Respiration is not only automatic and involuntary, but the primary function of the living organism. All other functions are secondary and designed to keep the body fit to perform the breathing function.
The lungs are definitely designed for and adapted to their work. They are by far the largest organs in the body, filling the thorax from the collar bone to the lower-most ribs, and from the sternum in front to the spine in back.
The Lungs are truly the Organs of Life. When you stop breathing you stop living; and when you die, you go gasping for breath.
Professor J. S. Haldane of England, in his work on Respiration, wrote:
“Living is actually a struggle for air. Keep the vast lung surface of the body supplied with fresh air, and observe all other health rules, and there is, speaking scientifically, no known reason why you should ever die.”
The Living Organism contacts the realms of Spiritual and Material Substance through the respiratory and digestive organs. The body is equipped with Dual Centers to insure
(1) its preservation and
(2) its perpetuation.
The first of these centers are the Organs of Respiration. They are for the preservation of the organism itself. The second are the Organs of Generation. They are for the perpetuation of the race.
The Breathing Centers, the Spiritual Organs, are the point in physiology where the ignorance of physical science “is profound” to use the words of the great Carrel. He wrote:
“In fact, our ignorance (of the body and its function) is profound. Our knowledge of man is still most rudimentary. Our knowledge of the human body is, in truth, most rudimentary. It is impossible to grasps its constitution. An endocrinologist, a psychoanalyst, a biological chemist are equally ignorant of man. Our knowledge of man is still rudimentary” (Man The Unknown, Pp. 4, 5, 109, 289).
Dr. A. E. Crews, professor of Edinburgh University, wrote:
“It is more difficult to explain why man dies than why he does not live forever.”
WHY MAN DIES
If we know not why man dies, it might be well to learn why he lives, as such knowledge may disclose the reason of his death.
“And He breathed into them the Breath of Life. Life came with the Breath, and so Breath became the Principle of Life. But it goes deeper than that. We must breathe to get food from the air with which to sustain life. Breathing is properly the first requisite to health” (Editor of Nature’s Path).
Some may sneer at that statement and contend that there is no Life Principle; that vital function is the result of a series of chemical changes (Osler).
Ancient science held that through the nose and mouth, through his respiratory and digestive organs, the Spiritual Essence of the Universe enters man’s organism, thus linking him directly with God.
The absolute and uninterrupted persistence of the function of respiration is the leading wonder of the living organism.
As the new-born babe takes its first inhalation, it begins that process of breathing which will never cease except in death. Its cessation for only a few minutes is fatal.
This knowledge discloses why man lives and why he dies. It narrows the search for the secret why man dies to the point where we must discover why respiration fails.
The process of breathing contacts man with God. Were that contact never disrupted, it would mean Eternal Physical Existence and Eternal Knowledge, according to Herbert Spencer (1820-1903).
WHY MAN LIVES
Spencer gave the modern world the most scientific explanation why man lives and dies. He wrote:
“Perfect correspondence would be Perfect Life. Were there no changes in the Environment but such as the Organism had adapted changes to meet, and were it never to fail in the efficiency with which it met them, there would be Eternal (Physical) Existence and Eternal Knowledge.” (Principles of Biology).
Spencer committed the error of believing that God’s work is imperfect, and that man’s somatic demise results from the faulty construction of his organism.
If we can define scientifically a condition in which the organism would continue to live without end, then eternal physical life becomes a reality attainable by supplying that condition.
Professor Weissman said that:
“Death is not a primitive attribute of living matter, but is of secondary origin.”
Dr. James T. Monroe supported that assertion when he wrote:
“The human frame as a machine is perfect. It contains within itself no marks by which we can possibly predict its decay. It is apparently intended to go on forever” (Advanced Physiology).
Not only is man a mystery, but equally mysterious is the reason why he dies. Dr. William Hammond, late Surgeon General, U. S. Army, wrote:
“There is no physiological reason known at the present day why man should die” (How To Live Forever).
Biology shows that man could not come into physical being until the condition of his physical Environment met the requirements of the Law of Perfect Correspondence.
We know that condition prevailed when the first man came into physical existence. We feel safe in assuming that these harmonic conditions continued so closely to perfection, that early man lived for thousands of years.
God’s Plan of Life intended that Perfect Correspondence should always prevail as between man and his environment. That would fulfill Spencer’s Law of Eternal Physical Existence and Eternal Knowledge.
It appears logical that man’s death was due to his failure to live in complete harmony with the law that made him a physical being.
Spencer cannot be wrong in holding that perfect correspondence would be perfect life. That is the Law of Physical Existence. But he cannot be right in assuming that the discord rises from faulty construction and constitution of the body. In that case man could not have come into physical being.
The biblical record shows that it was Adam’s misconduct, not the faulty constitution of his body, that created the discordant condition that caused his somatic demise (Gen. 2, 3, 4).
Professor Henry Drummond supported the theory of man’s contact with God when he referred to the “scientific principle of continuity existing from the physical world to the spiritual.”
