CHAPTER III.

SIMPLE CLAIRVOYANCE: PARTIAL
THE experiences of the untrained clairvoyant — and l)e it remembered that that class includes all Euro- pean clairvoyants except a very few — will, however, usually fall very far short of what I have attempted to indicate ; they will fall short in many different ways — in degree, in variety, or in permanence, and above all in precision.
Sometimes, for example, a man's clairvoyance will be permanent, but very partial, extending only perhaps to one or two classes of the phenomena observable ; he will find himself endowed with some isolated fragment of higher vision, without appar- ently possessing other powers of sight which ought normally to accompany that fragment, or even to precede it. For example, one of my dearest friends has all his life had the power to see the atomic ether and atomic astral matter, and to recognize their structure, alike in darkness or in light, as inter- penetrating everything else; yet he has only rarely
SIMPLE CLAIEVOYANCE: PARTIAL 47
seen entities whose bodies are composed of the much more obvious lower ethers or denser astral matter, and at any rate is certainly not permanently able to see them. He simply finds himself in possession of this special faculty, without any apparent reason to account for it, or any recognizable relation to any- thing else : and beyond proving to him the existence of these atomic planes and demonstrating their ar- rangement, it is difficult to see of what particular use it is to him at present. Still, there the thing is, and it is an earnest of greater things to come — of further powers still awaiting development.
There are many similar cases — similar, I mean, not in the possession of that particular form of sight (which is unique in my experience), but in showing the development of some one small part of the full and clear vision of the astral and etheric planes. In nine cases out of ten, however, such partial clair- voyance will at the same time lack precision also — that is to say, there will be a good deal of vague impression and inference about it, instead of the clear-cut definition and certainty of the trained man. Examples of this type are constantly to be found, especially among those who advertise themselves as "test and business clairvoyants."
Then, again, there are those who are only tem- porarily clairvoyant under certain special conditions. Among these there are various subdivisions, some being able to reproduce the state of clairvoyance at will by again setting up the same conditions, while with others it comes sporadically, without any
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observable reference to their surroundings, and with yet others the power shows itself only once or twice in the whole course of their lives.
To the first of these subdivisions belong those who are clairvoyant only when in the mesmeric trance — who when not so entranced are incapable of seeing or hearing anything abnormal. These may some- times reach great heights of knowledge and be ex- ceedingly precise in their indications, but when that is so they are usually undergoing a course of regu- lar training, though for some reason unable as yet to set themselves free from the leaden weight of •earthly life without assistance.
In the same class we may put those — chiefly Orientals — who gain some temporary sight only un- der the influence of certain drugs, or by means of the performance of certain ceremonies. The cere- monialist sometimes hypnotizes himself by his repe- titions, and in that condition becomes to some ex- tent clairvoyant; more often he simply reduces him- self to a passive condition in which some other en- tity can obsess him and speak through him. Some- times, again, his ceremonies are not intended to af- fect himself at all, but to invoke some astral entity who will give him the required information; but of course that is a case of magic, and not of clairvoy- ance. Both the drugs and the ceremonies are meth- ods emphatically to be avoided by any one who wishes to approach clairvoyance from the higher side, and use it for his own progress and for the helping of others. The Central African medicine-
SIMPLE CLAIEVOYANCE : PAETIAL 49
man or witch-doctor and some of the Tartar Sha- mans are good examples of the type.
Those to whom a certain amount of clairvoyant power has come occasionally only, and without any reference to their own wish, have often been hysteri- cal or highly nervous persons, with whom the faculty was to a large extent one of the symptoms of a disease. Its appearance showed that the physical vehicle was weakened to such a degree that it no longer presented any obstacle in the way of a cer- tain modicum of etheric or astral vision. An ex- treme example of this class is the man who drinks himself into delirium tremens, and in the condition of absolute physical ruin and impure psychic ex- citation brought about by the ravages of that fell disease, is able to see for the time some of the loath- some elemental and other entities which he has drawn round himself by his long course of degraded and bestial indulgence. There are, however, other cases where the power of sight has appeared and dis- appeared without apparent reference to the state of the physical health; but it seems probable that even in those, if they could have been observed closely enough, some alteration in the condition of the eth- eric double would have been noticed.
Those who have only one instance of clairvoyance to report in the whole of their lives are a difficult band to classify at all exhaustively, because of the great variety of the contributory circumstances. There are many among them to whom the experi- ence has come at some supreme moment of their
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lives, when it is comprehensible that there might have been a temporary exaltation of faculty which would be sufficient to account for it.
