67. The Fallacy of Clairvoyance
Clairvoyance! What fabulous importance, what a fantastic reputation it enjoys with some, while others ridicule the idea! Some enquirers are curious but timid, and others are respectfully silent. Those who have this gift strut about like peacocks; they consider themselves specially blessed by the Almighty and feel they are immensely superior to other men who are less gifted.
They are only too willing to be admired for what, in reality, is just as unaccountable to them as it is to their fellowmen. They habitually wear a meaningless smile to hide their hopeless ignorance when questions are put to them. In truth they do not know more of what they are doing than does the chisel in the hand of the sculptor. Here again, man is at fault, and does great disservice to clairvoyants by trying to make out they are superior to other men. This way of thinking is now general, but quite wrong. Clairvoyants in most cases really see ethereal things, but that is nothing special, nothing either to astonish or to intimidate. It should be something quite natural. But it is only natural when it develops of itself without any extraneous help, which would be just as reprehensible out of place here as in the case of helping a man to die.
Clairvoyance is really only valuable where it is accompanied by corresponding knowledge. Knowledge alone can put it to useful purposes on the right occasions and at the right time. But most clairvoyants lack this knowledge, as is evident by their exaggerated zeal, ambitious arrogance and air of possessing superior knowledge.
It is just this supposed knowledge that prevents such people from advancing and indeed proves fatal to them; for their misguided efforts lead them astray and, before they are aware of it, to destruction. The only hope for such people is that their psychic faculties should get weaker and that by some circumstances favourable to their welfare they should, in time, lose this faculty altogether — that would save them.
Let us look more closely at these clairvoyants who spread their mistaken convictions among men. It is their doing that this subject is so discredited and draggled in the mud.
To have an approximate scale to go by, let us imagine Creation divided or separated into twenty gradations or steps (not spheres) counting from the Light on the twentieth step, downwards to the first step at the bottom; it is to the second step at farthest that the most accomplished clairvoyant can see, and those who can do this are mightily pleased with themselves. Those who can only see to the first step, however, are still more self-satisfied.
But it must be remembered that the most gifted man can only see to the level allowed by his own inner development: he is restricted to the step his own inner self has reached. From this it follows that he can really only see what is analogous to himself, what belongs to the region to which he will be attracted when he casts off his physical vessels, and no farther, for the moment he steps over into a region above the one to which he naturally belongs, he will lose all consciousness of his surroundings.
Without help he could not cross the boundary of his own sphere in any case, but supposing that a spirit from the next step above him took his soul up with him, he would, on passing over to the higher sphere, become insensible, he would fall asleep in the arms of his spirit-guide, and on his return he would only be able to recall what his own state of maturity allows him to see when he is awake: thus his journey would profit him nothing, but his soul's protecting body would suffer.
What he imagines he sees in regions beyond, whether landscapes or persons, are but pictures that have been shown to him, voices that he thinks he hears, that he has never really personally heard nor seen: all are so life-like that he cannot distinguish them from reality. It lies within the power of a stronger spirit to create such pictures at will. Hence it happens that so many imagine that they have been in much higher regions when they take their ethereal flights, than is the case really. This leads to many errors.
It is the same thing when many think they see or hear Christ Himself. What a misguided delusion! The absence of homogeneity between Christ and man puts such an immense gulf between them, that the eternal laws would absolutely forbid such an approach. It cannot be expected of the Son of God to appear as an afternoon-tea guest in a Séance to do the sitters a special favour; nor can this be expected of the great prophets or great spirits.
No human spirit, while it is in the flesh, is privileged to have free intercourse with the transcendental world, to see and hear its phenomena unveiled and thus, perhaps, climb upwards to the light by a quicker path. This, though quite natural, is not quite simple, for all must develop in strict accordance with the eternal laws. Furthermore, if such a gifted one neglects his earthly tasks to explore mysteries of the Beyond, he loses more than he gains, for when the time comes for his next life to begin, he will find he is prevented from advancing upwards, because of an unfilled gap in his mundane life. At a certain point he must pause: he remains bound and must return to earth to make good this intermission before he can continue to climb upwards. This is the simple and natural consequence of leaving something undone, of neglecting a duty. The omission must be made good.
Every stage of life must be lived through with the close attention its profound gravity demands. To neglect to do this causes a disruption, which makes itself felt with ever increasing acuteness the further man advances, and which eventually is the cause of the breakdown which precedes the final downfall, unless indeed measures are promptly taken to return, set the deficiency right, and clear the road. Unfortunately man has contracted the fatal habit of persistently grasping at what is out of his reach, because he imagines himself to be greater than he really is.
