The Difference Between Psychic And Spiritual Influence

...is difference between psychic and spiritual influence.

Now I'm going to tell you why we chose this particular month for the talks on the psychic, physical, and spiritual planes actually also involving the various levels of astral planes. As you know for the past month we have been learning how to intone words of power How to start working with the group vehicle, which is ourselves Regularly in order to build up this energy which as you recall we told you Intensifies the healing power for both ourselves and for others whom we work for now of course, there's another element involved which we didn't speak about and And this one sometimes makes us a little uneasy because any use of occult forces, of occult techniques, which especially those that have to do with the power of sound, the power of the word, learning how to use these correctly not only increases the healing elements, the transmutational elements in the vehicle, but as these proceed, anyone who has even the slightest inclination towards psychism is going to have that psychic element stirred indeed as a matter of fact this has been considered one of the dangers on the path of return incidentally a danger which one can't avoid if you want to cross the street you're not going to get across the street unless you decide to take up the dangers of being a pedestrian especially in Los Angeles perhaps and especially in some areas of Los Angeles and you have you are going to have to brave these dangers using your intelligence your wisdom your discrimination your senses in order to make sure that you get across that street safely you get nowhere without some risk as you know and of course when you hear us say the risk of developing psychism you wonder risk especially those of you who perhaps have not got very much of a psychic vehicle because you may have heard many people who are psychic talk about their various psychic experiences and perhaps you've even seen the expressions on their faces that as though they felt that they have somehow reached some extraordinary level and you poor thing well you'll get there someday I'm sure we've all been exposed to that to some degree or other at times and so we get the idea that people who are psychic are spiritual and of course the truth is that being psychic has nothing to do with either being spiritual or not being spiritual you could be psychic and spiritual and you could be psychic and one of the most dangerously unevolved types that you can imagine because having a psychic vehicle or having psychic qualities or gifts as we heard from the reading some might be psychic in one way some in another you know you've heard of clairvoyance clairaudience there's clairsentience there's telekinesis there's there are dozens of different aspects of what we call a psychic awareness or psychic experience and indeed of being psychic was being spiritual I think we would all have to give our little traveling fellow creatures along the path of return the little animals far higher grades than we give ourselves because animals are extraordinarily psychic incidentally as are all primitive tribes they have the most extraordinary psychic awareness of each other which is just natural to them so you see being psychic has nothing to do with being spiritual and indeed having psychic powers has nothing to do with having spiritual powers because it might or might not go along that is the psychic aspect might or might not go along with what is spiritual now our eastern brethren and tell us that the psychism is the greatest drawback on the path of return.

Now why should this be considered so? We will try to explain it to you because as aspirants it is very very vital that we learn how to differentiate between psychic and spiritual within our own experience and to be able to evaluate what is psychic and what is spiritual in terms of other people's experiences or affect upon us or affect upon others. It is vital in the same way that it is vital that you know how to judge your safety for crossing the street in order not to get hit by some of the drivers who seem to have a subconscious need to see how many vehicles they can collect via the roads.

So consider the reasons that psychism has been considered at least by the eastern brethren a drawback on the path of return and incidentally the western mystery school tradition does not disagree with our eastern brethren really except that we know that it is inevitable that certain psychic awarenesses will open up in those who have psychic types of vehicles and because of this we do very much more to prepare the aspirants to understand and recognize these levels of experience within our own consciousness so that the psychism will not be a hindrance or at least will be so little of a hindrance if it is that we can almost disregard it and indeed it even becomes possible later on to make it an aid rather than a hindrance. It's a matter of learning how to discriminate and all evolution we must realize has to do with evolving our minds and hearts to a point where our minds and hearts are not only in union with the higher levels of being but our minds and hearts know all the gradations all the differentiations that exist on the lower plane in order to do things about it and in order to exist and live and control These what we call lower planes alone some ways you it would be better to say the outer planes of experience Now why then is it considered dangerous or at least a hindrance?

For this very reason the psychic and in astral planes of consciousness and experience, are permeated through and through with what we call the real world of illusion.

