964 a UC-NRLF O >- Occult Experiences By R. BUREN PRICE - - - - 25 CENTS Occult Experiences A True Narrative of Experiences in the Present Time and Deductions Therefrom By R. BUREN PRICE : .: : . 25 CENTS HOLMES BOOK COMPANY 707 MARKET STREET SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. Copyrighted 1919 By R. BUREN CHASE & RAE CONTENTS Page CHAPTER I. THE ORIGIN OP LIFE ... 9 CHAPTER IT. PHILOSOPHY 14 CHAPTER III. CHRISTIANITY 19 CHAPTER IV. SPIRITUAL HEALING 22 CHAPTER V. CHRISTIAN MYSTERIES - 29 CHAPTER VI. OUTSIDE THE BODY 34 CHAPTER VII. REVELATION 38 CHAPTER VIII. THOUGHT TRANSFERENCE - - 45 CHAPTER IX. NOT SPIRITUALISM - 51 CHAPTER X. CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD 54 7873 To those persons who have witnessed or had part in the phenomena herein related, these pages are dedicated. OCCULT S Preface When I started to write these pages they were intended as a memorandum for myself only, but later decided that others would find interest, in- spiration and instruction from them. No claim is made for high literary ability. There is at the present time in the minds of men an unsatisfied inward longing for spiritual light. It is hoped that a cup of water is here of- fered for this thirst. This is the narrative of some psychic experiences, the thoughts deducted from them with the hope that it will lead some earnest readers to the better knowledge of self; stimulate to further inquiry to see our relation to God and human society. Life itself is educational. Individuals possess instincts which, if followed, lead to self expression and ser- vice to humanity. Self knowledge and self mastery are more important than any other knowledge. No genius has ever yet had success in explaining exist- ence. (Emerson.) No science, no matter how high-sounding or pre- tentious, is able to solve or explain the first cause, so we confess our ignorance and call it God. The best we can do in this life is the pursuit of truth, virtue, beauty and the service to our fellow man. Forward is the ultimate word, every summit is -S OCCQLT EXPERIENCES sure to reveal a new light and enticing landscape beyond. For no man knows all of God's laws of the universe. Truth is unchangeable, but as we learn some phase of truth we did not know before, it appears as something new. The great lesson of life is harmonious adjustment. OCCULT EXPERIENCES CHAPTER I. Origin of Life. The universe is a manifestation of spirit. The universe is forever changing, but spirit remains the same. The creative life of spirit is the involution which precedes all evolution, and is the life moving principle God, Love, wisdom, power. Spirit is God in action Life. You ask, why is the creation? I answer, Because life is the nature of spirit. This is the old truth. After worldly wise scien- tists have long obscured and even denied it, some modern scientists are now returning to it. Edgar Lucian Larkin, a well-known scientist and astronomer of the present time, when asked what science knows about the origin of life, answered as follows: "The scientific world is not in possession of even one fact as to the origin of life nor of the origin of anything whatever." Then science does not know the origin of animals nor man. All animals now start from very minute bodies called cells. Each kind of animal has its own fixed kind of cell. One kind of cell never changes into another, but the origin of each kind of cell is totally unknown. 10 OCCULT EXPERIENCES He also published often positive assertions that electrons were created by mind, and since nothing exists but electrons, all matter in its billions of ob- jective shapes and forms was thus made into these forms by the action of mind or spirit. All material bodies are, therefore, an aggregation or collection of electrons and are appearances existing only in mind and through mind. An atom of dust that can be observed floating in air space is composed of more than three thou- sand electrons, so that single electrons are entirely invisible to the naked physical eyes and only in great aggregations are they seen as forms. So even matter in its finer divisions is invisible and imper- ceptible to the physical body. All things spiritual are so much finer that they can only be perceived by the spiritual and never by the physical. But as our real life is spiritual it may, under proper conditions, through the nervous system and brain, make our consciousness aware of those vibrations. That the life principle in man is spiritual and is an emanation from divinity is proved by that inner impulse which exists in humanity, and which is ever pushing the race onward. Deep within the heart of all, though veiled by transitory condition often submerged under other interests and anxieties, there exists a continual seeking after God. As a deer panteth after water- brooks, so longeth humanity after God. It may be checked for a space and the yearning seem to dis- OCCULT EXPERIENCES 11 appear, but its phases recur in thought and civil- ization, seeking the divine, its source, as water seeks its level. The human spirit is yearning for that which is akin to it in the universe; an attraction of the part to the whole may seem to have vanished, none the less it will yearn again. Apparently destroyed, though the tendency may be, it rises again with inextinguishable persistence. Scientists have found that an electron, under a powerful magnifying instrument, still consists of parts in motion, revolving around one another, al- though the parts cannot be separated. On the other or larger side we perceive this earth and the other planets revolving around our sun at certain regulated speed and distance, forming a unit called a solar system. Astronomers have photographed something like one hundred million suns, which undoubtedly have also planets revolving around them. These suns also must have a common centre, around or toward which they travel in space. This is an illustration of the axiom. How great is God! How small am I! Thus it proves itself to be an inherent tendency in human nature an ineradiable constituent thereof. Those who say it is dead find it facing them again with undiminished vitality. Those who hold it to be outgrown, find the wildest superstitions succeed its denial. The God Idea is an integral part of humanity. God is the only self-existent power and unchange- 12 OCCULT EXPERIENCES able wisdom, who has made a plan for the universe that goes beyond the understanding of his creatures. His purpose goes on unfolding and being enacted through all time. His plans embrace a great deal to be done through his creatures, and they are, therefore, necessary for its accomplishment. Science has shown that all the different kinds of force are but different forms of one omnipresent energy, and this omnipresent energy can be no other than the Creator of all living things. Even to the materialist who is continually trying to smother the God Idea stirring in him, it must ap- pear more reasonable to believe in and accept a self- existant intelligence, wisdom and power to rule and keep in order the universe with its millions of suns and planets than it is to imagine that these bodies, who have of themselves no intelligence, could circulate and keep themselves in order like the finest and most intricate mechanism of their own accord. Natural Laws are the regulations which the cre- ator has implanted in his creations, like the qual- ities of a machine are implanted in it by the mechanic who constructed it. Science has not one single fact as to the origin of life, unless they admit it to be in this spiritual invisible wisdom and power. The creatures are self evidently too small and limited to know or comprehend the limitless or its origin. It is an accepted truth by old Egyptians and Hindu philosophy, as well as by pure Christian OCCULT EXPERIENCES 13 thought, that the creator of the universe is not to be compared to a person, but is an all-compromising sea of spirit and intelligence, from which individ- ual life goes out into myriad of forms, acting through them, and that life finally, after many vis- itations, returns to its original source. It is rather to be compared to the ocean on this earth from which the water goes out as vapor is distributed over the earth, as rain, snow or dew. It fulfills many good missions. It prelocates through the earth crust, comes out again as springs, but finally returns to the ocean, its source. Pure thought is the starting point of all exist- ence; then it assumes the form of an idea. The idea develops into form, which passes outward into the material world as manifestation on the plane of sense. The universe is the divine idea, or what is called the word, in the gospel of St. John. The world is not in a finished state, but is in the process of development; the idea is stirring for better outward expression that is what we call evolution. Every conception which we form in our mind of the inner nature of man and of ourself tends to outward bodily expression by a natural law. The idea is the living germ the seed of a new state having a creative potency. Ideas are the sources of all existence of material entities. All creation is first in idea and is a gene- rating. Ideas are conceptions. They are a union of pure intellect with spiritual feeling. This 14 OCCULT EXPERIENCES union is life wherever it is effected. Ideas are the only truly existing things. They are the union of thought and feeling on a higher spiritual plane, and descending to the lower plane, they are perceived as external or material objects. The external cosmos is an appearance of the higher world to