SOME GLIMPSES OF OCCULTISM/PART 7

 

CHAPTER VII

 

TELEPATHY AND MIND-CURE

 

Let us commence by defining the meaning of our terms. The term telepathy is derived from two Greek words, and its literal meaning is “feeling at a distance,” but it is now generally used almost synonymously with thought-transference, and may be taken to cover any transfer of an image, a thought or a sensation from one person to another by non-physical means – means unknown to ordinary science. The word “mind-cure” bears its meaning on its face – unless indeed one reverses the arrangement of the words; it does not mean a cure for a mind diseased, but the curing of physical ills by the use of the mind, or at least by distinctly non-physical means. So we see that both these subjects are closely connected with the influence and power of thought, and a comprehension of them will therefore largely depend upon thoroughly understanding these latter questions. Let us spend a few minutes, then, in considering exactly how we think.

 

To us thought seems an instantaneous process; we have a proverb “quick as thought,” Yet, rapid though it be, it is more complicated than we suppose. In that respect it resembles the process by which sensation reaches the brain from the different parts of the body. We commonly think of that also as almost instantaneous, but science assures us that it is not so in reality. When, for example, we grasp something which is too hot, we quickly drop it; yet in that moment of time two distinct transactions have taken place. The nerves of the hand have, as it were, telegraphed to the brain the message, “This object is too hot,” and the brain has sent back the answer, “Then drop it,” and it is only in response to this order that the hand relaxes, and the object is released. The rate at which these messages travel has been measured by students of physics, so that the time occupied is appreciable by their instruments, though to us it seems indistinguishable.

 

How We Think

 

An analogous process takes place every time we think, though in this case it needs clairvoyant sight to watch what happens. To one who possesses the sight of the mental plane, thought is distinguishable in its formation as a vibration of the matter of the mental body of the thinker. Then it is observable that by that vibration another is set up – a vibration an octave lower, as it were, in the grosser matter of the thinker’s astral body, and from that in turn the etheric particles of the man’s brain are affected, and through them at last the denser grey matter is brought into action. All these successive steps must be taken before a thought can be translated into action on the physical plane; it may be said that the thought has to pass through two whole planes and part of another before it can come into effect down here. I must describe to you how this appears from the clairvoyant point of view, so that you may have a clear mental image before you.

 

Every cell in the physical brain – every particle of its matter even – has its corresponding and interpenetrating astral matter; and behind (or rather within) that, it has also the still finer mental matter. The brain is a cubical mass, but for the purposes of our examination let us suppose that it could be spread out upon a surface so that it should be only one particle thick. Let us further suppose that the astral and mental matter corresponding to it could also be laid out in layers in a similar manner, the astral layer a little above the physical, and the mental a little above the astral in turn. Then we should have three layers of matter of different degrees of density all corresponding one to the other, but not joined together in any way, except that here and there wires of communication existed between the physical and astral particles, and were continued up into the mental matter. That would fairly represent the condition of affairs existing in the brain of the average man. In the adept, the perfected man, every particle has its own wire, and there is full communication in every part of the brain alike; but the ordinary man has at present only very few of these channels of communication opened. Now we know that the brain is mapped out into certain areas, each corresponding to a certain set of qualities. In the perfect man all these qualities are fully developed, for the wires belonging to all of them are active; but in the ordinary man the great majority of the wires are as yet inactive, or hardly formed at all, and so the qualities corresponding to them are dormant in his brain.

