Theosophy - H.P.Blavatsky on DREAMS
THE
BLAVATSKY PAMPHLETS - NO -7-
DREAMS
by
H.P.Blavatsky
(Reprinted
from "Transactions of The Blavatsky Lodge of The Theosophical Society:,
1890)
Edited
and Rearranged
by
ALICE LEIGHTON CLEATHER
Published
by THE H.P.B LIBRARY
(NOTE:
This paper having been reproduced from the stenographer's notes taken at
the time the subject was discussed, H.P.B.'s statement occur in the form of
answers to questions. In the following reprint these latter are omitted, H.P.B.'s
replies running on with only the addition of a few words where each question
appeared.
INDEX
1-"Animal
Soul" only active in Dreams
2-Immortal Ego active in real Dreams
3-Thought-Actions of the Ego
4-Real Dreams occasionally impressed on the brain
5-Part played by the Astral Light
6-Part played by Karma and the Will in Dreams
7-The only God is in Man
8-Sleep and Dream States
9-Objectivity and Subjectivity in Dreams
10-Planes of Consciousness in Dreams
11-Barriers between the Planes of Consciousness
12-Sleep and Death
13-The "Wraith": Its evocation
14-Mediumship dangerous
15-Interpretation of Dreams
16-Classifications of Dreams
17-Glossary
18-Septenary nature of Man: The Seven "Principles" (graphic)
"Animal
Soul" only active in Dreams
In ordinary
dreams- which ought to be distinguished from real dreams, and called idle visions
- the active "principles" are Kâma the seat of the personal
Ego and of desire, which is awakened into chaotic activity by the slumbering
reminiscences of the lower Manas, or animal soul (the Nephesh
of the Hebrew Kabalists). It is the ray which emanates from the Higher Manas
or permanent EGO, and is that "principle" which forms the human mind
- in animals' instinct, for animals also dream. [ The word 'dream' means
really "to slumber" - the latter function being called in Russian
dreamatj. -ED ]. This combined action of Kâma and
the "animal soul", however, is purely mechanical. It is instinct,
not reason, which is active in them. During the sleep of the body they receive
and send out mechanically electric shocks to and from various nerve-centres.
The brain is hardly impressed by them, and memory stores them, of course, without
order or sequence. On waking,these impressions gradually fade out, as does every
fleeting shadow that has no basic or substantial reality underlying it. The
retentive faculty of the brain, however, may register and preserve them if they
are only impressed strongly enough. But, as a rule, our memory registers only
the fugitive and distorted impressions which the brain receives at the moment
of awakening. This aspect of "dreams", however, has been sufficiently
observed and is described correctly enough in modern physiological and biological
works, as such human dreams do not differ much from those of the animals. That
which is entirely terra incognita for Science is the real dreams and
experiences of the higher EGO, which are also called dreams, but ought not to
be so termed, or else the term for the other sleeping "visions" changed.
Immortal
Ego active in real Dreams
The nature and functions
of real dreams cannot be understood unless we admit the existence of an immortal
Ego in mortal man, independent of the physical body; for the subject becomes
quite unintelligible unless we believe - that which is fact - that during sleep
there remains only an animated form of clay, whose powers of independent thinking
are utterly paralyzed.
But if we admit the
existence of a higher or permanent Ego in us - which Ego must not be
confused with what we call he "Higher Self", we can comprehend that
what we often regards as dreams, generally accepted as idle fancies, are, in
truth, stray pages torn out from the life and experiences of the inner man,
and the dim recollection of which at the moment of awakening becomes more or
less distorted by our physical memory. The latter catches mechanically a few
impressions of the thoughts, facts witnessed, and deeds performed by the inner
man during its hours of complete freedom. For our Ego lives its own
separate life within its prison of clay whenever it becomes free from the trammels
of matter, i.e. during the sleep of the physical man. This Ego it is
which is the actor, the real man, the true human self. But the physical man
cannot feel or be conscious during dreams; for the personality, the outer man,
with its brain and thinking apparatus, are paralyzed more or less completely.
We might well compare
the real Ego to a prisoner, and the physical personality to the gaoler of his
prison. If the gaoler falls asleep, the prisoner escapes, or, at least, passes
outside the walls of his prison. The gaoler is half asleep, and looks nodding
all the time out of a window, through which he can catch only occasional glimpses
of his prisoner, as he would a kind of shadow moving in front of it. But the
gaoler can neither perceive nor can he know anything of the real actions - and
especially the thoughts - of his charge; for, during sleep at all events, these
do not impress themselves upon his gaoler. The real Ego does not think as his
evanescent and temporary personality does. During the waking hours the thoughts
and Voice of the Higher Ego do or do not reach his gaoler - the physical man
- for they are the Voice of his Conscience, but during his sleep they
are absolutely the "Voice in the desert". In the thoughts of the real
man, or the immortal "Individuality", the pictures and visions
of the Past and Future are as the Present; nor are his thoughts like ours, subjective
pictures in our cerebration, but living acts and deeds, present actualities.
They are realities, even as they were when speech expressed in sounds did not
exist; when thoughts were things, and men did not need to express them in speeches;
for they instantly realised themselves in action by the power of Kriyâ-Sakti,
that mysterious power which transforms instantaneously ideas into visible
forms, and these were as objective to the "man" of the early Third
Race as objects of sight are now to us.
Thought-Actions
of the Ego
The few fragments
of those thoughts of the Ego which are transmitted to our physical memory, which
it sometimes retains, are reflected on the brain of the sleeper, like outside
shadows on the canvas walls of a tent, which the occupier sees as he wakes.
