PART VI.

THE CREATION OF ENVIRONMENT — THE GENESIS OF MENTAL AND PHYSICAL DISABILITIES
IT IS a fact evident from the merest superficial ob- servation that while animals act alike under like circumstances, because they are guided by a group spirit, the human being does not. In humanity there are as many species as there are individuals, each one being a law unto himself ; and we can never pre- dict from the actions of one, how another will act tinder similar circumstances; even the same individ- ual may act differently, and probably will, under similar circumstances at different times. On that account it is difficult to handle or properly elucidate a subject like "The Web of Destiny," when we are only equipped with minds of such small capacity as human beings have at present. To fully understand this subject would require the wisdom of such great beings as the Recording Angels, who have charge of this intricate department of life.
It must not, therefore, be thought that the writer is giving in this book more than a very superficial
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view of how destiny is made and unmade. Each act of each individual calls forth in the universe a cer- tain vibration which spends itself, reacting upon him and others in his environment; and no mere human mind could either watch or tabulate the results of these actions and reactions in a few short months, years, or lives. But we have sought from the gen- eral picture impressed upon our mind by the study of our subject, to classify the causes engendered in the past as they appear to us, and their effect in pres- ent lives. Several hundred persons have been inves- tigated in the course of this study, and in some cases we have gone back for three, four, or even more lives in order to get at the root of the matter and to deter- mine how the actions in the past react to make condi- tions in present lives. But although we have thus done our very best under the circumstances, students are particularly requested not to regard this as any authoritative conclusion in the matter, but rather as a fingerpost which, we hope, may help to solve cer- tain problems.
As regards environment, it would seem that people who are of a particularly difficult nature to get along with and who have a hard life before them, are often born among strangers where they will not receive any sympathy and where their sufferings will not create upon their next of kin according to the flesh any ap-
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preciable sympathetic impression; or else they are orphaned, or deserted by their parents, or they run away from home at an early age. Where this is the case, the soul often hungers for a sympathy which it had neglected to give to others in previous lives. We have also found cases where certain people committed the most atrocious outrages in the past and brought shame and dishonor upon their nearest kin, who suf- fered deeply because they loved the miscreant. And in the life where this erring soul was to atone for past misdeeds, it would find itself in an altogether unsym- pathetic environment, hungering and thirsting for the love that it had despised in a previous life; thus its lot was made all the harder. If the man did not learn the lesson in one life, several lives of similar experi- ence would teach him to be sympathetic to those who loved him, as well as to do honestly and rightly by others.
It was also found that often a soul had gone wrong in past lives because of a lack of kindly influence on the part of those who composed his immediate family, and who should have given to him their loyalty, sup- port, and love. The lack of this sympathetic environ- ment did not, of course, excuse his misdeeds in the eyes of the law, and he was forced in later lives to expiate the misdeeds of the past. But in such cases the tables were usually reversed; the family, which
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in past lives had been indifferent to Mm, would now dote upon him and thus would feel keenly whatever sorrow and suffering he must go through on account of his past. Thus they expiated their part in making him what he was because of their lack of sympathy and kindness.
These are extreme cases ; but, naturally, one cannot draw a definite lesson from cases not clearly marked ; the more bluntly events stand out, the easier it is to tabulate them. The law which holds good in extreme cases would also hold good in lesser cases, with modi- fications in proper degree to cover choice of environ- ment.
The foregoing facts show us clearly that we are truly our brother's keeper, and that it behooves every one of us to show all the sympathy and kindness we possibly can to those who are in misfortune, either in or out of our families. For though upon the face of things and looking at life from the viewpoint of our present embodiment alone, we may not seem to have any responsibility for the condition of a scapegrace relative ; nevertheless if we could view the larger life, if we could see behind the veil, probably we should find that we ourselves had helped him to sink into degradation.
We frequently hear the expression that such and such a person is the "odd one" in a certain family; and we may nearly always take it that the poor soul
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so designated is a stranger among strange people, hav- ing to stay there for this life! on account of some mis- deeds in the past. " Blood is thicker than water," says an old proverb; but as a matter of fact, the tie of blood is of no consequence unless the spirits in a family are bound to one another by love or hate of the past, which determines their real relationship in the present life. A soul may be clothed in the flesh of a certain family, it may sit at their board and have a legal right to a part of their estate, while still it is as much a stranger to them as a passing tramp who begs a meal at their kitchen door. Do you remember that the Christ said, "I was hungry and ye fed me, I was thirsty and ye gave me to drink, I was a stranger and ye took me in." And then, " Inasmuch as ye have done this to one of the least of these, ye have done it unto me." When we find such a soul, one that is "odd," lonely, and strange in its environment, it should be our endeavor as Christians to emulate the example set forth by our Lord; we should en- deavor to make such a strange soul at home/ and cul- tivate its acquaintance for Christ's sake, regardless of its supposed oddities.
The disabilities which affect humanity may be di- vided into two large classes; mental and physical. The mental troubles are particularly traceable to the abuse of the creative function, when they are con- genital, with one exception which we shall note later.
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The same holds true in case of impairment of the fac- ulty of speech. This is reasonable and easy to under- stand. The brain and the larynx were built with half of the creative force by the Angels, so that man who, prior to the acquisition of these organs, was bi-sexual and able to create from himself alone, lost that fac- ulty when these organs were created and is now de- pendent upon the co-operation of another of opposite polarity or sex in order to generate a new vehicle for an incoming spirit.
When we use the spiritual sight to look at man in the Memory of Nature during the time when he was yet in the making, we find that wherever there is now a nerve, there was first a desire current ; that the brain itself was made of desire substance in the first place and also the larynx. It was desire that first sent a motive impulse through the brain and created these nerve currents, that the body might be moved and obtain for the spirit whatever gratification was indi- cated by desire. Speech, also, is used for the purpose of obtaining a desired object or end. Through these faculties man has obtained a certain mastery over the world, and if he could just flit from one! body to an- other, there would be no end to his abuse of his power for gratifying every whim and desire. But under the law of consequence he takes with him into a new body, faculties and organs similar to those which he left behind in the one preceding.
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When passion has wrecked the body in one life, it is stamped upon the seed atom. In the next descent to rebirth it is therefore impossible for him to gather sound material with which to build a brain of stable construction. He is then usually born under one of the common signs, and usually, also; the four common signs are on the angles; for through these signs pas- sionate desire finds it difficult to express itself. Thus the powerful impulse which formerly ruled in his brain and which might be used for the purpose of rejuvenescence is absent; he lacks incentive in life and therefore he becomes helpless — a log upon the ocean of life — often insane.
But the spirit is not insane ; it sees, knows, and has a keen desire to use the body, though that be an im- possibility, for often it cannot even send a correct impulse along the nerves. The muscles of face and body are therefore not under the control of its will. This accounts for the lack of co-ordination which makes the maniac such a pitiable sight. And thus the spirit learns one of the hardest lessons in life, namely, that it is worse than death to be tied to a living body and unable to find expression through it because the desire force necessary to accomplish thought, speech, and motion has been spent in unrighteous living in a previous life and left the spirit without the necessary energy to operate its present fleshly instrument.
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