 

We may image these wires as tubes, through which the true man within has to send down his thoughts to his physical brain. In the developed man, each thought has its own appropriate channel, through which it can descend directly to the correspondingly appropriate matter in the physical brain; but in the average man many of those channels are not yet open, and so the thought which ought to flow through them must go a long way out of its way, as it were – must find its expression through other and inappropriate channels, going laterally through the brain of mental matter until it can find a way down, passing eventually through a tube not at all suited to it, and then, when it does reach the physical level, having to move laterally again in the physical before it encounters the physical particles which are capable of expressing it. We see at once how awkward and clumsy such a roundabout expression is likely to be, and we thus understand why it is that some people have no comprehension of mathematics, or no taste for music or art, as the case may be. The reason is that in the part of the brain devoted to that particular quality the communications have not yet been opened up, so that all thought connected with that subject has to go round through unsuitable channels; the brain is not yet in full working order, and therefore the thought cannot work freely in all directions. The physical brain is a solid mass, and the astral and mental brains interpenetrate it, so that the layers and tubes do not really exist; but nevertheless the symbol is an accurate one as describing the want of communication between the mental, astral and physical particles.

 

Picture to yourself what happens when we interchange ideas down here upon the physical plane. I formulate a thought, but before it can reach you it must pass from my mind through the astral matter of my brain down to the physical, and be translated into speech or writing. Then it appeals to you either through the waves of air which strike upon the tympanum of your ear, or through the light reflected to your eyes from the printed page; the idea enters the physical brain, but even then it has to pass up through the astral to the mental before it reaches the true man within, thus reversing the process which took place in my brain when I sent out that thought. Once more you see that this is a laborious method – that the message has to go a long way round; and it will inevitably occur to you to ask whether this circuitous route is really necessary – whether it is not possible to take a short cut, to tap the telegraph wire at some intermediate point. Since the starting point and the terminus are alike on the mental plane, since both on the way up and on the way down the message must pass through the astral and the etheric levels, is there no communication possible at any of these points, without lengthening the process by descent to the physical?

 

Three Types of Telepathy

 

There is such a possibility; indeed, there are three such possibilities; and this is precisely what is meant by telepathy. We may under favourable circumstances open up a direct communication between two mental bodies, between two astral bodies, or between two etheric brains; and this gives us three varieties of telepathy. Let us begin with the lowest.

 

If I think strongly of any simple concrete form in my physical brain, I make that form in etheric matter, so that it can be seen by a clairvoyant; but in the effort of making that image I send out etheric waves all around me, like the waves which radiate from the spot where a stone falls into a pond. When these waves strike upon another etheric brain, they tend to reproduce in it the same image. It is not the image itself which is sent out, but a set of vibrations which will reproduce the image. It is not like a speaking-tube, through which the voice itself passes, and could be heard as a voice at any point of its journey. It rather resembles a telephone, in which it is not the voice itself which is conveyed, but a number of electrical vibrations set up by the voice, which when they enter the receiver are transmuted into the sounds of that voice once more. If you cut the telephone wire and listened at the end of it without a receiver, you will hear nothing, for the vibrations are not the sound, but under proper conditions they will reproduce the sound.

 

In exactly this way a simple form may readily be transferred from one brain to another. It is an experiment that may easily be tried, if any two people are sufficiently interested to take a little trouble with it. One of them would have to think strongly of some simple geometrical form, such as a cross, for example, or a triangle, while the other would have to sit quietly, and note what ideas formed themselves in his mind. In a number of cases such an effort would be successful the second or third time it was tried, though of course some people are more sensitive than others, and some people can form clearer images than others. In this case we have come down to the etheric state of matter, so that we are only one remove from the ordinary method of speech or writing; in fact, what we have done is very like Marconi’s wireless telegraphy. Let us see whether the same thing can be effected a stage earlier, at the astral level.