Then the man thinks that he has dreamed all that, and feels as though he
had lived through something, while in reality it is the thought-actions
of the true Ego which he has dimly perceived. As he becomes fully awake, his
recollections become with every minute more distorted, and mingle with the images
projected from the physical brain, under the action of the stimulus which causes
the sleeper to awaken. These recollections, by the power of association, set
in motion various trains of ideas.
To the dreamer (the
Ego), on his own plane, the things on that plane are as objective to him as
our acts are to us. The senses of the sleeper received occasional shocks, and
are awakened into mechanical actions; what he hears and sees are, as has been
said, a distorted reflection of the thoughts of the Ego. The latter is higher
spiritual, and is linked very closely with the higher principles, Buddhi
and Atmâ. These higher principles are entirely inactive on
our plane, and the higher Ego (Manas) itself is more or less dormant
during the waking of the physical man. This is especially the case with persons
of very materialistic mind. So dormant are the Spiritual faculties, because
the Ego is so trammelled by matter, that It can hardly give all its
attention to the man's actions, even should the latter commit sins for which
that Ego - when reunited with its lower Manas - will have to suffer conjointly
in the future. It is, as I said, the impressions projected into the physical
man by this Ego which constitute what we call "conscience"; and in
proportion as the Personality, the lower Soul (or Manas), unites itself
to its higher consciousness, or EGO, does the action of the latter upon the
life of mortal man become more marked.
The "Higher
Ego" is the higher Manas illuminated by Buddhi; the principle
of self-consciousness, the "I - am - I", in short. It is the Kârana-Sarira,
the immortal man, which passes from one incarnation to another.
Real
Dreams occasionally impressed on the Brain
Since dreams are
in reality the actions of the Ego during physical sleep, they are, of course,
recorded on their own plane and produce their appropriate effects on this one.
But it must always be remembered that dreams in general, and as we know them,
are simply our waking and hazy recollections of these facts.
It often happens,
indeed, that we have no recollection of having dreamt at all, but later in the
day the remembrance of the dream will suddenly flash upon us. Of this there
are many causes. It is analogous to what sometimes happens to every one of us.
Often a sensation, a smell, even a casual noise, or a sound, brings instantaneously
to our mind long-forgotten events, scenes and persons. Something of what was
seen, done, or thought by the "night-performer", the Ego, impressed
itself at that time on the physical brain, but was not brought into the conscious,
waking memory, owing to some physical condition or obstacle. This impression
is registered on the brain in its appropriate cell or nerve centre, but owing
to some accidental circumstance it "hangs fire", so to say, till something
gives it the needed impulse. Then the brain slips it off immediately into the
conscious memory of the waking man; for as soon as the conditions required are
supplied, that particular centre starts forthwith into activity, and does the
work which it had to do, but was hindered at the time from completing.
There is a sort of
conscious telegraphic communication going on incessantly, day and night, between
the physical brain and the inner man. The brain is such a complex thing, both
physically and metaphysically, that it is like a tree whose bark you can remove
layer by layer, each layer being different from all the others, and each having
its own special work, function, and properties. During sleep the physical memory
and imagination are of course passive, because the dreamer is asleep: his brain
is asleep, his memory is asleep, all his function are dormant and at rest. It
is only when they are stimulated, as I told you, that they are aroused. Thus
the consciousness of the sleeper is not active, but passive. The inner man,
however, the real Ego, acts independently during the sleep of the body; but
it is doubtful if any of us - unless thoroughly acquainted with the physiology
of occultism - could understand the nature of its action.
Part
played by the Astral Light.
The Astral Light
is the "tablet of the memory" of the animal man; Akâsa
that of the spiritual Ego. The dreams of the Ego, as much as the acts of the
physical man, are all recorded, since both are actions based on causes and producing
results. Our "dreams", being simply the waking state and actions of
the true Self, must be, of course, recorded somewhere. Read "Karmic Visions"
in Lucifer [ Volume II, 1889. Blavatsky Pamphlet No. 10. ]
and note the description of the real Ego, sitting as a spectator of the life
of the hero and perhaps something will strike you.
Esoteric Philosophy
teaches us that the Astral Light is simply the dregs of Akâsa
or the Universal Ideation in its metaphysical sense. Though invisible, it is
yet, so to speak, the phosphorescent radiation of the latter, and is the medium
between it and man's thought-faculties. It is these which pollute the Astral
Light, and make it what it is - the storehouse of all human and especially psychic
iniquities. In its primordial genesis, the Astral Light as a radiation is quite
pure, though the lower it descends, approaching our terrestrial sphere, the
more it differentiates, and becomes as a result impure in its very constitution.
But man helps considerably towards this pollution, and gives it back its essence
far worse than when he received it.
Differentiation in
the physical world is infinite. Universal ideation - or Mahat, if you
like it - sends its homogeneous radiation into the heterogeneous world, and
this reaches the human or personal minds through the Astral Light. Our
minds receive their illumination direct from the Higher Manas through
the Lower, the former being the pure Emanation of divine Ideation - the Mânasa-Putras
which incarnated in man.
