“In her flights to far-off worlds, Urusvati sensed their differences. It may seem strange that in spite of their foundation of Oneness there are so many differences, even in manifestations that seem to resemble earthly conditions. In addition, the inner atmosphere of those worlds is wondrous! The colors at times may remind one of earthly colors, but their substance is entirely different… Blessed are those who, while in the gross body, are already prepared to accept the manifoldness of the worlds. Do not think that such acceptance comes easily, for one must be spiritually experienced to be able to accept Reality. The word “accept” signifies the very essence of evolution. There are even cultured and educated people who cannot comprehend the many and varied worlds, and therefore do not have access to the Subtle World. Subtle feelings can never be forced.
Whoever rejects the idea of the Subtle World is preparing a miserable abode for himself. One must cultivate a broad expansion of ideas, for without it one cannot hope to have flights in the subtle body. A timid subtle body, even if it succeeds in leaving the physical body, will be terrified and will remain motionless”… (Supermundane I § 113 – Agni Yoga Series)
We defined, in previous articles, the world of Ideas as a sphere of action in which to find satisfaction in that longing for the Truth, inherent in every man, even when unaware, affirming that it is the “world of the soul and higher mind”.
It is worth reflecting on such a definition.
One of the difficulties of the researcher in the field of esoteric knowledge is to recognise the levels, or planes, of consciousness to which reference is being made. As a matter of fact, the reading of occult Instructions often turns out to be for the aspirant a source of contradictions, and this is due to the non-awareness of the planes taken into consideration, since his knowledge is probably still of a theoretical type; perhaps he is working to make it discriminative, but evidently he has not yet reached that intuitive knowledge that allows direct access to the world of Ideas.
It’s been said that “theoretical knowledge includes all knowledge of which man is aware but which is accepted by him on the statements of other people, and by the specialists in the various branches of knowledge. It is founded on authoritative statements and has in it the element of trust in the writers and speakers, and in the trained intelligences of the workers in any of the many and varied fields of thought. The truths accepted as such have not been formulated or verified by the one who accepts them, lacking as he does the necessary training and equipment. […]
Then, secondly, we have discriminative knowledge, which has in it a selective quality and which posits the intelligent appreciation and practical application of the more specifically scientific method, and the utilisation of test, the elimination of that which cannot be proved, and the isolation of those factors which will bear investigation and are in conformity with what is understood as law. […] The scientific method is, in relation to the mind of humanity, playing the same function as the occult method of meditation (in its first two stages of concentration and prolonged concentration or meditation) plays in relation to the individual. Through it right processes of thought are engendered, non-essentials and incorrect formulations of truth are ultimately eliminated or corrected, and the steady focussing of the attention either upon a seed thought, a scientific problem, a philosophy or a world situation results in an ultimate clarifying and the steady seeping in of right ideas and sound conclusions.
[…] the intuitive knowledge is in reality only the appreciation by the mind of some factor in creation, some law of manifestation and some aspect of truth, known by the soul, emanating from the world of ideas, and being of the nature of those energies which produce all that is known and seen. […] The intuition which guides all advanced thinkers into the newer fields of learning is but the forerunner of that omniscience which characterises the soul. The truth about all things exists, and we call it omniscience, infallibility, the “correct knowledge” of the Hindu philosophy. When man grasps a fragment of it and absorbs it into the racial consciousness we call it the formulation of a law, a discovery of one or other of nature’s processes. Hitherto this has been a slow and piecemeal undertaking. Later, and before so very long, light will pour in, truth will be revealed and the race will enter upon its heritage — the heritage of the soul”. (A. A. Bailey – A Treatise on White Magic, pp. 14-16)
The gaze that penetrates different planes, like glossy sheets, and does not take into account the different quality of vibration of each plane, misleads the researcher who uses sensory instruments not yet calibrated for the plane he investigates. One could say: each plane has its own instrument. Thus if the individual, in order to discern, spontaneously uses the sense of taste on the physical plane, he will have to use the imagination to approach the astral plane, and discrimination for the mental one, but only intuition will make him reliable as an explorer of the buddhic plane ( we have already mentioned the different aspects of the five senses on the five planes: physical, astral, mental, buddhic, atmic).
Hence the necessity to distinguish between the various degrees of “distortion of reality” that manifestation produces, precisely because of the need that the entity has to change the degree of vibration, in order to make itself tangible on the relative level. Then the Great Illusion, depending on the plane on which it manifests itself, is differentiated by the Teaching with the terms: maya, glamour, illusion and Dweller on the Threshold.
