Objections To The Law of Thought

The law of thought in religions and in accidents.
he objections to the doctrine that man is the maker of his destiny are that men
have no choice in being created, and no choice concerning their destiny; and
that there is not more than one life on earth. Their experience would show that
justice is seldom meted out; that the good often suffer misfortune, and that the wicked
often prosper; that rewards and afflictions generally come to mankind without wise
dispensation; that the weak and poor are oppressed, and that the strong and rich can
get with impunity what they want; and that there is not an equal opportunity for all.
Another factor militating against the acceptance of the law of thought as destiny is the
belief in vicarious atonement. If individuals may be relieved of the consequences of
their sins by the sacrifice of another, there is no reason for a belief in justice.
The hope of eternal bliss in heaven, and the fear of eternal suffering in hell, as a
reward or punishment for the acts of one short life on earth, and based upon the mere
acceptance or rejection of a doctrine, dull the perception and stagger the
understanding. Predestination means that each doer is at birth arbitrarily created for
good or ill: a vessel for shame or honor. This idea, when believed without question,
enslaves the believers.
Those who accept an only God who, at will, dispenses blame or favor, raises or
puts down, and gives life or death; those who are satisfied with the explanation that
every event is the will of God or the ways of Providence, are, merely by holding such
beliefs, unable to apprehend the law of thought as destiny. Some people believe in
many gods, and others in a particular god, who will grant their wishes and condone
their sins if propitiated by offerings and supplications. People who believe that they
have such a god, do not want a law to which they cannot appeal for their selfish ends
and get a desired response.
No religion can dispense with the law of thought, as destiny: it is the basis of
moral law. No religion is without moral law; it must be in every religious system; and
in some form it is. Therefore the moral aspects of every religion are shared in some
degree by all. For this reason efforts have been successfully made to show the identity
of religions in fundamentals, their moral code being the bond between them. Each
religion, however, puts the administration of the moral law into the hands of that
particular God whose religion it is. His power is believed to be so great that he
himself is not bound by the moral law, being above it; hence the belief in the will of
God and the ways of Providence; hence also, in some persons, some doubt of the
management of that God, and eventually a belief in blind force and chance.
T
Another reason why some people may not wish to accept the law of thought as
destiny is that they do not grasp it. They know of no system of the Universe; they
know nothing of the nature of the gods, or of the parts which the gods play in
creating, maintaining and changing the physical world; they know little about the
nature of the doer and its connection with the gods. The failure of people to grasp
these points is due to the absence of a standard measure by which the nature and
relations of all matter and beings in the invisible worlds and their planes, and on the
visible physical plane, can be estimated. Owing to his weakness and selfishness, man
accepts force as that measure; his moral code therefore is practically that might is
right. Man sees in his God a magnified man; thus he is prevented from seeing a
system of thinking, without which he cannot have a key to the mysteries of the visible
plane.
No religion can dispense with the law of thought as destiny. Yet theological
doctrines are often incompatible with it. They make it appear in strange disguises,
stories and teachings that conceal the law. Nevertheless these are forms used by
Triune Selves to teach their doers as much of the law of thought as the doers can
acquire. The faith which holds to "ways of Providence," the "wrath of God" and
"original sin" to mention but these few, even as the skepticism which speaks of mere
chance and accident, is a station through which the doer passes while it is being
educated by the Light of the Intelligence.
The law of thought as destiny works in silence and is unseen. Its course is not
perceptible by the senses. Even its results on the physical plane attract no attention
unless they are unusual or unexpected. Then by some persons they are called
accidents, and are attributed to chance; by others, miracles or the will of God, and an
explanation is sought in religions. It is not generally understood that religion is the
relation between doers and the gods they have fashioned out of nature. The God or the
gods which men worship are nature gods. This fact is apparent from the symbols by
which they demand to be adored. These nature gods, however, are subject to complete
Triune Selves: they are created by the embodied doers of Triune Selves. Triune Selves
furnish to the embodied portions of their doers the means of accomplishing the
worship due to--and even the worship demanded by--the nature gods. The "divinity"
of each human, speaking within, is the thinker of his own Triune Self. Triune Selves
educate their doers, and use religions as a means of teaching. Thus the doer in a
human body is allowed to consider a personal God as its creator and source of power,
and as the administrator of justice according to a moral code. In so far as the God's
acts or omissions do not fall in with the moral code--the very code which is attributed
to the God--the doer believes in the "inscrutable ways of Providence".
Sometimes small parts of the law of thought are to be found in religions; but then
they are colored to fit in with the body of the theology. When the doer matures
sufficiently to see that it is sense-bound in a body which is personalized nature, and to
distinguish between the gods or God on the one hand, and, on the other, the Light it
receives from its Intelligence, then by that Light will the doer understand the innate
idea of justice, the real meanings of the "wrath of God" and of the doctrine of original
sin.
Accidents and chance are words used by persons who do not think clearly when
they attempt to account for certain happenings. Anyone who thinks must be
convinced that in a world as orderly as this there is no room for the words accident
and chance. Every natural science depends upon the recurrence of certain facts in a
certain order. A physical law means facts observed and the assurance of their
recurrence in orderly sequence. Such physical laws govern all physical actions, from
sowing to harvesting, from boiling water to sailing a vessel, from playing a fiddle to
the electrical transmission of sound and images by radio.
Can it be that there is no certainty of the orderly sequence of facts and events
when we search for moral law, for moral order? There is such a law, and it accounts
for so-called accidents: Everything existing on the physical plane is an exteriorization
of a thought which must be adjusted through the one who issued the thought, in
accordance with his responsibility and at the conjunction of time, condition and place.

Plan relating to the earth sphere.

The following is a partial outline of the plan of the Universe relating to the earth sphere. This
outline, though sketchy and incomplete, indicates enough to show what the plan is, and to explain
the working of the law of thought in so far as it relates to man.
Only a small portion of this immense sphere is familiar to the human, namely, the physical,
visible universe, which is in the solid state of the physical plane of the human physical world in
the sphere of earth. Beyond this state the ordinary human does not even think, (Fig. V-B).
By thinking there is precipitated onto our earth into visibility, through the four worlds, that
portion of the four spheres which is within and blended into the sphere of earth, as fire, air, water,
and earth. The nature-matter thus concreted may be perceived by the four senses of man in the
forms and structures of the human, animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms.
The senses of the body are elemental beings, nature units; they are personalized parts of the
four elements of invisible nature. The senses are developed and drawn and bound into the human
body and bear the seal of the doer that inhabits it. The senses do not feel; neither does nature feel,
but through the senses the doer in the human feels and desires. The matter which composes the
human body is impressed directly by the thinking and the thoughts of the doer in the human body.
All the matter in the human world has passed, does pass and will again and again pass through
human bodies in streams of units, cyclically by circulations. Thus there is kept up a continual
circulation of the units of nature through human bodies; it is kept going by thinking and breathing,
by which the matter is taken in and returned to the states and planes. It is only while matter is in a
human body that it can be raised or lowered from the condition in which it is, by thinking. It is
thus that the units of the human world descend and ascend continually.
After the death of the body and the dispersion into nature of the senses and the other nature
units there remains the form of the breath-form; this form stays in the psychic atmosphere of the
doer and is later used as a model or pattern to build a new body for the doer. By this process
innumerable bodies will be built successively for a re-existing doer. As a result of the experiences
and learning of the doer in these bodies, the units of which the bodies are composed are
eventually equilibrated and the feeling-and-desire of the doer of the Triune Self are in balanced
union in a regenerated and perfected physical body.
The part of the plan which is outlined in this section relates merely to the operation of the law
of thought as destiny, in so far as the operation of the law is the rule of life for man. As the
purpose of the Universe is unfolded in these pages, additional features of the plan are given which
affect nature, the Triune Self and the Intelligence.
SECTION 5
Transition of a breath-form unit to the state of aia. Eternal Order of Progression.
The Government of the world. The "fall of man." Regeneration of the body. Passage
of a unit from the nature-side to the intelligent-side.
From the universal plan outlined in the foregoing pages it will be seen that the sphere of earth
is of nature-matter and intelligent-matter; and that Consciousness, unchangeable and the same
throughout, is present everywhere.
In order that a nature unit may become an intelligent unit, it must have reached the limit of
progression on the nature-side; that is, it must have become the breath-form unit in a perfect body.
The next degree takes the breath-form unit beyond the bounds of nature. Then it is an aia unit, as
the intermediary point or line between nature and the intelligent-side, (Fig. II-G,H), belonging
however to the intelligent-side.
The transition of the breath-form unit to the degree of aia, is made while the doer is in its
perfect, immortal physical body in the Realm of Permanence; that is, according to the Eternal
Order of Progression, as follows:
The unmanifested of a unit is Sameness,--which is in and through the manifesting active and
passive aspects of the unit, (Fig. II-C). The manifesting active and passive aspects alternately
change until each is adjusted to the other by the unchanging Sameness, so that they are equalized
and balanced, and the unit is Sameness throughout.
It is so with the breath-form unit: its unmanifested is the sum of all functions as which it was
successively conscious during its entire progress through all preceding degrees as a nature unit in
that perfect body. As the sum those degrees do not function; they are neutral; they are as
Sameness. But those degrees qualify the manifesting aspects as breath-form to function: to keep
in operation and functioning all the units in that perfect body. And the aia unit is in the perfect
body, in the transitional state and degree to which the breath-form is developing.
The breath-form is the most advanced degree to which a nature unit can progress, always in a
perfect body. By the doer of the Triune Self that dwelt in that perfect body the breath-form was
balanced. And at the same time all other units in the perfect body were ready to advance one
degree in being conscious. So the breath-form was made ready to be advanced to the neutral state,
the transitional state, between nature-matter and intelligent-matter.
When the Triune Self of that perfect body becomes an Intelligence it raises the aia of that
body to take its place and degree as Triune Self, which then advances the breath-form to the state
of aia, as stated; and, that new Triune Self takes charge of the body. But in doing this all the units
of that perfect body have advanced one higher degree in being conscious. Therefore there must be
an alignment of units in their advanced degrees, especially with the new breath-form and its
senses and their organs. And there must be an adjustment by the doer of the Triune Self through
which it will maintain and keep the perfect body in operation. This adjustment is a critical and
most important process.
Some advancements made by units in the perfect body are: The unit of the sense of smell,
that is, its active aspect, breath, is, together with the passive aspect, form, advanced to be the
breath-form of the perfect body. Taste is advanced to the degree of smell. Hearing is advanced to
the degree of taste. Sight is advanced to the degree of hearing. And the unit of the organ of the
eye is advanced to be the sense of sight. These four advanced sense units are to act as
intermediaries between outside nature and the perfect body. The control and maintenance of that
body would be by means of the breath-form, and the doer of the Triune Self would keep the body
in balance; and the doer, in addition, would be active in administering affairs of the human world.
The Triune Self would then be a Triune Self complete, and as such it would be one of The
Government of the world, according to the Eternal Order of Progression.
However, before all this could come about, the doer of the Triune Self had to pass the trial
test of balance; that is, it had to bring its feeling aspect and its desire aspect into balanced union.