In the case of another subdivision of them fhe solitary case has been the seeing of an apparition, most commonly of some friend or relative at the point of death. Two possibilities are then offered for our choice, and in each of them the strong wish of the dying man is the impelling force. That force may have enabled him to materialize himself for a moment, in which case of course no clairvoyance was needed; or more probably it may have acted mesmerically upon the percipient, and momentarily dulled his physical and stimulated his higher sensi- tiveness. In either case the vision is the product of the emergency, and is not repeated simply because the necessary conditions are not repeated.
There remains, however, an irresolvable residuum of cases in which a solitary instance occurs of the exercise of undoubted clairvoyance, while yet the occasion seems to us wholly trival and unimportant. About these we can only frame hypotheses; the governing conditions are evidently not on the physi- cal plane, and a separate investigation of each case would be necessary before we could speak with any certainty as to its causes. In some such it has ap- peared that an astral entity was endeavoring to make some communication, and was able to impress only some unimportant detail on its subject — all the useful or significant part of what it had to say fail- ing to get through into the subject's consciousness.
SIMPLE CLAIEVOYANCE: PAETIAL 51
In the investigation of the phenomena of clairvoy- ance all these varied types and many others will be encountered, and a certain number of cases of mere hallucination will be almost sure to appear also, and will have to be carefully weeded out from the list of examples. The student of such a subject needs an inexhaustible fund of patience and steady persever- ance, but if he goes on long enough he will begin dimly to discern order behind the chaos, and will gradually get some idea of the great laws under which the whole evolution is working.
It will help him greatly in his efforts if he will adopt the order which we have just followed — that is, if he will first take the trouble to familiarize himself as thoroughly as may be with the actual facts concerning the planes with which ordinary clairvoyance deals. If he will learn what there really is to be seen with astral and etheric sight, and what their respective limitations are, he will then have, as it were, a standard by which to measure the cases which he observes. Since all instances of par- tial sight must of necessity fit into some niche in this whole, if he has the outline of the entire scheme in his head he will find it comparatively easy with a little practice to classify the instances with which he is called upon to deal.
We have said nothing as yet as to the still more wonderful possibilities of clairvoyance upon the men- tal plane, nor indeed is it necessary that much should be said, as it is exceedingly improbable that the in- vestigator will ever meet with any examples of it
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except among pupils properly trained in some of the very highest schools of occultism. For them it opens up yet another new world, vaster far than all those beneath it — a world in which all that we can imagine of utmost glory and splendor is the commonplace, of existence. Some account of its marvellous faculty, its ineffable bliss, its magnificent opportunities for learning and for work, is given in the sixth of our Theosophical manuals, and to that the student may be referred.
All that it has to give — all of it at least that he can assimilate — is within the reach of the trained pupil, but for the untrained clairvoyant to touch it is hardly more than a bare possibility. It has been done in mesmeric trance, but the occurrence is of exceeding rarity, for it needs almost superhuman qualifications in the way of lofty spiritual aspiration and absolute purity of thought and intention upon the part both of the subject and the operator.
To a type of clairvoyance such as this, and still more fully to that which belongs to the plane next above it, the name of spiritual sight may reasonably be applied; and since the celestial world to which it opens our eyes lies all round us here and now, it is fit that our passing reference to it should be made under the heading of simple clairvoyance, though it may be necessary to allude to it again when dealing with clairvoyance in space, to which we will now pass on.
CLAIRVOYANCE IN SPACE: INTENTIONAL 53
CHAPTEE IV.
CLAIRVOYANCE IN SPACE: INTENTIONAL
WE have defined this as the capacity to see events or scenes removed from the seer in space and too far distant for ordinary observation. The instances of this are so numerous and so various that we shall find it desirable to attempt a somewhat more de- tailed classification of them. It does not much mat- ter what particular arrangement we adopt, so long as it is comprehensive enough to include all our cases; perhaps a convenient one will be to group them under the broad divisions of intentional and unintentional clairvoyance in space, with an inter- mediate class that might be described as semi-inten- tional— a curious title, but I will explain it later.
As before, I will begin by stating what is possible along this line for the fully-trained seer, and en- deavoring to explain how his faculty works and under what limitations it acts. After that we shall find ourselves in a better position to try to under- stand the manifold examples of partial and un-
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trained sight. Let us then in the first place discuss intentional clairvoyance.
