Telepathy and the Etheric Vehicle

by Alice A Bailey

  1. By the use of the energy of love in three ways:

  a. By sending out love (not sentiment) to your brothers at the time of transmission or reception. [28]

  b. By capitalising on the inherent power of love to attract the material or the substance, and thus to “clothe” in the occult sense that which you send out.

  c. By sending forth the “clothed” idea, impression, etc., on a stream of love which your brother—alert, receptive and waiting—will attract to himself by the means of his conscious love for you.

  2. By the use of mental energy through the effort to polarise yourself upon the mental levels of consciousness. By a definite act of the will you lift your consciousness onto the mental plane and hold it there. This action is a reflection upon a lower plane, and in the brain consciousness, of the mind’s ability to hold itself in the light. The success of all telepathic work you do, as a group or as individuals, will be dependent upon your capacity to “hold yourselves steady in the light” mentally. The difference is that this time you do it for the purpose of the planned work, and attempt to hold the mind steady in the light of the group, or in each other’s light, and not so specifically in the light of your own soul.

  3. By the conscious organised use of the energy of the etheric ajna centre, and sometimes of the head centre, when receiving, and of the throat centre, when transmitting. This swings etheric force into activity when engaged in telepathic work, but entails its conscious subordination to the power of the other two energies. Practically, you will observe that this involves on the part of the disciple the power to do three things at once. You need to ponder more deeply upon the fact and necessity of active outgoing energy [29] when you are occupied with the task of transmission, and with active receptivity when you are functioning as a receiver.

  I would like to point out that successful telepathic work is dependent upon the following factors:

  First, that there are no barriers existing between the receiver and the broadcaster. Such barriers would be lack of love or of sympathy, criticism and suspicion.

  Secondly, that the broadcaster is mainly occupied with the clarity of his symbol, with the word or thought, and not with the receiver. A quick glance toward the receiver, a momentary sending forth of love and understanding is sufficient to set up the rapport, and then attention must be paid to the clarity of the symbol.

  Thirdly, let the receivers think with love and affection of the broadcaster for a minute or two. Then let them forget the personality. A thread of energy, linking receiver and broadcaster, has been established and exists. Then forget it.

  Fourthly, let the receivers work with detachment. Most receivers are so anxious to receive correctly that through their very intensity they counteract their own efforts. A casual and “don’t care” spirit and a close attentiveness to the inner “picturing faculty” will net better results than any violent and strong desire and effort to see the symbol and to contact the mind of the sender.

  The brain should register a reflection of the mind content. If a ray of light is met by an outgoing force from the receiver’s mind or a powerfully emitted thoughtform, it can be prevented from reaching the mind. However, a transmitter with more expert training can overcome this barrier. Much of the trouble will be found to be based on the emitted thoughtforms, or in the rush of ill-regulated [30] mental energy or brain radiation which negates efforts. Therefore a quiet spirit and well regulated thoughts will aid much, and the cultivation of that dispassion which desires nothing for the separated self, and nothing violently.

  The need of sensitive receivers is great. Train yourselves. Forget yourselves and your own petty little affairs—so petty and unimportant when viewed in relation to the momentous issues of the present time. Keep an attentive ear to the voices which issue forth from the world of spiritual Being, and love each other with loyalty and steadfastness.

  V. THE GROWTH OF TELEPATHIC RAPPORT

  [31] I would like to point out that the use of words telepathically must be mastered as a preliminary step to the use of sentences and of thoughts. Choose a word and meditate upon it, knowing wherefore you have chosen it. Study it in the four ways indicated by Patanjali; (The Light of the Soul, page 33) that is:

  1. Study its form, study it symbolically, as a word picture.

  2. Study it from the angle of quality, of beauty, of desire.

  3. Study its underlying purpose and teaching value, and its mental appeal.

  4. Study its very being and identify yourself with its divine underlying idea.

  When you have reached this final stage, hold your consciousness steady at that high point as you (if you are a transmitter) send out the word to the receiver or to the receiving group. Receivers should in their turn achieve, as far as they can, complete alignment so as to be responsive to all these four aspects of the word. This method will serve to shift the receiver nearer to the plane where he should function—the level of the higher mind. The word goes out upon the life breath of the transmitter; his lower mind then sends out the purpose aspect; his astral consciousness is responsible for sending out the quality aspect; and the form aspect is sent out as he says the word—very softly and in a whisper.

  The above is a good exercise and very simple; telepathic power should greatly increase if one faithfully follows these four stages—up and within, down and without—in the [32] work of transmitting. During the first or form stage one may use what symbolic forms one likes to embody the word, for such a word as “will” has no appropriate form like “pool” has; one may, if he choose, preserve the word form, seeing it letter for letter or as a whole. But one must be sure to end with the picture form or the word form with which he began; and that he sends out, at the close, what he formulated at the beginning.