While ancient records and later discoveries support Drummond’s assertion, it is so directly opposed to the theory of Evolution that physical science rejects it, and suppresses all fact which upset its theories.
While the line of contact between man and God remains normal, perfect correspondence prevails. No reason for its disruption appears—except that the contact is weakened by the degeneracy of man’s body, due to the artificial environment he has built for himself, and the faulty habits he has acquired.
Civilized man has long been a stranger to the Natural Environment in which the race first came into physical being. Carrel says:
“The environment which moulded the body and soul of our ancestors during many millenniums has not been replaced by another” (Man The Unknown, P. 10).
The constitution of man’s body has not changed to meet the new conditions of his artificial environment that has replaced his natural one. The result is that of perpetual discord between man and his environment. The effect of this discord is a general deterioration of man’s body, the symptoms of which are termed disease.
Man’s artificial environment and faulty habits cause degeneration to progress steadily in his body, causing the line of contact with God to weaken. The result is a decrease in the Breath of Life that leads to somatic death.
It is similar to a machine that weakens and fails because of faulty contact with its source of power. The electric machine stops and the electric light dies when contact with the source of power is disrupted or severed.
Man is governed by a similar law. He weakens and dies when contact with his source of power is disrupted or severed. His physical demise results because for him perfect correspondence with the Conditions of Life no longer prevails.
LESSON NO. 22—SPIRITUAL ORGANS
“Each part
of the body seems to know the present and future needs of the whole, and acts accordingly. The significance of Time and Space is not the same for our Cells as for our (physical) Mind. The body perceives the remote as well as the near, the future as well as the present” (Carrel, in Man The Unknown, P. 197).
We saw how amazingly little modern science knows of the Breath of Life and the function of Respiration. It has not yet discovered in the body the Spiritual Organs of man.
Ancient writings are filled with references to the Spiritual World. Modern science holds that such world is a myth—that all is material substance and mechanical energy.
Ancient science taught that man is a miniature Universe (Microcosm). Hence, if there is a Spiritual Realm in the Universe (Macrocosm), there must also be one in man. If that be true, man’s body must contain organs through which the Spiritual Realm may manifest itself on the material plane.
Not long ago modern science regarded the air as empty and void. Thousands of years before the Masters taught that the Essence of the Universe is in the Infinite Air in eternal movement which contains ALL in itself.”
All animals exhibited strange powers. Hornets and wasps have always known how to make paper. They were never taught and needed no experience. Whence comes this knowledge?
Birds have always built their nests as they do now, and each kind builds a certain type of nest. They were never taught, and needed no experience. Whence comes this knowledge?
Birds know which way to travel and when to avoid winter’s icy blast. They know that snow and ice will come at a certain time, and they must fly in a definite direction to a certain region to escape the fate of being frozen to death. Whence comes this knowledge?
Modern science has no rational answer for these questions. The best it can do is to suggest that the birds and beasts are guided by “instinct.” It fails to explain what “instinct” is, and assumes that it must be a property of Matter.
MATERIALISM IS A SUPERSTITION
Modern physics has studied phenomena in matter around us. That brand of physics died with the discovery of the electron. Physicists are now busy trying to make the electron fit their materialism. They refuse to understand that the electron belongs to another world—the Spiritual World of the Masters.
Professor J.S. Halsdane, noted English astronomer, said:
“Materialism, once a plausible theory, is now the fatalistic creed of thousands (of modern scientists), but materialism is nothing better than a superstition, on the same level as a belief in witches and devils. The materialists theory (of science) is bankrupt.”
And so is the materialist theory of Evolution.
Radio, Radar and Television are mechanized examples of the Spiritual Powers that operate as Vital Intelligence in the strange conduct of birds and beasts, which science calls Instinct. Why does man not have these powers?
The Ancient Masters taught that there is a Spiritual Realm in man. “The kingdom of God is within you” (Lu. 17:21). That includes everything and all.
The Spiritual Realm of God in man is located in the Spiritual Chambers of the skull, called the Golden Bowl by the Masters (Eccl. 12:6).
These Chambers, the function of which is unknown to modern science, are Five in number. The Masters called them the Five Stars of the Microcosm, and they are symbolized in ancient scriptures by certain fives, as the Five Golden Emerods (1 S. 6:4); the Five Loaves (Mat. 14:17), etc.
The Sankhys doctrine states that the Five Physical Senses of conscious man are the exteriorized products of the five corresponding Spiritual Centers, which are as follows:
1. FRONTAL SINUS—A cavity in the frontal bone of the skull.
2. SPHENOIDAL SINUS—A cavity in the sphenoid bone of the skull.
3. MAXILLARY SINUS—Largest of the five, and resembles a pyramid in shape.
4. PALATINE SINUS—A cavity in the orbital process of the palatine bone and opening into either the sphenoidal or a posterior ethmoidal sinus.