It will be obvious from what has previously been said as to the power of astral vision that any one possessing it in its fulness will be able to see by its means practically anything in this world that he wishes to see. The most secret places are open to his gaze, and intervening obstacles have no existence for him, -because of the change in his point of view ; so that if we grant him the power of moving about in the astral body he can without difficulty go anywhere and see anything within the limits of the planet. Indeed this is to a large extent possible to him even without the necessity of moving the astral body at all, as we shall presently see.
Let us consider a little more closely the methods by which this super-physical sight may be used to observe events taking place at a distance. When, for example, a man here in England sees in minut- est detail something which is happening at the same moment in India or America, how is it done?
A very ingenious hypothesis has been offered to account for the phenomenon. It has been suggested that every object is perpetually throwing off radia- tions in all directions, similar in some respects to, though infinitely finer than, rays of light, and that clairvoyance is nothing but the power to see by means of these finer radiations. Distance would in that case be no bar to the sight, all intervening ob- jects would be penetrable by these rays, and they would be able to cross one another to infinity in all
CLAIBVOYANCE IN SPACE: INTENTIONAL 55
directions without entanglement, precisely as the vi- brations of ordinary light do.
Now though this is not exactly the way in which clairvoyance works, the theory is nevertheless quite true in most of its premises. Every object un- doubtedly is throwing off radiations in all directions, and it is precisely in this way, though on a higher plane, that the akashic records seem to be formed. Of them it will be necessary to say something under our next heading, so we will do no more than men- tion them for the moment. The phenomena of psy- chometry are also dependent upon these radiations, as will presently be explained.
There are, however, certain practical difficulties in the way of using these etheric vibrations (for that is, of course, what they are) as the medium by means of which one man may see anything taking place at a dis- tance. Intervening objects are not entirely trans- parent, and as the actors in the scene which the ex- perimenter tried to observe would probably be at least equally transparent, it is obvious that serious confusion would be quite likely to result.
The additional dimension which would come into play if astral radiations were sensed instead of eth- eric would obviate some of the difficulties, but would on the other hand introduce some fresh complications of its own; so that for practical purposes, in en- deavoring to understand clairvoyance, we may dis- miss this hypothesis of radiations from our minds, and turn to the methods of seeing at a distance which are actually at the disposal of the student. It will
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be found that there are five, four of them being really varieties of clairvoyance, while the fifth does not properly come under that head at all, but be- longs to the domain of magic. Let us take this last one first, and get it out of our way.
1. By the assistance of a nature-spirit. — This method does not necessarily involve the possession of any psychic faculty at all on the part of the ex- perimenter; he need only know how to induce some denizen of the astral world to undertake the investi- gation for him. This may be done either by invo- cation or by evocation ; that is to say, the operator may either persuade his astral coadjutor by prayers and offerings to give him the help he desires, or he may compel his aid by the determined exercise of a highly-developed will.
This method has been largely practised in the East (where the entity employed is usually a nature- spirit) and in old Atlantis, where "the lords of the dark face" used a highly-specialized and peculiarly venomous variety of artificial elemental for this pur- pose. Information is sometimes obtained in the same sort of way at the spiritualistic seance of mod- ern days, but in that case the messenger employed is more likely to be a recently-deceased human being functioning more or less freely on the astral plane — though even here also it is sometimes an obliging nature-spirit, who is amusing himself by posing as somebody's departed relative. In any case, as I have said, this method is not clairvoyant at all, but magical ; and it is mentioned here only in order that
CLAIBVOYANCE IN SPACE: INTENTIONAL 57
the reader may not become confused in the endeavor to classify cases of its use under some of the fol- lowing headings.
2. By means of an astral current — This is a phrase frequently and rather loosely employed in some of our " Theosophical literature to cover a considerable variety of phenomena, and among others that which I wish to explain. What is really done by the stu- dent who adopts this method is not so much the setting in motion of a current in astral matter, as the erection of a kind of temporary telephone through it.
It is impossible here to give an exhaustive disquisi- tion on astral physics, even had I the requisite knowl- edge to write it ; all I need say is that it is possible to make in astral matter a definite connecting-line that shall act as a telegraph-wire to convey vibrations by means of which all that is going on at the other end of it may be seen. Such a line is established, be it understood, not by a direct projection through space of astral matter, but by such action upon a line (or rather many lines) of particles of that mat- ter as will render them capable of forming a conduc- tor for vibrations of the character required.