  To summarise: A group of disciples working in an Ashram has to learn that—

  1. Groups are held together by an inner structure of thought.

  2. The focus of the externalised group life is the etheric body.

  The etheric body is:

  a. A receiving agency.

  b. A circulating medium for energy coming from the mind, from the soul, from the Master, or from the group mind.

  3. The mind is the first exoteric expression of the soul consciousness, as far as the true aspirant is concerned.

  4. The following telepathic relationships are possible and must be borne in mind:

  a. Solar plexus to solar plexus.

  b. Mind to mind.

  c. Master to disciple.

  d. Groups of disciples to other similar groups.

  e. Subjective groups to objective receptive groups.

  f. The Hierarchy, through its great Leaders, to the various Ashrams of the Masters. [33]

  g. The Hierarchy to the New Group of World Servers.

  5. The major factors which must be considered in all telepathic work are:

  a. The initiating agent or emanating source.

  b. The recipient of the ideas, thoughts or energy.

  c. The medium of revelation.

  The growth of telepathic rapport will bring in an era of universality and synthesis, with its qualities of recognised relationships and responsiveness. This will be, outstandingly, the glory of the Aquarian Age.

  As the race achieves increasingly a mental polarisation through the developing attractive power of the mental principle, the use of language for the conveying of thoughts between equals or of communicating with superiors will fall into disuse. It will continue to be used in reaching the masses and those not functioning upon the mental plane. Already voiceless prayer and aspiration and worship are deemed of higher value than the pleadings and proclamations of voiced expression. It is for this stage in the unfoldment of the race for which preparation must be made, and the laws, techniques and process of telepathic communication must be made plain so that they can be intelligently and theoretically understood.

  Disciples must occupy themselves increasingly with right understanding, right designation and right definition of
the new science of telepathy. Mental comprehension and mental sympathy will make true interplay possible, and this will bridge between the old way of understanding thought through the medium of the spoken or written word (embodying that thought as the individual thinker seeks to convey it) and the future stage of immediate response to [34] thought, unlimited by speech or other medium of expression. Disciples will endeavour to work in both ways, and the medium of normal human relations and that of supernormal subjective relations must be studied by them and expressed by them. In this way the time of bridging and the period of transition can be spanned. It will take about five hundred years for the race to become normally telepathic, and when I say normally I mean consciously. This bridging work must be carried forward by disciples in three ways:

  1. By an endeavour to understand:

  a. The medium of transmission.

  b. The method of transmission.

  c. The manner of reception.

  d. The mode of inter-related activity.

  2. By the cultivation of sensitive reactions to each other and to the other human units with whom the lot of the disciples may be cast. This involves:

  a. Sensitive physical reaction, via the centres, to the forces emanating from the centres of those with whom the disciples are associated. Particularly should the sensitivity of the ajna centre be developed.

  b. Sensitivity to the state of feeling or to the emotional reactions of those around. This is done through the development of compassion and of sympathy, plus that detachment which will enable one to take right action.

  c. Sensitivity to the thoughts of others through mental rapport with them upon the plane of mind. [35]

  3. By all these done also in group formation as well as individually. All the activities mentioned above must constitute group activity.

  In these three ways the vehicle of the personality can be so conditioned that it can become a sensitive receiving apparatus. When, however, soul consciousness is achieved or developing, then this triple instrument is superseded by the intuitional receptivity of the soul—whose inclusiveness is absolute and who is at-one with the soul in all forms.

  Those disciples who are working along this line are the nurturers of the seed of the future intuitional civilisation, which will come to its full glory in the Aquarian Age. The intuition is the infallibly sensitive agent, latent in every human being; it is based, as you know, upon direct knowledge, unimpeded by any instrument normally functioning in the three worlds. Of this intuitional future age, Christ is the Seed Man, for “He knew what was in man.” Today, a group or a unit of groups can be the nurturers of the seed of the intuition; the cultivation of sensitivity to telepathic impression is one of the most potent agencies in developing the coming use of the intuitive faculty.

  The truly telepathic man is the man who is responsive to impressions coming to him from all forms of life in the three worlds, but he is also equally responsive to impressions coming to him from the world of souls and the world of the intuition. It is the development of the telepathic instinct which will eventually make a man a master in the three worlds, and also in the five worlds of human and superhuman development. By a process of withdrawal (of occult abstraction) and of concentration upon the telepathic cult, the whole science of telepathy (as a seed of a future racial potency) can be developed and understood. This is a process now going forward, and it is going on in two ways: [36] through the medium of telepathic groups and of telepathic people, and through the medium of exoteric scientific investigation. The building of the thoughtform which will accustom the race to the idea of telepathic work is proceeding apace, and the seed of this development is becoming very vital and powerful and germinating with real rapidity. It is, in the last analysis, the seed of MASTERHOOD.