In order to do this, the doer's perfect sexless body is divided into a male body and a female body;
the feeling aspect of the doer then dwells in the female body and the desire aspect in the male
body. The two bodies are the balances. Then, with feeling and desire in the two bodies of opposite
sexes, as the balances, the doer was to preserve the oneness of itself as feeling-and-desire while it
was present in both halves of the divided one body. This would be done by thinking, by the
proper adjustment of the three minds of the doer, under control of the doer. Then, feeling-anddesire
thinking together as the doer, could not think other than as one doer. Thus thinking, the
body-mind would be attuned to and controlled by the feeling-and-desire minds thinking together
as one, and would also think of feeling-and-desire as one. Thus, by the three minds unitedly
thinking as one, the male and female half-bodies would be again united, and feeling-and-desire,
by thinking together, would be in balanced and inseparable union. Such united thinking of the
three minds would also adjust the units of the four systems of the perfect body through the four
senses of the body by means of the breath-form under control of the doer, who would then be in
right relation to its thinker and knower.
But the doers of all human beings failed to pass that test and trial. They did not balance the
newly advanced units in their proper relation. Feeling-and-desire allowed the body-mind to
control their thinking. So the body-mind thinking through the senses of the male body and the
female body hypnotized desire-and-feeling into seeing and believing that they were bodies, and
they forgot that they were the desire and the feeling of one doer, and not bodies. The Conscious
Light was withdrawn. They were in darkness of the senses; and then they did not think of
themselves as feeling-and-desire--similarly as most humans now think of themselves as bodies
instead of as the doers in their bodies. They lost the government of the body and could not remain
in the Realm of Permanence. Their thinking took them out of the Realm of Permanence. They
could only see and sense and think of this world of birth and death. This is the basis of the legend
of the "fall of man".

An Outline Of The System Of The Universe

SECTION 3
Outline of a system of the Universe. Time. Space. Dimensions.
In this section is presented a comprehensive system of the Universe,--a system of
development by progression, not evolution.
This system takes in the Universe in its entirety, in its largest divisions and in its smallest
parts; it shows the place of the human body in relation to the physical universe, and of the human
in relation to his Triune Self and the Supreme Intelligence of the Universe; and, finally,
Consciousness, the ultimate One Reality.
The system is all-inclusive; yet it is compact, logical and easy to apprehend or imagine. It can
be tested by its scope, by its unity, by its simplicity, its analogies, its interrelations, and by the
absence of contradictions.
Current classifications, such as God, nature, and man; body, soul, and spirit; matter, force,
and consciousness; good and evil; the visible and the invisible, are insufficient; they are
makeshifts, not parts of a system, yet these various entities and things have each a place in the
vast scheme, but what place has not been shown.
This system shows a Universe which consists of nature-matter and intelligent-matter, and
Consciousness which is the same in both kinds of matter. Matter differs in the degree in which it
is conscious. All matter as units on the nature-side is conscious, but merely conscious--each unit
being conscious as its function only; all matter on the intelligent-side at least can be conscious
that it is conscious; that is the distinction between the units of unintelligent nature-matter and of
intelligent-matter. The purpose of the Universe is to make all units of matter conscious in
progressively higher degrees, so that nature-matter shall become intelligent-matter; and, further,
so that intelligent-matter shall increase in being conscious until ultimately it becomes
Consciousness. The purpose of the Universe may be comprehended by distinguishing beings, that
is, units of the elements, elementals, out of the mass of matter, as they progress through the
various stages or states in which matter is conscious. The progression of these nature units is
accomplished while they are on ground which is common to all nature units. In the world of birth
and death the common ground is the human body.
The human body is on the lowest degree of the physical plane of all the worlds and spheres.
The units of the matter of the world of birth and death are kept circulating through, or in contact
with, human bodies. By means of this circulation all physical acts, objects, and events are brought
about.
In order to understand the human body and its relation to this complex Universe and the
relation of the doer in that body to the nature-side and to the intelligent-side of the Universe, it is
well to examine the Universe as a whole and in all its parts. In the following propositions certain
words are given specific meanings; they are used for lack of more adequate terms, for example:
fire, air, water, earth, for the spheres; and light, life, form, physical, for the worlds and planes.
The spheres, worlds, and planes have each an unmanifested and a manifested side; the
unmanifested side permeates and sustains the manifested, (Fig. I-A,B,C). In the diagrams they are
shown as an upper and a lower half. Let it be understood that the point of coincidence of the
spheres, worlds, and planes is their common center, and not at the lowest part of the circles. The
diagrams are drawn as they are in order to show relations, which cannot well be done with a set of
concentric circles.
Concerning the nature-side of the Universe:
1) The Universe exists in four vast primordial and fundamental spheres: the spheres of fire,
air, water, and earth, as elements, (Fig. I-A). The fire element permeates the air element, that
reaches through the water element and that passes into the earth element. The units of the matter
of the four spheres are conscious as fire, air, water, and earth units. These units of the elements
are behind and are the basis of manifestation of the units of the worlds.
2) In the manifested part of the sphere of earth is the light world; in the manifested part of the
light world is the life world; in the manifested part of the life world is the form world; and in the
manifested part of the form world is the physical world, (Fig. I-B). In other words, the physical
world is permeated, supported, and surrounded by three other worlds. The physical world may be
considered from two viewpoints, (Fig. II-G): As the Realm of Permanence, and, as the temporal
human world which is in part visible to the eye,--as is being done in the following pages.
3) In each of the four worlds there are four planes, namely, the light plane, the life plane, the
form plane, and the physical plane. Each of these planes corresponds and relates to one of the four
worlds, (Fig. I-C).
4) The physical plane of the human physical world contains all that is spoken of as the
physical universe. It is made up of four states of matter, namely, the radiant, the airy, the fluid,
and the solid states, (Fig. I-D). Each of these states of physical matter is of four substates, (Fig. IE).
Only the solid state and its four substates are at present subject to physical and chemical
investigation.
5) In the physical universe that is visible to the human eye is the earth, the world of time, of
sex, of birth and death; it is made up of and its human bodies are composed of unbalanced units,
(Fig. II-B); that is, units that are either active-passive or passive-active, male or female; bodies
that alternate, that die. Within and beyond and pervading this physical world of time is the
permanent physical world, invisible to us, the Realm of Permanence, (Fig. II-G); it is made up of
balanced units, units that are balanced and therefore do not alternate from passive to active, and
the reverse, (Fig. II-C). Bodies of balanced units of the Realm of Permanence do not die; they are
perfect and everlasting; they do not change in the sense that unbalanced units do; they progress in
being conscious in successively higher degrees, according to the Eternal Order of Progression.
Concerning the human body:
6) A human body is the model or plan of the changing universe; in it nature units pass
through series of the fourfold states of nature-matter.
7) Thus four physical masses of units constitute the human body, (Fig. III): the visible, solidsolid
body, and three inner, invisible, unformed masses or potential bodies, namely, the fluidsolid,
the airy-solid, and the radiant-solid, which are at present beyond scientific investigation.
Among this fourfold constitution of the human body and the fourfold constitution of the spheres,
worlds, and planes there is an interrelation, an action and reaction.
8) Radiations from these four masses or bodies extend as zones around the solid-solid body;
together they make up the physical atmosphere of the human body, (Fig. III; V-B). In addition to
this physical atmosphere, which is made up of nature units, there are three other atmospheres, the
psychic, mental, and noetic atmospheres of the Triune Self, which reach into the physical
atmosphere and relate to the form, life, and light planes of the physical world, (Fig. V-B). Further,
those parts of the noetic, mental, and psychic atmospheres of the Triune Self, which are within the
radiations of the fourfold, visible, solid-solid body, are here spoken of as the atmospheres of the
human.
9) The human body is built in four sections or cavities: the head, the thorax, the abdomen,
and the pelvis. These relate to the four planes of the physical world, to the four worlds of the
sphere of earth, and the four great spheres of the elements of fire, air, water, and earth. That is:
10) The pelvic cavity relates to the physical plane; the abdominal cavity relates to the form plane;
the thoracic cavity relates to the life plane, and the head relates to the light plane of the physical
world. Similarly, these four cavities of the body relate respectively to the physical, form, life, and
light worlds, and to the four spheres of earth, water, air, and fire.
11) In the body there are four systems. The systems relate respectively to the same planes and
worlds and spheres as do the sections. The digestive system is of the physical plane, of the
physical world, and of the earth; the circulatory system is of the form plane, the form world, and
the water; the respiratory system is of the life plane, the life world, and the air; and the generative
system is of the light plane, the light world, and the fire.
12) Each system is governed by one of the four senses. The senses are elemental beings,
nature units. The digestive system is governed by the sense of smell; the circulatory system by the
sense of taste; the respiratory system by the sense of hearing; and the generative system by the
sense of sight. Each of these senses is affected by its respective element in outside nature: the
sense of smell is operated by the element of earth, taste is operated by the water, hearing by the
air, and sight by the fire.
13) Each of the four senses is passive and active. To illustrate: in seeing, when the eye is
turned toward an object the sense of sight passively receives an impression; by the active light, or
fire, this impression is aligned so that it is seen.
14) Throughout the body nature operates through the involuntary nervous system for
communication with all parts of the body and for the performance of the involuntary functions of
the four systems, (Fig. VI-B).
15) All these phenomena belong and relate to the nature-side of the universe; so, too, the
matter of which the body is built and by which it is maintained is of the nature-side.
16) A human body is the meeting ground of the nature-side and the intelligent-side of the
changing universe; and in the body there is a continuous interaction between the two.
Concerning the intelligent-side of the Universe:
17) The Triune Self represents the intelligent-side of the Universe. A Triune Self has three
parts, and three atmospheres, and three breaths, (Fig. V-B). The three parts are: the psychic or
doer part, which in its passive aspect is feeling and in its active aspect is desire; the mental or
thinker part, which is passively rightness and actively reason; and the noetic or knower part,
which passively is I-ness and actively selfness. Each of the three parts has, in a measure, the
aspects of the other two parts. Each part is in an atmosphere; thus there are the psychic, mental,
and noetic atmospheres of the Triune Self, which relate to the form world, the life world, and the
light world. Through each atmosphere a portion of that atmosphere flows as a breath, just as there
are currents which move in the air and which are the air, yet are at the same time distinct from the
air. Of this complex Triune Self, only a portion of the doer part exists in the human body. It
governs the body mechanism by means of the voluntary nervous system.
18) That portion of the doer part has its station in the kidneys and adrenals. The other two
parts of the Triune Self are not in the body but merely contact it: the thinker part contacts the
heart and lungs; the knower part barely contacts the rear half of the pituitary body and the pineal
body in the brain. The Triune Self contacts the voluntary nervous system as a whole, (Fig. VI-A).
The thinker of each human is his individual divinity.
19) The vertical line that divides or connects the two sides of the universe, and the upper and
lower points, are the symbol of the aia and of the breath-form, (Fig. II-G,H). The upper point of
the line is the aia, representing the intelligent-side to the right of the line; the lower point is the
breath-form, which stands for nature, on the left side of the line. The two points and the line relate
the aia for the intelligent-side with the breath-form for the nature-side, so that there can be
immediate action and reaction on each other. The aia belongs to the Triune Self, as the breathform
belongs to nature. The aia is without dimension; it is not destroyed; it is always in the
psychic atmosphere of the doer part. Prior to conception the aia revivifies a nature unit, the form,
with the breath of the breath-form, which will be the "living soul" of the body during life. The
breath-form is the cause of conception. The breath-form is stationed in the front half of the
pituitary body, and lives in the involuntary nervous system. It is an automaton, and is the means
of communication between the Triune Self and nature.
20) The Triune Self receives Light from an Intelligence. The Intelligence is the next higher
degree in being conscious, beyond the Triune Self, (Fig. V-C). The Light of an Intelligence is a
Conscious Light. By its Conscious Light, an Intelligence is related to the Triune Self, and through
the Triune Self the Intelligence maintains contact with the four worlds. In the noetic atmosphere
the Conscious Light, so to say, is clear, and it is likewise clear in that portion of the mental
atmosphere which is in the noetic atmosphere of the Triune Self. But in the mental atmosphere of
the human, (Fig. V-B), the Conscious Light is diffused and more or less obscured. The Light does
not enter the psychic atmosphere. The use of the Conscious Light makes the doer intelligent.