Individual Mânasa or the Kumâras are the direct radiations
of the divine Ideation - "individual" in the sense of later differentiation,
owing to numberless incarnations. In sum they are the collective aggregation
of that Ideation, become on our plane, or from our point of view, Mahat,
as the Dhyân Chohans are in their aggregate the WORD or "Logos"
in the formation of the World. Were the Personalities (Lower Manas or
the physical minds) to be inspired and illumined solely by their higher
alter Egos there would be little sin in this world. But they are not;
and getting entangled in the meshes of the Astral Light, they separate themselves
more and more from their parent Egos. Read and study what Eliphas Lévi
says of the Astral Light, which he calls Satan and the Great Serpent. The Astral
Light has been taken too literally to mean some sort of a second blue sky. This
imaginary space, however, on which are impressed the countless images of all
that ever was, is , and will be, is but too sad a reality. It becomes in, and
for, man, - it at all psychic, and who is not? - a tempting Demon, his "evil
angel", and the inspirer of all our worst deeds. It acts on the will of
even the sleeping man through visions impressed upon his slumbering brain (which
visions must not be confused with the "dreams"), and these germs bear
their fruit when he awakes.
Part
played by Karma and the Will in Dreams
The will of the outer
man, our volition, is of course dormant and inactive during dreams; but a certain
bent can be given to the slumbering will during its inactivity, and certain
after-results developed by the mutual interaction - produced almost mechanically
- through union between two or more "principles" into one, so that
they will act in perfect harmony, without any friction or a single false note,
when awake. But this is one of the dodges of "black magic" and when
used for good purposes belongs to the training of an Occultist. One must be
far advanced on the "path" to have a will which can act consciously
during his physical sleep, or act on the will of another person during the sleep
of the latter, e.g., to control his dreams, and thus control his actions when
awake.
When an adept succeeds
in uniting all his "principles" into one he is a Jivanmukta;
he is no more of this earth virtually, and becomes a Nirvâni,who can go
into Samâdhi at will. Adepts are generally classed by the number
of "principles" they have under their perfect control, for that which
we call Will has its seat in the higher EGO, and the latter, when it is rid
of its sin-laden personality, is divine and pure.
In India the Hindus
- who have preserved in all their purity, and remembered, the traditions of
their forefathers - say that Karma plays a part in dreams; that every
man receives he reward or punishment of all his acts, both in the waking and
the dream state. They know that the Self is the real Ego, and that it
lives and acts, though on a different plane. The external life is a "dream"
to this Ego, while the inner life, or the life on what we cal the dream plane,
is the real life for it. And so the Hindus (the profane, of course) say that
Karma is generous, and rewards he real man in dreams as well as it does
the false personality in physical life.
The physical animal
man is as little responsible as dog or a mouse. For the bodily form, all is
over with the death of the body. But the real SELF, that which emanated its
own shadow, or the lower thinking personality, that enacted and pulled the wires
during the life of the physical automaton, will have to suffer conjointly with
its factotum and alter ego in its next incarnation.
Higher and Lower
Manas are one - and yet they are not - and that is the great mystery.
The Higher Manas of EGO is essentially divine, and therefore pure; no
stain can pollute it, as no punishment can reach it, per se; the more
so since it is innocent of, and takes no part in, the deliberate transactions
of its Lower Ego. Yet, by the very fact that, though dual, and during life the
higher is distinct form the Lower, "the Father and Son" are one;
and because that, in reuniting with the parent Ego, the Lower Soul fastens
upon and impresses upon it all its bad as well as good actions; both have to
suffer: the Higher Ego, though innocent and without blemish, has to bear the
punishment of the misdeeds committed by the lower Self together with
it in their future incarnation. The whole doctrine of atonement is built upon
this old esoteric tenet; for the Higher Ego is the anti-type of that which is
on this earth the type, namely, the personality. It is, for those who understand
it, the old Vedic story of Visvakarman over again, practically demonstrated.
Visvakarman, the all-seeing Father-God, who is beyond the comprehension
of mortals, sends a son of Bhuvana, the holy Spirit, by sacrificing
himself to himself, to save the worlds. The mystic name of the "Higher
Ego" is, in the Indian philosophy, Kshetrajna, or "embodied
Spirit", that which knows or informs kshetra, "the body".
Etymologize the name, and you will find in it the term aja, "first-born",
and also the "lamb". All this is very suggestive, and volumes might
be written upon the pre-genetic and post-genetic development of type and anti-type
- of Christ-Kshetrajan, the "God-Man", the First-born, symbolized
as the "lamb" The Secret Doctrine shows that the Mânasa-Putras,
or incarnating EGOS, have taken upon themselves, voluntarily and knowingly,
the burden of all the future sins of their future personalities. Thence it is
easy to see that it is neither Mr. A. nor Mr. B., nor any of the personalities
that periodically clothe the self-sacrificing EGO, which are the real Sufferers,
but verily the innocent Christos within us. Hence the mystic Hindus say that
the Eternal Self, or the Ego (the one in three and three in one), is the "Charioteer"
or driver; the personalities are the temporary and evanescent passengers; while
the horses are the animal passions of man. It is, then, true to say that when
we remain deaf to the Voice of our Conscience, we crucify the Christos within
us. But let us return to dreams.
The
only God is in Man.
In the case of persons
who have truly prophetic dreams, it is because their physical brains and memory
are in closer relation and sympathy with their"Higher Ego" than in
the generality of men. The Ego-Self has more facilities for impressing upon
the physical shell and memory that which is of importance to such persons than
it has in the case of other less gifted persons. Remember that the only God
man comes in contact with is his own God, called Spirit, Soul and Mind, or Consciousness,
and these three are one.
