See Apollonius of Tyana. He sees all, tells all! Nothing but the truth. It's the chance of a lifetime. The dark mysteries unfolded. Step right up! Only 15 cents! Now please keep in line. Step right up! Fifteen cents. Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!

-- 7 Faces of Dr. Lao, directed by George Pal, starring Arthur O'Connell, Barbara Eden, John Ericson


These great and wonderful powers that so excite the astonishment and credulity of the world, will not be less operative for human good, when once their causes and methods have been rescued from the domain of the mysterious and the unknown, there will still be left all there is of truth and beauty. All the books that men have given to the world, and all the things that men have built and done, will be the object-lessons in the great curriculum of the ENS, MOVENS and OM. Sculpture with her chiseled form and sympathetic pose; Painting with her motley garb; Decoration with her quaint design, and antique curve and curious tints and shades; Music's sweet consoling voice, and flowers with their perfume pure, will be no less instructive or refining because their laws are understood, and that mystery no longer shrouds the meaning, and the beauty they contain. All that observation with a constant and an ever varied gaze can picture to the mind; each stream, and hill, and tree, and flower, and tone; all we feel, and touch, and smell, and taste; each gauze-like cloud that veils the sacred breast of life and light — each star embosomed by the azure deep of space — and every hope and aspiration high — becomes no less sacred, no less unimpeachable in its evidence for the truth, no less a revelation from the Infinite All, because we understand the physical properties and forces producing these phenomena! Will evil become less repulsive if we understand why and how it affects us? Or will we be less efficient in the cause of right if we know absolutely the beneficent results coming therefrom? Will we be less likely to pray properly if we comprehend what it is and how it affects the universal consciousness? Will the practice of the Yoga of Pantanjali be less productive of results if we understand why certain actions are recommended, and if we know the rational principle upon which it is based, and can we not thereby eliminate the errors accumulated around the system by time and creed? Are not these mental conditions and strange phenomena all the effects of adequate and efficient causes? and if so, are they not the results of forces? and will not a knowledge of these forces reveal to us the mystery of the proper method and the correct practice? To have removed the Veil, and mastered the Mahopanishada is to have taken a culture in comparison with which the culture of the Past is a kindergarten. To have done so and to have won the Jewel is to have gained the greatest prize the next age has to offer. There are things not meet to mention here! There will be a temple more wonderful than Birdsing-Deo's Palace, or the Gwalior castle in central India! and its structure will typify more important truths than the Phallic emblems in the Mahody Elephanta, the Minarets of Islam, or the more modern Campanile and Duomo! There are decrees more important than papal bulls and encyclicals, and decisions of more moment than those of ecumenical and nicean councils. There will be a college of more significance than that of the thirty thousand monks at the collegiate monastery of Shu-Tukt, a course of instruction better than that of Dshashi-Lumbo and Si-Dzang! There will be a course of study wherein the scriptures of the world and the text-books of science as they are now known will be but primers!

"Power belongs to him who knows," says the book of Evocation of the Brahmins. "The human heart has never fully uttered itself" says Festus. "The cumulative effect of will, like all other forces, accomplishes results of a magnitude proportional to the intensity of the forces acting, and to the time during which they are continuously applied to the accomplishment of the same purpose" says VIDYA-NYAIKA.

Re: A CALL TO THE "AWAKENED" FROM "THE UNSEEN AND UNKNOWN,"

PostPosted: Sat Sep 26, 2015 8:02 pm
by admin
Part 1 of 3

The G.N.K.R

About the beginning of the last quarter of the present century, there was placed in the hands and into the guardianship of a small body of men, a complete series of Laws embodying the physical, mathematical, and quantitative formulation of all the Forces of Nature, and affording a correct explanation of all the phenomena of Life, Mind, and Spirit, and of all mentally and spiritually cognizable phenomena. Given therewith was a description of a series of hitherto unknown phenomena and general facts, relating to various objects, cognizable by the six senses (as well as by the seventh sense); and a natural system for the classification of aggregates (objects) and forces. Relating directly to the Seen, and tangible universe, there are 36 forces of which they have the exact definition and laws, and with whose properties they are experimentally acquainted.

"There being nine hayoth on each of the four sides of the universe, the total number is thirty-six. When they are all joined together, they form one impression symbolizing the one Name in an absolute unity. And when they are all ranged round the heavenly throne, then is realized the description given by the prophet: "And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone; and upon the likeness of the throne was a likeness as the appearance of a man above it."

-- The Zohar, translated by Harry Sperling and Maurice Simon


Relating to the Unseen and intangible universe, there are 72 forces of which they have the exact definition and laws, and with the properties of which they are capable of making exact experimental investigations.

"Note now what is written, 'And Abraham passed through the land (va-yaaabor)' rather than he marched or journeyed, indicating the mystery of the Holy Name, the Shemhamphorash of seventy-two letters, the almost infinite combinations of which form the signatures impressed upon every living created being and thing. It is also the synthesis of all other divine names. The same word (yaabor) is used when it is stated, 'And the Lord passed before him (Moses) and proclaimed, 'The Lord, the Lord God be merciful and zealous, long suffering and abundant in goodness and truth.' (Ex. XXXIV. 6), in which verse is contained the Divine Name implicitly and the seventy-two letters of which it is composed.

-- The Sepher Ha-Zohar or The Book of Light, by Nurho de Manhar, edited by J.B. Hare


The remainder of the forces belong to the secret knowledge of the Mahopanishada, and will be revealed to no one except those who have made the attainments requisite for entering into the interior of the innermost of the G...K.. The forces which have hitherto been known by name and a few of their properties are completely understood and all their laws formulated. The formulation of a law does not mean simply the statement of the ideas involved, but the exact mathematical relations in terms of exact physical concepts.

There exists an occult and sacred alphabet which the Hebrews attribute to Enoch, the Egyptians to Thoth or to Hermes Trismegistus, the Greeks to Cadmus and to Palamedes. This alphabet was known to the followers of Pythagoras, and is composed of absolute ideas attached to signs and numbers; by its combinations, it realizes the mathematics of thought. Solomon represented this alphabet by seventy-two names, written upon thirty-six talismans. Eastern initiates still call these the “little keys” or clavicles of Solomon. These keys are described, and their use explained, in a book the source of whose traditional dogma is the patriarch Abraham. This book is called the Sepher Yetzirah; with the aid of the Sepher Yetzirah one can penetrate the hidden sense of the Zohar, the great dogmatic treatise of the Qabalah of the Hebrews.

-- The Key of the Mysteries, by Eliphas Levi, translated by Aleister Crowley


To formulate a thing means a great deal more than to write it out in the form of a description. These discoveries explain what a force is, and the physical method of all attraction and repulsion, and this knowledge is capable of practical application. These Laws are known exoterically as ENS, MOVENS, and OM. They explain not merely the well known phenomena of Nature, but they embrace the theoretical and the experimentally obtained physical formulation of the fact of man's triune duality, and the greatest of all facts, the demonstrable existence of an Universal Consciousness!

These laws constitute the first physical and mathematical explanation of the chemical formation and dual origin of life; of the formation, and construction, and distribution of suns, planets, constellations, systems, galaxies and ether globes; of the material conservation of the universe, and the origin and nature of meteoric matter; of the cause of the revolution of planets, of the order, succession and form of all organic beings, and the phenomena they present; of intellection, intuition, heredity, telepathy, sleep, death, psychity, psycognomy, psychism, memory, consciousness, sensation, hypnotism; of prayer, yoga, concentration, love, sex, reincarnation, karma, growth, life, and all allied subjects. It is not to be supposed that all phenomena have yet been studied — to do so will require all the successive lives between our present stage of evolution and our complete emancipation from individuality and personality. But it is claimed that these laws are the Key for the unravelling of all mysteries, because all phenomena must be the result of forces acting according to definite quantitative relations; and the knowledge of what a force is, and of the necessary methods of its operation will point out the exact experimental steps necessary for the complete mastery of any subject. These laws are at present kept where it is not probable that thieves will break through and steal, and the secrets of the fundamental portion of the processes will, like the laws themselves, remain the permanent property of the executive head of the G.N.K.R. Special portions of the practical part of the laws will be given into the hands of the branches as fast as they are able to utilize, and these branches will dispense methods and means to the special departments belonging to them as fast as these departments commence to utilize according to their needs.

These laws do not consist of mere formulae and of hitherto unknown facts: they embody myriad processes, industries, methods, opportunities and enterprises of incalculable value to humanity when properly and wisely utilized. They were not furnished for instruction merely, and there was a wise purpose in the mind of the Universal Consciousness in bringing about their discovery or in permitting their revelation, and it is the work of the G.N.K.R to carry out that purpose. The work of that body of people has succeeded because they have devoted everything they possess to the accomplishment of that purpose, and it will continue to succeed as long as they remain faithful to the work assigned them by PANTOGNOMOS, acting under the further guidance of the Inmost.

THE HISTORY OF THE LAWS OF ENS, MOVENS, AND OM.

About the commencement of the last quarter of the Nineteenth Century, PANTOGNOMOS delivered into the hands of three people the above mentioned Laws, and these three people were charged with the preliminary-organization and management of the special branches of work over which they had temporary control, and these three men were ETHNOMEDON, EKPHORON, and VIDYA-NYAIKA. They were first to organize a body of trustworthy people whose duty it should be to protect and elaborate the Laws, to arrange for their practical application, and to guide their use towards the realization of the object of PANTOGNOMOS, and this first organization was the G.N.K.R.

It has been said that ETHNOMEDON is a Buddhist priest filled with the wisdom and erudition of the Hindoo and the Egyptian philosophies of antiquity, and that it is his mission to organize the better minds of the different races of people on the globe into nuclei for the reception of truths, of a class suitable to the needs of those special races, and to collect a body of men capable of looking after the interests and progress of the special races, over which they have severally been placed, according to the necessities of the method which the laws involve. A majority of the twelve double departments of the G.N..... were organized in 1883. These departments have the interests of the various races for their study, and it is their duty to collect all sociological and ethnological facts respecting them. It is also their duty to aid, in a manner unseen and unknown, the progress of all that tends towards the unfolding of those races over which they have charge.

It has been said that EKPHORON is a young man to whom has been entrusted the elaboration, scientific development, and practical application of the laws to the needs of humanity — the disbursement of the results and processes being subject to the decision of PANTOGNOMOS. Others, have maintained that he is a centenarian filled with the accumulated knowledge and expedience of a long life-time of earnest study and investigation, and that having made in his old age remarkable discoveries regarding the forces and laws governing the universe, and being too old and feeble to present them to the public in a proper form, selected from among the young men of the Occident one to whom he confided his secrets having previously exacted a promise that they should not be given to the public until they had been thoroughly perfected, and that even then they should be given only to those endeavoring to elevate humanity by a definite method and without selfish interest. And there are others who think him only a personification of the transmitted mental qualities and phylogenetic experiences of a long course of heredity: that EKPHORON is simply the higher and better nature of the student who feels himself unworthy of the momentous work made possible by the scientific application of the Law — and who feels unwilling that the experimental evidence and the formulation of principles leading to the enunciation of the fundamental law governing all organic action and duty (the Golden Law of Morals) should be made by one whose personal weaknesses and foibles might retard their reception by the world. Whoever EKPHORON may be when the time comes matters not; truth needs no advocate except its inherent harmony to all that is — it does not have to be attested by miracles, or to be received through inspiration in order to be true — if these laws fit and harmonize with all other facts they are true: but if there is a single known fact or a single fact yet to be discovered that will not fit these Laws, then they are not true and no miracles or evidences of supernatural revelation could make them so. EKPHORON has been entrusted with the preparation of the methods, knowledges, and means, according to the Laws of ENS, MOVENS, and OM, and upon him rests the responsibility of mistake, in all details of the application of the same to the wants of the departments of the association to which the three belong.

It was his duty to organize the twelve departments of the first branch of the G.N.K.R, and seven of the G...K.. were started during the year 1883 — the first one was, however, started previous to that year. Four are yet to be organized. All experimental work and collection of knowledges will be done under the supervision of the G...K..

It has been said that VIDYA-NYAIKA is a very old, old man bowed down with the weight of centuries and tremulous with the weariness of completed tasks innumerable; that in his time he has witnessed the rise and fall of empires and creeds, and the growth and decline of races and religions; that like the wandering Jew he has made for himself familiar paths in every land and clime, and gathered from the skill and lore of men the secret learning of the years gone by. Acquainted with the temples, caves and tombs of every age, — with ceremonies, rituals and shrines of every creed, he stored away the weighty truths with a miser's care, until congenial minds, by nature reared, could foster and perpetuate the embodied culture among the sons of men. It is thought by some that it is his mission to effect a union between the Occident and the Orient and to unite into one religion the a priori and sambudhistic philosophy of Kapila with the modern inductive and deductive methods of research, others, that he only intends to effect a union of the highest minds in either, but it is more reasonable to conclude that he simply intends to embody and collect into one system the religious knowledge and culture of all times for the special use of the members of the G.N.K.R. This is to be inferred from the fact that the above organization will not accept any philosophy as the basis of action or guidance, and therefore its teachings can never retrograde into a creed, or become the basis of a new sect. To him belongs the organization of the twelve departments of the second branch of the G.N.K.R, that is, it is his duty to collect and prepare the twelve departments of the G.....R, the first department of which is now being organized under ADHY-APAKA.

WHY WERE THE LAWS TO BE KEPT SECRET?

It was plainly seen by those who were conversant with the Laws at the period of their discovery, that they contained many facts and many Laws, and a knowledge of many Forces that would prove dangerous to society if they were made known to the world. There are those who contend that all knowledge is too sacred to be kept a secret — that all that can be known by any man should be known by all. If this were true, then all people would be capable of living up to the ethical standard; and the Terra del Fuegian and Australian savage would be capable of utilizing the same knowledge and philosophy suitable to the most advanced people of the white race. If this were true, then the higher trusts capable of being discharged by the best and wisest men among us, would be safe and effective for good in the hands of the lower races. If it were true that all that can be known by the highest minds should be taught to the lowest, then there would be no wisdom in teaching to the people of the Messianic Cycle a different line of knowledge than to those of the Kali-Yug, or to those of the Great Cycle. Suppose for instance that a body of people were in the possession of a secret that would enable them to manufacture foods at no expense; suppose foods were free to all in consequence thereof, what would be the effect upon society? Those having attained that development and that higher consciousness prompting them to be ever busy in attaining a higher culture, would be benefitted and would have more time to devote to the good of the world; and those who had not reached that stage of evolution, would betake themselves to a warmer climate where they needed no clothes, and would cease to be active; they would quit work, enterprise would cease, and retrogradation would ensue. The necessity of maintaining life by means of food compels people and all animals to keep busy — without action life cannot exist — and if foods could be had without effort the majority of the human race would cease to be occupied in the various enterprises and industries through which the necessary experience is obtained to enable them to take a higher step in their upward way. Perhaps no greater mistake could be made than to publish a process for making foods as inexpensive as air and water.

Until people have passed through the struggles for the maintenance of the body, and have acquired all the experience derivable therefrom, they must continue to work for their living in one way or another, as suited to their wants. Suppose a wise Master had given the world a dynamo, a telegraph instrument, and a steam engine, as soon as they were needed, suppose this process had continued until the present. We would have had our shops filled with apparatus and instruments the principles of whose construction no one would have understood; and the culture derivable from their construction, and the laws they explain, would have belonged to the master, and we would still have to acquire the experience. Would you give to a man of low moral impulses an instrument that would noiselessly shoot poison into a person, or into any number of people, in such a manner that no one could detect the crime? Would you entrust to a man capable of executing revenge a knowledge of the forces of the higher mind and psychic powers? If the members of the Association into whose hands this knowledge was placed were capable of allowing public use to be made of it, they would be unable to carry out the work entrusted to them, — but the Infinite consciousness has that under control.

The Forces concerned in the production of thought psychity, and in the production of intuition and inspiration, would be a dangerous power in the hands of those susceptible of ambition, for there are instruments capable of making forces of this kind very much more intense than can be given off by the action of the brain, and the use of such instruments would enable those of evil inclinations to work incalculable damage. A knowledge of the forces concerned in the production of psychity and phychism would enable the man of Hate to use an instrument capable of transmitting forces many times more intense than can be given out by the human mind, and would enable him to control the wills of those whom he wished to use for purposes of his own — and while the will of a person is thus controlled he is not only liable to be used as an instrument for evil, but during that time the person controlling is getting the development, and not the individual, whose will is being used.

It is evident that to know what a force is, is to possess a key to all phenomena, and that this key should be placed only in the hands of those who can be trusted. No one should possess knowledge they are incapable of applying — it is useless lumber in the storehouse of memory — and to understand a philosophy above the scale of our attainment makes us dissatisfied with the necessary duties of the special work which we are called to do!

These Laws necessitate the reorganization of the entire body of Science and Philosophy, and they were placed in the hands of this body of people with that understanding; and with the further understanding that the three lines of work should be carried out as indicated by the Laws, and as prescribed by the method given therewith; and in order that it might be done, there was given this body of people a practical secret which would enable them to carry out the enormous work involved — a work as will be seen involving the expenditure of many millions of money per year, and the assistance of the ablest intellects in the world; — a work which would be too expensive to be undertaken by any government, or any corporation; and which, as will be evident on explanation, can be performed only by the means indicated by the "practical secret" and this secret would not be adequate to furnish the necessary material means if it were revealed to the world. If the Laws were published or explained in full to those who are not ready to receive the knowledge it would enable them to appropriate that which would make them no richer, but would prevent the association from utilizing the same to defray the fabulous expenses of the experimental tests, connected with the work, without making a single individual any poorer. Therefore the Laws have not and will not be explained except to the few.

WHY CONFINED TO A SELECT PEOPLE?

There is another and a better reason why the Laws and the secrets are confined to those who have attained a higher growth, and who have within themselves the immediate possibilities of a higher spiritual and intellectual culture, and that reason is this: people receive from the universal source, only as fast as they are able to wisely utilize in their own individual growth, but if they have with them in the same community those who are not adapted to that higher knowledge, the reception of it would endanger the best interests of those lower in the scale of evolution. If we desire a higher knowledge and power upon this earth than that which is adapted to the medium or average culture of the masses, we must collect a body of people of the highest growth and take them to a separate place and still further isolate them by special culture and to such persons there will be revealed an order of knowledge that would not be adapted to the mixed conditions of society. Such a people must be capable of using this higher knowledge not only for their own higher growth, but for the needs of the lower races. The conditions for the highest and most productive thought cannot be obtained in the midst of present adverse social conditions, for reasons too numerous to mention. The first requisite is complete physical and mental peace, and second, complete physical and mental health; among the other necessary conditions may be mentioned the absence of adverse sambudhisms and phychisms. Freedom from interruptions of every possible character, and a locality congenial to the specific mental temperaments is desirable. Among that select body of people there must be no inharmony either of a mental or a physical nature.

The main reason however is that the application of the laws must be not merely by good people, but by the ablest intellects in the world. The capacity to utilize ideas depends upon the ability to give definite formulation to the same in the terms of mathematical and physical conceptions; and according to the doctrine of the G...K.. these become the ultimate criterion of truths viz,: — Concepts, and the Laws inductively and deductively derivable therefrom.

If it is really true that there is in the world a collection of laws and knowledges not in the possession of the public, is it not a matter of momentous import? Has it not a significance greater than that which is local to time and place?

Announcements have been made from time to time of the discovery of a new force and the world became a willing listener; but here is an organization that stands ready to give the proper persons theoretical, mathematical, and physical demonstration of the fact that they are in possession of not one but scores of hitherto unknown forces! Shall not such a knowledge be confined to those who would sacrifice their lives for the perpetuation and elaboration of these opportunities?

This is not an attempt to confine ether in a tube (as well talk about confining air in a coarse sieve), neither is it a theory claiming that all forces are corpuscular emissions, or that soul is immaterial, or that spirit is independent of all actions and reactions upon matter. Neither does this knowledge uphold the theory of a certain chemist who announced that all forces are included in 139 octaves, from sound to gravity, thinking doubtless that gravity is the supreme and the highest force, and being evidently unaware of the existence of the numerous other forces included within the same domain. These laws embody an order of knowledge not mentioned in the literature of the world; — if this is in reality a truth, surely it is a wise provision to entrust them only to those who are incapable of selfish motives, and who have the highest intellectual capacity obtainable.

The other requisite for the reception of knowledge from the universal sensorium is, the ability to use it for the good of humanity, not as a mass, but as special subdivisions each having peculiar needs and abilities to use. First, the select people must have the highest intellectual capacity and that capacity must have been cultivated to the highest state possible: second, they must be able to use for their own growth that which they receive, in order that they may have a higher wisdom to aid them in disseminating their knowledge among those who have no ability to judge from the same standpoint, and third, they must not measure their standard of receptivity by the needs of humanity as a whole, for that would lower the standard of their own reception, but, of humanity as classes of people having attained different stages in the course of evolution, each stage thereof needing knowledge peculiar to itself. The select people must therefore be able to discriminate wisely regarding the needs of the different races and the different stages thereof or they would not be able to wisely use their knowledge.

WHY ORGANIZED UNDER SPECIAL DEPARTMENTS?

To completely elaborate and arrange for the application of the Laws involves not only an amount of work — more than can be accomplished by a hundred or a thousand men in one life-time, but it requires concerted action according to a system which requires the performance of the proper work at the proper time; to do that first which will be required to complete the rest. Not to have done this would have been throwing away one of the golden opportunities of the age. To have made them public would have been throwing away the only means of completing and applying the discoveries. To apply them to human needs, to perfect them in detail, and to extend them to their legitimate possibilities, was seen to require a larger and a more complete laboratory than the world affords; a numerous corps of trustworthy and skilled scientific men for assistants; an enormous amount of money — more than would ever be furnished by any corporation or government.

Progress in art and industry follows an increasing knowledge of natural things. Applied science presupposes the existence of pure science. Conduct, according to the G...K.. finds its only criterion of right and wrong in Science (true science) and especially in that complete unification of science called Philosophy. Humanity has had no glimpse of the possibilities of Science: as long as Force, the cause of all phenomena, was not understood, how could Science exist? Real science points out all possibilities; directs discovery and investigation; makes prevision possible; furnishes us with an unimpeachable standard for the rectification of our ideals, and points out the conditions and means of progress.

It is to pure science that we must look for the ultimate test of the truth and value of all our intuitions, inspirations and sambudhisms. The application of the laws will complete and unify science: to commence with, the "barrier" experiments must be made; by which is meant those untried experiments in every science, so difficult and expensive, that they confront progress with a Gorgon's gaze. They are not likely to be performed except slowly as man by man, through the halting years, contributes his little mite towards the completion of the great work; — each man often wishing that he might have access to the instruments and the apparatus of his fellow laborer in the same or different spheres of thought. The sum of labor thus required will be almost infinitely greater than if the research were organized and assisted by skilled assistants, working according to a definite plan, in a laboratory containing all the apparatus capable of being used in such investigations. But the domain of human knowledge and investigation is so vast that no one person can hope to cover the whole ground: the division of labor must take place, and those spheres of duty be assigned to persons especially fitted for that particular class of work. One member has entire charge of the astronomical matters, and it is his duty and pleasure to keep an accurate account of all that happens in that line that is new; this requires a research into all the periodicals in the world, and the reading of all literatures, and this cannot be done by one man unless he has under his charge a number of assistants whose duties are to collect and report to their chief all that can be discovered in the line of astronomy. So each science must have its chief or Genio under whom there are a sufficient number of assistants. A Genio is a man with a particular turn of mind, and above all things else he has a love and a fitness for the particular science in which he is engaged.

There are as many Genii as there are sciences: a Genio is also a guardian and it is his province to look after the welfare and the progress of the science over which he has surveillance. The different Genii of the sciences collectively are called the G...K.. and they belong to branch One of the G.N.K.R. Each one devotes his time to the complete mastery of his special subject in all its details and relations. No one but a mathematician should have charge of matters mathematical; no one but a religious person should have charge of matters devotional; no one but an intellectual person should have charge of matters relating to exact knowledge, and to processes of induction and deduction; no one but an intuitional person should have control of matters incapable of being decided by processes of reasoning.

In order to organize a harmonious and effective body of people, the individuals composing that association should previous to their cooperation be highly developed in their special sphere: this is in accordance with the general principles of evolution.

"The tendency of evolution is the functional aggregation of previously differentiated units, and these units do not therefore loose their individuality but must, previous to forming a part in the complex structure, undergo a special development and distinct differentiation from cells or units of the same class; that is, those special structural changes and functional adaptations which makes possible the division of labor must have taken place, and this means that their fitness for their special work must be the result of a very high evolution within their own organism; and this division of labor which is contemplated in the G.N.K.R does not render the individuals who compose it subordinate to anything but the organization, of which they are the integral parts. Their special faculties are needed by this larger organism, and in working for the common end they will each acquire a more complete and harmonious development of their special faculties. The tendency of the time is not only division of labor, but as necessary preparation for that division, and as an accompanying result of such a division, there is taking place a more complete specialization of mental and bodily powers in the more highly developed portion of the human race. That which distinguishes civilization from savagery, is the development of various trades and professions, and the internal differentiation of society into minor social aggregates; but the internal cohesion of these aggregates, as well as mutual cohesion, has not yet been established: — there have indeed been numerous momentary adhesions brought about by various creeds and theories which again produce disruptions as soon as knowledge advanced, and social conditions were changed."

Ekphoron.

WHAT IS THE G.N.K.R?

The G.N.K.R is an association having under executive charge the three branches called respectively the G.N...., the G...K.. and the G.....R. The latter organization is called the Genii of Religions, and will consist of twelve distinct departments, the first of which is now being formed. The one next to the latter is called the Genii of Knowledges and will consist of twelve distinct departments, seven of which were formed in 1883, and the first of which was formed in 1876. The other branch is called the Genii of Nations and eight of the departments thereof were organized in the year 1883. The G.N.K.R was formed in the year 1873, under the direction of PANTOGNOMOS, who placed in the hands of the heads of the three branches (ETHNOMEDON, EKPHORON, VIDYA-NYAIKA) the Laws of ENS, MOVENS, and OM, and the secrets connected therewith. EKPHORON was given entire charge of the scientific elaboration and application of the same, subject to a covenant to use the opportunity and the means at his disposal for certain definite purposes, and according to definite methods: to each of the 36 departments of the three branches sufficient means and knowledge was to be given to empower them to carry out their special work which would enable them to contribute to the ultimate objects of the G.N.K.R.

Nature, which is the work-shop of the Infinite All, produced the people at the head of the association and the thoughts they think; both the organization and the laws they have in charge; both the duty and the means for accomplishing the work. It is, to say the least, the result of that adaptive and directive process in nature which has brought about the universal evolution. The first exoteric department of the entire movement is department No. 1 of the G.....R, the rest of the departments of the other two branches were all organized secretly and remain a secret except to those who are members. Department No. 1, is also a secret department but it is being publicly organized. The G.N.K.R, was conceived in 1873, the child will be born in 1890, it will be able to walk in 1896, and can commence to care for itself about 1900, or at least in 1907. The work of the three heads will then be accomplished, and abler persons will arise to take charge of the movement.

"There are coming crises in social and national affairs that will require the calm guidance of unseen forces and powers, whose personal interests are not entangled with affairs local to time and place. The ferments and antagonisms of religions and states — the disintegrative effects of revolutions, and the subsequent reformation of social and national institutions will all require the guidance of minds unexcited by the local turmoil, — of minds unprejudiced by sectional interests or temporary influences, — of minds filled with the highest knowledge; the purest wisdom and the best forethought; — a matter possible only to Association of Effort and Aim, acting UNSEEN and UNKNOWN, in an organized and SYSTEMATIC manner.

"Association of Effort and Purpose gives strength; mature Forethought overcomes formidable obstacles by avoiding them; long preparation insures consciousness of ability; Secrecy precludes betrayal and prevents opposition; accurate Knowledge justifies Hope; noble Aims redouble the enthusiasm and good done to others, sweetens and purifies the entire Mind and Heart, and makes life more and more worth living." — Ehphoron.

WHAT ARE ITS OPPORTUNITIES?

It possesses not only the true knowledge of all forces and a true formulation of all the laws governing forces and phenomena, but it also possesses numerous industrial processes and secrets relating to the various arts; it is not necessary to say how many, but there are sufficient to supply all the departments under the three heads, [as well as other movements of a deserving character] with the necessary knowledges, methods and means for the realization of their special aims. The association is also in the possession of a secret, or rather of a natural product which will enable the parent organization to fulfil all that it has started out to do. Ought this opportunity to be turned into money, and distributed among the poor and needy? Or should it be devoted to personal ambitions?

"This opportunity for getting practically unlimited wealth from Nature, opens up possibilities far greater than those of mere financial transactions. This wealth stored up by the past should be used for purposes more universal than the gain or benefit of any one people, nation or age. This accumulation of opportunities belongs in justice to the entire world: — to the world's interests it should be devoted. Not to the interest of the American race alone — not to the gain of this century alone but to all centuries and peoples that are to come. In this gift of the years that are gone by, one thinks the benificent voice of the PAST has spoken, the cry of the present is heard, — and the hum of the future greets our ears. To divide this money equally among the poor of the world would for a short time alleviate a few wants, and then things would be about the same as ever; but to spend it in giving man more power to help himself would be to leave the world a perpetual legacy, capable of increasing, the more it is used! To spend it in giving the world more accurate ideas and facts, to spend it in acquiring a more accurate idea of ourselves and surroundings, to spend it in gaining a more perfect mastery over the powers of Nature, to spend it even in improving the earth, is to spend it for the greatest good of the present, and at the same time for the greatest good of posterity! Beliefs will come and go, philosophies will rise and fall, and creeds will grow and decay, but as long as men inhabit this earth it will be their only method of ethical guidance to study the THE THINGS UPON WHICH THEY ACT, IN THE PRESENCE OF WHICH THEY ACT, AND THE THING THAT ACTS. As long as reason is the only way we have of forming our judgment about any act, and as long as reason depends upon a knowledge of facts for its action, that is upon accurate concepts, just so long will the most valuable possession of mankind be an accurate and extended knowledge of Nature. And the only way to start to get this knowledge is to collect the facts known to the world, test them to know that they are true, and continue to search Nature for more facts; — and the best way to do this is to accept the gift of the past and apply it to the systematic study of Nature in a laboratory filled with all apparatus needed, and with skilled experimenters, and then classify the result by means of the Hierarchy. Facts, Laws, and Principles will thus be learned of which it would now be rashness to prophesy. It is the only way possible for man to arrive at a true knowledge, the only road that will ever lead to the ultimate TRUTH.

"Behold, we have pointed out to you through the grey morning twilight the direction and place of the sacred mountain in the far distance; if you have the energy, courage and skill you will begin at once to climb to its heights, and from that more lofty position you will see much that we have not been able to see; and if it seem cold in those upper regions do not turn back, for it will require time for moral acclimatization, — and if you remain long enough you will catch the first glorious glimpses of a more wonderful dawn. Do not be discouraged with difficulties, — there are no shadows until the sun rises. Others before you encountered mental obstructions, the removal of which required the best years of a long and useful life; if you follow them plant flowers in their footsteps, and when you come to the end of the Path, have the courage to mark out a road into the BEYOND, with facts for your landmarks and guideposts; do not be deceived by some philosophical mirage that promises to allay your thirst with a shadow." — Ekphoron.

ITS OBJECTS.

It was once a favorite form of expression in the Association that it was its purpose to do for Science, what the Past had done for Religion: TO DO FOR THE KNOWN, WHAT RELIGION HAD TRIED TO DO FOR THE UNKNOWN. But this very imperfectly expresses the real meaning. The idea is that this association shall, as assiduously and as devotedly study the known, — study Nature — as ever any zealous religionist studied his bible, supposed to contain the true revelation from the Deity in which he believed. And that having studied Nature, its teachings shall be as zealously lived, as ever a Buddhist attempted to live the teachings of the Vedas. It contemplates a systematic study of natural phenomena, in a complete Laboratory, and with a regularly organized corps of Investigators. At the headquarters of this Association, will be all the various instruments and apparatus ever known to Physics, or to the various Arts. In it will be found all the apparatus capable of being used in the investigation of Nature. This apparatus will be made for constant and repeated use, and not merely to show how the apparatus will work. The specialists in charge of the various departments of the sciences will not be ordinary workers, but the ablest men the world can furnish; and they will labor to perfect, not some money making device, but our knowledge of Nature: the discovery of more facts than the world at present possesses, their systemization, and the induction therefrom of principles capable of universal application. This Laboratory will cost many millions of dollars; the apparatus will cost many millions; the experimenting will cost many millions; and the Hierarchy will cost millions.

