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vol. title: vol. period: 1881 pages in vol.: 439 |
< An Experimental Research (continued from page 11-296) >
where the forms of spoon and limo do longer hold, I dare ear I may construct some verbal explanation of how a psychical acts upon that which under the form of space appears to be a material entity; but such a proceeding would be unscientific, and therefore, though I believe that such a supposition is philosophic, I am satisfied that in the present developement of our knowledge it is unscientific and I therefore avoid it as much as possible.
It is a perfectly Legitimate attempt to trace the influence of one thinking body upon another, through means of motions convoyed across space, and, supposing such to have boon effected through the help of a medium, to generalise from that to the continuity that must exist between the movements of the individual empirical Ego as it changes in time. Such an attempt is at any rate made in the right direction: it starts from the known and attempts to reach the unknown by fearless use of analogy. But the attempt which begins with the assumption of the influence of my mind upon my body, and from that attempts to rise to a general expression for the influence of my mind upon another man’s mind, without the use of the ordinary conventions, is essentially illegitimate, since it only brings in the motion of the common medium as an afterthought.
It is for the above reasons that I prefer to adopt my own method, and to make self-communion or self-influence a particular case of the intercourse and impressed influence of man and man. The great difficulty of mutter and spirit remains, from whatever side we view it, but the fact that the fearless completion of the materialistic hypothesis, when other and space are made the pseudo-objective theatre of man’s supersensuous possibilities, reconciles all contradictions, cannot be denied.
This method follows the order of experience in the acquirement of knowledge, for it regards Man as a complex space-filling creature, to be studied, at first, after the manner of the physical sciences, but leaving him in his maturity to recognise his relation with All that transcends space and time.
Materialism thus completely guarded permits the observer, when looking upon an abnormal state of affairs, to rest satisfied that, though he is obliged to accept in terms of his own molecular changes, any information which nature may offer, and is not necessarily responsible for either the physical or the moral aspect of the presentation, since consciousness only deals with already formed materials, moulded by forces with which, as a mere observer, he has nothing whatever to do, yet for the production of such results, in a larger sphere than that of the conscious, it also suggests that he may to his sorrow even in this life feel that he is answerable.
The Guardianship of the Thoughts
At various periods of his development the Rational Ascetic will have to encounter the brunt of the opposition of what the ancients called “the world, the flesh, and the devil.” Whatever shape this opposition may assume, it should be utterly disallowed to influence a man’s fixed thoughts, and should never divert him from his path. Soon the mask of friendship and attachment will fall; those behind it will appear in their true form, and once known they can be avoided. Even for such fallen creatures a perfect man has pity; he hopes for their eventual regeneration.
Great care and perseverance are necessary to constantly maintain a mental equilibrium, a placid tranquillity, a purity of thought, which nothing should ever be able to disturb; neither desires, grief, cares, nor excitements of any kind should ever ruffle the thoughts of a man striving for the Absolute. All things are transient but the Eternal. Man can live in eternity here even as much as he ever can beyond, for the beyond is not in the death through decay, but in the state of the soul.
Strive to know the intuitional part of your consciousness; watch it; keep it pure; let it guide you; keep the thoughts untarnished, and when the germ of the divine soul becomes known to you let it expand, and do not retard or disturb its growth. Never expose the innermost sanctuary of your soul to vulgar gaze, nor speak of the progress you make; if you have a seed-corn of faith, and one spot in your soul pure, regeneration is within your volitional power. But mistake not the means towards the end, for the end itself; many are there who have erred and thought inflation to be illumination. Leave all passion and earthly and vain desires; fix the soul in a pure life, and behold the soul is the life and the God who knew you, but whom you knew not.
Man to become perfect must overcome the vortex of vague thoughts and accept rightful pleasures at will only; he must make himself free of the forces which create by fatality life and death, and he must identify his self-will with the divine will by adhering to the supreme reason. For by following the lower, blind, animal inclinations of the natural man, he be-<... continues on page 11-298 >
Editor's notes
- ↑ The Guardianship of the Thoughts by J.K., London Spiritualist, No. 485, December 9, 1881, pp. 279-80
Sources
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London Spiritualist, No. 485, December 9, 1881, pp. 279-80