But there are weeds
that must be destroyed in order that a plant may grow. We must die, said St.Paul,
that we may live again. It is through destruction that we may improve, and the
three powers, the preserving, the creating and the destroying, are only so many
aspects of the divine spark within man.
No advances Adept
dreams. An adept is one who has obtained mastery over his four lower principles,
including his body, and does not, therefore, let flesh have its own way. He
simply paralyzes his lower Self during sleep, and becomes perfectly free. A
dream, as we understand it, is an illusion. Shall an Adept, then, dream when
he has rid himself of every other illusion? INnhis sleep he simply lives on
another and more real plane.
There is no man in
the world, so far as I am aware, who has never dreamed. All dream more or less;
only with most, dreams vanish suddenly upon waking. This depends on the more
or less receptive condition of the brain ganglia. Unspiritual men, and those
who do not exercise their imaginative faculties, or those whom manual labour
has exhausted, so that the ganglia do not act even mechanically during rest,
dream rarely, if ever, with any coherence.
Sleep
and Dream States
The dream state is
common not only to all men, but also to all animals, of course,from the highest
mammal to the smallest birds, and even insects. Every being endowed with a physical
brain, or organs approximating thereto, must dream. Every animal, large or small,
has, more or less, physical senses; and though these senses are dulled during
sleep, memory will still, so to say, act mechanically, reproducing past sensations.
That dogs and horses and cattle dream we all know, and so also do canaries,
but such dreams are, I think, merely physiological. Like the last embers of
a dying fire, with its spasmodic flare and occasional flames, so acts the brain
in falling asleep. Dreams are not, as Dryden says, "interludes which fancy
makes", for such can only refer to physiological dreams provoked by indigestion,
or some idea or event which has impressed itself upon the active brain during
waking hours.
The process of going
to sleep is partially explained by Physiology. It is said by Occultism to be
the periodical and regulated exhaustion of the nervous centres, and especially
of the sensory ganglia of the brain,which refuse to act any longer on this plane,
and if they would not become unfit for work, are compelled to recuperate their
strength on another plane or Upâdhi. first comes the Svapna,
or dreaming state, and this leads to that of Sushupti. Not it must
be remembered that our senses are all dual, and act according to the plane of
consciousness on which the thinking entity energises. Physical sleep affords
the greatest facility for its action on the various planes; at the same time
it is a necessity, in order that the senses may recuperate and obtain a new
lease of life for the Jagrata, or waking state, from the Svapana
and Sushupti. According to Râja Yoga, Turya is the highest
state. As a man exhausted by one state of the life-fluid seeks another; as,
for example, when exhausted by the hot air he refreshes himself with cool water;
so sleep is the shady nook in the sunlit valley of life. Sleep is a sign that
waking life has become too strong for the physical organism, and that the force
of the life current must be broken by changing the waking for the sleeping state.
Ask a good clairvoyant to describe the aura of a person just refreshed by sleep,
and that of another just before going to sleep. The former will be seen bathed
in rhythmical vibrations of life currents - golden, blue, and rosy; these are
the electrical waves of Life. The latter is, as it were, in a mist of intense
golden-orange hue, composed of atoms whirling at an almost incredible spasmodic
rapidity, showing that the person begins to be too strongly saturated with Life;
the life essence is too strong for his physical organs, and he must seek relief
in the shadowy side of that essence, which side is the dream element, or physical
sleep, one of the states of consciousness.
The definition of
"a dream" depends upon the meaning of the term. You may "dream",
or, as we say, sleep visions, awake or asleep. If the Astral Light is collected
in a cup or metal vessel by willpower, and the eyes fixed on some point in it
with a strong will to see, a waking vision, or "dream" is the result,
if the person is at all sensitive. The reflections in the Astral Light are seen
better with closed eyes, and, in sleep, still more distinctly. From a lucid
state, vision becomes translucid; from normal organic consciousness it rises
to a transcendental state of consciousness.
There are many kinds
of dreams, as we all know. Leaving the "digestion dream" aside, there
are brain dreams and memory dreams, mechanical and conscious visions. Dreams
of warning and premonition require the active co-operation of the inner Ego.
They are also often due to the conscious or unconscious co-operation of the
brains of two living persons or of their two Egos.
It is generally the
physical brain of the personal Ego which dreams; being the seat of memory, it
radiates and throws off sparks like the dying embers of a fire. The memory of
the sleeper is like an Aeolian seven-stringed harp; and his state of mind may
be compared to the wind that sweeps over the chords. The corresponding string
of the the harp will respond to that one of the seven states of mental activity
in which the sleeper was before falling asleep. If it is a gentle breeze the
harp will be affected but little; if a hurricane, the vibrations will be proportionately
powerful. If the personal Ego is in touch with its higher principles and the
veils of the higher planes are drawn aside, all is well; if on the contrary
it is of a materialistic animal nature, there will probably be no dreams; or
if the memory by chance catch the breath of a "wind" from a higher
plane, seeing that it will be impressed through the sensory ganglia of the cerebellum,
and not by the direct agency of the spiritual Ego, it will receive pictures
and sounds so distorted and inharmonious that even a Devachanic vision would
appear a nightmare or grotesque caricature. Therefore there is no simple answer
to the question: "What is it that dreams?" for it depends entirely
on each individual what principle will be the chief motor in dreams, and whether
they will be remembered or forgotten.
Objectivity
and Subjectivity in Dreams
If the apparent objectivity
in a dream is admitted to be only apparent, then of course the dream is subjective.
The question is to whom or what are the pictures or representations in dreams
either objective or subjective? To the physical man, the dreamer, all
he sees with his eyes shut, and in or through his mind, is of course subjective.
