CLAIRVOYANCE AND OCCULT POWERS/PART 12
LESSON XII.
CLAIRVOYANCE OF THE FUTURE
Future-Time
Clairvoyance, as indicated by its name, is that class of clairvoyant phenomena
which is concerned with the perception of facts, events and happenings of
future time. In this class of clairvoyant phenomena naturally fall all genuine
cases of prophecy, prevision, foretelling, second-sight, etc. History,
theological and secular, is filled with instances of the foretelling of the
future by prophets, wise men, and others. By many, such powers are generally
regarded as supernatural or divine. Without wishing to combat such theories and
beliefs, I would say that the advanced occultists account for all such
phenomena under the general laws of clairvoyance.
But
while the phenomena itself is very well known, and is accepted as genuine in
even many cases in which past-time clairvoyance is doubted, still it is even
more difficult to explain than is past-time clairvoyance based on the Akashic
Records or the Astral Light. To the person not well versed in occult knowledge,
and esoteric principles, it is deemed impossible to intelligently account for
the perception of an event before it has actually happened—perhaps years before
its actual happening. While I cannot hope to make this matter absolutely clear
to the person who is not an advanced student of occultism, still I shall try to
throw at least some light on the underlying principles of this wonderful class
of occult phenomena. The main point for the student to realize is that there
are natural laws underlying this phenomenon, and that it is not a matter of
supernatural power, or necessarily of divine special dispensation.
In
the first place, in some of the simpler forms of future-time clairvoyance,
there is merely a high development of subconscious reasoning from analogy. That
is to say, the subconscious mental faculties of the person reason out that
such-and-so being the case, then it follows that so-and-so will result, unless
something entirely unexpected should prevent or intervene. This is merely an
extension of certain forms of reasoning that we perform ordinarily. For
instance, we see a child playing with a sharp tool, and we naturally reason
that it will cut itself. We see a man acting in certain ways which generally
lead to certain ends, and we naturally reason that the expected result will
occur. The more experience that the observer has had, and the keener his
faculty of perception and his power of deductive reasoning, the wider will be
the range of his power in the direction of predicting future results from
present happenings and conditions.
In
this connection, we must remember that the ordinary clairvoyant has easier
access to his subconscious mentality than has the average person. The
subconscious mind perceives and notes many little things that the conscious
mind overlooks, and therefore has better data from which to reason. Moreover,
as all students of the subconscious know, these wonderful subconscious mental
factulties have a very highly developed power of reasoning deductively from a
given premise or fact. In fact, the subconscious faculties are almost perfect
reasoning machines, providing they are supplied with correct data in the first
place. Much of the so-called "intuitive reasoning" of persons arises
from the operations of the subconscious mental faculties just mentioned.
But,
you may say, this is very interesting, but it is not clairvoyance. Certainly,
good student, but still clairvoyance plays an important part even in this
elementary form of prevision and future-seeing. You must remember that by
clairvoyant vision the real thoughts and feelings of a person may be perceived.
But, unless the attention of the clairvoyant is specially directed to this, the
conscious mind does not note it, and the matter reaches the subconscious
faculties without interference or conscious knowledge on the part of the
clairvoyant. This being so, it will be seen that the subconscious mind of the
clairvoyant is able to reason deductively, in such cases, far beyond the power
of even the subconscious mind of the ordinary person—it has fuller data and
more complete material to work upon, of course.
It
has become a proverb of the race that "coming events cast their shadows
before"; and many persons frequently have little flashes of future-time
seeing without realizing that they are really exercising elementary clairvoyant
powers. The combination of even a simple form of clairvoyance and an active
subconscious mind will often produce very wonderful results—although not of
course the more complex phenomena of full clairvoyance and prevision. Some
persons have claimed that even this form of prevision implies something like
fate or predestination, but this is not fully true, for we must remember the
fact that in some cases it is possible to so act in accordance with a
clairvoyant warning of this kind that the impending calamity may be escaped.
But, on the other hand, we must also remember that every event is the result of
certain preceding events, without which it could not have happened, and which
existing it must happen unless some new element intervenes. There is such a
thing as cause and effect, we must remember—and if we can reason clearly from
one to the other with sufficient clearness, then we may actually prophesy
certain things in advance, always making allowance for the intervention of the
unexpected.