 

Not only can it be done, but it is constantly being done all round us, though we do not notice it. The astral body is the vehicle of emotion and passion, as we have seen in previous lectures, so that what is conveyed from one person to another at this level will be an impression of a passional or emotional nature. Notice it for yourselves in family life. When one person is in a condition of deep depression, it will be found that others round him are liable to be affected in the same way. If one person is especially irritable, it will soon be observed that others in turn become less serene and more readily affected than usual. This means that any person who gives way to a strong wave of feeling of any sort is radiating a certain rate of astral vibration which tends to reproduce that state of feeling in others as it impinges upon their astral bodies. The case in which above all others this is important is with regard to the dead, for they are living entirely in the astral vehicle, and so are more sensitive to these waves of emotion than the living, who are to some extent protected by the density and dullness of their physical bodies. So if a man selfishly gives way to uncontrolled grief for the dead, he often causes his departed friend the most acute and profound depression. On the other hand, if he thinks of his friend with love and an earnest desire for his progress, he may help instead of hindering, because these feelings also will faithfully reproduce themselves in the astral body of the dead man. This is a case of real telepathy, or “feeling at a distance.”

 

Now let us advance one stage more, and see whether it is not possible that the thought may be communicated directly from mind to mind on its own level, without descending even so far as to the astral plane. This also can be done, and often is done, but as a regular thing it is a means of converse for the more exalted souls only. One who is highly developed may thus flash his ideas through space with literally the speed of thought, but for ordinary men as yet such power is rare. Nevertheless, it sometimes exists where there is unusually close sympathy between two persons, and I feel sure that when mankind is further evolved this will be our common method of communication. It is already employed by the great Masters of Wisdom in the instruction of their pupils, and in this way they can convey with ease the most complicated ideas.

 

We have before us, then, these three kinds of telepathy, all of them consisting simply of the conveyance of vibrations at their respective levels – liable, perhaps, to be confused by the superficial observer, but readily distinguishable by the trained clairvoyant. In a minor way we may find evidence of one or other of them almost daily, for we often observe cases in which some friend is thinking simultaneously along the same lines as ourselves – thinking, it may be, about a subject which has not occurred to either of us for months previously.

 

Mind-Cure

 

We at once see how closely associated is telepathy with mind-cure, which aims to transfer good, strong thoughts from the operator to the patient. We meet with various types of mind-cure, differing considerably in their teachings, and calling themselves Christian science, mental science, mind-healing, etc., but they all agree in endeavouring to produce physical cures by non-physical means. There seems to be a vague general opinion afloat that Theosophy is opposed to no form of faith; on the contrary, it points out whatever is good in each of them, emphasizes and explains it, and thus combines them all into one harmonious whole. It objects only to misunderstanding and misuse of dogma or practice; it seeks, not to attack these multitudinous religions, but to comprehend them intelligently and to select from them impartially whatsoever things in them are beautiful and true. Our belief is that it is a serious mistake for religious people to quarrel over trifles as they do. On broad principles of right and wrong they are all at one; they all agree that man ought to leave the lower and seek the higher; let them then band together to convert the rest of the world to that much of religious faith, and leave the discussion of unimportant details until that great task is accomplished. That seems to us to be a suggestion of the merest common-sense; yet how few can be induced to listen to it for a moment!

 

So we who study Theosophy are in no way opposed to mind-cure, though there are some times things connected with it to which we take exception. Its leading idea is a grand one – that of the power of thought. It is in no way new conception, for the old religions have always taught it; you will find it, for example, clearly laid down in the first chapter of that noble Buddhist book, The Dhammapada, a beautiful translation of which by Sir Edwin Arnold was quoted in my lecture on Buddhism. To claim for the mind-curists the credit of discovering the power of thought is a mistake, and shows a sad ignorance of the teaching of the great Oriental faiths; but it is true that they are making many people in this country see it now for the first time. For this, then, we owe thanks to them, that they are raising some people out of materialism, and opening their eyes to something higher and more rational; and that is a grand thing to do, for when it has once been done, further advance becomes possible. All honour to them for their share in this work of elevating the thought of the time; and though there are points in their schemes that we may criticize, let us never forget that they have this always to their credit. Let me briefly mention first certain dogmas of theirs with which I cannot agree, and get those out of our way, so that afterwards we may turn to the more congenial task of stating the ideas with which we found ourselves in sympathy.