21) An Intelligence unit is the highest degree in which a unit can be conscious as a unit. An
Intelligence was a primordial unit of matter in the sphere of fire, there conscious as its function
only; it progressed through the spheres and many cycles in the worlds to the degree where it has
at last become an ultimate unit, a unit conscious as an Intelligence, (Fig. II-H). An Intelligence is
self-conscious, individuated, has identity as an Intelligence, and has seven inseparable parts or
faculties, each of the seven being a conscious witness to the unity of the seven, (Fig. V-C).
22) The Supreme Intelligence is the highest in degree of all Intelligences; is chief of the
Intelligences governing the Universe; and is in relation with the Universe through the individual
Intelligences and their complete Triune Selves. Each Triune Self is in conscious relation to the
Supreme Intelligence through the individual Intelligence to whom it is related.
Concerning The Government of the world:
23) Complete Triune Selves constitute The Government of the world. They are in everlasting,
perfect bodies of the, to mortals, invisible, physical Realm of Permanence. They govern the
physical, the form, the life, and the light worlds. Complete Triune Selves are the active agents of
Intelligences who supervise, but take no active part in, The Government.
Concerning Consciousness:
24) Consciousness is that by the presence of which all things are conscious. Consciousness is
the same in all matter and in all beings. Consciousness is changeless. Matter changes as it
becomes increasingly conscious in successive degrees. Beings are conscious in varying degrees;
but Consciousness is the same in all beings, from the least nature unit to the Supreme Intelligence.
Consciousness has no states, is not conditioned, is without attributes, does not act, cannot be acted
upon, cannot be separated, cut up or divided, does not vary, does not develop, and is the
completion of all becoming. By the presence of Consciousness all there is in the Universe is
conscious according to its capacity to be conscious.
Concerning units:
25) All nature-matter is of units. A unit is an indivisible, irreducible one; it has an active and
a passive side, either of which dominates the other. There are four kinds of units: nature units, aia
units, Triune Self units, and Intelligence units, (Fig. II-A). The term nature units includes all units
of the spheres, worlds, planes, and states of matter. Units are beyond the reach of chemistry and
physics; they can be dealt with only by the mind.
26) A unit begins its development as a primordial unit on the unintelligent nature-side; that is,
as a fire unit of the fire sphere, (Fig. II-H). The unit progresses as a unit on the intelligent-side;
that is, as first a Triune Self and ultimately as an Intelligence. Between these two stages are
innumerable conditions of units. The purpose is to develop a primordial unit of the fire sphere
until it is an Intelligence. The purpose is achieved by the passage of the unit through all stages of
units on the nature-side, then through the aia kind, and then through all the degrees on the
intelligent-side as a Triune Self and then as an Intelligence. In the changing universe, all this is
done according to the plan of a human body, by re-existences of the doer portions until the doer is
consciously one with its Triune Self.
27) A unit of nature goes through four conditions, always of a fiery, airy, fluid, and earthy
kind, before it can be changed. In the world of time the active or the passive side dominates the
other until the unit is ready to be changed, at which time the active side and the passive side are
equal. Then the change is made through the unmanifested, which pervades the manifested, of the
unit that disappears from the state in which it is and reappears through the unmanifested as that
which it becomes. When a unit changes from one state or plane or world to another, the change is
made through the unmanifested during all manifestations.
28) Changes of units in this manner occur throughout nature in chemical processes; but only
while a unit is in a perfect body can it progress.
The foregoing plan presents the Universe as it appears to the doers in human bodies existing
on the earth crust who are confined to sensuous perceptions and whose understanding is
accordingly restricted.
Nerve centers of the body are at present used for the pleasure of the human and the
housekeeping of the body; but potentially they are centers for the exercise of mental and noetic
powers undreamed of.
Time is the change of units or of masses of units in their relation to each other. On the earth
crust, where time is measured as the earth mass changes in its relation to the sun mass, time is not
the same as time in other states and worlds. Time applies only to units that have not been
balanced. In the Realm of Permanence, where the units do not change alternately from activepassive
to passive-active, that is, where the units are balanced, there is no time as known to
humans.
Space is related to time as the unmanifested is related to the manifested. Time is of nature
units; it can be measured; space is not matter, it is not of units, and cannot be measured. Space has
no dimensions. Distance has no relation or application to space. The manifestation of the
Universe is in space, but space is not affected by it. Space is unconscious Sameness. To the
sensuous perceptions of doers on the earth crust, space is no thing.
Dimensions are conditions of physical matter, and do not relate to space. The doers on the
earth crust are limited to the four senses for perception. These senses can at present perceive only
one dimension: the dimension of on-ness, that is, surfaces. What are called three dimensions--
length, breadth, and thickness--are only surfaces. The senses do not perceive the other three
dimensions. Though the doers cannot see the next dimension, which is in-ness, they are aware
that there is a dimension beyond their sense perception. The doers are not aware of a third and a
fourth dimension, but they guess about them.

What Happens After You Die?

SECTION 21
After death. Communications with the dead. Apparitions. The doer becomes
conscious that its body has died.
The sixth class of psychic destiny is of the states through which the doer passes
after death, (Fig. V-D). After death the various entities that were combined into a
human being gradually separate. The more quickly the fourfold physical body is
disposed of the better it is for the entities composing it, for the doer and for the people
in the world. When the physical body is consumed, the elementals, nature units,
which are its atoms, molecules and cells, are freed and return to their respective four
elements, that is, states of matter, in the earth sphere. From there they are drawn into
other bodies, mineral, vegetable, animal and human. So they continue their constant
circulation during the life and the dissolution of the different bodies of which they
form a part.
The radiant-solid or astral body, which was during life the matter that contacted
the invisible breath-form, took its form from that and was visible to clairvoyants, is
now only the shadow of the physical body. During life the fluid body was the carrier
of life to the physical body from the food that the four states of matter furnished. In a
physical body each cell is insulated and is not in touch with any other cell. The astral,
airy, and fluid bodies pass through these cells and connect them with each other, so
that a current of life can flow through them. After death the astral body has lost touch
with the breath-form and is as dead as the solid body. It decays in the astral state of
the physical plane as the flesh decays in the airy, fluid and solid states of the physical
plane. The places are now reversed. In life the grosser physical body depended on the
astral, but after death the astral depends on the grosser physical and so can last only as
long as that does. This disposes of the fourfold physical body, which is dissipated
after death and takes no part in any of the after-death states of the doer.
The breath-form with its four senses and the portion of the doer remain together
in the atmospheres of the doer and go together through a process usually called hell.
This entity is the human without the fourfold physical body.
After death there is a period of unconsciousness, that separates the doer from the
physical world and the state in which it finds itself. The period may last less than an
hour, or it may be many years.
The doer becomes conscious again in different ways. It may become conscious in
a dream without being aware of its identity, as a person dreams during ordinary sleep.
These dreams are usually incoherent; the scenes in them lack sequence and tangibility
and are generally scenes without sounds. Or the doer may become conscious of one of
the very early conditions of its life; so a middle-aged man may be conscious as what
he was when he was ten years old and remain in that state, playing marbles or on his
way to school, for a long, long time. Or the doer may become conscious in one of the
positions which it filled in life and continue going over the same acts for a long time.
So a messenger may deliver his parcels, a clerk may make his entries, a librarian may
sort over his books, a banker may make his loans, a milliner trim hats, a housewife
look after her household, a prisoner serve over his sentence in jail, a soldier fight over
a battle, an invalid go through his period of illness, and a fisherman catch fish. In
these cases they follow the occupations which engrossed one period of their lives on
earth and do them over and over again. The rich continue their activities and the poor
theirs. Or the doer may wake up as though from a sleep and continue a number of
activities, either with or without the feeling of identity. So a fisherman catches his
fish, takes them to market, sells them, goes to a tavern, and mends his nets and boat.
Another case is where the doer just continues all its ordinary activities. These are a
few illustrations out of many.
In all these states the doer lives over scenes from the life it left. Nothing new is
done. There is no new thinking. A feeling of identity may or may not be present; if it
is present it is the false "I," the ego, of the human. Other persons may seem to take
part in these scenes, but in that case they are not those who actually did take part in
the scenes in life. In none of these instances does the doer do anything that it has not
done before in life and in none of them is the doer aware, at first, that it has passed
through death and has lost its physical body, or that the world it lives in is not the
physical world. Questions such as these do not come up, any more than in ordinary
life. The bookkeeper did not ask himself in life whether he was awake or dreaming,
dead or alive and no more does he ask that in the states described.
The characteristics of these and other such states are that the flesh body is dead,
and the doer is not yet aware that it has passed through death and does no new
thinking; that what it does it does automatically, with only dreamy sensuous
perceptions; and that all seems as real as though it were done for the first time. The
condition may be illustrated by scenes that have once been acted and which are
reproduced by cinema a thousand times. These states if passed through at all, are
passed through by the bad and the good alike; so far there is no reward or punishment.
Not all doers pass through these states, but only those in whose lives strong
impressions have been made on the breath-form and who have to wait some time
before the judgment. In these states, the doer is with its breath-form on the astral form
plane of the physical world. The breath-form cannot be seen by any clairvoyant if the
astral body has been sloughed off. If the astral body is still connected with the breathform
the astral body may be seen clairvoyantly. However, while the doer is in the
states mentioned it cannot communicate by any means with any one on earth, and it
cannot know what is happening on earth. It does not know that the body has died and
it cannot do anything but work off the impressions on the breath-form

CHAPTER III

CHAPTER III
OBJECTIONS TO THE
LAW OF THOUGHT
SECTION 1
The law of thought in religions and in accidents.
he objections to the doctrine that man is the maker of his destiny are that men
have no choice in being created, and no choice concerning their destiny; and
that there is not more than one life on earth. Their experience would show that
justice is seldom meted out; that the good often suffer misfortune, and that the wicked
often prosper; that rewards and afflictions generally come to mankind without wise
dispensation; that the weak and poor are oppressed, and that the strong and rich can
get with impunity what they want; and that there is not an equal opportunity for all.
Another factor militating against the acceptance of the law of thought as destiny is the
belief in vicarious atonement. If individuals may be relieved of the consequences of
their sins by the sacrifice of another, there is no reason for a belief in justice.
The hope of eternal bliss in heaven, and the fear of eternal suffering in hell, as a
reward or punishment for the acts of one short life on earth, and based upon the mere
acceptance or rejection of a doctrine, dull the perception and stagger the
understanding. Predestination means that each doer is at birth arbitrarily created for
good or ill: a vessel for shame or honor. This idea, when believed without question,
enslaves the believers.
Those who accept an only God who, at will, dispenses blame or favor, raises or
puts down, and gives life or death; those who are satisfied with the explanation that
every event is the will of God or the ways of Providence, are, merely by holding such
beliefs, unable to apprehend the law of thought as destiny. Some people believe in
many gods, and others in a particular god, who will grant their wishes and condone
their sins if propitiated by offerings and supplications. People who believe that they
have such a god, do not want a law to which they cannot appeal for their selfish ends
and get a desired response.
