Chapter 9: The Hidden Side of Nature
WHEN IN THE preceding chapters of this book I spoke of things invisible, I nearly always either meant the unseen realm that is your soul, and which unfolds by virtue of your soul’s inherent energies, or the sublime dimension of the Spirit: the timeless world from which you hail and that you now must find again, if you would reach your Living God and know the inner peace which this world cannot grant you.
There is, however, still another realm of unseen things that has to be included; a realm by which your physical existence is invisibly surrounded, in much the same way as material shapes and objects are around you in the world you see.
This physically unseen dimension constitutes a part of the domain of matter that still is little known, although it is by far the larger part of physical reality.
The hidden realm of nature will at first provide your inner guide and teacher with the bridge he needs to cross whenever he would reach you; for then you are not yet prepared to recognize him in yourself—by virtue of your soul’s already integrated energies—as you shall later know him: in your Living God.
Initially, he cannot reach your inner self except by way of the invisible dimensions of this world.
THERE always have been people who could “see” this hidden side of nature with great clarity.
For attaining their sublimest inner goal, this faculty of “seeing” was, and is, of no significance.
Those who have that gift can simply see more things than others; as someone looking through a telescope may recognize the rings and moons of distant planets, while another, with unaided eyes, is able to distinguish only twinkling points.
The faculty of seeing the invisible domain of nature is rooted in an organ of the human being’s material body; in modern times it is, however, rarely found to have enough potential for development to be of any use.
In ancient times this organ often was far more developed in humanity, and also future genera- tions shall see it flourish once again; provided they are able to make certain that its function will no longer cause them any harm.
The evolution of such organs, which are not needed in external life, proceeds like ebb and flow, with alternating levels of intensity, within the species as a whole.
So, too, the faculty of seeing the invisible dimension of this physical, material world will often seem almost extinct, only to flare up again, at other times, in very many places.
We here are dealing with vestigial organs of the human creature body of primeval times. Still, such organs will prove beneficial only if a person’s soul has been prepared to put the given faculty to proper use.
INDIVIDUALS in whom the organ for perceiving the nonvisible domain of nature is completely developed are, therefore, always equally endowed with more experienced souls, given that their energies had been at work on earth before, in many human lives of earlier times.
Where the faculty of “seeing” the nonvisible dimension is joined by the desire to gain higher knowledge, persons thus endowed shall not fall victim to deceptive forces in the unseen realm of nature; for they shall find compassionate guides and caring helpers from the Spirit’s realm who will enhance their understanding of the things they see.
It is even possible that, once their inner selves have fully been awakened, higher beings in the Spirit’s realm will grant them power over energies inherent in that unseen world, so that they may take part in the eternal plan of human beings’ spiritual development, such as it has been furthered, for many thousands of years, by the Spirit’s Luminaries, who mediate eternal Light.
As a rule, there are but few among the seers of the hidden realm who will prove suited for this task.
Even so, however, it is greatly to be wished that those who feel they might possess the organ for perceiving the physically invisible dimension of reality, in more or less developed form, would carefully observe that faculty and guard it well against abuse.
With proper care one might see many a potential gift become developed, which then could find much beneficial use.
The world has need of many “workers in the vineyard,” and it would profit much today if it could once more find enlightened counselors and teachers capable of walking safely also on the hidden paths of nature’s unseen realm.
One cannot here gain insight by experimenting with somnambulants and mediums submerged in trance, but only through the personal, direct experience of those endowed with the required organ of perception.
One surely must give credit to scientific zeal, but with psychical experiments which, as their very name implies, are based on false assumptions, given that they do not involve the soul, one is merely attracting parasitic forces from the invisible domain of nature.
These parasites of nature’s unseen realm are creatures that, in certain ways, resemble closely the dynamic energies that form the human soul, although the two must never be confused.
To do so would be like mistaking apes, grinning and frowning between the bars that hold them in their cages, with the inspired artistry of brilliant actors representing human feelings on the stage.
THE CREATURES of the unseen part of nature one attracts in “para-psychical” experiments, as well as in séances, where in worshipful solemnity participants believe they are communicating with “departed souls,” are not by any means devoid of a degree of consciousness, and often they “know” more than those who mean to probe their knowledge. Their self-awareness is, however, only dim and dreamlike, so that one cannot properly, by human standards, condemn them as immoral if they pretend to be whatever their interrogators think they are, or wish to find in them.