It will then be useful to study how the distortion of an idea occurs, in its descent from the buddhic to the physical plane.
“Illusion, for our purposes, can be understood to signify the reaction of the undisciplined mind to the newly contacted world of ideas. This contact opens up from the moment a man has aligned himself and brought the lower nature into touch with the higher. Ideas come to us from the plane of the intuition. The soul illumines the plane of the mind and the plane of the intuition so that they stand revealed to each other and their mutual relationship becomes then apparent. The mind of the man (which is slowly becoming the centre of his consciousness and the major reality in his existence) becomes aware of this new and undiscovered world of ideas and he seizes upon some idea or group of ideas and endeavours to make them his own. At first, with the majority of people and especially with the average mystical type, the appreciation of ideas is vague and nebulous, and frequently is arrived at from a second-hand angle. The illumination, coming through the medium of the feebly established soul contact, seems to the unaccustomed neophyte to be of a supreme wonder and of vital moment. The ideas contacted appear to him of great marvel, and superbly unusual, and vitally needed by humanity.
But the mind is still self-centred, the contact feeble and the alignment uncertain. The ideas are therefore only dimly sensed. But the uniqueness of the experience in the realised content of the mind of the disciple leads him deep into the realm of illusion. The idea, or ideas, which he has contacted are, if he could realise, only a fragment of a far greater Whole. That which he brings to their interpretation is inadequate. The idea which has emerged in his consciousness, through the partial awakening of his intuition, will be distorted in its descent to his brain consciousness in several ways. That which he brings to the materialising of the idea and to its transformation into a practical working scheme is as yet wholly unsuitable. The equipment does not suffice for accuracy. The ways in which this distortion and this stepping down of the idea take place might be outlined for you as follows:—The passage of an idea from the plane of the intuition to the brain.
I. The idea is seen by the mind, “held steady in the light of the soul.”
II. It descends to the higher levels of the mental plane and there clothes itself with the substance of those levels. It remains still an abstraction, from the angle of the lower mind. This point should be carefully noted by the would-be intuitive.
III. The soul throws its light upward and outward, and the idea, nebulous and faint, emerges into the consciousness of the man. It stands revealed, much as an object stands revealed when the bright beam of a powerful searchlight is thrown upon it. The mind, endeavouring to remain in constant steady conscious contact with the soul, seeing into the higher world through the medium of the “soul’s wide-opened eye,” registers the idea with increasing clarity.
IV. The idea, revealed, becomes then an ideal to the attentive mind and eventually something to be desired and materialised. The thoughtform-making faculty of the mind then comes into play; the “mind-stuff” becomes actuated by the energy of the idea, vitalised by the recognition of the soul, and the idea then takes its first real step towards embodiment. An ideal is only an embodied idea.
These are the first steps towards materialisation. Embodiment becomes possible. Thus illusion is produced.
V. Distortion now sets in. This is brought about by various causes. These might be enumerated as follows:
1. The ray type of the ego colours the man’s interpretation of the idea. It colours the emerging thoughtform. Symbolically speaking, the pure light is changed into coloured light. The idea is then “clothed with colour, and thereby the first veil descends.”
2. The point in evolution which the man has reached has also its effect, plus the quality of the integration existing between the three aspects of the personality, and the alignment established between soul-mind-brain. This, being necessarily imperfect, produces indefiniteness of outline and consequently of the final form. Therefore we have:
a. Imperfect integration of the personality.
b. Indefiniteness of the proposed thoughtform.
c. The wrong material consequently attracted for the building of the thoughtform.
d. A shifting focus of attention, owing to the dimness of the seen ideal.
e. The rapport of the mind, with the sensed idea, is not stable.
3. The quality of the development of the mental body of the disciple produces the next “veiling” of the idea, as it is called. The idea has become changed through the ray colouring of the soul, and now a still more distorting change is brought about by the ray type of the mental body itself, which may be, and usually is, different to that of the soul ray.
These are the second steps towards materialisation. The form of the embodiment is qualified. Thus illusion is produced.
