Preface

Transcriber’s Notes

Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations
in hyphenation have been standardised but all other spelling and
punctuation remains unchanged.

Italics are represented thus _italic_.




[Illustration: Publisher’s Device]


The Astral World

HIGHER OCCULT POWERS
 
_Clairvoyance, Spiritism, Mediumship, and
Spirit-Healing Fully Explained_

BY

JOEL TIFFANY

INTRODUCTION BY PHENIX

_Third Edition_

de LAURENCE, SCOTT & COMPANY
CHICAGO, ILL., U. S. A.
1910


_Title Page_

COPYRIGHT 1910

de LAURENCE, SCOTT & CO.




TABLE OF CONTENTS


Page
Introduction v

Chapter

I.—On the Determination of Truth 17

II.—The Sphere of Lust 38

III.—The Second, or Relational Sphere 61

IV.—Communication 76

V.—Philosophy of Progression 99

VI.—Mediumship 115

VII.—Mediumship—Spiritual Healing 130

VIII.—Condition of the Spirit in the Spirit-World 146

IX.—Organization—Individualization 160

X.—What Constitutes the Spirit 171

XI.—Lust 187

XII.—Marriage—Free Love 206




INTRODUCTION


The relations of man to his God have occupied the first minds of every
age, but without rendering those relations so understandable to the
mass of mankind as to be admitted as true. It has been evident to many,
although not to all, that some minds so engaged have been inspired to
write beyond the current knowledge of their day, indeed to foretell
truths which could only be recognized as such after centuries of
progression.

The natural propensity of the human mind in the exercise of its
ingenuity has been constantly developing in the endeavor to theorize
upon the writings of these inspired authors, so as to present an
entire system for the consideration of man. Each of these systems so
proposed has passed away, from the fact that it carried with it the
elements of its own destruction, itself not arising purely from the
absolute, and therefore subject to the analysis of progressed mind,
and by such analysis found wanting. Those theories which might have
seemed compatible with the ability to adjudge truth in the middle
ages, were not truths to the more progressed minds of later times;
so that truth, except to absolute consciousness, may be considered,
when subject to the test of human comprehension, as not absolute even
to such comprehension, except in degree, and that varying with the
continued progression of the recipient. Thus the best minds at this
time willingly admit that the writer of Job was inspired—that he wrote
truths beyond the comprehension of more than a thousand years beyond
his time. One instance of this may be thus stated:

To Galileo and Copernicus we have attributed the discovery of the fact
that the world is round; and yet the writer of the Book of Job, who
wrote a thousand years before them, tells us that the earth is round,
that its north is frigid, that the waters are divided by the dry
land, where the day becomes night, and the night becomes day—clearly
indicating that the continents are twelve hours apart, and that the
earth must revolve to enable the relative position of its parts to the
sun to give the phenomena now so well understood.

Plato was an inspired man. He wrote on the soul, far in advance of
his day; and it is only a progressed mind at this time that can read
and comprehend his views. With Plato, all admit that his normal
progression might have been equal to the observance of the results of
his inspiration. But the writer of the Book of Job could never have
seen an ocean. He could not have known of the existence of another
continent, and the sciences collateral to his text could not have
rendered him the didactic aid which would have been necessary to have
made him cognizant, in his normal condition, of the truths he uttered;
and, therefore, it is at least possible, if not probable, that these
truths were directly the result of inspiration, as much beyond his
own comprehension as beyond the comprehension of others. Indeed, even
at the present day, thousands of students of theology have read Job
without perceiving that he had fore-run Galileo and Copernicus in
their supposed discoveries.

It is not to be wondered at, then, that modern Spiritualism and its
truths, if credited to the source from which they are supposed to be
derived, should be found to present truths not understood as such by
every mind; and, notwithstanding its million converts, it seems to have
embraced but few minds capable of presenting in a didactic form these
truths. The various writers on the subject have rather spoken of its
curiosities than its use; and we know of no book capable of instructing
and satisfying even a progressed mind on either the precise use or
exact advantages arising from a full belief in Spiritualism.

This task has been most fearlessly performed by Joel Tiffany, Esq. He
brought to the work a vigorous and original mind. A long course of
legal practice had peculiarly adapted him to the task, particularly as
an investigator of truth. His own progression was such as to enable him
to advantage by his former practice, while his mediative power gave him
intuitive advantage seldom combined in the same individual. His course
of lectures seems to be suited to the precise wants of the day. It is
true that they are not calculated for the use of the novice, but they
are the only source we know of at this time by which those who have
passed through the curiosity-phase of the subject of Spiritualism are
enabled to review their observations and apply them usefully to their
own progression. All those properties of the mind known as _adjective_
in common parlance, requiring the assistance of the observation of
others to render them substantive, are clearly defined by Mr. Tiffany.

His analysis of mind, when properly understood, enables all the truths
he has set forth to be read understandingly; in other words he gives
the _modus_ by which we may determine truths at least equal to the
progressed condition of man at this time to comprehend.

The Sphere of Lust, that greatest bar to man’s progression, both in
its analysis and synthesis, is placed within his comprehension, and
hence his power of avoidance is materially increased. The fabled
terrors of Hades, Sheol, Tartarus, and Gehenna are defined so as to be
comprehended by an ordinary individual, while the relational sphere of
man is so treated as to enable each reader to define his own position,
and those below him, sufficiently well to assist in his aspirations for
higher exercise.

Communication and Progression are fearlessly treated, and the
master-mind is observable in all the collateral incidents of thought
consequent upon their investigation.

Mediumship is rendered understandable to all, and those phases which
have been unproductive of good results to minds not elevated beyond
the consideration consequent upon the morbid appetites of the curious,
are fairly depicted so as to enable the investigator to avoid their
recurrence, and to progress beyond their painful influences.

Mr. Tiffany has judiciously failed to cater to the tastes of those who
but magnify Kings to conceive of Gods. He has presented the Deity, or
the consideration of the Deity, to the minds of his audience, in such
a manner as to call forth the highest feelings of the soul for the
comprehension of the highest truth.

The condition of the Spirit in the Spirit-world, as portrayed by him,
is freed from the melo-dramatic condition in which it has been painted
by the fashionable and various theologians of the day. The character
of those Spirits is shown to be in accordance with the great law of
God—Progression.

While we freely admit the usefulness and beauty of many works written
on abstract phases of Spiritualism, we can not but perceive a want
of continuity in their didactic character; and from the point where
the mind admits a future state of existence to the supposed character
of that existence and the proper preparation of the Spirit while in
the form for entering upon such a condition, we can not but observe
that no work preceding these Lectures by Mr. Tiffany has met the
demand. A careful reading of these Lectures, we are confident, will
elevate and instruct every Spiritualist. It will enable him to review
his intuitions, and to find their true value. It will chasten his
confidence in communications which are not self-evident as truths, and
improve his power to comprehend these truths.

We ask the reader to peruse the following pages no more rapidly than
he can clearly comprehend them. Every proposition is worthy his best
thought and highest power of study; and if he follows them with the
same pure aspiration that seems to imbue their author, he will rise
from their consideration a wiser and a better man.

PHENIX.




THE ASTRAL WORLD HIGHER OCCULT POWERS