An
authority says on this phase of the question: "There is no doubt whatever
that, just as what is happening now is the result of causes set in motion in
the past, so what will happen in the future will be the result of causes
already in operation. Even on this plane of life we can calculate that if
certain actions are performed, certain results will follow; but our reckoning
is constantly liable to be disturbed by the interference of factors which we have
not been able to take into account. But if we raise our consciousness to the
higher planes we can see much further into the results of our actions. We can
trace, for example, the effect of a casual word, not only upon the person to
whom it was addressed, but through him on many others as it is passed on in
widening circles, until it seems to have affected the whole country; and one
glimpse of such a vision is more efficient than any number of moral precepts in
impressing upon us the necessity of extreme circumspection in thought, word,
and deed. Not only can we from that plane see thus fully the result of every
action, but we can also see where and in what way the results of other actions
apparently quite unconnected with it will interfere with and modify it. In
fact, it may be said that the results of all causes at present in action are
clearly visible—that the future, as it would be if no entirely new causes
should arise, lies open before our gaze.
"New
causes of course do arise, because man's will is free; but in the case of all
ordinary people the use which they make of their freedom may be calculated
beforehand with considerable accuracy. The average man has so little real will
that he is very much the creature of circumstances; his action in previous lives
places him amid certain surroundings, and their influence upon him is so very
much the most important factor in his life-story that his future course may be
predicted with almost mathematical certainty. With the developed man the case
is different; for him also the main events of life are arranged by his past
actions, but the way in which he will allow them to affect him, the methods by
which he will deal with them and perhaps triumph over them—these are all his
own, and they cannot be foreseen even on the mental plane except as
probabilities.
"Looking
down on man's life in this way from above, it seems as though his free will
could be exercised only in certain crises in his career. He arrives at a point
in his life where there are obviously two or three alternative courses open
before him; he is absolutely free to choose which of them he pleases, and
although someone who knew his nature thoroughly well might feel almost certain
what his choice would be, such knowledge on his friend's part is in no sense a
compelling force. But when he has chosen, he has to go through with it and take
the consequences; having entered upon a particular path he may, in many cases,
be forced to go on for a very long time before he has any opportunity to turn
aside. His position is somewhat like that of a driver of a train; when he comes
to a junction he may have the points set either this way or that, and so can
pass on to whichever line he pleases, but when he has passed on to one of them
he is compelled to run on along the line which he has selected until he reaches
another set of points, where again an opportunity of choice is offered to
him."
But,
interesting and wonderful as this phase of future-time clairvoyance undoubtedly
is, it pales before the fuller and more complete phases. And, in the latter, we
must look elsewhere for the explanation—or approach to an explanation. The
explanation of this higher form of future-time clairvoyance must be looked for
in a new conception of the nature and meaning of time. It is difficult to
approach this question without becoming at once involved in technical
metaphysical discussion. As an example of this difficulty, I invite you to
consider the following from Sir Oliver Lodge, in his address to the British
Association, at Cardiff, several years ago. While what he says is very clear to
the mind of a person trained along these lines of subtle thought, it will be
almost like Greek to the average person. Sir Oliver Lodge said:
"A
luminous and helpful idea is that time is but a relative mode of regarding
things; we progress through phenomena at a certain definite pace, and this
subjective advance we interpret in an objective manner, as if events moved
necessarily in this order and at this precise rate. But that may be only one
mode of regarding them. The events may be in some sense of existence always,
both past and future, and it may be we who are arriving at them, not they which
are happening. The analogy of a traveller in a railway train is useful; if he
could never leave the train nor alter its pace he would probably consider the
landscapes as necessarily successive and be unable to conceive their
co-existence * * * We perceive, therefore, a possible fourth dimensional aspect
about time, the inexorableness of whose flow may be a natural part of our
present limitations. And if we once grasp the idea that past and future may be
actually existing, we can recognize that they may have a controlling influence
on all present action, and the two together may constitute the 'higher plane'
or totality of things after which, as it seems to me, we are impelled to seek,
in connection with the directing of form or determinism, and the action of
living being consciously directed to a definite and preconceived end."
Sir
Oliver's illustration is somewhat akin to that of a person who sees a
moving-picture show for the first time, and does not know how it is produced.
