Clairvoyance and Occult Powers, William Walker Atkinson [best book clubs TXT] 📗

to Mr. Gurney, of the Psychical Research Society, telling him that I was going to make my presence felt by Miss V., at 44 Norland Square, at midnight. Ten days afterwards, I saw Miss V., when she voluntarily told me that on Saturday at midnight, she distinctly saw me, when she was quite wide awake."

The records of the psychic researchers are filled with numerous accounts of cases in which similar astral projections have occurred when the person was on his or her death-bed, but was still alive. It would seem that under such circumstances the astral senses are very much freer from the interference of the physical senses, and tend to manifest very strongly in the form of appearances to persons in whom the dying person is attached by the ties of affection. Many who read this course have known of cases of this kind, for they are of quite frequent occurrence.

The student will notice that in the majority of the cases cited in this chapter the clairvoyant has been in a state of sleep, or semi-sleep—often in a dream condition. But you must not jump to the conclusion that this condition is always necessary for the manifestation of this phenomenon. On the contrary, the advanced and well developed clairvoyants usually assume merely a condition of deep reverie or meditation, shutting out the sounds and thoughts of the physical plane, so as to be able to function better on the astral plane.

The reason that so many recorded cases have occurred when the clairvoyant person was asleep, and the vision appeared as a dream, is simply because in such a condition the physical senses of the person are stilled and at rest, and there is less likelihood of interference from them, and a better opportunity for the astral senses to function effectively. It is like the familiar cases in which one becomes so wrapped up in viewing a beautiful work of art, or in listening to a beautiful musical rendition, that he or she forgets all about the sights and sounds of the world outside. One sometimes gets into this same condition when reading an interesting book, or when witnessing an interesting play. When the psychic powers are concentrated upon any one channel of vision, the others fail to register a clear impression. The same rule holds good on the astral plane, as on the physical.

There are certain psychic conditions which are especially conducive to the manifestation of clairvoyant phenomena, as all students of the subject know very well. These conditions are somewhat hard to induce, at least until the clairvoyant has had considerable experience and practice. But, in the state of sleep, the person induces the desired conditions, in many cases, though he is not consciously doing so. As might naturally be expected, therefore, the majority of the recorded cases of clairvoyance have occurred when the clairvoyant person has been asleep.

I should also state, once more, that in many cases in which the clairvoyant has witnessed the "appearance" of another person, as in the cases such as I have just mentioned, there is always the possibility of the person having actually appeared in his astral body, unconsciously to himself of course. No one but a skilled occultist is able to distinguish between cases of this kind. The line between this class of clairvoyance and astral appearance is very thin, and, in fact, the two classes of phenomena shade and blend into each other. In reality, when one gets down to bottom principles, there is very little difference between the actual appearance in the astral body, and the strong projection of one's presence by means of will, conscious or unconscious, along the lines of awakening the clairvoyant vision of others. To attempt to explain the slight points of difference here, would only involve the student in a mass of technical description which would tend to confuse, rather than to enlighten him—from this I refrain.

LESSON XI.

CLAIRVOYANCE OF THE PAST

The third great class of clairvoyant phenomena, known as Time Clairvoyance, is divided into two sub-classes, as follows: (1) Past-Time Clairvoyance; and (2) Future-Time Clairvoyance. The characteristics of each of these sub-classes is indicated by its name.

Past-Time Clairvoyance, as indicated by the name, is that class of clairvoyant phenomena which is concerned with the perception of facts, events and happenings of past time. Whether the happening is that of five minutes ago, or of five thousand years ago, the principles involved are precisely the same. One is no more or less wonderful than is the other.

Many students confess themselves perplexed when they are first confronted with this class of phenomena. While they find it comparatively easy to see how by astral vision the clairvoyant is able to sense events happening at that moment, though thousands of miles away from the observer, they cannot at first understand how one can "see" a thing no longer in existence, but which disappeared from sight thousands of years ago. Naturally, they ask to be informed how this is possible, before proceeding to develop the faculty itself. Believing that this question is now being asked by you, the student of these lessons, I shall pause for a few moments and show you "just how" this wonderful thing becomes possible to the clairvoyant.