The first great work to be undertaken is: the Collection of the Sum of ascertainable Knowledge of the world. There will ultimately be collected in the Archives of the G...K.. all known facts; and this collection will constitute the bible of the Association. Every tested FACT will be a verse in that Book. Every principle will be one of its Doctrines. Every Fact is a special revelation from all that is. Every fact, principle and LAW, in that book is an inexorable commandment! To carefully determine exactly what are Facts and what are not, the Laboratory will constantly be required. All the Knowledge in all the books and manuscripts in the world can be collected and systematically arranged, and every separate Fact recorded in its proper place, and it will require but a very few books to contain (without repetition and tautology) all that is now scattered through millions of volumes.

To collect those facts from the literatures of the world will require quite a number of linguists, and an enormous amount of clerical work. But it will require more than mere ability to sift assertions — these assertions must all be tested in an experimental way before being recorded. The opinion of no one man, nor of any body of men can be taken as authority. Every fact before being recorded in this bible must be carefully tested in a fully equipped laboratory; and this will require an army of the ablest Physicists, Chemists, Electricians, Mathematicians, Philosophers, Astronomers, Botanists, Biologists, Geologists, Paleontologists, Mineralogists, Anatomists, Philologists, Physiologists, Physicians, Microscopists, Archaeologists, Entomologists, Statisticians, Ethnologists, Experimentalists, Mechanics, etc., procurable in the world. It will require all the instruments, apparatus and devices that experimenters have used, in working out the permanent collection of scientific FACTS and PRINCIPLES. It will require systematic and concerted work under able guidance. To completely accomplish this collection during the life-time of one man, is quite improbable, but nearly all the most important facts can be collected in ten years if a sufficient number of specialists can be secured and supplied with the needed apparatus, and the requisite clerical assistance. The experimental testing of all these supposed FACTS will require the performance of innumerable experiments.

Judging from what has already been done by the Association in the collection of the sum of knowledges during the fifteen years of its existence, it may be safe to conclude, that the entire record when completed, will be contained within the limits of a score of quarto volumes. To do this, properly, will cost many millions. Yet it must be done!

WHY MUST IT BE DONE?

Because a knowledge of Nature is the only criterion of conduct known to man. Accurate concepts of the things and phenomena of the ego and non-ego are the only tests of the truth or untruth of sambudhism, intuition, or inspiration. By their aid alone can an idea be applied or embodied.

Facts are the only GUIDES by which man can correct his REASON, adjust his CONSCIENCE, and correctly guide his CONDUCT. We act according to the weightier motives. Our judgment is one of the motives which determines a course of action. The human race has advanced, only as it has applied to human needs some new fact. All that constitutes progress is brought about by a more perfect adaptation of our organism to its environment. This adaptation, as far as it is aided by the mind or "will," presupposes a knowledge of the environment, and of the organism. To recognize the lack of perfect adaptation in either, is to perceive a fact, or a series of facts, having a direct bearing upon further progress, and serving as guides to a better conduct, i.e., conduct producing a more perfect inner adaptation of the parts of the organism, to the needs of the organism as a unit; or to the more perfect adaptation of the organism to its environments. To properly adjust conduct, implies a knowledge of the conditions and needs of the organism, and of the conditions and laws of the environment. This means that in order to use our judgment in any case whatever, in the guidance of our conduct, we must have a knowledge of "the things upon which we act, in the presence of which we act, and of the thing that does the acting." And having such a knowledge of ourselves and our surroundings, we are able to weigh the consequences of an act, and by the aid of reason we are able to select a proper line of action, and to judge of any particular course of action, is to correlate, arrange, and collect facts, and in proportion as our knowledge of these FACTS IS ACCURATE AND EXTENSIVE, will our judgment be accurate and safe. If we use our judgment in any case whatever, we must have a KNOWLEDGE OF THE THINGS UPON WHICH WE ACT, IN THE PRESENCE OF WHICH WE ACT, AND OF THE THING THAT DOES THE ACTING.

To know these things is to know SCIENCE. Science is only a systemized knowledge of NATURE. A knowledge of Nature is a knowledge of ALL that is. In no way can we procure better homes, clothes, foods, tools, books, pictures, statues, roads, fruits; in no way can we procure better health, minds, government; or better men, women and children, than by applying some of the FACTS directly relating to these things; and in no way can we progress in these things unless we learn new facts and apply them to the bettering of these conditions. Whether it be in direct self-preservation that prevents the loss of life by a knowledge of the dangers of the environments; or whether it be indirect self-preservation by those means of livelihood which procure our homes, food, and clothing; or whether it be in the duties of parents or of citizens, the broad fact remains the same, that all of these actions and duties become more and more productive of the results desired, as the acting individuals acquire a more and more accurate and extensive knowledge of these things. If our knowledge of facts is inaccurate and limited, the best reasoning in the world will mislead: if we suppose that to be a fact which is not, our judgment will be deceived. If we do not know all the facts regarding the foods we eat, we will not be able to select the proper foods for the different requirements of the system; and we will often eat that which is not healthful, and sometimes that which is poisonous. If we suppose a thing to be nutritious which is not, our judgment will be misled to our detriment, — our ignorance of the fact will in no wise mitigate the injury that will be done us. If we are ignorant of the laws of thought, if we do not know all the facts regarding the hygiene of the brain, and the physiology of the mind, we are continually apt to form habits and do things that directly destroy the power of thought. If we suppose that to be a healthful habit which is not, then in determining our course of action under a given circumstance, our reason and judgment will be misled, and in endeavoring to remedy the evils consequent therefrom, we are apt to do that which increases the evil — being ignorant of its cause. To guide ourselves under any and all circumstances that occur during life, we must have a knowledge of ourselves and our surroundings, and in no other possible way can we correctly guide conduct. There is no class of facts connected with a knowledge of ourselves and our surroundings that is not included in the word Science, or in the words "a knowledge of Nature." Space — the dwelling-place of Nature — the Temple of Existence, is infinite in extent, and could have had no beginning, because it could at no time have been non-existent. It is infinite in domain because it can have neither a centre nor a circumference — it can have no boundary, because beyond any assignable limit there must still be infinite extension. It cannot be a cause for it is incapable of action and reaction — it is simply infinite room; the Stage whereon UNIVERSES have their exits and entrances; where Matter and Motion, and Om, in the eternal drama of EVOLUTION, play many parts; their acts being Cosmical Cycles — their scenes, all Phenomena!

A knowledge of the facts, principles, and laws expressing the uniformity of the processes forever taking place in this infinite sea of Matter in motion is, a knowledge of ALL that IS, — it is a knowledge of Nature. That which constitutes the material Entity of all that is must have been coeternal with Space and Duration, and uncaused: for if there was nothing but Space from all eternity, then there never could have been anything else, for there could have been nothing to cause a change from nothing to something. This material Entity could never have had a beginning, it must have been an eternal unchangeable quantity, accompanied with an eternal unchangeable quantity of Motion. If the broadest general fact of Nature be true: that Force is persistent and correlative — that force must always come from an equal amount of energy — then it is true that the sum of the energies in the universe is an unchangeable quantity. And from these eternal properties of Matter and Motion, and these eternal and unchangeable principles which underlie their manifestations, must be deduced the laws of all phenomena, and from the phenomena must be induced successively higher and higher generalizations, until the eternal properties and principles of Matter and Motion are derived, and the exact agreement between the two revelations will prove their correctness. From first (or general principles) must be deduced all phenomena, and from the phenomena must be deduced the primordial principles. The properties of Matter and Motion lie outside of all the phenomena they produce — these eternal conditions and properties lie above all the results of evolution, and anterior to all qualities and all intelligences. There can be no knowledge except it be a knowledge of the things produced by Matter and Motion, and this is Nature. The recognition of a Fact is a revelation from a higher source than that of any of the intelligences produced by the evolution in material forms, by the interactions of Matter and Motion.

There can come to man no knowledge except through the seven senses or through the interpretation of sambudhisms and psychisms by means of concepts, for without the concepts given by the senses to the mind, thought would be impossible, and reason could never have a dawning in the intellect. Did not the senses like trusty sentinels continually warn us of pain, pleasure, and danger, life would simply be impossible. If through the senses we did not acquire a knowledge of our surroundings we would be burned to death by the first fire with which we came in contact killed by the first vehicle that passed us or we would perish the first time we became thirsty, or hungry, for we would not know where to find either water or food. If we had no memory we would not lay up food for winter, we would have no homes, and we would forget during the day where we had taken our sleep the night before; we would handle the fire every time we came in contact with it, not remembering that it had burned us frequently before; being thirsty we would drink from the stagnant pool forgetting that it had poisoned our friends the hour before, we would walk off the cliff into the water, or play with the viper as readily as we would handle a tame kitten. If we had no memory we would be absolutely unable to guide our conduct in any particular whatever. Is this admitted? Do YOU admit that if you had no memory you would be unable to form any judgment about anything whatever? Do you admit that if you had no memory you could not reason? If you do, then you must admit that science is the only possible guide to conduct, for what is memory but a recollection of the objects around you and of their relations to each other, and to yourself! Is it admitted? Then the more you have in the memory about the things around you, the more you can recollect, and the less apt you will be to do that which is destructive to your life. The more accurately you have observed the things around you the more accurate will be your memory of the things that are injurious or beneficial to you.

Memory is a collection of facts. The Reason decides between any two courses of action by weighing the good and the bad consequences resulting from either course, and these good and bad consequences are determinable only, by the memory of the experiences and facts relating to the things acted upon, or acted in the presence of, or the thing that acts, and if the memories about these things are accurate and extensive, the reason will never deceive us; but it will mislead us just in proportion as our knowledge of the facts involved is inaccurate or insufficient. A belief cannot be selected without using the judgment; and the judgment cannot act thereon in choosing said belief without weighing the facts known to the memory, and if the memory has stored up an accurate and extensive collection of the facts relating to that subject, then the choice of the belief will be accordingly accurate, but just to the extent that we are ignorant of the facts involved will we be ready to accept as true, a belief that does not harmonize with nature. Are you, kind reader willing to admit that in no way can the judgment act, or the reason operate, unless it has facts to operate with? Are you willing to admit that in no way are you able to correctly guide your conduct without using your reason of judgment? (We are not talking about being guided by someone else or by something else). If you admit this, you will admit that it is your duty to acquire as rapidly as possible an accurate and extensive knowledge of the things around you, and of yourself, for by that means alone will you be able to have your actions correctly guided.

Re: A CALL TO THE "AWAKENED" FROM "THE UNSEEN AND UNKNOWN,"

PostPosted: Sat Sep 26, 2015 8:03 pm
by admin
Part 2 of 3

NEITHER REASON NOR JUDGMENT IS THE CORRECT GUIDE OF MAN.

Strange contradiction, I hear you say! Have I not been showing that without the reason we could not guide conduct? That judgment weighs the good and bad consequences, and then chooses between them.

Reason is simply the lamp which Nature has placed in our hands to enable us to see the guides to correct conduct: — and these guides are the facts of Nature. The more of them we see the less we will wander from the true path; and the more accurately we see them, the more accurately will we be able to steer our ship, of hopes and fears, in the exact course across the shoreless ocean of Life! The facts are the guides, — Observation detects them; Memory maps them down; Reason arranges, correlates and reads them. It follows from what has been said that a correct knowledge of Nature is the only oracle, the only criterion, the only guide by which reason can properly direct conduct, and rectify conscience.

Conscience is a creature of education and circumstances, modified by inherited and acquired tendencies, and can be no reliable guide until it has been correctly trained, by a thorough knowledge of Nature. Conscience being an automatic alarm, that rings when our actions do not correspond with our belief, in no way justifies that belief.

THE VOICE OF CONSCIENCE

Conscience, already mentioned in the chapter on the Witch Doctor, is a mysterious voice worthy of more detailed analysis. Conscience frequently supplies the stuff for exhibitions of will power, so the two can be intimately connected.

A theological belief holds that conscience is a spiritual organ, by which the will of God is made known in the personal conduct of individuals. A little investigation proves that conscience, far from being the voice of a universal morality, is a very mundane, and often dangerous, form of subconscious opinionism. It is the type of opinionism that Heraclitus called a falling sickness of the reason.

Conscience, in actuality, is a fear mechanism, and its origin is in the emotional body. Basically, it is the fear of nonconformity, ever compelling its owner to agree with the patterns of his time. For this reason conscience usually speaks for obedience to law, order, and tradition; and this in many cases is constructive in its effect, for society can survive only if its parts conform with the rules which have been established by the whole. But, though these rules may be necessary, it does not follow that they are divine.

Left to its own devices, conscience would no doubt make a very sensible contribution to human betterment; but unfortunately, its gentle ways have been interfered with seriously by religious training. Most religious teachings are heavily loaded with 'thou shalt nots,' and these have a demoralizing effect on the conscience. They cause this poor faculty to lose all sense of orientation and dissolve in a sea of fears.

We will never have a spiritual code that solves human problems, prevents war and crime, and leads men to the Promised Land of personal and collective security, until fear is removed from the mechanisms of soul conversion and religious practice. It is impossible to live a truly God-like existence with terror in the heart.

Conscience having become the vehicle of the taboos, it can no longer be depended upon to indicate the proper course of action. A man may obey the dictates of his conscience and yet be a danger to himself and a menace to all others in his community.

Some have taught that conscience is the voice of Karma, (the principle or law of as-ye-sow-so-shall-ye-reap); but this is not always true, according to my experience with conscience sufferers. The effect is much more likely to have originated in the parental home, where good and bad were defined according to the personal points of view of father and mother. These well-meaning elders, with their well set opinions on virtue or vice may, or may not, have had any intelligent understanding of the meaning of either. Out of "don't do this," and "don't do that," from tired and exasperated elders, conscience is born. On and on through the years, it keeps repeating, parrot-like, "don't do this," and "don't do that."

A mind accustomed to this endless cycle of negatives becomes keenly aware of the monotonous voice of the proprieties in every aspect of life, chanting the same dolorous admonitions. Resistance to the traditions having been broken in childhood, before the character is formed, generation after generation goes on, conforming to the old ways; because of fear, fear of displeasing the multitudes who sing the "don'ts."

It is through those who refuse to accept the will and attitudes of the many that progress comes to the world. These free-thinkers obey if they can discover some sensible reason for obedience; for they have learned that things are not necessarily true merely because the majority believes them. Many of these blazers of new trails are heartily persecuted in their own time for their refusal to conform, only in later centuries to be honored as heroes, with their words and thoughts set up as the basis of new standards of conformity.

A great many people are suffering from conscience trouble, and some of them deserve their remorse; but others are miserable over thoughts and actions that violate some system of hereditary 'don'ts,' but are perfectly natural and honorable. Let me give you a true instance of how foolish and stupid the whole thing can be.

A man came to me on the verge of a complete nervous breakdown; he was so mentally and morally sick that his life was endangered. He told me he was filled with shame, he could never raise his head and look men in the eyes again; he was a sinner. This awful knowledge had ruined his digestion and destroyed his peace of mind.

He was conscience stricken. And what was the horrible sin? A religious organization that he belonged to forbade its members to attend motion picture shows on pain of the loss of their immortal souls, and in a moment of weakness the devil had tempted him, and he had gone to see the March of Time. More terrible yet, he had taken his children. This had not at the moment appeared so sinful, but as the weeks passed his conscience had revealed to him the magnitude of the offense. He had broken his solemn vow, had himself done a sinful deed, and had contributed to sin in the lives of his children.

It is hard to believe that a thing like this could happen in our day. There is of course nothing spiritually or naturally wrong in going to a motion picture. The real fault lay with the religious group, clinging to a medieval antipathy to all places of amusement. The seventeenth century protestants stopped even the Shakespearean theater in England.

The crux of the man's remorse was the broken obligation. He had given his solemn word, and had not kept it. In this case the sufferer was guilty of two faults. The lesser one was breaking his word, and the greater one was that he had taken such a vow in the first place. But, an obligation which is unreasonable, unnatural, and out of harmony with wisdom and truth, cannot be binding. No religion can prove that Deity requires such vows. And no man can be held to his word once it is apparent that the entire premise is false.

Many religious and most metaphysical organizations demand that their students sign various pledges and vows before they can become members in good standing. Because little, if any, personal consideration is given to the characters or temperaments of students, these obligations frequently are unsuitable, and if strictly observed bring disaster. But the majority of joiners do not take their vows too seriously, and their consciences do not hurt. It is the very sincere and conscientious person who gets into trouble. He tries to live the letter of his vows, secure in the belief that the cult knows what is good for him; he goes along full of faith until some of his unnatural obligations unsettle his life, forcing him to modify his practices in order to survive; he then has trouble with his conscience. It would surprise you how many metaphysicians are having this kind of difficulty with the still small voice. Of a great number who have come to me for help, some tell stories that are pitiful beyond words.

Many psychologists are of the opinion that once the conscience pattern is firmly set, the individual is most likely to be happy if he conforms with its dictates. This may be true for those who lack the character to correct the false impulses that are locked within the conscience; but the philosophically minded prefer to straighten out their thinking, even if it requires a complete mental housecleaning. Conscience is a valuable faculty once it has been relieved of the burden of complexes and fixations which have been accumulated from taboos. But spirituality and fear cannot abide in the same personality. There is nothing in the universe of which man need be afraid; but there are many things which he must learn, and there are many laws which he must come to love and to obey.

-- Healing: The Divine Art, by Manly P. Hall


It has now been fifteen years since the Association first accepted as the concrete expression of the first principle of its action the following formula: "It is the whole duty of man to learn by observation and experiment (which is systemized and definite experience), facts, principles and laws of ALL that IS; apply them to the acceleration of individual and universal evolution, by producing a more perfect mutual adaptation of the organism, and its environments; to teach to others the knowledge and experience thus acquired, for the purpose of improving the environment, and creating in humankind the disposition to act according to the concepts thus acquired."

Flexibility

To achieve, in a few generations, anything like the healthy system dreamed of above or even to get out of the grooves of fatal destiny in which our civilization is now caught, very great flexibility will be needed. It is right, therefore, to examine this concept with some care. Indeed, this is a crucial concept. We should evaluate not so much the values and trends of relevant variables as the relation between these trends and ecological flexibility.

Following Ross Ashby, I assume that any biological system (e.g., the ecological environment, the human civilization, and the system which is to be the combination of these two) is describable in terms of interlinked variables, such that for any given variable there is an upper and a lower threshold of tolerance beyond which discomfort, pathology, and ultimately death must occur. Within these limits, the variable can move (and is moved) in order to achieve adaptation. When, under stress, a variable must take a value close to its upper or lower limit of tolerance, we shall say, borrowing a phrase from the youth culture, that the system is “up tight” in respect to this variable, or lacks “flexibility” in this respect.

But, because the variables are interlinked, to be up tight in respect to one variable commonly means that other variables cannot be changed without pushing the uptight variable. The loss of flexibility thus spreads through the system. In extreme cases, the system will only accept those changes which change the tolerance limits for the up-tight variable. For example, an overpopulated society looks for those changes (increased food, new roads, more houses, etc.) which will make the pathological and pathogenic conditions of overpopulation more comfortable. But these ad hoc changes are precisely those which in longer time can lead to more fundamental ecological pathology.

The pathologies of our time may broadly be said to be the accumulated results of this process—the eating up of flexibility in response to stresses of one sort or another (especially the stress of population pressure) and the refusal to bear with those byproducts of stress (e.g., epidemics and famine) which are the age-old correctives for population excess.

The ecological analyst faces a dilemma: on the one hand, if any of his recommendations are to be followed, he must first recommend whatever will give the system a positive budget of flexibility; and on the other hand, the people and institutions with which he must deal have a natural propensity to eat up all available flexibility. He must create flexibility and prevent the civilization from immediately expanding into it.

It follows that while the ecologist’s goal is to increase flexibility, and to this extent he is less tyrannical than most welfare planners (who tend to increase legislative control), he must also exert authority to preserve such flexibility as exists or can be created. At this point (as in the matter of unreplaceable natural resources), his recommendations must be tyrannical.

Social flexibility is a resource as precious as oil or titanium and must be budgeted in appropriate ways, to be spent (like fat) upon needed change. Broadly, since the “eating up” of flexibility is due to regenerative (i.e., escalating) sub-systems within the civilization, it is, in the end, these that must be controlled.

It is worth noting here that flexibility is to specialization as entropy is to negentropy. Flexibility may be defined as uncommited potentiality for change.

A telephone exchange exhibits maximum negentropy, maximum specialization, maximum information load, and maximum rigidity when so many of its circuits are in use that one more call would probably jam the system. It exhibits maximum entropy and maximum flexibility when none of its pathways are committed. (In. this particular example, the state of nonuse is not a committed state.)

It will be noted that the budget of flexibility is fractionating (not subtractive, as is a budget of money or energy).

-- Steps to An Ecology of Mind: Collected Essays In Anthropology, Psychiatry, Evolution, and Epistemology, by Gregory Bateson


When stated in the correct and compete way, so as to express its quantitative relations on terms of organic action, and in the terms of force mathematically expressed; when it is stated so as to include that fundamental ethical conception which underlies all modes and conditions of organic action — when so stated, as it will be, after the 11 years sitting of the Hierarchy, it will be the Kingly Mystery, the real philosopher's stone, the fundamental moral law of the G.N.K.R. After fifteen years of earnest investigation and discussion with many of the leading thinkers in the world, the heads of the three branches still believe that this law expresses the leading feature of the duty of man.

Without reason man could not correctly guide his conduct — for he could not compare and arrange the facts which are the only guides. You cannot use your reason safely unless your knowledge of these facts are accurate and extensive. The very foundation of all progress is a knowledge of the facts of Nature, and if some of the facts known to mankind are not known to that particular person we have in mind, then that person cannot be said to be living up to the possibilities of his time. The religions of the past were of benefit in the guidance of conduct, only to the extent that they taught these facts or induced men and women to apply them to practice; and were mischievous and hurtful only to the extent that they taught that which was not a fact, and inculcated principles and habits that were contrary to Nature. As will be shown later in this paper, religions have a higher sphere of use than that of the determination, of methods and rules of conduct, that this is not the natural sphere of the devotional and moral culture. Its place in the great plan of the Infinite is the creation of capacities and conditions; the refinement of the mental and bodily structure; the culture of the moral disposition; the development of the aspirations, emotions, and desires; the eradication of the evil passions and propensities; and the practice of Prayer, Yoga and Will.

Among all races and in all spheres of life we find people holding to opinions relating to matters of fact, that are not only contradictory to other known facts but contradictory to each other; and while the mind is filled with such erroneous concepts, the reason cannot by any possibility be a safe guide in the affairs of life. That a large number of facts have been collected by humanity cannot be denied — that the race possesses a sum of knowledge that is accurate, mixed with much more that is neither accurate nor true, is an observable fact. For the sake of human progress it is very desirable that all the known facts upon any and all subjects should be collected so that they may be learned, or at least readily referred to. No man in a long lifetime could even glance at the titles of all the books in which the knowledge of the race is at present recorded: — yet scattered throughout these millions of volumes lies the recorded thought and facts of the world. Every separate fact must be collected from this wilderness of assertions, mistakes, ideas, and fancies, and printed without repetition, and carefully classified and then it will be found possible for a man in one lifetime, to read and learn the "sum of knowledge;" and it will be possible for the thinker and investigator to refer at leisure and with ease, to all known and proven facts.

The first work to be done by the Association is to sift from the literatures of the world, and from the conversations of the peoples in the world all facts from supposed facts, and to test their truth in the laboratory by careful experiment, and to make a classified record of the sum of facts known to the people of the world: this record will be known as the archives of the G.N.K.R.

Will not these archives be a great boon to the world? Will it not be the real bible? Do you not think it will be the most important book ever compiled? There exists no one or any dozen books, upon any of the sciences, containing all the ascertained facts of that science; and even these imperfect records are mixed with numerous known errors. No attempts have been made to determine the exact accuracy of these statements, and when a new fact has been discovered it is announced in some periodical, and forms no part of the accessible knowledge of the world until some new book appears, including some of the new facts, with most of the old ones left out. No man in a lifetime could collect all of the facts ascertained in Electricity with approximate accuracy, and it would require a greater number of men to experimentally determine the accuracy of all of these statements; and yet of what is the electrician more in need than a comprehensive picture of all electrical phenomena? To read through all the books in which they are at present recorded is a task greater than can be accomplished by any one man. If one volume could be had containing all these facts, briefly and systematically stated without repetition, it would be an invaluable contribution to the means by which the world's progress is to be effected.

What for instance is more in need of revision than the empirical art of medicine? Its literature is by far too vast for even a hasty examination in a life time; a cautious man can accept as true only a small portion of the statements to be found in any existing medical book; and one who has experimented with the action of medicine upon an organism cannot believe that even most of their alleged effects are probable. Perhaps no other subject of thought and no other art, exhibits such a mass of contradictions as that of Therapeutics, Diagnosis, and Clinical Medicine; and yet is it really so difficult to determine the truth about these things? Not only do the different medical systems contradict each other, but the different books under the same system are contradictory, and these contradictions are upon matters that everyone can try for himself, and the exact truth of which is readily determinable. Even the provings of drugs upon healthy men made by the Homeopathists in order to determine the specific pathological and toxicological action of medicines, is involved in a mass of contradictions, and what is much worse, the honest experimenter finds that he is generally unable to reproduce the symptoms recorded. Clinical experience rests chiefly upon isolated cases and hasty observations made under ever-varying conditions; and those in whose hands has been entrusted the collection of these facts were dependent upon the opinion of their patients for a living, and to get careful clinical reports from doctors whose reputations were at stake, and who depend so much upon the confidence which the physician is able to inspire in his patient, is to expect that which does not often happen. Theories bias the observation of the majority of the practitioners, and a good and busy physician cannot be a good experimenter. No department of knowledge lies more nearly at the basis of human well-being than a knowledge of those subjects generally called medical. Upon no other subject of human thought (except religion) is there such a diversity of opinions as in the matter of the proper treatment of disease. Yet what more directly affects the welfare of the individual life? What is of more importance than a correct knowledge of those processes of the reproductive organs, upon which the next generation of men and women depend, not only for their very life, but for the very happiness and value of that life when once brought into the world? The only way to eliminate from the medical knowledge of the world those supposed facts is, to carefully and experimentally determine them under systematic and disinterested guidance, and to make them under conditions whereby repetition of multitudinous observations and all inaccuracies could be eliminated. When once the Hierarchy has collected and tested all the facts bearing upon the subject, and has had them classified, it will be easy to formulate a correct system of treating disease.

What is more in need of disinterested investigation than the various political and social theories of the time? The only way to settle such disputes is to collect all the facts relating to that subject, being careful that no statements are included in the list that are not true. The prosecution of this work requires that nearly all of the experiments of the past must be remade — the assertions of the world must be tested — and the SUM OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE RECORDED.

These Archives will be preserved by the G.N.K.R, and all corrections will be made as soon as discovered, not by adding a supplement, but by rewriting the paragraph to which the correction belongs. When this is done, it will be possible for a scholar to say "I have read the sum of knowledge." No one has ever yet been able to say that. But is this all that needs to be done? Not by any means! The greatest part of the work has not yet been commenced, — the former work can be finished but this other work can never be completed! The world needs not only an accurate knowledge of the sum of facts that have been ascertained, but it needs NEW FACTS.

A SEARCH FOR NEW FACTS.

New facts make the old ones more intelligible. They enable us to apply the old ones. A fact is always of use to humanity; we may not be able to apply it immediately after its discovery, but it will sometime be of great utility in completing some other series of facts, or in showing the truth or falsity of some principle. It may serve as the Key-stone to some incomplete archway, or as the connecting link in some great chain of thought. In order to progress we must have new facts to apply to human needs, and in order to judge more accurately of our surroundings and of our conduct, we must have a more accurate and precise knowledge of our organism and its environments. This demands of us original research into the ways and processes of Nature. These original investigations must be done in a systematic manner, and this is the highest of duties, and it is the most sacred of all kinds of work, for we are dealing directly with the very source of all knowledge. In order to solve a matter of doubt, or discover the proper course of action under some new conditions of environment, we must know more about the particular matter under consideration; and where shall we go for the desired knowledge? Shall we ask a priest? Shall we consult a book? Shall we ask some professor? Suppose none of these can tell us, what shall we do? If they tell us, how shall we find out whether to rely upon their dictum or not — shall we accept human testimony? Or shall we go to Nature and interrogate her, through the sacred language of experiment, and receive from the Infinite All the answer to our questionings. Reason is the only Oracle that enables us to judge what to do under given conditions AS WE UNDERSTAND THE CONDITIONS. We can only understand the conditions by interrogating Nature. We interrogate Nature when we make an experiment. Nature answers us in the result of the experiment; and Reason correlates and arranges these results and facts, and both the facts and the reasonings are part of Nature.

"If we endeavor to look beyond this realm of matter, how much can we see? what can we thus learn of life through the agency of the five senses? We turn and investigate the human body; this is the starting-point of the ancient philosophers. They began with the body, and sought inward and upward for the cause, unlike the modern scientist who, commencing with man, traces down and out until he is lost in the intricacies of nature. Let us in our investigations return to the methods of the ancient philosophers, beginning with the highest attribute of man, — the will.

-- The Seven Creative Principles, by Hiram Erastus Butler


Nature is the evolved being of the all, and Nature depends upon the properties and limitations of Matter and Motion, and therefore, when we read the phenomena of Matter and Force we are learning from the highest of possible sources of truth — there can be no higher and better source. Even a master would necessarily be subject to the conditions and limitations of Nature. Even a god must be subject to the conditions by which he exists; and dependent upon the properties of the material of which he is composed — a conditionless god would be a nonentity, without parts, relations, and which is a still greater absurdity: — without substance! If All that Is — if that infinite organism that fills all space is conscious and intelligent — then my reasoning is still true: that the proper study of mankind is Nature. The question of the existence or non-existence of a deity can in no wise affect the general argument of the vast importance of an accurate knowledge of Nature. If the supposition was admissible that Nature was created by a deity outside of Nature and independent of it, the truth would still be patent that it is still our highest duty to understand those laws which Infinite Wisdom has placed over all the phenomena of life, and which affect us favorably or unfavorably in accordance with (not our belief) the immutable relation between cause and effect.

That Deity is outside of, or apart from its creation, is a doctrine of Christianity, one that only a few great religious systems teach. All enlightened pagans taught that the material universe is the physical body of the creating Principle. Plato called the universe the "Eternal Animal," and the Neo-Platonists of Alexandria described the world as "the body of a Blessed God." The modern occultist accepts this philosophical doctrine. He does not seek in the distant heavens for the Spiritual Cause of all things, but finds the creation itself bearing splendid witness to its indwelling divinity.

-- Healing: The Divine Art, by Manly P. Hall


How much more is it evident that we must acquire an accurate knowledge of Nature, when we realize that All that Is constitutes one Infinite Conscious Organism, of which we and the other portions of existence, are but parts!

Any living organism a quarter as old as the Universe itself and still full of vigor is as near immortal as we ever need to know. She is of this Universe and, conceivably, a part of God. On Earth she is the source of life everlasting and is alive now; she gave birth to humankind and we are a part of her. This is why, for me, Gaia is a religious as well as a scientific concept, and in both spheres it is manageable.

-- The Ages of Gaia: A Biography of Our Living Earth, by James Lovelock


Advaita Vedanta's rejection of theism is a consequence of its insistence that “Brahman [ultimate reality] is without parts or attributes…one without a second.” (Shankara [traditional attribution], second half of the 8th century: 101) If the Brahman has no properties, it necessarily lacks the properties of omniscience, perfect goodness, omnipotence, and personhood, and cannot therefore be understood as God.

