CHAPTER V.

SAFE AND DANGEROUS MENTAL CONDITIONS
In the previous chapter it was sug- gested that the time set aside daily for reviewing the events of the pre- ceding hours and pondering over the meaning of life and its varied prob- lems should be a period of tranquil thought and aspiration. Perhaps it may not be amiss to add that the word "tranquil" should not be taken to mean the passivity that characterizes the trance medium who is about to pass "under control." To assume that atti- tude of mind is to abandon oneself to the psychic circumstances of the mo- ment, without the slightest opportunity of judging whether they may be good or bad. It would be much as though
Mental Conditions 43
a blind man who could swim but little should fling himself upon the tide, not knowing whether it would carry him into water that was safe and comfort- able or into a dangerous undertow. The student's will should always be in con- trol. Under no circumstances should it be surrendered to anything or any- body. It is his purpose to know him- self and his environment; to obtain first-hand knowledge of the mysteries of life; to purify his vehicles of con- sciousness and develop his spiritual powers that he may be of the greatest possible assistance in spreading the light and helping others forward. It is not his purpose to evolve the char- acteristics that will permit others to speak through him — to lend his body to others to be used as an instrument for the communication of information about which he can personally know nothing and the truth or inaccuracy of which he cannot possibly determine.
44 Hints to Students of Occultism
That sort of thing can well be left to those who desire to engage in it. The way of the student of occultism lies in the opposite direction. He is to learn the mastery of matter and acquire intelligent control of occult forces, not to become an unconscious and helpless automaton in the hands of others. Therefore when he withdraws daily into the quietude of the most retired spot to which he has access and there, alone with his thoughts, calmly and serenely gives himself up to re- flections upon the higher life, his men- tal attitude should be one of reception but not of surrender. He should be as one who listens for the faintest whisper from the depths of being, but who uses discrimination in its testing and reason in its interpretation. He should be at all times mentally and morally awake and alert. He should not be misled by the widespread belief that the invisible world is sharply
Mental Conditions 45
divided into two parts and that those who seek information from the realm hidden to physical senses are surely making connections with that part known as heaven when they succeed in establishing communication.
Another common misconception is that all who have died are good and wise, and it is a dangerous one. The chief difference between those we call dead and the rest of us is that they have no physical bodies through which to function in the visible world. As to moral difference there is none; and the astral world certainly presents quite as many grades of moral and intellec- tual development as the physical life does. The selfishness and depravity that characterize unnumbered thou- sands here are fully as conspicuous there. Moreover it is the lower and grosser part of the astral world that impinges upon the physical and the facility of communication increases
46 Hints to Students of Occultism
with the coarseness and materiality of the matter forming the normal habitat of the disembodied intelligence. There- fore, should the student of occultism surrender his physical body to such entities as may desire to take posses- sion of it, the probability of getting information of any value is exceed- ingly small, while the possibility of coming into contact with most unfor- tunate influences is great. Nor would the good intentions of the student be a guarantee that this would not occur, any more than the good intentions of an experimenting chemist will insure him against injury if he brings the wrong ingredients together. The out- come for the student would doubtless depend upon the karma of the past and the natural affinity he might, or might not, have for various classes of entities inhabiting the lower levels of the astral world. But, aside from what might occur in such a case, the passive sur-
Mental Conditions 47
render of his body to become the in- strument of another, no matter how well he might be protected by his karma, is a step in the wrong direction and therefore not progress at all. One purpose of human evolution is to achieve the mastery of matter, to come into perfect control of the vehicles of consciousness. To this end the will must be cultivated, not surrendered; strengthened, not enfeebled*