The Difference Astral And Mystical Awareness

This morning is the difference between astral and mystical awareness.

Now, this month we have been trying to give you some understanding of the various differences between psychic, astral, telepathic, and spiritual states of being. However taking up the difference between astral and mystical awareness this morning really is perhaps the most important subject that there is in occultism believe it or not because in actuality a vast majority of mystical and occult aspirants are caught up in what we might call an illusion a delusion a snare and the reason they are caught up in this illusion delusion and snare is because they have not learned how to differentiate between astral or psychic we can call it either one uh consciousness and mystical consciousness they have not learned therefore how to discriminate between that which is really for their own spiritual benefit and that which acts as a lead weight holding them back though it seems to be helping them on as you've heard us say before our eastern brethren are known to say that that psychism is the greatest hindrance on the path.

Well, we do not really agree that it is the greatest hindrance on the path, that is, those of us who are in the mystery school training tradition, because we feel that there is more involved than this. But certainly we do agree that it is one of the most important of aspects in a cultism which it is needed for us to understand and in order for us to understand exactly why our Eastern brethren think so and why they are up to a point quite correct incidentally we just think they're a little extreme that's all, not that they're incorrect. The reason that we are in agreement more or less with at least the basic idea is because we happen to know from our own study of the paths of return, from our own perception therefore and understanding of the different vehicles which we have, from our Recognition of what it is that manifests on the physical plane which really means consciousness focused on a vibrational Level which we experience as physical Because we know all that goes up or all that goes to make up These particular elements we also realize how easy it is to be deluded and therefore to to continue in the illusions and delusions which keep us bound to unreality.

In one way, we might say, what is the essence of liberation? And we might answer, the essence of liberation is being in complete contact with reality, capital R. I don't think you would agree, I don't think you would disagree with that, now would you? The essence of liberation why do you think that the highest mystical experience is called the illumination for example illumination certainly has something to do with a certain radiance that emanates from those who are channels because they can at least contact at times those highest levels but illumination also has to do with what it has to do with seeing if a room is dark you see nothing you turn on the right light and it's illuminated and when it's illuminated you see what is in the room you know it you experience it you're not deluded if you bump into something you don't think it is something else uh you know what you're coping with but in the dark you dream up all kinds of demons or perhaps even you can dream up all kinds of angels which aren't there and aren't so because illusion or delusion or whatever form it takes is illusion and it can be nothing else you've also heard our eastern brethren say many a time that the physical plane is an illusion and you have heard us say that in the qabalistic western thought we do not say that it is an illusion in the same way the fact that we experience consciousness physically makes it real indicates that the divine mind or the cosmic mind or the higher mind is holding a thought form and if we can agree then that a thought form in the mind of the divine is reality then we can give that much reality to the physical plane we can say that in inasmuch as it is in consciousness, it's real.

That is real to the experience of consciousness.

Nevertheless, it doesn't tell the story of what that experience really is or what consciousness really is.

Now, in actuality, of course, though our Eastern brethren call the physical plane an illusion, our mystery school teaching teaching in the Qabalistic training system tell us that it is the astral world, the psychic world, that is the great illusion. The physical world is a projection from the psychic or astral plane. Therefore, it isn't in the physical world that we should learn to search out illusion and say, well, because a body is really, for instance, made up out of atoms and is therefore an electromagnetic system of vibrating energy, that that body isn't real. The body is real as far as experience is concerned, even though on another level or from another point of view, we can say that it is the electromagnetic vibration which is brought about by the concentration of a consciousness which is part of the total consciousness, which brings about the physical manifestation. So the physical manifestation is really the fruit.

It is the result, in a sense. It is the effect of that which consciousness holds on the psychic and astral planes. This is what we need to understand.

And that is why we also need to understand understand what psychic and astral kind of experience really is as against what mystical awareness happens to be and in that way we will be able to guide ourselves in and through this miracle a physical experience and a miracle it is with more and more of reality that is the illumination from the higher level shining through our minds and therefore our hearts and our being so let's then analyze it through a few examples because this is the best way to understand it although one also needs to give general principles that's why jesus you know loved to tell stories to speak in parables because it's the story that gives an impact to the principle or the idea so we will give you a few little incidents to show you the difference between the psychic and mystical awareness and just what happens or can happen or could happen when we cannot differentiate these differences now let Let us take the example of some either spiritualistic or metaphysical teachers.