This preliminary action can be set up in two ways — either by the transmission of energy from particle to particle, until the line is formed, or by the use of a force from a higher plane which is capable of act- ing upon the whole line simultaneously. Of course this latter method implies far greater development, since it involves the knowledge of (and the power to use ) forces of a considerably higher level ; so that
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the man who could make his line in this way would not, for his own use, need a line at all, since he could see far more easily and completely by means of an altogether higher faculty.
Even the simpler and purely astral operation is a difficult one to describe, though quite an easy one to perform. It may be said to partake somewhat of the nature of the magnetization of a bar of steel ; for it consists in what we might call the polarization, by an effort of the human will, of a number of parallel lines of astral atoms reaching from the operator to the scene which he wishes to observe. All the atoms thus affected are held for the time with their axes rigidly parallel to one another, so that they form a kind of temporary tube along which the clairvoyant may look. This method has the advantage that the telegraph line is liable to disarrangement or even destruction by any sufficiently strong astral current which happens to cross its path; but if the original effort of will were fairly definite, this would be a contingency of only infrequent occurrence.
The view of a distant scene obtained by means of this "astral current77 is in many ways not unlike that seen through a telescope. Human figures us- ually appear very small, like those on a distant stage, but in spite of their diminutive size they are as clear as though they were close by. Sometime it is possible by this means to hear what is said as well as to see what is done ; but as in the majority of cases this does not happen, we must consider it rather as the manifestation of an additional power
CLAIRVOYANCE IN SPACE: INTENTIONAL 59
than as a necessary corollary of the faculty of sight.
It will be observed that in this case the seer does not usually leave his physical body at all ; there is no sort of projection of his astral vehicle or of any part of himself towards that which he is looking, but he simply manufactures for himself a temporary astral telescope. Consequently he has, to a certain extent, the use of his physical powers even while he is ex- amining the distant scene; for example, his voice would usually still be under his control, so that he could describe what he saw even while he was in the act of making his observations. The conscious- ness of the man is, in fact, distinctly still at this end of the line.
This fact, however, has its limitations as well as its advantages, and these again largely resemble the limitations of the man using a telescope on the phy- sical plane. The experimenter, for example, has no power to shift this point of view; his telescope, so to speak, has a particular field of view which can- not be enlarged or altered ; he is looking at his scene from a certain direction, and he cannot suddenly turn it all round and see how it looks from the other side. If he has sufficient psychic energy to spare, he may drop altogether the telescope that he is us- ing and manufacture an entirely new one for him- self which will approach his objective somewhat dif- ferently; but this is not a course at all likely to be adopted in practice.
But, it may be said, the mere fact that he is using astral sight ought to enable him to see it from all
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sides at once. So it would if he were using that sight in a normal way upon an object which was fairly near him — within his astral reach, as it were ; but at a distance of hundreds or thousands of miles the case is very different. Astral sight gives us the advantage of an additional dimension, but there is still such a thing as position in that dimension, and it is naturally a potent factor in limiting the use of the powers of its plane. Our ordinary three-dimen- sional sight enables us to see at once every point of the interior of a two-dimensional figure, such as a square, but in order to do that the square must be within a reasonable distance from our eyes; the mere additional dimension will avail a man in Lon- don but little in his endeavor to examine a square in Calcutta.
Astral sight, when it is cramped by being directed along what is practically a tube, is limited very much as physical sight would be under similar circum- stances; though if possessed in perfection it will still continue to show, even at that distance, the auras, and therefore all the emotions and most of the thoughts of the people under observation.
There are many people for whom this type of clair- voyance is very much facilitated if they have at hand some physical object which can be used as a starting point for their astral tube — a convenient fo- cus for their will-power. A ball of crystal is the commonest and most effectual of such foci, since it has the additional advantage of possessing within itself qualities which stimulate psychic faculty; but
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other objects are also employed, to which we shall find it necessary to refer more particularly when we come to consider semi-intentional clairvoyance.
In connection with astral-current form of clair- voyance, as with others, we find that there are some psychics who are unable to use it except when under the influence of mesmerism. The peculiarity in this case is that among such psychics there are two varieties — one in which by being thus set free the man is enabled to make a telescope for himself, and another in which the magnetizer himself makes the telescope and the subject is simply enabled to see through it. In this latter case obviously the subject has not enough will to form a tube for himself, and the operator, though possessed of the necessary will- power, is not clairvoyant, or he could see through his own tube without needing help.