 

Some Objections to It

 

First, I have never been able to see why a medical process should be erected into a religion; one might as well make a religion of homeopathy or hydropathy. So to those who are working upon such an unsatisfactory mental basis, I would offer the magnificent system of philosophy which they will find in Theosophy – a scheme which will give them food for thought, and supply them with a rational theory of the universe. One of the principal schools of mind-cure denies altogether the existence of matter – one which calls itself Christian science, though it is difficult to see upon what grounds such a name was assumed, since to deny the existence of matter is neither Christian nor scientific. Certainly it cannot be the latter, for it is matter only that science can cognize, and all its experiments are conducted by its means. And this doctrine of the non-existence of material things is emphatically not Christian, but pagan, for it is the teaching of one of the oldest Oriental systems.

 

There is a grand truth behind it, if it is rightly understood. All manifestation comes forth from the Absolute, and presumably all will one day return to Him. All manifestation, therefore, is impermanent, and from the point of view of eternity may be regarded as fleeting and momentary and hardly worth taking into account at all. Still, to say that it does not exist seems to be misleading, since it is in truth just as much one of the manifestations of the Logos as is that spirit which is its other pole. The Lord Buddha has said that there are two things which are eternal, akasa and nirvana; and the context seems to show us that he means what we now call matter and force. Herein modern science agrees with him; and it seems to me that it is both truer and safer to recognize that while manifestation exists each type of matter is real on its own plane. It is true that while we are on the physical plane only physical matter is real to us, and astral and mental matter remain invisible to the lower senses, while when we raise our consciousness to the higher planes this condition of things is reversed; but it is the focus of our consciousness that has changed, not the manifestation of the Logos. So while we fully recognize that the unseen things are the most important, we yet prefer to regard matter as real to us as long as we are upon its level. It scarcely seems sensible first to deny the existence of the body, and then to point to an improvement in its condition as the result of the denial of its existence; for how can one cure that which does not exist?

 

I incline to believe that this denial of matter is probably in essence a reaction against the old and horrible theory of a personal devil. Our friends feel intuitively that the idea of evil imposed upon us from without is an absurdity, since every man makes his own good and evil destiny for himself; so they say there is in truth no evil but that which we make – all is subjective; and then, since they constantly find themselves struggling against matter and its qualities, they make the old mistake of identifying matter with evil, and so come to the conclusion that there is really no matter. It is strange thus to find Bishop Berkeley’s theory reappearing amidst such different surroundings, and we find ourselves reminded of Swift’s remark about him, “If Berkeley says there is no matter, then surely it is no matter what he says!”

 

But the point in all these theories to which I feel myself bound to take exception is the idea of securing wealth by undue influence; there I must most emphatically disagree altogether. Even to ask money for the use of mental power in curing disease seems to me undesirable; to use mental power in order unlawfully to extract it from others is a degradation and prostitution of the higher knowledge which ought to be held sacred for unselfish work. He who would seek wealth through mental effort should do so through legitimate channels only, and his attempt should be rather to limit his desires than to increase his possessions, for that alone is the path of true wisdom.

 

Yet again – I know the value of strong faith and affirmation as well as any man, yet truth forbids that I should deny that a body can ever be in ill-health. The true man, the ego, the soul, is not ill, and if the denial is understood in that sense there can be no objection to it. But it is not usually understood in that sense; the statement is clearly made that the way to get rid of a headache is to assert “I have no headache”; an assertion which may presently become true, but is undoubtedly false when it is first made. I do not deny that by persistently making that false statement an effect may be produced; but it seems to me that the falsehood is a much more serious evil than the headache or the toothache which it eventually removes. Any man may lawfully say “My head or my tooth shall not ache,” and in thus setting his will persistently against the pain he may probably drive it away. Such an effort of will is legitimate and even admirable; the concentration of thought which it implies is a splendid exercise for any man. In this way one may well think against any disease, and thus repel its attacks, avoiding it altogether if it has not yet effected a lodgement in the body, and greatly enhancing the effect of remedial measures if it is already in possession. The power of thought is enormous, and can hardly be exaggerated.