Not all, some, because nothing can be said in one full sweep of generalization that all of this or all of that is wrong or bad or deluded. You always have your exceptions to the rule. Remember this. However let's take the major what we know to be the majority of such instances and perhaps you have run into quite a good percentage of this type of thing yourself now the person who has a psychic vehicle as you've heard us say before is of course more aware than other persons of certain types of forms or sounds in other words remember clairvoyance is seeing beyond the physical range clairaudience is hearing beyond the physical range of sound then there's also the psychic element that's involved with clairsentience although that has many levels as all of these have many levels clairsentience is being able to be in touch with levels beyond the physical range also now the impact of a psychic experience of course is usually strong because it has such vividness after all it is the when you consider it is in the psychic or astral realm that the form is brought together from thinking and the feeling to be projected into physical expression it works itself out you might say on the physical plane you can see that we are closer to that which is not responsible for but more immediately responsible for whatever is happening on the physical plane therefore the impact of clairvoyance or clairaudience is usually very strong on people and it hits them with an impact and makes them think that they've experienced something terrific, something tremendous, something high.

The truth is that the psychic or astral world is not something tremendous, something high, any more than all consciousness is tremendous and amazing and extraordinary and wondrous.

When we stop to ponder, what is it? Because in essence the psychic or astral plane or level remember is in Qabalah called that the plane or foundation for not only the physical existence that which projects Malkuth the physical world but it is also called the plane of illusion why because in essence you might say it is really that vibratory level of our being which we call our subconsciousness.

That is what the psychic and astral world happens to be. And of course, subconsciousness, as you have heard us tell you before, is something that we share with all creatures below us.

Therefore, it isn't anything higher. A little toad, a little ant, a little dog and cat, a wolf and an elephant, and a plant incidentally, anything that is living and reproduces itself, is fed and is part of and resides in that same substance or vibratory level that we call subconsciousness and also is called physical astral plane or psychic plane of course there are different levels on all the planes this really is so on the astral plane we do have what is more of the emotional level and then more of what is called a mental level something like subdivisions nevertheless they are these subdivisions are not separated they are graduation as you might say and because of being graduations the the flow of force goes back and forth now here is what occurs when people die as you we've told you before consciousness just withdraws from that level which we call the physical plane and therefore that whole electromagnetic spectrum or thought form of your selfhood becomes aware of itself on what we call a psychic or astral plane and becoming aware of itself on the psychic or astral plane makes it no wiser makes it no more spiritual makes it no more anything than it was on the physical plane except it hasn't got the physical plane in and through which to express or work out certain uh ideas or problems and it hasn't got the physical plane therefore in and through which to hit against a certain more condensed limitation which brings about a more rapid growth or evolution of consciousness it's the physical plane and the impact of the physical plane it is the work of consciousness in overcoming all the obstacles that we run into the problem and handling things it's really handling energy you see I'm overcoming the energy of the physical plane by picking a glass up with water because I with my consciousness I am performing an act of uh shall we say anti-gravity really I'm making one energy do something other different with the other energy in other words to overcome that energy temporarily I could only do it so long then I have to put it down now the physical plane then being what you might call a projection from the uh type of image on the astral which involves many facets is Continuously open To the flow of energy from the psychic plane even people who haven't got psychic vehicles because we all have subconscious mind and Remember on what we call the mass mind level We all share on the telepathic in the telepathic area which incidentally is psychic and astral in nature basically it's just that we become aware of it in and through the physical vehicle and on the physical plane now then what is it that happens with these I'm sorry to say majority of spiritualistic and I'm sorry to say a large percentage of metaphysical and the cult he did it is this because of having a fairly psychic vehicle say they hear a voice all right in hearing the voice what has really occurred let's say that somebody who's discarnate we brought this up before but we're going to show it in comparison to something else now uh suppose they hear a discarnate voice a voice in other words a person who isn't there uh saying something like I am your teacher I have come to guide you you know you are under my protection you have my love what is the impact almost instantly uh practically every aspirant except the few who have developed enough discrimination will be overwhelmed with joy they will accept this declaration and as you know it you had read to you from the Bible test the spirit certainly there's been no testing they have accepted this idea the result is that invariably as time goes on this one voice or several voices will start running this individual's life will say now in order for you to fulfill your very vast and great spiritual mission because they always seem to uh help you not always but because if you're smart they're smart too you know and they figure if they're not going to get you to follow their advice or examples in one way they'll try another because they are closer to your subconscious thinking they therefore know much more readily what you're susceptible to which doesn't make them smarter than you it's just that they haven't got the interference of the physical vehicle at the moment to see what goes on with the subconscious part of you and this is the only reason they seem to know so much and you think that sometimes so wise they're not a bit wise most of the time they're much more stupid than you or they wouldn't be on that level believe me fooling around with projections from the lower astral to the physical plane so they will say they will if you're the kind who will have a need to feel that you have a great spiritual mission and about 999 and 999 000 out of a million aspirants have that need uh then they will they will definitely tell you you have a great spiritual mission and of course this will make you feel life is worthwhile you weren't born for anything isn't it marvelous and you'll walk on air and And you'll think you're growing spiritually like the zooming of a rocket taking its load into outer space.