But to the Seer within the physical dreamer, that Seer himself being
subjective to our material senses, all he sees is as objective as he is himself
to himself and to others like himself. Materialists will probably laugh, and
say that we make of a man a whole family of entities, but this is not so. Occultism
teaches that physical man is one, but the thinking man septenary, thinking,
acting, feeling, and living on seven different states of being or planes of
consciousness, and that for all these states and planes the permanent Ego (not
the false personality) has a distinct set of senses.
Planes
of Consciousness in Dreams
But unless
you are an Adept or a highly trained Chela, thoroughly acquainted with
these different states of being (or planes of consciousness), the distinct set
of senses for each state cannot be distinguished. Science, such as biology,
physiology and even psychology (of the Maudsley, Bain, and Herbert Spencer schools)
do not touch on this subject. Science teaches us about the phenomena of volition,
sensation, intellect, and instinct, and says that these are all manifested through
the nervous centres the most important of which is our brain. She will speak
of the peculiar agent or substance through which these phenomena take place
as the vascular and fibrous tissues, and explain their relation to one another,
dividing the ganglionic centres into motor, sensory and sympathetic, but will
never breathe one word of the mysterious agency of intellect itself, or of the
mind and its functions. [ This was said in 1889. Today western Science
is accepting one after another of the teachings of the Secret Doctrine
without, however, acknowledging their source. Particularly is this so in regard
to Manas (Mind), since Einstein gave out this theory of Relativity in
1915. For, whereas the old school of materialism held the view that our minds
are the product of our brains, we are now told that matter may itself be mental.
As Professor Eddington puts it: "There is nothing to prevent the assemblage
of atoms forming the brain from being itself a thinking machine in virtue of
that nature which physics leaves undetermined and indeterminable". And
the final conclusion is that the "Mind of Man, which, on the old outlook,
was a random and insignificant outcome of alien forces, is once more restored
as the central mystery in the universe it surveys". See Buddhism the
Science of Life by Alice L.Cleather and Basil Crump. Peking, 19.8 2nd edition,
pages 37-39.- Editor ]
Now, it frequently
happens that we are conscious and know that we are dreaming; this a very good
proof that man is a multiple being on the thought plane; so that not only is
the Ego, or thinking man, Proteus, a multiform, ever-changing entity, but he
is also, so to speak, capable of separating himself on the mind or dream plane
into two or more entities; and on the plane of illusion which follows us to
the threshold of Nirvâna, he is like Ain-Soph talking to
Ain-Soph, holding a dialogue with himself and speaking through, about,
and to himself. And this is the mystery of the inscrutable Deity in the Zohar,
as in the Hindu philosophies; it is the same in the Kabbala, Purânas,
Vedantic metaphysics, or even in the so-called Christian mystery of the
Godhead and Trinity. Man is the microcosm of the macrocosm: the god on earth
is built on the pattern of the god in nature. But the universal consciousness
of the real Ego transcends a million fold the self-consciousness of the personal
or false Ego.
What is termed "unconscious
cerebration" during sleep is a conscious operation of the Ego, the result
of which only, is impressed on the ordinary consciousness.
Barriers
between the Planes of Consciousness.
The explanation of
the dream experience in which the dreamer seems to be perpetually striving after
something, but never attaining it, is that the physical self and its memory
are shut out of the possibility of knowing what the real Ego does. The dreamer
only catches faint glimpses of the doings of the Ego, whose actions produce
the so-called dream on the physical man , but is unable to follow it consecutively.
A delirious patient, on recovery,bears the same relation to the nurse who watched
and tended him in his illness as the physical man to his real Ego. The Ego acts
as consciously within and without him as the nurse acts in tending and watching
over the sick man. But neither the patient after leaving his sick bed, nor the
dreamer on awaking, will be able to remember anything except in snatches and
glimpses.
Sleep
and Death
There is an analogy
between sleep and death but a very great difference, because in sleep there
is a connection, weak though it may be, between the lower an higher mind of
man, and the latter is more or less reflected into the former, however much
its rays may be distorted. But once the body is dead, the body of illusion,
Mayâvi-Rupa, becomes Kâma-Rûpa, or the animal
soul, and is left to its own devices. Therefore,there is as much difference
between the spooks and the man as the is between a gross material, animal, but
sober mortal, and a man incapably drunk and unable to distinguish the most prominent
surroundings; between a person shut up in a perfectly dark room and one in a
room lighted, however imperfectly,by some light or other.
The lower principles
are like wild beasts, and the higher Manas is the rational man who tames
or subdues them more or less successfully. But once the animal gets free from
the master who held it in subjection; no sooner has it ceased to hear his voice
and see him than it starts off again to the jungle and its ancient den. It takes,however,
some time for an animal to return to its original and natural state, but these
lower principle or "spook" return instantly, and no sooner has the
higher Triad entered the devachanic state than the lower Duad re-becomes that
which it was from the beginning, a principle endued with purely animal instinct,
made happier still by the great change.
The
"Wraith": Its Evocation.
During sleep and
dream the condition of the Linga Sarira, or plastic body, is to sleep
with its body unless projected by some powerful desire generated in the higher
Manas. In dreams it plays no active part, but on the contrary is entirely
passive, being the involuntarily half-sleepy witness of the experiences through
which the higher principles are passing. Sometimes this projected form can be
seen, as in cases of illness or very strong passion on the part of the person
seen or the person who sees; the possibility is mutual. A sick person especially
just before death, is very likely to see in dream, or vision, those whom he
loves and is continually thinking of, and so also is a person awake, but intensely
thinking of a person who is asleep at the time.