You've heard it said that the physical universe is a world of illusion. This is particularly referred to by our Eastern brethren, although Qabalah does not go along with that interpretation that way.

What our Western mystical school of thought says says is that the physical universe is an experience in consciousness due to the limitations of awareness which happen to be essential in order to be able, you might say, to become familiar with the details of consciousness itself. So that the physical universe is really a spiritual fact, even though we have a partial picture of the total when we experience things just on the physical plane alone. It's just like the eye can see within a certain range of vibration and above the range we have all the various other elements that are concerned with the ultraviolet spectrums and above and below the range that is in the rates of vibration we have the spectrums that involve the infrared and with these we We cannot see, though there are other creatures that possibly see it. It is now thought that the bee, for instance, definitely sees into either the ultraviolet or infrared spectrum.

I forget which. And this is one of the secrets of its being able to find its way about in ways that we can't. In other words, it looks out at a world that is different from ours, even though it lives in the same world with us. Now, are you going to say that the bee's world is an illusion? Or our world is an illusion that either one has to be an illusion no we have different sensory organs in order to experience a certain portion of the vast beingness of the one life and being in a physical body instantly makes it essential that we experience the universe in that way because it's like our consciousness becoming concentrated down in order to see and know through that field that electromagnetic field which acts in the body through our senses seeing hearing touching feeling etc and when we drop our physical bodies when we are said to die we still find a world that appears to us just as physical incidentally as this one does because every vibrational level has a reality for itself with the level that it's in. So the illusions or delusions that are said to exist on the physical plane and certainly they do, they exist mainly because we do not realize that we're seeing only a partial picture.

The children are skating along here, could you?

The illusions, the delusions come from the fact that we do not realize we're seeing only a partial picture and we try to interpret all of our lives, we try to interpret our friends, our relatives, our environment. We try to interpret everything in terms of that limited awareness. And this is why we are in a state of delusion. We're deluded because we have incorrectly interpreted the experience of the physical plane. And this is the real reason that the Eastern school of thought has called the physical universe an illusion. In actuality it isn't exactly that. It's our misinterpretation which deludes us. Now the astral plane, here is the point, actually could far more be called a plane of illusion than could the physical plane because this is involved very specifically in this manner. In Qabalah the actual astral world is assigned to the emanation of God which is called yesid and this incidentally is interpreted as being what the field of automatic consciousness which means what subconsciousness so that our subconsciousness in actuality could be called that part of the consciousness which is the astral body and we know that it's the subconsciousness incidentally that builds the body that Keeps the body nurse it beats the heart it makes us breathe It attends to every minute detail of physical incarnation Because it has what you call the image it has the thought form upon which it builds and this is true for all of us that that when we are said to die in actuality what we do is drop the physical body and Dropping the physical body. It's the astral body or the subconscious part of consciousness which resides in the astral world Therefore in actuality we're in the astral world now just as much as we'll be when we die we don't go anywhere you might say the consciousness unfocuses from the physical plane and refocuses on the astral plane pretty much like you go to a movie your consciousness is focused on the screen on the story then when the story is over your consciousness withdraws and goes on to a bigger world a much larger world before it was focused on a screen this is a very good analogy as to what happens when we die. However, here is the point. It's within this subconscious mind, therefore it's within that part of our substance which we can call our astral body, that we have the whole memory of stresses that go back not only through this life but through incarnations down to the beginning of our very evolution as an individuated part of God. Having these memories, remember, we also have all the ways that we have interpreted life and experience.

We have the hates, we have the hostilities, we have the bigotries, we have the nonsense, sense we have the all the misinterpretations of our experience because of us still being pretty unripe apples on the tree of life on the whole we have all these misinterpretations which are part of our memory uh body and the memory body is not in the physical part of our vehicle at all if you you say to me, well, what about the fact that if a person has a stroke or receives an injury, there's certain portions of the memory that become lost? Oh, this is a very simple answer. Suppose one of the keys breaks on the organ, or several of the keys break on that organ. Then even though the organist will put her finger on the key she will not get the music does that mean that she doesn't know where that key is or how to get the music certainly she knows but the instrument won't produce it and the physical vehicle being an instrument when any illness or accident occurs to a part of the instrument which is that portion should we say an analogous to plugging in to an outlet in order to be able to use a vacuum or an iron or a some kind of mechanical gadget you have a pretty fairly close analogy there that's why when we have a loss of memory due to an illness this doesn't at all prove that the memory resides in some cell or group of cells in the brain the The brain is the instrument through which the memory is expressed.