But you'll be under a delusion. You'll just feel, isn't it marvelous? Last time of service, I'm a channel because I have this great mission. It has all been wonderfully worthwhile. While and this voice or voices will then start saying now in order to prepare for your great mission uh you better stop eating certain things they're bad for you and just what to do helps to open us up to psychic influences uh believe it or not sometimes we're aware of it and sometimes not why because we're not willing to say all right I'll use my best judgment thy will be done God I'm relying on you to be leading me as I must be led and then go ahead and do the best you know how knowing that if it's wrong it's because you weren't ready yet to walk in a straight line without tumbling as part of what you needed to develop greater balance of strength so you still had your higher guidance so you see any time that any psychic uh message comes to you whether it seems to be telepathically or through clear audience or in any other manner whether it be through some other human being who is mediumistic or psychic or through your own psychism if you are being given direct advice as to what to do and what not to do I mean direct advice you're not dealing with the mystical awareness you're not dealing with the spiritual influx of the real guidance because you are not being permitted to do your own growing you are be you someone is picking you up like somebody might pick up a baby learning how to walk every time it fell and not let it fall so that it would never learn how to walk and run and have the glory of the power of controlling its vehicle every one of us are destined to do what to direct the forces of life what is it to direct the forces of life it means to direct our own consciousness our own emotions our own environment and not interfere with anybody else's direction either by well-meaning advice or not so anytime Anytime you have this type of phenomena taking place, it is coming from a psychic level and not from a mystical level.

This is point number one. As well as, remember, this flattery which Dr. Case has pointed out so often.

Dr. Case, when he met our Master R, you know, Master Rakati, face to face, in the flesh, mind you. This was no astral vision but in the flesh and had that three weeks of special training with him dr case asked him some of you may have heard me tell this but some of you haven't dr case asked him why have I been chosen for this particular mission of the next stage the next link in the mystery school training for this next era and the master looked at him and smiled and said to him, well, it certainly isn't for the excellencies of your personality.

Now, he wasn't insulting him, but just being honest, truthful. It was a kindly smile. He said, the truth is, and he looked kind of a little almost sad when he said that, he He said, the truth is, you're the best we can find.

Now, of course, really, this was no psychic message, even if it came from a physical being who has attained the highest mystical state and power.

