My Library

CHAPTER VI THE STUDY OF DISCARNATE LIFE AND SOME COMMUNICATIONS Investigations into the conditions of discarnate existence may be made by means of clairvoyance and clairaudience. Clairvoyance enables the student to see the people and places, the scenery and non-human inhabitants of the emotional world to which man passes after death. Clairaudience permits him to receive information from such discarnate beings as, after careful scrutiny, he feels able to trust. Such investigations may be made whilst in the body, and in full possession of the physical faculties; there is no need whatever for mediumship, conditions of trance or sleep. In fact, the student of occultism is most seriously warned against any methods which demand the cessation of full consciousness and intellectual awareness in order to obtain contact with the unseen. The medium, on the other hand, is entirely at the mercy of such intelligences as he permits to make use of his body. He is quite unable to scrutinize his unseen visitors, or to apply the reasoning mind to the communications which he receives whilst in a state of trance. The after-death world contains many types of beings at all stages of development. There are discarnate as well as incarnate tramps, thieves, robbers and cut-throats. Hosts of nature-spirits live there, and some of them are full of mischief. They delight to deceive the unwary by playing the parts of discarnate humans. They derive great amusement from the blind acceptance which their efforts at mimicry and play-acting frequently obtain. If the pitfalls which beset those who pursue such methods are to be avoided, one must develop the power of examining both the conditions and the people of the emotional world with the same detachment and impartiality as that with which an explorer surveys a new country or a scientist examines a botanical or anatomical specimen.