Occasionally, though rarely, the tube which' is formed possesses another of the attributes of a tele- scope— that of magnifying the objects at which it is directed until they seem of life-size. Of course the objects must always be magnified to some extent, or they would be absolutely invisible, but usually the extent is determined by the size of the astral tube, and the whole thing is simply a tiny moving pic- ture. In the few cases where the figures are seen as of life-size by this method, it is probable that an altogether new power is beginning to dawn; but when this happens, careful observation is needed in order to distinguish them from examples of our next class.
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3. By the projection of a thought -form. — The ability to use this method of clairvoyance implies a development somewhat more advanced than the last, since it necessitates a certain amount of control up- on the mental plane. All students of Theosophy are aware that thought takes form, at any rate upon its own plane, and in the vast majority of cases upon the astral plane also ; but it may not be quite so generally known that if a man thinks strongly of himself as present at any given place, the form as- sumed by that particular thought will be a likeness of the thinker himself, which will appear at the place in question.
Essentially this form must be composed of the matter of the mental plane, but in very many cases it would draw round itself matter of the astral plane also, and so would approach much nearer to visibility. There are, in fact, many instances in which it has been seen by the person thought of — most probably by means of the unconscious mes- meric influence emanating from the original thinker. None of the consciousness of the thinker would, how- ever, be included within this thought-form. When once sent out from him, it would normally be a quite separate entity — not indeed absolutely uncon- nected with its maker, but practically so far as the possibility of receiving any impression through it is concerned.
This third type of clairvoyance consists, then in the power to retain so much connection with and so much hold over a newly-erected thought-form as
CLAIRVOYANCE IN SPACE: INTENTIONAL 63
will render it possible to receive impressions by means of it. Such impressions as were made upon the form would in this case be transmitted to the thinker — not along an astral telegraph line, as be- fore, but by sympathetic vibration. In a perfect case of this kind of clairvoyance it is almost as though the seer projected a part of his consciousness into the thought-form, and used it as a kind of out- post, from which observation was possible. He sees almost as well as he would if he himself stood in the place of his thought-form.
The figures at which he is looking will appear to him as of life-size and close at hand, instead of tiny and at a distance, as in the previous case; and he will find it possible to shift his point of view if he wishes to do so. Clairaudience is perhaps less fre- quently associated with this type of clairvoyance than with the last, but its place is to some extent taken by a kind of mental perception of the thoughts and intentions of those who are seen.
Since the man's consciousness is still in the physi- cal body, he will be able (even while exercising the faculty) to hear and to speak, in so far as he can do this without any distraction of his attention. The moment that the intentness of his thought fails the (vhole vision is gone, and he will have to construct a fresh thought-form before he can resume it. In- stances in which this kind of sight is possessed with any degree of perfection by untrained people are naturally rarer than in the case of the previous type, because of the capacity for mental control required,
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and the generally finer nature of the forces em- ployed.
4. By travelling in the astral "body. — We enter here upon an entirely new variety of clairvoyance, in which the consciousness of the seer no longer re- mains in or closely connected with his physical body, but is definitely transferred to the scene which he is examining. Though it has no doubt greater dangers for the untrained seer than either of the methods previously described, it is yet quite the most satisfac- tory form of clairvoyance open to him, for the im- mensely superior variety which we shall consider un- der our fifth head is not available except for specially trained students.
In this case the man's body is either asleep or in trance, and its organs are consequently not available for use while the vision is going on, so that all de- scription of what is seen, and all questioning as to further particulars, must be postponed until the wanderer returns to this plane. On the other hand the sight is much fuller and more perfect; the man hears as well as sees everything which passes before him, and can move about freely at will within the very wide limits of the astral plane. He can see and study at leisure all the other inhabitants of that plane, so that the great world of the nature-spirits (of which the traditional fairy-land is but a very small part) lies open before him, and even that of some of the lower devas.
He has also the immense advantage of being able to take part, as it were, in the scenes which come
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before his eyes — of conversing at will with these various astral entities, from whom so much informa- tion that is curious and interesting may be obtained. If in addition he can learn how to materialize him- self (a matter of no great difficulty for him when once the knack is acquired), he will be able to take