the world of sense. All things first existed in idea. Genesis 2:4, 5. These are the generations of the heavens and the earth in the day when they were created, when Je- hovah God made the heavens and the earth and every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb before it grew. That is, they were created in idea before they could be perceived by the senses. That man has spiritual nature besides a phys- ical can be traced through all the records and traditions from the ancients, as well as the new, to the present time. It is truth. CHAPTER II. Philosophy. All we know is through the mind, sensation, per- ception and conception. All depends on the fitness of the mind; systematic thought control is the shap- ing of the mind. By suggestion and auto-sugges- OCCULT EXPERIENCES 15 tion we can start to control our thoughts, and with a strong will and perseverance we can control our thoughts. As we direct our thought to good and truth it will fit and actuate the mind for righteousness and reality. The mind influences the body to such an extent that the body reflects the state of mind. Nature is cosmic mind in manifestation. Death is not cessation of life force, but its withdrawing from that form. The form only changes. Thought concentration on a given subject has great influ- ence of one mind over another, either by audible or silent suggestion. Also by autosuggestion one may suggest to his subconscious mind the truth he desires to embody. He can suggest to himself that physicological processes are normal. That nature through the subconscious is doing her work per- fectly, aided from the higher centers, and such autosuggestion will not be without effect. He may suggest to the intellect philosophic truth until it becomes dominated by true con- cepts. This will admit light to our minds. Auto- suggestion is the means open to every mind to improve its own estate, to establish harmony within itself, to perfect its conscious relations with God and man and nature, and to foster and sustain normal conditions in its garment, the body. Avoid all thought of inharmony and selfishness. Suggest to yourself only that which has basis in truth and conduces to harmony. Everybody's aim in life is happiness, but the ma- 16 OCCULT EXPERIENCES jority follow the wrong road, which takes them away from the goal. The highway of selfishness is a wrong road. The idea of acquiring and achiev- ing at the expense of others is false and unprofit- able, yet underlies the commercial and social life of today. Impressed by the world-thought, the money-mad shove and jostle one another on the road which leads to dispair. Another wrong road is sensuality the idea that pleasure is happiness. Pleasure ends not in hap- piness, but in disease and pain. Happiness is an effect of which right-thinking is the cause. To be in harmony in our mind with the soul God in us, who is absolute Love and Truth and to be in har- mony with our fellowmen, will give peace of mind and health that harmony is happiness. This peace of mind and harmony is more precious than all else in this world to one who can appre- hend it. Where love exists no law is needed and no orders are given, for love is the fulfillment of the law. Without love there can be no harmony. "A house whose occupants are discordant is not a home." In case of discord always correct your own faults before looking for the faults of others. Love and service are normal to life. We have no true life without them. This love will result in deeper spiritual self-reliance, a nearer approach to God and a more stable health. All material things are only means for spirit- ual ends and aims. When we elevate material things above the spiritual, they become tyrants. OCCULT EXPERIENCES 17 Perfect Love casteth out fear and the Truth makes free. Man, born of woman, is of few days and full of trouble. Man, born of spirit, is of Eternity. God is to men what the dynamo is to the little individual light. We need salvation from our ignor- ance only. When we are born of spirit we can find quiet, rest and peace of mind in any environment with- out giving predominance to worldly worries and cares under any circumstances. Matter, although indestructable, is continually changing form through the activities of spirit or intelligence, therefore matter exists to give expres- sion to spirit or intelligence. God is an infinite as is time and space and the infinite is not subject to definition by finite, but we can realize in consciousness what God is to us. The soul is of God as the sunbeam partakes of the nature of the sun, existing by virtue of to sun only. So does the individual soul partake of the spirit and is not susceptible to change. It is not born, neither does it die. Our changes are in our mind or in the stream of consciousness only. As the sun ever shines, no matter how many clouds pass over the earth, so the soul remains serene, regardless of troubles and changes of the mind. Our destiny is to bring our minds in harmony with the soul and God through evolution. This is to be the end of all our aims in life. This harmony is complete happiness, rest and infinite repose of the soul in God. The spirit possesses and instructs 18 OCCULT EXPERIENCES that mind who divests himself of dogma and belief and makes the love of God and neighbor his reli- gion, and he has life more abundant. Love is the light of the world. Love writes no treatises on morals or ethics, but writes itself. It is the one thing that gives real value to all other resources. Wealth is but ashes without it. Society is but a mockery. Business success is a failure without Love. A loveless life is a sunless world. If we strive to appear rather than to be, then must we be content with the appearance of happiness. But if we are loving and kind our happiness is real. While the world is mad for possession, Love possesses itself and is content. Selfishness is a disease and Love is a cure. Atoms that we are, crawling on the surface of a little whirling ball, itself utterly insignificant in the universe, yet are we so guarded we cannot escape the result of a thought, but we have the freedom and power through the will to direct and control the mind and its thought force. The balanced mind is that in which the will and reason work in harmony. Character is organized will and moral strength. I can't or I will are the poles between which lay all the zones of char- acter. Even the brain and nervous system are shaped and controlled by the perseverance of a strong will in harmony with the s.oul and God. OCCULT EXPERIENCES 19 CHAPTER III. Christianity. When man fell he descended from the spirituality to the material sensuality. The spirit of Christ, through example and teachings of Jesus, is to lift him again from material sense to spirit. The doc- trine of Jesus and the apostles is, that man is a spiritual being. The spirit being an expression and emanation from the omnipresent spirit, God. That qualities of the spirit are love and service and health; that this spirit and its qualities are im- mortal and eternal. The Christian doctrine is love and faith, for by that it is known that we are Christians that we love one another to apprehend and realize that spiritual truth, and finally be so freed and purified from material things as to be fit for a reunion with the all-inclusive spirit, God. As Jesus was saying, "I and my Father are one." This is again and again repeated by Jesus, and also by Paulus in many different ways as being true Christianity. The soul of man is the idea or the living image of God. The soul, the real life, is reflected to our senses in the body. Jesus was an idealist, and without a knowledge of the philosophy of idealism it is impossible to comprehend the profoundest truths of Christianity or any of the oriental re- ligions. With the founders of all these ideals exist- ing in a sphere of being interior to the world of 20 OCCULT EXPERIENCES sense were the only real and enduring things. All else is evanescent and forever changing. Reincarnation, or the idea that the soul of man passes through many earthly lives in different phys- ical bodies before he is fit to remain in higher worlds, was thought and believed in by most of the old religions. Also by first Christians; it was con- sidered as belonging to the law of evolution one earthly life being regarded as a day in school of a child. Surely many problems of life can be explained on that basis that would otherwise be unsolvable, but to argue about it is not in the province of this volume. The man who does not learn his lesson the first time has to try over and over again until he does learn it, and sooner or later every human being attains to the goal appointed for him. There is no uncertainty, as a going backward is incon- sistent with the law of progress. It is the abuses, the intolerance and antagonistic divisions that are practiced in the name of Chris- tianity, which have caused so many good people to leave the church. Neither the conduct nor the general teachings of those who call themselves Christians now are in harmony with the spirit of the first Christians. If the personally recorded life of Jesus is taken as representative as pointing the way to perfect spiritual attainment the doctrine of atonement may be readily understood, and a cloud of misconcep- tion removed from a tenet originally elevating, OCCULT EXPERIENCES 21 which has become so obscured by error that it resembles now a fine old painting by a great mas- ter, disfigured and blackened with smoke and grime. This painting or tenet needs to be cleaned and restored to make visible its original