DAVID ANDERSON-BERRY, ESQ., M.D., LL.D., ON OCCULTISM. 159

She said she was in psychical as well as physical connection with these "Mahatmas," and sealed her testimony by giving manifestations of "occult phenomena."

Unfortunately, for her, the fraudulent character of these "occult phenomena " was displayed by several capable and responsible investigators.

Thus we are not asked to study these "occult phenomena,' but to investigate and judge the teachings which have thus been handed down by secret companies of men both in the West and the East, especially in the East.

Starting with the premise that this "secret doctrine" is the groundwork of all great religions, it follows that members of these religions may be occultists because rites and ceremonies are a mere camouflage; a gilding of the pill to make it palatable to various tastes.

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We

Hence they quote the words of Archbishop Temple (1857): are in need of, and are being gradually forced into, a theology based on psychology."

"Rites they are, but not dogmas. Therefore these deep religious customs can be adhered to by the learned and unlearned alike and form a bond of union between them. These rites are the ties that bind the population together" (Dr. Steiner, Investigations in Occultism, p. 222).

Nay, they approve also of such books as the Bible. "Dr. Steiner says much about the Bible, and his teachings are wholly ethical and consistent with the broad truths of Christianity." (In. in Occultism, p. 25.)

As to the truth of this we shall see.

They also approve of the doctrine of the Trinity: "The whole, in its ideal and complete perfection, proceeding eternally from God, existing eternally as the object of God's love and thought, and expressed in time in the person of Jesus Christ, is the second person of the Holy Trinity; and dwelling in us, manifesting, expressing Himself by means of us is His Spirit, the third person of the Holy Trinity" (Rev. G. H. McNeile in Self-Training in Prayer), quoted with this remark: "The following statement. . is perfectly consistent with Dr. Steiner's investigations" (op. cit., pp. 26, 27). This, too, we shall see whether it is so or not.

What are the chief doctrines taught?

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I. Reincarnation. This is, that souls existing from all time enter bodies at different stages of their (the souls') history. Con sequently, 2200 years are generally said to elapse between two

incarnations. In this time man appears twice, and comes as a rule once as man and once as woman, so that the time is really 1100 years" (op. cit., p. 64). This time is fixed by the passage of the sun into a particular sign of the zodiac at the vernal equinox; "this sign constantly recedes, so that in a period of, say, 2200 years the sun enters the next sign " (op. cit., p. 63). Reincarnation or metempsychosis is not accepted by Western thought. Two obstacles to its acceptance are: there is no remembrance of any previous existence, and on memory depends our personality. And souls are not physical entities like a packet of tea to be handed on to the next recipient. Its nature depends on the body to which it belongs, for a dog's soul or a centipede's soul is not a human soul.

And if it is replied: But we are speaking of reincarnation as a man or a woman,—then I ask, where is responsibility, which is the basis of judgment and reward?

II. The Nature of Man.-According to occultists, a man's body is a complex thing. It consists of:

(1)“The physical body, through which all outer senses function.

The etheric body, which in delicately toned light permeates the physical body throughout.

The astral body, which contains the psychic principles :

(a) The sentient soul;

(b) The intellectual soul;

(c) The self-conscious soul.

(4) The ego or body of consciousness, which sets about transforming the first three by acting upon the psychic principles.

Manas, partly developed.

(6) "Buddhi,

"

"Atma, of which there is merely a seed ”

(op. cit., pp. 55, 56).

I give this description of the ego as seen by the initiate :"As he inspects the astral body" (this has, we are told, "a reddish-grey fundamental colour ") "he sees everything in perpetual motion except a little space, which, like a bluish egg placed on its side, lies motionless behind the forehead, near the root of the nose" (pp. 51, 52).

This is the description how one is to see the etheric body :66 If you want to see the etheric organ alone, you must, by use of your will-power, be in a position to suggest the physical frame away, while fully retaining ordinary self-consciousness. If and when you succeed in this, the space where the physical frame was is not left empty; you see in front of you the etheric organ, a form made of bluish-pink light, a phantom of light, somewhat darker than a peach blossom."

Needless to say that I have not succeeded. But it reminds me of a book which was published as a medical work. It was accompanied by a screen. You were to place the patient in a certain position in a room suitably arranged and then to look at him through the screen. You would then observe certain differently coloured emanations. A key to the colours gave you the names of the diseases these signified.

On a representative of the firm pressing me to buy, I replied that I would wait. Already I was a pioneer in one direction, and that was enough for me. I would wait for a lead.

It came to nothing, and (I believe) the firm to bankruptcy. Even the promises of the occultists are not encouraging. "But everyone may say: 'I shall see the greater worlds as soon as the eyes of my spirit have been opened.' An operation may be performed on the eyes and ears of each one who has the necessary patience and perseverance.

