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Esoteric Psychology II - Chapter II - The Ray of Personality - Problems of Disciples and Mystics
Let us now consider how the abuse of the lower psychic powers may be arrested temporarily until such time as the initiate may seek to use them, in full consciousness and with full control. The prime difficulty of the natural psychic and of the man who is born as a medium is his inability intelligently to control the phenomena evidenced. Lack of control of the physical powers is deemed highly undesirable. Lack of psychic control should also be relegated to the same category. The [586] medium is either in trance or his psychic powers are brought into expression through the stimulation which comes from his contact with the group of sitters in the seance room or from a large audience. In other cases, he is all the time living on the borderland of consciousness between the physical and the psychic or astral planes. How can this be changed, provided the medium wishes for such a change, which is rare indeed. In three ways only: By ceasing to be interested in the display of these powers, by refusing to use them any more and by this means causing them gradually to die out. This leads to the closing of the solar plexus center (and consequently of the open door to the lower levels of the astral plane) and the atrophying of that part of the inner mechanism which has made these powers available. By the transference of the attention to the mystical life and to the expression of an intense aspiration towards the spiritual realities. This provides the new interest which eventually becomes dynamically expulsive of the old interests and thus tends to shift the life-emphasis away from the lower levels of the astral plane to the higher levels. This also presupposes a tendency to spiritual orientation on the part of the psychic. By a course of intellectual training and of mental development which would, if persisted in for a sufficient length of time, automatically make the use of the lower powers impossible because the shift of the flow of energy will be into the centers above the diaphragm. It is well known in psychic circles that mental training does bring to a close the psychic cycle. There are three ancient rules which - in the last period of the Atlantean cycle - were given by the Adepts of the time [587] to Their disciples. You must bear in mind that the problem before the Hierarchy at that time was to bring to an end temporarily the then normal psychic emphasis and start the flow of the forces to the upper part of the body. These three rules can be connected in your minds with the three methods touched upon above. Shun the pits of hell, Oh, Chela. Let your feet go hurrying from the lower way and seek the upper reaches of the plane of glamor. Ascend. Choose for your good companions those who live a life of arduous labor upon the plains of earth. Depart. Descend and live the normal life of Earth. Depart. Lift up thine eyes, Oh, Chela, and cleanse thine heart and see the vision of thy soul. Look up, not down; within, not out. Live free and hasten towards the higher goal. Depart and seek the distant secret place where dwells thy soul. Energy follows thought, the ancient rule proclaims. Think, Chela, think and leave behind the realms where thought rules not and where no light revealing can be seen but only self-engendered light and thus deluding. So, therefore, think. These rules sound simple and familiar but are of profound difficulty to follow, particularly in the case of the average psychic, and this for two reasons; first, he does not truly desire the loss of the power which the use of the powers confers, and secondly, his mental perception is as a rule so undeveloped that the effort to transfer his consciousness into the higher levels of expression proves too arduous a task. But, where the will is active and the peril entailed by continuing to work on the lowest astral levels is adequately perceived, then in due time the needed effort will be made. [588] The above rules apply to the psychic who is willing enough and intelligent enough to change his orientation and type of work. But what of the man who has drifted into the dangerous ways of the lower psychism when he is an Aryan in consciousness and not an Atlantean? What can he do if the solar plexus center is over-active and the door to the astral plane stands wide open? He seeks to shut it and to function normally; he distrusts and fears his psychic powers of sight and hearing. There is no one specific or one rule of conduct for much is dependent upon the originating cause, but I will here suggest various rules and remedial lines of behavior.
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