 

The Power of Thought

 

This brings us to that part of the teaching of the mental scientists which we can unreservedly approve. When they exhort their clients to think always cheerful thoughts, to cast away from them fear and worry, to avoid sedulously that faultfinding which always intensifies the evil to which it draws attention – in all this, and much more that they say, we have for them nothing but unstinting praise. In one of their books I find this advice given to a man: “If you feel depression or sad thought coming over you, think of something to be glad about, quick! You have not time to waste over depression!” And as to fear, again and again they assure us that most things that are feared never come to pass, and that, whether they do or not, we double our trouble if we suffer the pain of fearing it beforehand – all of which is true and healthy doctrine. Even this, however, may run somewhat into extremes. I have read the statement that if men had no fear of disease there would be no infection, which of course is not true, since men often catch disease when they do not know of its existence. But what is true is that the man who is fearless about a disease is much less likely to catch it; though even then it may happen to him, if he is overtired, if the forces of the body are not active enough to repel the infection. So that in that exaggerated form the remark is untrue, though it has a basis of truth.

 

The realization of the effect of thought upon others, and therefore of our responsibility for our thoughts, is also admirable. We find it constantly in the mental science literature of the better class. For example, it is stated that “false conceptions of God, and especially belief in eternal vindictive punishment, make their unwholesome influence felt in every bodily tissue” – a startling and yet obvious truth, which it would be well for many people who think themselves orthodox to take seriously to heart. Again, I find them asking us how we can wonder that we have such an increase of all diseases among us, especially nervous diseases, when for many generations the whole atmosphere has been full of chronic, fearful, selfish thought about religious matters – loaded with the thought-forms of terror-stricken men about an angry God, a horned devil with a barbed tail, the flames of hell, and other abominable figments of the diseased ecclesiastical imagination – an idea with much truth in it, as any Theosophist will readily realize.

 

I heartily agree also with the dictum which I find our friends laying down, that if a man thinks himself a poor worm and a miserable sinner, full of natural depravity, that is exactly the way to make him an unpleasant entity of that description! If he despises himself to begin with, he is likely to become despicable; if he respects himself he is likely to remain worthy of respect. If he realizes himself as a spark of the Divine Life, and so knows that he can do all things through the Christ within, which strengthen him, he is far less likely to be swept away by the storm of passion, far less likely to yield to the insistent temptation. It is true that we all are sinners, but we surely need not aggravate our offences by being miserable sinners; and as to worms, we have passed through the reptilian stage many aeons ago, and there is nothing to be gained by talking nonsense! We are far more likely to be encouraged to forsake sin and to rise to virtue if we comprehend our true place and dignity, than if we believe, or profess to believe, a degrading falsehood. The “miserable sinner” can excuse himself by taking refuge in platitudes about human frailty: the Divine spark knows that he himself is responsible for his own actions and his own evolution, and that he has the power to make himself what he will.

 

One passage which I met with in reading books on mental cure I should like to quote verbatim, for it is a most beautiful idea, and as entirely Theosophical as though it had come straight from one of our own teachers. “Knead love into the bread you bake; wrap strength and courage in the parcel you tie for the woman with the weary face; hand trust and candour with the coin you pay to the man with the suspicious eyes.” Quaint in expression, but lovely in its thought; truly the Theosophical concept that every connection is an opportunity, and that every man whom we meet even casually is a person to be helped. Thus the student of the Good Law goes through life distributing blessings all about him, doing good unobtrusively everywhere, though often the recipients of the blessing and the help may have no idea whence it comes. In such benefactions every man can take his share, the poorest as well as the richest; all who can think can send out kindly, helpful thoughts, and no such thought has ever failed, or can ever fail while the laws of the universe held. You may not see the result, but the result is there, and you know not what fruit may spring from that tiny seed which you sow in passing along your path of peace and love.