In the first place, it would undoubtedly be impossible to perceive a thing, even by astral vision, if it had entirely disappeared at some time in the past—this would be beyond all natural powers, astral as well as physical. But, as a matter of fact, the things of the past have not entirely disappeared, but, on the contrary, while having disappeared on the physical plane they still exist on the astral plane. I shall endeavor to explain this wonderful fact of nature to you in plain terms, although it belongs to one of the most mysterious classes of the occult facts of the universe.

In the occult teachings we find many references to "the Akashic Records," or what is sometimes called "the records of the Astral Light." Without going into technical occult definitions and explanations, I will say to you that the gist of this occult teaching is that in that high form of the universal substance which is called the Universal Ether there is found to be recorded all the happenings of the entire World Cycle of which the present time is a part. All that has happened from the very beginning of this World Cycle, millions of years ago, is preserved on these astral records, and may be read by the advanced clairvoyant or other person possessing occult powers of this kind. These records perish only with the termination of a World Cycle, which will not happen for millions of years yet to come.

To those who cannot accept the reasonableness of this occult fact, I would say that there are analogies to be found on other planes of natural manifestation. For instance, as astronomy teaches us, a star may be blotted out of existence, and yet its light will persist long after (perhaps until the end of world-time) traveling along at the rate of 186,000 miles each second. The light that we now see coming from the distant stars has left those stars many years ago—in some cases thousands of years ago. We see them not as they are now, but as they were at the time the ray of light left them, many years ago; The astronomers inform us that if one of these stars had been [*Transcribers Note: Text missing from original] sands) of years ago, we would still see it as in actual existence. In fact, it is believed that some of these stars which we see twinkling at night have actually been blotted out hundreds of years ago. We will not be aware of this fact until the light rays suddenly cease reaching us, after their journey of billions of miles and hundreds of years. A star blotted out of existence today would be seen by our children, and children's children.

The heat from a stove will be felt in a room long after the stove has been removed from it. A room will long contain the odor of something that has been removed from it. It is said that in one of the old mosques of Persia there may be perceived the faint odor of the musk that was exposed there hundreds of years ago—the very walls are saturated with the pungent odor. Again, is it not wonderful that our memories preserve the images of the sounds and forms which were placed there perhaps fifty years and more ago? How do these memory images survive and exist? Though we may have thought of the past thing for half a lifetime, yet, suddenly its image flashes into our consciousness. Surely this is as wonderful as the Akashic Records, though its "commonness" makes it lose its wonderful appearance to us.

Camille Flammarion, the eminent French astronomer, in a book written over twenty-five years ago, and which is now out of print, I believe, pictured a possible condition of affairs in which a disembodied soul would be able to perceive events that happened in the past, by simply taking a position in space in which he would be able to catch the light-waves that emanated from a distant planet at that particular time in the past the happenings of which he wanted to perceive. The little book was called "Lumen"—I advise you to read it, if you can find it in your public libraries.

Another writer has written somewhat along the same lines. I herewith give you a quotation from him, that you may get the idea he wishes to express—it will help you in your conception of the Akashic Records. He says: "When we see anything, whether it be the book we hold in our hands, or a star millions of miles away, we do so by means of a vibration in the ether, commonly called a ray of light, which passes from the object seen to our eyes. Now the speed with which this vibration passes is so great—about 186,000 miles in a second—that when we are considering any object in our own world we may regard it as practically instantaneous. When, however, we come to deal with interplanetary distances we have to take the speed of light into consideration, for an appreciable period is occupied in traversing these vast spaces. For example, it takes eight minutes and a quarter for light to travel to us from the sun, so that when we look at the solar orb we see it by means of a ray of light which left it more than eight minutes ago. From this follows a very curious result. The ray of light by which we see the sun can obviously report to us only the state of affairs' which existed in that luminary when it started on its journey, and would not be in the least affected by anything that happened after it left; so that we really see the sun not as it is, but as it was eight minutes ago. That is to say that if anything important took place in the sun—the formation of a new sun-spot, for instance—an astronomer who was watching the orb through his telescope at the time would be unaware of the incident while it was happening, since the ray of light bearing the news would not reach him until more than eight minutes later.

"The difference is more striking when we consider the fixed stars, because in their case the distances are so enormously greater. The pole star, for example, is so far off that light, traveling at the inconceivable speed above mentioned, takes a little more than fifty years to reach our eyes; and from that follows the strange but inevitable inference that we see the pole star not as or where it is at this moment, but as and where it was fifty years ago. Nay, if tomorrow some cosmic catastrophe were to shatter the pole star into fragments,