Читать книгу The Astral World—Higher Occult Powers. Clairvoyance, Spiritism, Mediumship, and Spirit-Healing Fully Explained онлайн

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Man, as a conscious being, is the subject of three degrees of conscious perception—he can be subject to no less and no more; and being influenced by what he perceives—three degrees of affection. In other words, there is laid the foundation for three spheres of thought and three spheres of affection. He can possess no more—no less. Now I am to demonstrate this to be true in such a way that every one of you shall know its truth. I begin first to prove that these spheres of knowledge and affection exist in you, because it is my business, after having proved this—if I should succeed in proving it—to show that in the wide universe there are but those same three spheres of knowledge and those same three spheres of affection and love—no less and no more; that man possesses within himself the elements of all knowledge and affection that exist in the wide universe. Unless he did possess these elements, he could not investigate the universe; for he can only investigate that, the elements of which exist within his consciousness. In the first place, man has that faculty by which he perceives the mere phenomena of existence, or, in other words, he has that department of conscious being which is addressed by what we call the physical senses, the scope of which is to reveal to him facts and phenomena in the material plane of existence. The physical senses can only reveal to him the facts and phenomena. In this respect man differs not at all from the animal, which possesses the same number of physical senses, and is impressed by the same light that impresses man’s senses—is subject to the same conditions. The law by which perception is awakened in the consciousness is the same in the animal as in the man. But man possesses also another element that is not content with mere investigation, or mere observation of forms and phenomena. You see this other nature is manifested in the little child, after he begins to walk about and observe the forms of things. There are certain things he can not ascertain by the use of the physical senses, and he asks his parents for further information. If you will examine the philosophy of asking questions, you will perceive that it is a means of gaining information by the exercise of some faculties higher than the physical senses. It is seeking for information that shall be applied to the consciousness, that shall be represented by ideas that exist in the mind. We may suppose that Sir Isaac Newton and his dog were sitting in the orchard, and that both saw an apple fall to the ground. The dog could observe the fact as well as Sir Isaac Newton, but Sir Isaac Newton perceived that there was something involved in the fall of that apple, which the dog never thought of. The dog confined his observation to the mere fact; but Sir Isaac Newton perceived, by the aid of a higher faculty, that there existed a law which he wished to ascertain, and therefore commenced investigation to discover it. This department of mind which led Sir Isaac Newton to make this investigation was not content with observing the mere facts or phenomena of existence, but wished to investigate that which was concerned in the production of the phenomenon. That faculty gives rise in man to this second sphere, which observes not the phenomena, but investigates the law or proximate causes of phenomena, and opens the field of science and philosophy. Hence the second sphere of thought is that sphere which investigates the relation of things and determines the law of action and manifestation through that relation. It belongs to what we call the relational, the middle, or mediatorial sphere; because it embraces the means by which causes operate to produce effects. For instance, I speak and you hear. I am a cause of producing a sound; your ears are affected by the sound produced. The atmosphere is the medium by which the action is transmitted from my organs of speech to those of hearing. The physical senses notice the fact in the physical sphere; the intellectual perceptions notice the means by which the fact is produced. The next, the highest, the inmost, absolute nature is that which perceives the absolute cause of these effects.