No religion can dispense with the law of thought, as destiny: it is the basis of
moral law. No religion is without moral law; it must be in every religious system; and
in some form it is. Therefore the moral aspects of every religion are shared in some
degree by all. For this reason efforts have been successfully made to show the identity
of religions in fundamentals, their moral code being the bond between them. Each
religion, however, puts the administration of the moral law into the hands of that
particular God whose religion it is. His power is believed to be so great that he
himself is not bound by the moral law, being above it; hence the belief in the will of
God and the ways of Providence; hence also, in some persons, some doubt of the
management of that God, and eventually a belief in blind force and chance.
T
Another reason why some people may not wish to accept the law of thought as
destiny is that they do not grasp it. They know of no system of the Universe; they
know nothing of the nature of the gods, or of the parts which the gods play in
creating, maintaining and changing the physical world; they know little about the
nature of the doer and its connection with the gods. The failure of people to grasp
these points is due to the absence of a standard measure by which the nature and
relations of all matter and beings in the invisible worlds and their planes, and on the
visible physical plane, can be estimated. Owing to his weakness and selfishness, man
accepts force as that measure; his moral code therefore is practically that might is
right. Man sees in his God a magnified man; thus he is prevented from seeing a
system of thinking, without which he cannot have a key to the mysteries of the visible
plane.
No religion can dispense with the law of thought as destiny. Yet theological
doctrines are often incompatible with it. They make it appear in strange disguises,
stories and teachings that conceal the law. Nevertheless these are forms used by
Triune Selves to teach their doers as much of the law of thought as the doers can
acquire. The faith which holds to "ways of Providence," the "wrath of God" and
"original sin" to mention but these few, even as the skepticism which speaks of mere
chance and accident, is a station through which the doer passes while it is being
educated by the Light of the Intelligence.
The law of thought as destiny works in silence and is unseen. Its course is not
perceptible by the senses. Even its results on the physical plane attract no attention
unless they are unusual or unexpected. Then by some persons they are called
accidents, and are attributed to chance; by others, miracles or the will of God, and an
explanation is sought in religions. It is not generally understood that religion is the
relation between doers and the gods they have fashioned out of nature. The God or the
gods which men worship are nature gods. This fact is apparent from the symbols by
which they demand to be adored. These nature gods, however, are subject to complete
Triune Selves: they are created by the embodied doers of Triune Selves. Triune Selves
furnish to the embodied portions of their doers the means of accomplishing the
worship due to--and even the worship demanded by--the nature gods. The "divinity"
of each human, speaking within, is the thinker of his own Triune Self. Triune Selves
educate their doers, and use religions as a means of teaching. Thus the doer in a
human body is allowed to consider a personal God as its creator and source of power,
and as the administrator of justice according to a moral code. In so far as the God's
acts or omissions do not fall in with the moral code--the very code which is attributed
to the God--the doer believes in the "inscrutable ways of Providence".
Sometimes small parts of the law of thought are to be found in religions; but then
they are colored to fit in with the body of the theology. When the doer matures
sufficiently to see that it is sense-bound in a body which is personalized nature, and to
distinguish between the gods or God on the one hand, and, on the other, the Light it
receives from its Intelligence, then by that Light will the doer understand the innate
idea of justice, the real meanings of the "wrath of God" and of the doctrine of original
sin.
Accidents and chance are words used by persons who do not think clearly when
they attempt to account for certain happenings. Anyone who thinks must be
convinced that in a world as orderly as this there is no room for the words accident
and chance. Every natural science depends upon the recurrence of certain facts in a
certain order. A physical law means facts observed and the assurance of their
recurrence in orderly sequence. Such physical laws govern all physical actions, from
sowing to harvesting, from boiling water to sailing a vessel, from playing a fiddle to
the electrical transmission of sound and images by radio.
Can it be that there is no certainty of the orderly sequence of facts and events
when we search for moral law, for moral order? There is such a law, and it accounts
for so-called accidents: Everything existing on the physical plane is an exteriorization
of a thought which must be adjusted through the one who issued the thought, in
accordance with his responsibility and at the conjunction of time, condition and place.
SECTION 2
An accident is an exteriorization of a thought. Purpose of an accident.
Explanation of an accident. Accidents in history.
An "accident" is an event which happens to one or more persons or things
unexpectedly, without being foreseen and without intention. Therefore the accident
stands out from the general and foreseen order of events as unusual or separate. A socalled
accident is, like any other event on the physical plane, a thought in a certain
part of its course.
A thought is a being created by the Conscious Light and desire; and which, when
issued, has in it an aim, a potential design, and a balancing factor--which balancing
factor, like the needle of a compass, points to the final balance of the thought as a
whole. The thought endures until the balancing factor has brought about an
adjustment through the one who issued the thought. The balancing factor causes
exteriorizations as long as the thought endures. Whenever the thought, moving in its
courses, approaches the physical plane, it causes the one who issued it to be in place
for an exteriorization of that thought. An exteriorization can happen only when there
is a juncture of time, condition and place. The laws which control the exteriorization
do not always fit in with the intention and expectation of the persons concerned; and
the exteriorization is then called an accident. An accident is a perceived physical part
of a thought which is proceeding on its otherwise invisible course. The exteriorization
makes visible that part of the thought which touches the physical plane and is not yet
balanced. The demonstration is made on or through the person who is concerned in
the accident.
Accidents such as a personal injury, or a barn being struck by lightning, or an
occurrence which prevents one from embarking on a ship that is to be wrecked, come
only to those whose thoughts are thereby partially exteriorized to them. An accident
presents to the one to whom it happens something of his past, either distant or recent.
The accident is a part of one of his own thoughts that he has not balanced, and which
will endure and, from time to time, meet him face to face as a physical event, until he
has paid or received payment through the direct exteriorization of the design, learns
his lesson from that child of his mind and desire, and has satisfied his conscience.
Often accidents come to injure him, often to help him, and sometimes as protections.
The reasons why events happen to him in the form of accidents, in an
exceptional, unforeseen manner, are that a man would not do certain things to himself,
like breaking an arm, or that circumstances do not call for a commission of a crime
against him, that is, an intentional injury; or finally that the happening accidentally is
the easiest and most direct way to bring about the juncture of time, condition and
place for the exteriorization.
Further, there is in the happening of an accident a special call for attention. An
accident rather than an ordinary event, produces this, because the accident is unlooked
for, startling.
An accident is brought about in the ordinary course of the law of thought as
destiny. Every man has a vast number of thoughts cycling in his mental atmosphere
toward and away from exteriorization on the physical plane. The thoughts live on with
a tendency to exteriorize in the events which the balancing factor in each of them
requires and projects.
The thoughts begin and continue their cycles from the time a person issues them.
Whenever they approach the physical plane, they seek to exteriorize; but they are
often held back by the exteriorizations of his present design. When there is an
opportunity, be it ever so slight, the whole nature of the man seizes upon it and uses it
to precipitate an event which will bring about one of these exteriorizations. Every
thought, once it is issued, endures and appears cyclically, exteriorized as a physical
event. For that purpose, the one who issued the thought calls mentally or psychically
on other persons concerned with the thought, through their atmospheres. If a cycle of
one of those persons' thoughts coincides with a cycle of one of his own, this will
produce, unintentionally to the first one, the event which is called an accident.
Another manner in which accidents are brought about is by elementals, nature
units. They follow and are bound by a man's thought, and rush with it into his body as
an impulse, so that he unexpectedly performs an act which results in an accident to
him; he may, for instance, cut himself; or may fall in front of a fast moving car.
Another way in which elementals may act to precipitate a thought, is by producing an
occurrence without human intervention, as where fire burns a man, or a cinder gets
into his eye, or melting ice drops on him from a roof, or he finds articles of value. In
every instance his own thought, seeking exteriorization, is the means of precipitating
upon him the event which he calls an accident.
The purpose of an accident is to call one's attention to the thought of which it is
one of the exteriorizations. One to whom an accident happens can always, by
searching, find out something about that. Though the event may not reveal the whole
past to him, it may reveal that portion of the past which it is necessary for him to
know. If he tries to understand, he will learn, and he will learn more, if he is willing to
pay,--he must pay anyway. What he learns will bring him nearer to the adjustment.
Suppose two men are traveling in a mountainous country. By placing his foot on
an insecure stone, one of them slips and falls info a ravine. His companion goes to the
rescue, finds the mangled body below, among rocks; and close at hand he discovers,
cropping out from the side of the ravine, a vein of gold. The death of the one
impoverishes his family and causes failure to some with whom he was in business.
Because of that fall, the other discovers an ore deposit which becomes a source of
wealth. Such an occurrence is said to be an accident, bringing death to one, sorrow
and poverty to some, failure to others, and "good luck" to the comrade whose wealth
is gained by chance.
There is no accident or chance connected with such occurrences. Each of the
events is in accordance with the working out of the law as destiny, and is an
exteriorization of some thought, issued by the person affected, though beyond the
limits of perception.
The one who was killed was a man whose allotted time had run its course, though
his death could have occurred a little sooner or might have been postponed for a short
time. The manner of his death had been predetermined to be sudden. Further, it was
necessary, on account of his family and his business connections, that his relations to
them be severed abruptly. Therefore he suffered sudden death.
Whether the poverty awakens self-reliance in those who have been dependent on
the deceased and brings out traits which could not be seen while they were dependent
on another, or whether they become disheartened, give up to despair or become
paupers, rests largely upon the past of those concerned. Whether the one who
discovers the gold improves the opportunity of wealth to be honest, to better the
conditions of himself and others, to relieve suffering, or to support educational work;
or whether, on the other hand, he does none of these, but uses his wealth and the
power which it gives him for the oppression of others; or whether he becomes morally
corrupt and urges others to lives of dissipation, is all according to the law of thought,
and has been largely determined by previous thoughts of those concerned.
If the deceased had been more careful in the selection of his path, he might not
have fallen, though his death, as it was required by the law, would merely have been
postponed a short time. If his companion had not descended the perilous path in the
hope of rendering assistance, he would not have found the means by which he
acquired his wealth. Yet, even if fear should have kept him from going to the aid of
his comrade, he would only have deferred his prosperity, because wealth was to be his
as the result of his past thoughts and works. By not letting pass an opportunity which
duty presented, he hastened his prosperity.
It is injurious to speak of accident and chance as events happening without cause
and irrespective of law. Such unthinking use of the words fosters in people the belief
that they may act or fail to act, and not be held accountable. They come to believe that
things may happen to them without cause. So they may dull their moral conceptions.
They limit their views and reasoning to things on the physical plane; they trust to
chance, and are liable to become irresponsible.
Events which affect a few or many, or a race or a continent, or the whole world,
arrive to those whom they benefit or afflict according to the working of the law of
thought as destiny. To each individual are exteriorized some of his past thoughts. The
thoughts press for an opening for exteriorization. If there are many people whose
thoughts tend towards a similar event, they are gathered even from the ends of the
earth to bring about the so-called accidents. To everyone comes the advantage or loss
that exteriorizes some of his past thoughts.
Accidents which happen to a community, like a conflagration, cyclone,
inundation or pestilence, are likewise the exteriorizations of thoughts of those
affected. Under this head fall also the destruction of hamlets and cities, and the
devastation of countries, like the ruthless razing of Carthage, the sacking of Rome, the
plundering of the Spanish settlements by the buccaneers, or the conquest of Peru. In
these cases the "just" suffer with the "unjust". The "unjust" are the evil ones in the
present; the "just" are the unrighteous of the past. Such destinies have been made by
the action and inaction, the participation and indifference, of the inhabitants in times
such as those of the persecution of the Huguenots, or of the Netherlands by Alva, or
of the Quakers by the Puritans in New England. They will be brought together in the
course of time, and their thoughts will lead them to the place and time of the
exteriorization of those past thoughts. That place may be the same locality; or the
people may be brought together in another, and there live in prosperity or in trouble,
and share in the accidents of the final disaster.
