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Self-Development and the Way To Power
L. W. Rogers
Written in 1922. The
electronic version is courtesy of
Project Gutenberg
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Thus our evolution is going forward and has gone forward
in the past. We know that the human race has passed
through a long evolution during which it has acquired
five senses by which knowledge is gained. Nobody who has
given thought to the subject will make the mistake of
supposing that this evolution is completed and that the
five senses are all we shall ever possess.
In this long evolutionary
journey the next thing we shall do is to develop the
sixth sense. Some people have already done so and all
are approaching it. This dawning sense is called
clairvoyance. Fair investigation will show that the
clairvoyant possesses certain powers not common to the
majority of people. This is merely the beginning of the
development of the sixth sense, and probably with the
majority of clairvoyants it goes no further than etheric
and lower astral sight.In other words, they are able to
raise the consciousness only to a grade of matter a
little beyond the grasp of ordinary vision, while the
properly developed, trained clairvoyant raises his
consciousness two full planes beyond.
The higher the
consciousness is raised the further the horizon of
knowledge extends and the clairvoyant is able to hand
down information that appears quite miraculous; but it
is perfectly natural. If a certain person were born
blind and had never understood any more about eyesight
than most people understand about clairvoyance; if this
person could know how many doorways were in a large
building only by groping along with his hands and thus
acquiring the knowledge by
touch, and another person who could see should glance
along the block and instantly tell the blind man the
correct number, that would be to the blind man a
miracle. Now, when a clairvoyant sees things at a
distance where the physical eye cannot reach he really
does nothing more remarkable. When we see a thing we
receive the vibrations caused by light. That gives the
information. When the clairvoyant "sees" at a distance
through what we mistakenly call solid substances he
receives vibrations of matter so fine that it
interpenetrates solids as the ether does.
Every human being
must make, and is making, this long evolutionary journey
from spiritual infancy to godlike power and perfection,
but there are two ways in which it may be done. We may,
as the vast majority do, accept the process of
unconscious evolution and submit to nature's whip and
spur that continuously urge the thoughtless and
indifferent forward until they finally reach the goal.
Or, we may choose conscious evolution and work
intelligently with nature, thus making progress that is
comparatively of enormous rapidity and at the same time
avoid much of what Hamlet called the "slings and arrows
of outrageous fortune."
The degree to which mind can control circumstances and
dominate matter is far greater than is generally
believed. Our impressions about matter are very
illusory. No form of matter is permanent. Change goes on
everywhere at every instant, by physical laws in the
physical body and by astral and mental laws in our
invisible bodies. We are not the same being, physically,
mentally or spiritually, any two days in succession. The
very soul itself is subject to this law of change. It
may expand and shine out through the physical organism
resplendent, or it may only faintly glimmer through a
constantly coarsening body.
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