Consciousness is not physical. Consciousness uses the physical in and through which to evolve itself. And in so doing, by the way, it also evolves all those little members of the body that you heard from the reading today. It helps to evolve those smaller bits of consciousness that make up the total body. And in that way everything that we do when we are evolving ourselves we are automatically evolving lower levels and this is true of the higher levels of the hierarchy of consciousness as they evolve they automatically Utilize us and evolve us with them. In fact, the whole principle of the hierarchy of consciousness is based on this None of us do anything which affects only ourselves now then the dangers involved are due to this principle we've been explaining. Most human beings are still completely taken in by their past misinterpretations of life. Therefore, they look out at the world, whether it be the physical world or the astral world, they look out at the world through the special color of their ideas or their interpretations.

It isn't any different than, for example, if you're a Republican, you look out at the world through the color of a Republican and you see the Democrat in office as being full of nonsense and dangerous to the evolution of the country and the safety of the country. And if you are a Democrat, you look out into the world of life as a Democrat and you see the Republican in office as being a danger to the world and to the country and to the true ideals of individuality and freedom and so on. And each of you will feel it with just as much sincerity, with as much fervor, and of course come election time you'll lose friends often afterwards, thank God you'll get over it and you'll make friends again. But I mean this is how completely identified we become with our interpretations do you see the basic idea if we show it here then you start seeing it in other ways and in other realms now then taking this very principle and of course you know if you're a communist which would mean you're very foolish I think because I look out at the world with the idea that being a communist means one is very foolish indeed almost ready for a mental institution but you see the Communists think exactly the same of me so you see being a communist you look out at the world through that coloration whatever it is you are if you're a prohibitionist you can know what you think of somebody who takes a cocktail and so on colored colored colored everything is colored with what what we hold as being the right and the true.

Even those of us who are really kind, loving, and good. Basically, if we are colored by our convictions, and we are, then in those areas where we are deeply colored, we are going to be incapable of objective evaluation, aren't we? Although of course we are convinced that it's the other party, as you know. I mean, this is apparent. Now think then what happens in the astral plane since this part of our being incidentally, even though it's taking place here on the physical plane, is really happening in and through our astral body or our subconsciousness, you know. Because all our reactions come from the subconscious part of our vehicle, which is the receiver receiver of all the experience and thinking and original interpretation of what occurred.

On the astral plane, therefore, where the outer persona, the outer coat, you might say, of the persona, because on the astral you also have the persona, but the outer coat is taken off, these elements are much more intense. Tense. They carry much more livingness because they're not dulled by the various elements that are involved with physical plane vibrations. So the astral carries influences that are immersed in pure nonsense, in misinterpretation, in lack of proper evaluation and therefore any kind of communications, shall we say, that psychic people might receive from the astral plane, no matter how marvelous or beautiful it may sound, is always dangerous to accept as is because we never know how much of it is colored and usually most of it is colored. This is the reason it becomes very important to learn how to differentiate between the influences from the spiritual plane and the astral psychic plane because if we don't we are we become more and more are subject to being blown like the wind just as though we were a feather on the wind and the wind bloweth where it listeth and the psychic forces will continuously blow us where they list us because the psychic forces are not the well-organized, the highly concentrated energies which have to do with guiding evolution.

The psychic levels are really the place, the places where the different emotional mental attitudes are more or less absorbed and worked over. Now you see the thing that happens so often in occultism is that people get very intrigued with those who are psychic. And of course you've heard various mediums, some of them go into trance and some are mediumistic in other ways. There are are different types of mediumistic elements because somebody goes into trance and for instance gives a message saying you know all is good God is love instantly those who are in the vicinity who've gone to attend this meeting or say this group or this circle because the message is given in trance they They figure it's coming from a height beyond and therefore better than the physical plane. And because the message is all is good and God is love, they're sure that they have a spiritual influence.