The reckoning may be held up for a long time; but it is sure to come. The United
States of America was set apart by Intelligences to try out self-government by the
multitude, and so they have been led to success in their various wars, their political
institutions and their economic undertakings, notwithstanding the actions of the
people. In peace and in war, their escape from the natural consequences of their
selfishness and indifference is striking. But this protection and universal success,
which school histories and orators seem to take as a matter of course, may not last.
There must be an accounting for all that these people did tolerate and do in violation
of their great responsibility. The New England bigots, the Massachusetts slave traders,
the Southern slave drivers, the oppressors of the Indians, the political and other
corruptionists will at some time meet and suffer at the reckoning which is sure to
come.
In every life there are numerous events which are generally regarded as accidents.
Such events are, to mention a few: birth at a particular time into a certain country,
race, family and religion; birth into favorable or unfavorable conditions; birth into a
sound or a diseased body; birth with certain psychic tendencies and mental
endowments. Peoples' lives are largely made up of events which they cannot choose,
and which seem to be determined by accident. Among these are opportunities offered
to enter a trade, a business or a vocation; chance acquaintances who cause, prevent or
end associations in work or commerce; and conditions which lead to or hinder
marriage and friendship.
People, if they do not look upon events as happenings by chance, explain them as
the will of God and seek consolation in their religion.
SECTION 3
Religions. Gods. Their claims. The need of religions. The moral code.
Religions, which turn around personal gods, seem incompatible with the law of
thought as destiny. Some of their doctrines are particularly designed to settle inquiries
into the mysteries of the law by statements which must be accepted by faith and
without contradiction.
A religion is the relation between man and a God or gods, which he has helped to
fashion or maintain, largely for the purpose of getting comfort and protection. The
religion into which a man is born, or which he accepts during life, indicates the stage
of his development. The commands of the god whom he worships, the form of the
worship, the punishments threatened, and the rewards promised, show the particular
element of nature to which his doer is attuned.
Nature is the nature-matter in those parts of the spheres of fire, air, and water
which reach into the sphere of earth; a part of which earth sphere is the human
physical world in which is the visible universe, including the moon, sun, planets and
stars, (Fig. I-E). A part of the human world is personalized in the organs, systems and
senses in the human body. All these are made up of matter belonging to the four
elements. Each of the senses is a nature unit, doing service in a human body. The four
senses of seeing, hearing, tasting and smelling are the connections which relate the
doer in the human as a distinct entity, to nature as a whole through its four elements.
There is a constant pull, on the one hand, by each of the four elements of nature
on its particular sense in the human body, and, on the other hand, by nature on the
doer through the connection of the four senses with the doer-in-the-body. The senses
are the emissaries of nature: the messengers, agents, priests, through which nature
speaks to the doer. The pull is like a call from nature to man; it is experienced as a
feeling, an emotion, a sentiment, a longing. The human is overwhelmed by
uncertainty and the fear of powers against which he is helpless. He responds to that
call, and to his wish for comfort and protection, by worship. That worship must take
some form. The form is the religion of the particular human.
The human worships nature in terms of personality. The reason for this is that the
human identifies himself with his body, and so does not think of nature, power, love,
or intelligence, except as proceeding from a personality. Man cannot conceive of
anything without identity or form; therefore, when he wants to worship nature he
gives to nature form and identity. So he creates gods which are nature gods--
magnified men and women. His religion is the tie between him and his gods.
These nature gods cannot continue to exist without worship, for they need and
depend on human thought for nourishment. That is why they are continually crying
for and commanding worship. There are ceremonies and symbols with which they
demand to be adored; and certain places, temples and buildings for their worship. The
symbols appear in ornaments on, or in the very form of, vestments, temples, and
structures; or in dances or rites performed in these by worshippers.
The symbols represent chiefly procreation, food and punishment. Among such
religious symbols are, for the male deities, the sun and the rays of the sun; fire and
that which carries fire--as a torch or a candle; and for the goddesses, the earth, the
moon and water. Then there are directly the generative parts of the human body, and
the symbols which indicate them; as, for the male, the stem of a palm-tree, conifers, a
shaft, a pillar, a staff, an obelisk, an arrow, a lance, a sword, an erect serpent, a bull, a
goat and other animals. The female is represented by a woman holding a child; and by
a vessel, an arch, a grove, a door, a lozenge, a shell, a boat, a rose, a pomegranate, a
cow, a cat, and similar fertile animals. The parts of man are made to appear in the
conventional forms of the male triad, trefoil and bishop's crook; and the female
symbols are such things as the vesica pisces, a bowl, a goblet or an urn. These
symbols are used alone or jointly. The conventional forms appear in many
combinations, generally in cross or star forms, indicating junction.
Nature and the nature gods have no feeling and no desire in themselves; but they
feel and desire with human feelings and desires. They get these through human
bodies. That is not to say that these gods are subservient to man, or that they are
powerless. They are beings of splendor and of vast power: the force of nature is
behind them. They can and they do punish and reward. Their worshippers they reward
with the objects of the worship. They are as faithful to man as he is to them. They
reward a man or a people as far as they can. There is a limit to their powers; but they
can bestow strength and beauty of body, and health, possessions, worldly power,
success in undertakings, long life, and posterity. The gods do this as long as a man or
a people are faithful in worship and obedient to their commands. However, the power
of these gods is limited in a twofold way: by the worship of the people, and by the
boundaries set by the law of thought.

Inspirational Stuff From Percival

CONSCIOUSNESS is another mystery, the greatest and most profound of all mysteries. The
word Consciousness is unique; it is a coined English word; its equivalent does not appear in other
languages. Its all-important value and meaning are not, however, appreciated. This will be seen in
the uses that the word is made to serve. To give some common examples of its misuse: It is heard
in such expressions as "my consciousness," and "one's consciousness"; and in such as animal
consciousness, human consciousness, physical, psychic, cosmic, and other kinds of
consciousness. And it is described as normal consciousness, and greater and deeper, and higher
and lower, inner and outer, consciousness; and full and partial consciousness. Mention is also
heard of the beginnings of consciousness, and of a change of consciousness. One hears people say
that they have experienced or caused a growth, or an extension, or an expansion, of
consciousness. A very common misuse of the word is in such phrases as: to lose consciousness, to
hold to consciousness; to regain, to use, to develop consciousness. And one hears, further, of
various states, and planes, and degrees, and conditions of consciousness. Consciousness is too
great to be thus qualified, limited, or prescribed. Out of regard for this fact this book makes use of
the phrase: to be conscious of, or as, or in. To explain: whatever is conscious is either conscious
of certain things, or as what it is, or is conscious in a certain degree of being conscious.
Consciousness is the ultimate, the final Reality. Consciousness is that by the presence of
which all things are conscious. Mystery of all mysteries, it is beyond comprehension. Without it
nothing can be conscious; no one could think; no being, no entity, no force, no unit, could
perform any function. Yet Consciousness itself performs no function: it does not act in any way; it
is a presence, everywhere. And it is because of its presence that all things are conscious in
whatever degree they are conscious. Consciousness is not a cause. It cannot be moved or used or
in any way affected by anything. Consciousness is not the result of anything, nor does it depend
on anything. It does not increase or diminish, expand, extend, contract, or change; or vary in any
way. Although there are countless degrees in being conscious, there are no degrees of
Consciousness: no planes, no states; no grades, divisions, or variations of any sort; it is the same
everywhere, and in all things, from a primordial nature unit to the Supreme Intelligence.
Consciousness has no properties, no qualities, no attributes; it does not possess; it cannot be
possessed. Consciousness never began; it cannot cease to be. Consciousness IS.
In all your lives on earth you have been indefinably seeking, expecting or looking for
someone or something that is missing. You vaguely feel that if you could but find that for which
you long, you would be content, satisfied. Dimmed memories of the ages surge up; they are the
present feelings of your forgotten past; they compel a recurring world-weariness of the evergrinding
treadmill of experiences and of the emptiness and futility of human effort. You may have
sought to satisfy that feeling with family, by marriage, by children, among friends; or, in business,
wealth, adventure, discovery, glory, authority, and power--or by whatever other undiscovered
secret of your heart. But nothing of the senses can really satisfy that longing. The reason is that
you are lost--are a lost but inseparable part of a consciously immortal Triune Self. Ages ago, you,
as feeling-and-desire, the doer part, left the thinker and knower parts of your Triune Self. So you
were lost to yourself because, without some understanding of your Triune Self, you cannot
understand yourself, your longing, and your being lost. Therefore you have at times felt lonely.
You have forgotten the many parts you have often played in this world, as personalities; and you
have also forgotten the real beauty and power of which you were conscious while with your
thinker and knower in the Realm of Permanence. But you, as doer, long for balanced union of
your feeling-and-desire in a perfect body, so that you will again be with your thinker and knower
parts, as the Triune Self, in the Realm of Permanence. In ancient writings there have been
allusions to that departure, in such phrases as "the original sin," "the fall of man," as from a state
and realm in which one is satisfied. That state and realm from which you departed cannot cease to
be; it can be regained by the living, but not after death by the dead.
You need not feel alone. Your thinker and knower are with you. On ocean or in forest, on
mountain or plain, in sunlight or shadow, in crowd or in solitude; wherever you are, your really
thinking and knowing Self is with you. Your real Self will protect you, in so far as you will allow
yourself to be protected. Your thinker and knower are ever ready for your return, however long it
may take you to find and follow the path and become at last again consciously at home with them
as the Triune Self.
In the meantime you will not be, you cannot be, satisfied with anything less than Selfknowledge.
You, as feeling-and-desire, are the responsible doer of your Triune Self; and from
what you have made for yourself as your destiny you must learn the two great lessons which all
experiences of life are to teach. These lessons are:
What to do;
and,
What not to do.
You may put these lessons off for as many lives as you please, or learn them as soon as you
will--that is for you to decide; but in the course of time you will learn them.
CHAPTER II
THE PURPOSE AND PLAN OF
THE UNIVERSE
SECTION 1
There is a purpose and a plan in the Universe. The law of thought. Religions.
The soul. Theories concerning the destiny of the soul.
he Universe is guided according to a purpose and a plan. There is a simple law by which
the purpose is accomplished and according to which the plan is carried out. That law is
universal: it reaches all entities without exception. Gods and the weakest beings are equally
powerless against it. It rules this visible world of change, and it affects the worlds and spheres
beyond. At present it can be understood by man only as it affects human beings, though it is
possible that its operations in animate nature may be seen. It affects human beings according to
the responsibility which can be charged to them; and it determines their duty, measured by their
responsibility.
This is the law: Every thing existing on the physical plane is an exteriorization of a thought,
which must be balanced through the one who issued the thought, and in accordance with that
one's responsibility, at the conjunction of time, condition, and place.
This law of thought is destiny. It has aspects which have been expressed by such terms as
kismet, nemesis, karma, fate, fortune, foreordination, predestination, Providence, the Will of God,
the law of cause and effect, the law of causation, retribution, punishment and reward, hell and
heaven. The law of thought includes all that is in these terms, but it means more than all of them;
it means, essentially, that thinking is the basic factor in shaping human destiny.
