Section 4

Now the lower mind, or Kama-Manas, acts on the molecules of the nervous'cells by motion, and sets them vibrating, so starting mind-consciousness on the physical plane. Manas itself could not affect these molecules ; but its ray, the lower Manas, having clothed itself in astral matter and united itself to the kamic elements, is able to set the physical molecules in motion, and so give rise to ‘ brain-consciousness,” including the brain- memory and all the other functions of the human mind, as we know it in its ordinary activity..\ These manifesta- tions, ‘‘ like all other phenomena on the material plane : . must be related in their final analysis to the world of vibration,” Se H.-P.’ Blavatsky. But, she goes on to point out, “in their origin: ‘they belong to a different and a higher world of harmony.” Theif origin is in the manasic essence, in the ray ; but.on the material plane, acting on the molecules of the brainy | they are translated into vibrations.
This action of the Kama-Manas is spoken of by Theo- sophists as psychic. All mental ‘and: passional activities “are due to this psychic energy, and ‘its manifestations
~~ are necessarily conditioned by the physical apparatus
through which it acts. We~have already: seen this
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broadly stated (ante, pp. 29, 30), and the rationale of the statement will now be apparent. If the molecular con- stitution of the brain be fine, and if the working of the specifically kamic organs (liver, spleen, etc.) be healthy and pure—so as not to injure the molecular constitution of the nerves which put them into communication with the brain—then the psychic breath, as it sweeps through the instrument, awakens in this true AZolian harp har- — monious and exquisite melodies ; whereas if the molecular constitution be gross or poor, if it be disordered by the emanations of alcohol, if the blood be poisoned by gross living or sexual excesses, the strings of the Aolian harp become too loose or too tense, clogged with dirt or frayed with harsh usage, and when the psychic breath passes over them they remain dumb or give out harsh discord- ant notes, not because the breath is absent, but because the strings are in evil case.
It will now, I think, be clearly understood that what we call mind, or intellect, is, in H. P. Blavatsky’s words, ‘a pale and too often distorted reflection” of Manas itself, or our. fifth principle; Kama-Manas is “the rational, but earthly or physical intellect of man, incased in,-and bound by, matter, therefore subject to the in- fluence of the latter”; it is the “lower self, or that which manifesting through our organic system, acting on ‘this plane of illusion, imagines itself the Ego sum, and thus falls into what Buddhist philosophy brands as the ‘heresy of separateness’” It is the human _person- ality, from which proceeds “the psychic, 1.e., ‘ terrestrial wisdom’ at best, as it is influenced by all the chaotic stimuli of the human or rather animal passions of the living body.” (Lucifer, October, 1899, p. 179)
A clear understanding of the fact that Kama-Manas belongs to the human personality, that it functions in
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and through the physical brain, that it acts on the molecules of the brain, setting them into vibration, will very much facilitate the.comprehension by the student of the doctrine of reincarnation. That great subject will be dealt with in another volume of this series, and I do not propose to dwell upon it here, more than to remind the student to take careful note of the fact that the lower Manas is a ray from the immortal Thinker, illuminating a personality, and that all the functions which are brought into activity in the brain-conscious- ness are functions correlated to the particular brain, to the particular personality, in which they occur. The brain-molecules that are set vibrating are material organs in the man of flesh; they did not exist as brain-molecules before his conception, nor do they persist as brain- molecules after his disintegration. Their functional activity is limited by the limits of his personal life, the life of the body, the life of the transient personality.
Now the faculty of which we speak as memory on the physical plane depends on the response of these very brain-molecules to the impulse of the lower Manas, and there is no link between the brains of successive per- sonalities except through the higher Manas, that sends out its ray to inform and enlighten them successively. It follows, then, inevitably, that unless the consciousness of man can rise from the physical and kama-manasic planes to the plane of the higher Manas, no memory of one personality can reach over to another. The mem- ory of the personality belongs to the transitory part of man’s complex nature, and those only can recover the memory of their past lives who can raise their conscious- ness to the plane of the immortal Thinker, and can, so - to speak, travel in consciousness up and down the ray which is the bridge between the personal man that
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perishes and the immortal man that endures. If, while we are cased in the man of flesh, we can raise our con- sciousness along the ray that connects our lower with our true Self, and so reach the higher Manas, we find there stored in the memory of that eternal Ego the whole records of our past lives on earth, and we can_ bring back those records to our brain-memory by way of that same ray, through which we can climb upwards to our “Father.” But this is an achievement that belongs to a late stage of human evolution, and until this is reached the successive personalities informed by the manasic rays are separated from each other, and no memory bridges over the gulf between. The fact is obvious enough to any one who thinks the matter out, but as the difference between the personality and the immortal individuality is somewhat unfamiliar in the West, it may be well to remove a possible stumbling-block from the student’s path.