 

How Men Are Cured

 

Turning from the general principles to the definite cures which are frequently effected, it remains for us to consider how they are produced. There are several methods, and I think we may divide them into four classes, though there is also a fifth to which I must refer – one apart from any ordinary cures such as we have to consider, but nevertheless necessary to make our list perfect.

 

1. The first type is that which denies the existence of matter and disease, and aims at curing the person simply by making him believe he is well. A considerable amount of hypnotic influence is frequently exercised in the course of such efforts, and the hope is that if the man really believes himself well, the mind acting upon the body (which, however, does not exist) will force it into harmony with itself, and so produce a cure. They never can call it a cure, I notice, but always employ the scriptural word “healing,” so as to cast a sort of religious glamour over the transaction, and suggest a comparison with the miracles described in the bible. It seems to me better to divest the subject of all unusual terms which tend to obscure the matter and throw a veil of sentiment over plain fact. We say that the ordinary doctor “cures” us by his skill; why then must we abandon the Latin word for the Saxon when we speak of the result of a mind-cure?

 

2. The second class holds (truly enough) that all illness means inharmony of some sort in the system, and the effort of its members is to restore harmony, usually by the transfer of vibrations from themselves. The operator endeavours to bring himself into a condition of intense harmony and peace and devotion, and then to project this influence upon the patient, or to enfold him in it. The practitioner of either this type or the first does not care to know what is the matter with the patient; the nature of the disease is of no importance to him; in any case it must be disharmony, and he can cure it by establishing harmony once more.

 

3. The third class just pours vitality into the patient, again largely irrespective of the nature of the disease, though some practitioners of this method do make an attempt to direct their stream to the portion of the body which is affected. Many people who are themselves in strong health radiate a great deal of vitality quite unconsciously, and the sick or weak feel better and stronger for their very presence.

 

4. Our fourth class adopts what we may call, by comparison with the others, a scientific method. They try to discover exactly what is wrong, picture to themselves mentally the diseased organ, and then image it as it ought to be. The idea here is that the strong thought will mould etheric matter into the desired form, and that will help nature to build up new tissues much more rapidly than would otherwise be possible. It is obvious that this plan demands more knowledge than the others; to be successful along this line a person must have at least some acquaintance with anatomy and some idea of physiology.

 

Types of Disease

 

There is no doubt that all these methods sometimes succeed, and they would do so oftener and more fully if they were employed more scientifically and with greater knowledge of the human body and its structure. Consider the various classes of diseases to which we are subject. The mind-curists are right in their contention that many of them proceed from want of harmony, and it is chiefly want of harmony between the etheric and the physical particles in some part of the body – most often of all in the brain. We must remember that there is a close connection between the mental body, the astral body and the etheric double in man, so that it is well within the bounds of possibility to influence one of them through the others. All nervous diseases imply a jangled, inharmonious condition of the etheric double; and that seems very often to be the cause of diseases of the digestive organs, of headache and sleeplessness. In all such cases what is needed is first of all to quiet the hurried, irregular vibrations, and give Nature an opportunity to reassert herself. The strong, quiet, persistent thought of the operator tends to produce such an effect, and leaves the patient soothed and strengthened. The system of pouring in vitality is also helpful, if it be not a type that will aggravate the restless symptoms. In almost any kind of illness, to take the patient’s mind off it, and calm and encourage him, is a long way towards a cure. Many a doctor of the older schools does far more good by the confidence he inspires than by his drugs.

 

But there is a class of human ills where there is a definite lesion or wound. Can mind-cure do anything with it? The first and second kind seem less effective here, though always to quiet and encourage the sufferer increases his chance of recovery. The third plan would also assist Nature to recuperate; but such cases as these are certainly best met by the fourth method, according to which an effort is made to image the wounded part as it should be in health, and thus assist the building in of new tissue. This is of course merely an expedient to hasten the natural process of recovery.