lineament. Love always was an attribute of God, but it was not taught and understood until Jesus, the Christ manifested in the flesh, showed, demonstrated and proved it to human understanding, so that we should see this truth clearly and be redeemed from our own error and illusion. When we can see this divine love and the stainless and loving example of the life of Jesus and can feel His spirit, we will be drawn and impelled to give love in return to our fellowmen and in gratitude to Him strive to emulate or shape our lives in accordance with His teachings. If one in any sense feels that he is here and now a member of the true universal church of the first born, whose names are written in heaven, he is called upon to be as a city on a hill or as the salt of the earth. If one has found himself and received special light from the spirit of Christ and God, it is his duty to proclaim and present it the best way he can and let the light shine to those who have not yet found it not to hide the light under a bushel. The modern church has become so absorbed to save souls from the consequences of sin in another world as to allow the first work of bringing the personal and social life to perfection in this world 22 OCCULT EXPERIENCES to be neglected. The church has almost, if not en- tirely, lost the true conception of the nature of the Holy Spirit and its gift and work in man. The blind teaching of a false theology has in- volved the world in bondage to the letter, by which it has failed to catch the spirit in any large and free sense. Only the book and the stories of saintly livers, and the one exceptional and perfect life, have kept alive and fed the spiritual institu- tions and aspirations of mankind. CHAPTER IV. Spiritual Healing. From what we have already realized in personal experience, we are fully persuaded that the law of faith, as announced by Jesus, is the supreme law of all divine realization for man. The mission of Jesus as the Christ was not so much to teach a philosophy as to establish a method by which all might come to a knowledge of the truth. Each for himself by inward illumination, as the true leader had done. He spoke from the living authority of an inward revelation. The scribe's appeal was to the law as written in books. The incarnation of the Divine in Jesus reveals and demonstrates the inate capacity of our human- OCCULT EXPERIENCES 23 ity as the offspring of God for receiving the spirit of the Father. The work of the Christ is not so much to save man from the effects of sin in a world to come as to save them from their sin here and now in this world. To know oneself is not to believe, but to understand that one's real self is spiritual; it is as a Child of God, the soul. The body is a medium for spirit to express itself. The changeable mind, or thought-flow through the will, is to bring us into harmony with the divine, spiritual life. Health is normal to mankind. Sick- ness is the result of error in many different ways. By correcting the error and realizing and acting the truth in its place he will get well. That God's spirit is imminent in his world has long been believed by the enlightened, but that one could so realize the presence of the spiritual in the natural, so draw upon the resources which spring from the divine imminence as to heal all kinds of disease by consciously directed process and reduced principles which all could understand was a proof of philosophic truth that was new to the world, of which Dr. Quimby was the pioneer of modern times. Jesus revealed it 1,800 years ago, and the church enjoyed it for three hundred years or more, then went into the dark ages of human opinion and self conceit. There are today metaphysicians who have or realize that spirit and do its work, who are not members of any church organization, neither of the medical profession. God not often chooses the 24 OCCULT EXPERIENCES worldly wise, but the simple things of the world to confound the wise. The spiritual development may be stimulated or retarded; it depends upon the degree to which one may relate himself to the spiritual energy of the divine atmosphere, ever ready to pour itself through every receptive chan- nel. This energy is the divine will, and entering into it man does not lose his own free choice, but only enters into that which makes his choice vital and magnetic with power of achievement. A concentration of thought toward the patient will transfer itself to him. You ask how does this realization of the divine ideal and of the soul's one- ness with good reach the patient and produce a corresponding state? The best illustration is sound vibration. When two pianos are in adjoining rooms, if a note is struck on one, the corresponding chord in the other will vibrate. So with human thought. If there is a corresponding tendency in the other he will receive it and understand it. If the other has no corresponding sympathy and has never communed with the divine in silence, such words or thoughts mean nothing to him. I myself know by experience that thought trans- ference is an actual fact, and is far more common than is generally supposed. In the healing process, when two sit down close together, one needing help and receptive and expectant to receive it, the other desirous, feeling able to help by con- fidence in help of God that is present, they enter into sympathy, and as the healer's mind rises from OCCULT EXPERIENCES 25 the outer world to a spiritual plane of divine com- munion, the other receives consciously or subcon- sciously the benefit of the realization, the result will be consciously made known in due course. To lose self that one may find it is the essence of spiritual healing, for in illness or trouble there is always too great consciousness of self. The pe- culiar qualities of spiritual experience cannot be im- parted in words to those who are not in sympathy with it. When healer and patient are in sympathy and the healer realizes that God is everywhere and is present in this room, that he is perfect harmony and health, ready to help those who are willing to receive; that he is permeating the patient and causing him to lose all fear and be serene and at peace, seeing that it is his unwisdom that causes his trouble and that through the God-given love and wisdom he will overcome them and choose the better way this will transfer to the patient. His thought will result from that realization to absorb the consciousness in the thought of the divine lov- ing and healing presence is the most therapeutically effective to one who enters fully into the spirit of such reflection, Gold alone seems to exist. Spiritual preparation and some experience in oneself has to be had before one can apprehend it and come to this realization. For that reason the old occult teachers would not impart those deeper spiritual truths to the uninitiated. To those who think they know it all, such doctrines are raving absurdities, but to those who have enough insight 26 OCCULT EXPERIENCES to see that the more we learn, the better we can see that we do not know anything, they are wisdom. The end of knowledge is to know God; not only to believe, but to become one with God; not only to worship afar off. Man must know the reality of the divine existence not only vaguely believe and hope, but know that his own innermost self is one with God and that the aim of life is to realize that Unity. Man, then, can also live outside or without the body. It is in this condition that all prophets get their revelations. No method is applicable to all kinds of minds and conditions, either in curing disease or other- wise. There may be circumstances that are beyond control. There is no system of healing known to spiritual science that can cure a person of serious bodily ills and leave him, as he lists in sin and lust, as he was before. Jesus classed sin or error in thought and belief as the same. He did not, and does not now, go out and cure or offer to cure promiscuously. He cured the receptive few that believed in him and had confidence in his ability and left the others go their way. Also, there is no method or science to heal either bodily or spiritual disorders that a person can learn and apply suc- cessfully, regardless of his mental attainments and spiritual developments. One person can give in- structions, but that is only a beginning the a, b, c. All the rest the pupil must accomplish himself. This spiritual development cannot be attained in a short space of time, as a few days or months. OCCULT EXPERIENCES 27 It may come as the result of years of application. It is not necessary to exclude ourselves from the world. The main condition of receiving is a will- ingness to receive and a disposition to use for good purpose, then by assuming an attitude of passiveness toward it, we may absorb it, as the earth absorbs the light and heat of the sun. A person who wishes to become spiritual and ac- quire the power to cure disease and other disorders or to prophesy in order to make money is depart- ing from Jesus and Christianity. He has lost his way at the very start and is going in the opposite direction from the way to spirituality. He is like one who would want to use wings to wade in the mud. The wings of the soul are not given for that purpose or use. A spiritual person does not desire to sell a spiritual truth for a money price. Spiritual gifts are not to be thrown on the market of the world. Jesus and the apostles did not use them to that end. Although Jesus was so poor that he himself said he had no place to lay his head, he did not want a money reward for the good works he performed to