You see, there's love, there's acceptance, there's recognition of what to do and use, but certainly no illusion or delusion. And of course I'm not going to tell you what was said of me because it might be even worse however the point is I have often thought if the masters and I know it is so and the higher beings if we are the best they can find how true it is that humanity is an infant in waddling clothes how true it is and if and if it is true which it is why then it becomes that much more necessary for us to show the infants how to become older and more self-directing children and adults and this is what we're doing now in preparation as you know for the ushering in of the true brotherhood of man now then the mystical awareness as against the psychic awareness really has very definite demarcation and one never needs to really be in doubt when one truly understands these demarcations the point is this you can be given a mystical message through a person in the body which is therefore through the physical plane a book you might pick up or what a person would say to you or a teacher or a spiritual teacher say to you it still could be from a mystical level even though it comes in and through the channeling of the physical manifestation or vehicle you can also receive nothing but a psychic kind of message or guidance in your advice or in your you know where you need advice or problems uh through a physical person in the same way somebody who is deceased an entity on the astral plane say who might be in contact with you or someone else that person might be giving a purely psychic message but that person might also be giving a spiritual message you see this is the point and furthermore the highest spiritual messages still because they can often come through psychic centers or through the psychic energies they have to come down the hierarchy of vibrations this is what leads us to so many troubles which brings about a problem because we don't know then how to judge or guide ourselves with which I knew someone who was the most fantastic clairvoyant and clairaudient who was able to forecast what was going to happen months ahead in every detail and she was so marvelous and excellent that when she advised a certain friend to stick with a specific individual because that man was her soulmate and they were destined to be together and work together this friend lost a year of her life because she listened to the psychic because it wasn't true and she thought but this marvelous psychic if all these things are true certainly this is the other is true you know and therefore I'm destined to really capture this man whom she was violently in love with and marry him and we'll both live together and work together you know and tra la la happily ever after but it was a psychic tra la la that's what it was uh just a picking out of thought forms and emotional hopes and this psychic didn't know the difference you see it was a deluding thing and it led the person astray and yet this individual was very accurate in all sorts of psychic messages so don't think because a person happens to be psychically accurate that they're giving you proper health or proper advice are you getting the idea of the difference of course we haven't gone on to the mystical yet but we're trying to to show you the psychic areas that the fact that a person can be extraordinarily telepathic, that the fact that a person can be extraordinarily accurate psychically and pre-vision to foretell the future, the fact that a person could be able to have things, physical things rise in their presence, telekinesis or teleportation, doesn't mean they're spiritual and doesn't mean it's coming from any spiritual level at all. As a matter of fact, it has to be coming from a psychic level because it's a psychic phenomena even though sometimes spiritual levels are involved in it but most of the time not now what then is the mystical awareness here's the point before we go into mystical awareness every spiritual aspirant going through techniques with especially the powerful ones we have in our group work here with our intonation of the words of power which we're doing regularly you've no idea what that is doing to your vehicle or have you in intensifying your vehicles in every way incidentally not only spiritually but psychically this makes us sad but we can't avoid it if we're going to intensify you spiritually you also automatically get intensified psychically even though some of you don't recognize it you get real telepathic and don't know it or realize it or you think that's not being psychic because there are different kinds of levels and this is why it has been considered so dangerous to go on you might say into occult practices for the path of return because let the psychic buds open prematurely and most people haven't evolved the mental discrimination to just look at psychic phenomena listen and pay as much attention to it as you do to a dream analyze it and put it away something very interesting and see what happens later this is the only attention psychic experiences should have really as you will discover and that is the reason so many one of the reasons so many of the really potent techniques have been kept so secret because of these dangers and how many people that land in mental institutions you see with their voices and their their vision you know there's that psychic they've just gotten lost in completely obsessed people who pay too much attention to psychic levels or even a little attention could also open themselves up to obsession and that's another reason that these dangers have been avoided by very carefully picking who can receive what and even now you know that you are longing and you wonder how does one get into the chapter which is our mystery school part of the work You wonder and you long for it.

And if you keep coming and longing and working, you'll find out when you're prepared, because you will find out. We will speak to you about it then, as some of you, a few of you here already know. But it depends on you going through your studies and your lessons, doing your preliminary preparation, attending to your group growth, that is, your part of the group growth, so that you are prepared to function intelligently without hallucination without going haywire should you should the set your psychic faculties start developing without falling for them as being any more of a reality than a dream now then because of all this we have put every guard about you that possibly can be done that is why we first use the intonation of the divine names before we do any other further occult work and healing in order to bring about a stimulus for the highest mystical awareness and protection before the rest is done which inevitably must follow because remember all our powers have to involve psychic powers as well as the spiritual because we're one we're the whole thing we're not a partial thing but what we're working for is to bring mystical awareness down into and through the psychic awareness in other words the mystical should be controlling the psychic and the physical and it has to be this is what our final goal will be and it will only be so when we don't permit ourselves to get caught up in the illusions and delusions and have enough stamina and perseverance to stick and work and study and not expect to get there tomorrow it'll be tomorrow every day brings tomorrow the closer for the next tomorrow as you know all right now mystical awareness then is what there are various degrees of it of course but mystical awareness has to do with principles and love principles on the mental level love on the emotional level now any advice you are ever given which gives you the real spiritual principle has been given to you from a mystical level of awareness and when I say that I mean something like this suppose one of you came to me and often one of you has not particularly in this temple but in our group comes to me and says now I am say in love with somebody who isn't in a position to or doesn't want to or keeps avoiding uh making the relationship something more stable or doing something about the relationship uh what should I do all right now uh if I want to be another psychic bodinski through a physical plane I'd say tell them to go to you know where in other words I would give them direct advice break off you know leave them don't be a fool what do you want to have anything to do with so and so forth I mean this is directly telling somebody what to do with their problem see I'm deliberately giving you something that would make you want to say that to them and incidentally it makes me want to also I have to use discipline nevertheless I don't because I would be interfering with whatever their higher soul is trying to teach them I don't know what their soul needs what perception they require what discrimination is needed so I give them a principle I talk to them then about the principle of relationships about what it means to really love to have the other person's welfare at heart I help them to understand how the other person might be showing either selfishness self-centeredness or its reverse showing immorality and lack of ethics or the reverse in other words I give them data with which to work it out and all the time I am loving them and accepting them no matter what they may have told me they've been doing because what who am I to say that whatever they're doing is right or wrong Jesus refused to certainly I if he refused to why should I a lot of us think that it's different and so I just love them and hold them again that's in the mystical awareness so that I strengthen their ability I strengthen their capacity to look reality in the face and it's reality that liberates us from being caught up in the illusion or delusion about well maybe he or she'll divorce his or her husband or maybe he or she will change if I do this or that thing you see the idea of course that's just in the realm of situations that arise in personal relationships but then the same principle is there when we refer when we think of parents and children with friends and anything with positions the The principle is a principle, and once you have had an experience of a principle, you can apply it to innumerable situations and innumerable experiences.