The rejection of theism also follows from Advaita's conviction that Brahman contains no internal diversity (“is without parts”) and is identical with the whole of reality (”is one without a second”). If Brahman is all there is, for example, then there is nothing outside Brahman that could serve as an object of its knowledge. And if it is devoid of internal diversity, there can be no self-knowledge either, for self-knowledge involves an internal differentiation between the self as knower and the self as known. Nor can the Brahman be a causal agent. If Brahman is maximally perfect, it must be unlimited. But it is limited if something exists outside it. The Brahman must therefore be all there is. If the Brahman is identical with the whole of reality, though, and Brahman contains no plurality, then reality as a whole is an undifferentiated unity. The space-time world with its distinctions between times, places, and events is consequently unreal. Real causal relations are relations between two real things, however. So Brahman is neither the cause of the space-time world as a whole nor of the events in it, and is thus neither the space-time world's creator nor its ruler. It follows from these considerations that Brahman is neither an omniscient mind nor an omnipotent and active will. It cannot be a maximally perfect person, therefore, and so cannot be God.

-- -- Concepts of God, by William Wainwright


The “Breath” of the One Existence is used in its application only to the spiritual aspect of Cosmogony by Archaic esotericism; otherwise, it is replaced by its equivalent in the material plane — Motion. The One Eternal Element, or element-containing Vehicle, is Space, dimensionless in every sense; co-existent with which are — endless duration, primordial (hence indestructible) matter, and motion — absolute “perpetual motion” which is the “breath” of the “One” Element. This breath, as seen, can never cease, not even during the Pralayic eternities. (See “Chaos, Theos, Kosmos,” in Part II.)

But the “Breath of the One Existence” does not, all the same, apply to the One Causeless Cause or the “All Be-ness” (in contradistinction to All-Being, which is Brahma, or the Universe). Brahma (or Hari) the four-faced god who, after lifting the Earth out of the waters, “accomplished the Creation,” is held to be only the instrumental, and not, as clearly implied, the ideal Cause. No Orientalist, so far, seems to have thoroughly comprehended the real sense of the verses in the Purana, that treat of “creation.”

Therein Brahma is the cause of the potencies that are to be generated subsequently for the work of “creation.” When a translator says, “And from him proceed the potencies to be created, after they had become the real cause”: “and from IT proceed the potencies that will create as they become the real cause” (on the material plane) would perhaps be more correct? Save that one (causeless) ideal cause there is no other to which the universe can be referred. “Worthiest of ascetics! through its potency — i.e., through the potency of that cause — every created thing comes by its inherent or proper nature.” If, in the Vedanta and Nyaya, nimitta is the efficient cause, as contrasted with upadana, the material cause, (and in the Sankhya, pradhana implies the functions of both); in the Esoteric philosophy, which reconciles all these systems, and the nearest exponent of which is the Vedanta as expounded by the Advaita Vedantists, none but the upadana can be speculated upon; that which is in the minds of the Vaishnavas (the Vasishta-dvaita) as the ideal in contradistinction to the real — or Parabrahm and Isvara — can find no room in published speculations, since that ideal even is a misnomer, when applied to that of which no human reason, even that of an adept, can conceive.

To know itself or oneself, necessitates consciousness and perception (both limited faculties in relation to any subject except Parabrahm), to be cognized. Hence the “Eternal Breath which knows itself not.” Infinity cannot comprehend Finiteness. The Boundless can have no relation to the bounded and the conditioned. In the occult teachings, the Unknown and the Unknowable mover, or the Self-Existing, is the absolute divine Essence. And thus being Absolute Consciousness, and Absolute Motion — to the limited senses of those who describe this indescribable — it is unconsciousness and immoveableness. Concrete consciousness cannot be predicated of abstract Consciousness, any more than the quality wet can be predicated of water — wetness being its own attribute and the cause of the wet quality in other things. Consciousness implies limitations and qualifications; something to be conscious of, and someone to be conscious of it. But Absolute Consciousness contains the cognizer, the thing cognized and the cognition, all three in itself and all three one.

-- The Secret Doctrine -- The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy, by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky


The laws lead up to the conception of Om, which is a knowledge too sacred to be talked about, until the prospective recipient has acquired the necessary previous knowledge and culture. Most of the revelations of an intuitional and inspirational nature that have been made to man, and most of the revelations that have been made through the senses, during the long and dark days of the past, have been recorded in the writings of the world; and from these books and manuscripts and tombs; from statue and from stone; from papyrus, pyramid, and cave; from hieroglyphs and coins and tools; and from every object that can be known to man, the Association must collect the various items of knowledge, test them by means of the unerring criterion of experiment, and record them in the Archives of the G.N.K.R.

The Archives will contain all that has ever been revealed to man: such has been the promise made to the Association by those who always fulfill.

The work of the Association will be as follows: —

First: — To collect at once from all sources all of the ascertainable knowledge of the world; to experimentally determine the accuracy of all these alleged facts, and then to make a systematic and classified record of them in the Archives of the G.N.K.R. This record is to contain the "sum of human knowledge."

The second class of work consists in the search for further revelation, in a series of investigations for new facts. The laboratory will therefore be in constant use, making this second class of experiments, and the ablest scientists will be constantly working to discover more of Nature's secrets. Here will be conducted systematic tests of theories. Here the Infinite will be constantly conversed with. New facts will be sought, with as much eagerness and zeal as ever any disciple listened to the sacred words falling from the lips of Buddha, Confucius, or Christ. The G.N.K.R will humbly listen to that which is greater than any possible incarnation; greater than any Gautama, than any Zoroaster, than any Christ, than any book; for they will listen to that to which they all are subject, viz: — the conditions, laws, and limitations of existence: to Nature. None of the great reformers of the Past who were deified, could change any of the properties of number, or the geometrical relations of dimension, or the inherent properties of Matter and Motion, or the sequence of cause and effect, and surely the laws and conditions to which all the great of the past were subject is a proper study for us.

This investigation for new facts will require new apparatus, and instruments on an extensive scale. The new forces must be exploited, and the new laws of Matter and Force must be elaborated, investigated, and applied in the extension of our knowledge of Nature. The measurement of these forces will require very accurate and complicated apparatus. The direct object, however, being first and last and always, the discovery of new facts, principles and laws.

Ordinary assistants and workmen will not do for this kind of research; these High Priests of Science, who are in constant and intimate communion with Nature, who are the mediators between the masses and the INFINITE, should be selected from the very blossom of humanity, and should possess the very highest order of mental, moral and physical integrity. In this sacred work there should be no room for personal ambitions. Sectional prejudices and individual sentiment should be eliminated from this holy work. The desire for gain and emoluments must not find a place in the heart or mind of these Apostles of Truth. To extend our knowledge of Nature must be their sole aim. Each fact must be recorded in its proper place in the Archives as soon as it has been discovered and thoroughly tested. The record must be brief, must not repeat anything that has been previously recorded. Better rewrite an old paragraph so as to include the new fact, than to make a new paragraph. The year's discoveries must not be added as a supplementary volume, but the preceding volume must be interleaved or rewritten or interparagraphed; and the classification must be maintained at all events. All the new work at present done in one year could be told in a few pages, if it were written in the body of previous treatises upon the same subject; for then all preliminaries and explanations could be omitted, and the fact recorded generally in a single sentence. To record as a fact that which is not, is to commit the greatest of all crimes, for thereby you poison and pollute the very fountain of revelation — the criterion of Reason.

It is to falsify a verse in the sacred book.

This bible will always be growing, and, like a running stream, will always be purifying itself.

It cannot, therefore, become a barrier to progress as the creeds of the past have done.

Surely it is a matter of supreme importance to eliminate from the catalogue of the accepted facts of science those which are not facts, and which serve to misdirect the thinker and experimenter. Surely it is of momentous importance that the very materials of thought and reason should be unmistakably correct — surely the only guide to conduct that humanity possesses, should be kept free from imposition and mistake! This is not a work that will especially engage the attention of the masses, but it will unmistakably engage the support of the thinking and acting men of the world, for therein they can do themselves and the world the greatest possible immediate and remote good. There will never be any doubt about the truth of our creed, or the value of our teachings.

It is not a philosophical system that will change with the advancement of knowledge, or a religion that the race will soon outgrow.

As long as organisms are brought into existence by evolution, their highest duty will consist in learning the facts, conditions, limitations and laws of their surroundings, and their progress can take place in no other way than by applying to the needs of life the knowledge they possess, of themselves and their environments. In all worlds and in all times those organisms that have the most accurate and extensive information regarding the facts, principles and laws of Nature, will realize the highest possibilities, the greatest civilization; will make the most rapid progress, and enjoy living at the highest watermark of happiness.

Of course these items of knowledge will be capable of innumerable applications to human welfare, and as far as it will be possible for the masses to apply it, should be freely taught. As far as this knowledge can be assimilated by the world at large, it should be freely and graciously given; but that high attainment which is possible to the select few who make investigation the work of their lives, would be out of order in the mental and moral armamentarium of those who have not been slowly educated up to the higher standard. To give to those who are incapable of understanding, a moral philosophy above them, would not only be endangering philosophy but doing them an injury.

Only those incapable of mental and moral disease and decline should be intrusted with secrets capable of being used to the detriment of society.

The question of what will be done with the secrets that will remain the special property of the G.N.K.R needs not to be here discussed.

The second class of work is the following: —

To systematically investigate Nature for new facts, principles and laws, and to extend, by all possible means, the sum of human knowledge; and to secure a much larger knowledge than has yet been acquired by the race. To record these new facts in the Archives. To make, as fast as possible, the "Barrier Experiments."

The third division of the work of the Association belongs to the previous two classes of work in one sense, and in another sense it belongs to the culture, about which explanation will be made hereafter.

In order to acquire that efficient standing among the peoples of the world; and in order to improve our environments as much as possible; and in order to open the way for a more direct experimentation in matters social; and also in order to perfect those arts which make possible further researches, it will be the duty of the G.N.K.R to apply these laws and these acts to results of direct and immediate benefit to humanity. This will at first consist in applying the laws to the various industries and needs of man. This application will be of two classes, — esoteric and exoteric. One set of applications will be made for the good of the public, and will generally be donated free to its use. The only compensation that will be asked is that the public adopt the improvements. The other set of applications will be for the good of the departments, and for their own private use.

An improved machine adds a new power to mankind — a new phase to civilization. Suppose all the money and time spent in maintaining standing armies were devoted to the improvement of the earth whereon we live, — to the supply of purer air and water, to the drainage and disinfection of malarious districts, and to the supply of healthful foods in abundance to the public! The question of reformation is a more practical one than the world suspects. Creeds and theories will never accomplish it. A man cannot be pleasant and cheerful when he is underfed, or when he has the dyspepsia — a sick man cannot be as good a man as one that is well, and more kinds of sickness come from improper eating than the known medicinable maladies. There are more conditions capable of affecting the health of the people than have been recognized by the sanitary sciences of the world. Improper colors and sounds are often more insidiously detrimental than improper plumbing. Wrong mental habits have more to do with the moral nature of man than all the ethical teaching the world has seen.

Therefore, the third portion of the work will consist in making application of the laws to the needs of the Association, and to the needs of the world.

Third: — Application of the known facts, principles and laws to the betterment of the environment, and to the improvement of humanity; the donation of certain industries and processes to those departments of the Association needing special resources, and the reservation of certain secrets by the Association for its own use.

Having secured the temple or laboratory; furnished it with all the instruments of scientific research; secured all the needed assistants; recorded in the ARCHIVES the knowledge of the world; made the new investigations and barrier experiments; and having made practical application of the facts and laws, then will begin the fourth class of work of the Association: — the application of the laws to the phenomena of mind, and the systemization of the processes of deduction and induction in the classification of the facts recorded by the previous classes of work. This will all be done by the Hierarchy. Hence the next class of work is as follows:

Fourth: — The application of the method of the Hierarchy to the classification of the sum of knowledge, and to the processes of deduction and induction.

In the Maha-Sudassana Sutta-77, there is found the following significant prophecy: — " Suppose I was to make a grove of palm trees, all of gold, at the entrance of the Chamber of the Great Complex under the shade of which I might pass the heat of the day..... Now ascending up into the Great Chamber of the Great Complex, I broke out into a cry of intense emotion, 'Stay here, O thoughts of lust I stay here, O thoughts of hatred!!'"

Re: A CALL TO THE "AWAKENED" FROM "THE UNSEEN AND UNKNOWN,"

PostPosted: Sat Sep 26, 2015 8:03 pm
by admin
Part 3 of 3

THE MOST IMPORTANT FEATURE OF THE G...K..

A new and accurate classification of science is needed whereon to base a more extensive system of inductions and deductions than has as yet fallen to the lot of the world. In order that this may be done so as to include all facts and all aspects of each fact, and that the conconcomitant experiments may be performed systematically, without losing the connection they bear to each other and to the general body of science, it will be essential that it shall all be conducted by a central mind capable of taking a comprehensive view of the domain of nature, and at the same time, be able to consider the meaning of each special fact. Now, no one mind can, by any possibility, hold in solution a sufficient number of these many classes of facts to make possible the complete inductive and deductive working of all natural phenomena. To carry on an extensive chain of reasoning extending over the realms of several different sciences, requires that many more facts shall be considered than any one mind can retain. But if the central mind can have each mental faculty supplemented by a specialist in that department of knowledge over which that particular faculty has eminent domain, then these specialists can hold in their memories all the facts in the realm of human knowledge. If each department of science be represented by the greatest living master of that department, and these masters be all placed in one building wherein they can hold direct communion with the head mind, then it will be possible for the central mind to pass in review, by the assistance of these specialists, all of the facts and known phenomena. That central mind will be EKPHORON, and the three or four hundred members will be Hierarchs. If for a moment EKPHORON forgets the formula upon which depends the solution of the subject under consideration, he can at once turn to the speaking-tube and ask the mathematician; if he needs a list of all minerals containing platinum to be found in Australia, he simply asks the mineralogist; if he desires the chemical composition of a certain species of plants, he asks the botanist; if, to finish a thread of thought, he needs an accurate comparative view of vocal sounds, he asks the phonetician, for he could not take the time to make such a list himself. By no possibility could EKPHORON remember even a considerable portion of all the facts necessary to carry on processes of continuous thought; neither could he take the time to look them up for himself. It would require a lifetime to master a few of the sciences with sufficient accuracy to enable him to do this upon a few subjects, yet while engaged in thinking, he should be able to have placed at his disposal any one of the innumerable facts of science. He cannot take time to look them up, nor can he acquire sufficient skill to do so. Each member of the Hierarchy is master of some department of knowledge, and, at a moment's notice, can give correctly, any of the facts relating to that department. He keeps himself accurately informed of the progress of that line of thought throughout the world. If, to settle some point not determinable by the data at hand, experimentation will be necessary, it will be performed under the direction of that Hierarch to whose department it belongs. In thinking out some law, EKPHORON often finds himself in need of certain groups of facts that could be obtained in a moment if he were in the company of certain specialists; but to undertake to collect them for himself would require several months, and by that time he would have lost the thread of his reasoning, besides not being himself an expert in that particular department, he would find it difficult to estimate correctly the relative importance of the different facts. Beside, he could not, by any possibility, keep himself informed of the monthly progress of more than one or two departments of science. In a few weeks he could do, by the aid of the Hierarchy, what would otherwise require him many years. To the extent that the Laboratory, Hierarchy, etc., is realized, will depend the success of the Great Work contemplated by the G.N.K.R.

EKPHORON is to control the Hierarchy only until it has been fairly started (which will take about 11 years), and then it will be managed by an abler mind, — one trained up under the new regime.

[Narrator] Many millions of years ago, a race of hyper-intelligent beings became so fed-up with the bickering about the meaning of life that they decided to sit down and solve it once and for all. To this end, they built themselves a stupendous super-computer called Deep Thought that was so amazingly intelligent that even before its data banks had been connected up, it started from first principles with:

I THINK THEREFORE I AM

[Narrator] And deduced the existence of rice pudding and income tax before anyone managed to turn it off.

RICH RICE PUDDING
2 OZ PUDDING RICE
¾ PINT MILK
¼ PINT DOUBLE CREAM
2 TABLESPOONS GRANULATED SUGAR
3 TABLESPOONS DEMERARA SUGAR
1 TEASPOON CINNAMON

A BEING EARNS $100,000.
TAX AT 25% YIELDS $25,000.
THIS MEANS THAT HE WILL
NOW TRY TO EARN
$125,000
TO LEAVE HIM AS WELL OFF
AS BEFORE

[Slartibartfast] Do not be alarmed.

[Narrator] Only after Deep Thought has been programmed with all the knowledge in the Universe, do two men, selected of all their race, approach it.

(LOUD CREAKING AND RUMBLING)

[Computer] What is this great task for which I, Deep Thought, the second greatest computer in the Universe of Time and Space, have been called into existence?

[Priest 1] Your task, O computer ...

[Priest 2] No, wait a minute! Did he say "second greatest"? O Deep Thought, are you not, as we designed you to be, the greatest, the most powerful computer of all time?

[Computer] I described myself as the second greatest and such I am!

[Priest 2] Can we just clear this up? O Deep Thought, are you not a greater computer than the Milliard Gargantubrain which can count all the atoms in a star?

[Computer] A Milliard Gargantubrain? A mere abacus! Mention it not!

[Priest 1] Are you not a greater analyst than the Googleplex Star Thinker in the 7th Galaxy of Light and Ingenuity?

[Computer] The Googleplex Star Thinker? Molest me not with this pocket calculator stuff!

[Priest 2] But are you not a more fiendish disputant than the Great Hyperlobic Omnicognate Neutron Wrangler on Ciceronicus 12?!

[Computer] The Great Omnicognate Neutron Wrangler could talk all four legs off an Arcturan megadonkey, but only I could persuade it to go for a walk afterwards!

[Priest 2] Then ... what is the problem?

[Computer There is no problem! I speak of none but the computer that is to come after me!

[Priest 1] I think this is getting needlessly messianic.

[Computer] A computer whose merest operational parameters I am not worthy to calculate, but which it will be my destiny eventually to design!

[Priest 1] Can we get on and ask the question?

[Priest 2] Oh, all right.

[Priest 1] O Great Computer, the task we have designed you to perform is this. We want you to tell us the answer.

[Computer] The answer? The answer to what?

[Priest 1] Life!

[Priest 2] The Universe!

[Priest 1] Everything!

[Computer] Tricky.

[Priest 2] But ... can you do it?

[Computer] Yes, I can do it.

[Priest 1] You mean ... there IS an answer?

[Priest1] A simple answer?

[Computer] Yes. Life, the Universe and Everything. There is an answer.

[Priest 1] There is an answer! At last!

[Computer] But I'll have to think about it.

[Vroomfondel] We demand admission!

[Priest 2] Now what?

[Majikthise] You can't keep us out!

[Vroomfondel] We demand you cannot keep us out!

[Priest 2] Who are you? Get out of here!

[Majikthise] I am Majikthise!

[Vroomfondel] And I demand that I am Vroomfondel!

[Majikthise] It's all right, you don't need to demand that!

[Vroomfondel] All right, I am Vroomfondel, and that is not a demand, that is a solid fact! What we demand is solid facts!

[Majikthise] No, we don't. That is precisely what we DON'T demand!

[Vroomfondel] We don't demand solid facts! What we demand is a total absence of solid facts! I demand that I may, or may not, be Vroomfondel!

[Priest 2] Who are you?

[Majikthise] We are philosophers.

[Vroomfondel] Though we may not be!

[Majikthise] Yes, we are! We are definitely here as representatives of the Amalgamated Union of Philosophers, Sages, and Luminaries, and we want the machine off now!

[Vroomfondel] We demand that you get rid of it!

[Priest 2] What's the problem?

[Majikthise] The problem is demarcation, mate!

[Vroomfondel] We demand that demarcation may or may not be the problem!

[Majikthise] Let the machines get on with the adding up and WE'LL take care of the eternal verities! By law, the quest for ultimate truth is the inalienable prerogative of your working thinkers! Any machine goes and find 'em, we're out of a job. What's the use of our arguing half the night whether there may ...

[Vroomfondel] Or may not!

[Majikthise] ... be a god if this machine gives you his phone number in the morning!

[Vroomfondel] That's right! We demand rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty!

[Computer] Might I make an observation at this point?

[Majikthise] Keep out of this!

[Vroomfondel] We demand that that machine not be allowed to think about this problem!

(THUNDERCLAP)

[Computer] If I might make an observation! All I wanted to say was this. My circuits are now irrevocably committed to calculating the answer to the ultimate question of Life, the Universe and Everything, but the program will take me a little while to run.

[Priest 2] How long?

[Computer] Seven and a half ...

[Priest 1] What, not till next week?!

[Computer] ... million ... years!

[Both Priests] How long?!

[Computer] I said I'd have to think about it. And it occurs to me that running a program like this is bound to create considerable interest in the whole area of popular philosophy. Yes?

[Majikthise] Keep talking.

[Computer] Everyone's going to have his own theory about what answer I'm eventually going to come up with and who better to capitalise on that media market than you yourselves? So long as you can keep violently disagreeing with each other and slagging each other off in the popular press, and so long as you have clever agents, you can keep yourselves on the gravy train for life!

[Majikthise] Bloody hell! Now, that's what I call thinking! 'Ere, Vroomfondel, how come we never think of things like that?

[Vroomfondel] Dunno. I think our minds must be too highly trained, Majikthise.

-- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, directed by Douglas Adams


Instead of having the apparatus of the astronomer in one country and the instruments of the physicist in another country; instead of having the tools of the mechanic in one state and the foundry in another; instead of having the different necessaries and conveniences of the various sciences scattered throughout the world, let us place them together, so that the chemist can use the microscopes of the histologist; and the astronomer can call in the physicist, and the mechanic can call in the draughtsman. Do not allow the geologist to puzzle for a week over the composition of a crystal, but call in the chemist and have it decided at once. No one line of work or of thought can be carried on without the aid of all other lines of work and thought. Therefore, place them together, and make them subordinate to some central mind.

Not only will this wonderfully facilitate the operations of the mind, but it conserves the strength of those minds capable of deducing conclusions from facts. Such minds are somewhat rare in the history of the world; they are the worlds greatest possessions and should be taken advantage of. Suppose that such men as Newton, Galileo, Kepler, Davy, Pascal, Gassendi, Ampere, Dalton, Faraday, Darwin, Haeckel, Spencer, could have had their energies conserved by a Hierarchy! How much more might they not have done! How much more might not the world have known! The great men and the men of genius are the Saviors, let us prepare to care for them when they are found.

Original thought is not like other kinds of thought — it is not as easy, and it is more wearing. No line of thought or action requires as much surplus vitality for its successful accomplishment as that of original thinking. Unless the times and amounts of such labor be carefully regulated it will wear out the life as rapidly as dissipation. Study requires principally memory, attention, understanding, reasoning, and a concentration of those particular mental faculties called forth by the line of study in which the person is at the moment engaged; and not only certain groups of faculties must be on the alert at once, but in original thinking the entirety of the mental and bodily forces are worked to their utmost capacity — the entire contents of memory must be held in readiness — every fact must be in complete solution, and the entire sum of mental and emotional experiences must be pictured bodily, and looked at with steady gaze while the deductive faculty makes its inferences, and the logical faculty its criticisms; and the ultimate conclusion when shaped and formed by the imaginative faculty must balance with our intuitive sense of the eternal fitness of things. To do this, every fibre of the brain must be in a state of continuous tension and simultaneous action, and this mental state must be continued uninterruptedly, with unremitting attention and abstraction, save during sleep, for weeks and months at a time, and this will soon exhaust the most virile of men.

Rest conduces to calm thought. Solitude favors meditation. The tired man has used up too much of his energy to bear the strain of putting all the wires in tune, upon the thousand stringed instrument of his soul. A long and complete mental and physical rest should precede original investigation, and during this time there should be complete freedom from hatred, anger, worry, and all carking cares, for they wear away the very force that should be husbanded, and expended upon a higher order of work. Those organs grow most in health and strength which are oftenest used, and according to the manner in which they are used; and if the brain be daily filled with anger or depressed by worry, the lower faculties predominate. Anger and fatigue produce a deposit of debris within the brain tissues which affects directly their sensitiveness and susceptibility. Complete mental and physical serenity is the mirror in which Nature glasses herself to her votaries, and men capable of controlling their intellectual calmness, to a uniform standard, are the world's beacon lights. They should be given every opportunity, for one mind of this type will give the world more light than a million other minds. The Hierarchy systemizes the process of higher thought — and makes possible a degree of intellection of which the world has as yet had no conception. The Hierarchy may be called a complex mind — a social organism developed into a new unit: a brain IN WHICH EACH CELL IS THE MIND OF A MAN. The special distinction of that which is not developed, from that which is highly developed, is found in its more complex relation of functional parts — the number of subdivisions within any organ becomes greater and greater as the internal adaptations become more and more accurate. But not only does evolution take place by differentiations within an organism, but also by the aggregation of like units or individuals among which the division of labor has taken place. Society is an accumulation of units each one performing his or her special function in the social aggregate. The "Complex Mind" is a mind whose mental faculties are supplemented by specialists in each of the departments belonging to that faculty supplemented. Memory cannot contain all the facts necessary for the proper classification of all phenomena — the G.N.K.R Archives represent the memory of the Hierarchy — each Hierarch holding in his memory all of the facts in his special department, and can be called upon to give any of the facts in his province. Several hundred men can memorize all the known facts of science, that which they cannot memorize can easily be referred to in the Archives. EKPHORON can then say that in his memory are all the facts of human knowledge, for he can at any moment refer to any Hierarch and immediately get any fact within the domain of Science — the Archives and the Hierarchy become his highly organized Memory; his power of recollection is co-extensive with the combined memories of all the Hierarchs, and the association of ideas takes place in a complex mind holding in solution all facts. The testimony of the senses in any matter of observation will be the united testimony of the whole Hierarchy. This systemizes what is now done by the world in a chaotic manner. Great minds arise from time to time and collect as many facts as they are capable of holding in the memory, and deduce therefrom a few conclusions, from less than half of the facts bearing upon that subject; but as no one mind can contain any considerable portion of the facts upon any one subject, the world has labored at a great disadvantage. The Hierarchy removes this weakness and makes it possible for the thinker to pass in rapid review all the facts of human knowledge.

There is another feature that will commend itself to the notice of the Thinker in the light of the new Philosophy: the Concepts of this complex mind will be accurate to a degree unapproachable by any one unaided mind. To an uncultured person a flower is nothing more than a plant —

"The primrose by the river's brim,
A yellow primrose was to him:
And it was nothing more!"


The physician, seeing the same flower, is reminded of its medical properties, and, perhaps, of the countries to which it is indigenous. The same physician, who is also a microscopist, will recall in addition the histological structure of the plant; while the same man, being also a chemist, will add to the concept aroused in his mind by the word primrose, the further elaboration that it is composed of such and such simple elements and of such and such proximate compounds, and may at the same time think of the properties of these compounds; and if he has studied crystallography will recall their crystalline forms. But to complete the concept of the primrose it will be necessary to understand the whole science of botany, for only when a thing is understood in all of its relations can the mind entirely grasp its full significance; and even botany cannot be thoroughly understood without the study of all forms of life. We perceive an object and the mind retains a record or a memory of that object, and of the sensations which it produced, and this record is a concept. If the observation was inaccurate, or too limited, then the concept will also be imperfect and inaccurate. Concepts form the material of reason, and, if they be wrong, the reasoning must also be wrong. The word cell calls up in the minds of different people very different concepts. Those who have simply read about cells will have a very abstract and imperfect picture of a cell, and although that concept may be very complex, it will yet be built up of erroneous simple concepts, and the most complete and perfect concept that may thus be formed, will be very far from the truth; for no one can so accurately describe even the most common of natural objects that, one reading that description, having never seen that object, can form an accurate idea of what constitutes the essential features of the object described; for not only do words fail to convey the same meanings to different persons, but different persons have different concepts out of which to build the concept required by the description. One man, on hearing a cell spoken of, will think of a place of confinement — a dungeon — of iron bars and cold stone floors. Another will remember that cells are ultimate physical units out of which all living creatures are constructed — they are abstractions to him, and necessarily prove more misleading than the former concept. Other persons who have accurately read all about cells, and have taken a course of instruction in some university, will be able to say that a cell is composed of a lump of jelly surrounded by a membrane, and containing within the jelly a harder nucleus, and that the cell is very small.

Others will be able to add to that concept the memory of a nucleolus, and the fact that there are several species of cells. The histologist will think of the innumerable cells that he has microscopically examined, and to him, taken in all their various forms and sizes and varying chemical compositions, the concept of a cell is a very complex one indeed. He will think of their protean forms — the globular, the longitudinal, the disk-shaped, the capillary, the spiral, the tetrahedral; of their multiform colors; of their segmentation; of their membranes; of their chemical compositions; of their division of labor; of their contractile motions; of their nuclei and nucleoli and nucleoloni; of the sarcolemma that generally encloses a fibrilla; of the method of the contraction of a fibre; of the distinction between vegetal and animal cells; of their densities, and of the difference in density between the cell jelly and the nucleus; and thus it comes that the concept of a cell in the mind of a modern man of science is very definite and complex. But when he looks at the cell in the light of the new laws, he will add yet a few more complexities: he will add the electrical phenomena developed within the cell during action, and the conception of the method and cause of the absorption of the food and the elimination of the debris, and the further important conception of the duality of all cells, and the mutual relations between the atomic organism and the atomolic.

As long as there remains a single fact connected with a cell that has not been seen and understood the concept of a cell is incomplete.

Now, to acquire complete concepts of the objects belonging to the different sciences, will require more time than is at the disposal of any one man. He can only do so in some one department of science. There must therefore be as many Hierarchs as there are special sciences, and each Hierarch, having made a lifelong special study of his special subject, will in that department have accurate, extensive and complete concepts. EKPHORON as the centre and will of the whole organization can any moment confer with any of the Hierarchs, and thus have placed at his disposal all of the accurate concepts that science has to offer. A suggestion by EKPHORON will call forth an association of ideas in the whole Hierarchy, and all facts relating directly or remotely to that subject will be quickly presented to the Central Mind. EKPHORON can thus say with truth of any subject discussed, — "there are no other facts known to man relating to this matter." He could never say this without the aid of the Hierarchy. He could by no possibility remember all the facts of Science, neither could he look them up for himself. But the Hierarchy possesses within its complex brain all the facts of human knowledge, ready for presentation without hunting them up, and accurate concepts of all objects and all facts, and when in a train of thought he desires a certain class of facts, he can be certain that the Hierarchy has given him all upon that subject that forms part of the sum of human knowledge. He can go over more territory in his mental excursions by aid of the Hierarchy in one month than he could without the Hierarchy in a long lifetime. And he can do it more perfectly.

In the systematic observation of any object or of any class of objects, the sum of all the senses of the several hundred Hierarchs, will accomplish more than the prolonged observation of one man, and the result of such a series of observations will be far more accurate and reliable than that made by a single person. In the human body there has undergone a specialization of cells: some cells are osseous, some muscular, and some are nervous; and these have divided up into groups constituting different organs, and they all together are required to perform those complex functions in the organism of a man, which makes his existence possible. The Hierarchy is a larger organism in which each Hierarch is a Cell, and in which EKPHORON is the Will; in which the Archives is the Memory, and the Hierarchs the power of recollection, and the means by which the association of ideas is accomplished. EKPHORON represents the Reason of the organism, aided of course by the reasoning of the Hierarchy as a whole.

It is expected that the application of the method of the Hierarchy to the classification of the facts collected by the G.N.K.R, and to the systematic induction and deduction of principles and laws therefrom, will unfold new TRUTHS, FACTS, PRINCIPLES, AND LAWS. And that therefrom will be developed numerous applications to the higher as well as the lower needs of the human race.

The philosophy thus deduced will doubtless be far in advance of that which is now possible: but by no means must it ever become a prospective creed.

The Association must never allow its Truths to become formulated into a definite philosophy.

A philosophy can only be a transcript of the state of the mind at the time that it is written and it cannot adapt itself to the growth of mind and increase of knowledge.

A creed or philosophy immediately becomes a wall or barrier to further progress, and must be changed with advancing knowledge — and this will always cause in future what it has always caused in the Past: temporary anarchy and painful readjustment. A Fact is always a safe guide: — a philosophy can never be.

Fifth: — The Application of the Laws of Intellection, Transference, Sambudhism, and the correlated Forces in the production of higher orders of Intellection.