The law of thought is present everywhere and rules everywhere;
and is the law to which all other human laws are subservient. There is no deviation from, no
exception to, this universal law of thought. It adjusts the mutually interdependent thoughts and
plans and acts of the billions of men and women who have died and lived and who will continue
to live and die on this earth. Happenings beyond number, some apparently accounted for, some
apparently inexplicable, are marshalled to fit into the limiting framework of time and place and
causation; facts innumerable, near and far, apposite and contradictory, related and unrelated, are
worked into one whole harmonious pattern. It is only by the operation of this law that people exist
together on the earth. Not only physical acts and their results are thus ordered; the invisible world
in which thoughts originate is likewise adjusted. All this adjustment and universal harmony out of
selfish discord is brought about by the action of universal forces operating under the law.
The mechanical part of the operation of this law in the physical world may not be apparent.
Yet, every stone, every plant, every animal, every human, and every event has a place in the great
machinery for the working out of the law of thought, as destiny; each performs a function in the
machine, whether as a gear, a gauge, a pin, or a transmission. However insignificant a part a man
T
may seem to play, he starts the machinery of the law when he starts to think; and by his thinking
he contributes to its continued operation. The machinery of the law is nature.
Nature is a machine composed of the totality of unintelligent units; units which are conscious
as their function only. The nature machine is a machine composed of laws, through the worlds; it
is perpetuated and operated by intelligent and immortal Ones, complete Triune Selves, who
administer the laws from their individual university machines through which as unintelligent
nature units they have passed; and as intelligent units in the Realm of Permanence (Fig. II-G;H),
they have qualified as Governors, in The Government of the world.
The university machines are perfect physical bodies composed of balanced nature units; all
units are related in and organized into the four systems of the perfect body and are coordinated as
one entire and perfect whole mechanism; each unit is conscious as its function only, and each
function in the university machine is a law of nature through the worlds.
Only the phenomena of the machinery are seen; the nature machine itself is not seen by
mortal eyes; neither are the forces which work it. The Intelligences and complete Triune Selves
who direct the operation cannot be seen by the human. Hence come the many theories about the
creation of the human world, and about the nature and powers of gods and the origin and nature
and destiny of the human. Such theories are furnished by various systems of religion.
Religions center about a God or gods. These deities are credited with universal powers to
account for the operation of universal forces. Gods and forces alike, however, are subject to the
Intelligences and the complete Triune Selves, who rule this world according to the law of thought.
It is due to the operation of this law as destiny that events occur on the physical plane in the
harmonious manner which makes certain the continuance of the law's operation so that the plan of
the Universe may be carried out and its purpose accomplished.
Religions have been substitutes for what a knowledge of the law of thought should be, and
for what it eventually will be to man, when the human is able to stand more Light. Among such
substitutes is a belief in a God who is supposed to be all-wise, all-powerful, ever-present; but
whose alleged actions are arbitrary and capricious and show jealousy, vindictiveness, and cruelty.
Such religions have held the minds of men in bondage. In this bondage they have received
fragmentary and distorted information about the law of thought; what they received was all they
could stand at the time. In every age one of the Gods was represented as a ruler, and as the giver
of a law of justice; but his own acts did not seem just. A solution of this difficulty was sometimes
found in an after death adjustment in a heaven or a hell; at other times the matter was left open.
As the human becomes more enlightened he will find in the clear and precise understanding of the
law of thought that which will satisfy his sense and reason; and he will accordingly outgrow the
need for belief in the doctrine, or of fear and faith in the decrees of a personal God.
The rationality of the law of thought is in marked contrast to the various contradictory or
irrational teachings concerning the origin and nature and destiny of that which has been called the
soul; and it should dissipate the general ignorance that has existed concerning the soul. An error is
commonly made in believing that the soul is something above or superior to that which is
conscious in the human. The fact is that the conscious self in the body is of the doer of the Triune
Self and that the "soul" is merely the form of the breath-form or "living soul", which still belongs
to nature but which must be advanced beyond nature by the Triune Self. In that sense only is it
correct to speak of the need of "saving one's soul".
Concerning the origin of the soul, there are two principal theories: one is that the soul is an
emanation from the Supreme Being or One, as the source of all creatures and from whom all
come into existence and into whom all return; the other theory is that the soul comes from a
previous existence--either down from a superior state or up from a lower. There is another belief,
current mainly in the West, that each soul lives but one life on earth and is a special, fresh
creation furnished by God to every human body brought into the world by a man and a woman.
As to the destiny of the soul after death, the theories are chiefly these: that the soul is
annihilated; that it returns to the essence from which it came; that it goes back to the God by
whom it was created; that it goes immediately either to heaven or hell; that before going to its
final destination it enters a purgatory; that it sleeps or rests until it is resurrected on the Day of
Judgment when it is examined and sent forthwith to hell or to paradise. Then there is also the
belief that the soul returns to earth for experience necessary to its progress. Of these, the belief in
annihilation is favored among materialists, while the beliefs in resurrection and in heaven and hell
are held by most religions, both of the East and the West.
The religions which teach of emanation and reincarnation include not only the worship of a
godhead, but the doctrine of the improvement of the conscious self in the body and the
corresponding improvement of the nature-matter with which the embodied self comes into
contact. The religions which are based upon a personal God are primarily for the purpose of
glorifying the God, the improvement of the embodied doer being secondary and acquired as a
reward for worshipping that God. The nature of a religion and of its God or gods is indicated
unequivocally by the requirements of the worship; and by the symbols, hymns, rites, ornaments,
vestments, and edifices that are used in its practice.
No teaching has been generally accepted which states that the individual is solely responsible
for whatever happens to him. This is due to the fact that a vague sentiment of fear, arising from
religious teachings, affects all persons who share the notions of the majority of their
contemporaries concerning the origin and nature, the purpose and destiny, of the human.

Mystery Of Self

A greater mystery is your real Self--that greater Self which is not in your body; not in or of
this world of birth and death; but which, consciously immortal in the all-pervading Realm of
Permanence, is a presence with you through all your lifetimes, through all your interludes of sleep
and death.
Man's lifelong search for something that will satisfy is in reality the quest for his real Self;
the identity, the selfness and I-ness, which each one is dimly conscious of, and feels and desires to
know. Hence the real Self is to be identified as Self-knowledge, the real though unrecognized goal
of human seeking. It is the permanence, the perfection, the fulfillment, which is looked for but
never found in human relations and effort. Further, the real Self is the ever-present counsellor and
judge that speaks in the heart as conscience and duty, as rightness and reason, as law and justice--
without which man would be little more than an animal.
There is such a Self. It is of the Triune Self, in this book so called because it is one indivisible
unit of an individual trinity: of a knower part, a thinker part, and a doer part. Only a portion of the
doer part can enter the animal body and make that body human. That embodied part is what is
here termed the doer-in-the-body. In each human being the embodied doer is an inseparable part
of its own Triune Self, which is a distinct unit among other Triune Selves. The thinker and
knower parts of each Triune Self are in the Eternal, the Realm of Permanence, which pervades
this our human world of birth and death and time. The doer-in-the-body is controlled by the
senses and by the body; therefore it is not able to be conscious of the reality of the ever-present
thinker and knower parts of its Triune Self. It misses them; the objects of the senses blind it, the
coils of flesh hold it. It does not see beyond the objective forms; it fears to free itself from the
fleshly coils, and stand alone. When the embodied doer proves itself willing and ready to dispel
the glamour of the sense illusions, its thinker and knower are always ready to give it Light on the
way to Self-knowledge. But the embodied doer in search for the thinker and knower looks abroad.
Identity, or the real Self, has always been a mystery to thinking human beings in every
civilization.
Plato, probably the most illustrious and representative of the philosophers of Greece, used as
a precept to his followers in his school of philosophy, the Academy: "Know thyself"--gnothi
seauton. From his writings it would appear that he had an understanding of the real Self, although
none of the words that he used has been rendered into English as anything more adequate than
"the soul". Plato used a method of inquiry concerning the finding of the real Self. There is great
art in the exploiting of his characters; in producing his dramatic effects. His method of dialectics
is simple and profound. The mentally lazy reader, who would rather be entertained than learn,
will most likely think Plato tedious. Obviously his dialectic method was to train the mind, to be
able to follow a course of reasoning, and to be not forgetful of the questions and answers in the
dialogue; else one would be unable to judge the conclusions reached in the arguments. Surely,
Plato did not intend to present the learner with a mass of knowledge. It is more likely that he
intended to discipline the mind in thinking, so that by one's own thinking he would be enlightened
and led to knowledge of his subject. This, the Socratic method, is a dialectical system of
intelligent questions and answers which if followed will definitely help one to learn how to think;
and in training the mind to think clearly Plato has done more perhaps than any other teacher. But
no writings have come down to us in which he tells what thinking is, or what the mind is; or what
the real Self is, or the way to knowledge of it. One must look further.
The ancient teaching of India is summed up in the cryptic statement: "that art thou" (tat tvam
asi). The teaching does not make clear, however, what the "that" is or what the "thou" is; or in
what way the "that" and the "thou" are related, or how they are to be identified. Yet if these words
are to have meaning they should be explained in terms that are understandable. The substance of
all Indian philosophy--to take a general view of the principal schools--seems to be that in man
there is an immortal something which is and always has been an individual part of a composite or
universal something, much as a drop of sea water is a part of the ocean, or as a spark is one with
the flame in which it has its origin and being; and, further, that this individual something, this the
embodied doer--or, as it is termed in the principal schools, the atman, or the purusha,--is
separated from the universal something merely by the veil of sense illusion, maya, which causes
the doer in the human to think of itself as separate and as an individual; whereas, the teachers
declare, there is no individuality apart from the great universal something, termed Brahman.
The teaching is, further, that the embodied fragments of the universal Brahman are all subject
to human existence and coincident suffering, unconscious of their supposed identity with the
universal Brahman; bound to the wheel of births and deaths and re-embodiments in nature, until,
after long ages, all the fragments gradually will have been re-united in the universal Brahman.
The cause or the necessity or the desirability of Brahman's going through this arduous and painful
procedure as fragments or drops is not, however, explained. Neither is it shown how the
presumably perfect universal Brahman is or can be benefitted by it; or how any of its fragments
profit; or how nature is benefitted. The whole of human existence would seem to be a useless
ordeal without point or reason.
Nevertheless, a way is indicated by which a properly qualified individual, seeking "isolation,"
or "liberation" from the present mental bondage to nature, may by heroic effort pull away from
the mass, or nature illusion, and go on ahead of the general escape from nature. Freedom is to be
attained, it is said, through the practice of yoga; for through yoga, it is said, the thinking may be
so disciplined that the atman, the purusha--the embodied doer--learns to suppress or destroy its
feelings and desires, and dissipates the sense illusions in which its thinking has long been
entangled; thus being freed from the necessity of further human existence, it is eventually
reabsorbed into the universal Brahman.
In all of this there are vestiges of truth, and therefore of much good. The yogi learns indeed to
control his body and to discipline his feelings and desires. He may learn to control his senses to
the point where he can, at will, be conscious of states of matter interior to those ordinarily
perceived by the untrained human senses, and may thus be enabled to explore and become
acquainted with states in nature that are mysteries to most human beings. He may, further, attain
to a high degree of mastery over some forces of nature. All of which unquestionably sets the
individual apart from the great mass of undisciplined doers. But although the system of yoga
purports to "liberate," or "isolate," the embodied self from the illusions of the senses, it seems
clear that it actually never leads one beyond the confines of nature. This is plainly due to a
misunderstanding concerning the mind.
The mind that is trained in yoga is the sense-mind, the intellect. It is that specialized
instrument of the doer that is described in later pages as the body-mind, here distinguished from
two other minds heretofore not distinguished: minds for the feeling and the desire of the doer. The
body-mind is the only means by which the embodied doer can function through its senses. The
functioning of the body-mind is limited strictly to the senses, and hence strictly to nature.