In Black Magic it
is no rare thing to evoke the "spirit" of a sleeping person; the sorcerer
may then learn from the apparition any secret he chooses, and the sleeper be
quite ignorant of what is occurring. Under such circumstances that which appears
is the Mayâvîvi-Rûpa; but there is always a danger
that the memory of the living man will preserve the recollections of the evocation
and remember it as a vivid dream. If it is not, however, at a great distance,
the Double or Linga Sarîra may be evoked, but this can neither
speak nor give information, and there is always the possibility of the sleeper
being killed through this forced separation. Many sudden deaths in sleep have
thus occurred, and the world has been no wiser.
Mediumship
dangerous
The dreamer of an
entity in Kâma-Loka would probably bring upon himself a nightmare,
or would run the risk of becoming "possessed" by the "spook"
so attracted, if he happened to be a medium, or one who had made himself so
passive during his waking hours that even his higher Self is now unable to protect
him. This is why the mediumistic state of passivity is so dangerous, and in
time renders the Higher Self entirely helpless to aid or even warn the sleeping
or entranced person. Passivity paralyzes the connection between the lower and
higher principles. It is very rare to find instances of mediums who, while remaining
passive at will, for the purpose of communicating with some higher Intelligence,
some extraneous spirit (not disembodied), will yet preserve sufficiently
their personal will so as not to break off all connection with the higher Self.
Very different is
the case of a dreamer "en rapport" with an entity in Devachan;
for no Devachanî can descend into our plane; it is for us or rather
our inner Self - to ascend to his. This can only be done during sleep
by a dream or vision, or in trance.
The "sleep"
of a drunkard is not real sleep, but heavy stupor; no physical rest, but worse
than sleeplessness, and kills the drunkard as quickly. During such stupor as
also during the waking drunken state, everything turns and whirls round in the
brain, producing in the imagination and fancy horrid and grotesque shapes in
continual motion and convolutions.
A nightmare is physiological
and arises from oppression and difficulty in breathing; and difficulty in breathing
will always create such a feeling of oppression and produce a sensation of impending
calamity. In the case of the dreams of consumptives, such are often pleasant,
because the consumptive grows daily freer from his material body, and more clairvoyant
in proportion. As death approaches,the body wastes away and ceases to be an
impediment or barrier between the brain of the physical man and his Higher Self.
Dreaming should be
cultivated, for it is by cultivating the power of what is called "dreaming"
that clairvoyance is developed.
Interpretation
of Dreams
Interpretations of
dreams such, for instance, as are given in dream books, are useless. Every dreaming
Ego differs from every other, as our physical bodies do. The only means of interpreting
dreams is the clairvoyant faculty and the spiritual intuition of the "interpreter".
If everything in the universe has seven keys to its symbolism on the physical
plane, how many may it not have on higher planes?
Classifications
of Dreams
Dreams can, however,
be classified. We may roughly divide them into seven classes, and subdivide
these in turn. Thus, we would divide them into: -
- 1- Prophetic dreams.
These are impressed on our memory by the Higher Self, and are generally plain
and clear: either a voice heard or the coming even foreseen.
- 2- Allegorical
dreams, or hazy glimpses of realities caught by the brain and distorted by
our fancy. These are generally only half true.
- 3- Dreams sent
by Adepts, good or bad, by mesmerizers, or by the thoughts of very powerful
minds bent on making us do their will
- 4- Retrospective;
dreams of events belonging to past incarnations.
- 5- Warning dreams
for others who are unable to be impressed themselves.
- 6- Confused dreams,
the causes of which have been discussed above.
- 7- Dreams which
are mere fancies and chaotic pictures, owing to digestion, some mental trouble
or suchlike external cause.
GLOSSARY
(The
following explanations are from H.P.Blavatsky's Theosophical Glossary, 1892)
Adept
(Latin)
Adeptus, "He who has obtained". In Occultism one who has reached
the stage of Initiation, and become a master in the science of Esoteric philosophy.
AEther
(Greek). With the ancients the divine luminiferous substances which pervades
the whole universe, the garment of the Supreme Deity .... With the moderns,
Ether, for the meaning of which in physics and chemistry see any dictionary....
Ain
- Soph (Hebrew)
The "Boundless" or Limitless Deity emanating and extending.... In
the religious metaphysics of the old Hebrew philosophers, the ONE principle
was an abstraction .... though modern Kabalists have succeeded now, by dint
of mere sophistry and paradoxes, in making a "Supreme God" of it and
nothing higher.
Akâsa
(Sanskrit).
The subtle, supersensuous spiritual essence which pervades all space; the primordial
substance erroneously identified with Ether. But it is to Ether what Spirit
is to Matter, or Atmâ to Kâma-rupa.
Astral
Light (Occult).
The invisible region that surrounds our globe, as it does every other.... a
Subtle Essence visible only to a clairvoyant eye, and the lowest but one (viz.,
the earth), of the Seven Akâsic or Kosmic Principles ... the Astral
Light gives out nothing but what it has received .... it is the great terrestrial
crucible, in which the vile emanations of the earth (moral and physical) upon
which the Astral Light is fed, are all converted into their subtlest essence,
and radiated back intensified, thus becoming epidemics - moral, psychic and
physical.