To him it looks as if the events of the pictured story actually were developing
and happening in time, whereas, in reality the whole picture is existing at one
time. Its past, present and future is already pictured, and may be seen by one
who knows the secret and how to look for the past or future scene; while, to
the ordinary observer, the scene progresses in sequence, the present being
followed by something else which is at this moment "in the future,"
and therefore, unknowable. To the senses of the ordinary observer only the
present is in existence; while, in fact, the "future" is equally
truly in existence at the same time, although not evident to the senses of the
observer. Think over this a little, and let the idea sink into your mind—it may
help you to understand something concerning the mystery of future-time
clairvoyance, prevision, or second-sight.
Time,
you know, is far more relative than we generally conceive it. It is a
scientific fact that a person in the dream state may cover years of time in a
dream that occupies only a few seconds of time. Persons have nodded and
awakened immediately afterwards (as proved by others present in the room), and
yet in that moment's time they have dreamed of long journeys to foreign lands,
great campaigns of war, etc. Moreover, a loud sound (a pistol shot, for
instance) which has awakened a sleeping person, has also set into effect a
dream-state train of circumstances, constituting a long dream-state story
which, after many events and happenings, terminated in the shot of a
firing-squad—and then the man awoke. Now in this last mentioned case, not only
has the dreamer experienced events covering a long time, all in the space of a
second of time; but, also, the very sound which terminated the dream, also
induced it from the very beginning—the last thing caused the first things to
appear and proceed in sequence to the last! Persons under the influence of
chloroform, or "laughing gas," have similar experiences—often the
first sound heard at the moment of recovering consciousness seems to be the
last thing in a long dream which preceded it, though the long dream was really
caused by the final sound. Now, remember, that here not only did past, present
and future exist at the same moment of time; but, also, the future caused the
past and present to come into being.
On
the physical plane, we have analogies illustrating this fact. It is said that
in every acorn rests and exists, in miniature, the form of the future oak. And,
some go so far as to say that the oak is the "ultimate cause" of the
acorn—that the idea of the oak caused the acorn to be at all. In the same way,
the "idea" of the man must be in the infant boy, from the moment of
birth, and even from the moment of conception. But, let us pass on to the bold
conception of the most advanced metaphysicians—they have a still more dazzling
explanation, let us listen to it.
These
occultists and metaphysicians who have thought long and deeply upon the
ultimate facts and nature of the universe, have dared to think that there must
exist some absolute consciousness—some absolute mind—which must perceive the
past, present and future of the universe as one happening; as simultaneously
and actively present at one moment of absolute time. They reason that just as
man may see as one happening of a moment of his time some particular event
which might appear as a year to some minute form of life and mind—the
microscopic creatures in a drop of water, for instance; so that which seems as
a year, or a hundred years, to the mind of man may appear as the happening of a
single moment of a higher scale of time to some exalted Being or form of
consciousness on a higher plane. You remember that it is said that "a
thousand years is but as a day to the Lord;" and the Hindu Vedas tell us
that "the creation, duration, and destruction of the universe, is as but
the time of the twinkling of an eye to Brahman." I shall not proceed further
along this line—I have given you a very strong hint here; you must work it out
for yourself, if you feel so disposed. But there are certain consequences
arising from this ultimate universal fact, which I must mention before passing
on.
The
high occult teachings hold that there is a plane of the higher astral world
which may be said to carry a reflection of the Universal Mind—just as a lake
contains a reflection of the distant mountain. Well, then, the clairvoyant
vision at times is able to penetrate to the realm of that astral reflecting
medium, and see somewhat dimly what is pictured there. As the future may be
discerned in this reflected picture, by the clairvoyant mind, we see how
future-seeing, prevision, and second-sight may be explained scientifically.
A
writer has said: "On this plane, in some manner which down here is totally
inexplicable, the past, the present, and the future, are all there existing
simultaneously. One can only accept this fact, for its cause lies in the
faculty of that exalted plane, and the way in which this higher faculty works
is naturally quite incomprehensible to the physical brain. Yet now and then one
may meet with a hint that seems to bring us a trifle nearer to a dim
possibility of comprehension. When the pupil's consciousness is fully developed
upon this higher plane, therefore, perfect prevision is possible to him, though
he may not—nay, he certainly will not—be able to bring the whole result of his
sight through fully and in order into his physical consciousness. Still, a great
deal of clear foresight is obviously within his power whenever he likes to
exercise it; and even when he is not exercising it, frequent flashes of
foreknowledge come through into his ordinary life, so that he often has an
instantaneous intuition as to how things will turn out."
