|
|
|
LETTER XXXII
A CHANGE OF
FOCUS
With the guidance of
the Teacher, during the last few weeks I have been going to and fro in the earth
and walking up and down in it. You smile at the veiled reference. But have not
certain friends of yours actually feared me, as if I were the devil of the Book
of Job?
Now, to be serious, I have been visiting those lands
and cities where in former lives I lived and worked among men. One of the many
advantages of travel is that it helps a man to remember his former existences.
There is certainly a magic in places.
I have been in Egypt, in India, in Persia, in Spain, in Italy; I have been
in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Greece, Turkey, and many other lands. The
Dardanelles were not closed to me recently, when by reason of the war you could
not have passed through. There are advantages to almost every condition, even my
present one; for the law of compensation holds good.
In certain lives of the past I was a wide traveler.
Now you may wonder how it is that I pass easily from this world to yours,
seeing into both. But you must remember that your world and mine occupy about
the same space; that the plane of the earth’s surface is one of the lower and
more material planes of our world, using the word “plane” as you would use the
word “layer.”
As I have said before, there are also places accessible to us which lie at
some distance above the earth’s surface. “Mansions in the skies” are more than
figurative.
I have only slightly to change my focus at any time, to find myself in your
world. That I cannot be seen there with the naked eye is no proof that I am not
there. Without that change of focus, which is done through an action of will and
by knowing the method, I might even be occupying the same space as something in
your world and not know it. Note well this point, for it is only half of
something which I have to say. The other half is, that you also may at any time
be—so far as space is concerned—in the immediate neighborhood of interesting
things in our world, and not know that you are there.
But if you focus to this world you are more or less
conscious of it. So when I, knowing how, focus to your world, I am there in
consciousness and can enjoy the varied sites of many cities, the changing
aspects of many lands.
When I first came out I could not see my way about the earth very well, but
now I can see better.
No, I am not going to give you a formula to give to other people by which
you or they could change focus at will and enter into relation with this world,
because such knowledge at the present stage of human progress would do more harm
than good. I merely state the fact, and leave the application for those who have
the curiosity and the ability to demonstrate it.
My object in writing these letters is primarily to convince a few
persons—to strengthen their certainty in the fact of immortality, or the
survival of the soul after the bodily change which is called death. Many think
they believe who are not certain whether they believe or not. If I can make my
presence as a living and vital entity felt in these letters, it will have the
effect of strengthening the belief of certain persons in the doctrine of
immortality.
This is a materialistic age. A large percentage of men
and women have no real interest in the life beyond the grave. But they will all
have to come out here sooner or later, and perhaps a few will find the change
easier, the journey less formidable, by reason of what I shall have taught them.
Is it not worth while? Is it not worth a little effort on your part as well as
on mine?
Any person approaching the great change who shall seriously study these
letters and lay their principles to heart, and who shall will to remember them
after passing out, need not fear anything.
We all fail in much that we undertake, but I hope I shall not fail in this.
Do not you fail on your side. I could not do this work without you, nor could
you do it without me. That is an answer to the supposition that I am your
subconscious mind.
I have been in Constantinople and have stood in the
very room where I once had a remarkable experience, hundreds of years ago. I
have seen the walls, I have touched them, I have read the etheric records of
their history, and my own history in connection therewith.
I have walked the rose-gardens of Persia and have smelled the flowers—the
grandchildren, hundreds of times removed, of those roses whose fragrance was an
ecstasy to me when, watching with the bulbul, I paced there in another form and
with intentions different to mine now. It was the perfume of the roses which
made me remember.
In Greece also I have lived over the old days. Before
their degeneration began, what a race they were! I think that concentration was
the secret of their power. The ether around that peninsula is written over with
their exploits, in daring thought as well as daring action. The old etheric
records are so vivid that they shine through the later writings; for you must
know that what are called astral records lie layer against layer everywhere. We
read one layer instead of another, either by affinity or by will. It is no more
strange than that a man may go among the millions of volumes in the British
Museum and select the one he wants. The most marvellous things are always simple
of explanation if one has the key to unlock their secret.
There has been much nonsense written about vibration, but nevertheless
truth lies thereabouts. Where there is so much smoke there must be fire.
In India I have met with yogis in meditation. Do you
know why their peculiar way of breathing produces psychic results? No, you do
not. Now let me tell you: By holding the breath long a certain—shall I say
poison?—is produced in the body, which poison, acting on the psychic nature,
changes the vibration. That is all. Volumes have been written about yoga, but
have any of them said that? The untrained healthy lungs, in the ordinary
operation, get rid of this poison by processes well known to
physiologists,––that is, in the natural man, adjusted to and working contentedly
on the material plane. But in order for a man still living on the material plane
to become adjusted to the psychic world, a change of vibration is necessary.
This change of vibration may be produced by a slight overdose of the
above-mentioned poison. Is it dangerous? Yes, to the ignorant. To those who are
learned in its use it is no more dangerous than most of the drugs in the
pharmacopoeia.
Another time I will tell you about other secrets which I have discovered
going to and fro in the earth and walking up and down in it.
LETTER XXXIII
LETTER
XXXI |
