Letters on Occult Meditation

by Alice A Bailey

  August 3, 1920.

  3 - Dangers arising from subtle forces.

  ...We have for our topic this morning the final section of our letter on the dangers incidental to meditation. We have dealt somewhat with individual dangers inherent in the three bodies; we have touched upon the risks that may be run when the karma of the student and his group affiliations are overlooked. Today the subject involves real difficulty. We have to deal with the dangers that may arise from forces and persons, from entities and groups working on the subtler planes. The difficulty arises in three ways:—

  l—The ignorance of the average student as to the nature of those forces and as to the personnel of the groups on the subtler planes.

  2—The risk of revealing more than would be wise in an exoteric publication.

  3—An occult risk that is little comprehended by the uninitiated. It lies in the fact that in the concentration of thought that necessarily arises in discussing these problems, thought-waves are set in motion, currents are contacted and thoughtforms circulated that attract the attention of those under discussion. This may lead at times to undesirable results. Therefore, I shall with brevity touch upon the subject. Upon the inner planes the needed light and protection are afforded.

  Three groups of entities:—

  These groups of entities can be differentiated in a threefold manner:—

  l—Groups of discarnate beings on either the emotional or the mental planes.

  2—Devas, either singly or in groups.

  3—The dark Brotherhood. [121]

  Let us take each division and deal with it carefully, first laying the foundation of knowledge by pointing out that the dangers arise from a threefold condition of the bodies of the student which may be the result sometimes of meditation. These conditions are:

  A negative condition that makes the entire three bodies of the personality receptive and quiescent, and open therefore to the attack of the watching denizens of other planes.

  A condition of ignorance or foolhardiness that, in attempting to use certain forms and mantrams without the permission of the Teacher, involves the student with certain groups of devas, bringing him into contact with the devas of the emotional or mental planes and making him therefore (through his ignorance) the butt of their attack and the plaything of their destructive instincts.

  A condition which is the reverse of the above, which makes a man positive and a channel, therefore, for force or power. When this is the case, the man proceeds, under occult rule or law and with the aid of his Teacher, to wield the electrical fluid of the inner planes. He becomes then a centre of the attention of those who strive against the Brothers of Light.

  The first two conditions are all the result of meditation unwisely and ignorantly practised, the last state of affairs is frequently the reward of success. In the first two, the remedy lies within the student himself and in the wise correction of the type of meditation and its more careful following; in the third case the remedy must be sought in various ways which I will later indicate.

  Dangers of obsession.

  Dangers from discarnate entities are frankly those of obsession, either of a temporary nature and lasting for a few moments or more enduring and lasting for a longer [122] period. It may even be permanent and lasting through a lifetime. I have earlier written to you a letter upon this subject which you might here incorporate. We never duplicate effort if it can be avoided. I seek primarily to emphasise the point that this entrance which we call obsession is effected largely through the negative attitude assumed through the unwise following of an unsuitable meditation. In his anxiety to be the recipient of light from above, in his determination to force himself to a place where he can contact the teachers or even the Master, and in his endeavour to eliminate all thought and lower vibrations, the student makes the mistake of rendering his entire lower personality receptive. Instead of making it firmly positive to environing factors and to all lower contacts, and instead of only allowing the “apex of the mind” (if I may use so unusual a term) to be receptive and open to transmission from the causal or the abstract levels and even from the intuitional, the student permits reception from all sides. Only a point within the brain should be receptive, all the rest of the consciousness should be so polarised that outer interference will not be possible. This refers to the emotional and to the mental bodies, though with the majority these days it refers solely to the emotional. At this particular period of the world's history the emotional plane is so densely populated and the response of the physical to the emotional is now becoming so exquisitely attuned, that the danger of obsession is greater than ever heretofore. But for your cheering—the reverse holds good also, and response to the divine and rapid reaction to the higher inspiration has never been so great. Divine inspiration or that “divine obsession” which is the privilege of all advanced souls, will be understood in the coming years as never before, and will be definitely one of the [123] methods used by the coming Lord and His Great Ones for the helping of the world.

  The thing to be remembered is that in the case of wrong obsession the man is at the mercy of the obsessing entity, and is unconsciously or unwillingly a partner in the transaction. In divine obsession the man consciously and willingly co-operates with the One Who seeks to inspire, or to occupy or employ his lower vehicles. The motive is ever the greater helping of the race. The obsession is then not the result of a negative condition but of a positive collaboration and proceeds under law and for a specific period....As more and more of the race develop continuity of consciousness between the physical and the emotional and later the mental, this act of transference of the vehicles will be more frequent and more understood.

  October 9, 1919.

  Causes of Obsession.