Now the lower Manas may do one of three things: It may rise towards its source, and by unremitting and strenuous efforts become one with its “ Father in heaven,” or the higher Manas—Manas uncontaminated with earthly elements, unsoiled and pure. Or it may partially aspire and partially tend downwards, as indeed is mostly the case with the average man. Or, saddest fate of all, it may become so clogged with the kamic elements as to become one with them, and be finally wrenched away from its parent and perish.
Before considering these three fates, there are a few more words to be said touching the activity of the lower Manas.
As the lower Manas frees itself from Kama, it be- comes the sovereign of the lower part of man, and mani- fests more and more of its true and essential nature.
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In Kama is desire, moved by bodily needs, and will, which is the outgoing energy of the Self in Manas, is often led captive by the turbulent physical impulses. But the lower Manas, ‘“‘ whenever it disconnects itself, for the time being, from Kama, becomes the guide of — the highest mental faculties, and is the organ of the free- will in physical man.” (Lucifer, October, 1890, p. 94) But the condition of this freedom is that Kama shall be subdued, shall lie prostrate beneath the feet of the con- queror ; if the maiden Will is to be set free, the manasic St. George must slay the kamic dragon that holds her captive ; for while Kama is unconquered, Desire will be master of Will.
Again, as the lower Manas frees itself from. Kama, it becomes more and more capable of transmitting to the human personality with which it is connected the im- pulses that reach it from its source. It is then, as we have seen, that genius flashes forth, the light from the higher Ego streaming through the lower Manas to the brain, and manifesting itself to the world. So also, as H. P. Blavatsky points out, such action may raise a man above the normal level of human power. ‘“ The higher Ego,” she says, ‘‘ cannot act directly on the body, as its consciousness belongs to quite another plane and planes of ideation; the lower self does; and its action and behaviour: depend on its free-will and choice as_ to whether it will gravitate more towards its parent (‘the ‘Father in heaven’) or the ‘animal’ which it informs, the man of. flesh. The higher Ego, as part of the essence of the Universal Mind, is unconditionally omni- scient on its own plane, and only potentially so in our ter- restrial sphere, as it has to act solely through its alter ego the personal self. Now . ... the former is the vehicle of all knowledge of the past, the present and the future,
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and .. . it is from this fountain-head that its ‘double ’ catches occasional glimpses of that which is beyond the senses of man, and transmits them to certain brain-cells (unknown to science in their functions), thus making of man a seey, a soothsayer and a prophet.” (Lucifer, Novem- ber, 1890, p. 179) This is the real seership, and on it a few words must be said presently. It is, naturally, extremely rare, and precious as it is rare. A ‘faint and distorted reflection” of it is found in what is called mediumship, and of this H. P. Blavatsky says: ‘“ Now what is a medium? The term medium, when not applied to things and objects, is supposed to be a person through whom the action of another person or being is either manifested or transmitted. Spiritualists, believing in communications with disembodied spirits, and that these can manifest through, or’ impress sensitives to transmit messages from them, regard mediumship as a blessing and a great privilege. We Theosophists, on the other hand, who do not believe in the ‘communion of spirits’ as Spiritualists do, regard'the gift as one of the most dangerous of abnormal nervous diseases. A medium is simply one in whose personal Ego, or terrestrial mind, the percentage of astral light so preponderates as to impregnate with it his whole physical constitution. Every organ and cell thereby is attuned, so to speak, and subject to an enormous and. abnormal tension.” (Lucifer, November, 1890, p. 183).
To return to the three fates spoken of above, any one of which may befall the lower Manas.
It may rise towards its source and become one with the Father in heaven. ‘This triumph can only be gained by » many “successive incarnations, all consciously directed “towards this end. As life succeeds life, the physical frame becomes more and more delicately attuned to
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vibrations responsive to the manasic impulses, so that gradually the manasic ray needs less and less of the coarser astral matter as its vehicle. “It is part of the mission of the manasic ray to get gradually rid of the blind deceptive element which, though it makes of it an actual spiritual entity on this plane, still brings it into so close contact with matter as to entirely becloud its divine nature and stultify its intuitions.” (Luctfer, November, 1890, p. 182). Life after life it rids itself of this “blind deceptive element,” until at last, master of Kama, and with body responsive to mind, the ray becomes one with its radiant source, the lower nature is wholly attuned to the higher, and the Adept stands forth complete, the “Father and the Son” having become one on all planes, as they have been always “ one in heaven.’ For him the wheel of incarnation is over, the cycle of necessity is trodden. Henceforth he can incarnate at will, to do any special service to mankind ; or he can dwell in the planes round earth without the physical body, helping in the further evolution of the globe and of the race.