Therefore, as we said, the true guide, the true helper, will never do anything except strengthen your ability to look at reality.

Because just look if you feel loved and accepted no matter what you've been or done or are doing isn't it going to give you the strength to face yourself then figuring that I'm not going to be rejected and hated for it and this is what I have found this is what I have found and this is what every true spiritual teacher finds and therefore mystical awareness has to do with a love and an acceptance at the same time helping that individual to be strong enough to look at reality to develop discrimination and analytical perceptions in order to see where the weaknesses in the natures brought brought them to this experience and thereby helped them to see it more quickly next time or avoid it completely if they've reached the ability to break that pattern at that particular time. Of course, there are levels of mystical awareness. For example, I well remember the time when one man came into our place, Dr. Case and several of us, Mr. Case and I, were sitting together and this man came roaming in in an agony of turmoil.

His wife was divorcing him and took away, was taking away his children whom he adored. He absolutely adored them and I instantly saw the state he was in. I didn't give him, tried to give him any advice. I didn't do anything except hold his hand and start projecting a complete love and strength. From what? From the mystical level. And what is that mystical level of awareness? That feeling ability to feel the pervading love of the highest level of beingness of the universal one and when when you learn to feel that pervading love it pours then to anyone your attention or eyes are on and those who are sensitive become aware of it and if you love them personally oh they're very very lucky because they get that much more of it. And that's one of the signs of a true mystical awareness is the ability to project a pervading kind of love that lifts and strengthens and gives hope. And this man went out and incidentally he was a very receptive man for there for three days he stayed that way but those that was the three days he needed to adjust to reality you see and that was in the hands of the highest self I just held put myself up there and held him with me without saying a word to him he didn't know what I was doing now that is a mystical awareness with the use of the power of the mystical awareness now this is the thing all of us are going to have not necessarily that particular way or method because we're all unique and we're all different so it involves the principle mystical awareness deals with principles only and never with with the details of the problem keep that in mind it deals with the principles in such a way that for instance if you wonder what's going to happen in the future with the world being in the state it's in and it's in a horrible state if mystical awareness if you have that mystical awareness of a brotherhood of man that's inevitable that mystical awareness of the inevitability of the brotherhood of man is a principle and it helps you to know what to do in each particular provided you also have learned to analyze and use the powers of your mind to combine your outpouring and your expression through the vehicle and the intellect with your principle of perception and ability to permeate yourself into or be permeated by that highest and living self so this is about all we have to say when you leave today just please remember you are inviting the mystical awareness every time you just lift your heart even with a question mark to the higher self for just the desire to know God and to know that whatever you're doing or thinking or feeling it is God guiding you and God holding you and God living you and truly as you do this and then work with the various techniques you'll find that the things we've learned together will percolate more and more and you'll develop more and more ability to differentiate between your psychic and your mystical and remember we haven't said the psychic is evil many wonderful things or messages could come to you from the psychic all we have said is don't let it interfere with your life or your decisions or your guidance any more than you would telephoning a friend to say it's there It's nice to know that consciousness exists beyond and thank God I'm traveling towards the mystical the all-inclusive love of the infinite