This is to be done with reference to the Hierarchy as a whole and with reference also to the individual members of the Hierarchy. The phenomena of Mind are just as subject to the control of definite forces as are the functions of the liver or of the ganglia. The application of the laws governing the brain will produce a different order of thought than that to which we are accustomed. We are not independent of immutable law in our most evanescent thought. We are not free agents. Our choice is governed by impulses and stimuli beyond our control; all mental tendencies and all mind operations are the result of adequate and efficient causes — they are always the result of an adequate cause — to deny this is to assume that something can take place without a cause, and this would be the introduction of chance into the universe. To admit that the mental operations are the result of a cause, is to admit that we are not free agents. If mind is the result of a cause, then it follows that those operations and conditions which are known as mental and emotional are the effect of a force. The Laws prove that all possible forces are vibratory, and therefore, intellection, in all its forms and stages is the result of vibratory forces, and must be transformed into other vibratory forces in the process of thought. During the process of thought there must be oscillations somewhere, capable of producing these vibratory motions in the medium between the creative force and the attractive. The knowledge of the forces and the manner of their action will be of incalculable value to the thinker.

Our minds are warped by the fallacies of our early beliefs, and distorted and diseased by the improper training of youth, and becomes incapable of either collecting the truths and facts of Nature, or of digesting them when they have been collected. When we cease to try to love that which we have never perceived, and devote our attention to that which we can perceive all the time, and learn the inherent relations of all objects to all other, we become gradually filled with a sweeter and a purer love for All that Is. The Mind of man is clouded by the very customs and habits of the age. Wrong habits produce atrophy of the mental faculties. Under proper conditions the mind expands and releases dormant powers. We have not only neglected our senses but we are unconscious of the existence of some of them. The baby born within a room whose walls were covered with ticking clocks would, if never taken out of the room, become so familiar with the ever present sound that it would be unconscious of its existence. Now there are sounds freighted with the melodies of life — there are wonderful tones filled with the burden of strange and exalted emotions, and there are audible harmonies capable of awakening thoughts and feelings of a kind unknown to any except those who have heard them. It is not an allegory to say that the most continuous of all sounds you have probably never heard at all. In order to hear that wonderful series of melodies you must be taken out of the room in which you were born, and in which you have been all your life — out of the room of habit — and then you will hear that which is more wonderful than all you have ever before heard. The most conspicuous of all sights is so very conspicuous that the masses of mankind have never beheld them. Just so in the mental world as with the senses — the most important and natural of all of the mental faculties have been allowed to lie dormant for want of a consciousness of their existence. The study of these Laws will not only open up new avenues and by-paths for the mind but will give us faculties which, because of their inaction, might as well not have existed.

"Under the new order of knowledge you will find within yourself possibilities of which you have never dreamed. There is a moral and mental greatness in your make-up that has never been aroused. Remove that mask of mental habit and you will find that Nature will no longer flee from you; eradicate those acquired and hereditary diseases of the intellect and you will uncover astonishing capabilities. Within your sympathetic and loving nature you will find unexplored continents. Upon the sea of your life there are numerous fairy-isles that you have never beheld even in a dream. Within the limits of your emancipated mind there are flower-enclustered paths upon which your feet have never trod; there are landscapes whose outlines your eyes have never scanned; there are streams in whose vivifying waters you have never bathed; there are skies in whose horizon you have never beheld the dawn; shady bowers and vistas in which you have never sat for contemplation; and a whole galaxy of truths and beauties and joys at present unknown to your experience." EKPHORON.

THE PRACTICE AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE CONDITION OF SAMBUDHISM.

This Sixth work will be developed separately in each individual, with particular reference to its exercise by the Hierarchy as a unit. As this will remain, for some time at least, the peculiar property of the G.N.K.R it will only be hinted at in this paper. Sambudhism is the opposite process to that of intellection: intellection is an internal function as much as that of the stomach performing the process of digesting the foods which have been eaten. The stomach can manufacture nourishment only from what foods have been furnished it, — the foods having been previously prepared by a preliminary process of mastication. If for mastication you substitute observation you will have in the mental life the exact analogy of the operation in the "physical" life.

If for digestion you substitute the word intellection you will carry a true analogy still further. Concepts are the food of the Brain, just as the various edibles are the food of the stomach. By association of ideas, by comparison — by induction and deduction is carried on the process of Intellection. The study of the phenomena of Intellection forms the Fifth division of G.N.K.R work. The Sixth relates to those mental processes which are caused and carried on by forces outside the organism entirely. Intellection produces a transmissive force, caused by the oscillation of atomolic aggregates, and this transmissive force is, like all other forces, capable of producing sympathetic vibrations in other similarly circumstanced aggregates, and such other aggregates are to be found in other brains; and they must in accordance with the general law of sympathetic oscillation respond to the transmissive forces projected upon them, and the result of such vibrations must be the production of mental and emotional conditions similar to the ones which produced the original transmissive force. The 75th Law proves that mental pictures and emotional conditions are thus transmitted, and a knowledge of these laws and of the rules by which they are to be practically applied, will constitute the sixth kind of work to be undertaken by the Association. This applies to that sympathetic concord between mind and mind which makes possible the exchange and interchange of mental pictures and emotional conditions, wherein each mind acquires the growth and experience of all the minds in the Hierarchy. The absorption of the ideas of other minds constitutes that condition which the Eastern Culture has called Sammadhi, and which will here be systemized and developed according to a rational principle. Not only is (rapport) with other minds in the Hierarchy a practical feat, but the communion with all other highly cultivated minds in the world. This requires complete mental and physical equilibrium, and absolute serenity. To have been angry but once during the year will absolutely prevent the performance of Sambudhism and Sammadhi. Revenge and ambition, fear and hatred, scorn and contempt, fatigue and pain, are absolute barriers to the attainment of this condition. Thus it appears that a mind that would be capable of misusing the secrets this makes possible, would be incapable of the Sambudhistic condition. Its first attainment requires a complete repose from all exciting mental, physical and emotional conditions: such as sexual passion, enthusiasm, jealousy and the Evils. By means of this, the Hierarchy will keep pace not only with the published thought of the world but also with the unexpressed thoughts of the people who live therein.



Sammahdi is a communion with another mind: Sambudhism is a communion with all other minds; and both of these conditions will be practised and experimentally perfected by the Hierarchy.

But it is not necessary that the transmissive forces shall come from other minds; these forces can be otherwise produced than by brain function — they can be produced by the overtones of electricity, or by the undertones of that force lying immediately below Psychity. They are produced by cosmos and by those operations that are concerned in the atomolic chemistry of the Ether Globe in which this solar system and galaxy are floating. Those higher pitches are operating upon the earth at all times, and when a mind is in perfect equilibrium, and all its chords in tune, these universal forces are just as capable of producing thought as the transmissive forces from the brains of our fellow men and women. The condition that enables the mind of man to be influenced by the universal sensorium, must be the result of a very high culture, and will always be productive of a high class of results, it is one of the conditions and states that belongs to the Mahopanishada.

Seventh Work: — The application of the laws of Psychity, Teleferism, and Psychism, to the production of harmonious surroundings, the curing of diseases, the development of the moral disposition, and the obtaining of accurate experimental knowledge of those things lying outside of the domain of the seven senses.

The Hierarchy will possess a power apart from their work in the Temple. Such a body of men selected from the best and the ablest minds in the world, and subjected to a training such as no one has ever had before, will ultimately become a social factor of the highest importance capable of wielding the widest and most beneficent influence over the affairs of humanity. These Pontiffs of Science belong to the world and to no particular country, they cannot be influenced by sectional strife and turmoil nor bribed by party or sectarian feelings. In constant contact with Nature, and in daily use of the reasoning faculties under circumstances best calculated to develop them, they will acquire a wisdom and a prudence in judgement, that will enable them to enter a community unseen and unknown and often turn the torrent of vandalism and riot, in more peaceful and economic directions.

All this will require two years; and then six years; and then eleven years! The G.N.K.R do not expect during that time to have accomplished all that needs to be done! They simply hope by that time to have made a good start in the right direction. They hope to have removed from the valleys of humanity, some of those miasmatic vapors exhaled from the stagnant pools of superstition that have so long poisoned the atmosphere of human hope and human duty; and to have surveyed the road that leads upward and onward toward the mountain heights of a purer thought, and a more beautiful and more picturesque ideal of life and society. They do not claim to have found the ultimate truth, but they do claim to have pointed out the only way by which the highest possible truth can always be found, and to have indentified the only Criterion of Reason and the only Guide to Conduct.
At the expiration of nineteen years from the present year 1888, the G.N.K.R will have collected within its Archives the entire sum of human knowledge, and will have made all the "barrier experiments" of science, and conducted all those researches capable of revealing new items of knowledge, and will have explored all the fields of science and philosophy, also have applied the Hierarchy to the systemization of the Facts thus obtained, and to the induction and deduction of new principles, and new laws; and have made application of these new facts and laws to the needs of humanity; have developed to a higher condition the processes of intellection, and will have perfected the sambudhism and psychism of the Hierarchy; and have systemized the application of intellection and psychity to the uses of humanity. All the alleged facts will have been tested, and all theories will have been examined by the impartial verdict of experiment, and all that man knows will be recorded in the Archives free from all mistakes and errors — as far as possible. From the literatures and beliefs and theories of the world will have been sifted all the grain from the chaff, and from Nature will have been acquired a vast store-house of new Facts, and Principles, and in the minds of the Hierarchy will have been developed new mental powers and new skill in the use of the well known powers.

The dead blossoms of the Past have no longer any honey to yield, but from a study of the dried husks we can learn a more valuable secret — that of raising the original flowers.

Gigantic undertaking! Momentous enterprise! To collect from the thought, the experience, and the work of man, the sum of human knowledge; and to organize the collective concepts and experiences of humanity during the past and the present! In comparison with this the Pyramids of Egypt and Yucatan, the Pharos of Alexandria, the Walls and Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Temple of Diana at Ephesus, the Statue of the Olympian Jupiter, the Mausoleum of Artemisia, the Colossus at Rhodes, the Aqueducts of ancient Rome, the Stone Walls of China, the Cave Temples of Ellora and Elephanta, and the Sacred Temples of Central India dwindle into insignificance, not merely in comparison with the expense, magnitude and costs of these undertakings, but with reference to the benefits derivable therefrom by the Present and the Future. Did the gods make humanity mad with a theory in order to induce them thus to build monuments for the edification of the future? How else could they have been prevailed upon to neglect their present needs, and divert their energies from the more immediate wants of life? Can we not draw from these personified hopes and dreams of immemorial time, facts and conclusions of value to the present? Cannot these crumbling ruins of the ages — these pyramids and temples; these caves, columns, carvings, statues and stones — these works reared in the sad cradle of slavery under the iron hand of oppression: — cannot these spectres of other civilizations and of other peoples teach us truths more glorious than the creeds and philosophies which created them?

The G.N.K.R will have gathered the facts of their Bible from the past as well as the present. Nature has written the world-life upon tables of stone, in which every fossil is a word and every stratum of the earth's crust a chapter! Systematic borings of the crust, and paleontological and mineralogical collections will slowly aggregate the scattered pages of this wonderful manuscript of the Infinite All which has proven more durable than inscriptions upon walls and tombs, than papyrus, parchment, or vellum.

That record of past civilization which has been given us by our archaeologists and philologists must be supplemented by records from those other civilizations whose countries were the continents now lying at the bottom of the five great oceans. From all the ceremonies, creeds, religions, and rituals of the past, must be collected the substratum of truth and the admixture of fact that gave to them their momentary life. From the gods and ghosts, and devils and demons, and heavens and hells, and curses and creeds of yore will be drawn conclusions most forbidding to all philosophies that may come hereafter. Those aspirations and questionings that gave rise to Poseidon worship among the Atlanteans — to sacrificial ceremonies to Baal among the Phoenicians — to the belief in Thor among the ice-fields of the North — and to the conception of the Great Spirit among the Aborigines of America, will here be systemized around a work of immediate use to man. Here in the Archives will be found all that is of value in the thought and doings of the Past.

As far as is allowable in an exoteric communication the work of the Association has been explained. Two years yet will be devoted to the formation of departments and to general preliminary work leading up to the October meeting in 1890 when the departments of the three branches will be organized into three separate and permanent executive Senates, each Senate having control of the movements and operations of the branch of which it is the embodiment. Six years will then be devoted to the collection of the apparatus, instruments, machinery to be used in the Laboratory of the G...K..; to the selection of the members of the Hierarchy, and to the construction of the building to contain them. During the next eleven years the work of the Hierarchy will be carried on — under the supervision of EKPHORON until 1900, after which under the supervision and control of one that will be selected for the purpose. The same line of work will be continued as long as internal coherence can be maintained. As this harmony of effort does not depend upon any philosophy or belief, and as the general purpose of the Association will not change materially with the advancement of knowledge, and as the need for more knowledge will continue through all possible changes of environment and through all changes of organism, it is expected that the work will continue indefinitely: — according to the promise of PANTOGNOMOS.

Silvia could not formulate the exact route to carry him out of the wilderness in which he had been lost, or by means of a triangulation of the entire continent, map out the relative earth position of all the lines and turns in the path which he proposed to follow, or give a quantitative estimate of the time and strength required, and the dangers and difficulties to be met before getting out; but he knew that if he were to follow the course marked out by the rising sun each morning, it would eventually lead him by an almost straight line out of the heart of the forest. He also knew that if he were to follow the course of the stream from which he had been quenching his thirst it would lead him by many a backward turn and winding curve through many a marsh and wild morass to the ocean from which it came.

Every new fact adds another ray to the light of the rising sun of knowledge; every new principle disperses another cloud from the horizon of the mind; and every new law teaches how to utilize the sunlight of truth. It is not enough to know intuitively that the sunlight is there behind the clouds; or to be told by inspiration that it is going to shine bye and bye; the benefit therefrom cannot be experienced until you have actually seen and felt its influence; and it cannot be applied to the uplifting of those who cannot see, until you thoroughly understand the facts, laws, and principles of its action, — and you cannot understand those by allowing someone else to do the studying and experimenting for you; you cannot deny the benefit or gain the growth except by doing it yourself.

Re: A CALL TO THE "AWAKENED" FROM "THE UNSEEN AND UNKNOWN,"

PostPosted: Sat Sep 26, 2015 8:05 pm
by admin
Part 1 of 2

The Object of Pantognomos, IN ORGANIZING THE THREE BRANCHES OF THE G.N.K.R, EXPLAINED FROM THE G.....R STANDPOINT.

''Power belongs to him who knows!"
-- Brahmanical Book of Evocation.

"Happiness conies to him who does as well as he knows."
-- Precept of Vidya-Nyaika.

"He who has correct concepts of Nature knows: he who has cultured the Will and the Moral Disposition does as well as he knows."
-- G.N.K.R Proverb.

"Man is Nature risen up to look at herself."
-- Unknown

"There must exist somewhere a light for the guidance of man: I will make myself bold and seek out a new law."
-- Siddartha Gautama.


Concepts are the Memories of the experiences which Consciousness has had with the Organism and its environments: the organism being part of the environment of Consciousness — and the most immediate part.

An object is recognized by the mind through the medium of the senses — the picture of that object remains in the Memory, and that picture is a Concept. If the object has been superficially observed, and its internal structure not examined, this concept will to that extent be imperfect. The more we examine that object and the more facts we learn about it, the more perfect will that concept be. Reason enables the relation between that object and the concept to be traced, and the concepts to be classified. Imagination uses concepts as material with which to construct other concepts of the second order called generalizations. Judgment chooses between motives and concepts. Intellection is the action of the concepts upon the mind; Sambudhism is the action of forces from the non-ego upon the mental structure producing mental and emotional effects which may or may not enter the sphere of the conscious; but whether conscious or not, play an important part in the history of the life of the organism; they become conscious only when the state they produce is analagous to some of the experiences of the Consciousness, i. e, of the Concepts. Therefore as far as the reason or judgment is concerned in the guidance of conduct it all depends upon the accuracy and extent of the Concepts.

THE WORK OF PANTOGNOMOS.

As far as knowledge has been made definite by accurate research and by the application of the Laws, it will serve as a guidance of an exact nature in all the affairs of life. To the extent that accurate knowledge has been systemized — to the extent that the processes of life, mind and society, have been reduced to definite laws and are proven to be such by accurate experimental investigation, — to that extent will science serve as a safe guide and be a safe foundation upon which to base a quantitative formulation of the laws of ethical and moral guidance. Before giving expression to such rules of human guidance we must know as absolutely why right is right, and why wrong is wrong as we now know that parallel lines cannot meet however far they may be extended. In a general way it may be stated that the G.N.K.R consider ''that to be right which is in harmony with the fundamental pitches of an aggregate, and that to be wrong which is discordant to the same pitches or forces." But all this must be reduced to definite formulae, and specific application made to given individual and social conditions.

Just as far as we are able to base our rules and laws upon accurate concepts of nature will they be safe guides in human affairs; and just to the extent that these concepts have been derived from inaccurate observations will they be made unsafe guides. The larger portion of human affairs can thus be reduced to accurate guidance, but no matter how far we may thus be able to advance in the domain of accurate knowledge, there will still be a domain of the unknown: as the circle of knowledge increases, the circumference of darkness widens. And upon that border-land between the Unknown and Known there must always be a realm of uncertainty. Within the confines of the known there can be but little doubt regarding the proper course of action under all circumstances; but in that indistinct region where science and hypotheses are indiscriminately intermingled, there must ever be a state of uncertainty regarding the proper course of action, under given conditions, and in this dim and misty region where the dawn has not yet dispersed the clouds we must have some other guide than science; and that is the line beyond which the G.N.K.R do not attempt to formulate. That is the especial province of the intuitions, and of the sambudhistic faculties, the systematic cultivation of which is the peculiar work of the G.....R, in addition to the work elsewhere described. Where accurate knowledge ends, and where definite laws in the terms of physical concepts are no longer obtainable, there, we are compelled to entrust ourselves to the guidance of another order of influences, the outworking of which requires however, a knowledge of the facts of nature. This order of influences embracing among other things the intuitions, emotions, sambudhisms, and psychisms, belongs to the sphere of the G.....R whose various departments are devoted to the development of the higher attributes of the mind and soul which make the reception of higher knowledge possible, and its utilization practicable. Its province is the preparation of the human soul; the refinement of the organism; the acceleration of individual evolution and involution; the development of the higher susceptibilities; and the training of those powers of the mind, soul, and spirit, which are just dawning within us, and which are not yet sufficiently developed to justify their acceptance as accurate guides in the regulation of life. But as fast as these experiences are systemized and accurately determined they will be recorded in the Archives of the Association and will then become factors in the accurate formulation of ethical rules. The training of the soul powers which are just entering into human consciousness requires a condition of things which are not obtainable in the ordinary social state; and the regulation of the experimental investigation to be carried on in this direction is a work of the G.....R. The systematic application of the human will to the production of definite results; and the development of desires for their proper use in prayer; and all those practices and kinds of conduct which relate to the development of a union with the consciousness of the Infinite Organism which fills all space; and the practice and study of all those phenomena which are too indefinite to become subjects of accurate knowledge, will belong to the work of the G.....R. These faculties which relate to the powers which are just dawning in the mind are the beacon lights upon another shore of knowledge from which we have not as yet gathered fruits and flowers. These intuitions, and sambudhisms, and psychisms, are not definite propositions and formulae, but they point out the place where the definite formulae exist, and they show in which direction to look for the light of the dawn. The results of these mental states cannot become definite guides until they have been reduced to a definite formulation by Science.

Science deals entirely with concepts, and concepts therefore become the ultimate guides to definite action; and Science is therefore the ethical law-giver, and the moral legislator. Morality in its highest and broadest sense consists in the application of knowledge to the special wants of different individuals, races, and stages of Evolution. Religion, like philosophy, is a guide-board at the end of the road pointing to the unknown and unexplored.

Its use is also the development of those special conditions upon which the advent of the higher knowledge depends. It prepares the soil in which the new fruit can grow. Every creed and every philosophy has its special use in the great plan of the Infinite All. No matter how contradictory and seemingly antagonistic the several beliefs may be, they all serve a use in the higher growth of those mental and spiritual conditions upon which the reception of new light and the dawning of new powers depend. Every ritual serves as a means to an end. As long as there are lower races in the presence of the higher races there will be various religions adapted to the varying needs and capacities of the different people of the earth. The highly developed people on earth will still be but children in knowledge, when compared with those that are still higher in the scale of development, and the successive approximations to the truth will ever produce creeds and philosophies until man rises above them, by recognizing that absolute knowledge is unattainable, and that by facts, and not theories, are the only directly understandable words of the Infinite All to man. The office of religion is to promote the practice of those habits and mental conditions which are promoters of the development of the new powers and the reception of higher truths. Hence, it is evident that those devotional exercises and practices which are necessary for the growth of higher capacities in the lower races will be merely a waste of time in those who have already attained those powers. Those, who according to the light of ENS, MOVENS, and OM, have searched the religions of the Past, see more than contradictions in the teachings of the Saviours of the world; and find a glorious curriculum in successive steps taken by the world in its religious Evolution.

Among the teachers in this course we find Christna of Hindoostan; Buddha Sakia, of India; Salivahena, of Bermuda; Zulis, Thor, Osirus, and Horas, of Egypt; Odin, of Scandinavia; Chrite, of Chaldea; Zoroaster and Mithra, of Persia; Baal and Taut, of Phoenicia; Indra, of Thibet; Bali, of Afganistan; Jas, of Nepaul; Jehovah, of the Jews; Wittoba, of the Belingonese; Thammuz, of Syria; Atys, of Phrygia; Xamolis, of Thrace; Zoar, of Bonzes; Adad, of Assyria; Deva, Tat, and Samono Cadam, of Siam; Alcides, of Thebes; Mikado, of the Sintoos; Beddru, of Japan; Hesus, Eros, and Bramilla, of the Druids; Thor, of the Gauls; Cadmus, of Greece; Hil and Feta, of the Mandaites; the Gentaut and Quexalcote, of Mexico; Fohi and Tien, of China; Ixion and Quirinis, of Rome; Prometheus of Caucasus; Confucius, of China; Christ, of Palestine; and Mohammed, of Arabia; and all the philosophers from Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Lucretius and other Grecian and Roman writers down to Spinoza, Schopenhauer, Fichte, Kant, Hegel, Buchner, Mill, Darwin, Faraday, Tyndall, Spencer, and the Physicists and Scientists of the world. To determine from all that has been thought and done, and from the best knowledge of the present time what constitutes the physical basis of right and wrong, and to define the same in the terms of mathematical and physical concepts, and to make the same applicable to all conditions and organisms, was the fundamental conception of the work of Pantognomos as given to the three heads in whose hands the laws and the work was placed. The object being to determine accurately as much truth and fact as is possible to the present condition of the human mind, and to make that the basis of a law of ethics and morals. Any theory of duty contradictory to the known facts cannot be the true theory of human guidance to those that are capable of knowing those truths. There are certain facts that are so self-evident, and certain principles so easily demonstrated that they can be considered perfect knowledge as far as they go. Any philosophy which is inherently contradictory to those facts must be all erroneous and an unsafe belief. All there is to mathematics can be considered as established truth, and any religion basing a theory of duty upon a dogma contradictory to those facts must be wrong to all those people that are capable of comprehending mathematics. There are also certain biological and chemical truths and facts so clearly ascertainable that any ethical theory which is contradictory to them must be untrue and unsafe to those who are capable of learning and understanding those truths. The smaller the collection of those unimpeachable truths which any man possesses the more likely he is to be mistaken in the guidance of his conduct, or in the philosophy of things which he entertains. After the sum of human knowledge has been collected it will serve as a basis for the correction of theories and philosophies, and as a basis for the formulation of rules for the better guidance of life, mind, and society.

By means of the Hierarchy, and the Association at its disposal, Pantognomos hopes to collect all the certain knowledge of the world and use it in teaching the people higher conceptions of duty, and more accurate ideas of that which is right and that which is wrong. He hopes to make it plain to the people why certain things are right, and why certain other things are wrong, and they are to know it with as much certainty as they now know the truths about certain chemical properties and certain anatomical and physiological functions. Nothing should become the basis of a theory of ethical duty until it is understood why it is right and how it affects the actor. The first and most immediate aim of Pantognomos is the following: —

First: — To scientifically formulate and quantitatively define the fundamental law of Concepts in terms of organic action, and upon a mathematical and physical basis, and from which can be deductively derived the ethical and moral laws applicable to all organisms in all environments.

Second: — The systematic development, training and perfection of the Moral Disposition according to the laws thus formulated.

Third: — The systematic training of the Will according to the laws thus developed and formulated, and in harmony with the Astro-biometric laws of the Culture, of the G.N.K.R.

Pantognomos has a greater work to perform than that involved in the practical exploitation of any or all of the processes or laws placed in the hands of the Association, or than involved in the extension or elaboration of whatever laws may be discovered in the future; and he has placed in the charge of the three Branches, that which is perhaps the greatest opportunity of this or of any age, and upon them rests an imperative duty — the burden of a great responsibility that cannot with impunity be neglected: — The formulation of the fundamental law of ethics and morals and the application of the laws to a system of moral training, and the development therefrom of a system of Culture based entirely upon those facts which have been accurately determined, and are well understood.

The scientific tendencies of this age must receive a definite expression, and the divergent philosophical and moral systems that have been the regulative forces of social and political organization must be unified around some more definite and exact principle, before the present and rapid disintegration has entirely destroyed the social coherence. But this readjustment must not be made by any regulative system that is capable of being transformed into a creed, for any philosophy must cease to fit the heart and brain of a people who have advanced in knowledge and experience beyond that which was possessed by the people who formulated the system. All past readjustments have been made around some theory — what the world needs is a readjustment without a creed — some working ideas of duty expressive of the facts and needs of society — some philosophical basis that will accommodate itself to the steady advancement of knowledge, and can grow simultaneously as the sum of knowledge and experience grows. It must relate in the most direct and positive manner to human duty, and must be based upon that which will remain unchangeable throughout all time. It must lie at the very bottom of all possible theories and creeds, and must have for its ground-work that which all coming philosophies and theories must include. It must contain the source of all advancement, and must point out the means and the direction to all possible Good. It must have a concrete aspect — capable of being comprehended by all that are able to think, and must be consistent with the highest thought. It must be the fundamental expression of human duty — not in the abstract but in the concrete. Its basis must be beyond all formulae, beyond all philosophy, beyond and anterior to observation and reason: — it must lie behind and above all possible generalization and the highest expression of any coming theory must still lie as a subordinate corollary to his ultimate theory of duty — in short this expression of the moral law must be the most evident and unchangeable of all facts. It must systemize the formation of creeds as well as the process by which they are inevitably replaced by others.

It is perpetually observable that people look at facts through the light of a theory — a belief makes a partial and prejudiced observer. People start out in the direction indicated by some new philosophy and faithfully travel until accumulating facts demonstrate that a wrong direction has been taken, and then slowly abandon the old guides and go back and start over. The fundamental idea of duty must remain the same throughout all time, and must point out the proper direction upon all the roads that humanity will ever travel. It must unmistakably point out the greatest good of the race. No one must have any doubt but that it does actually point out the greatest good — it must be as evident that the course of action thus pointed out is the best and only possible course as it is evident that people are capable of suffering pain or enjoying pleasure. The fundamental Law of Duty, or the real basis of a true and natural morality has not yet received at the hands of the G.N.K.R a definite expression. Before a theory of Ethics can be formulated for any given social state, or before a true theory of the duties of all organisms can be enunciated, this underlying law must receive inductive and deductive sanction of the most exhaustive and complete kind. This law must lie at the very basis of all organic action — must include the operation of all the forces concerned in the direct maintenance of life and its functions, and of the forces favorably or unfavorably affecting it. It must be a concrete fact expressing the fundamental nature of the adaptation of organisms to their environments, and this expression must continue to be true throughout all possible changes of the environment and all possible changes of the organism. It must not only define the true basis of all duty in such societies as are now existent in the different countries of the world, but it must be a definition as applicable to the Past as to the Future; — not only to this age but to all other ages, not only to this earth but to all other worlds in space. It must lie deeper than the interests of any race of people; and outside of their peculiar environments. This fundamental Law of Duty as applicable to any race must not be a philosophical generalization, for philosophies ever change with advancing knowledge; it must not be a creed for that will not fit changed environments and more highly or less highly developed organisms; it must not be a definite ritual or a series of empirical rules for that implies a perfect knowledge of all the facts and conditions of any given social condition, and that is not possible because knowledge is relative and not absolute.

Derivable from the fundamental principle must exist corollaries applicable to any past or any coming condition of environment. There can be no appreciable ratio between a knowledge of the finite and the Infinite, between relative knowledge and absolute knowledge; and there is no evidence of analogy that we have even approximately reached the limit of mental evolution, or that we yet possess all the brain organs possible to a higher development of our race; and therefore any philosophy that we may formulate now, must be replaced by others as we acquire new mental faculties and new brain organs; and any system now formulated must be far from the truth, not only because knowledge increases but also because Nature is viewed from a different standpoint, and different classes of facts are successively considered in different times. Until the mind can view the earth from a standpoint more remote than that which is local to time and place, not even one hemisphere of the sum of knowledge can be comprehended; but it is still more difficult to see both sides of the sphere and to do so successfully requires the formation of a series of successively more and more complex concepts. This comprehensive Moral law cannot receive definite expression until all biological, sociological, psychological and other correlative facts have been collected, systemized and generalized, and until that has been done, it will be entirely practical to give to the general conception a concrete and empirical expression.

Nocturnia desirous of finding the valuable treasure laying in his door-yard, and being too impatient to wait until morning, set his house on fire in order that he might by the light thereof recover his jewel: — had he waited for the dawn he might have had both the jewel and the house.

It is very evident that no one ethical system can be applicable to different grades of evolved creatures: actions capable of prolonging or destroying life vary with different organisms — what would kill one proves life sustaining to another. It would be senseless to advise a fish to take a daily bath, or to advise a man to bury himself in the mud during the winter months.

The earth is filled with living creatures of all grades of intellectual evolution and of all kinds of structures; and these various organic beings are placed often in the same habitat, and often in different habitats. Some have organs that others have not, and have correspondingly varying needs. That ethical system which would work the highest good for one would be destructive to another; but races of men also differ — the structural differences may not be so great as has been pointed out between some organisms, but that there is a functional and structural difference justifies the hypothesis that there should be different ethical and moral systems for the different races. Mr. Herbert Spencer, who has thought as effectively upon this subject as any other philosopher, has concluded that there is an absolute and a relative Ethics — that the absolute ethics is unattainable in any except an ideal social state, and that an ethically ideal man could not live as such in a society less highly evolved. He has shown that an ideal ethical life is not applicable to a less highly evolved society, leaving the inference to be made that for the less highly evolved society there must be a certain ethical principle which to it is a more fitting ideal. If Spencer's law of Ethics was applicable to all social conditions it would have been applicable to all possible developments. Not for a moment would Mr. Spencer endeavor to apply an absolute morality to any existing or to any coming social state. He admits that it can only be a relative Right and a relative Wrong, and that what would be perfectly right in a lower development would be absolutely wrong in a higher development. He admits that the ethical conduct of a highly developed man could not be applied to a lower in the scale of evolution, thus admitting that to the lower man there is a kind of conduct which is for him a more necessary right than that which is the absolute right for the higher man. The higher ethical conceptions of the higher races would not be morality for the lower races. That ethical conduct which works out the highest happiness for the thinkers and philosophers of Europe would be entirely out of place among birds, or even among Australian Savages. Now the broad fact that there is an evolution in ethics as in everything else, conclusively demonstrates that with the varying degrees of evolution among the evolved creatures, there must be a corresponding ethical practice. The compromise between Altruism and Egoism, between absolute and relative ethics, which so much concerned Mr. Spencer, and the endeavor to obtain a formula applicable to all the varying social conditions in a mixed society, would have been an easy task if he had obtained a fundamental ethical principal, or discovered the fundamental Moral law. Such a Law must be applicable to all creatures equally; it must include the different ethics of the different grades of evolution, and must include as one of its deductions all the varying ethical systems adaptable to all the children of Evolution; and as the outcome of any given lower grade of life must eventually be the acquirement of a grade of intelligence similar to that which we now call highly evolved, it is evident that the ultimate effect of all the ethical systems adapted to all the grades of being in the universe must be conducive to the same end; it matters not whether that end be called the greatest possible happiness or the greatest possible evolution in complexity of function and structure; and the different ethical systems applicable to all the protean forms and conditions of life must therefore be different expressions of some fundamental expression applicable to them all, and to which all the different and widely varying and often seemingly antagonistic moral and ethical systems are in absolute harmony. At first thought this seems to be an impossibility; that it is not, subsequent demonstrations will prove — demonstrations that will be made in the Hierarchy, and systematized after the "eleven years work" have been completed.