5. ETHMOIDAL SINUS—This chamber consists of numerous small cavities occupying the labyrinth of the ethmoid bone, and in these cavities are situated the small, mysterious glands known in Occult Science as the Intellectual Organs.
The Sinuses communicate directly or indirectly with the nasal cavity; and it is highly significant to observe that they receive the Breath of Life directly and unmodified as it flows from the Universe to them through the nose, and before any of the other air organs have a chance to select and absorb any substance from the Spiritual Essence of the Cosmos, charged with every known and unknown element.
The Sinuses are lined with the mucus membrane extending into them from the nose, and to them rapidly spreads all disorders that affect the nose. They receive without protection the full charge of all poisonous gases and acids in the air.
The nose is the first organ that reacts to polluted air, and that reaction is called a “cold.” The inflammation resulting from the effect of the polluted air extends from the nasal mucus lining to that of the Sinuses, causing such disorders as frontal headache (frontal sinus), pain in the cheek (maxillary sinus), pain between the eyes (ethmoidal sinuses), and deep seated pain at back of eyes (sphenoidal sinus).
These aches and pains, indicating serious damage being done to these Spiritual Chambers, are caused by poisonous air entering the nostrils. The air may be so slightly polluted that it fails to produce the reaction called the “simple cold.”
Thus begins the destruction of the vital Spiritual Centers of man while he is only an infant—and when the truth is known, that “cold” is a sign of serious damage being done, and not so “simple” as some think.
The mucus excretions of the lining of the maxillary sinus, in inflammatory conditions, fill up this sinus, as the orifice is at the uppermost part. Much of the mucus as cannot be blown out through the nose, remains in the sinus where it gradually hardens, destroying the spiritual function of that chamber—the largest of the group.
RECOVERY FROM ILLNESS ONLY PARTIAL
Full recovery from ailments is a myth. Each one is a step down the ladder of degeneration to the grave at the bottom. If the illness is slight, the downward step is short. If severe, the downward step is longer.
Recoveries from each illness are only partial, regardless of how slight the illness may be. But if degeneration has not gone too far, a change in one’s mode of living that brings the body in harmony with God’s Law of Life, will result in Regeneration.
The sinuses superficially appear to some as nothing more than air chambers in the skull. They are ignorant of their true function, and assume that their purpose is to lend resonance to the voice. The voice organ is in the throat, not in the nose nor in the sinuses.
Occult Science, termed by modern science as “that school of stupid superstition,” teaches that in these Spiritual Chambers is located the seat of the Intellectual Divinity of man.
These air chambers and the small glands in them constitute the spiritual sense-centers that receive from the Cosmic Source the Higher Intelligence which is too substile for contact by the five physical senses of conscious man, in his present degenerate state. But this was not so when man enjoyed full Physical Perfection.
Into these chambers there incessantly flows from the Cosmic Ocean of Ether a peculiar gaseous substance, a substile essence, known to the Ancient Masters as Mental Spirit. It can produce no normal reaction in the spiritual chambers of civilized man, as they are deficient, dormant, degenerated by the evil work of polluted air.
The small glands, the Intellectual Organs, located in the skull near the point where the nose joins the forehead, are activated by the Mental Spirit that passes through the nostrils into the sinuses, and, when they are normal and functional, they coordinate and collaborate with the sinuses. This is the chief Spiritual Intelligent Center of man.
THE KINGDOM OF GOD WITHIN
In wild birds and beasts, and the wild natives that have not been tainted and tinged by the “blessings” of civilization, these spiritual centers are functi
onally developed—and modern science attempts to explain the uncanny powers of these creatures by asserting that they are guided by “instinct;” but we are not told what “instinct” is.
If a hunting dog be kept in the house and breathe the polluted air the same as the members of the family, in time the nerves in the nose and sinuses become dull, the dog loss its keen sense of smell and is unable to trail game. Like causes produce like effects.
Some wild tribes are found that still possess the peculiar powers of wild birds and beasts. The polluted air of civilization has not reached them yet, and their centers of Cosmic Intelligence are not dormant and rendered practically useless by the destructive action of polluted air, in which civilized man lives and labors from birth to death. •
UNCANNY POWERS OF INDIANS
According to innumerable observers and historians, as well as Indian tradition, when the Spaniards arrived to take over South America, they found that the Incan races had an uncanny and super-natural ability for conveying and receiving accurate information over long distances. If we are to credit the apparently unvarnished accounts, it was as remarkable in its way as wireless telegraphy or mental telepathy.
An Indian could and often did know exactly how many men or horses were approaching long before they could be seen or heard. He could tell where or in what direction a friend or foe was traveling, and he could perform many more equally mysterious feats.
Dr. Juan Durand, who devoted many years to a study of Indian history, traditions and life, personally witnessed such feats.
One night, while at an Indian hut at Raco, the Indian owner placed his ear to the floor and told Dr. Durand the exact number of men in a platoon of soldiers who were passing at a distance of more than three kilometers from the spot.
Man’s Higher Consciousness Page 19