help humanity. When a good man asked him what he should yet do to have everlasting life (becoming and being spiritual in the everlasting life), Jesus told him to divest him- self from earthly wealth as a hindrance or en- cumbrance. Every person is surrounded by an emanative sphere of his life an atmosphere of his thoughts and feelings. It is different in different persons 28 OCCULT EXPERIENCES and can be noticed by anyone that is observant when he comes close to another. Persons who are magnetic and intuitive can plainly feel the state of mind the other is in. This emanative aura is repre- sented as a circle of rays of light in pictures of Jesus and other saints. It is invisible to the phys- ical eye, but is plainly perceptible to the inner being. It is what really exists. It is different in the same person at different times, as it changes with the state of mind. As we open our mind to the rays of the spiritual sun to the sublime truth that as a spirit created into God's own image and indissolubly included In his own being we are exempt from disease and all evil, as a ray from his own intelligence, so we partake of his own tranquil and saving omnipotence. To this rock we will cling against all doubt and fear. In the name of the Christ, through whom our life is hid in Thee, the universal Father and only true being, we affirm in faith in opposition to material sense that we are now freed from all our infirmities. By the authority of Thy inner word we denounce disease and sin as not being any part of our real self. Through faith in Thee we sep- arate them from us as something external and for- eign to our true being. It is done. We commit ourselves to Thee, the God of peace, who canst save us wholly and preserve our spirit, soul and body In harmonious unity unto the revelation of the life of immortality. We trust henceforth Thy boundless Wisdom, Love and Power. OCCULT EXPERIENCES 29 Spiritual thought can penetrate where spoken words never reach, for thought is more real than sound. The reciting in thought or tacit verbal utterances of something like this above is efficient to change a patient's mind and form the (to him new) idea of the truth. The curing of bodily maladies by inflow of one mind to another is no new thing. It is a renew- ing to life of dry bones of primitive Christianity, based on laws of mind, as fixed and certain as any principle in chemistry. The tendency of one mind to impart good, and the absorbent, receptive nature of the patient in a passive state, with strong desire of recovery, will inevitably lead to that result. CHAPTER V. Christian Mysteries. Christianity, as well as all other religions, had its occult teaching, and the most important spiritual doctrine was never put in writing, but was handed down by word of mouth from one generation to another for at least two or three hundred years. 30 OCCULT EXPERIENCES Teachings of actual spiritual realization were not considered proper to give to the public or material- istic-minded people, as is amply proved by the writ- ings of the New Testament. Jesus said: "You shall not throw the pearls before the swine lest they trample them under foot and turn and rend you." It is the same today. Infidels and other materialists are as apt now as then to persecute and consider insane anyone that will try to 'give them the best teachings of Christianity. The gospel gives the allegorical explanation, but the deeper meaning was given only to the initiates of the inner circle. Jesus tells even his apostles, "I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now." Some were said to them after his resurrection, when he spake to his dis- ciples of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. None of these have been publicly recorded, but they were not neglected or forgotten, but were handed down as priceless possessions, The early fathers of the church, after the apos- tles spoke in the same strain, such as St. Clement, St. Basilius and others, wrote down many of the teachings that are not found in the Bible. St. John, the apostle, says: "That if all that Jesus taught were put in writing, the world could not hold it or grasp it." Ignatius, a disciple of St. John, Bishop of An- tioch, speaks of himself as not yet perfect in Christ. He says: "I might write to you things full of mystery, but I fear to do so, lest not being able to OCCULT EXPERIENCES 31 receive their mighty import, it might be an injury to you, being but babes. For even I, though I am bound for Christ and can understand heavenly things and the angelic orders, cannot yet compare with such disciples as Paul or Peter." Clemens says: "Many things, I well know, have escaped us through length of time that dropped away unwritten. Even the well prepared and trained pupil can only hope to advance step by step in the profound truths unveiled in the mys- teries. The faith of the gospel helped the ignorant and is an assistance to the knowledge of God, and, finally, to have wisdom." Origen says: "I endeavor to improve the unin- telligent to the best of my ability, although I would not desire to build up a Christian community of such material." So the lack of suitable pupils later caused the mysteries to be withdrawn as an institution, publicly known to exist, and was given only very few rarer and rarer souls who were capable of receiving it, and with the disappearance of these the door was shut. In the early Christian Church it was not thought that Christ came to appease the wrath of God for our sins, but thought rather that by having his life as a model and confidence in the help of his spirit, for following in his footsteps we should be freed from our erroneous ways and become like him, fit for eternal life, which is union with him and with God; the spirit in man is the gift of the supreme God. It first develops intelligence, then 32 OCCULT EXPERIENCES love, and love evolves into the wisdom of the Christ. As Christian teachers lost touch with Christ's teaching of a loving Father, they represented him as angry with man, and Christ was made to save them from the wrath of God instead of from the bondage of evil. Atonement is through sacrifice. One must sacrifice earthly things for a higher life. Duty may demand all in which life seems to consist, and the man still identified in feeling with the form feels that all he feels as life is demanded of him and says, "If I let this go, what will remain?" Consciousness sees nothing to grasp; on the other side, an imperious voice calls on him to surrender his very life. If he shrinks back, he must go on in the life of the world in which he finds only dissatisfaction and regret, whereas if he risks all in obedience to the inner voice if he throws away what seems to be his life he finds it unto life eternal a spiritual life in which he can realize happiness under any circumstances; he finds that what he surrendered was only illusion. Then he finds that life thus won is for all not for the separated self. For those who sacrifice the sep- arated life to be a channel of divine life can be of no interest in this world but the helping of others. He learns to be himself in consciousness with those around him; he feels with them and thinks with them; he brings into his daily life that sense of unity with others which vibrates in harmony that belongs to the higher realms of being. But unless OCCULT EXPERIENCES 33 j one has had some similar experience he cannot J understand it. The true center of divine life is 1 ; within and not without. None can fully sympathize with human suffering unless he faced and con- quered fear and death unaided, save by the aid of God within him. Evolving spiritually is marked not by what one does, but by how he does it; not in the circum- stances, but in his attitude toward them. All the aspirant does should be prompted by the fervor of self-sacrificing love. We may measure our prog- ress by watching whether selfishness or self-sacri- fice is dominant in our lives. The early Christian Church taught the reincarnation of men's spirit that human evolution needs many successive lives on earth before the soul can be perfected like Christ and become one with the Father and realize this union. A man in whom the inner divinity is largely un- folded and whose subtle bodies are therefore re- sponsive to higher vibration of consciousness. Through such a man spiritual energy may be poured forth, and these will unite themselves with his pure, vital magnetism. He can then pour them forth on other persons, and even on other objects, and the other body will become atuned to his vibration and in turn become magnetized as a magnetic center like a body that is electrified will affect other bodies that are in contact with it. A person divinely developed by the spirit will radiate the good qualities, such as love, peace of 34 OCCULT EXPERIENCES mind, harmony and equanimity, on other persons with whom, he comes in contact to such an extent that it will eliminate disease of the body as well as inspire calmness, harmony and happiness to the mind. This is done not so much by the person as healer, but by the spirit that flows through him. When one comes even near such person he involun- tarily feels the quieting and peaceful influence so that he will say it feels good to be near him. CHAPTER VI. Outside the Body. All forces are spiritual, and spiritual truth is a divine force. We can do nothing against the truth. II Cor. 13-8. A living thought is a power when it proceeds from the real center of our being. This power is becoming recognized by science. Hegel and others say: "Throughout the entire universe thought is the