The
same writer says: "Short of perfect prevision we find that all degrees of
this type of clairvoyance exist, from the occasional vague premonitions which
cannot in any true sense be called sight at all, up to frequent and fairly
complete second-sight. The faculty to which this latter somewhat misleading
name has been given is an extremely interesting one, and would well repay more
careful and systematic study than has hitherto been given to it. It is best
known to us as a not infrequent possession of the Scottish Highlanders, though
it is by no means confined to them. Occasional instances of it have appeared in
almost every nation, but it has always been commonest among mountaineers and
men of lonely life. With us in England it is often spoken of as if it were the
exclusive appanage of the Celtic race, but in reality it has appeared among
similarly situated peoples the world over, it is stated, for example, to be
very common among the Westphalian peasantry.
"Sometimes
the second-sight consists of a picture clearly foreshowing some coming event;
more frequently, perhaps, the glimpse of the future is given in some symbolical
appearance. It is noteworthy that the events foreseen are invariably unpleasant
ones—death being the commonest of all; I do not recollect a single instance in
which the second-sight has shown anything which was not of the most gloomy
nature. It has a ghastly symbolism of its own—a symbolism of shrouds and
corpse-candles, and other funeral horrors. In some cases it appears to be to a
certain extent dependent upon locality, for it is stated that inhabitants of
the Isle of Skye who possess the faculty often lose it when they leave the
island, even though it be only to cross to the mainland. The gift of such sight
is sometimes hereditary in a family for generations, but this is not an
invariable rule, for it often appears sporadically in one member of a family
otherwise free from its lugubrious influence.
"There
may be still some people who deny the possibility of prevision, but such denial
simply shows their ignorance of the evidence on the subject. The large number
of authenticated cases leave no room for doubt as to the fact, but many of them
are of such a nature as to render a reasonable explanation by no means easy to
find. It is evident that the Ego possesses a certain amount of previsional
faculty, and if the events foreseen were always of great importance, one might
suppose that an extraordinary stimulus had enabled him for that occasion only
to make a clear impression of what he saw upon his lower personality. No doubt
that is the explanation of many of the cases in which death or grave disaster
is foreseen, but there are a large number of instances on record to which it
does not seem to apply, since the events foretold are frequently trivial and
unimportant."
In
the following chapter I shall present to your consideration some very
remarkable cases of future-time clairvoyance, prevision, or second-sight; some
of these are historical cases, and all are vouched for by the best authorities.
I quote these cases not merely for their own interesting features, but also to
give you an idea of how remarkable some of these instances are; and also to
give you a clear conception of the way in which this form of clairvoyance tends
to manifest itself.
Before
passing on to these interesting cases, however, I wish to remind you that in
future-time clairvoyance, as well as in past-time clairvoyance, the phenomenon
may be manifested in many ways and according to several methods. That is to
say, that in future-time clairvoyance the vision may come in the state of
meditation or reverie; it may come along the lines of psychometry, some
associated object or person supplying the connecting link; or, again, it may
come as the result of crystal-gazing, etc. This is as we might naturally
expect, for this form of clairvoyance is merely one special and particular
phase of clairvoyance in general, and of course, comes under the general laws
and rules governing all clairvoyant phenomena.
Future-time
clairvoyance, prevision and second-sight may, like any other form of
clairvoyance, be developed and unfolded, by means of the same rules and methods
that I have already suggested to you in the preceding lessons. It is all a
matter of attention, application, patience, exercise and practice. I may say,
however, that the strong desire and wish for the perception of future events,
held firmly in mind during the practicing and exercising, will tend to unfold
and develop the clairvoyant faculties in this particular direction. Strong
desire, and earnest attention in the desired direction, will do much to
cultivate, develop and unfold any psychic faculty.
Just
as meditation and reverie about past times and things tend to develop past-time
clairvoyance, so will meditation and reverie about future time and things tend
to develop prevision and the seeing of future things. This, indeed, is the very
first step toward the attainment of this form of clairvoyance. The attention
clears the psychic path, over which the astral faculties travel. In the astral,
as on the physical, the rule is: always look where you are going—look ahead on
the path over which you wish to travel.
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