The point is, this isn't so. This is where the dangers come in regarding psychism.

This is where we need to understand what really occurs. In order to safeguard ourselves from false influences. And inasmuch as really most occult aspirants have some degree of psychism in the vehicles, it becomes that much more important to understand what really happens on the physical plane, its reaction on the astral plane, on the spiritual plane, and what really happens from the psychic plane towards us so that we can stop being pushed around like robots with the thinking feeling processes of this astral plane now one of the things that happens to be involved here is the fact that on the astral level through subconsciousness in actuality all humanity is what you might call one being now this has nothing to do with taking away from your individuality a finger is a very individual member of a body and it has its function and your individuality as an eternal immortal being is not in any way affected by the fact that you are an aspect of a total being which we can call generic humanity now on the subconscious level of this generic humanity being of which we are part on this subconscious level we still have all the savageries we still have all the selfishnesses all the misinterpretations the hates and the bigotries and if you don't think that this is true just think what happens to the nicest kind of people when they get caught up in a certain spirit of what we call a lynch mob some of the nicest people get caught up in this energy you know and what is it it's a psychic energy they could get caught up in it and they act can act like beasts whereas individually they wouldn't dream of doing anything even remotely approaching that type of thing although on the other hand there are those who individually would certainly consider approaching the lynch mob activity you have different degrees and levels of course of consciousness but I'm only showing you that even someone who is relatively good and fine on the whole can get pulled into this energy and it is a psychic energy definitely a psychic energy and this and it's it's pushed like the tide pushes seaweed towards the shore this is what occurs when there's anything at all left in our own subconsciousness that can be influenced this is why in our work and in all true occult esoteric schools of training incidentally the primary work is transmutation of the personality transmutation of that subconscious level learning how to recognize all the subtleties all the little things that are that we might look at and think it isn't too serious but it could be if it became that part which made us able to plug in to an energy that would pull us down rather than up but that's just one aspect of it the aspect of illusion and delusion the grandeur the self-grandeur needs this for an occult aspirant is in some ways even more dangerous why because although I wish I could say that practically all occult aspirants have developed spiritual humility by now.

This isn't true. Spiritual humility is something that does not come as readily as we think. And those who think they have spiritual humility, if you watch them or if you think you have it and just watch yourself, you'll notice there are times you're awfully proud of your spiritual humility. And what does that tell you you see I mean these are the subtleties that we start watching for as aspirants now why is this important well here's what happens with contacts in the psychic realm where you have to do with mediums or psychics of various kinds there is the tendency to flatter usually someone who goes to such a psychic or medium if not at the beginning at least within a few visits this person will be told that he's under the care and guidance of a very high teacher that he's really a very highly evolved soul he or she. Thank you.

And when Jesus said suffer the little children to come unto me maybe this was literally meant do you think?