controlling sovereign." It is possible for the mind body to free itself from the physical body and emancipate itself from material restraints and limitations. It then acts regardless of time and space, and can transport itself with its senses to any distance guided and OCCULT EXPERIENCES 35 governed by inner divine spirit. It can make itself felt and seen by persons to whom it wishes to appear, for it is where it thinks to be. I, myself, have experienced and proved all this and many witnesses now living can testify to it. The first time I had this experience I was lying on a bed in a kind of half-conscious doze, on an evening at the time of dusk. The day before I had met a person with whom I had not much acquaint- ance; we wished to speak to one another, but did not get the opportunity, but we had the impression of our features in our minds. The building I was in was locked and guarded. The other person was some distance away in another building, which was also locked, so that neither of us could have left his place without other people knowing it. Then, in thought and spirit, I left my physical body and went out of the building and into the other build- ing to visit that other person. I stayed there a while and then returned to my body. I could not say how much time elapsed while I was out of the physical body. Next morning I did not say a word about it to anyone, but the other party related to many others that I had entered the room at the exact time; gave the conversation we had, and could see and feel my presence there as plainly as if I had been there in body, although the others knew that I never left my bed. I have read years ago of Hindu adepts leaving their bodies and roaming off in space and then returning. This, at that time, 36 OCCULT EXPERIENCES appeared to me as unreasonable phantasie, be- cause I had not then the knowledge that spirit has its being and consciousness away from the phys- ical body as well as with it. This has been proved to me, and through me to others, many times since. One married couple asserted to some of their friends one morning that I had come in their room, remained a while and then vanished again. When asked: "Why don't you lock the door?" They said the door was securely locked; he did not open the door, but came and went through the wall. I knew, and was conscious myself, that I did in spirit or astral body all they said, for no walls of any kind or any matter is any impediment or hindrance to spirit. Even the astral body can pass through stone wall as easily as the physical body goes through the air, or as well as an electric cur- rent passes through an iron or copper plate. A short time before this writing the same phe- nomena has again been demonstrated to several persons near San Francisco. While the individual spirit is absent from the body life and vital process is carried on by the universal spirit, or, you may say, by subconscious mind. During this separa- tion of spirit from the body the person appears to be in a normal state, without trance, and in a partly waking state. It would seem that to free the spirit from the body would be the highest state of spiritual development, but this is not the case. It was regarded in hermetic philosophy as a first step in spiritual elevation. I also found this one OCCULT EXPERIENCES 37 of the first qualities made known to me, or the first step after thought transference to free the spirit from the limitations of the bodily senses is a philo- sophical state. To separate the body from the soul is called natural death. To be able to emancipate or free the soul from all dependence on organic condition is necessary for spiritual development. Then we can see things in their reality. In 1895 there was in San Francisco a man named Schlatter, who had the Holy Spirit of healing power to a remarkable degree. He healed all kinds of diseases that did not require a surgical operation. His spirit and aura enabled him to give any medi- cal quality to bread crumbs and water, and with them cured a great many diseases and ailments. Hundreds of people were absolutely convinced of his occult power; many of them are still living. He did not ask or desire any pay, and used no drugs, so the medical men could not prosecute him. He could also endow bandages or paper with heal- ing qualities to heal in a short time bruises and wounds. Then all at once he disappeared, and it was rumored that spiritualists and mediums took him out in the desert and killed him on account of jealousy. They said he was too good to live, but not one was punished. That was the last that was ever heard of him. All mystery of magic and magnetism consist in the divine gift to give direction through faith to the universal spirit of life. Few persons know of 38 OCCULT EXPERIENCES the power that is latent in human nature, and it is well that it is so. It is hard to go against the current of the age or the world spirit, which is all materialistic. This is what Jesus calls the world; he did not mean the earth. CHAPTER VII. Revelation There is in man a larger consciousness than that which is ordinarily felt and received through the brain. The first evidence of this is premonition and intuitions. They are found widely spread; they range from vague impressions to clear sight of things impending or going to happen, which the brain does not normally respond to. An ever- increasing amount of testimony to them come for- ward as they are less ridiculed by science. Some people have been able to look very defin- itely in their own bodies. In one case of disorder the patient not only described the disease, but stated exactly how it was caused and described a little bit of a bone which got in a passage where no bone should be. The bone was found and re- moved by scientific medical men, and they could OCCULT EXPERIENCES 39 not doubt the materiality of the proof. This is a case of exaltation of the senses. It means that the senses are stimulated to a greater keenness of per- ception. Exaltation of the intelligence and exalta- tion of the emotions are other instances in the same line as testimony to a larger consciousness. Heightening or exaltation of consciousness by losing ordinary consciousness is found in hypnosis or trance. Exaltation of intellect when self-stimu- lated, without losing ordinary consciousness, is manifested as genius. An ordinary man sometimes finds himself stimulated, he knows not whence, to heroic courage or marvelous self-sacrifice in saving lives of others, etc. This is the exaltation of the emotions. These things are found scattered all over the world today. In its lower stage this is common enough. In its higher stages it reaches the ecstacy of the mystic and the saint, so that, just as the exaltation of the intelligence is found in the man of genius, so is the highest exaltation of the emotions found in the mystic of faith, when he passes beyond the stage in which he normally resides, and has there experiences more real to him than the experiences that come to him through the senses, exercising over him a compelling power and shaping of his life. Three years ago the author was in Southern California in great tribulation and fear, but I com- pletely surrendered self, with all I had and the whole being, into the will and keeping of the 40 OCCULT EXPERIENCES omnipresent spirit of God. There I found safety and salvation, like coming in from the stormy sea when coming near being drowned. I entered into a still harbor where everything is beautiful and serene. I could plainly feel the throbbings of vibrations from the spiritual world. I was in a room looking out of a small window when a lady and gentleman passed. As I looked at the lady she reminded me of an aunt of mine who died many years before. All of a sudden I felt a strong shock, like an electric shock, and felt it passing over to the lady. At the same moment the countenance of both of us lighted up and shone bright as the sun, so that we could not look at each other; we had a feeling of being lifted up in space and had such a heavenly sensation of bliss, peace and restful- ness that it is entirely impossible to describe or convey in words. The gentleman who was arm in arm with the lady also felt the shock and the blissful sensation, but did not come to radiate the light as we did. I was alone in the room and the other two were fifteen or more feet away from me outside. One or two other persons a little farther away could see the light radiating from us, and to some extent feel a spiritual presence. This occurred in broad day- light, in less time than it takes to relate it, as the transfiguration did not last more than a minute, but the affect of peace and happiness are still with me and will stay with me. I regard it as a revela- tion of the grace and love of God. At first I called OCCULT EXPERIENCES 41 it a union of souls or spirits a conjunction of our spirit with the universal. This manifestation did not appear on account of any good qualities of mine; neither was it my voli- tion. I could not prevent it if I would, nor could I repeat it with my will. To my knowledge, such transfigurations are recorded only for Jesus and three of his disciples on the mountain and for one, Plotinus, who was a scholar of the apostles, but in his case there are no witnesses given be- sides himself. This is not found in the Bible, but in some later writings of the fathers of the early church. Paulus, when he went to Damascus, intending to persecute the Christians, was enveloped with a blinding light and words by the spirit of Christ to convert him to Christianity, but it inspired to him