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EDITOR’S NOTE TO:
[In this paper read by A. P. Sinnett before the London Lodge of The Theosophical Society, there occurs the following sentence: “A struggle . . . takes place in the sphere or state of existence immediately adjacent to our physical state—in Kamaloka—. . . ending in the rupture of the fifth principle or human Ego ....” To this H. P. B. appends the following note:]
The word “rupture” seems an unhappy expression, as it suggests the idea of a separate entity, whereas only a principle is under discussion. The “higher attributes” of the 5th principle are evolved in it, during the life time of the Personality, by its more or less close assimilation with the sixth, by the development, or rather the spiritualization by the Buddhi of the intellectual capacities which have their seat in the Manas (the fifth). During the struggle spoken of and when the spiritual monad striving to enter the Devachanic state is being subjected to the process of purification, what happens is this: personal consciousness, which alone constitutes the personal Ego, has to rid itself of every earthly speck of grossly material taint before it becomes capable of living “in spirit” and as a spirit. Therefore, while the upper consciousness with all its noblest higher feelings—such as undying love, goodness, and all the attributes of divinity in man, even in their latent state are [is] drawn by affinity towards, follow[s] and merge[s] into the monad, thus endowing it—which is part and parcel of universal consciousness and has therefore no consciousness of its own—with a personal self-consciousness, the dross of our earthly thoughts and cares, “the material tastes, emotions and proclivities” are left to lurk behind in the shell. It is, so to say, the pure incense, the spirit of the flame, disengaging itself from the ashes and cinders of the burnt-up fire. The word “rupture,” therefore, is a misleading one.
329The “Soul when laden with unsatisfied desires” will remain “earth-bound” and suffer. If the desire is on a purely earthly plane, the separation may take place notwithstanding, and the shell alone be left wandering; if it were some act of justice and beneficence, such as the redress of a wrong, it can be accomplished only through visions and dreams, the spirit of the impressed person being drawn within the spirit of the Devachanee, and by assimilation with it, first instructed and then led by Karma to redress the wrong. But in no case is it a good or meritorious action for “living friends” to encourage the simulacra, whether shells or entities, to communicate. For, instead of “smoothing the path of its spiritual progress,” they impede it. In days of old, it was the initiated hierophant under whose guidance the mediums of the adyta, the sibyls, the oracles and the seers acted. In our days there are no initiated priests or adepts at hand to guide the blind instincts of the mediums, themselves the slaves of yet blinder influences. The ancients knew more about those matters than we do. There must be some good reason why every old religion prohibits intercourse with the dead as a crime. Let the Hindus always bear in mind what the Atharva Veda says to that effect, and the Christians the prohibition of Moses. Subjective, purely spiritual ‘‘Mediumship’’ is the only harmless kind, and is often an elevating gift that might be cultivated by every one.—Ed.