Laughter is very important in spiritual aspiration or we would really lose our ways you know so the spiritual humility you see this idea this need to be something rather big or special practically everyone has it you know I wonder if there's anyone here I doubt it who hasn't at some time or other daydreamed you know how a child daydreams and haven't you daydreamed at times about having arrived at such high spiritual estate that people came to you looking up to you in awe and wonder and reaching to you for help and you with magnanimous spiritual love spread out the idea let's smile at it that's all right that's part of aspiration I mean we're not jumping on it we're not saying stop it it's evil or anything like that it's self-understanding which is a protection and helps us to understand the difference between the spiritual and the psychic we're trying to show you where little dangers lie which could be the traps for us when certain psychic experiences come to us or where we might receive messages from somebody or other from psychic levels only as we understand ourselves can we safeguard ourselves and this we've really attained a great deal when we are even remotely aware of these tendencies in our hearts incidentally so the this tendency you see is worked upon so that from psychic levels usually messages will come saying and sometimes it will come to the person individually or through another individual psychic saying you are a very highly evolved soul you have achieved a place where you are going to be or are already under the care and guidance of mahatma or mahatma whatever the case may be you know on level 12 stage 9 of cloud 15 and you know you have attained this for all these various reasons and so of course this makes us feel important are we've at last we recognize we have attention from somebody hi this is spiritual you see so this makes us feel very good and then we also have the the situation where we are told, oh, you know, in a lot previous incarnation you were something pretty magnificent. Dr. Case knew seven Cleopatras, you know. And of course that says what? That these individuals had a very pathetic and poignant need to be irresistible to the opposite sex. And of course what they needed to do, if this is what they wanted, was develop their love nature instead of dream about the conquest when they were Cleopatra it would have been a little more practical anyway so you see the messages sometimes very subtly and sometimes very unsubtly whether we get them through our own psychic elements or through another's usually have a tendency to strengthen our weaknesses rather than to weaken our weaknesses and strengthen our spiritual qualities. Usually the tendency is for the aspirant to start becoming dependent on, shall we say, the guidance with a capital G of these high spiritual beings. You know how many high spiritual beings have contacted mentally through saucers various individuals according to claim and they proceed to give this vast and marvelous message proving that they're spiritual like all men are brothers and of course if they feel the sexes are equal maybe they'll also say and all women are sisters or maybe all men and women are sisters and brothers and people say oh isn't it marvelous they say well we're here to protect you from destroying yourselves or something like that isn't it wonderful we're taken care of and instantly people accept these things whereas Again, most people who are receiving or think they are receiving such messages, incidentally, they are either self-deluded, it is their need to feel important and highly evolved and spiritual, or they are being deceived by a discarnate entity.

And incidentally, the deception from discarnates towards those who are psychic is fantastic. But I'm going to take that up in great detail in some of our other talks and give you examples of what has occurred both examples within my own immediate knowledge and examples that I know of from those whom I trust completely and also that which has been scientifically verified so that you through examples you will see exactly how subtle some of these dangers are and how easy it is to overlook the fact that we are being influenced by various psychic types of energy. Therefore being influenced from psychic levels really has to do with number one being influenced by that which goes on in the mass mind of humanity which all of us are subject to. We cannot help it. We're part of each other. The important thing is to become aware of it so that we can raise the vibration of our own particular consciousness.