Above all else, they crave to manifest their own existence, and to that end they will resort to every means within their power; but they will also go beyond their limits, feigning to have powers they do not possess.
They are not bound by moral laws, nor by a sense of conscience.
To destroy you will afford them no less pleasure than to lend you strength, if only they can make their own existence known by means of the effect their power has on you.
Dreadful is the fate of those whom nature’s unseen parasites already have within their grip.
Like leeches they will drain their victim’s energies; for they must feed upon the life-blood of their prey, if mortal humans would have them at their service.
If victims cannot rid themselves by their own strength, these creatures’ ghastly urges will enslave them, until their very soul shall finally have died, because its energies will gradually detach themselves and leave them. And when their mortal form shall one day have been laid to rest, their former consciousness will perish and return to nothing: the only true, because eternal, “death” that human mortals have to fear.
VERY FEW can speak from knowledge about the phantomlike, deceitful nature of these beings, which cannot properly be named, since visible reality provides no suitable analogies.
It is the power of these unseen creatures that fakirs use to work their eerie feats; and as the world is unaware of their existence, people marvel at the fakirs’ deeds, if ever there appears a true performer of that demon-ridden craft.
These beings are found capable of many things that human beings cannot ever equal, so long as they rely on merely their own physical capacities.
They “see” your thoughts more clearly than even you may know them, and the most secret things you picture in your mind they can make visible before your very eyes.
They can produce material forms and substances that, for a certain time, will be as tangible as any other thing on earth, or any substance that you know; for these invisible intelligences are the hidden weavers shaping every earthly form, and they direct the unseen threads that underlie all visible phenomena in nature.
They can assume the bodily appearances of persons who have long since died; for every form that once existed here on earth continues to be present in their sphere; namely, in a shape that one might—very loosely—speak of as a casting mold or die, from which one may at any time produce another copy.
In reality, this casting mold is an extremely delicate, invisible configuration: a system, as it were, of leaf-like membranes that preserves, in mathematically exact proportions, every inner and external part that once had formed a mortal human body.
As a rule, that die or matrix is compressed into the smallest space within itself, but under suitable conditions it will become inflated, so to speak, with the organic energies that normally sustain the physical activity and body of the medium.
During the time that such a manifestation lasts, the medium must needs be kept in the unconscious state one knows as “trance.”
The inflated phantom body, which is of very brief duration even under optimum conditions, functions as the instrument through which the psyche—the physically conditioned creature soul—of the unconscious medium performs its operations. During the séance, the medium’s psyche is subjected to a kind of hypnosis by the unseen, physical intelligences which manifest themselves in the reconstituted phantom shape.
That such a phantom wraith can even speak —indeed, will sound exactly like its dead and buried former occupant—is no more surprising than the ability to speak of any normally embodied individual; given that, for the duration of its brief appearance, the phantom body, too, possesses each and every organ that once had physically existed in its deceased original, including even bodily deformities and similar defects.
I trust there is no special need to emphasize that such a phantom shape, preserved in the invisible domain of nature, has nothing more in common with the human individual that once had been attached to it, than does a reptile with the slough it leaves behind.
THERE IS a reason for my dealing here in some detail with facts whose very mention I find utterly repugnant.
I want to see you able objectively to judge phenomena that otherwise might startle and confuse you.
You should not let yourself be duped, for simple lack of knowledge, by things that only seem astounding.
To be sure, the fraud you may encounter in séances does not pose any real threat.
Serious danger is met only in authentic contact with these hidden beings.
MY WARNING here is prompted by informed concern.
For if you ever should experience the effects these beings can produce, they well might sense in you another victim.
All too often do they find their prey among those seekers who, instead of striving to unite their timeless soul and find their God, will search instead for occult powers, without possessing the maturity and insight one must have before a Mediator—a fellow mortal who is conscious in the Spirit—is able to prepare them, in many years of strictest discipline, to master these demonic creatures and their frightening powers.
But even then there will be constant danger for anyone who needlessly attracts and uses them; and none who had to learn to subjugate this unseen realm of physical reality, in order to establish his authority, will ever stay there any longer than absolute necessity demands, in order that he may accomplish a specific task.