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How long will it be before I can gain these powers? Subba Row has given answer.

He says:

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One attains them

in seventy incarnations'" (you will remember the 2200 years!),

666 another in seven incarnations

The three worlds are :

(op. cit., pp. 81, 82).

world of the soul.

For instance, he

(1) The physical world, the scene of human life. (2) The astral or psychic world, the Here everything is reversed as in a mirror. has to learn to read numbers backwards. The number 345 will appear as 543" (p. 83). This applies to moral matters, so there we are surrounded "by malignant black forms which threaten and torment them.' Fortunately, "a seemingly approaching form is really in retreat" (p. 84).

"In the physical world we see first the hen and then the egg; in the astral world, we see first the egg and then the hen that laid it."

(3) Devachanic or spiritual world spreads broader than the preceding "It is a world of colour and of sound." The student

M

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"learns to understand a profound saying of Indian Wisdom: Tat tvam asi, i.e. That art thou.' Much has been written about this, but its true significance is only learned by the student when he goes from the astral world into that of Devachan. Then for a moment he sees his physical form outside him and says. Tat tvam asi, That art thou' (op. cit., p. 88). Our writer assures us that this world of sound is added to the astral world or world of colours. True it was already there, but then it had no meaning. He adds "Pythagoras designated this sound the music of the spheres . . . Cosmic harmony is heard; everything lives in the form of sounds. Goethe, being an initiate, makes

the sun resound and unveils the secret of Devachan ..‘The sun sings in the old way, competing with his brother's choir, and accomplishes his predestined journey with a march of thunder.' He means the spirit of the sun, which really resounds when we are in the world of Devachan."

Then we are told Devachan is divided into four parts :

(1) "Everything physically solid is visible—the devachanic continent.

(2) "Everything living flows along as water-the devachanic ocean.

(3) "Everything in the form of feelings and emotions, pleasure and pain, flows like the air-this is the atmosphere of Devachan.

(4) "Everything living among mankind in the form of original thought the region of spiritual archetypes."

Then we come to the Akashic Record, where everything done amongst men, whether mentioned in history or not, is kept in an imperishable record. Does the enquirer wish to know anything about Nelson? then he has only to concentrate, and around him on every hand appear pictures of everything that Nelson did, what he thought, and what his intentions and the imaginations of his heart were. Here we would have many portraits of the unfortunate Lady Hamilton. But we are told "these akashic records are a perplexing language, because Akasha is itself alive." A curious statement! For a reason still more curious!

III. Death. We are told that in sleep man loses consciousness because the astral vehicle has left the body . . . at death something further happens. Not only the astral and the ego

...

but also the etheric body leaves the physical . . Death takes place when the connection . . . is broken at the heart."

As an illustration of how the etheric leaves the physical body, we are told "when a finger goes to sleep the clairvoyant will observe another sort of finger creeping out. This is the etheric finger, or the etheric body leaving the physical in this particular place.

Now when I have sat on a hard chair my leg has gone to sleep, because of the pressure of the edge of the chair on the great sciatic nerve interfering with its functions. But if I believed the occultist I should know that this simple reason is foolishness. It is not pressure on my sciatic nerve, but the etheric leg leaving my trunk at that place; and if I were clairvoyant and looked into a mirror, I should exclaim, "Oh, Isle of Man! here is a man with three legs!"

. .

"We have now come to that point of time after death when we see in an ordinary man two corpses physical body... etheric body" (op. cit., p. 59). What remains alive? The astral body.

Now we have in our path of dissolution after death reached Kama loca, or "the place of desire." Gradually, however, through "a law of the spiritual" world, which is "expansion," we become "a third corpse," for we shed our astral body (op. cit., p. 60).

What happens should he be quickly re-born and light upon his "astral "In this case the old astral body appears ? corpse to him in bad dreams or visions as his second ego, and hovers round him, harassing and troubling him. This is the false Guardian of the Threshold." Now we know what nightmares' are!

But we gain, because when dying we perceive a memory of all the past in a form of pictures. This gradually fades, but "the complete product of the past life is stored in the higher astral body in the form of an extract of energy" (p. 62, italics mine). This when we are reincarnated forms another body, which is called "causal." Thus these that have lived on earth repeatedly "have a rich causal body" (p. 62).

Thus we see how we part with our bodies in death. What remains? The soul and the spirit. The former is the link between the latter and the body. After death the soul and spirit are bound together, and as the soul is coloured and saturated by the body which it inhabited, it forms a sort of covering for the spirit replacing the body. It appears to me to be like the soft skin