Through it the human is conscious of the universe in its phenomenal aspect only: the world of
time, of illusions. Hence, though the disciple does sharpen his intellect, it is at the same time
evident that he is still dependent upon his senses, still entangled in nature, not freed from the
necessity of continued re-existences in human bodies. In short, however adept a doer may be as
the operator of its body machine, it cannot isolate or liberate itself from nature, cannot gain
knowledge of itself or of its real Self, by thinking with its body-mind only; for such subjects are
ever mysteries to the intellect, and can be understood only through the rightly coordinated
functioning of the body-mind with the minds of feeling and desire.
It does not seem that the minds of feeling and of desire have been taken into account in the
Eastern systems of thinking. The evidence of this is to be found in the four books of Patanjali's
Yoga Aphorisms, and in the various commentaries on that ancient work. Patanjali is probably the
most esteemed and representative of India's philosophers. His writings are profound. But it seems
probable that his true teaching has been either lost or kept secret; for the delicately subtle sutras
that bear his name would seem to frustrate or make impossible the very purpose for which they
are ostensibly intended. How such a paradox could persist unquestioned through the centuries is
to be explained only in the light of what is put forth in this and later chapters concerning feeling
and desire in the human.
The Eastern teaching, like other philosophies, is concerned with the mystery of the conscious
self in the human body, and the mystery of the relation between that self and its body, and nature,
and the universe as a whole. But the Indian teachers do not show that they know what this the
conscious self--the atman, the purusha, the embodied doer--is, as distinguished from nature: no
clear distinction is made between the doer-in-the-body and the body which is of nature. The
failure to see or to point out this distinction is evidently due to the universal misconception or
misunderstanding of feeling and desire. It is necessary that feeling and desire be explained at this
point.
A consideration of feeling and desire introduces one of the most important and far reaching
subjects put forth in this book. Its significance and value cannot be overestimated. The
understanding and use of feeling and desire may mean the turning point in the progress of the
individual and of Humanity; it can liberate doers from false thinking, false beliefs, false goals, by
which they have kept themselves in darkness. It disproves a false belief that has long been blindly
accepted; a belief that is now so deeply rooted in the thinking of human beings that apparently no
one has thought of questioning it.
It is this: Everybody has been taught to believe that the senses of the body are five in number,
and that feeling is one of the senses. The senses, as stated in this book, are units of nature,
elemental beings, conscious as their functions but unintelligent. There are only four senses: sight,
hearing, taste, and smell; and for each sense there is a special organ; but there is no special organ
for feeling because feeling--though it feels through the body--is not of the body, not of nature. It
is one of the two aspects of the doer. Animals also have feeling and desire, but animals are
modifications from the human, as explained later on.
The same must be said of desire, the other aspect of the doer. Feeling and desire must always
be considered together, for they are inseparable; neither can exist without the other; they are like
the two poles of an electric current, the two sides of a coin. Therefore this book makes use of the
compound term: feeling-and-desire.
Feeling-and-desire of the doer is the intelligent power by which nature and the senses are
moved. It is within the creative energy that is everywhere present; without it all life would cease.
Feeling-and-desire is the beginningless and endless creative art by which all things are perceived,
conceived, formed, brought forth, and controlled, whether through the agency of doers in human
bodies or of those who are of The Government of the world, or of the great Intelligences. Feelingand-
desire is within all intelligent activity.
In the human body, feeling-and-desire is the conscious power which operates this individual
nature machine. Not one of the four senses--feels. Feeling, the passive aspect of the doer, is that in
the body which feels, which feels the body and feels the impressions that are transmitted to the
body by the four senses, as sensations. Further, it can in varying degrees perceive supersensory
impressions, such as a mood, an atmosphere, a premonition; it can feel what is right and what is
wrong, and it can feel the warnings of conscience. Desire, the active aspect, is the conscious
power that moves the body in the accomplishment of the doer's purpose. The doer functions
simultaneously in both its aspects: thus every desire arises from a feeling, and every feeling gives
rise to a desire.
You will be taking an important step on the way to knowledge of the conscious self in the
body when you think of yourself as the intelligent feeling present through your voluntary nervous
system, as distinct from the body which you feel, and simultaneously as the conscious power of
desire surging through your blood, yet which is not the blood. Feeling-and-desire should
synthesize the four senses. An understanding of the place and function of feeling-and-desire is the
point of departure from the beliefs which for many ages have caused the doers in human beings to
think of themselves merely as mortals. With this understanding of feeling-and-desire in the
human, the philosophy of India may now be continued with new appreciation.
The Eastern teaching recognizes the fact that in order to attain to knowledge of the conscious
self in the body, one must be freed from the illusions of the senses, and from the false thinking
and action that result from failure to control one's own feelings and desires. But it does not
transcend the universal misconception that feeling is one of the senses of the body. On the
contrary, the teachers state that touch or feeling is a fifth sense; that desire is also of the body; and
that both feeling and desire are things of nature in the body. According to this hypothesis it is
argued that the purusha, or atman--the embodied doer, feeling-and-desire--must completely
suppress feeling, and must utterly destroy, "kill out," desire. In the light of what has been shown
here concerning feeling-and-desire, it would seem that the teaching of the East is advising the
impossible. The indestructible immortal self in the body cannot destroy itself. If it were possible
for the human body to go on living without feeling-and-desire, the body would be a mere
insensible breathing-mechanism.
Aside from their misunderstanding of feeling-and-desire the Indian teachers give no evidence
of having a knowledge or understanding of the Triune Self. In the unexplained statement: "thou
art that," it must be inferred that the "thou" who is addressed is the atman, the purusha--the
individual embodied self; and that the "that" with which the "thou" is thus identified is the
universal self, Brahman. There is no distinction made between the doer and its body; and likewise
there is a corresponding failure to distinguish between the universal Brahman and universal
nature. Through the doctrine of a universal Brahman as the source and end of all embodied
individual selves, untold millions of doers have been kept in ignorance of their real Selves; and
moreover have come to expect, even to aspire, to lose in the universal Brahman that which is the
most precious thing that anyone can have: one's real identity, one's own individual great Self,
among other individual immortal Selves.
Although it is clear that the Eastern philosophy tends to keep the doer attached to nature, and
in ignorance of its real Self, it seems unreasonable and unlikely that these teachings could have
been conceived in ignorance; that they could have been perpetuated with the intention of keeping
people from the truth, and so in subjection. Rather, it is very probable that the existing forms,
however ancient they may be, are merely the vestigial remnants of a much older system that had
descended from a civilization vanished and almost forgotten: a teaching that may have been truly
enlightening; that conceivably recognized feeling-and-desire as the immortal doer-in-the-body;
that showed the doer the way to knowledge of its own real Self. The general features of the
existing forms suggest such a probability; and that in the course of the ages the original teaching
imperceptibly gave way to the doctrine of a universal Brahman and the paradoxical doctrines that
would do away with the immortal feeling-and-desire as something objectionable.
There is a treasure that is not entirely hidden: The Bhagavad Gita, the most precious of
India's jewels. It is India's pearl beyond price. The truths imparted by Krishna to Arjuna are
sublime, beautiful, and everlasting. But the far-off historical period in which the drama is set and
involved, and the ancient Vedic doctrines in which its truths are veiled and shrouded, make it too
difficult for us to understand what the characters Krishna and Arjuna are; how they are related to
each other; what the office of each is to the other, in or out of the body. The teaching in these
justly venerated lines is full of meaning, and could be of great value. But it is so mixed with and
obscured by archaic theology and scriptural doctrines that its significance is almost entirely
hidden, and its real value is accordingly depreciated.
Owing to the general lack of clearness in the Eastern philosophy, and the fact that it appears
to be self-contradictory as a guide to knowledge of oneself in the body and of one's real Self, the
ancient teaching of India seems to be doubtful and undependable. One returns to the West.
Concerning Christianity: The actual origins and history of Christianity are obscure. A vast
literature has grown out of centuries of effort to explain what the teachings are, or what they
originally were intended to be. From the earliest times there has been much teaching of doctrine;
but no writings have come down that show a knowledge of what was actually intended and taught
in the beginning.
The parables and sayings in The Gospels bear evidence of grandeur, simplicity, and truth. Yet
even those to whom the new message first was given appear not to have understood it. The books
are direct, not intended to mislead; but at the same time they state that there is an inner meaning
which is for the elect; a secret teaching intended not for everyone but for "whosoever will
believe." Certainly, the books are full of mysteries; and it must be supposed that they cloak a
teaching that was known to an initiated few. The Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost: these are
mysteries. Mysteries, too, are the Immaculate Conception and the birth and life of Jesus; likewise
his crucifixion, death, and resurrection. Mysteries, undoubtedly, are heaven and hell, and the
devil, and the Kingdom of God; for it is scarcely likely that these subjects were meant to be
understood in terms of the senses, rather than as symbols. Moreover, throughout the books there
are phrases and terms that plainly are not to be taken too literally, but rather in a mystical sense;
and others clearly could have significance only to selected groups. Further, it is not reasonable to
suppose that the parables and miracles could have been related as literal truths. Mysteries
throughout--but nowhere are the mysteries revealed. What is all this mystery?
The very evident purpose of The Gospels is to teach the understanding and living of an inner
life; an interior life which would regenerate the human body and thereby conquer death, restoring
the physical body to eternal life, the state from which it is said to have fallen--its "fall" being "the
original sin." At one time there certainly must have been a definite system of instruction which
would make clear exactly how one might live such an interior life: how one might, through so
doing, come into the knowledge of one's real Self. The existence of such a secret teaching is
suggested in the early Christian writings by references to secrets and mysteries. Moreover it
seems obvious that the parables are allegories, similes: homely stories and figures of speech,
serving as vehicles for conveying not merely moral examples and ethical teachings, but also
certain inner, eternal truths as parts of a definite system of instruction. However, The Gospels, as
they exist today, lack the connections which would be needed to formulate a system; what has
come down to us is not enough. And, concerning the mysteries in which such teachings
supposedly were concealed, no known key or code has been given to us with which we might
unlock or explain them.
The ablest and most definite expositor of the early doctrines that we know of is Paul. The
words he used were intended to make his meaning clear to those to whom they were addressed;
but now his writings need to be interpreted in terms of the present day. "The First Epistle of Paul
to the Corinthians," the fifteenth chapter, alludes to and reminds of certain teachings; certain
definite instructions concerning the living of an interior life. But it is to be assumed that those
teachings either were not committed to writing--which would appear understandable--or else that
they were lost or have been left out of the writings that have come down. At all events, "The
Way" is not shown.
Why were the truths given in the form of mysteries? The reason might have been that the
laws of the period prohibited the spreading of new doctrines. The circulating of a strange teaching
or doctrine could have been punishable by death. Indeed, the legend is that Jesus suffered death
by crucifixion for his teaching of the truth and the way and the life.
But today, it is said, there is freedom of speech: one may state without fear of death what one
believes concerning the mysteries of life. What anyone thinks or knows about the constitution and
functioning of the human body and of the conscious self that inhabits it, the truth or opinions that
one may have concerning the relation between the embodied self and its real Self, and regarding
the way to knowledge--these need not be hidden, today, in words of mystery requiring a key or a
code for their understanding. In modern times all "hints" and "blinds," all "secrets" and
"initiations," in a special mystery language, should be evidence of ignorance, egotism, or sordid
commercialism.
Notwithstanding mistakes and divisions and sectarianism; notwithstanding a great variety of
interpretations of its mystical doctrines, Christianity has spread to all parts of the world. Perhaps
more than any other faith, its teachings have helped to change the world. There must be truths in
the teachings, however they may be hidden, which, for nearly two thousand years, have reached
into human hearts and awakened the Humanity in them.