a sense of fear, awe and respect, rather than a feeling of rest and bliss. Paul was a very intelli- gent, well educated, courageous man and a well adapted teacher for the Christ spirit to act through him. He was on that account won over to the Christian faith by spiritual force. Of such revelation Paul speaks of being caught up to the third heaven, and there hearing unspeak- able words which it is not lawful for a man to utter. I, myself, never spoke to anyone about this oc- currence to other people, but those who had part in it talked about it and said it came from me. Afterward those who came near me said a bene- 42 OCCULT EXPERIENCES ficial, peaceful or good influence emanated from me, of which I was not conscious. They would come close to me and say, I want to get some of his influence. And I said, "I do not know of any influence; there is not any to get." Later on, even doctors of medicine and materialistic scientists, who did not believe in the presence and power of spirit, God, claimed that they could feel an influ- ence of peace coming from me when they came near me, though they did not like it and did not want to be influenced. Sometimes spiritual phenomena is chasing the materialist and they are running away from them. They said a light was radiating from me so that they could not look in my eyes. When I came to a larger acquaintance of many people I heard those same statements repeated often not to me but among themselves so I had to accept it as a truth as well as they. If there were not so many to testify to these facts, and myself alone made those statements, the worldly wise would call it a fixed idea, based on an error of mind, by which they would mean insanity. But the persons concerned are now (at the time of this writing) living in California and will testify to the truth of this narrative if any competent party wishes to investigate and inquire for their names. To enter unto the will of God is an initiation of such power and beauty that language is inadequate to interpret this supreme experience. That won- OCCULT EXPERIENCES 43 derful test of seeing every event of life from the point of view of the will of God changes the scale of human experience. Let the higher consciousness play upon a capable brain, a strong heart and a sound nervous system and there is a union which nothing on earth is able to conquer a force which nothing is able to shake. Fixed ideas that are out of all reason; that over- bears all appeal and rationality; ideas that no one else can see in that same way as the obsessed per- son, are madness. There is another type of fixed idea that some peo- ple would call a form of insanity. It is the kind of idea that makes the martyr, the saint and the hero; an idea that dominates all the ordinary at- tractions of life in face of which nothing can make an affective appeal, nothing can turn aside the man from the path along which he is going. These fixed ideas we find in the very noblest children of the race. If these are insane, then insanity is very beneficial to the world at large, for such men of fixed ideas were Moses and the Prophets, Buddha and the Hindu adepts; Jesus and Paul and other martyrs down to the present time. To such men of fixed ideas we are indebted for our present day civilization. The normal brain is fitted by evolution to the work of the world. Now, if there comes down on that brain a number of vibrations from the astral or mental plane, beating on that normal brain, there comes great waves of consciousness from 44 OCCULT EXPERIENCES those planes, and the brain that is prepared only for the physical may become unbalanced, but these vibrations will fit the brain to be able to respond to them in time, just as an athlete gets more life and strength into his muscles by exercises and use, even if he may overstrain them. By proper food and exercise of Will and mind and thought control, trying to receive and answer to those higher vibrations, consciousness is trained to the three worlds instead of only one. The human con- sciousness is not tied down to the physical plane, but when the knowledge comes to us clearly de- fined, distinct, then we know that it is not coming by vibration from the other planes playing on the consciousness from without; then it comes from the spirit itself, sending down his own inspirations, and we can distinguish the inspirations from within, from the results of impact from without, by the clearness and definiteness of their coming, by the illuminating nature of the revelation. Only those who know are fit to teach those who believe. No man knows the truth so that he can never doubt it until the revelation has come to him as though he stood alone on earth, until the divine without has spoken to the divine within in the temple of the human heart and the man thus knows by himself and not by another. The light may vanish and the darkness come upon him; the gleam of heaven may fade and clouds surround him; threats and challenges may assail him, but OCCULT EXPERIENCES 45 within his heart there nestles the secret of peace he knows. Whoso has felt the spirit of the highest cannot confound nor doubt him nor deny. Yea, with one voice, O world, though thou deniest, stand thou on that side for on this am I. Though thou shouldst strike him from his glory, even on the cross would he maintain his story. One who thus knows Is then qualified to speak of heavenly things, and will impart to receptive listeners, to some extent, the inspiration and feeling of the truth he teaches. CHAPTER VIII. Thought Transference. The development of the mental power on the supersensuous plane in sphere of the occult, through the awakening of the all inclusive sixth sense, is as normal and legitimate as is the activity on the outward plane of the physical senses. When this inward development is complete, the mind attains absolute supremacy over the body. It can control the memory, retain or banish impression at pleasure. 46 OCCULT EXPERIENCES Still higher results of this occult development and knowledge is intuition, inner hearing and sight; psychometric sense, etc. This condition gives the mind free access to knowledge at first hand and will ultimately render many cumbersome external apparatus unnecessary, when direct communication from mind to mind at any distance will be a com- mon experience. Language is a compromise with thought that is, no words are expressive or delicate enough to convey perfectly our thought and feelings. This can only be done through mental transmission or telepathy, as in the case of some minds who are so closely akin that they almost think in unison. The human emotions transcend in their expression all limitation of language. The law of telepathy between persons of sym- pathetic spirit and receptivity is like other laws of the universe. The magnetic sensations of thought current is astounding. The actions of electricity fade into nothingness before the actions of spirit. The divine life labors incessantly by means of all things for our advancement. It is a scientific fact that any vibration set up in the ether goes on infinitely, communicating itself to that which is in tune or correspondence with its rate of vibration. This is the basis of wireless telegraphy. It is also the explanation of telepathy. A thought can set up a vibration in the finer spir- itual essense which can be received by receptive minds in tune. It may yet be developed so that a 1 OCCULT EXPERIENCES 47 magnetic person can call up another (even at great distance) with a magnetic ear and he will hear it and give answer, while others near him will hear nothing. What we call language is thought expressed on the plane of sense. Our true being lies behind the veil of sense, and this can hear and speak the soundless language of thought and ideas. Thought is the supersensuous side of language and a more real and potent thing than spoken words. Com- munication of thought and ideas from one mind to another without spoken words has been practiced in all ages of the world by the spiritually unfolded man. Such communication is perfectly natural and easy to the spiritual man. It has been and is now practiced by the Hindu adepts in occult science. This is in perfect harmony with the laws of spirit, for what men call the supernatural is the natural in the spiritual sphere. Thought is the most real thing in the universe. When united with love or emotion, is the divinest and most far-reaching force in the realm of being. Thought is not a faculty of mind; it is mind itself. Imagination is inseparable from the spirit of man, for wherever I imagine myself to be, there my spirit and astral personality is, and I can speak in thought the language spirit of my friend, who is another spirit, and he can understand it. In sleep, when the spirit is more freed from the limitations of the body, the mind is more sensitive to impressions of thought from another. One can, by fixing his mind 48 OCCULT EXPERIENCES on the sleeper and imagining clearly any scene or event, cause it to appear to him as in a dream. How much the thoughts of our friends influence us for good or evil we do not know, but surely more than the world is ready to admit. It is an ascer- tained fact of science that thought action goes side by side with electric or magnetic action. These magnetic currents increase with hard thinking. As in wireless telegraphy, thought starts a vibration in a finer ether and can be received by a mind in tune to that vibration. Thought may be trans- ferred on three different planes; it may go from brain to brain just as wireless telegraphy. It may go from astral body