That no such Law has yet been conceived will be obvious to any one after a careful reading of all the ethical systems of the world: the belief has been that some proverb-like expression could be applied to all humanity. That "Love thy neighbor as thyself "; or an axiomatic formula like that of the "Golden Rule" of Confucius, was all that could be necessary for the guidance of conduct — yet, what an imperfect and unsafe guide such partial rules are! The origin of the "golden rule" is lost in the gray night of Hindoo antiquity, and was enunciated 500 B. C. by Confucius. Aristotle, Pittacus, Thales, Isocrates and Sextus all differently expressed the "Golden Rule" long before its adoption by the Christians. By Plato, and more distinctly by Jonathan Edwards, it was conceived that "perfection" was the standard of ethical conduct, but this has no meaning when applied to such varying creatures as we find produced by evolution; besides perfection is goodness, and to define "good" conduct in terms of "perfection" is to define conduct in terms of itself. Aristotle entertained the idea of "virtuousness of action as an end" as a standard of conduct; and Plato believed that there existed an absolute and ideal good. Others take for a test of the correctness of conduct the character and the rectitude of the motive which prompted the act: but the most honorable motive in the world will not save us from the consequences of an act inherently wrong. Others, as Hutcheson, entertain the intuitional theory of morals as a standard of conduct; but there must be a standard of conduct for those animals in whom intuitions have not had a dawning; and the "theory must account for the ethical goodness of those institutions of the Fijian who does not consider himself manly until he has killed some one"; and we must admit that if it were not for our intuitions we would not know that murder or stealing is wrong. Yet what is more easily deducible from the facts of common experience than that the majority of people object to being murdered, and that stealing the results of another's labor interferes with the common interests of society. Perhaps the oldest school of morals is that which recognizes as the only rule of conduct the alleged "will of God". This is in fact the only rule of conduct ever obtainable; but what is meant is the "plenary revelation of that will in the terms of human speech," and recorded in books. These alleged wills containing every possible kind of conduct instanced as standards of goodness and virtue. Dymond makes the "authority of God the sole grounds of duty" — a proposition not here disputed; but when he makes "communicated will the only ultimate standard of right and wrong" and implying said communication to be found in some certain book, we are compelled to take issue with him. This position is confuted by the fact that there would still be a source from which ideas of right and wrong could be obtained if all these alleged revelations were non-existent, for they can be derived from the concepts in the mind and have been theoretically derived by thinkers from other sources than Bibles. People knowing nothing about these revelations have constructed systems of morals beside which many of the so-called revelations become insignificant.

If it is admitted that the acts called good, conduce to human well-being and to human happiness, and that the acts called bad, conduce to the opposite conditions; and that they produce such and such effects even if we are ignorant that they are either wrong or right, then we must also admit that right and wrong has a meaning and is determinable without a knowledge of any of these revelations. It is certain that there are many creeds and revelations and contradictory beliefs. Now, by no possibility can we choose which of these numerous systems are correct without using our mind in making the choice. If we had no memory we would have no facts or concepts upon which to make the choice of belief. The one that will be chosen is that one which is most conformable to the contents of the mind, and if these contents are based upon accurate and extensive concepts of Nature, then will our choice be correct to the extent of the development of the mind. Without these concepts, we could never understand the words in which these plenary revelations are made. If we choose at all, we must choose by the aid of our concepts, and these therefore become to us the ultimate standards of Right and Wrong.

If there were no other origin for Right and Wrong than the Divine will which has been revealed to us in Conscience, in Intuition, or in Bibles, then were there no knowledge of the Divine will in the mind of a given man, the acts called bad could not affect him harmfully, and the acts called good could not affect him pleasurably — he could with impunity take poisons, commit all crimes without endangering the happiness of himself or others, and the distinction of Right and Wrong would cease to have any meaning. "But if men did not know such acts to be wrong because contrary to the Divine will, and so, in committing them, did not offend by disobedience; and if they could not otherwise know them to be wrong; then they might commit them indifferently with the acts now classed as right: the results practically considered would be the same". Thus the plenary revelation of the "will of God" as a basis of morals proves to be no basis at all. Hobbes believed that State-enactments were the sources of Right and Wrong, and Justice and Injustice could not exist until there was some power to enforce commands. If civil authority were the only source of good and bad conduct, as Hobbes asserts, then without the civil injunction forbidding it, the adulteration of medicines and foods would be ethically indifferent, and bad sanitation would have the same effect upon the occupants of a house as good sanitary appliances. To affirm that a supernaturally given Conscience is the only source of our knowledge of Right and Wrong is to deny that there exists an observable relation between acts and results — between causes and effects.

The utilitarian school of Morals of John Stuart Mill more nearly approaches a practical system than all previous attempts, and its methods will doubtless continue to be one of the factors in the true system, but it has not reached a conception of a fundamental law of ethics, nor has it pointed out the ultimate source of Right and Wrong. "Conduct is to be estimated by observation of results: when a sufficient number of cases have been considered, and it has been found that behavior of one kind works evil while the behavior of another kind works good, these kinds of behavior are to be judged as wrong and right respectively." But this assumes that those kinds of actions which are right in the present conditions of organism and environment will continue to remain so, and that the recognition of the expedient result of certain actions represents the laws underlying those actions: this is like empirical chemistry in which the actions of chemicals upon each other must always be empirically determined, and that there are no underlying laws the knowledge of which would enable us to determine beforehand the results of such and such chemical mixtures. It is to suppose that a knowledge of the forces concerned in producing chemical affinities would not be a better guide to rational chemistry than a series of disconnected experiments made to determine the results of special cases. As Herbert Spencer has so ably pointed out, the theory is "deficient in its recognition of the idea of universal causation."

It remains yet to notice that wonderful system of philosophy of one of the greatest thinkers and philosophers of the age — Herbert Spencer: and that cannot be done within the limits of this paper. In his "Data of Ethics," the outcome of forty years of preparatory study, he has systemized the highest results of Modern Science, and definitely stated the present position of Philosophy, but it can be shown that his fundamental conception of the Origin of Right and Wrong, and that his conception of the Ethical Law, has not yet reached the dignity of a criterion of conduct, or of an Absolute Standard of Morality. As previously shown, his conception of Absolute Ethics and Relative Ethics, implies the further idea that there must be a fundamental law from which all these numerous and varying conditions of relative Ethics can be deduced as corollaries. In his theory of the origin of the feeling of moral obligation, and of the ethical guiding value of the sentiment of duty, he has not recognized the fact that a given state of conscientiousness is the evolved outcome of a previous condition of environment and organism which will undergo a change before the conscientiousness can adapt itself to the changed conditions — the new environment precedes the adaptation, and with reference to this new environment or to this new organic relation to the environment there has not yet developed a corresponding sense of duty, or a related conscientiousness. This adaptation to a new environment must necessarily produce not pleasure but pain, and yet the highest good of the organism will depend upon the speed with which it is able to adapt itself to the changed condition, provided that this changed condition must necessarily be a permanent one. In this, Spencer's ethical system can be no guide. His compromise as to how men as now constituted should act in the present social states of the world, with reference to the relative right of Egoism and Altruism, etc., cannot hold good in a changed social state. The aid derivable from the moral sentiments cannot be denied. The altruistic feelings are the outgrowth of a very large experience in the phylogeny of the race. But to make these feelings and these "moral aversions and approvals" within ourselves, standards of conduct and reliable guides to correct conduct, is to lose sight of that all important fact that those very feelings and sentiments were developed out of imperfect adaptation and that they did not originally produce the adaptation, and that the adaptations required from the organism at a time when these feelings have once been developed are, likely, very different from those out of which they sprang and in accordance with the needs of which they were evolved. Evolution is a constant adaptation, and need for that adaptation always precedes the adaptive changes in the organism, and must likewise be anterior to the moral sentiments developed out of them; and therefore to make the moral sentiments standards of conduct is like a patient continuing the advice of the doctor after he has recovered from the ailment for which the advice was given.

All the sentiments of duty, obligation, virtue; all the intuition, sympathies and antipathies, should be reverently recognized as general authorities, but, to quote Spencer: — "to make guidance by them adequate to all requirements, their dictates have to be interpreted and made definite by Science; to which end there must be analysis of those conditions to complete living, which they respond to, and from converse from which they have arisen. And such analysis necessitates the recognition of happiness for each and all as the end to be achieved by the fulfillment of these conditions."

The fundamental error of this position is that even when made "definite by science" these dictates are the result of conditions which may have passed away, and can therefore be no longer applicable. These dictates are the result of imperfect apprehension of those phenomena out of which they were born; and the phenomena and the conditions of the phenomena and the relations held by the phenomena at that time to the organism, were the true guides, and not the dictates developed a long time afterwards, and but imperfectly even at present. An analysis of the condition of complete living to which these dictates respond, will only serve to make more definite that which cannot after all be accepted as the ultimate criterion of conduct. The methods by which this analysis is accomplished, and by which the conclusions of this analysis is obtained, lies beyond and above these dictates of the moral sentiments. This analysis can only be made out of the concepts in the mind relating to the objects and phenomena concerned in human conduct; and these concepts lie anterior to all dictates of the moral nature and become therefore the standard by which to rectify and measure the moral sentiments. These concepts are therefore the Absolute standards of Judgment, and they depend upon accurate and extensive observation of the surroundings, and these observations develop increased exactness in proportion as the principles underlying the phenomena, and the forces causing them, are better and better understood. Such a knowledge, is a knowledge not of any one part of Nature, but of Nature as a Unit. Now our knowledge of Nature as a Unit can only be developed out of a series of simpler concepts, and these simpler concepts must be accurate or the complex concepts will not be accurate. Our only guide therefore is our concepts — these are the ultimate and absolute individual standards dependent upon and derived from the Facts and objects of Nature: but these facts cannot guide us until they become part of consciousness in the form of Concepts.

That such an analysis necessitates the recognition of happiness for each and all as the ultimate end to be achieved, cannot be gainsaid, but this is stated as though it implied a freedom of human action to choose either of two courses of action. Man is not a free agent. The bubble floating upon the river just as much chooses its course of travel upon the changing currents within the stream as man chooses his course of action.

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"People are less than flies, much less. They have a certain resistance, at least, but we are nothing but bubbles."

-- Satyricon, directed by Federico Fellini


I have said that in guiding our conduct, the Reason or Judgment referring to the concepts within the mind, chooses between two or more possible courses of action: yes, but that choice is not a matter of indifference with Nature! That CHOICE is not free; it is governed by laws just as quantitative and immutable as those of mechanics; the forces, whose effect that choice is, operate just as definitely as those of light; we choose as we please, but why do we please? Those conditions which cause this to be pleasurable, and that to be painful, lie entirely beyond the sphere of our choice. We cannot choose this or that to be pleasurable, if it is not so by its very nature and by our own nature. The mind is so constituted that it will act in response to the strongest influence and in the direction of the least resistance; and as to what shall constitute the strongest influence we have not the slightest control. Motives are weak or strong, not as we would often wish them to be, and wishing them to be different from what they are, would not make them so; and when motives affect our choice they become the determining causes of that choice — and choice cannot therefore be free. We cannot therefore select from the conditions possible to human action only those which have for their ultimate end the greatest happiness of each and all. We will select that course of action for which we have the strongest motives and inducements, whether that course of action shall or shall not result in the greatest happiness of each and all; and the question whether we will select the course which is best for all concerned depends not upon our freedom of choice, but upon the number and nature and strength of the motives and inducements we have to do so, and upon the number and nature and strength of the motives and inducements we have not to do otherwise — and this depends upon the accuracy of the Concepts we have in our memory, and upon the number of the concepts we have in our mind relating to the "things upon which we act, in the presence of which we act, and of the thing that does the acting."

The more we know about the Facts, Principles and Laws, of the things involved in the several courses of action; the more certain are we to act according to that method which will produce the greatest good to the greatest number — because the motives and inducements for doing so will increase with the extension of the number and accuracy of these concepts. Influences for good or bad, act like all other forces with an effectiveness proportional to the intensity of the force and to the time it acts.

As we increase the number of the concepts that point out the evil effects of certain actions, and the good effects of certain others we add to the causes which determine our choice, and it is therefore highly important that these concepts shall be accurate and extensive.

It has been the belief either expressed or implied in all the moral systems (not philosophies) of the world, and in all the methods of moral teaching, that we should be instructed to govern the choice of our courses of action — that by a matter of will we could select this or that course — in direct opposition to this belief, and entirely reversing the whole method and matter of teaching morality, it is stated by the G...K.., that we cannot govern our choice or our will, but that our concepts do govern our Choice and direct our will: that these Concepts which we have in our memory control and GUIDE OUR actions WITHOUT CONSULTING OUR WILL AND OUR CHOICE, and that we have nothing whatever to say about the matter. Instead of teaching our pupils in moral culture that they must choose this course of action and avoid that (a thing they cannot do unless they have sufficient motive for so doing) we should proceed to put into their minds a series of accurate Concepts of Nature, not just that particular portion of Nature concerned directly with the line of action which may be under consideration, but of Nature as a whole; for only by understanding the class to which a fact belongs, can we understand the fact; and we cannot understand the fact until we understand Nature as a Unit; and having acquired an accurate and extensive series of concepts the pupils cannot avoid acting in accordance with them, and in direct proportion as these concepts are accurate and extensive and vivid will the pupil act out the true Moral Law.

Every concept once formed in the mind becomes a tyrant; every concept becomes a master and a guide; every concept becomes an inexorable impulse; every concept becomes a stern and an absolute friend under all circumstances; every concept becomes a dim beacon light burning in the distance: but every concept IF IT BE NOT ACCURATE IN ITS COPY OF NATURE, at once becomes a snare, a pitfall and a delusion; every imperfect concept becomes our perpetual enemy and deceiver; every false concept becomes a malicious demon that haunts and misdirects all our choosings and actions; every false Fact becomes a veritable devil forever seeking our destruction.

By observation, and by the more highly developed and accurate kind of observation called experimentation and by that other form of observation called experience, we can rectify our concepts, we can eliminate the imperfect and false ones, and we can extend them in complexity and in number, and by no other way can we do this except by that systematic observation called Experiment. And these concepts once placed in the mind immediately become the arbiters of all our moral sentiments, and of all our sentiments of Right and Wrong — they become the impartial tribunal before which all our actions are judged — they become the creators of our choice and the absolute rulers of the human will! They become the ONLY possible standard, criterion, measure, and authority upon which to base, and by which to rectify our beliefs and philosophies, and by which to have our conduct guided. The ethical teaching of the G.N.K.R will consist in the systematic education of the senses and mental faculties, and the formation in the mind by experimental study of nature, a series of accurate and extensive concepts, and these concepts will guide the actions of the pupil in the proper direction, and just in proportion as they are comprehensive and accurate copies of Nature will they conform to the plan of the ALL of which they are a portion.

Re: A CALL TO THE "AWAKENED" FROM "THE UNSEEN AND UNKNOWN,"

PostPosted: Sat Sep 26, 2015 8:06 pm
by admin
Part 2 of 2

We may know what is wrong or right under any given circumstances and yet the motives may not be sufficiently numerous or adequately powerful to cause us to act out the knowledge thus acquired; until a series of pleasurable or painful experiences have emphasized this knowledge and rendered the concepts thereof very vivid, we may manifest an indifference about acting out the knowledge we have acquired, and the tendency to act out this knowledge even without the prompting of a series of vivid pleasurable or painful experiences, constitutes the moral disposition, and that culture which increases the tendency to act out the dictates of the reason and the judgment is called the Moral Culture. This is done by forming in the mind a concept of the weight and value of a deduction based upon carefully formed concepts, and thus causing it to become a motive of greater weight and an inducement of greater force. This requires a very accurate and extensive knowledge of Nature as a whole, and a personal contact with the objects and phenomena, in an experimental way, from which the concepts were obtained that led to the induction or the deduction of the concept pointing out a course of action, upon which perhaps the individual had no experience to enforce its adoption by choice or will, but which by virtue of this more extensive knowledge, becomes a more powerful motive than even those enforced by a considerable experience but not sanctioned by an equally well qualified induction or deduction.

It was stated on a previous page that even if we know what course of conduct would under all circumstances conduce to the greatest happiness of each and all, we would not therefore select at all times that which would be best for all concerned, but would select that line of conduct for which at the time we had the strongest motives and inducements for adopting, and the question whether we will select the course which is best for us and for all concerned, depends not upon our freedom of choice, (or how insufficient that would be) but upon the number, nature and strength of the motives and inducements we have prompting us to do so or not to do so, which depends upon the completeness of the concepts in the Memory, and the more accurate and extensive is the knowledge of ourselves and environment, the more frequently will we act according to that method which will produce the greatest happiness to the greatest number. This involves the conception of the directive tendency in Nature. This directive and designing action being the result of the Eternal Organism coextensive and coeternal with Matter and Motion, and being the necessary and inevitable and uncaused result of a condition of things that could not have been otherwise. This is not the teleogical conception of a designer independent of Nature and the universal entity; but the universal entity and the universal motion being uncaused, were eternally organized as a coherent Whole filling all Space; and this Infinite All, exhibiting as the result of motion Infinite consciousness, intellection, love, wisdom and WILL. The eternal uncaused entity filling all Space — the ENS — and the eternal uncaused motion of that entity — the MOVENS — and the eternal uncaused result (Consciousness and WILL) — the OM — were not the result of design or the product of creation or evolution.

In accordance with the great principle of the conservation of energy, and in accordance with the properties of matter and motion, and according to the definite laws of Force, this Infinite Will acts eternally in a physical and quantitative manner by actions and reactions within itself, and these actions and reactions are just as susceptible of mathematical formulation as are the laws of light, or of thought and intuition.

Life was evolved before any of the phenomena of living beings could be manifested, and the lower forms of life possessed none of those means of adaptation which we are apt to consider as the only means by which adaptation at present occurs, and the first chemical formation which was produced in the primitive seas, that possessed the qualities and characteristics of life, was not and could not have been the result of adaptation brought about by the interactions of the organism and its environments. Nature by its own mechanical actions — by virtue of the inherent properties of matter and the necessary action of the forces, produced after a long previous evolution the phenomena of living organisms. The directive process which brought about this life was the result of the condition of things; of the properties, qualities and limitations of matter and motion: a consequence of the fact that aggregations are the result of attractions between smaller aggregates, similar in kind and weight, according to the law of harmonic attraction and repulsion — producing a collection of similar kinds of matter in one place, bringing order out of heterogeneity, and heterogeneity out of homogeneity and a mutually interactive equilibrium throughout all space. The necessary tendency and the inevitable result called evolution is shown by the Laws to be the unavoidable result of the known properties of matter and motion.

If such an intelligence exists, it must be the result of a force, and if it is, it must be dependent upon the properties and laws of that force; to assume that an intelligence can exist without internal relations and the possibility of external reactions, is to assume that an immaterial nonentity, and that nothing can be capable of intellection, — an absurdity that only requires a statement to show the inherent fallacy.

The directive tendency in living organisms is shown in the manner by which they are governed in their choice, by their likes and dislikes. That is by that which produces pleasure and that which produces pain. These likes and dislikes are not the result of the volition of the organism, they are not under the control of the creature, yet it is evident that these influences have been prominent among the forces which brought about the present condition of evolved beings. They have produced adaptation and progress in the direction of more pleasure and greater capacity for pain — the susceptibility to increased suffering becoming an increasingly effective motive for more correct conduct.

When we act unconsciously and in response to that which is not "volitional"; when we act according to the promptings of the appetites and propensities which were formed for us by the Past over which we had no control; when we act in accordance with the weightiest motive which possesses its weightiness by virtue of properties and conditions over which we have no control; and when we act in accordance with the pressure of uncontrollable circumstances, it is clearly evident that we are promoting an evolution that is the result of conditions and actions beyond our control, and that the "directive" process is accomplished by Om. The method by which this adaptive reaction is brought about, is by the result of the interaction of forces upon matter each bearing quantitative relations of cause and effect, and those actions which are unconscious are not any more subject to the immutable laws of Nature than those which are the result of the so-called "volitional" action of the mind.

This directive action of Nature can be as conclusively inferred from the most complex and logical operations of the mind as from the unconscious actions and from the so-called instinctive actions. Reason itself is governed by laws as immutable as are the unconscious impulses and the actions of the propensities. If the conscious intellections guide us toward a higher and higher evolution, and if the action of the reason enables us to be guided in the more complex affairs of life so as to produce a more perfect adaptation to our surroundings, and if this adaptation is in the direction of evolution, then it can be shown that Nature has a directive action, for these propensities, impulses, reasonings, judgments, concepts, intellections and sambudhisms are part of Nature and are governed by the same forces that govern Nature. All actions of the mind are the result of effective causes, and are therefore governed by forces ulterior to the mind.

To assume that the mind acts as a free agent uninfluenced by forces over which we have no control; to aver that the mental process which directs all our actions is not controlled by adequate forces, is to abandon the idea of the inevitable sequence of cause and effect. If all mental operations are the result of efficient causes, then it follows that all the processes by which the Concepts are utilized in the direction of conduct, are governed by laws as immutable as that of gravitation. The fact that we are conscious of any mental operation does not take it out of the sphere of efficient causation, any more than does consciousness of a bodily function remove it from the domain of Law. The concepts of the mind, it will be admitted, are not matters subject to our will, or changeable at our pleasure, and upon them depends all operations of the mind; and as the result of their action (aided by the forces over which we have no control) has been the production of a more perfect adaptation and an increasing pleasure, it follows that it is perfectly safe to trust to the guidance of our concepts, for they are directive: we are compelled to trust them for without them the mind could not exist; the wisest thing we can do is to take advantage of the tendency this knowledge produces within us, and by frequent repetition of the thought, create an impulse sufficiently strong to cause us to rectify our concepts and extend them farther over the domain of Nature, for only by that means will our conduct be more correctly guided.

If this concept of the value of correct concepts has been made sufficiently vivid to you by the explanations in this paper, you will be impelled by a weighty motive to systematically study Nature, by repeated observation and experiment, in order that the more accurate Concepts thus acquired will guide you better than you have been guided in the Past. Om, has by the means of forces beyond my control produced in me the idea, and Nature has created in me a motive sufficiently strong to compel me to enunciate that which so powerfully stirs me, and You, upon hearing it, will be influenced by it to the extent of your understanding, and it will slowly influence you to take a more accurate observation of Nature, and you will also influence others to do the same — and this is one of the methods Nature uses to "direct" the evolution of life. A new concept once formed in the mind becomes from that time on a persistent adviser, a loving counsellor, and an ever present guide.

All creatures seek enjoyment, and gratification, and pleasure; all creatures avoid or try to avoid pain: pain and pleasure increase as the complexity of the organism increases — if the adaptation is imperfect there will be more pain, and if the adaptation is perfect there will be more pleasure — pleasures become more and more perfect as evolution advances, if it were not so the reverse of evolution would be the result. It can be shown that the consequences of a wrong act affect all creatures in that environment.

These adaptations which are made by the actions of the unconscious elements in Nature, and by the actions of the unconscious elements in mind, are the results of inherited qualities and tendencies and relate chiefly to the perpetuation of the species, and do not perform the directive action of the higher faculties in enabling the individual to accomplish an adaptation to a new condition of the environment. The appetites and propensities; these sensations and emotions; these cravings and longings; these antipathies and dislikes, are as important as any of the rest. The sexual passions serve to maintain the perpetuation of the species, which without the strong instinctive cravings of the sexual impulses might become extinct. These powerful impulses subserve a different end than those which are the outgrowth of the concepts; the latter enable us to have our conduct regulated in a manner that will produce adaptation to new or sudden changes in our environment. An inherited tendency cannot do this: the change precedes the adaptation or the need of it, and the intuitions or the conscience cannot develop a sentiment about the matter until the changed conditions have been encountered and completely or partly overcome.

The immediate excitant of all "volitional action" is the enjoyment of pleasure or the avoidance of pain: but the question of Optimism and Pessimism can in no wise affect the general one of the ultimate rightfulness and wrongfulness of actions with reference to the continuance or discontinuance of individual or race life. The argument of Spencer, that pleasurable acts are life-promoting and painful acts are life-destroying, and that in accordance with the predominance of the pleasurable acts the evolution of life has taken place — the predominance of the painful experiences would have produced the opposite result of evolution, viz: devolution or retrogression. Life is worth living "in proportion as the sum of its experiences are more pleasurable than painful," and the tendency of evolution is the production of creatures capable of enjoying more and more happiness, as the adaptation becomes more perfect. But suppose that the downward course of evolution has once been reached by any given species, and that the sum of experiences were more painful than pleasureable, would not a theory of race extinction be the proper one? Perhaps in the light of the remote future it were better to extinguish all life? Admit, for the sake of the argument, the sum of the experiences were more undesirable than desirable, would universal extinction then be the wisest course of action? It matters not how we may theorize about the matter — the thing that we will do lies not in our hands: the predominant motives which will after all determine our actions are formed by nature and these are formed according to the directive tendency of evolution, and work out the continuance of life in the species as long as the sum of pleasurable experiences exceed the painful ones: when the reverse condition of things is brought about in the environments, the race becomes extinct. By no possibility could THE LIFE in the universe be extinguished.

By no possibility could life be exterminated from the face of the earth, and by no possibility could thinking beings be exterminated. If all the living things in the entire domain of Space were at this moment annihilated, the immutable forces of Nature would again produce the same condition of things — would again evolve the multitudinous genera of plants and animals; and a doctrine of Pessimism would only end, defeating its own purposes — viz: — the production of less misery; for it would keep the earth filled with creatures in the lower scale of evolution, in the more imperfect adaptation to their surroundings than was attained by the thinking species which brought about the universal destruction. These creatures would have to ascend the scale of slow evolution, and when once again arrived at the philosophical abilities of Spencer — a stage in which the powers and means and motives for more perfect adaptation are increasing in a geometrical ratio — would again concoct a practical Pessimism, resulting in the universal destruction of those species which had nearly attained the Nirvana of contented and happy adaptation to their environments. Optimism is the compulsory belief of the universe. Life must be accepted as an inexorable Fact. Suicide runs counter to the direction of Nature. If life as it now exists is not worth living, then it is our opportunity to make it so.

The old question of the nature of truth — the eternal riddle of the Sphinx — must be decided by methods other than that of dialectical discussions concerning the relative truth of Conceptualism and Nominalism. We need not fear that we are liable to choose the wrong more frequently than the right, as a race, — we need not fear but that the forces that brought life up from inorganic matter to the capacity of consciousness, and from that, to the reasoning and deductive abilities of modern speculators — that the forces which of their own accord have produced all the present phenomena of life, mind and society, are going to forsake us from this time on. There came a time when tools and instruments first added to the progress of the race — a time when fire was first used, and a time when language first made it possible to transmit to descendants the memories and knowledge of the past; and these acquirements slowly made by the human race are not the only ones in store! What a vast change in the conditions of the race must have been brought about by the ability to use tools, make fires, and hold intelligent conversation! Tools and language — what have they not done for the human race? Do not these two words sum up the instruments of progress from animals to man? Do they not make possible all art and philosophy? What will be the third gift by nature to man, of a kind at all comparable to these two? Are there not evidences about us, pointing out in what direction this third gift will be found?

The directive tendency of the unconscious in guiding us toward a higher evolution can only be made more efficient by bringing about within ourselves and our environments, a more perfect reciprocation — by making ourselves more susceptible to the influences of these unconscious tendencies — a matter that will belong to the culture. The conscious action of the mind operates through the reason and the judgment, by means of the concepts in the mind. Sense impressions often control our actions before we have had time to reason about the matter — a sort of reflex action. The larger the amount of such action in an organism — the more numerous the mental traits which have become unconscious (no longer voluntary), the more highly developed will the organism be. The more the consciousness affects the hitherto involuntary actions of the organism, the more highly developed will be that creature.

The object has not been to give in this paper a statement of the Golden Law of Morals; but to indicate in what direction it will be found, and of what nature it will be. The Law will not receive definite expression until by means of the Hierarchy the necessary correct and extensive concepts have been acquired. Sufficient has herein been said, if understood, to demonstrate the need of such a law, and to show its nature and comprehensiveness, and to point out the ONLY way by which it can be obtained.

There can be no question that any theory of Conduct involving a belief in the free-agency of the mind is erroneous, and cannot be applied to the betterment of the morality of the human species. As long as we think that conduct is merely a matter of free choice, and that a choice the reverse of good is the result of an evil disposition — so long as we believe that all that is necessary to make men good is to tell them what is wrong and right and they will choose accordingly, or that an immoral disposition is capable of being suddenly transformed into a moral one, or that it depends upon the training the moral sentiments have received — so long as such opinions are held, it will be impossible to properly bring about the conditions which will produce correct conduct — or to systemize moral training, or even to point out in what such training consists. In the maintenance of life — in the gratification of the appetites or passions — in avoiding dangers — in performing bodily functions — all such actions become more perfectly adapted to the production of happiness, in proportion as the organism has a more perfect and extensive knowledge of itself and its surroundings. The bird suddenly introduced into new surroundings flies against a telegraph wire, or against a windowpane, and through ignorance of its surroundings, either kills or cripples itself. Or dying from thirst, it flies across the desert towards a mirage which seems nearer than the distant stream which it might have reached, and like many highly organized men under exactly the same circumstances, succumbs to its lack of knowledge of its surroundings. A knowledge of its surroundings could have been obtained in no other way than by acquiring concepts, from simple Perceptions and Sensations.

Without the senses the mind could have no concepts. Without the senses the mind could not possess consciousness. Without the senses therefore the mind could have no memory — for there would be nothing to remember. Without the senses the mind could not have developed. Without Consciousness and Concepts the mind could exercise neither reason nor judgment, and could not conceive of axioms, or picture them in thought. Neither induction nor deduction would be possible. The sympathetic emotional states produced within the mind by the action of sambudhism could awaken no response, unless there had been a previous emotional experience of some kind (not necessarily intense or comprehensive) to produce in the mind concepts of such feelings. Just so it would be impossible for sambudhism to reproduce in the mind, those emotional and mental states combined, which have been called intuitions, instinct, etc., brought about by heredity, not in the transmission of, ideas or memories, but in the transmission of a structure capable of sympathetically responding to those pitches of etherisim which lie at the causative basis of thought. Until there has been a concept of conscious pain or pleasure — until there has been a feeling of hunger recognized by the corresponding sense, there can be no memory of a concept of craving; and the stimulation of the masticatory apparatus produced by this hunger, will not bring about the act of nursing until there has been such a concept, for the action of the sambudhism to produce an excitation of the will.

The senses are not the guides — for they are easily subject to Maya (illusions), but the concepts formed by their aid are more accurate than their sensual presentations, because, by a series of related observations, and by concepts formed deductively and inductively, it has been found wherein their inaccuracies exist. The end of the stick in the water is found to be not bent, by a series of more accurate observations, i.e, by a series of more accurate concepts. The material for the rectification of the concepts must always be inductively and deductively derived from other concepts, and thus it appears that concepts rectify each other by the aid of the operations of intellection. Mind grows and develops in the act of accumulating more concepts. Brains cannot exhibit functions either in intellection or sambudhism, until the organs have been developed for their manifestation, and therefore it appears that hereditary structural modifications are differently influenced by the operations of the Universal Sensorium, or at least by different pitches of the same force, in unison with the special developments transmitted.