VI. This illusion demonstrates in seven ways usually:
1. Through wrong perception of an idea…
2. Through wrong interpretation...
3. Through wrong appropriation of ideas…
4. Through wrong direction of ideas…
5. Through wrong integration of an idea…
6. Through wrong embodiment of ideas…
7. Through wrong application of ideas...”
(A. A. Bailey – Glamour: a World Problem, pp. 54/57)
The element that must be considered as a medium for these processes to take place is ether, “generic term covering the ocean of energies which are all inter-related and which constitute that one synthetic energy body of our planet. Occultly speaking, this is the modern way of expressing “the waters of space”, which are the waters of desire, in which we are immersed. [A Treatise on White Magic, 275]. When the Biblical words are used: “In Him we live and move and have our being,” we have the statement of a fundamental law in nature and the enunciated basis of the fact which we cover by the rather meaningless word: Omnipresence. Omnipresence has its basis in the substance of the universe, and in what the scientists call the ether.
[…] The etheric or energy body, therefore, of every human being is an integral part of the etheric body of the planet itself and consequently of the solar system. Through this medium, every human being is basically related to every other expression of the Divine Life, minute or great.
[…] In union is strength. This is the second law governing telepathic communication.
The first law is:
1. The power to communicate is to be found in the very nature of substance itself. It lies potentially within the ether, and the significance of telepathy is to be found in the word omnipresence.
The second law is:
2. The interplay of many minds produces a unity of thought which is powerful enough to be recognised by the brain.
Here we have a law governing a subjective activity and another law governing objective manifestation. Let us voice these laws in the simplest manner possible. When each member of the group can function in his mind-consciousness, untrammelled by the brain or the emotional nature, he will discover the universality of the mental principle which is the first exoteric expression of the soul consciousness. He will then enter into the world of ideas, becoming aware of them through the sensitive receiving plate of the mind. He then seeks to find those who respond to the same type of ideas and who react to the same mental impulse, simultaneously with himself. Uniting himself to them he discovers himself to be en rapport with them.
The understanding of the first law produces results in the mind or mental body. The understanding of the second law produces results in a lesser receiving station, the brain. This is possible through the strengthening of a man’s own mental reaction by the mental reaction of others, similarly receptive. It will be found therefore that this process of communication, governed by these two laws, has always been in operation among the adepts, the initiates and the senior disciples who are in physical plane bodies. Now the operation of this process is to be extended and steadily developed by the emerging group of mystics and world servers who constitute, in embryo, the world Saviour”.
(A. A. Bailey – Telepathy and the Etheric Vehicle, pp. 1/6)
In the second volume of the Treatise on the Seven Rays, where the Tibetan explains the experimental nature of groups in relation to the Law of Group Progress, which will have to be increasingly perceived by the disciples of the world and which will determine the work of world groups, he particularly emphasises that “they are an experiment in founding or starting focal points in the human family through which certain energies can flow out into the entire race of men […] and “in inaugurating certain new techniques in work and in modes of communication.
[…] Some groups of energy communicators and transmitters will carry illumination between groups of thinkers. They are illuminators of group thoughts. They transmit energy from one thought centre to another. They transmit, above everything else, the energy of ideas. That is their major function.
The world of ideas is a world of dynamic force centres. This should not be forgotten. These ideas have to be contacted and noted. Their energy has to be assimilated and transmitted and this is the function of those force centres which will express themselves along these lines of activity”.
(A. A. Bailey – Esoteric Psychology II, pp. 189/192)
“That a situation is without solution is only imagined by those who would rely on other people rather than upon the power of their own thought. Grief experienced by others flows like the ripples of a stream; but the images of Truth, which you call ideas, rule the karma of the world. It is astonishing to see how images of Truth participate in the spatial battle. While the multitudes disintegrate in a blind fury of ignorance and betrayal, the thoughts of Truth weave their heavenly nests, which for real evolution are far more vital than any worship by entire nations.
You understand both the work of reality and the work of Maya. Spatial thought is reality, while what people generally pay attention to is Maya.
Bear in mind that each of Us could grieve over the low level of those on Earth; but this would have no effect on the evolutionary plan because it is thought that creates. Images of Truth provide to each body, whether it be evolving or disintegrating, new possibilities for flight to higher spheres. Each Teacher of life bases His power only upon images of Truth, and creates the future by His thought, not by the consciousness of the crowd…” (Agni Yoga § 122 – Agni Yoga Series)
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This article is published on the occasion of the heliocentric conjunction between Venus and Neptune: the intelligent and loving Communion. For the esoteric Teaching, Venus and Neptune are respectively the Principles and Solar Beings of the 5th and 6th Rays, responsible for the Construction of Form through the Mind moved by Love and for the reunification of the many in the name of the One, the return to the common essence.