to astral body on a higher plane, or it may be transferred from one mentality to another through a still finer ether. In the latter case, not only the actually conscious thought of the sender is received, but also that is hidden in his mind at the time behind conscious thought. Ordinarily, where thoughts are first sent they are received as a voice, as though he heard the person talking. It may arrive an idea without sound or it may be received as an image of a per- son or object the sender is thinking of. In order to receive a message one must be very passive. It is necessary for the receiver to be passive as it is for the sender to be positive, for that reason it seems to be working better for the sender to be a male and the receiver a female. Many years ago, when Mr. Svengaly went through the country giving exhibitions, I saw him in the Orpheum in OCCULT EXPERIENCES 49 San Francisco. He would go out among the audi- ence with paper and pencil and tell one of them to write some name or sentence and give it to him. His wife stayed on the stage with her back toward the audience. As Svengaly read the sen- tence in thought only, without speaking a word, the wife wrote it in big letters and exhibited it to the audience. This seemed strange or occult to most people. Since that I have done even better than that. I can be in another building, a distance away from the receiver, and the person does not even have to be a close acquaintance. I can read a paper or a lecture, nor aloud only in thought and she can understand every word, even when other persons are in the same room with her, talking. The others do not hear or perceive anything, because they are not in tune with that thought vibration. Only the person whom the sender has in mind, and is reading to, does receive it. When I first came to know about this thought- reading faculty I was sitting in a room of a neigh- bor, where several of the family were present. I was reading, when one of their boys said something about me. When I answered aloud, the boy said: "I did not say anything; it was only a thought."< Later, when I paid closer attention, I perceived th I could also hear the father's thoughts without him speaking. Later on, other persons obtained the ability to understand or read my thoughts without 50 OCCULT EXPERIENCES my volition. They claimed it was given to them by some spiritualistic medium. Although I could hear the thoughts of a person close by, when there were several people together I could not understand anything, as it made too much confusion. My thought-readers could perceive only my thoughts and nobody's else. They were affected by my state of mind; when I was sad or depressed, they felt the same, and when I felt joyous and happy, they would partake of that, too. Still later I found that I could impart the thought- reading ability to a person to whom I desired to speak in private and did not get the opportunity. The receivers also felt all that I felt. If my shoes were pinching, they would feel the pressure, and in everything they would feel the same as I did. I never gave any exhibitions or made those ex- periences public, and as I did not live any great length of time with the same people, neither did I afterward correspond with them, I could not say how long the receivers felt that affect afterward. All those concerned are now living in California and would be willing to testify to the truth of above statements, but as I did not ask their permission it would not be proper to give their names. By applying part of your time to close atten- tion and study to the higher world you will find that those vibrations will gradually assert them- selves in consciousness. At first it may be a dim illumination an insight into the meaning of some favorite books which you never enjoyed before; OCCULT EXPERIENCES 51 a grasping of the ideas beyond what you could be- fore in your normal study. Then you will know that thought transference is going on from the higher mental worlds to the physical brain, and that you are coming in touch with the mind, not only with the brain conscious- ness, of others. As you cannot gain knowledge in this world even by the brain without close attention to the things you study, much less can you expect to understand the knowledge of the higher worlds without turning your attention in that direction. If you are always rushing on the physical plane and your mind is occupied and worried about ma- terial things, you cannot possibly perceive any of the finer vibrations on the astral or mental plane. Chapter IX. Not Spiritualism. Although it has been shown as an unbroken thread all through this volume that man is spirit- ual; that he is an immortal, eternal soul of divine origin, it does not agree with, but is at wide divergence from, the doctrine of spiritualism. So- called spiritualists and their mediums are atheists. 52 OCCULT EXPERIENCES Many of them have told the author direct that there is no such a being as God, but only great numbers of spirits at discord, one with another. In spiritualists' literature a divine being, as the cause of all life, spiritual and material, controlling the whole universe, is not recognized, but only spirits of the realm. This contention is straight- way antagonistic to all ancient and Christian mod- ern philosophic truth. The orderly cosmic movement of matter in space shows the existence of one supreme being, an om- nicent and omnipotent ruler over all. A mass of dis- cordant spirits, as the only power, would cause chaos. The author does not claim to be and is not a me- dium of any spirit of the realm; he never asked any- thing or wished to have anything to do with any medium or spiritualist. Any spiritual gift that he obtained from the divine spirit, the Holy Ghost of Christianity, which was promised and received by the apostles of Jesus and by many others since that time. This Holy Ghost is an emanation from the supreme God. It is as far above the spirit of the medium as what we call heaven is above the earth. It is the same spirit by which Moses was superior to all the Egyptian Magicians, although they had the same education that Moses had. It is the same spirit by which the prophet Daniel could by far exceed the Babilonian and Chaldean Sages and their magic. The same by which Jesus and his followers did all their good work down to the present time. OCCULT EXPERIENCES 53 Origen, who before he became a Christian, be- longed to the Platonic school, also says, that all other spirits are far inferior and are subject to the Holy Ghost. That the good spirit fears not the light, while the wicked ones require darkness. The sensa- tions they excite make belief in the reality and pres- ence of things they show, though these things be absent. In 1 John 4, St. John admonishes not to believe every spirit, for there are many false prophets; try them if they are of god. Those that confess that Jesus Christ was sent in the flesh into this world from God to teach the way of Love to eternal life, are good. Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ has come of God, is not good, but is the anti- Christ Spiritualist and their mediums deny this prin- ciple of Christianity as well as the omnipresence of a supreme God. Also by their fruit they can easily be recognized. The aim and purpose of so called spirit mediums are to get money or other material advantage from their patrons and believers. They will conspire among themselves and combine from different cities and places to rob victims who have money. Nothing is too low for them; they will stoop to any means to get money as long as they think that they can circumvent the law of the country by trickery and evasion. They never consider the plight in which they leave the victim; never think of going good to others, that is their fruit. On the other hand, those who are actuated by good, divine spirit, the Holy Ghost; to work with the divine will 54 OCCULT EXPERIENCES of evolution, to elevate and help their fellowmen spiritually and materially, is their aim and object. CHAPTER X. Christian Brotherhood Brotherhood is a common meeting ground. It is an identification of ourselves with all human kind; our oneness of aim and nature that accomplishes atonement. Then while still on earth, free from hos- tile thought, we can look inward and upward to heaven and see that God's love and goodness is su- preme in the universe. Christian Brotherhood undoubtedly also includes community of material interests, or the common ownership of the means of physical life. The early fathers of the Christian Church agreed that, in order to live Christian lives, it was absolutely necessary for the brotherhood members to have the means of living as community property. As long as we live under competition and each is trying to get from the other as much as he can in business or otherwise, we are not acting as brothers should. OCCULT EXPERIENCES 55 In the time of Jesus, co-operation in clans was practiced extensively, both in living and working. Christian communities practiced it for more than three hundred years, and members were required to give up into the community all their earthly posses- sions before they were regarded as belonging to the brotherhood. Then the elders managed it so that none had to suffer extreme poverty. When the Roman Government joined the Church Brotherhood and equality was abandoned because the rich, new members and the Priesthood were not sat- isfied to be on a level with the others. Thereby they lost the brotherly love and a little later also the spiritual gifts, such as healing and the clear under- standing of