A note of warning by William Judge
My attention has been arrested by
the address delivered in the Adyar course by Dr. Daly and reported in the
September Theosophist. It is entitled "Clairvoyance."
Coming out in the Adyar course, it
has a certain flavor of authority which will appeal to many members of the
Society and may cause them to adopt the suggestions for practice given in the
latter part of the address. Yet at the same time it is very true that the
Theosophical Society is not responsible for the utterances of members in their
private capacity.
The fact that clairvoyance is a
power sought after by many persons cannot be disputed, but the questions, Is it
well to try to develop clairvoyance? and Shall we teach it? have not yet been
definitely decided. Hence I may be permitted to give my views upon them.
At the outset I desire to declare my
personal attitude on these questions and my beliefs as to facts. In using the
term "clairvoyance" I intend to include in it all clear perception on
that plane.
I have for many years been convinced
by proofs furnished by others and from personal experience that clairvoyance is
a power belonging to man's inner nature; and also that it is possessed by the
animal kingdom.
This faculty is either inherited or
educed by practice.
Those who have it by birth are
generally physically diseased or nervously deranged. The cases where
clairvoyance is shown by a perfectly healthy and well-balanced person are rare.
The records of spiritualism for over
forty years in America conclusively prove that clairvoyance cannot be safely
sought after by persons who have no competent guide; that its pursuit has done
harm; and that almost every medium to whom one puts the question "Am I
able to develop clairvoyance?" will reply "Yes."
There are no competent guides in
this pursuit to be found here or in Europe who are willing to teach one how to
acquire it without danger.
The qualifications such a guide
should possess render the finding of one difficult if not impossible. They are:
the power to look within and see clearly the whole inner nature of the student;
a complete knowledge of all the planes upon which clairvoyance acts, including
knowledge of the source, the meaning, and the effect of all that is perceived
by the clairvoyant; and last, but not least, the power to stop at will the
exercise of the power. Evidently these requirements call for an adept.
Who are the teachers of
clairvoyance, and those who advise that it be practiced?
In the main, the first are mediums,
and any investigator knows how little they know. Every one of them differs from
every other in his powers. The majority have only one sort of clairvoyance;
here and there are some who combine, at most, three classes of the faculty. Not
a single one is able to mentally see behind the image or idea perceived, and
cannot say in a given case whether the image seen is the object itself or the
result of a thought from another mind.
For in these planes of perception
the thoughts of men become as objective as material objects are to our human
eyes. It is true that a clairvoyant can tell you that what is being thus
perceived is not apprehended by the physical eye, but beyond that he cannot go.
Of this I have had hundreds of examples. In 99 out of 100 instances the seer
mistook the thought from another mind for a clairvoyant perception of a living
person or physical object.
The seers of whom I speak see always
according to their inner tendency, which is governed by subtle laws of heredity
which are wholly unknown to scientific men and much more to mediums and seers.
One will only reach the symbolic plane; another that which is known to
occultists as the positive side of sound; another to the negative or positive
aspects of the epidermis and its emanations; and so on through innumerable
layer after layer of clairvoyance and octave after octave of vibrations. They
all know but the little they have experienced, and for any other person to seek
to develop the power is dangerous. The philosophy of it all, the laws that
cause the image to appear and disappear, are terra incognita.
The occult septenary scheme in
nature with all its modifications produces multiple effects, and no mere
clairvoyant is able to see the truth that underlies the simplest instance of
clairvoyant perception. If a man moves from one chair to another, immediately
hundreds of possibilities arise for the clairvoyant eye, and he alone who is a
highly trained and philosophical seer —an adept, in short— can combine them all
so as to arrive at true clear-perception.
In the simple act described almost
all the centres of force in the moving being go into operation, and each one
produces its own peculiar effect in the astral light. At once the motion made
and thoughts aroused elicit their own sound, color, motion in ether, amount of
etheric light, symbolic picture, disturbance of elemental forces, and so on
through the great catalogue. Did but one wink his eye, the same effects follow
in due order. And the seer can perceive but that which attunes itself to his
own development and personal peculiarities, all limited in force and degree.
What, may I ask, do clairvoyants
know of the law of prevention or encrustation which is acting always with many
people?
Nothing, absolutely nothing.
How do they explain those cases
where, try as they will, they cannot see anything- whatever regarding certain
things?
They don't know how to explain it either.
Judging from human nature and the
sordidness of many schools of clairvoyance, are we not safe in affirming that
if there were any real or reliable clairvoyance about us now-a days among those
who offer to teach it or take pay for it, long ago fortunes would have been
made by them, banks despoiled, lost articles found, and friends more often
reunited? Admitting that there have been sporadic instances of success on these
lines, does not the exception prove that true clairvoyance is not understood or
likely to be?
But what shall theosophists do?
Stop all attempts at clairvoyance.
And why? Because it leads them slowly but surely — almost beyond recall — into
an interior and exterior passive state where the will is gradually overpowered
and they are at last in the power of the demons who lurk around the threshold
of our consciousness. Above all, follow no advice to "sit for
development". Madness lies that way. The feathery touches which come upon
the skin while trying these experiments are said by mediums to be the gentle
touches of "the spirits". But they are not. They are
caused by the ethereal fluids from within us making their way out through the
skin and thus producing the illusion of a touch. When enough has gone out, then
the victim is getting gradually negative, the future prey for spooks and
will-o'-the-wisp images.
"But what" they
say, "shall we pursue and study?" Study the philosophy of life, leave
the decorations that line the road of spiritual development for future lives,
and — practice altruism.
(The Path, December 1890, p.282-284; Echoes of Orient I, p.176-179)
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