  One of the activities ahead of the occult student is the study and the scientific observation of this matter. We have been told in various occult books that obsession and insanity are very closely allied. Insanity may exist in all three bodies, the least harmful being that of the physical body, whilst the most enduring and the hardest to cure is that of the mental body. Insanity in the mental body is the heavy fate that descends upon those who for many incarnations have followed the path of selfish cruelty, using the intelligence as a means to serve selfish ends and using it willfully, knowing it to be wrong. But insanity of this type is a means whereby the Ego sometimes arrests the progress of a man towards the left-hand path. In this sense it is a disguised blessing. Let us deal first with the causes of obsession, leaving the subject of insanity [124] for another day. These causes are four in number and each responds to a different treatment:—

  One cause is a definite weakness of the etheric double, in the separating web, which like a piece of relaxed elastic permits entry of an extraneous entity from the emotional plane. The door of entrance which is formed by this web is not closed tight, and entrance can be effected from without. This is a physical plane cause, and is the result of the maladjustment of physical plane matter. It is the result of karma, and is prenatal, existing from the earliest moment. Usually the sufferer is physically weak, intellectually feeble, but possessed of a powerful emotional body which suffers and fights and struggles to prevent entrance. The attacks are intermittent, and more frequently attack women than men.

  Another cause is due to emotional reasons. A lack of co-ordination exists between the emotional and the physical and when the man functions in the emotional body (as at night) the moment of re-entry is attended with difficulty, and opportunity exists for other beings to enter the physical vehicle, and prevent its occupation by the real Ego. This is the most common form of obsession, and affects those with powerful physical bodies and strong astral vibrations, but with weak mental bodies. It leads, in the ensuing struggle, to the violent scenes of screaming lunatics and to the paroxysms of the epileptic. Men are more subject to this than women, as women are usually more definitely polarised in the emotional body.

  A rarer kind of obsession is the mental. In coming days as the mental
body develops, one may expect perhaps to see more of it. Mental obsession involves the displacement taking place on the mental levels—hence its rarity. The physical body and the emotional body remain as a unit, but the Thinker is left in his mental body, [125] whilst the obsessing entity (clothed in mental matter) enters the two lower vehicles. In the case of emotional obsession the Thinker is left with his emotional body and his mental body but with no physical. In this latter case he is left with neither emotional nor physical. The cause lies in the fact of the over-development of the mental, and of the relative weakness of the emotional and physical bodies. The Thinker is too powerful for his other bodies and disdains their use; he is too interested in work on mental levels, and thus gives opportunity to obsessing entities to assume control. This, as I said before, is rare and is the result of lop-sided development. It attacks women and men equally; it principally shows itself in childhood and is difficult to cure.

  A still rarer cause of obsession is definitely the work of the dark Brothers. It takes the form of snapping the magnetic link that attaches the Ego to the lower physical body, leaving him in his emotional and mental bodies. This would normally result in the death of the physical body, but in cases such as these the dark Brother, who is to use the physical body, enters it and makes connection with his own cord. These cases are not common. They involve only two classes of people:—

  Those who are highly evolved and on the Path, but who through some wilful shortcoming fail for some one incarnation and so lay themselves open to the evil force. Sin (as you call it) in the Personality of a disciple leads to a weakness in some one spot, and this is taken advantage of. This type of obsession shows itself in the transformation that is sometimes seen when a great soul suddenly plunges on an apparent downward path, when he changes the whole trend of his existence and besmirches a fair character with mud. It carries with it its own punishment, for on the inner planes the disciple looks [126] on, and in agony of mind sees his lower vehicle dishonouring the fair name of its real owner and causing evil to be said of a loved cause.

  The little evolved, weakly organised, and so unable to resist.

  The Kinds of Obsessing Entities.

  These are too numerous to mention in detail but I might enumerate a few.

  l—Discarnate entities of a low order awaiting incarnation, and who see, in cases one and two, their wanted opportunity.

  2—Suicides, anxious to undo the deed and to again get into contact with earth.

  3—Earth-bound spirits, good and bad, who from anxiety over loved ones, over their business affairs, or eager to do some wrong or to undo some evil act, rush in and take possession of cases one and two.

  4—Dark Brothers as aforesaid, who avail themselves principally of the third and fourth cases already cited. They require highly developed bodies, having no use for weak or unrefined bodies. In case three the weakness is entirely relative, due to over-accentuation of the mental vehicle.

  5—Elementals and subhuman entities of a malicious nature who rush in on the slightest opportunity and where kindred vibration may be felt.

  6—Some of the lower devas, harmless but mischievous who, from sheer freakishness and fun, enter another body in much the same way that a child loves to dress up.

  7—Occasional visitors from other planets who enter certain highly evolved bodies for purposes of their own. This is very, very rare.... [127]

  Let me now give you some of the methods that eventually will be the first attempts at cure.

  In the first type of cases, those due to physical plane weakness, the stress of the cure will be laid first on building up a strong physical body in both its departments, though especially the etheric body. This will be done in future years with the direct aid of the devas of the shadows (the violet devas or devas of the ethers). The strengthening of the etheric web will be aided by means of the violet light, with its corresponding sound, administered in quiet sanitariums. Coincident with this treatment will be the attempt to strengthen the mental body. With the strengthening of the physical body will come longer and longer periods of freedom from attack. Eventually the attacks will cease altogether.