It may partially aspwe and partially tend downwards. This is the normal experience of the average man. All life is a battlefield, and the battle rages in the lower manasic region, where Manas wrestles with Kama for empire over man. Anon aspiration conquers, the chains of sense are broken, and the lower Manas, with the radiance of its birth-place on it, soars upwards on strong wings, spurning the soil of earth. But, alas! too soon the pinions tire, they flag, they flutter, they cease to beat the air ; and downwards falls the royal bird whose true realm is that of the higher air, and he flutters heavily to the bog of earth once more, and Kama chains him down.
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When the period of incarnation is over, and the gateway of death closes the road of earthly life, what becomes of the lower Manas in the case we are con- sidering ?
Soon after the death of the physical body Kama-Manas is set free, and dwells for a while on the astral plane clothed with a body of astral matter. From this all of the manasic ray that is pure and unsoiled gradually disentangles itself, and, after a lengthy period spent on the lower levels of Devachan, it returns to its source, carrying with it such of its life-experiences as are of a nature fit for assimilation with the higher Ego. Manas thus again becomes one during the latter part of the period which intervenes between two incarnations. The manasic Ego, brooded over by Atma-Buddhi—the two highest principles in the human constitution, not yet considered by us—passes into the devachanic state of consciousness, resting from the weariness of the life- struggle through which it has passed. The experiences of the earth-life just closed are carried into the manasic consciousness by the lower ray withdrawn into its source. They make the devachanic state a continuation of the earth-life, shorn of its sorrows, a completion of the wishes and desires of earth-life, so far as those were pure
and noble. The poetic phrase that “the mind creates its own heaven” is truer than many may have imagined, for everywhere man is what he thinks, and in the deva- chanic state the mind is unfettered by the gross physical matter through which it works on the objective plane. The devachanic period is the time for the assimilation of life experiences, the regaining of equilibrium, ere a new journey is commenced. It is the day that succeeds the night of earth-life, the alternative of the objective manifestation. Periodicity is here, as-everywhere else
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in nature, ebb and flow, throb and rest, the rhythm of the Universal Life. This devachanic state of conscious-: ness lasts for a period of varying. length, proportioned. - to the stage reached in evolution, the Devachan of the average man being said to extend over some fifteen hundred years.
Meanwhile, that portion of the impure garment of he lower Manas which remains entangled with Kama gives to the desire-body a somewhat confused consciousness, a broken memory of the events of the life just closed. If the emotions and passions were strong and the manasic element weak during the period of incarnation, the desire- body will be strongly energized, and will persist in its activity for a considerable length of time after the death of the physical body. It will also show a considerable amount of consciousness, as much of the manasic ray will have been overpowered by the vigorous kamic ele- ments, and will have remained entangled in them. If, on the other hand, the earth-life just closed was characterized by mentality and purity rather than by ~ passion, the desire-body, being but poorly energized, will be a pale simulacrum of the person to whom it belonged, and will fade away, disintegrate and perish before any long period has elapsed.
The “spook” already mentioned (ante, pp. 20, 21) will now be understood. It may show very considerable intelligence, if: the manasic element be still largely present, and this will be the case with the desire-body of persons of strong animal nature and forcible though coarse intellect. For intelligence working in a very powerful kamic personality will be exceedingly strong and energetic, though not subtle or delicate, and the spook of such a person, still further vitalized by the magnetic currents of persons yet living in the’ body, may show
ais)
much intellectual ability of a low:type. But such a spook is conscienceless, devoid “of good impulses, tending towards disintegration,: and conrmunications with it can work for evil only, whether:;we regard them as prolonging its vitality by the currents which it sucks up from the bodies and kamic elements of the living, or as exhausting the vitality of these living persons and polluting them with astral connections of an altogether undesirable kind.
Nor should it be forgotten that, without attending séance-rooms at all, living persons may come into ob- jectionable contact with these kamic spooks. As already mentioned, they are attracted to places in which the animal part of man is chiefly catered for; drinking- houses, gambling saloons, brothels—all these places are full of the vilest magnetism;. are very whirlpools of magnetic currents of the foulest type. These attract the spooks magnetically, and they drift to such psychic maélstroms of all that is earthly and sensual. — Vivified by currents so congenial to their own, the desire-bodies become more active and potent; impregnated with the emanations of passions and desires which they can no longer physically satisfy, their magnetic currents reinforce the similar currents in the live persons, action and reaction continually going on, and the animal natures of the living become more potent and less controlled by the will as they are played on by these forces of the kamic world. Kama-loka (from loka, a place, and so the place for Kama) is a name often used to designate that plane of the astral world to which these spooks belong, and from this ray forth magnetic currents of poisonous character, as from a pest-house float out germs of disease which may take root and grow in the con- genial soil of some poorly vitalized physical body.