the teachings of Jesus. The difference in the social order of those who produce or are willing to contribute to production, and those who live by collecting rent, interest and profit, is becoming greater as the machinery of pro- duction is improved, so that the nation^ who call themselves Christians are departing more and more from the Brotherhood which is the most important tenet of Christianity. Supremacy and control by the spiritual does not suspend any function of mind or body, but will bring the whole person, body and soul, to the highest de- gree of organic perfection and vigorous activity. It will deepen and expand the sphere of activity and enjoyment in all walks of life. The exclusive and self-righteous Pharisees made the charge against Jesus, that he was glutinous and a winebiber, a 56 OCCULT EXPERIENCES friend of publicans and sinners, but he said to them, "Woe unto you who pay tight on the smallest things, and then eat up the houses of the poor by demanding many kinds of contributions." The prophet Jesia also says: "Those who say to the lowly, stand by thyself, do not come near, for I am holier than thou," are a vexation to divine spirit. Read Isaiah, chapter 65. It plaintly fortells things yet to come. These prophesies are also repeated in Revelation of St. John in several places. Read Rev. 7-9-17. All that is advocated in this chapter is in accord- ance and belongs to Christian Brotherhood. When he tries the hearts of men, Treasure of earth is poor and vain. But better than gold, than gold refined Are faith and love and truth divined, As real wisdom coming from above Is eternal, never changing Love. Be not conformed to this world, but be ye trans- formed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. If one thinks, speaks and acts pure, good and loving thoughts, happiness follows him like a shadow that never leaves him. A well directed mind will do us greater service than the best friend. On the restless sea of life how often have we longed for some permanent shore on which to rest, that ab- solute immutable amid ceaseless change, enduring OCCULT EXPERIENCES 57 while the phantom world passes, towards which sor- rowful humanity ever yearns, as the deer panted for the water-brooks. That is God, spirit, love, beauty and truth. We do not want to be so busy getting a living that we have no time to live. Although we live in the richest age in history, people have less time than ever to live, but they don't want to simplify their wants. The men of the world, instead of first seek- ing the Kingdom of Heaven (true happiness) will leave that for their deathbed. They discover too late that they have missed the best thing in life (the reality) and chased a shadow. He controls every- thing but his own mind, and gets everything but hap- piness; he will pretend anything and call it business. Yet ninety-five per cent of business men fail, and some of the successful, five per cent have been con- victed of mean dishonesty. The moral defects, the negative emotions are the real diseases, as wisdom and virtue are the real health. Harmony is the goal of life; heaven is but har- mony. Harmony is a state of mind in perfect accord with the soul that is with God, who is absolute Love and Truth. To control the mental state, and not to disturb oneself over external conditions which can not be controlled, is sound philosophy for application in daily life. The mind that has found its center in spiritual things will remain serene when the trou- bled winds of the world blow over it and reflects the heavens of the inner life, the infinite repose of the 58 OCCULT EXPERIENCES soul. Man must be in accordance with the laws of his being in order that the divine current may flow through him. Longevity Anyone with a well balanced mind wishes to live to a ripe old age in good health, therefore longevity also belongs to philosophy and what we learn towards being normal and happy, will also tend to prolong life. State of mind, food and drink, heredity, tem- perance and self-control are all factors for the dura- tion of our lives. The state of mind is by far the most important. To take events as they come, when they cannot be changed, with equanimity and not to worry either over the past or about the future, but to use the present to do the best we can and know how, and take the consequences easy, with re- liance in providence, that it is for the best, is wisdom that will prolong our lives as well as add to our hap- piness and peace. If a placid disposition, life will be long. If a fretful one, it will be brief. Napoleon was a great man but of nervous tem- perament. He fretted unceasingly and died at the age of 52, with cancer of the stomach, developed from indigestion, and the indigestion from worry. Wellington, a man almost withour nerves, who never fretted or worried, lived to the age of 83. Next of importance is climate to live in. An even or equable climate, that is where one does not have OCCULT EXPERIENCES 59 to suffer from either extreme cold nor heat, and in an altitude near sea level, is the best. In very cold countries not as many live to an old age as in warm or even hot countries, like Spain or South America. In Roumania and Bulgaria, where there is an equable climate, similar to California, and the people live on fruit, vegetables, milk and cheese, and use very little meat or alcoholic liquors, there are a greater percent- age of persons live to be a hundred years old or over than in any other part of the earth. Food should be plain and regular. Meat eating people do not live as long as vegetarians as a rule. Other things being equal, those who live mostly on fruits, vegetables, milk, nuts and cheese live the longest. Alcoholic liquors as a drink will shorten life, next to other ex- cesses, such as sexual and immoral excess, which causes syphilis and other poisons to cut life short. Alcohol is the most vicious foe of longevity. A per- son who can control himself with will-power in all his habits and modes of living can also add to the duration of his life. Conclusion From what has herein been said, the conclusion is that God is, or exists, as the only self-existant being. He is the lifegiver who is omnipresent and dwells within and v/ithout us. Is omnipotent and eternally beneficient. He is not seen, heard or touched, yet is perceived by those who desire perception. 60 OCCULT EXPERIENCES Man's real self and his life is spiritual; he is im- mortal and has a future before him, whose glory and splendor has no limit. With the evolution of his latent function of spirit will dawn in the higher con- sciousness, the assertion of the divine ego in him, God manifest in the flesh. No eye had seen nor ear heard nor has entered into the heart of man, the things God has prepared for those that love him. The natural or sensuous man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him and he cannot know them. Only through the soul, as a divine spark, are they revealed to him in spirit- ual understanding. To that end we are to recognize and then to realize the actual presence of God's spirit in and all about us, and strive for unity therewith. That some of the human race have been able to de- velop spiritually, so as to feel and realize the unity with the Father, demonstrates the possibility of others. A divine law of cause and effect, a law of justice rules the world. As man is given choice to let his life and actions be dominated either by spiritual good and truth, or by material sensuous, selfish and fleshly promptings, he is his own dispensor of joy or gloom to himself. The degrees of his life, his reward or his punishment. That mankind has inherent in himself, many spirit- ual faculties and qualities going beyond or above the conception of material sense, which can be greatly developed even in this earthly life, and can thereby show to others the presence and activity of the spirit OCCULT EXPERIENCES 61 of God, as being helpful and beneficient to mankind. That the promises of Jesus, when he said, that those who believe in him and his spiritual teachings with unwavering faith, shall be able to do all the works that he did and even more, applies to the present time as well as it did to the apostles. That Christian Brotherhood and love, as the most important part of the mission and teachings of Jesus, must include mutual services and equality in the ma- terial means of this earthly life, to develop and demonstrate the spiritual common origin, existence and destiny of the race, and to gain real happiness for the individual united in this Brotherhood. That this mutual love and service is the best and the one means to work in us the unity with the spirit of Christ, who is one with the Father. That the man Jesus is the visible revelation to our perception of the love and good will to man of the universal spirit of God. This is the love ! If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a sounding brass. If I have the gift of prophesy, the mysteries and all knowl- edge; if I have faith so as to remove mountains and have not love, I am nothing. If I give all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned and have not love, it profiteth me nothing. Love suffereth long and is kind; love envieth not and vaunted not itself; is not puffed up; doeth not behave unseemly; seeketh not its own; is not pro- 62 OCCULT EXPERIENCES voked; taketh not account of evil; rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth, bear- ing all things. Love never faileth, even if everything be done away with, love shall remain. IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE FORM KO DTK