 

In another class of human disease we have the presence of some poison in the blood, and in yet another the illness is in reality the life-history of a microbe, as is the case in most infectious diseases. It would probably be difficult to deal directly with these by mental cure, but it might assist by giving the patient greater strength to enable the natural guardians of his body to drive out the foreign invader. I hear that the head of the least scientific of the schools of mind-cure has recently issued an order that infectious cases should not be treated by her followers. If people would only look at this matter scientifically and reasonably, and consider exactly what mental treatment can do, and what it cannot be expected to achieve, they would be saved much trouble and danger. If they could understand that in many cases it is a valuable auxiliary to the ordinary treatment, but is by no means always competent to take its place, it might be more successful than it is now.

 

It is obvious that different diseases must be met by different methods, and that though there may perhaps be a universal cure for all physical ills, non of these plans which I have described contain it. The strong centre of quiet thought set up in the second of them cannot fail to do good to any man; yet regarded as an attempt to cure a wound, let us say, it is a great waste of force; it is like pouring a bucket of water over a man in order to wash his finger! And being, as far as the wound is concerned, a blind effort, it can never be so concentrated as one made on the fourth plan, which forms a mould to assist Nature in repairing the damage. It is probable that a great Adept could so hasten the natural process as to cause an almost instantaneous building into shape of the tissues which had been injured or destroyed; but the thought of an ordinary man is never strong enough for that, and he can only hope to produce his result by continuous action.

 

A Great Healing Principle

 

5. Nevertheless, there is another method of which we know very little, though unmistakable traces of it occasionally appear. No one who hears or reads of it need presumptuously suppose that he or she possesses the power which it gives; though unfortunately human self-conceit is so great that each is quite sure to do so instantly! We who have to lecture or to write know this only too well. If we, for the sake of our earnest students and as an encouragement for them, make an effort to describe the sight of the buddhic plane, immediately somebody who has perhaps once had half a glimpse of something astral will come trotting up to say that his experiences on the buddhic plane were far grander than those which the unfortunate lecturer or writer endeavoured to describe! But in spite of this certainty that the information will be misapplied, I must yet mention that there is another method connected with the great healing principle in Nature – with a mighty life-force from some far higher level, which may under certain circumstances and for a limited time be poured out through a man without his detailed knowledge or volition. In that case his very touch will heal, and there seems to be no limit to the power employed, and no disease that cannot be cured by it. We know little of it, I say, except that it is among the powers of one of the great orders of the devas, or angels, as our orthodox friends would call them. The power undoubtedly exists, but beyond that we can say very little. Our own president, Colonel Olcott, once possessed this marvellous power for a time, and effected some extraordinary cures while it remained with him.

 

Out of it emerges this great fact, that through this idea of mind-cure many thousands have been induced to accept the reality of the power of thought, and to understand that there is something outside of this mere world of physical matter; and that at least is a good thing, and an achievement upon which mind-cure may reasonably be congratulated. But it will be well for those who study it to learn that it should be used only for altruistic purposes, and to try to raise their thought to something higher than the mere curing of the physical body. For those who have no thought beyond that will presently find their occupation gone, since as the world evolves there will surely come a time when disease shall be no more, because man will at last have learnt to live reasonably, purely and healthily. But if they turn their knowledge to a higher use, and leave the physical for the mental, the curing of the body for the development of the soul, they may be a mighty force for the evolution of the world. Let them think less of body, and more of life and soul; less of removing physical ailment, and more of removing ignorance and prejudice; less of bodily health and of personal gain, and more of love and compassion and brotherhood; so shall their rapidly-spreading movement become a power for good which cannot readily be overestimated, a world-wide blessing which shall endure and flourish through the ages which are yet to come.