Until there has developed a mind, Ethics cannot come into play in the guidance of conduct. The mind can in no way guide the individual until it has acquired concepts of itself and of Nature. And the adaptation of means to ends, which ethical conduct implies, can take place only by means of the concepts. Theories and philosophies and rules of guidance, all depend upon the accuracy of these concepts for their own correctness. The fundamental duty of any creature — that duty the performance of which must precede all others — and upon which the correctness of all others depends — that duty which makes other duties possible, IS THE ACQUIREMENT OF CORRECT CONCEPTS OF SELF, AND ENVIRONMENT. This is a Rule that will change as the creature changes and as the environment changes. It will be a perpetual revelation. There is a constant change in the environment of man — political and social; customs are perpetually undergoing protean transformations, — foods and climate are never stable for any great length of time, — and there must be a continual source of truth — and that source is the augmentation and rectification of concepts. There can be no other source. This study of Nature gives two simultaneous results: — more knowledge, and MORE MIND. This is the concrete form of the Golden Law of Morals; by its method all moral theories of the Past were formed, and by its method all the theories of the Future will be formed; and as the concepts in the minds of the philosophers become more exact and more extensive, the theories of duty will become truer and better — but this concrete expression embraces the underlying duty of duties, and contains the elements of eternal adaptation suitable to all creatures, to all worlds, and to all times. It gives to all reasoning creatures the only possible guide to Truth, and is in itself the highest truth possible to any development. These Concepts are the Eternal Moral Guides; the unimpeachable Oracles; the ONLY Criterion of Right and Wrong. Nature teaches and guides her children by means of these Concepts: this Teacher is the true Savior of mankind — omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent.

Having acquired all necessary Concepts, and having also a definite knowledge of all that constitutes correct adaptation, there remains another condition to be noticed, viz: the judgment from a sufficient number of Concepts may have correctly decided the proper course of action and yet, through indifference, carelessness or laziness, or through lack of imaginative power in depicting the future consequences of such acts, we are guilty of either commission or omission, and consequently suffer the consequences, either immediate or remote. Perhaps we may have had a distinct knowledge of the consequences and may yet prefer the temporary gratification and ease, to future pleasure which we might have enjoyed if the duty had not been neglected; but no matter what the cause may be, the fact is, that the performance of duty is not always commensurate with the knowledge of the subject, herein lies the Moral Disposition. The tendency to act out the directions of the concepts, or rather the dictates of the Judgment derived from the concepts, constitutes the Moral Disposition; while the tendency to neglect such promptings, is the immoral disposition.

The inherited or acquired tendency to act out the promptings of the mind, in accordance with that which is believed to be the best, constitutes Morality. That which we believe to be right is that which we will always do if we have the moral disposition. Belief depends for its truth upon the accuracy and the extent of our knowledge of Nature. In accordance with this belief there develops a sentiment called Conscience, which becomes a powerful impulse in the direction of our actions, and it is reliable only to the extent that the knowledge upon which it was based is reliable.

The training of the Moral disposition can be accomplished by three methods: First, through the Intellections: Second, through Sambudhism: Third, through Psychism.

The cultivation of the habit of acting according to the dictates of reason must be the result of a large experience, but the more that experience has been systemized, the more effective will it prove. It involves the careful study of the sequences of acts from the biological standpoint, the ability to trace to their sources the causes of all personal pain and sorrow, and the consequent ability to predict the result of all acts. In this course of instruction animals and neighbors and self become the objects for a series of object lessons. The Moral Disposition must be founded upon an experimental knowledge of the immutability of natural laws — and upon their comprehensiveness: including within the province of the forces all phenomena — that a result is inevitable and inexorable. The principle of the conservation of energy, and that of the motion of all matter in the direction of the least resistance, and that of the vibratory transformation of the Forces in the production of evolution, lies at the bottom of all conceptions of Moral Duty. To base a standard of right and wrong upon that which cannot be such a standard is to vitiate all reasoning upon the subject — and to call that a crime which is not a crime, is to destroy the confidence of the child (for it is in youth when impressions are vivid and lasting that moral culture should commence) in the immutability of nature; for it will soon be observed that evil consequences do not always flow from a so-called evil act, either immediately or remotely, and one such instance is enough to disprove a law. Show a scientist a single instance of perpetual motion — of the production of energy from nothing, and he will immediately abandon all belief in that law which is one of the crowning glories of the present century — the principle of the Persistence of Energy — and show a child a single instance wherein the violation of what is called a moral law is not followed by evil consequences, and he will, without a knowledge of logic, deduce the fact that right and wrong do not, according to the system of his instructor, produce certain consequences. One contradictory fact will overthrow any theory — and an evil result produced by a supposed moral act, will destroy all complete confidence in the law, which requires that act to be called moral. Its teachings, at first lose all force in guiding actions of the child, and then the child is left without a knowledge of what should be a criterion of conduct. Nature inevitably follows every act with its natural result. A wrong act is followed by consequences peculiar to that act, and this result never fails to follow; but when we invade the mind of a child with a belief that certain things are crimes when they are not, or that certain things are necessary to happiness, when they can in no way affect it, is asking the mind to admit, after experience to the contrary, that there is an inevitable relation between cause and effect. To call a thing wrong, that we cannot understand why it is so, is to take away nearly all the guiding weight of such knowledge. A wrong act will be followed by consequences, and prayer or entreaty cannot change or avert it; the supposition that it can, weakens the guiding power of correct knowledge, and takes the attention away from that which could tend to alleviate the effect. An artificial standard of right and a list of artificial wrongs, perverts the moral integrity and poisons the moral disposition of the child. Nature never fails to inflict the results of a mistake, and never fails to reward a good act by the good consequences which inevitably follow such an act, and the fundamental idea of causation involves as its ground work the immutability of the relation between cause and effect — and the idea that this immutability cannot change in any other possible condition of things. This fundamental Moral law must include the same idea of immutable causation.

An experience must be given the child in which there are no variations from the inevitable sequence of cause and effect. The child must acquire a complete confidence in the integrity of Nature, and this he can only do experimentally, — a knowledge that every effect must have an efficient cause cannot be taught as a didactic fact, the reason why must be known, and the modus operandi seen. Ignorance excuses no one from the consequences of an act (the strongest inducement for learning about our surroundings; but not the best inducement) — rather have a child perform duty with a view toward the attainment of pleasurable results than with the view of avoiding bad results.

Teaching others improves our surroundings. In making society better and kinder we are adapting our environments to ourselves. The greatest crime is that which distorts our knowledge of Nature; — it is the unpardonable sin to falsify a fact. It is very wicked to destroy any of the senses. Sickness is a grievous punishment for wrong actions; not only do we suffer the pain and attendant danger, but we lose that development which we otherwise might have had during that time.

Immorality is more often a disease than a lack of Knowledge — and the determination of the causes, symptoms, and cure of such diseases, will constitute an important work of the Culture.

Attention must again be called to the fact that there has not herein been made an attempt to express the Golden Law of Morals, or to outline the curriculum of Moral Training, or to even hint at what is meant by the Culture of PANTOGNOMOS. An idea has been given of the Moral Law in its most concrete form, and what is meant by the moral disposition — and that is all. The object is to outline an Ethical System upon the basis that Mental Concepts lie at the basis of all thought, and that the extension of these concepts lies at the basis of a complete knowledge of anything, and of a knowledge of All that Is. That heredity of structure makes possible, by means of sambudhism, all that is called instinct and intuition — but that these faculties depend for their presentation and meaning upon the concepts in the mind. An ethical system based upon a knowledge of the fact that the will is not free, — and that we cannot guide our conduct, but that we must take advantage of those conditions which will cause our actions to be more correctly guided. That there is a training for the moral disposition as well as for the musical disposition, — that there is a training for the integrity as well as for the reliability of memory, and that this training will consist in the application of easily ascertainable rules and laws that cannot be doubted.

The application of the forces for the production and maintenance of healthful mental conditions, will directly contribute to the production of moral integrity. A knowledge of the action of the forces in producing the phenomena of mind, when once all the data have been experimentally determined, will permit of the application to the needs of the mind and morals, a system of practice, that will as effectually revolutionize its present status as did the use of tools and language revolutionize the condition of the early mammalia.

Systems of moral philosophy have been devised with the organs of moral function left out, and in complete ignorance of the forces concerned in the production of mental phenomena — that such systems could not have determined a fundamental law is not to be wondered at — the wonder is, that so much has been accomplished with the mind, while we were in complete ignorance of the forces concerned in its maintenance and operation. Mind is the result of Force, and being such, must be able to reproduce in another form the amount of energy required to cause the effect called intellection. That such an effect is an oscillatory or a vibratory motion within the nucleoli of the brain, is demonstrable; — and that such oscillations or vibrations could not take place without producing in the etheric mediate, transmissive waves, is also demonstrable; and that such waves, produce upon like aggregates in other brains, a similar mental and emotional condition, is also demonstrable; and that the pitch of these vibrations is a force in which all minds are constantly immersed. Every thought represents transformed forces, — every moral impulse is equal to a given amount of heat or electricity, — and every joy and every pain is the result of mechanical energy. The will acts, because it is acted upon, with an equivalent amount of energy to that which it represents in return; we do not will, the forces will for us; we do not choose, the forces choose for us; and we do not think, the forces think for us and make us conscious, and if we appreciate and understand that our concepts guide our action, we will at once seek a more thorough knowledge of Nature. The concept that such knowledge is of infinite value will be the impulse causing us to study Nature, — and this impulse will operate with a power in proportion to the intensity of our power of thinking, and in proportion to the development of our moral disposition: and desiring better environments we will teach this truth to others knowing that it will also cause them to study Nature and thus better themselves, and the idea once started, it will continue to work out the directive course of the Infinite All — for it is one of the methods used by Nature in bringing about a higher evolution. This implies that Nature is filled with an intelligent purpose — at any rate, the directive action of the forces are the result of conditions capable of producing intelligence. Such an intelligence would be incapable of deriving motion from nothing, and if it derived motion from the universe it must depend upon those forces for its intelligence: — Such an intelligence would be incapable of destroying or of creating a single ultimate particle of which it is composed, or of adding to or of taking from the universe any of its present energy, and hence it appears that such an intelligence would be governed by laws and properties of motion and matter, and governed in its thought by the same anxious and numerical principles — the forces must act in the same manner as they do, and follow the same laws, and therefore produce the same result as if created by a being independent of Nature, — and this intelligence must itself be the result of order, harmony and transformation, brought about by the condition of things, and it could not have been otherwise.

To place the purpose, anterior to the cause of that purpose, is to abandon the idea of causation. To assume that the causation tendency in Nature is intelligent, is to say that the directive tendency directs itself. To say that it is an intelligence independent of Nature, must involve the supposition that it is incapable of action and reaction upon nature, and that it does so without inherent energy and without consuming energy.

If it has action or reaction upon Nature, it must have the relation of cause and effect of a quantitative Nature. To those who are in need of a temporary support while mastering the new conception and while discontinuing their belief in the anthropomorphic ideas of God; and to the masses who cannot attain the highest reaches of the logical faculty without a long system of preparatory culture; and to all those who still retain lingering remains of a former fetichism, it may be well to supply their former belief temporarily with the conception that Space is filled with a vast coherent aggregation of matter of a dual nature, consisting of an atomic organism of galaxies floating in an atomolic organism of ether globes, and that it is thus analogous to those living organisms which we know to be conscious and intelligent, and that this Infinite Organism has the power of renewing itself continually. That, as far as we know, intelligence increases with the complexity of the structure, and that this Infinite Whole that fills all space is infinitely complex compared with any living organism, and must therefore be infinitely intelligent. That as a Whole it produces evolution and order and this shows direction — which is in keeping with the assumption of Personal Theism apart from Nature. This Infinite All is Omnipresent, Omnipotent, Omniscient — the first and the last — the creator of worlds, and all they contain, and in every respect the giver of every good. This more rational conception based upon natural principles, and for a thorough comprehension of which there will be required a careful study and a thorough knowledge of all the Facts, Principles and Laws of Nature, will induce people to make such a study without fear of losing too much of their tendency to fetichism at once, and by virtue of such an unimpeded study of phenomena, their logical faculties will develop, and their minds will acquire confidence and knowledge based upon incontrovertible experience; and then it will be possible to show that this Infinite Organism, of a dual structure, is simply the Body and Soul of which Om is the Spirit, and that its directive effect upon the universe is the result of the very properties of Matter and Motion, and that by the very nature of intelligence it must act in accordance with definite Laws. Only when Men have an experimental familiarity with the phenomena of Nature, and with the nature and laws of force, can the main laws of science become certain to them — and until they are absolutely certain of the principal contents of science, they cannot freely admit principles with which they are comparatively unacquainted, to replace that in which the world so long believed. When once these concepts and principles have become the most certain of all truths, then is the time to apply them to the logical induction of the Purposive action of the universe. The power that governs the universe is one incapable of caprice or mistake, it is incapable of Right or Wrong in the usual sense; it is as inexorable and as unchangeable as a mathematical relation — as Eternal as Duration, and as Infinite as Space! Then will come the time to develop the majestic conception of the Infinite Will and of Om, as taught in the Mahopanishada.

Knowledge constitutes the What; Science the How; and Philosophy the Why. The Why must be comprehended before a comprehensive Moral philosophy is possible. If we knew all the What, the How would be plain; if we understood thoroughly the How, the Why would appear. Space can have no why — the Entity within Space can have no why: they must have been beginningless and uncaused, and if uncaused how can there be a why? There can be an Eternal Cause but absolutely no First Cause. Space, Matter, and Motion, must have been uncaused — think of this long enough and you will see for yourself why, better than words can explain. The history of science will be the history of true philosophy — the history of dialectics and speculations is quite another matter. Plausibility is no argument of the truth of a proposition. From a false major premise there can be developed a perfectly logical system of error. It has been said that England lost her liberties through a long chain of right reasoning from wrong principles. If there is an ultimate why to the universe it lies outside of the limits of the thinkable. Parallel lines will not meet however far they may be produced why? — Can you conceive it to have been otherwise? Would they be parallel if it were otherwise? Why was there anything else except Space? Could there have been a why to this in absence of purposeless action? Could there have been a purpose if there had been nothing except Space? To have been a purpose there must have been a time when it was not — but with reference to the entity in space this could not have been. There could therefore have been no why to the existence of the All.

Humanity may be likened to a great ship freighted with the lives and the destinies of human beings. We find ourselves on the ship not knowing from whence we came nor whither we are going. One class of men are studying the ship and its operations, and spend their time in improving its machinery and in making the voyage a pleasurable one. They are satisfied with the what and the how. There is another class that is chiefly concerned in learning where the harbor lies to which we are sailing? They accept the fact of existence and are little concerned with the how, they devote all their energies to the whither. There is another class trying to find out the Why of all this trouble and stir; they admit the what, and the how, and think they understand the whither, but they would like to know the purpose of all this ceaseless creation, transformation, and dissolution: and that purpose has been variously interpreted. One of the objects is correctly expressed according to the belief of the G.N.K.R in the statement of Department No. 1 of the G.....R. But if axioms have any foundation in truth, and if the mind as at present constituted is capable of drawing conclusions, then it is certain that the Why of the Existence of ENS, MOVENS, and OM cannot be known.

There can be no Why. But there can be a purpose! To those who have a fair share of correct concepts within their minds, and who calmly think thereon for a sufficient length of time, this will all be plain.

What is the object of life? — The wise will understand: it is an opportunity!

What is the purpose of life? — The wise will understand: it is a fate!

If there is no choice can there be duty? And can there be right and wrong? Do not creatures cling to pleasure-producing acts as they cling to the warm sunshine on a cold day? Is it their duty to remain in the sunshine and keep from freezing, rather than go off in the cold shade where the wind sweeps and the ice forms? Do we not avoid evil as the rotifera avoid acid-tinctured water? The external forces set up an internal process of repulsion. Consciousness enables us to detect improper adjustments, memory to collect experiences, reason to organize, previse and deduce; and are not these adaptive processes, forces over which we have no control? And has not the mind had produced within it a recognition that certain influences produce better adaptations than others, and have we not within us a power of reaction upon the environment in accordance with the nature of these recognitions? Has not Nature produced in us a mind, and in that mind, the recognition of the fact that Concepts are our only guides, and will we not therefore accurately ascertain and extend our concepts; and will we not cling to this knowledge as the notochord (amphioxus) clings to the mud which protects and feeds it?

What caused all the mistaken theories of the Past? Incorrect Concepts. What has caused us all our mistakes? Incorrect or incomplete Concepts! How shall we get correct Concepts? — Experimentally studying Nature.

At an early stage of gestation the brain of a child is a blank; bearing within itself the countless modifications of Heredity, — and these transmitted physical peculiarities are capable of sympathetically responding to Etheric influences of the same kind as those to which the mind organs of its ancestors responded, and thus through the action of Sambudhism is produced those mental and emotional conditions upon which depends the so-called instinctive and intuitive actions, whose nature and influence is interpretable only by means of the Concepts developed by the Sensations and Perceptions within the mind of the creature: — concepts varying in kind and degree with the peculiar development of that creature's sense-organs, and with the peculiar structural formation of the brain and nervous system.

The first sensation experienced by an evolving creature is the first revelation made by Nature to that organism, and the memory of that sensation is the first concept — the Unit of that wondrous superstructure called Intellect. Until there has been developed either a sensation of Pain or of Pleasure, until there exists the cravings or the enjoyments of an appetite, consciousness cannot dwell within the organism — and until that function has manifested itself there can be no mental condition capable of being excited by Sambudhism: the brain may indeed sympathetically respond, but until there exists in Consciousness, experiences or concepts, this responsive action can have no recognizable meaning — can relate to no experience or to no object within the domain of the individual consciousness. These Concepts begin to be formed in utero; and at birth the sensations of touch, hunger, thirst, fatigue, heat and cold, pleasure and pain, have already opened to the mind of a child the wondrous volume of Consciousness and Existence. And then, Sight reveals the myriad forms of Nature and of Art — the picturesque, the lovely and sublime; and throws upon the canvas of the brain the disposition, symmetry, shape and color of all that lies exterior to the Self; and Hearing, that gives us all there is of word and speech, of melody, tone, and accents sweet from those we loved, when sorrows first were soothed by sympathy and song. And then those wondrous phantoms of the mind — those Ghosts of all the things which Consciousness has felt, smelled or tasted, heard or seen, are conjured from the Past by the weird necromanncy of Memory; and by Reason marshalled into ranks, and groups and files, and before that great Tribunal where Judgment hears the Pro and Con — where evidence is taken of all the outer world and its relations to the Kingdom of the mind (which is one of the smaller municipalities of the great Kingdom of Nature), and when decision is rendered by the concensus of the Faculties and Concepts, the decree is left to the care of the Will, and if that be weak, negligent or diseased, the organism suffers injury or becomes immoral. If these spectres give false testimony of the Non-Ego — if they do not correctly represent the objects from which they were derived, they become not only dangerous deceivers, but the mind is truly obsessed by malicious devils; and they must be exorcised and cast out by the sacred ceremonies of Observation and Experiment, before the Ego can obtain reliable information from the Non-ego for the safe guidance of the organism.

Re: A CALL TO THE "AWAKENED" FROM "THE UNSEEN AND UNKNOWN,"

PostPosted: Sat Sep 26, 2015 8:07 pm
by admin
Part 1 of 2

SPECIAL MESSAGE From the "Interior of the Inmost," OF G.....R Department No. 1, UNDER ADHY-APAKA.

Kind Reader, if you have fully conquered the evils, and have gained the right desires, and are desirous of assisting others in doing so, through the medium of an organization operating by concerted and systemized action; and if you feel interested in the organization of a College wherein such teaching and training can be properly given, in the midst of proper social surroundings and congenial environments: and if you feel that such a community would promote not only the higher life of the individuals composing it, but also aid in the general elevation of humanity; then you are respectfully invited to associate your efforts with ours in whatever way may be dictated by the promptings of your Inmost.

You are doubtless doing the world a great good by your own efforts, and you have your own sphere of special use, and your own objects in view; but do you not believe that you can accomplish more by the organized effort and the associated will power of a body of people working to the same end? If you have banished from your life the evils and the attendant consequences, do you not think you can attain a higher soul growth and a more perfect mental action, in a place where most of your energy will not be expended in maintaining your serenity against adverse circumstances and influences? Will not your intuitions have a more perfect presentation to your mind in a community where the adverse psychisms are eliminated? Will not your soul attain a more healthful growth in a place where there are no moral infections, and no atomolic contagions? Those indistinct ideas which have a birth within your own mind, through the action of the forces coming to you from other minds (called Sammadhi), will attain a greater precision and continuity if you are placed in the midst of minds harmonious with your own. Those higher emotional and mental states produced upon your own mind by the action, not of other minds upon the earth, but of those intelligences inhabiting the ether globe in which this system of galaxies is floating (called Sambudhism), will be more intense and definite, if your nervous system is not constantly disturbed by discordant sonities, sounds, and sonisms; and this high mental state will acquire definite presentation in thought, if the brain is not constantly invaded by the adverse sympathetic action of neighboring minds and psychisms, and if the vibratory influence acting upon your atomolic brain is not constantly antagonized by the discordant action of improper thermism, radiant energy, and chemism.

If the energy of your body is not wasted in eliminating the drug effects of the impurities found in all drinking waters, and if the tissues are not hardened by the deposition of these solid materials preventing osmosis and endosmosis of the liquids of the system, will there not then be more energy to spare for the more important functions concerned in organic involution? The air in our cities is loaded with carbonic monoxide and dioxide, coming from thousands of stoves, furnaces, lamps, and human lungs; and the inhalation of this poison lowers the vitality of the system, benumbs the mind and thickens the blood. Its effect is not only the lowering of all the vital energies, but it deadens all those sensibilities upon which so much of the finer concepts depend — concepts required for the interpretation of the intuitions and sambudhisms. But the air is loaded with vapors more poisonous than carbonic gas, it holds in diffusion all those exhalations of a gaseous nature coming from every pore of diseased people, and from every breath they exhale. These produce moral infection and soul contagion. The loaded air of a city, screens by selective absorption from the sun's rays, those which are most needed for the higher kinds of mental action and nerve health; and its humidity constantly discharges from the body its electro-static potential, requiring a waste of energy to maintain a sufficient electro-static charge, for the processes of intellection in connection with sambudhism, and for the more important purpose of warding off the influences of disembodied intelligences.

Have you ever estimated how much of your strength is wasted every day by the above-mentioned conditions? If you are so situated that you cannot enter a city permanently, wherein those conditions are obviated, are you not interested in aiding the building of such a city for the good of others? The local magnetic intensity of various portions of the earth is of such a character as to be discordant to the action of the higher sambudhistic processes; and what is worse, this local magnetism is of such a variable character, that one no sooner adapts this mental condition to the requirements, than it changes. The Laws demonstrate that the overtones of the pitches of magnetism, directly affect sambudhism and mental serenity; and that to any given class of people, there is one proper pitch of Magnetism and Induction favorable to the production of rapport with the collective intelligences of this ether globe. Do you not think that if by means of accurate instruments this magnetic condition can be measured and maintained, that it will be conducive to important results in the acquisition of knowledge and spiritual growth?

Have you studied the effects of color upon your mental condition? Inharmonious colors are often more deleterious to the sensitive, than even imperfect ventilation. There is a science of color, of direct value in therapeutics and hygiene; but the more important colors, from the standpoint of mental pathology, are not visible to the eye, and the sanitary regulation of the non-luminous rays, will be an important feature in the prospective College Esoteric. Nothing more directly affects the mental and moral growth than proper foods. All stages of imperfect assimilation directly influence the mental and emotional temperament. Indigestion not only wastes energy already supplied by the system and fails to supply the additional force needed, but it builds up a bodily structure out of imperfectly organized cells. Many of the nutriments required by the system in carrying on the processes of thought, are not furnished by the foods in common use. The odors and flavors are often more valuable nutrients to the nervous system, than the coarser elements of the foods. The materials of which the body is built should be pure and capable of easy assimilation, and should be incapable of conveying into the system the elements of infectious diseases. Animal foods contain important elements not readily procurable from other sources, but to depend upon animals is to run the risk of eating meats filled with disease. It is known for instance that about four per cent of all cattle have tuberculosis. Is it desirable to infect our system with the debris deposited within those tissues? Are not all organisms liable to be diseased? Have not all living things more or less atomic and atomolic karma? Is it not an important fact that all animal foods can be grown from natural products without the disease incident to the organization of cells into tissues? Department No. 1 and the Esoteric College have in their possession a secret by which they will be enabled to prepare all the animal foods and all possible animal nutrients by a direct process of growth — utilizing air, water and sunshine without degenerating the purity of the substance, by its organization into organs and tissues capable of being diseased; and without being required to kill any living thing. The ethical value of this fact is of prime importance to all those who desire to make the covenant with all created existence. The murdering of animals in order that we may eat them is becoming morally repulsive to all those who are trying to live the higher life, and shocks the finer senses of all those who are trying to develop the intuitions. To those who are trying to make attainments, it is necessary to avoid the killing of any living thing; and to avoid eating the karma of animals. All vegetable products are made by the same general process, without agriculture, and the production of the foods required by the Association will be limited to the use of the Association. The first necessary condition to those who are trying to acquire certain stages of growth is the time for rest and meditation; and that time spent in acquiring food and shelter can be spent in other pursuits. It is known that these foods cannot be grown except under certain conditions; and that their production will be limited to those who would otherwise be busy did they not have to perpetually labor for their sustenance.

The question of proper foods is one of the very greatest importance, and the Department has also methods of raising all kinds of vegetable foods by horticultural processes upon an improved plan capable of developing within them all the elements needed by the system under all circumstances, and for the protean requirements of the many classes of minds that will be brought together when "the people shall be called up into the Mountain." Many people starve certain organs of the mind and body because their accustomed diet contains none of those special elements needed by those functions which are most constantly used by them in carrying on their particular line of work or of thought. Different mental conditions require different foods; and all these foods must be supplied in proper quantity to those who are expecting to reach certain conditions. Do you not think that in a community where there are no people filled with the infection of animals, and where the people eat nothing impure and improper, that you will more easily and more perfectly maintain the conditions you desire for the perfection of your own special line of thought and action? Will not your sambudhism be more perfect when there are no interfering magnetic conditions produced by the action of innumerable telegraph, telephone, and electric light wires, placed in improper positions, and running in improper directions? Will not properly constructed houses aid you in the healthier and higher living? Angry, malicious, revengeful, and passionate people give off from their bodies a vapor, and certain rays of vibratory force capable of producing chemical effects upon saturated papers placed within the same room. Melancholy people give off a different vibratory force and a different chemical vapor. Unhappy people saturate their rooms with vapors of a different nature than either of the others mentioned. All the mental states produce results of this kind, corresponding to the state; and these vapors and rays given off by people during these conditions are capable of producing similar mental, bodily, and spiritual effects upon other people placed in the same room or in their presence. The experiments of Prof. Jaeger of Jena have been much extended by a knowledge of the new laws, and it is demonstrable that a room in which unhealthy, unhappy or immoral people have lived is forever unfit for the habitation of those who are purer and better, and slowly diseases the body, mind, and morals of those dwelling in it. All these conditions will be eliminated from the precincts of the college. As soon as a person becomes unhappy or diseased or inharmonious they will be taken to a hospital, removed from the neighborhood of the sanctuary and out of the village. No one person has any right to destroy the growth and conditions of others. If you have attained complete emancipation from the effects of the evils, and have gained the right desires you will be able to do a greater work for yourself in those conditions and also for others; we ask your co-operation in any way you see fit to give it.

If you are still under the tyranny of the Evils, and have not gained the right desires; if you are groaning under the weight of misdirected conduct in consequence thereof; and if you sincerely intend to conquer their influence, now is the time to commence. You must entirely conquer them before you will be able to enter Department No. 1. You must have dedicated your life to this battle before you can enter the college; and you must give evidences by your conduct that your actions are founded upon irrepressible determination to succeed. Training, in the conquering of the evils, may be had at the Society Esoteric. There are good reasons why the preliminary training should be done under such circumstances, apart from the fact that there must be a sifting process, separating the prepared from the evil and the immature, and that reason is this: one of the most formidable evils to overcome is Pride and its associated devil, Ambition, and the best place to commence to conquer them is in a place where all kinds of people meet. There are those who will not assist in any movement that does not possess the attractions of a certain aristocracy of pedigree, and others who will not visit a place that is not the embodiment of the aristocracy of wealth. Some will not be seen in a place that is not fashionable. Some will not attend a meeting where all classes are liable to come and where all kinds of people often drop in. We must lift the heavy karma of the world, and we must be ready to do it at any cost to pride and ambition, nay, we cannot commence to do it until all pride and ambition have been forever killed. If you are too proud to come where your less wealthy neighbors and brethren are liable to come in search for light, then you are also too proud to enter our work. True dignity is not weakened by a momentary contact with those who are more in need of light than you are. If you have not conquered THE EVILS, WHY HAVE YOU NOT? Are you aware that Anger is a detriment to your success in any undertaking whatever, and an injury to your mental and moral disposition? In all of its stages from a slight irritability to that of the madness of King Lear it thwarts the judgment and perverts the guidance of your conduct, just in proportion as it is intense and frequent. If you ever have under its influence been led to do that for which you were afterwards sorry, then there may come conditions in which you might do so again, and therefore if you do not at once proceed to eliminate it from your mind, you are knowingly and deliberately denying the highest guidance you have, and rejecting the highest possibilities of your life; and you will not deserve success. If you can conceive of conditions which might make you angry again, and under the influence of the vitiated judgment, do that which you would not do under calm thought, then you are in need of a definite training, and you are in duty bound to exterminate it from your life, or you will relinquish the right to respect your self, and you will deny the promptings of the highest within you. Are you capable of seeking revenge for an injury done you, or are you capable of acting under the promptings of malice? Do you at present hate anybody? Have you ever hated anyone? Do you think there are conditions which might be able to develop within you hate for anybody or anything? Do you ever have the feeling of contempt? Are you willing to allow your soul to form the body and train the mind under the influence of these mental conditions? Have you any right to hate anything that Yahveh has formed for a special purpose? Do you believe that these passions are wrong, and that they prevent your highest development?

If the concept has formed in your mind that these things are wrong and detrimental to your highest interests, and prevent the proper growth of your mind and soul, then there must come with it an impulse to eradicate their influence from your life, and this impulse and motive is unquestionably the command of the Most High, and if you do not obey it, you are denying the promptings of the Spirit, and you are running counter to the purpose of the Infinite All. Do the evils ever modify the action of the inmost in guiding your conduct? Have the promptings of sexual passion ever led you to do that for which you were afterwards sorry? Has fear of any kind ever diverted you from the course of right you had marked out for yourself? Has ambition ever led you to seek a place or a position for which you felt you had not the merit and ability? Has pride ever prevented you from doing that which you actually thought it best to do? Has love of ease ever led you to neglect that which you knew you ought to do. We ask you, for the good of your own present and future interests, to consider these things carefully, and if you know that these evils have ever hindered your life and are liable to do so again, then it must be your duty under the best guidance you can get, to eliminate them forever from your life.

It will aid you in accomplishing your victory over yourself, if you teach and aid others in doing the same thing. Perhaps it may please you to give personal or other aid to the Department and the College, one of whose purposes it is to offer systematic aid in this great work.

If you intend to remove the evils, when are you going to do so? If you believe this world and all of its affairs are under the control of the INFINITE ALL, and that you can only aid in carrying out the purpose of individual and race evolution by following the highest light you have within you, then you are interfering with your own and others success if you do not devote all your time to this work in the way which you think best, and if co-operation with a systemized movement seems to you to be the best plan for the expression of your own duties, then let us know as soon as possible. If you do not possess any of those powers of which we have spoken, are you not omitting one of the opportunities of your life? If you possess them and are not trying to cultivate them, are you not doing a wrong to yourself and society. If your senses have not revealed to you all the knowledge that you would be capable of using, are you not doing more than personal wrong? Are there any phenomena about your own body of which you are ignorant, and about which you have wrong notions? Are not these imperfect and false concepts liable to mislead you? Has the best part of your nature revealed itself?

Systematic effort will be made in the Esoteric College, according to the highest knowledge we can attain, to eliminate by direct training all the evils, and to gain the right desires, and to develop the intuitional and sambudhistic faculties by love and devotion; and to create conditions wherein inspirations, sambudhism, and intuitions may be rendered definite and accurate, to be used under the guidance of the inmost, towards the attainment of a higher life, and for the accomplishment of definite purposes, by means of the prayer of right desire continuously applied, by the aid of intensified will, unmodified by the evils, adverse conditions, and circumstances. All that pure air, water, and foods can do towards the creation of conditions will be supplied. Adverse forces will be prevented. Regular studies will be necessary, and a full curriculum presented and taught by the ablest men the world affords.