  When the cause is lack of co-ordination between the physical and the emotional vehicles the first methods of cure will be definite exorcism by the aid of mantrams and ceremonial (such as religious ritual). Qualified persons will use these mantrams at night when the obsessing entity may be supposed to be absent during the hours of sleep. Those mantrams will call the real owner back, will build a protective wall after his re-entry and will seek to force the obsessing one to stay absent. When the real owner has returned, the work then will be to keep him there. Educative work during the day and protective measures at night for longer or shorter periods will gradually eliminate the evil occupant, or unwanted tenant, and in the course of time the sufferer will continue to procure immunity. More anent this can later be given.

  Where mental obsession is involved the matter is more difficult. Most of the first cures achieved in the future will centre around the first two groups. Mental obsession must await greater knowledge, though experimentation [128] from the very first should be undertaken. The work will have to be done mostly from the mental plane by those who can function there freely and so contact the Thinker in his mental body. The co-operation of the Thinker must then be procured and a definite attack conjointly made on the obsessed physical and emotional bodies. During the night much of the work in the first two cases of cures will be done, but in the latter case the Thinker has to win back his physical and his emotional bodies as well, hence the exceeding difficulty. Death often eventuates in these cases.

  In the severing of the magnetic cord naught can be done as yet.

  Dangers from the deva evolution.

  This second point is more complex. You will remember how it has been said earlier in these letters that contact with the devas can be brought about through specific forms and mantrams and that in this contact lies peril for the unwary. This danger is curiously real now, owing to the following reasons:

  a—The coming in of the violet ray, the seventh or Ceremonial Ray, has rendered this contact more easy of attainment than heretofore. It is therefore the ray on which approximation is possible, and in the use of ceremonial and of set forms, coupled to regulated rhythmic movement, will be found a meeting place for the two allied evolutions. In the use of ritual this will be apparent, and psychics are already bearing witness to the fact that both in the ritual of the Church and in that of Masonry this has been evidenced. More and more will this be the case, and it carries with it certain risks that will inevitably work themselves into common knowledge and thus affect in various ways the unwary sons of men. [129] As you know, a definite effort is being made at this time by the Planetary Hierarchy to communicate to the devas their part in the scheme of things, and the part the human family must likewise play. The work is slow, and certain results are inevitable. It is not my purpose to take up with you in these letters the part that ritual and set mantric forms play in the evolution of devas and of men. I only desire to point out that danger for human beings lies in the unwise use of forms for the calling of the devas, in experimenting with the Sacred Word with the object in view of contacting the Builders who are so largely affected by it, and in endeavouring to pry into the secrets of ritual with its adjuncts of colour and of sound. Later on, when the pupil has passed the portal of initiation, such knowledge will be his, coupled with the necessary information that teaches him to work with the law. In the following of the law, no danger lurks.

  b—The race is possessed of a strong determination to penetrate within the veil, and to find out what lies on the other side of the unknown. Men and women everywhere are conscious within themselves of budding powers which meditation enhances. They find that by the careful following of certain rules they become more sensitive to the sights and sounds of the inner planes. They catch fleeting glimpses of the unknown; occasionally and at rare intervals, the organ of inner vision temporarily opens and they
hear and see on the astral or the mental plane. They see devas at a meeting in which ritual has been employed; they catch a sound or a voice that tells them truths that they recognise as true. The temptation to force the issue, to prolong meditation, to try out certain methods that promise intensification of psychic faculty is too strong. They unwarily force matters and dire disaster results. One hint here I give:—In meditation [130] it is literally possible to play with fire. The devas of the mental levels manipulate the latent fires of the system and thus incidentally the latent fires of the inner man. It is woefully possible to be the plaything of their endeavour and to perish at their hands. A truth I speak here; I give not voice to the interesting chimeras of a fanciful brain. Beware of playing with fire.

  c—This transition period is largely responsible for much of the danger. The right type of body for the holding and the handling of the occult force has not yet been built, and in the interim the bodies now in use but spell disaster to the ambitious student. When a man starts out to follow the path of occult meditation, it takes well-nigh fourteen years to rebuild the subtle bodies, and incidentally the physical. All through that period it is not safe to tamper with the unknown for only the very strong refined physical body, the controlled stable and equalised emotional body and the properly striated mental body can enter into the subtler planes and literally work with Fohat, for that is what the occult does. Therefore is the emphasis laid by all wise Teachers everywhere on the Path of Purification, which must precede the Path of Illumination. They lay the emphasis on the building in of spiritual faculty before psychic faculty can be safely permitted; they demand service to the race every day throughout the scope of life before a man may be permitted to manipulate the forces of nature, to dominate the elementals, to co-operate with the devas, and to learn the forms and ceremonies, the mantrams and the key-words, that will bring those forces within the circle of manifestation.