They are only too willing to be admired for what, in reality, is just as unaccountable to them as it is to their fellowmen. They habitually wear a meaningless smile to hide their hopeless ignorance when questions are put to them. In truth they do not know more of what they are doing than does the chisel in the hand of the sculptor. Here again, man is at fault, and does great disservice to clairvoyants by trying to make out they are superior to other men. This way of thinking is now general, but quite wrong. Clairvoyants in most cases really see ethereal things, but that is nothing special, nothing either to astonish or to intimidate. It should be something quite natural. But it is only natural when it develops of itself without any extraneous help, which would be just as reprehensible out of place here as in the case of helping a man to die.
Clairvoyance is really only valuable where it is accompanied by corresponding knowledge. Knowledge alone can put it to useful purposes on the right occasions and at the right time. But most clairvoyants lack this knowledge, as is evident by their exaggerated zeal, ambitious arrogance and air of possessing superior knowledge.
It is just this supposed knowledge that prevents such people from advancing and indeed proves fatal to them; for their misguided efforts lead them astray and, before they are aware of it, to destruction. The only hope for such people is that their psychic faculties should get weaker and that by some circumstances favourable to their welfare they should, in time, lose this faculty altogether — that would save them.
Let us look more closely at these clairvoyants who spread their mistaken convictions among men. It is their doing that this subject is so discredited and draggled in the mud.
To have an approximate scale to go by, let us imagine Creation divided or separated into twenty gradations or steps (not spheres) counting from the Light on the twentieth step, downwards to the first step at the bottom; it is to the second step at farthest that the most accomplished clairvoyant can see, and those who can do this are mightily pleased with themselves. Those who can only see to the first step, however, are still more self-satisfied.
But it must be remembered that the most gifted man can only see to the level allowed by his own inner development: he is restricted to the step his own inner self has reached. From this it follows that he can really only see what is analogous to himself, what belongs to the region to which he will be attracted when he casts off his physical vessels, and no farther, for the moment he steps over into a region above the one to which he naturally belongs, he will lose all consciousness of his surroundings.
Without help he could not cross the boundary of his own sphere in any case, but supposing that a spirit from the next step above him took his soul up with him, he would, on passing over to the higher sphere, become insensible, he would fall asleep in the arms of his spirit-guide, and on his return he would only be able to recall what his own state of maturity allows him to see when he is awake: thus his journey would profit him nothing, but his soul's protecting body would suffer.
What he imagines he sees in regions beyond, whether landscapes or persons, are but pictures that have been shown to him, voices that he thinks he hears, that he has never really personally heard nor seen: all are so life-like that he cannot distinguish them from reality. It lies within the power of a stronger spirit to create such pictures at will. Hence it happens that so many imagine that they have been in much higher regions when they take their ethereal flights, than is the case really. This leads to many errors.
It is the same thing when many think they see or hear Christ Himself. What a misguided delusion! The absence of homogeneity between Christ and man puts such an immense gulf between them, that the eternal laws would absolutely forbid such an approach. It cannot be expected of the Son of God to appear as an afternoon-tea guest in a Séance to do the sitters a special favour; nor can this be expected of the great prophets or great spirits.
No human spirit, while it is in the flesh, is privileged to have free intercourse with the transcendental world, to see and hear its phenomena unveiled and thus, perhaps, climb upwards to the light by a quicker path. This, though quite natural, is not quite simple, for all must develop in strict accordance with the eternal laws. Furthermore, if such a gifted one neglects his earthly tasks to explore mysteries of the Beyond, he loses more than he gains, for when the time comes for his next life to begin, he will find he is prevented from advancing upwards, because of an unfilled gap in his mundane life. At a certain point he must pause: he remains bound and must return to earth to make good this intermission before he can continue to climb upwards. This is the simple and natural consequence of leaving something undone, of neglecting a duty. The omission must be made good.
Every stage of life must be lived through with the close attention its profound gravity demands. To neglect to do this causes a disruption, which makes itself felt with ever increasing acuteness the further man advances, and which eventually is the cause of the breakdown which precedes the final downfall, unless indeed measures are promptly taken to return, set the deficiency right, and clear the road. Unfortunately man has contracted the fatal habit of persistently grasping at what is out of his reach, because he imagines himself to be greater than he really is.
