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Esoteric Healing - Chapter I - The Psychological Causes of Disease
There is not sufficient knowledge yet among healers to enable them to deal with wisdom in these matters. We might therefore conclude that: [42] Disease is a purificatory process, carried out in order to produce a purer expression, life aroma, influence and soul usefulness. When this is the case, a cure is possible. Disease can be a gradual and slow process of dying and of thus releasing the soul. A cure then will not be possible, though paliative and ameliorative measures are needed and should most certainly be used. The length of the life can be prolonged, but a permanent and final cure is out of the question. This the average mental healer fails to realize. They make a horror out of death, whereas death is a beneficent friend. Disease can be the sudden and final call to the body to relinquish the soul and set it free for other service. In all these cases everything possible should be done from the standpoint of modern medical and surgical science and the allied sciences of which there are today so many. Much too can be done from the angle of mental and spiritual healing, aided by the science of psychology. Some day there must come cooperation in these various fields and a synthesizing of their efforts. I have earlier pointed out that the astral body is the prime motivating factor in the lives of the majority. This is caused by the fact that: It is the body in which the bulk of human beings are today centering their consciousness. It is the most developed of the bodies at this time, and therefore receives the bulk of the life energy as it comes down the life stream, from the soul, and likewise receives the energy of the stream of consciousness. [43] It is oriented, if I may so express it, outwards or towards the plane of physical experience. That orientation shifts at times and, temporarily in the case of the aspirant, turns inwards. Just as the centers in man, the "lotuses of life," are depicted as turned downwards and with the stalk upwards in the undeveloped man, but are turned upwards in the case of the developed, so there are conditions in the astral body analogous to this. In the case of the highly evolved man, of the initiate or the Master, the astral body is steadily oriented towards the soul. In the mystic, the aspirant and the disciple, the process of thus definitely changing the direction of the forces is going on and producing, therefore, a temporary chaos. The astral body of man, being the latest to develop (the physical and the etheric being the first two in order of time) is still the most alive and potent. It reached its acme of development in late Atlantean days and its potency is still great, constituting the mass potency, the mass emphasis, and the mass polarization. This is also augmented by energies coming from the animal kingdom, which is entirely astral in its point of attainment. I would remind you here that the use of the word "body" is most misleading and unfortunate. It produces in the consciousness the idea of a defined form and a specific shape. The astral body is an aggregate of forces, working through into the consciousness in the form of desires, impulses, longings, wishes, determinations, incentives, and projections, thus laying the basis for much of the truth of the teachings of modern psychology. Psychologists have discovered (or rather uncovered) the nature of some of these forces, and their terminology in this connection is frequently more truly occult and accurate than is that of [44] the orthodox esotericist and theosophist. It may be of interest to you if I do two things. First of all, give you some technical information in connection with the working through of the forces from the astral plane into the physical body, and then give you the effects of that working through, as they take the form - owing to man's wrong use of them - of disease and the many varying disorders to which man is prone. With their cure we are not at this time concerned. I am here simply laying down the structure of fact upon which we can later base our conclusions. We shall, in this connection, only consider the average man. The problems of the disciple will be dealt with under Part I.4. I pointed out earlier that the three major groups of diseases for the masses are Tuberculosis. The social diseases, as they are called: the venereal diseases and syphilis. Cancer. To these we must add two other groups of disease which predominantly affect those who are a little above the average and whose general level of intelligence is higher than that of the mass; this includes also the aspirants of the world. Heart diseases, but not what is called heart failure. The nervous diseases so prevalent at this time. These five groups of disease, and their various subdivisions are responsible for the bulk of the physical ills which attack humanity. A right grasp of their preponderating causes will be of definite assistance to future medicine. How much will be accepted is at this time doubtful. I would like to point out here that, as you well know, there are physical correspondences to the seven centers of [45] forces located in the etheric body, and fed from the astral body. These we call the endocrine glands. These glands are effects of or testifying evidence to, the centers, and are in their turn initiating causes of lesser effects in the physical body. It will be of value if we here tabulate some of the things we know, and aid comprehension.
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