Bhuvana
(Sanskrit) A name of Rudra, or Siva, one of the Indian Trimurti (Trinity)
Devachan
(Sanskrit) "dwelling of the gods". A state intermediate between two
earth-lives, into which the EGO (Atmâ-Buddhî-Manas, or the Trinity
made One) enters, after its separation from Kama-Rûpa, and the
disintegration of the lower principles on earth.
Dhyân
Chohans
(Sanskrit) Lit., "The Lords of Light". The highest gods, answering
to the Roman Catholic Archangels. The divine Intelligences charged with the
supervision of Kosmos.
Ego
(Latin) "Self"; the consciousness in man "I am I" - or the
feeling of "I-am-ship". Esoteric philosophy teaches the Existence
of two Egos in man, the mortal or personal, and the Higher,the
Divine and the Impersonal, calling the former "Personality" and the
latter "Individuality".
Esoteric
(Greek)
Hidden, secret. From the Greek esotericos, "inner", concealed.
Jagrata
(Sanskrit). The waking state of consciousness. When mentioned in Yoga philosophy,
Jagrat-avasth is the waking condition, one of the four states of Prânava
in ascetic practices, as used by the Yogis.
Jivanmukta
(Sanskrit).
An adept or yogi who has reached the ultimate state of holiness, and separated
himself from matter; a Mahâtma, or Nirvani, a "dweller in
bliss" and emancipation. Virtually one who has reached Nirvâna during
life.
Kabalah
(Hebrew).
The hidden wisdom of the Hebrew Rabbis of the Middle Ages derived from the older
secret doctrines concerning divine things and cosmogony, which were combined
into a theology after the time of the captivity of the Jews in Babylon. All
the works that fall under the esoteric category are termed Kabalistic.
Kâmaloka
(Sanskrit) The semi-material plane, subjective and invisible to us, where
the disembodied "personalities", the astral forms, called Kâma-rûpa
remain, until they fade out from it by the complete exhaustion of the effects
of the mental impulses that created these eidolons of human and animal
passions and desires. See Kâma-rûpa".)
Kâma-rûpa
(Sanskrit) Metaphysically, in our Esoteric Philosophy, it is the subjective
form created through the mental and physical desires and thoughts in connection
with things of matter, by all sentient beings, a form which survives the death
of their bodies. After that death three of the seven "principles"
... viz., the body, its astral prototype, and physical vitality, - being of
no further use - remain on earth; the three higher principles, grouped into
one, merge into the state of Devachan .... and the eidolon of the ex-Personality
is left alone in its new abode. Here, the pale copy of the man that was, vegetates
for a period of time, the duration of which is variable and according to the
element of materiality which is left in it, and which is determined by the past
life of the defunct. Bereft as it is of its higher mind, spirit, and physical
senses, if left alone to its own senseless devices, it will gradually fade out
and disintegrate. But, if forcibly drawn back into the terrestrial sphere whether
by the passionate desires and appeals of the surviving friends, or by regular
necromantic practices - one of the most pernicious of which is mediumship -
the "spook" may prevail for a period greatly exceeding the span of
the natural life of its body. Once the Kâma-rûpa has learnt
the way back to living human bodies, it becomes a vampire, feeding on the vitality
of those who are so anxious for its company. In India these eidolons
are called Pisâchas, and are much dreaded.
Kârana
Sarîra
(Sanskrit). The "Causal Body". It is dual in its meaning. Exoterically,
it is Avidyâ (ignorance), or that which is the cause of the evolution
of a human ego and its reincarnation; hence the lower Manas. Esoterically,
the causal body .... corresponds to Buddhi and the Higher Manas,
or Spiritual Soul.
Karma
(Sanskrit).
Physically, Action; metaphysically, the LAW OF RETRIBUTION, the Law of cause
and effect, or Ethical Causation. Nemesis only in one sense, that of bad Karma
... there is the Karma of merit and the Karma of demerit. Karma neither punishes
nor rewards, it is simply the one Universal Law which guides unerringly
- and, so to say, blindly - all other laws productive of certain effects along
the grooves of their respective causations.
Kriyâsakti
(Sanskrit). The power of thought; one of the seven forces of Nature. Creative
potency of the Siddhis (powers) of the full Yogis.
Kshetrajna,
or Kshetrajneswara
(Sanskrit). Embodied spirit, the Conscious Ego in its highest manifestations;
the reincarnating Principle: the "Lord" in us.
Kumâra
(Sanskrit). A virgin boy, or young celibate. The first Kumâras are the
seven sons of Brahmâ .... It is stated that the name was given to them
owing to their formal refusal to "procreate their species", and so
they "remained Yogis", as the legend says.
Loka
(Sanskrit). A region or circumscribed place. In metaphysics a world or sphere,
or plane. The Purânas in India speak incessantly of seven and fourteen
Lokas, above and below our earth; of heavens and hells.
Mahat
(Sanskrit).Lit.
"The Great One". The first principle of Universal Intelligences and
Consciousness... the producer of Manas, the thinking principle, and
Ahankara, Egotism, or the feeling of "I am I" (In the lower
Manas).
Mânasas
(Sanskrit)
Those who endowed humanity with Manas or Intelligence, the immortal EGOS
in men.
Mâyâvî
Rûpa
(Sanskrit). "Illusive form"; the "double" in Esoteric Philosophy;
Doppelgänger or perisprit, in German and French.
Nephesh
(Hebrew).