  VI. GROUP TELEPATHIC WORK

  [37] I shall now take up with you the subject of united group telepathic work, its possibilities and the present opportunity, touching upon the dangers involved and the responsibility which will rest upon your shoulders and upon those of all disciples who may attempt to work in this way. You need to bear in mind the following three injunctions:

  First: It is essential that you acquire facility in tuning in on each other with deepest love and understanding; that you develop impersonality so that when a brother tunes in on a weakness or a strength, upon a mistake or a right attitude, it evokes from you no slightest reaction that could upset the harmony of the group united work as planned; that you cultivate a love which will ever seek to strengthen and to help, and a power to supplement or complement each other which will be of use in balancing the group, as a working unit under spiritual impression. The discovery of a weakness in a group brother should only produce the evocation of a deeper love; the discovery that you have made a mistake (if you have) in interpreting a brother should only prompt you to a renewed vital effort to approach more closely to his soul; the revelation to you of a brother’s strength will indicate where you can look for help in any hour of your own need. State frankly what you feel as you work month after month at this task of group rapport, deliberately tuning out criticism and substituting for it analysis—an analysis impersonally given; state truthfully what you sense and register. Your conclusions may be right or wrong, but a definite effort to comply and to recognise consciously the gained impression should aid the group blending without undue delay into an instrument of sensitive understanding. If disciples cannot tune in on each other [38] with ease after long periods of close relationship, how can they, as a group, tune in on some individual or some group of individuals unknown to them in their personalities? Unless such interplay is established fundamentally and unless there is a close integration between the members who constitute the group, it will not be possible for constructively useful and spiritually oriented and controlled work to be properly carried forward and successfully accomplished. But it is a task which you can accomplish if you will, and real application over a period of time should enable the group to work smoothly and well together. The three Rules (A Treatise on White Magic, page 320) for beginners, earlier given, embody the first steps leading to the attitude required in true hierarchical work; this is the objective of the accepted disciple.

  Secondly: Your constant effort—to be carried forward steadily and slowly—must be to bring about a group love of such strength that nothing can break it and no barriers rise up between you; to cultivate a group sensitivity of such a quality that your diagnosis of conditions will be relatively accurate; to develop and unfold a group ability to work as a unit, so that there will be nothing in the inner attitudes of any of the group members which could break into the carefully established rhythm. For it is quite possible for a member of the group to retard the work and to hold back the group because he is so engrossed in his own affairs or in his own ideas of self-development; when some members cease their activity it does affect the inner group vibration; when others become slowed up by definite changes in their outer or inner lives, this requires periods of adjustment and oft of re-organisation of the life. These changes, being externalised, can produce powerful psychological changes and upset the rhythm of the soul’s endeavour. A tried and [39] experienced disciple will not let such a change upset his inner rhythm, but a less experienced disciple needs real soul watchfulness to the danger of sidetracking the life interest from spiritual purposes to personality attentions and interests.

  Thirdly: Any group work of this kind must be most carefully controlled; any group effort which seeks to impress the mind of any subject (whether an individual or a group) must be strenuously guarded as to motive and method; any group endeavour which involves a united applied effort to effect changes in the point of view, an outlook on life, or a technique of living must be utterly selfless, most wisely and cautiously undertaken, and must be kept free from any personality emphasis, any personality pressure and any mental pressure which is formulated in terms of individual belief, prejudice, dogmatism or ideas. I would ask you to study the above few words most carefully.

  T
he moment that there is the least tendency on the part of a group, or of an individual in a group, to force an issue, to bring so much mental pressure to bear that an individual or group is helpless under the impact of other minds, you have what is called “black magic.” Right motive may protect the group from any serious results to themselves, but the effect upon their victim will be definitely serious, rendering him negative, and with a weakened will.

  The result of all true telepathic work and rightly directed effort to “impress” a subject will be to leave him with a strengthened will to right action, an intensified interior light, an astral body freer from glamour, and a physical body more vital and purer. The potency of a united group activity is incredibly powerful. The occult aphorism that “energy follows thought” is either a statement of a truth or else a meaningless phrase.

  [40] Forget not that the method of work of the Hierarchy is that of impression upon the minds of Their disciples, of telepathic work carried on with the Master as broadcaster and the disciple as the recipient of impression and of energy. This reception of impression and energy has a dual effect:

  1. It brings into activity the latent seeds of action and of habits (good or bad), thus producing revelation, purification, enrichment and usefulness.

  2. It vitalises and galvanises the personality into a right relation to the soul, to the environment, and to humanity.

  It is necessary for you and for all disciples to grasp the correspondence to this hierarchical effort and any effort which you may make in order to work as a group of individuals with groups or individuals. An appreciation of the power which you may let loose, of the dynamic effect which you may succeed in awakening in the subject of your directed thought, and of the impression which you may imprint in the mind and consciousness of the subject should incite you to a guarded purity of life (astral and physical), to a watchfulness over thoughts and ideas, and to a love which will safeguard you from all love of power. Thus you will preserve the integrity of those you seek to help and will be enabled to suggest, to strengthen and to teach subjectively with no undue influence, no forcing, and no infringement of the liberty and spiritual franchise of the person concerned. A difficult task, my brothers, but one to which you are equal, given due attention and obedience to the above three injunctions as to motive, technique and method.