Everlasting truths are inherent in Humanity, in the Humanity which is the totality of all the
doers in human bodies. These truths cannot be suppressed or entirely forgotten. In whatever age,
in whatever philosophy or faith, the truths will appear and reappear, whatever their changing
forms.
One form in which certain of these truths are cast is Freemasonry. The Masonic order is as
old as the human race. It has teachings of great value; far greater, in fact, than is appreciated by
the Masons who are their custodians. The order has preserved ancient bits of priceless information
concerning the building of an everlasting body for one who is consciously immortal. Its central
mystery drama is concerned with the rebuilding of a temple which was destroyed. This is very
significant. The temple is the symbol of the human body which man must rebuild, regenerate, into
a physical body that will be eternal, everlasting; a body that will be a fitting habitation for the then
consciously immortal doer. "The Word" which is "lost" is the doer, lost in its human body--the
ruins of the once great temple; but which will find itself as the body is regenerated and the doer
takes control of it.
This book brings you more Light, more Light on your thinking; Light to find your "Way"
through life. The Light that it brings, however, is not a light of nature; it is a new Light; new,
because, although it has been a presence with you, you have not known it. In these pages it is
termed the Conscious Light within; it is the Light that can show you things as they are, the Light
of the Intelligence to which you are related. It is because of the presence of this Light that you are
able to think in creating thoughts; thoughts to bind you to objects of nature, or to free you from
objects of nature, as you choose and will. Real thinking is the steady holding and focussing of the
Conscious Light within on the subject of the thinking. By your thinking you make your destiny.
Right thinking is the way to knowledge of yourself. That which can show you the way, and which
can lead you on your way, is the Light of the Intelligence, the Conscious Light within. In later
chapters it is told how this Light should be used in order to have more Light.
The book shows that thoughts are real things, real beings. The only real things which man
creates are his thoughts. The book shows the mental processes by which thoughts are created; and
that many thoughts are more lasting than the body or brain through which they are created. It
shows that the thoughts man thinks are the potentials, the blue prints, the designs, the models
from which he builds out the tangible material things with which he has changed the face of
nature, and made what is called his way of living and his civilization. Thoughts are the ideas or
forms out of which and upon which civilizations are built and maintained and destroyed. The
book explains how the unseen thoughts of man exteriorize as the acts and objects and events of
his individual and collective life, creating his destiny through life after life on earth. But it also
shows how man can learn to think without creating thoughts, and thus control his own destiny.
The word mind as commonly used is the all-inclusive term which is made to apply to all
kinds of thinking, indiscriminately. It is generally supposed that man has only one mind. Actually
three different and distinct minds, that is, ways for thinking with the Conscious Light, are being
used by the embodied doer. These, previously mentioned, are: the body-mind, the feeling-mind,
and the desire-mind. Mind is the functioning of intelligent-matter. A mind therefore does not
function independently of the doer. The functioning of each of the three minds is dependent upon
the embodied feeling-and-desire, the doer.
The body-mind is that which is commonly spoken of as the mind, or the intellect. It is the
functioning of feeling-and-desire as the mover of physical nature, as the operator of the human
body machine, and hence is here called the body-mind. It is the only mind that is geared to and
that acts in phase with and through the senses of the body. Thus it is the instrument by means of
which the doer is conscious of and may act upon and within and through the matter of the
physical world.
The feeling-mind and the desire-mind are the functioning of feeling and of desire irrespective
of or in connection with the physical world. These two minds are almost completely submerged in
and controlled and subordinated by the body-mind. Therefore practically all human thinking has
been made to conform to the thinking of the body-mind, which ties the doer to nature and
prevents its thinking of itself as something distinct from the body. That which today is called
psychology is not a science. Modern psychology has been defined as the study of human
behavior. This must be taken to mean that it is the study of impressions from objects and forces of
nature that are made through the senses upon the human mechanism, and the response of the
human mechanism to the impressions thus received. But that is not psychology.
There cannot be any kind of psychology as a science, until there is some kind of
understanding of what the psyche is, and what the mind is; and a realization of the processes of
thought, of how the mind functions, and of the causes and results of its functioning. Psychologists
admit that they do not know what these things are. Before psychology can become a true science
there must be some understanding of the interrelated functioning of the three minds of the doer.
This is the foundation upon which can be developed a true science of the mind and of human
relations. In these pages it is shown how the feeling and desire are directly related to the sexes,
explaining that in a man the feeling aspect is dominated by desire and that in a woman the desire
aspect is dominated by feeling; and that in every human the functioning of the now dominant
body-mind is more nearly attuned to the one or the other of these, according to the sex of the body
in which they are functioning; and it is shown, further, that all human relations are dependent
upon the functioning of the body-minds of men and women in their relations to each other.
Modern psychologists prefer not to use the word soul, although it has been in general use in
the English language for many centuries. The reason for this is that all that has been said
concerning what the soul is or what it does, or the purpose that it serves, has been too unclear, too
doubtful and confusing, to warrant the scientific study of the subject. Instead, the psychologists
have therefore taken as the subject of their study the human animal machine and its behavior. It
has long been understood and agreed by people generally, however, that man is made up of
"body, soul, and spirit." No one doubts that the body is an animal organism; but concerning spirit
and soul there has been much uncertainty and speculation. On these vital subjects this book is
explicit.
The book shows that the living soul is an actual and literal fact. It shows that its purpose and
its functioning are of great importance in the universal plan, and that it is indestructible. It is
explained that that which has been called the soul is a nature unit--an elemental, a unit of an
element; and that this conscious but unintelligent entity is the furthest advanced of all the nature
units in the make-up of the body: it is the senior elemental unit in the body organization, having
progressed to that function after a long apprenticeship in the myriad lesser functions comprising
nature. Being thus the sum of all of nature's laws, this unit is qualified to act as the automatic
general manager of nature in the human body mechanism; as such it serves the immortal doer
through all its re-existences by periodically building a new fleshly body for the doer to come into,
and maintaining and repairing that body for as long as the destiny of the doer may require, as
determined by the doer's thinking.
This unit is termed the breath-form. The active aspect of the breath-form is the breath; the breath
is the life, the spirit, of the body; it permeates the entire structure. The other aspect of the breathform,
the passive aspect, is the form or model, the pattern, the mold, according to which the
physical structure is built out into visible, tangible existence by the action of the breath. Thus the
two aspects of the breath-form represent life and form, by which structure exists.
So the statement that man consists of body, soul, and spirit can readily be understood as
meaning that the physical body is composed of gross matter; that the spirit is the life of the body,
the living breath, the breath of life; and that the soul is the inner form, the imperishable model, of
the visible structure; and thus that the living soul is the perpetual breath-form which shapes,
maintains, repairs, and rebuilds the fleshly body of man.
The breath-form, in certain phases of its functioning, includes that which psychology has
termed the subconscious mind, and the unconscious. It manages the involuntary nervous system.
In this work it functions according to the impressions which it receives from nature. It also carries
out the voluntary movements of the body, as prescribed by the thinking of the doer-in-the-body.
Thus it functions as a buffer between nature and the immortal sojourner in the body; an
automaton blindly responding to the impacts of objects and forces of nature, and to the thinking of
the doer.
Your body is literally the result of your thinking. Whatever it may show of health or disease,
you make it so by your thinking and feeling and desiring. Your present body of flesh is actually
an expression of your imperishable soul, your breath-form; it is thus an exteriorization of the
thoughts of many lifetimes. It is a visible record of your thinking and doings as a doer, up to the
present. In this fact lies the germ of the body's perfectibility and immortality.
There is nothing so very strange today in the idea that man will one day attain to conscious
immortality; that he will eventually regain a state of perfection from which he originally fell.
Such a teaching in varying forms has been generally current in the West for nearly two thousand
years. During that time it has spread through the world so that hundreds of millions of doers, reexisting
on earth through the centuries, have been brought into recurrent contact with the idea as
an inwardly apprehended truth. Though there is still very little understanding of it, and still less
thinking about it; though it has been distorted to satisfy the feelings and desires of different
people; and though it may be regarded variously today with indifference, levity, or sentimental
awe, the idea is a part of the general thought pattern of present day Humanity, and therefore is
deserving of thoughtful consideration.
Some statements in this book, however, will quite possibly seem strange, even fantastic, until
enough thought has been given to them. For instance: the idea that the human physical body may
be made incorruptible, everlasting; may be regenerated and restored to a state of perfection and
eternal life from which the doer long ago caused it to fall; and, further, the idea that that state of
perfection and eternal life is to be gained, not after death, not in some far away nebulous
hereafter, but in the physical world while one is alive. This may indeed seem very strange, but
when examined intelligently it will not appear to be unreasonable.
What is unreasonable is that the physical body of man must die; still more unreasonable is the
proposition that it is only by dying that one can live forever. Scientists have of late been saying
that there is no reason why the life of the body should not be extended indefinitely, although they
do not suggest how this could be accomplished. Certainly, human bodies have always been
subject to death; but they die simply because no reasonable effort has been made to regenerate
them. In this book, in the chapter The Great Way, it is stated how the body can be regenerated,
can be restored to a state of perfection and be made a temple for the complete Triune Self.
Sex power is another mystery which man must solve. It should be a blessing. Instead, man
very often makes of it his enemy, his devil, that is ever with him and from which he cannot
escape. This book shows how, by thinking, to use it as the great power for good which it should
be; and how by understanding and self-control to regenerate the body and accomplish one's aims
and ideals in ever progressive degrees of accomplishment.
Every human being is a double mystery: the mystery of himself, and the mystery of the body
he is in. He has and is the lock and key to the double mystery. The body is the lock, and he is the
key in the lock. A purpose of this book is to tell you how to understand yourself as the key to the
mystery of yourself; how to find yourself in the body; how to find and know your real Self as
Self-knowledge; how to use yourself as the key to open the lock which is your body; and, through
your body, how to understand and know the mysteries of nature. You are in, and you are the
operator of, the individual body machine of nature; it acts and reacts with and in relation to
nature. When you solve the mystery of yourself as the doer of your Self-knowledge and the
operator of your body machine, you will know--in each detail and altogether--that the functions of
the units of your body are laws of nature. You will then know the known as well as the unknown
laws of nature, and be able to work in harmony with the great nature machine through its
individual body machine in which you are. Another mystery is time. Time is ever present as an
ordinary topic of conversation; yet when one tries to think about it and tell what it really is, it
becomes abstract, unfamiliar; it cannot be held, one fails to grasp it; it eludes, escapes, and is
beyond one. What it is has not been explained.
Time is the change of units, or of masses of units, in their relation to each other. This simple
definition applies everywhere and under every state or condition, but it must be thought of and
applied before one can understand it. The doer must understand time while in the body, awake.
Time seems to be different in other worlds and states. To the conscious doer time seems not to be
the same while awake as while in dreams, or while in deep sleep, or when the body dies, or while
passing through the after-death states, or while waiting for the building and the birth of the new
body it will inherit on earth. Each one of these time periods has an "In the beginning," a
succession, and an end. Time seems to crawl in childhood, run in youth, and race in ever
increasing speed until death of the body.
Time is the web of change, woven from the eternal to the changing human body. The loom
on which the web is woven is the breath-form. The body-mind is the maker and operator of the
loom, spinner of the web, and weaver of the veils called "past" or "present" or "future". Thinking
makes the loom of time, thinking spins the web of time, thinking weaves the veils of time; and the
body-mind does the thinking.