The city will be constructed by the highest aid modern science can give, in accordance with the Laws, so as to produce surroundings congenial to the full growth of all sensibilities and powers.

The Department and the College have special functions to perform. They will be the guardians of an important secret, enabling them to supply material wants, and giving them time to devote to other purposes than that of laboring for a living — but the labor required will be much greater than that required for self support. Activity is the law of life. The object of reincarnation is the acquisition of experience and knowledge; and do not think the great Schoolmaster will send you to this earth-school and allow you to be promoted before you have learned all the earth has to teach you. Knowledge, mental and soul capacity, are the measure of the place you occupy in the great course of evolution. There will be developed and cultivated in the Esoteric College all those powers which cannot be developed in a mixed society. The College has placed in its hands, industries that will be devoted to the maintenance of the work, and these industries will be started as soon as a few more men can be found willing to aid in locating the buildings and supplying the necessary things to start operations.

The College will be devoted to the training and teaching of the esoteric principles and the matters above mentioned. It will ultimate the organization of a body of people in accordance with Messianic Principles, as governed by the higher light of the present age. In unison with this object, Department No. 1 of the G.....R will contribute knowledges, methods, means, and will seek to gather through this source experimental knowledge relating to sambudhisms, intuitions, desires, prayers and will power, and the principles of devotion and love, in accordance with that of the Messianic Cycle. The object of Department No. 1, is the collection of the sum of knowledge relating to this subject, under head of the Messianic Cycle, for the use of the College Esoteric, and for the use of the Archives of the G.N.K.R. The Department also hopes to get through this source, a few men for active work in the Department, apart from the College, but in unison with it.

The Society Esoteric has demonstrated that its culture cannot well be carried beyond a certain point under the influences of a mixed society, in a city in the midst of all kinds of miasms, diseases, psychisms, and all adverse influences. "Westward the course of empire takes its way," and westward, upon the mountains, the Esoteric College will find its location, and will embody the highest culture of the Messianic Cycle, under the immediate tuition of teachers raised up for the purpose by Yahveh. The College will possess its library, where will be found all the religious teachings of the past; its laboratory where will be carried on daily interrogations of the Infinite, for newer and higher knowledge; and its class rooms, where will be taught and practiced the results of such teachings, and its sanctuary wherein will be kept the secrets, and where the higher devotions will be performed.

Such a body of men, free from the influences of the evils, and filled with the right desires, and acting according to the promptings of the Omnipotent as revealed within their own consciousness, and fulfilling the requirements of the laws of the operation of the human will, and subject to the most subtile of the intuitional and sambudhistic influences, will acquire a power for good, and gain access to a kind of knowledge about which it is a mere waste of words to speak. The systematic study of all that relates to a higher health and devotion, and the practical application of these knowledges to the good of the individuals composing the community, and to the good of the human race, will certainly be a work in which you can co-operate, even if you are not quite worthy in your own estimation; and it is a work which you can aid even if you are not ready for personal co-operation, and even if you are not in full theoretical sympathy with all the present teachings. Have you ever felt the need of a more perfect love between man and man, and a more perfect fellowship between the members of a community? Do you think that conditions of harmony, such as are herein so briefly and imperfectly described, will conduce to the higher culture and to the benefit of humanity, and that more can be done in this way than by independent action?

There will be a Preparatory Department connected with the College Esoteric, wherein young men and women will be taught the general elements of science and philosophy from an experimental standpoint; the curriculum, arranged with special reference to the development and the comprehension, of the principles taught in the College. It will offer practical aid to those who desire to overcome the evils, and will prepare young men to enter the Esoteric Course, wherein will be taught the higher philosophies' practices and devotions. The young men of the world are eager for such training, and are anxious to comprehend the mysteries of life, and to acquire the larger growth.

In order to understand the mental and emotional states, and to cultivate the intuitions and the higher soul-powers, and to remove the higher culture from the domain of empiricism, the necessary scientific knowledge will be experimentally inculcated, for the purpose of acquiring the concepts necessary for the interpretation of these conditions, and the knowledge and skill necessary for their application. Nothing so misleads as an intuition or a sambudhism, for which we have not the necessary facts to comprehend or the necessary knowledge to apply. A false conception of the natural objects with which we are surrounded, and of the forces and the laws operating in nature, will often entirely misdirect the practice of the best intuitional and sambudhistic people in the world. We may in sammadhi or in sambudhism, see a truth, but if our knowledge of natural phenomena and of the materials of thought be limited or inaccurate, we will be unable to give it presentation to our own mind, explain it to others, or apply it to practice correctly in our own lives. The language of the sambudhist is always abstract and indefinite, and the images forming within his own mind are incapable of graphical presentation and definite formulation, for the want of an accurate knowledge of the phenomena of nature. The College Esoteric will teach science in such a manner that accurate concepts will be had of those phenomena necessary for the comprehension of the general principles and the practical details of the Culture Esoteric, and of the Messianic principles. The physical, pathological, pathognomical, anatomical, physiological, chemical, structural, histological, intellectual and spiritual phenomena, and conditions of the evils, will be studied from the physical standpoint, and the laws applied to the systematic elimination of their effects from the life of the pupils. The forces operative in the production of the evils, and the forces necessary for their eradication will be studied in the same manner as we now study the laws of electricity and thermo-dynamics. The laws and the conditions necessary for the understanding and the practice of yoga, for the acquirement of the right desires, and for the reception of peace, will be understood as well as we now understand the laws of digestion and hearing. The physical causes of sambudhism and intuition will be as well understood as the causes of the deposition of the salts of silver upon the sensitive plate in the photographer's camera.

Young men desiring to acquire a more accurate knowledge of the sciences, than can elsewhere be obtained, relating to the general subjects of occultism, theosophy, and the acquirement of the higher sambudhistic and intuitional powers, will be brought into this College and taught all that is necessary for the practice and the comprehension of the duties and the principles of the Messianic Cycle. There will be connected with the College a complete library, a complete scientific laboratory for the elucidation and experimental demonstration of the new order of phenomena and of the forces concerned in the production of the powers and the conditions of the culture. Early impressions are the most lasting, and youth is the proper time for the inculcation of the practices of the higher culture. The unlearning of much that is taught in the schools of the day will then not be necessary. When improper mental habits have once been formed, it is extremely difficult to eradicate them; it is much easier to eradicate the evils if they have never been practiced. Habit is a tyrant. A general course in the ordinary elements of education will be given under the new classification, in such a manner that the knowledge obtained will directly lead to a higher understanding of the moral principles involved, and the corresponding duties. The location of the preparatory department will be somewhat remote from the Esoteric College proper. It will aid all those wishing to conquer the evils by direct instruction in the scientific and practical principles involved, and will prepare them not only in the general elements of complete practical and theoretical education, but will prepare them for entrance into the College Esoteric. Before they can enter there, they must have acquired an understanding of the dedication involved in the Covenant, and of the philosophical principles implied. They must also have conquered the evils and acquired the necessary knowledge for the understanding of the instruction therein to be given.

The College Esoteric will be devoted to the principles before described, and to the scientific study of the phenomena connected with the faculties commonly called Intuition, Sammadhi, Sambudhism, Inspiration, and development of the conditions necessary for the production of a unison with other minds and with the universal Sensorium. There will also be studied the forces therewith connected, and the scientific principles necessary for the understanding of the mental and emotional states produced by these conditions. The application of the knowledge thus acquired will be made directly to the devotions, desires, prayers, and to the development of the higher condition of life. The College will possess its own grounds, laboratories, studios, buildings, and in the centre of which will be the Temple containing the Sanctuary.

To have conquered the evils and to have made the dedication is all that will be necessary for entrance into the College proper. Therein will be learned the practices necessary, and taught the habits essential to the gaining of the right desires, and for advancement towards the higher studies and attainments.

At this stage pupils will be eligible for admission into the higher and more secret studies and departments of the Esoteric College and Culture; or for membership into Department No. 1 of the G.....R, according as predilections and capacities may lead them.

SPECIAL NOTICE.

This book was published neither for sale, amusement, nor instruction: — it was published for the purpose of inducing people to aid us in taking the preliminary steps necessary for the immediate building of the College Esoteric, in a western locality, for the purposes specified. It is not an exhibition of the work and philosophy of the G.N.K.R, or of the G.....R; but is issued under the auspices of the latter for the use of Department No. 1 in aiding the founder of The Society Esoteric in the establishment of a College, and for aiding Department No. 1, in the building of a Laboratory in connection therewith, as a foundation of the enterprise to be donated by the G.....R to the College. The said College and Culture to be under the auspices of the ADHY-APAKA of Department No. 1, — the founder of The Society Esoteric; and to whom is to be entrusted the management of the enterprises connected therewith. The supply of the knowledges, methods and means, and the Laboratory from which they are obtained and in which the experimental researches and collections of knowledges is to be carried on, will be under the auspices and control of VIDYA-NYAIKA or his representatives.

The G.....R, through their representative, have legally placed in the hands of the Founder of Esotericism in Boston (The ADHY-APAKA) of Department No. 1, of the G.....R and the Originator of the College Esoteric, such industries as will, if put into operation upon a business basis, defray all the expenses of the Department, the College, and the preliminary work; and will repay to the donors who assist in accomplishing the preliminary work, more than the usual percentage of interest upon invested moneys. The donation of one of the industries, subject to the condition that it shall be fully and efficiently operated within two years from date, has already been legally made from VIDYA-NYAIKA to ADHY-APAKA of Department No. 1, the proofs of which can be seen in the hands of Prof. Hiram Erastus Butler. As soon as the men and means are ready for the establishment of the industry, more will be given, according to the capacity to utilize, and to the needs of the movement.

The first and the most immediate need is the practical operation of the enterprise upon which the employment and the support of the members will depend; and the immediate location of the necessary buildings in the vicinity of the College; and the collection of the materials, equipments, and instructors from the occult associations of the Orient. In order to be ready at the specified time, commencement must be made at once. Can you assist us?

If you have made no attainments in the direction herein indicated, if you are still ruled by the evils, and if you have not the means or the opportunity for direct assistance, in any manner best known to yourself, will you kindly bring this pamphlet to the attention of someone in the circle of your acquaintances who may be likely to interest himself in the establishment of the industry, from which the expenses are to be defrayed, in the preliminary work connected with the organization of the College? Perhaps you may be able to notify us that you will begin at once to conquer the evils, and to prepare yourself for entrance into the preparatory Department of the College, as soon as it is ready for the admission of students. If you know anyone that is likely to become a member of such a college will you kindly notify us of their address? Will you devote some of your time to the subject and endeavor to induce others beside yourself to commence the work of self-control, and to prepare themselves for work in the new movement?

If you are ready to dedicate your life to the guidance of the Inmost, and to work in harmony with the processes of the Infinite as exhibited in the general plan of evolution, and as revealed to your own consciousness, by knowledge and intuition; if you are ready to devote the rest of your life to the promotion of the work which accords most nearly to that which is the highest ideal of right in your own mind; if you are determined to act out the highest light you can get, at any expense or sacrifice, will you notify us that you have enlisted in the great battle for the eternal truth? Can you or any of your friends give us the desired assistance in making the preliminary steps, necessary to obtain the industry, which if operated, will furnish a revenue sufficient to establish a college such as has not been before established? We ask any assistance you can offer, manual, financial, mental, or any contribution whatever. That which is most immediately desirable is the necessary means for the building of the shops and machines necessary for the manufacture and the production of the articles and commodities which will be placed in our hands, if we are ready to operate them within two years from the date of this pamphlet. This is a very great opportunity, and we hope you will assist us in taking advantage of it at once. Whatever money you or your friends may invest, cannot be lost. The investment is one offering strong inducements, but we desire that the capitalists who may thus interest themselves will do so from philanthropic motives, and with a desire to assist in the general elevation of the human race. The College Esoteric desires to reserve the right to purchase the interest of the investor in the said industry before the expiration of three years, at a price double that of the amount invested, and if not done within that period of time the investor shall permanently hold his interest.

Full opportunities will be given the proper parties for investigation, from a business, or from a scientific standpoint; and the matter will be placed upon a basis entirely removing it from the domain of speculation, — for such it is not, and placing it upon the basis of a legitimate industry, promoted for the good of the work to which it has been freely given by the G.....R.

In order to effect the embodiment of the College, the Culture, and the Department, it will be necessary to start the enterprise immediately; and that those who have its organization in charge, shall commence at once the collection of the materials, methods, processes, assistants; and that they visit, according to promise, the occult schools of the Orient, and obtain therefrom the additional instructors, secret knowledges, and the necessary alliance for the proper presentation of the Culture. Practice in the higher mind powers, and methods of soul culture, require definite connections with persons at a distance, working in harmony with us. There are those in the Orient who have awaited for long centuries, the opportunity for occidental alliances and connections; and VIDYA-NYAIKA has the promise from those who always fulfill, that the Messianic Department shall have the assistance of those who have valuable occult knowledge to communicate, to those who are ready to receive, and prepared to practice.

The embodiment of the Messianic Cycle and the formulation of the Esoteric Culture connected therewith, will soon be ultimated. The Society Esoteric was promised by its founder, that, as soon as they were ready, there would be furnished the necessary knowledges, methods and means for the ultimation of their desires — that promise has been fulfilled. There exists in the world an association ready to supply all these requirements as rapidly as men can be found to utilize, and to commence to utilize. The significance of the esoteric work will not be realized until a few years; for the present, it is the duty of the Society to prepare the necessary steps leading toward the fulfillment of its objects, which, all ultimate in the College and the community connected therewith.

The time for the calling of the people up into the Mountain has not yet arrived; the place must previously be prepared for them, and then there will be a man raised up for the purpose. Apart from all other purposes, the establishment of an institution for the definite teaching of the occult knowledge of this world from the Messianic standpoint, will be of value and importance greater than can be estimated. There is at present no place upon the earth where the practice and the principles of sammadhi, "sambudhism" intuition, yoga, the elimination of the evils, gaining of the right desires, strengthening of the Will, and the performance of the higher devotions, are systematically and understandingly taught, as a subject of scientific and experimental investigation, and in accordance with well ascertained laws. We ask you to conform to your highest guidance in considering your duty towards this movement. If you wish to enter the College, or the Esoteric Culture, you will be eligible for membership if you conform to the requirements appended herewith. To enter the preparatory department, all that will be required is to agree to eliminate the evils and to follow the highest light you have. To enter the College you must make the covenant. To enter The Society Esoteric you must follow the requirements for membership given in the following pages. To enter the higher courses of the College or to enter Department No. 1, you must have made certain attainments in knowledges and powers, regarding which all proper persons will learn in due time.

P. S. For all particulars regarding The Society Esoteric, or the College Esoteric, address Prof. H. E. Butler, 478 Shawmut Avenue, Boston Mass. For all particulars regarding Department No. 1 of the G.....R, address ADHY-APAKA, Care C. H. Mackay, 478 Shawmut Avenue, Boston, Mass., and the communication will be duly forwarded, if he is absent. All communications relating to investment in the industries, or to co-operation financially in the building of the College, must be addressed as follows: — Prof. H. E. Butler, ADHY-APAKA of G.....R, No. 1. Care C. H. Mackay, 478 Shawmut Avenue, Boston Mass.

P. S. — Neither Prof. Butler nor The Society Esoteric are responsible for the philosophical opinions and statements expressed by VIDYA-NYAIKA in the foregoing pages; neither are the G.N.K.R and the G.....R or VIDYA-NYAIKA, responsible for the philosophical or religious opinions expressed in the pages following these, by Prof. Butler, the Founder of The Society Esoteric in Boston, and the Originator of the Esoteric College, who has been appointed ADHY-APAKA of Department No. 1 of the G.....R. This Dep. No. 1, The Society Esoteric and the College are one in purpose, belief, method, and philosophy, and are working for the immediate building of the College, in accordance with the statements of the special message from the "interior of the innermost," and the following pages. The Society Esoteric is not responsible for the dictum of the G.....R or vice versa.

Prophecy, peering through the clouds of the Present into the wide expanse of the Future, has ever been busy picturing Golden Cities, Elysian Fields, Utopias, Gardens of Hesperides, and Olympian Mountains. The tide of time has at last washed from out the great ocean of Possibilities the methods, knowledges, and materials, wherewith to construct and maintain the "silent city" wherein the followers of Yahveh can taste the Nectar in the Chalice of every pure experience, feed upon Ambrosia, feel the peace and the joy of the universal sensorium, and commune with the Infinite Love.

May all high hopes and right desires, co-operating with intensified human Will and purified human Love, under the Guidance of Yahveh, crystallize into an immediate embodiment and incarnation of the principles of the Esoteric Culture and the Messianic Cycle, is the earnest prayer of your humble servant.

May the Justice and Peace of Om reside within you.

Om, mane, padmi, AUM!

By VIDYA-NYAIKA.

Lag m-ig! ozp, ikkf, Nobi Orn Snon gzi, hhng kgx jngl, mjkh! Ki-f mro T-ij Jo — kllon, smgh mmls ki-f G.....R. lion, 1890 Smlu uug Tjkm Uzu Tkky uhop, myr kus smog mlln, o-me, jimg smls mlln, J-m kgx uloig, mnm lm-g O-1 nokm 1888, 1888.

G .. VIDYA-NYAIKA... R;G.N.K.R.

Rhu wop uug rkog, xla Smgr olmd Tkhp mphn Smgr nlii n-g pjnq Im-g Isaiah II, 2, 3, 4,; Jer. 50, 5. Mllg G.....R gig R-lt o-me, Yahveh kgw Kkgw Deut. XXXIII, 19. 1890 hklj 1900 xl&.

The Society Esoteric.

We announced in the first number of The Esoteric (July 1887), the object of the magazine, and of our labors in The Society Esoteric; and also that there were wiser ones than we who were controlling and governing the whole work. We have now been recognized and accepted by them, in a way surpassing our highest expectations at that time, notwithstanding many of our friends said to us then: "Your expectations are too high, they can never be realized." It will, before long, become evident to the most skeptical that we at least did not overstate the truth, and that preparations are being made upon a scale more than commensurate with our anticipations, and that the work will be so arranged that every true honest soul can participate.

First: — The Esoteric Magazine is, and will continue to be, an instrumentality for the education and instruction of all those who desire to conquer the "evils" and wish to learn the methods. All such persons can be united with us in doing all they can for others around them; and those who feel so prompted from within, can be financially interested in the College; and will thereby become in many ways partakers of its advantages.

We desire the names and addresses, and if possible, the Day, Hour, Month, Year, and Place of Birth, of all who in any way are interested in conquering the evils, in themselves, or in aiding others in doing so.

We wish it to be thoroughly understood that while this work is for the highest order of humanity, yet its objects are for the good of all, and its purpose and capacity will be such that it will be a help to all, to whatever extent they are able to receive the good offered them. The College will embrace two Classes; one Department for young men and women, wherein they will be educated in all knowledges they are capable of receiving and willing to study, so as to promote in them the highest possible order of manhood and womanhood. The course will give them a knowledge and a culture that will place them in a position to be more to themselves and others, than by any method now taught; and then, after having had placed before them the higher realms of knowledge and usefulness, they will be free to choose their own course in life.

The second class are those who have, through soul-growth, reached a point in their experience where they are thoroughly tired of all that this age has to offer, and of all this life has to give them, and wish to dedicate their life to higher uses under the Divine Guidance: — to such the College will be open, where they can receive instructions of a character peculiar to their faculties and needs. There will be ample provision made, in houses suitable for each, where they can have their own home conditions, favorable to their needs, — and all the needs of the body and mind will be abundantly supplied. (Further explanation in this, and kindred matters, will be given when we are ready for the gathering).

There are two classes of minds that will be gathered; one class having faith in the guidance; the other having an understanding of the Laws, and Methods of Creation, and the ultimates toward which all Nature is being driven. The first is the feminine mind, whether in the male or female; the other is the masculine mind, through whichever sex it may find expression. The latter class will find in the following statements, "The Objects of Creation," the key from the intuitive side to the laws of evolution, and to the Christian Bible. Before any one from the intellectual side of the religious movement can intelligently dedicate their lives to this work, they must have an understanding of what the work is to which they dedicate themselves. There are those who feel prepared for this work, and are not in reality. There are others who feel that they have no preparation at all, but who are really ready to enter into the most sacred temple. Jesus of Nazareth was very wise when he said: "Not every one that saith unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven, many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity." Mat. VII, 21-23. "Then shall the King say unto them on the right hand, Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was ahungered and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger and ye took me in: naked and ye clothed me: I was sick and ye visited me: I was in prison and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him saying: Lord when saw we Thee ahungered and fed thee? or thirsty and gave thee drink," etc.. Mat. XXV, 34-37. Jesus here clearly sets forth the great truth so overlooked by too many of his professed followers, that it is not words but deeds; not so much those who think they are ready, but on the contrary those who do not know they have done anything for God, but who have a love for helping and elevating humanity. This work is indeed a work, it is not going away to have an easy time, but to make conditions that will enable the above class to do more for humanity than they could possibly hope to do by any other method, — for therein, awaits the sum of human knowledge to be utilized by the coming men and women for the good of all. Could our thinking honest-hearted men and women realize what a wonderful storehouse is being prepared for them, they would with one accord dedicate all they have and are to the accomplishment of this work without delay. And, considering all that we have received since we made the dedication, we are convinced that God has a people who truly love him. "And if we love not our brother whom we have seen, how can we love God whom we have not seen." How can we say we love God and humanity, when there is such abundant provision ready for us and we disregard it.

Some of our Christian friends may say that this is a Buddhistic movement; but if you will take the trouble to examine it, you will find it far more a Christian work, than that of all the Christian churches together, and that its teachings are those of your own Bible, in its true meanings. We are prepared to demonstrate that the Bible is a grand store of scientific knowledge, and that we believe its teachings more fully than any Christian minister in our land, because we have received instructions in its real teachings, as well as in those of the other systems of religion, and we are prepared to say, that God is the Author of all true religious thought, and wherever there is an honest, devout soul, there God's Angels are sent with a knowledge of the truth — no matter whether it is Christian byname, Mohammedan, Brahman, Buddhist, or a native Indian.

According to the need, and the capacity to receive, God always supplies. Jesus did not say that to be called a Christian, or to call him Lord, Lord, would save: but he did say, "Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free." John, VIII, 32. Yes, it is a knowledge of the truth we want — "Thy (God's) word is truth." ''By the word of God the worlds were made": hence to know the Laws and the Methods of the Creative Mind is truth, it is scientific knowledge. All we have and are, is the result of that creative word, therefore a knowledge of Self and of all the Laws of Life and Nature, and to have right conceptions of them, is the Truth that alone can save.

Re: A CALL TO THE "AWAKENED" FROM "THE UNSEEN AND UNKNOWN,"

PostPosted: Sat Sep 26, 2015 8:10 pm
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Part 2 of 2

THE OBJECTS OF CREATION.

In order for people to unite their aims and efforts there should first be a clear conception in each mind as to what the object to be attained is, and also as to whether it is attainable or otherwise therefore we will state in brief our own settled convictions and beliefs of what we regard as self-evident truths.

1st. We believe in a Supreme Controlling Mind that has brought into existence all that is, and that all individual intelligence is derived from that One.

2d. We believe that it is evident that there was a definite object in the mind of the Creator in creating man, and that this object was to develop in him knowledge and capabilities that will put all the affairs of life under his control, through conquering Selfishness, Hate, and Passion, and uniting in an aggregate body in common effort for the good of all.

3d. The laws of evolutionary development have two prime factors, one is that of obtaining knowledge from experience, the other is the refining process of transmutation whose chief factor is in the law of sex, viz., generation and regeneration, by which man has passed through all forms of experience, and knowledge has been gained in pursuance of the original purpose of the Creator.

4th. We believe that the original purpose of the Creator in its operation upon all Nature, is that which has been recognized and called "the Laws of Nature," and that these unchangeable laws direct the processes that control the actions, feelings, and thoughts of all persons and planets, suns, and systems, and that all qualities of mentality are by virtue of the stage of development attained, and that no person can be conscious of anything with which they do not possess something in common, and, further, that development means the refinement of organic qualities to an attunement with the higher spheres of the laws, or mind-forces of the Creator. We also perceive that by conquering the law of the generation of flesh and stopping all waste in that direction we are enabled to take control of the regenerative laws and accelerate the processes of transmutative refinement of the qualities of our own nature, so that in a few years, more progress can be made than in many thousand years of development under the controlling influence of evolution, without acceleration.

5th. We have many reasons to believe that we can, by controlling the generative principle, refine the organic qualities to an extent that we can become conscious of the Original Mind in all its relatedness to human existence, and that those who come into that consciousness will perceive the wisdom in subordinating all personal thoughts, desires and objects to the One Original Mind and its object; for it is the manifestations of that Original Mind that constitutes the Laws of Nature, which Laws enter into, and comprise, the anatomy and physiology — physical, mental, and spiritual — of our nature. Therefore, to the extent we live in harmony with them, we are healthy, happy, and useful; and to whatever extent we are out of harmony with them, to that extent are we unhappy, unhealthy, and have failures, disappointments, disease, and death. As this Original Mind is one having varied forms and methods of expressing itself in its different instruments (men), it follows that all who become conscious of that Original Mind and live under its control and guidance, will become harmonious members of one body; and as there is no inharmony in the Original Mind, there could be none in the body formed and controlled by it. Again a united consciousness of the One Mind would be a consciousness of each others' mind; for it is self-evident that, if there were one hundred, or "one hundred forty and four thousand" of such persons together, all their aggregate brain and will-power would be one, and as the consciousness of one would be the consciousness of all, the capacity of each and all would be increased in the ratio of one to one hundred, or one to one hundred-forty and four thousand. And that again would be increased over the power of the man of our present order, at least tenfold, for it usually takes nine tenths of all the mental capacity of each to maintain his own personal standing in existence, therefore only one tenth is now available for progressive effort. Thus all the capacity of consciousness, knowledge, wisdom, understanding, and power, would be increased not only 144,000 times, but ten times that, and such a body could become the expression of the mind and will of the Creator, and ultimate all that was embodied in the words attributed to have been recorded in the Bible by the prophet Moses, Genesis I. 26. (See the October Esoteric, pages 158 to 160), and was elaborated by the Angel that gave the vision to John, see Revelation, chapters XXI and XXII. Truly "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what God hath prepared for those that love him," and we cannot truly love him unless we love all his ways and methods which are Nature's Laws expressed in all life.

The object of the Society is to secure a knowledge of the purpose of God in creating man; and its members, therefore, are expected to have a willingness to dedicate their all of self, without reserve, to the attainment of that knowledge and the ultimation of that purpose.

This requires us first to answer, in a general way, the question: What is Man? and to comprehend his relations and duties as a living soul.

God is Spirit, the all present, unchangeable essence and source of all things. "The Everlasting Father" is the free Spirit: God "the Everlasting Mother" gathers and forms that Divine Essence into a body, and the unchangeable Spirit is the life thereof; its consciousness is not individual, but universal; therefore, as a primate, man is not. The form being only a thought-form of Deity, man through experience obtains knowledge of his limited sphere of service; this individualizes him and forms out of the original elements a soul made up of knowledges gained by experience. Thus the man is the experience, and the experience is the man. The life is the God that animates and serves the man; the knowledge is derived by experiences from God; for all things are of God, and all law is only the methods of the Infinite.

God is one, but has many methods of expression, and every individual is only a part of the whole. There is no inharmony in God, and, therefore, all apparent inharmony in man comes only from his methods for obtaining knowledge. For illustration, if one who never saw a watch had to learn how to make one from a sample being placed in his hands, he would first have to take it all apart and then put it together after carefully examining every part; thus stopping the watch he would have to cause disorder while the knowledge was being gained. So man, — the Son of God — while he is examining God's laws — or methods — causes confusion and inharmony, until he has learned them (and therefore the inharmony that now exists among men). Then he puts them back into order by his own intelligence; for he knows what the original maker know about it, and can make one like it. This is what Jesus meant when he said "All that the son seeth the father do that he doeth."

The only rational conclusion from this is that the original object for creating man was to develop knowledge like that of the Everlasting Father and to have the work of creation placed in his hands to govern.

Thus even if we reject (as some do) the authority of the Bible, the statement in Gen. I. 23, appears reasonably true, where it says "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowls of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." This language must have meant to apply to man as a race, not to one man; for it says "let them," not him, and the common idea that it referred to Jesus only, cannot be true. The "beloved " disciple John said: "In the beginning (evidently referring to Gen. l. 26.) was the word ("Let us make man like us etc.") and the word was with God (IX. power) and the word was God (power). Verse 14 says: "And the word was made flesh (it was personified) and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the father, full of grace (i.e. favor) and truth (i.e, knowledge of facts of laws and methods). This tells us that the man Jesus was the first personified expression of that creative word in the beginning of the creation of the world concerning man as a body.

The masters and mystics of every age and nationality have united with the biblical idea that all men are members of one body and that each is a part of a whole. This fact is scientifically demonstrated by Solar Biology, where it is made evident to any reasonable mind that the true order is for man to come into a conscious realization of that oneness. The means that will make this possible is now fast becoming manifest in the world. Our literature is full of the ideas and facts of the capacity for "mind-reading," and thought-transference from one to the other without words. These powers are fast growing among the people, and those who have them are greatly oppressed and burdened with a consciousness of the evil thoughts and deeds of the masses, and also feel and suffer from the diseased and oppressed condition of the people. A way out of this is now becoming an absolute necessity for them in order to save their life; for many are dying from the continued effect of such experiences, after a period of suffering more terrible than the suffering of the rack and thumb-screw in the dark ages of tyranny. And further these are the purest and most highly developed men and women of our world. The only way to save these grand souls is for them to unite their means and efforts to build a city separate from the evil disposed classes where they can have time and opportunity to learn the laws governing these things, and to arrange methods according to Divine law for the education and elevation of all, and thereby, relieve the earth from its present state of oppression.

There is another reason for such a move. If, as already accepted, all men are members of one body, then the life that animates one part of the body must also flow through, and be under the joint control of all members. That being so, the conserved potency of the few pure and good is at the disposal of the many lustful and depraved, and these draw from the others and are thereby strengthened in their lusts and kept from reaping the reward of their errors and from realizing the necessity of restraining their passions; and thus, instead of healing any by remaining with them, the opposite obtains. True are the words of the prophet Isaiah, XXXVI. 10. "Let favor be shown the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness; in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of Yahveh." If this is true then it would be for the greatest good to all to "come out from among them and be separate"; for if we do really reciprocate with them as is very apparent to all sensitives, then two evils are being enacted by the effort to remain with and help them; first, they feel the restraining influence and go to the other extreme; second we feed them with a life-element too fine for them, which sets on fire all their lower nature, and thus we hinder those who would reform. The other evil is that we are in our mental and spiritual nature beclouded so that we cannot know and do the will of the Spirit, neither can we rise into conditions of usefulness to ourselves or others. But what can be done by going out and building a city of order and harmony? First, each person must have developed in himself an understanding of the laws, methods, and objects of Creation (see in Practical Instructions in the October number of The ESOTERIC). From that it becomes apparent that all nature is working toward the one object i.e, to develop in man the knowledge and ability to become the controller of all God's works and to be the light of the world by whose guidance the nations will be instructed in all that is requisite for their well-being — physical, mental, and spiritual.