This incidentally what this work is all about a very a very major portion of it this intoning the words of power they're doing the various works that have to do with color and sound that we are starting to work out together here as a group in this group vehicle so that we can start developing these awarenesses as a result of the intensification that we're working with week by week it's the regular drop of that water on the stone remember it's going to bring it to us some sooner some later but all benefiting inevitably from this particular type of work now the understanding then of these psychic influences and really what levels are involved helps us to avoid being pulled down into this ocean you might say like being drowned and when we get pulled down and drowned really we're giving up that much of our own individuality the thing to remember basically is this in the spiritual projective elements from the spiritual levels the energies which you receive will never try to interfere in any way shape or form with your right to do the wrong thing this may surprise you but you'd be surprised at what a spiritual statement has been made at this point and can't you see why suppose every time a baby was going to fall mama rushed up and held it up would you ever have a child that could run and walk and climb no we have we are evolving our own consciousness and this true spiritual level of life never interferes with our personal experience in any kind it never says you must do this you must follow this you must not do the other it never in any way shape or form will do this whereas as on the psychic levels you're forever having these buddhinskis so because nobody would listen to them on the physical plane they couldn't be important here and bored everyone to death over here now suddenly they have a way of really getting attention and you know how everybody wants attention you just go out to a party and watch just look at the face of anybody that suddenly gets it all of us no matter how spiritual or unspiritual we are we all want attention it depends on what level we're using it and how wisely and lovingly we're working at getting it or not getting it that's really the difference because we all have a love nature that demands some kind of expression naturally attention is part of it but you see these astrals on the psychic planes and not having had an audience they can they start spouting all sorts sorts of things. They start giving all kinds of instructions and you know how people love to tell other people what to do, a good portion of them. Imagine what fulfillment these entities start getting when they get a bunch of very immature souls listening breathlessly to every word and going to bed at a certain time, getting up at a certain time. They get advice as to what to invest. No matter how many mistakes are made, they still go at it because always ways the entities on the other side can say to them well you didn't have enough faith or something like that and that covers the whole question and so they throw it right back at the individual now in essence spiritual energies have to do with developing your love nature spiritual energies are never self centered and selfish spiritual energies leave you free and they never come to do a thing for you until you reach for them and they certainly do things when you reach for them I remember there was one time because this was the most dramatic instance I think for me of that experience I was just about to do something that would have made a major change in my entire life. As a matter of fact, I just had a very lovely and intense argument with Dr. Case and very haughtily and huffily said, very well, if I'm not appreciated, I leave. And I was about to leave. And then suddenly I remembered that I had made an oath to myself that I would never take any major a step in anything without reaching up to the divine will and being willing for the divine will to act having done that I would have then proceeded in whatever I thought was my best judgment so I reached up to the divine will and what happened is really sounds unbelievable but it did I actually was lifted up from the floor levitated about two feet across the whole room through a doorway my head just brushed the top of the doorway to where Dr. Case was and found myself apologizing most emotionally and promising that I would never leave BOTA or stop helping him for the rest of his life and certainly it didn't come from my conscious mind nor did it come from many psychic level because that there was that whole permeation of the rapture and the ecstasy of the spiritual plane and it was that reaching to the divine will of course that's a dramatic instance but it's nice for us to share a dramatic instance when we have it with each other I think it helps our faith on the whole this energy will often come most undramatically now spiritual influence can come incidentally from a person on the physical plane from a being on the astral or psychic plane or from a being or on the spiritual plane actually this is the point it isn't that only illusion and delusion come from the psychic plane sometimes something very real and true comes the point is we have to be on guard and recognize that where the vehicle is psychic we should be more willing to put away on the shelf anything that comes not take action unless we know that there's a verification from the deeper part of the spiritual soul for example if I reach up to the higher self and to god and from that level pour love to you this is energy from the spiritual plane even though it's coming in through both my psychic astral and physical vehicles and And if somebody is kind to you or loving to you in all the various ways that someone can be, this is a spiritual act in and through a physically oriented being.

And again, on the astral psychic plane, you might have relatives or friends who love you very dearly, who in time of need will suddenly bring you an influx of strength, of love, of help.

But incidentally they'd never interfere with your life anytime you have any interference it isn't anything benefic or highly evolved that's reaching you and of course from the spiritual level of consciousness we have no problem there at all because we know when we're receiving from that level that we're receiving that which is always for the good of all it always takes in the greatest benefit for the greatest number it always takes in the the evolution of humanity when we need answers to serious problems when we receive them from the spiritual plane incidentally it is always a principle that we receive not a specific thing do this or do that when we are told specifically well you do this and do that that is not from the spiritual plane just like if you give each other advice and say well now if I were you I wouldn't go and sell that house or or a car at this point the price is going down why don't you hold it and sell it such and such you might be giving good advice but that's not coming from the spiritual plane and it might and it might be good advice to follow even I mean it might be practical the thing I'm trying to point out is that when you are receiving help from the spiritual plane in your problems the thing you'll discover is that you become aware of prince the principle that's behind your problem so that ever after whatever problem comes in that range or area you will be able to use the same principle and solve the problem from then on.

Our time now is growing short. There's so much more I wanted to say about that, but we're going to be bringing in the same subject next Sunday morning when we talk about physical, astral, and spiritual plane telepathy. It will really be a continuation of what we've been talking about this morning. And I will give you examples of what occurs on each level and between the levels at that time and then show you again how to recognize the wheat from the chaff. So remember because we are doing this work together now it's very important that we come to clearly differentiate between these different levels so we can have judgment and so that we don't get pulled in to problems that we can avoid by letting the psychic level take us over, whereas we're working to hang on to the spiritual level. If any of you have certain psychic stirrings that come on as a result of the work we're doing here each Sunday morning and or the Thursday night or Monday afternoon classes and you are not sure what it indicates, it would be best to get in touch with us and ask for a little help in understanding it.

That will be your safeguard.