Breath of life .... Appetites. This term is used very loosely in the Bible It
generally means prâna, "life"; in the Kabalah it is the
animal passion and the animal soul. Therefore ... Nephesh is the synonym
of the Prâna-Kâmic Principle, or the vital animal soul in man.
Nirvâna
(Sanskrit). ..In the esoteric explanations it is the state of absolute existence
and absolute consciousness, into which the Ego of a man who has reached the
highest degree of perfection and holiness during life goes, after the body dies;
and occasionally , as in the case of Gautama Buddha and others, during life.
Nirvâni
(Sanskrit) One who has attained Nirvâna - an Emancipated Soul. That Nirvâna
means nothing of the kind asserted by Orientalists every scholar who has visited
China, India and Japan is well aware. It is escape from misery",
but only from that of matter, freedom from .. Kâma, and the complete
extinction of animal desires ... A state of absolute annihilation ... of everything
connected with matter or the physical world .... Sâkyamuni Buddha said
in the last moments of his life that "the spiritual body is immortal".
Purânas
(Sanskrit). Lit., "ancient". A collection of symbolical and
allegorical writings - eighteen in number now - supposed to have been composed
by Vyåsa, the author of the Mahâbhârata.
Râja-Yoga
(Sanskrit).
The true system of developing psychic and spiritual powers and union with one's
Higher Self - or the Supreme Spirit, as the profane express it. The exercise,
regulation and concentration of thought. Râja-Yoga is opposed to Hatha-Yoga.,
The physical or psycho-physiological training in asceticism.
Rûpa
(Sanskrit).
Body; any form, applied even to the form of the gods which are subjective to
us.
Samâdhi
(Sanskrit). A state of ecstatic and complete trance. The term comes from the
words Sam-âdha, "self-possession". He who possesses this
power is able to exercise an absolute control over all his faculties, physical
or mental; it is the highest state of Yoga.
Sushupti
Avashthâ (Sanskrit).
Deep sleep; one of the four aspects of Prânava.
Svapna
(Sanskrit). A trance or dreamy condition. Clairvoyance.
Turîya
(Sanskrit). A state of the deepest trance - the fourth state of the Târaka
Râja Yoga, one that corresponds with Atmâ, and on this earth
with dreamless sleep - a Causal condition.
Upâdhi
(Sanskrit). Basis; the vehicle, carrier or bearer of something less material
than itself; as the human body is the Upâdhi of its spirit; ether
the upâdhi of light, etc., etc. Amould; a defining or limiting
substance.
Vedas
(Sanskrit). The "revelation" the scriptures of the Hindus, form the
root vid, "to know", or "divine knowledge". They
are the most ancient as well as the most sacred of the Sanskrit works. The Vedas
... are claimed by the Hindus ... to have been first taught orally for thousands
of years, and then compiled on the shores of Lake Mânasa-Sarovara (phonetically,
Mansarovara), beyond the Himâlayas, in Tibet ... As compiled in
their final form by Veda-Vyâsa, the Brahmans themselves unanimously assign
3,100 years before the Christian era, the date when Vyâsa flourished ...
They are written in such an ancient form of Sanskrit ... (that) only the most
learned of the Brahman Pundits can read the Vedas in the original ...
The Vedic writings are all classified in two great divisions, exoteric and esoteric
... the Upanishads coming under the latter classification.
Vishvakarman
(Sanskrit). The
"Omnific". A Vedic god, a personification of the creative Force, described
as the One "all-seeing god, ... the generator, disposer, who ... is beyond
the comprehension of (uninitiated) mortals". In the two hymns of the Rig-Veda
specially devoted to him,he is said "to sacrifice himself to himself".
Zohar
or Sohar.
A compendium of Kabalistic Theosophy ... Tradition assigns its authorship to
Rabbi Simeon ben Jochai, A.D.80 ... There are portions of the doctrines of the
Sohar which bear the impress of Chaldee thought and civilization, to
which the Jewish race had been exposed in the Babylonian Captivity ... There
is no English translation of the Sohar as a whole, not even a
Latin one.
SEPTENARY
NATURE OF MAN: THE SEVEN "PRINCIPLES"
|
LOWER
QUATERNARY |
(a) Rûpa,
or Sthûla Sarira |
(a) Physical
body |
(a) Is
the vehicle of all the other "principles" during life |
(b) Prâna |
(b) Life,
or Vital principle |
(b) Necessary
only to a, c, d, and the functions of lower Manas, which embrace
all those limited to the (physical) brain. |
(c) Linga
Sarira |
(c) Astral
body |
(c) The
Double, the phantom body. |
(d) Kâma
Rûpa |
(d) The
seat of animal desires and passions. |
(d)
This is the centre of the animal man, where lies the line of demarcation
which separates mortal man from the immortal entity. |
THE UPPER
IMPERISHABLE TRIAD |
(e) Manas
- a dual principle in its functions. |
(e)
Mind, Intelligence:
which is the higher human mind, whose light, or radiation links the Monad,
for the lifetime, to the mortal man. |
(e)
The future state and the Karmic destiny of man depend on whether Manas
gravitates more downward to Kâma-rûpa, the seat of the
animal passions, or upwards to Buddhi, the Spiritual Ego.
In the latter case, the higher consciousness of the individual Spiritual
aspirations of mind, (Manas) assimilating Buddhi, are absorbed
by it and form the Ego, which goes into Devachanic bliss. |
(f) Buddhi |
(f) The
Spiritual Soul |
(f) The
vehicle of pure Universal Spirit |
(g) Atma |
(g) Spirit |
(g) One
with the Absolute, as its radiation. |
|