By each person dedicating his life to God, and inspiring the Spirit, and conserving the generative fluids — thus increasing the quantity and refining the quality of his life — they can so refine and sublimate their organism that it will become a vessel to receive and contain the Spirit, and thus enable them to sense the Spirit and thereby be received into its consciousness. Whereas in the present practice of human life the qualities are so gross, or coarse, that the Spirit cannot touch them and they can have no consciousness of It. Thus it becomes evident that the capacity is within our own body to obtain a consciousness of the one Spirit. Then all the spiritual faculties, such as have been known to be possessed by the ancient masters, "Jesus of Nazareth" included, will be possessed by all, and the one faculty, now becoming quite common, of thought-communication will give each a perfect knowledge of all, and of all the intents and purposes of each heart, so that there would no longer be secrets among the members of that body, and all misunderstanding and deception would disappear. Any one member of such a body of people out of harmony with them could not exist in association with them, and thus the greater part of the liability for discord would cease, and the balance would be overcome by the controlling desire of all "TO KNOW AND DO THE WILL OF GOD PERFECTLY." That would make such a place altogether undesirable for any one that had not that desire. Thus it becomes possible with proper care to bring together, first a few, and when they have arrived at the above harmonious conditions then to admit others, subject to the conditions already established; but none are eligible to membership of such an organism until they have a clear and definite conception of all the plans, methods and conditions of such a society, and a willingness to surrender all that now constitutes the desires and aspirations of life in the world as it now is, to the controlling mind and will of God, without the slightest reservation in any direction.

OBJECTS AND METHODS OF THE SOCIETY ESOTERIC.

The objects and the methods cannot be expressed clearly to the intelligence in the space we have, neither would the reader have time for its consideration. The Esoteric Magazine is an organ for that purpose. It aims to collect all the knowledges useful to the world, and screen them from the errors and ambiguities of a less enlightened age. It seeks to apply laws and methods to increase consciousness and the capacity of the human mind and body, by well-known laws which have been elucidated, in their primary principles, in the "Practical Instructions" given in the successive numbers of The Esoteric. The requirements are, that each member live up to their own highest ideal of right, that they should seek guidance from their innermost, and desire above all things to know the truth and utilize the knowledge thus gained, for the good of all as far as they are able. And when made conscious of a higher mind than their own, to seek guidance from that mind, and promise absolute obedience to the knowledge received therefrom. And when they are able to understand the fact that there was a well-defined plan and object in the Supreme Mind in creating the world and all there is therein, and a clear conception of what that object is and was, and of the methods used in carrying out that Purpose; then to dedicate all they have and are to be a co-worker in the carrying that out to the best of their means and abilities, and to apply any and all knowledge to increasing our capacity to know and to do service in that direction. When this is understood it will then be the axiom of our life that "Use determines all qualities, whether good or evil."

"There is no religion higher than truth." Truth is vital, and no religious or other organization can exist without the two vital principles in them, viz., — Use and Truth. Therefore, we do not antagonize anything, but we are convinced that the time has arrived and matured the mental capacity, that will enable us to collect and formulate all that is known, and organize it into an instrumentality of valuable service to the world. We know that there are two distinct classes in the world, the Religious and the Scientific. The religious predominates; but religion without science is blind and ignorant, science without religion is cold and heartless. Religion is the feminine mind, science is the masculine — they must marry, and the wife must be a helpmeet to the husband, and the husband the head, in the intellectual sphere, then, they together, will dwell in an eden superior to anything that has preceded it. None can permanently profit by belief alone, therefore all must act from their highest ability to know, and earnestly desire to know more, and if all will do the best they can, then are they fully justified, for Angels can do no more. Thus it is apparent that each individual must judge themselves by their capacity, and every person will be most happy when they occupy the place they are best fitted for. The College Esoteric will be organized for the purpose of teaching known laws and methods for the highest possible attainment; while the G.....R Department No. 1 will be engaged in experimentation, and obtaining new facts and methods for the general use of all classes of humanity to which such knowledge may be useful. The College will from the time of its completion be supplied with all knowledges now possessed by the Masters of the world, and if there is anything necessary to the people's development not now known, it will be in position to immediately receive it as soon as needed. The following extracts from The Esoteric will suffice to briefly indicate the general nature of a few of our teachings.

Devotedly your servant,

Hiram Erastus Butler.

Peace be unto You.

EXTRACTS FROM THE ESOTERIC.

"In the effort to obtain knowledge the world has gone through many cycles of labor, sorrow, and death. At the end of each cycle there has shone out the sunlight of knowledge in a particular sphere, only to leave the earth again clouded, to descend into darkness, to rise again at the end of another cycle." (Vol. I., Page 11.)

"But we find that, as man gets a glimpse of this divine Sophia, he becomes conscious of the laws of creative life. He realizes that life has its periods which are governed from the regularly organized and perfectly orderly system of our sun or centre; but, in considering these laws which control not only systems of worlds, but the race upon our earth, both in general and in detail, we are led to observe some of the reasons why mankind have not as yet reached the unit of true progress. And one especially is, that man has endeavored to travel alone, isolated, distinct, and separate from his sister woman. This as a rule is the way the ancient sages have endeavored to make attainments, not being able to grasp the idea of unity through God's presence in this dual relation; but Jesus, the great Master, came with higher light and deeper perception regarding the sphere of woman, teaching that in the beginning they were not two but one, and thus in a fuller degree was inaugurated a religious system which placed man and woman side by side at the altar of spiritual communion; and thus in the new cycle of progress, in the new temple of humanity, woman must have her true and coequal place with man, as the two in spiritual oneness become the true and essential unit of higher evolution." (Vol. I., Page 11-12.)

Force, then, is first, negative conservative magnetism, and is a principle of bondage or binding. It is a principle that, when carried into the realm of mind or matter, binds, restrains; and thus all men to-day are bound and held by woman. Every man is bound by her, — confined within the sphere of her limitations, out of which he cannot go without a struggle and effort of his own will; this, however, is not the voluntary action of her will, but is the magnetic potencies generated through her, and, as he cannot wholly escape limitations, neither can he advance save as she advances with him. Here then is laid the arena of combat, — of a struggle between the two great forces of creation which we now see active in domestic life, the positive and negative, between the effort of man to become spiritual and like his Creator, and the effort of the negative principle to hold and bind in the gestative sphere. The interior of woman is masculine. And it is incumbent on woman, at the present time, that she pause and think. Now this is contrary to her outward nature, which does not pertain to thought, but love; therefore she must think from the interior, the intuitive. She is magnetic, holding, binding, restraining the object of her love, to keep it within the limits of her own sphere; this is her outward nature; when she stops and thinks interiorly, reasonably and logically, she will find a place of higher usefulness where she can be free and become spirit, like the author of being, and thus advance with man....

Now the mother-nature, considered as a distinct principle, has no reason. The law of order in the pure mother-principle has no place. The feminine principle, as manifested in the higher order of womanhood, is not a reasoning principle, but it acts from the spontaneous soul, from within. It acts from the law of its nature, and we call it intuition. Intuition, when governed by cohesion, struggles against human progress. If you have a son, and that son has an inclination to a life that is not according to the life your father lived, not according to that you yourself are living, you at once condemn it, and at once begin to struggle against it. If a man or woman attempts to live on a different plane of existence from that on which you are, you condemn it, and do all in your power to hold on to that friend, and bind him in the sphere of your own existence. These are thoughts that we ought to think about, because we are in the time of progress....

The office of this mother-principle is to preserve and hold spirits in material bodies. That is why the ancient philosophers said it was impossible for woman to become a master, because her nature was that which took hold of, and bound all things in the flesh, and would not admit of that unfoldment that led into the spirit and the transmutation of the flesh. Therefore, they said, it was an absolute necessity that woman should go down to the grave and return as man in the second incarnation; for it was so believed by them. (For instance, you who today are here as women, the next time you will return as men. Again, you pass away and return as women, and so on, alternately. This is in harmony with the law of reincarnation. In connecting these subjects I am necessitated to throw out many things that may seem vague and unreasonable to those who have not thought deeply on such subjects, too great to expound in a single lecture. This is a new field of thought to the Occident, but not to the Orient.)

Woman has got to stop and think and try to unite her soul with the great Mother of the Universe. She has got to begin to look at herself and her companion, not as flesh, not as body, or as mere material. As long as she does, just so long will she be an adversary, and so long she herself will be bound in earth and will know nothing of the higher life, and the object of her love, because of that flesh she loves and clings to, will struggle against her, and slip out of her hands, and she will be found deserted and alone. The time has come when that mother-love must begin to take higher form. The divine Mother loves all her children alike, and so woman has to consider all as her children, all as objects of her special care and protection, and the husband as counterpart of her spirit, and not merely of the flesh, and that this spirit is a part of her spirit and as such it must be the object of her love, the object that she must try to aid, to unfold, and to free from its encumberings of earth. That, you see, at once reverses all the action of the old love-life. That is a question that she must consider. For as long as the action of her present life is that manifestation that belongs to cohesion alone, it is holding the persons she loves; it is binding their thought, consequently hindering their action, and keeping them just as they are.

Should this principle of cohesion have sway from this time, all would stop thinking and acting. Everything would be at a dead stand-still. We bless that divine principle; we should, and do admire and adore the mother-love. Yet, while it is good, it is good only while it is useful. There is nothing permanent that does not serve a use. Keep this maxim ever before you, that the great law of the Infinite Mind is that the use of a thing determines whether it is good or not. Now, when as mothers, as wives, those of you whose natures are overflowing with that divine maternal principle, and who have looked higher, deeper, more into the real man and the real woman, have discerned that a man is not the flesh, but the spirit, the soul, then will you begin to find that your relation to him is the relation of one-half of his being, and that Paul had in mind a law which is beyond that understood today when he said, "The man is not without the woman or the woman without the man in the Lord." Therefore the first thing to do is to conquer self, conquer this maternal nature in its lesser manifestations. Mothers and sisters, conquer yourselves! Men and brothers, rise above it; do not allow it to hinder your progress!

-- The Seven Creative Principles, by Hiram Erastus Butler


"There already exists in the heavens souls that have perfected their lives upon this and other worlds. They have formed the temple of the infinite after the pattern of the grand man of the universe, and are known as the Solar Circle. These grand souls who have greatly perfected their lives are now the agents and expressors of the mind of the Controller and Creator of this system; and the knowledge of their formula has been given that we on earth may fulfil the object and purpose that was announced at the time that Moses was commanded to build a temple, and commanded, as Paul says: "See that thou make all things after the pattern that was shown thee in the mount ... which is the pattern of the heavens." (Vol. I., Page 13.)

"Thus we see that in the generative function is not only the beginning of life, but also its means of perpetuation; for it not only creates, but recreates, containing, as it does, the basic element of immortality itself. But while the law of procreation is dominant it allows the body barely enough vitality to run the machinery, and when its own force is exhausted it dies out and carries down the body with it. Therefore if we would have higher life, or even a proper measure of physical life, we must take control of this function, and not allow it to use us, exhaust itself, and carry the body down to death. To control life and its generative forces involves the reversal of the present currents of nature, and to do this requires more effort than would at first appear. Men and women are now held and bound by its fascinating sway; it is the prime factor of our present social and domestic life, and on these does the very structure of government itself rest, and to do anything that affects changes in domestic habits involves a probable change in everything else.

I called attention to the fact that there are two laws of generation, the one in the procreation of children, the other that of the regeneration of one's self; but habit is such that this function is not content with what would be considered its natural use. And physiologists have presumed to encourage this unnatural waste, on the ground that it was necessary to the health of the body. But ask the physiologist if celibate animals do not reabsorb this vital principle, and physically profit thereby? Was not that the method of all the great masters of antiquity? Was this not the secret of their greatness? Certainly it was. It has been demonstrated in all ages by the few who became masters over themselves and the forces of nature. We see this in the example and masterly powers of Jesus, he also being a celibate; so we see that it was not only possible, but necessary, before great attainments could be made." (Vol. I., Page 34.)

"This brings us to the question of self-culture. That we may enter upon such culture and move towards our ideal where shall we begin? We must begin to increase the quality of the life-essences. Whatever will improve that will bring us more into the interior, and thereby bring us into more intimate relations with ourselves as well as into a knowledge of what we really are. On this account I have in my previous lectures emphasized the importance of controlling the reproductive principle, of conserving the life-essences, in order that they may be transmuted into the highest spiritual energy. I have striven to impress on your minds the necessity of such conservation, because it appeared to me that in that way only could man refine the essences of his nature, move forward in the direction of his destiny and towards a perfect oneness with his God." (Vol. I., Page 46.)

"Now, there is a method by which we can be refined and made more capable; for the spirit of God is a consuming fire and burns on the altar of reproduction, and in this way this power may be so transmuted, its essence so directed into higher spheres of utility, and the quality of this life-power so improved, in consequence, as to supply us with the ability by which we can cognize divine realities and attain to a realization of God." (Vol. I., Page 47.)

"I presume there has never been a time when there was so much dissatisfaction as exists to-day, and I presume that seven-eighths of the people that are thus uneasy and dissatisfied with their present conditions and surroundings, are entirely unconscious of the real underlying cause of their dissatisfaction. But we see, as this wave — for it is like a tidal wave of spiritual and soul aspiration towards these higher truths — sweeps over the land, it effects all life. It is in the life-essences of the ether; and as man inspires from that divine life-essence according to his quality, this dissatisfaction is produced upon different persons according to their degree of spiritual unfoldment." (Vol. I., Page 79.)

"The wise Brahman said, 'I came not to teach men that which they do not know, but to teach them those things which they do know.' This is the wisdom of a teacher of the esoteric science. Every man or woman that has come in any degree, into the consciousness of the Universal Soul, reaches out for a higher order or plane of life. But the life principle that I began to speak of a few moments ago, is only obtainable when all these barriers, thrown up by the peculiarities and idiosyncrasies of one's nature, are broken down by the only way that has ever existed or will exist to free ourselves from them, namely, by a Covenant with God. We have heard old people, when we were children, talking about witches selling themselves to the devil. I know I used to hear old people talking about these things when I was a boy. There is truth in this thought. A person has to virtually sell himself, soul, body and spirit, to whatever sphere of life he desires to become eminent in. While men and women stand in their own ego, and through their own will-power manifest their selfhood, they will find that they are in a constant struggle, a struggle that it is impossible for any man or any woman that ever lived or will live, probably, to maintain themselves in, and remain consistent with their own highest reason. Such struggles put up barriers against the unfoldment of the divine life that would otherwise flow in and take possession of them.

"When a man or woman has meditated upon Life, has seen the great truth that it has mind, consciousness, all that has been attributed to God, and that our ideas of a conscious Deity are absolutely true, that there is an independent thinking, conscious intelligence that takes cognizance of, and reciprocates with every sympathy, every emotion, and with all human intelligence as well as with life everywhere, then when a man enters into a covenant with that divine intelligence, he at once rests in that covenant. He says, 'I desire more now than all else in the world to be an instrument under the controlling power of that divine Mind.' This mind will be according to your own highest thought, let it be what it may, for every man makes to himself a God, whose nature and character are according to his own highest quality, by virtue of which he will when he lives up to his ideal, inspire constantly from that just a little above himself. And when he has entered into the covenant and feels like resting in it, he sells himself and belongs to God, and then will come the consciousness that that divine Being does take control of his life. It will lead him, will instruct him, illuminate his intelligence and he has only to perform the duties that are laid before him day by day." (Vol. I., Page 81.)

"I have often heard the quotation, 'As a man thinketh, so is he.' That is true. Whatever a man thinks, that he is, providing he believes it with all his heart, for whatever we believe without a doubt, we are. Now this belief that has no doubt in it may lead us to wonderful extremes. We have no idea and cannot have until we investigate the world of mind, to what extent that may lead us." (Vol. I., Page 81.)

"The ultimate to which we are calling your attention, towards which we are laboring, is to bring about a new world where the people will be prepared to live under the controlling influences of the infinite Mind, having conquered selfishness, hate and passion. When these are conquered, every cause of inharmony and combat, man with man, every struggle in life will have been destroyed. This ultimate will be a people of whom we may say, in order to bring it to the comprehension of the ordinary mind, that they will be as it were 'psychologized' by the infinite Mind. That is, their whole thought, their whole desire, and all that they are or hope to be, will be so linked to the Will of the universe that their wills and the will of God will be absolutely one." (Vol. I., Page 83.)

It is by the power of will that we are enabled to move a hand. If a more powerful will takes control of ours, — psychologize us, as we say, — it can prevent us from moving even that, notwithstanding our own will may desire so to do.

-- The Seven Creative Principles, by Hiram Erastus Butler


"To whatever extent we have matured spiritually, to that extent we sense the touch of the divine essence of being, and are thereby conscious of the realities of the existence of God, the spirit and soul of the universe. Before obtaining this consciousness, — which no one can do save by set rules and methods through which life may be developed, spirit consciousness matured, interior consciousness refined, concentrated, and ultimated into a consciousness of God — no man can intelligently and effectively pray to God." (Vol. I., Page 149.)

''The Universal Mind is causing many to realize that the time for a higher order of life on this planet has come and the best people of the land are responding to it." (Vol. I. , Page 412.)

"There are many who, as soon as they get one new idea, want to come before the public at once and begin to teach, when they really need to be taught. Those spiritual subjects are of grave import, and to teach them one should know all about them from personal experience; we need to do as the oriental sages, withdraw from the world and live quietly where the powers of comprehension and understanding can traverse freely the realms of knowledge and experience, bask in the sunlight of Divinity; then heaven would begin on earth, and a heaven surpassing that of ancient Eden might be enjoyed here. We know that if we can get the mind of the people to look into those laws that govern their own beings, and begin to develop their own powers; in a single seven years, many of these mature minds before me this afternoon might reach that state, where, if they should go out from the world and dwell in that spiritual thought, they would have obtained mental powers, so that such isolation would enable them to return to the people with all the abilities needed to lead others in that same divine harmony and heaven: whereas in remaining here among the people, subject to all their vicissitudes, they could never become conscious of the divine harmonies enough to enable them to lead others also into them." (Vol. I., Page 441.)

"Those having been faithfully complied with and the point gained where all waste of the vital fluids is stopped, we are ready to seek methods to escape the IMPRISONMENT IN THE NARROW CONFINES OF THE PHYSICAL BODY. Then it will matter but little where the body is, for we shall be free to go where and when we please, and then we shall find that there are many others even in the physical form who have attained like freedom and with whom we may come into the most harmonious and loving sympathies. There are many living on this planet who have made not only this attainment but far greater ones, and live in the full effulgence of Divine Light.

"Now the methods by which such a state may be obtained.

"This consciousness of the soul must be regarded as the essential self; that arising in the physical senses must be held in absolute subordination. We must constantly keep in mind the difference between the two states, soul and body. Remember, you are soul and you formed the body for your own use, and, that being so, you can re-form and control even the sensations of the body." (Vol II., Page 19.)

"We must remember that whatever our sympathies are, that sphere of consciousness will be the one that will open before us first; notwithstanding, we need not expect to come to this without many temptations and trials." (Vol. II., Page 99.)

"What we want most of all, is, to know our relations to the universe and the ultimate towards which everything tends, by virtue of an absolute and undeviating law. This knowledge obtained, will place us in harmony with all the forces; so that truth will appear true, and the understanding will be orderly, and as soon as a fact is suggested the mind will at once apprehend its relations and uses in the economy of God's great nature." (Vol. II., Page 159.)

"This again necessitates another belief, viz. that there are ages of development through which time all souls — or all but those who through occult knowledge make the superior attainments — must reincarnate, until the end of the age, when the planets will come into positions that will produce mental conditions that will turn the minds of the most mature toward the Divine laws and methods of attainment, and will give them a desire to reach the high goal. And all those who do, will be gathered together in one place where they will form one body in perfect harmony and unity of thought, feeling, and action; and through the spiritual powers and knowledge possessed by them they will never die, but when their body is sufficiently refined they can transmute it to soul-force and leave the earth at will." (Vol. II., Page 161.)

"There is another way of expressing a truth, proverbial among the masters of all ages: that a time of darkness and trial is sure to come to all. The Egyptian neophyte had seven years of preparation, before he came to the door of the sacred temple; and then, after receiving salutations, encouraging words, and words of the gravest warning, and preparation for death itself, he went first into a dark cavern where the sunlight could not reach him. There he came to judgment, when every wrong act of his life was called up before him in accusation, and he had to remain there until he had, by severest trial, worked out all his "karmic conditions" i.e. until he had been tried to the uttermost in all his weakest points of character; and never need he expect to get out of that cavern until he had overcome all and reached safely the other end of the dreary passage which opened into the gorgeous temple at the far end; but if he failed he died there.

"We have to enter that dark and dreary passage, and sometimes it takes us years of hard struggle before a ray of light will reach us. Your humble servant was seven years in that cavern because of so many failures; and if at any time he had concluded to return to his former conditions, he would have found them all swept away and nothing left but to take other spirits more wicked than himself and to sink down into conditions seven-fold worse than the first, until literal death had relieved him. The path to the high goal inevitably leads through this dark and trying passage; even Jesus had to pass through it. Now, do not flatter yourself that you are going to get into that glorious Temple of Light unless you pass 'the narrow and dangerous passage': (See II Esdras chapter 7).

1 And when I had made an end of speaking these words, there was sent unto me the angel which had been sent unto me the nights afore:
2 And he said unto me, Up, Esdras, and hear the words that I am come to tell thee.
3 And I said, Speak on, my God. Then said he unto me, The sea is set in a wide place, that it might be deep and great.
4 But put the case the entrance were narrow, and like a river;
5 Who then could go into the sea to look upon it, and to rule it? if he went not through the narrow, how could he come into the broad?
6 There is also another thing; A city is builded, and set upon a broad field, and is full of all good things:
7 The entrance thereof is narrow, and is set in a dangerous place to fall, like as if there were a fire on the right hand, and on the left a deep water:
8 And one only path between them both, even between the fire and the water, so small that there could but one man go there at once.
9 If this city now were given unto a man for an inheritance, if he never shall pass the danger set before it, how shall he receive this inheritance?
10 And I said, It is so, Lord. Then said he unto me, Even so also is Israel's portion.
11 Because for their sakes I made the world: and when Adam transgressed my statutes, then was decreed that now is done.
12 Then were the entrances of this world made narrow, full of sorrow and travail: they are but few and evil, full of perils,: and very painful.
13 For the entrances of the elder world were wide and sure, and brought immortal fruit.
14 If then they that live labour not to enter these strait and vain things, they can never receive those that are laid up for them.
15 Now therefore why disquietest thou thyself, seeing thou art but a corruptible man? and why art thou moved, whereas thou art but mortal?
16 Why hast thou not considered in thy mind this thing that is to come, rather than that which is present?
17 Then answered I and said, O Lord that bearest rule, thou hast ordained in thy law, that the righteous should inherit these things, but that the ungodly should perish.
18 Nevertheless the righteous shall suffer strait things, and hope for wide: for they that have done wickedly have suffered the strait things, and yet shall not see the wide.
19 And he said unto me. There is no judge above God, and none that hath understanding above the Highest.
20 For there be many that perish in this life, because they despise the law of God that is set before them.
21 For God hath given strait commandment to such as came, what they should do to live, even as they came, and what they should observe to avoid punishment.
22 Nevertheless they were not obedient unto him; but spake against him, and imagined vain things;
23 And deceived themselves by their wicked deeds; and said of the most High, that he is not; and knew not his ways:
24 But his law have they despised, and denied his covenants; in his statutes have they not been faithful, and have not performed his works.
25 And therefore, Esdras, for the empty are empty things, and for the full are the full things.
26 Behold, the time shall come, that these tokens which I have told thee shall come to pass, and the bride shall appear, and she coming forth shall be seen, that now is withdrawn from the earth.
27 And whosoever is delivered from the foresaid evils shall see my wonders.
28 For my son Jesus shall be revealed with those that be with him, and they that remain shall rejoice within four hundred years.
29 After these years shall my son Christ die, and all men that have life.
30 And the world shall be turned into the old silence seven days, like as in the former judgments: so that no man shall remain.
31 And after seven days the world, that yet awaketh not, shall be raised up, and that shall die that is corrupt
32 And the earth shall restore those that are asleep in her, and so shall the dust those that dwell in silence, and the secret places shall deliver those souls that were committed unto them.
33 And the most High shall appear upon the seat of judgment, and misery shall pass away, and the long suffering shall have an end:
34 But judgment only shall remain, truth shall stand, and faith shall wax strong:
35 And the work shall follow, and the reward shall be shewed, and the good deeds shall be of force, and wicked deeds shall bear no rule.
36 Then said I, Abraham prayed first for the Sodomites, and Moses for the fathers that sinned in the wilderness:
37 And Jesus after him for Israel in the time of Achan:
38 And Samuel and David for the destruction: and Solomon for them that should come to the sanctuary:
39 And Helias for those that received rain; and for the dead, that he might live:
40 And Ezechias for the people in the time of Sennacherib: and many for many.
41 Even so now, seeing corruption is grown up, and wickedness increased, and the righteous have prayed for the ungodly: wherefore shall it not be so now also?
42 He answered me, and said, This present life is not the end where much glory doth abide; therefore have they prayed for the weak.
43 But the day of doom shall be the end of this time, and the beginning of the immortality for to come, wherein corruption is past,
44 Intemperance is at an end, infidelity is cut off, righteousness is grown, and truth is sprung up.
45 Then shall no man be able to save him that is destroyed, nor to oppress him that hath gotten the victory.
46 I answered then and said, This is my first and last saying, that it had been better not to have given the earth unto Adam: or else, when it was given him, to have restrained him from sinning.
47 For what profit is it for men now in this present time to live in heaviness, and after death to look for punishment?
48 O thou Adam, what hast thou done? for though it was thou that sinned, thou art not fallen alone, but we all that come of thee.
49 For what profit is it unto us, if there be promised us an immortal time, whereas we have done the works that bring death?
50 And that there is promised us an everlasting hope, whereas ourselves being most wicked are made vain?
51 And that there are laid up for us dwellings of health and safety, whereas we have lived wickedly?
52 And that the glory of the most High is kept to defend them which have led a wary life, whereas we have walked in the most wicked ways of all?
53 And that there should be shewed a paradise, whose fruit endureth for ever, wherein is security and medicine, since we shall not enter into it?
54 (For we have walked in unpleasant places.)
55 And that the faces of them which have used abstinence shall shine above the stars, whereas our faces shall be blacker than darkness?
56 For while we lived and committed iniquity, we considered not that we should begin to suffer for it after death.
57 Then answered he me, and said, This is the condition of the battle, which man that is born upon the earth shall fight;
58 That, if he be overcome, he shall suffer as thou hast said: but if he get the victory, he shall receive the thing that I say.
59 For this is the life whereof Moses spake unto the people while he lived, saying, Choose thee life, that thou mayest live.
60 Nevertheless they believed not him, nor yet the prophets after him, no nor me which have spoken unto them,
61 That there should not be such heaviness in their destruction, as shall be joy over them that are persuaded to salvation.
62 I answered then, and said, I know, Lord, that the most High is called merciful, in that he hath mercy upon them which are not yet come into the world,
63 And upon those also that turn to his law;
64 And that he is patient, and long suffereth those that have sinned, as his creatures;
65 And that he is bountiful, for he is ready to give where it needeth;
66 And that he is of great mercy, for he multiplieth more and more mercies to them that are present, and that are past, and also to them which are to come.
67 For if he shall not multiply his mercies, the world would not continue with them that inherit therein.
68 And he pardoneth; for if he did not so of his goodness, that they which have committed iniquities might be eased of them, the ten thousandth part of men should not remain living.
69 And being judge, if he should not forgive them that are cured with his word, and put out the multitude of contentions,
70 There should be very few left peradventure in an innumerable multitude.

-- Apocrypha: 2 Esdras Chapter 7


And you can expect that the first few years of this road may be bright and encouraging, but remember that the opposite will come, and when it does, then know you have finished all your work on this plane of life and there actually remains nothing for you but to go through, trusting Divine mercy; for then, you have reached the junction of two ways, one this dark and trying passage, the other, death of the body; and if you choose to turn back at this point, then great darkness and many evils will follow, and early dissolution, preparatory to coming back into the body again, as a child under very unfavorable conditions, where darkness will be intensified many-fold. So there is no escape.

"Every one that comes into the world has a certain amount of use to perform, and the teachings that we are giving, are for the purpose of accelerating these developments and hastening on that period that is inevitable for all, sooner or later; and as soon as you have lived out your former karma, you are ready and must meet your present life's karma, that is, you must meet, and live out, and conquer all the conditions that you have created in yourself during this life; for it is an inevitable law that we reap that which we sow; and how much better is it to meet them as brave men and women and conquer them, now that we know what they are, than to delay the work for another life!

"Life is as though we were placed in a long corridor, impregnable walls on either side (composed by the limits of our capacity), forcing circumstances behind us — which are the needs and conditions of life. The inevitable destiny for which we were made lies at the far end of the corridor; circumstances, like an army of spears, force us on slowly, but with ever-present persistency. Now we can choose in this state whether we will move forward only as we are forced by the point of the spear, rush blindly against the walls and injure ourselves, or place our eye on the inevitable end, and make all haste in reaching it." (Vol., II. Page 206.)

Some Reasons for Building The Esoteric College.

1st, — Thousands of the most highly developed people all over the land are suffering and dying for the want of quiet and harmonious surroundings, wherein their real natures can find development and expression.

2nd, — Many are being destroyed by the impure and poisonous emanation from vicious people; and all sensitive natures are being constantly diseased in mind and body, by the radiation from those who are mentally and morally diseased.

3rd, — Good men and women are constantly pained by the lack of proper education amongst those with whom they come in contact; the lack of knowledge prevents their understanding and practicing those matters which would contribute most directly towards the prevention of poverty, disease and crime.

4th, — Under present social conditions, those who possess means, and who desire to be philanthropic, and to help the needy by direct contributions, find their help is more frequently a curse instead of a blessing.

5th, — Those who use their wealth to endow institutions of learning, hospitals and homes, frequently find them used for selfish purposes, and that the learning and training received, fails to touch the moral and spiritual nature, and that their efforts have failed in accomplishing the good intended.

6th, — The possession of the necessary wealth to properly equip and endow an institution of the kind contemplated, is becoming extremely hazardous in the present social condition, and precautions must be taken for the protection of such an institution from all possible encroachments by vandalism and riot, and this is what the College can promise its investors.

7th, — Great attainments are almost impossible to the majority, in the present unhealthful conditions of the air, water, soil, foods, and society; the College will obviate these difficulties.

8th, — There will be no discordant noises, pitches, forces and conditions to disturb studies and contemplations; there will be no opportunities for students to indulge in bad practices or habits during their College life, they must lead an absolutely chaste life free from all vices. A few years free from excitement, evils, impure air, water, foods, and in the presence of pure people will do wonderful things for the good of the young men and women of the land.

9th, — A full course in all the Arts and Sciences, and in all the knowledge of the world will be given to all classes that are willing to receive and able to utilize, from the preliminary culture, to the highest attainments that can be made by man.

10th, — The College will from the first, have connected with it the Laboratory of Department No. 1. G....R; and if proper facilities can be obtained it will in due time become the general G.....R Laboratory and Department, through which the Esoteric Movement can have access to materials and wealth proportionate to its needs and utmost uses, to an extent of which it is at present unwise to speak except to those who are to become interested in the work.

11th, — The College will possess the combined knowledges of all ages past, and as soon as in good working order can control, by new and startling inventions and discoveries, all the methods of civilization and give to the world a system of ethics which will remove war and strife; but of this we are not at liberty to speak further than to say that it can control the world's food-supply, not by monopolizing or interfering with the present sources of supply, but by offering a new and perpetual source of edibles and nutrients containing all the elements needed for the growth and maintenance of the body and mind, — one that will do away with the slaughtering of animals, and the eating of improperly preserved foods, diseased meats, and partly decayed vegetables.

Any person who desires to be engaged in such work should call upon or address us, and we will guarantee to convince them of the truth of the above statements.

***

May the God and Father of all the Living, so guide and control the mind of his prepared ones, that they will act in this all important matter, not only for their own eternal well-being, but for that of all.

Cause them, O God of love, wisdom and power, to realize the facts herein stated! Thou hast made provisions for the answer to the oft repeated prayer, — "Let Thy kingdom come, and Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven;" and may they be caused to realize that herein. Thou, in Thy bountiful goodness hast made provisions for them, which will more than justify the words: — "Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive what God has prepared for those who love him." O God, into thy hands have we committed all we are, all we have or will ever be entrusted with, to be used for thy beloved children, asking naught for self; and if we are permitted to see thy people enjoying the good Thou hast prepared for them, we shall be satisfied. Now into Thy hands we commit the result of this our effort. Do Thou dispose the people according to Thy wisdom, for the work is Thine, the people are thine, and we Thy servants to be commanded, and we will obey.

Amen.