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From Intellect to Intuition - Chapter Seven - Intuition and Illumination
The second activity to which the mind responds as the result of illumination is telepathy. It has been said that "illumination itself may be regarded as the highest known example of telepathy; for throughout the blazing forth of that supreme enlightenment, the human soul is a percipient and the Father of Lights, the agent." The agent may work through the medium of many minds, for the world [165] of the soul is the world of group awareness, and that opens up a field of contacts which is wide indeed. Not only is the soul of man en rapport with the Universal Mind, but also with all minds through which that Divine Purpose we call God may be working. In this way we can account for the coming forth of the steady stream of illuminated writings and of the world messages down the ages, which have guided the thoughts and destiny of men and brought them forward along the path of realization from the stage of animism and fetishism to that of our present concept of an immanent Deity. From the point of view of man and nature we have progressed to that of a divine Whole in which we live and move and have our being, and with which we are identified in consciousness. We know ourselves to be divine. One after another the Sons of God have entered into their heritage and found themselves sensitive to the world plan. They have, through steadfastness in contemplation, equipped themselves to act as interpreters of the Universal Mind and as intermediaries between the non-telepathic multitude and the eternal fountain of wisdom. To the illuminates of the world, to the intuitive thinkers in all fields of knowledge, and to the telepathic and inspired communicators can be traced the best that man now knows, the origin of the great world religions, and the triumphs of science. This telepathic communication must not be confounded with mediumship, or with the mass of so-called inspirational writings, which are flooding our [166] markets at this time. Most of these communications are mediocre in character, and carry nothing new, or any message which will lead man on another step into the New Age, or guide his feet, as he mounts the stair towards the Heavenly Places. The tapping of the subconscious, the enunciations of a worthy and high-grade mentality, will account for ninety-eight percent of the material now appearing. They indicate that man has achieved much, and that he is becoming coordinated. They do not indicate the functioning of the intuition, nor the activity of the faculty of spiritual telepathy. People need most carefully to distinguish between the intuition and instinct; between the intellect in its lower aspects and the higher or abstract mind. The line of demarcation must be preserved between the inspired utterances of a soul in touch with Reality, and with other souls, and the platitudes of a nice and cultured mentality. The effect of the illuminative process on the emotional nature takes two forms - and, paradoxical as it may seem - two exactly opposite forms. It will produce in some types the quieting of the nature, so that all anxieties and mundane worries cease and the mystic enters into the peace that passeth understanding. He can then say: "There is a flame within me that has stood Unmoved, untroubled through a mist of years, Knowing nor love nor laughter, hope nor fears, Nor foolish throb of ill, nor wine of good. [167] I feel no shadow of the winds that brood, I hear no whisper of a tide that veers, I weave no thought of passion, nor of tears, Unfettered I of time, of habitude. I know no birth, I know no death that chills; I fear no fate, nor fashion, cause nor creed, I shall outdream the slumber of the hills, I am the bud, the flower, I the seed; For I do know that in whate'er I see I am the part, and it the soul of me." - Muirhead, John Spencer, Quiet, The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse, page 629. Contrariwise, it may produce the mystical ecstasy - that uplifting and outpouring of the heart towards Divinity, to which our mystical literature bears constant witness. It is a condition of exaltation and of joyous certainty as to felt realities. It carries its possessor forward on the wings of bliss, so that temporarily, at any rate, nothing can touch or hurt. Figuratively, the feet are fleet to speed to the Beloved, and the interplay between the Lover and the Loved One is great, but always there is the sense of duality, of something other or beyond that which has been reached. This must be held in consciousness as long as possible or else the ecstatic vision will disappear, the clouds will veil the sun, and the world, with all its cares, will obscure the heavens. We are told in Mysticism that ecstasy, physically considered, is trance. It is a state of rapture, and can be either good or bad.
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