Do animals think? We know that some animals appear to do so, but they are
the highest domesticated animals which have come into close touch with man for
generations and have thus developed a faculty not possessed by other animals
which have not had that advantage. This is on the same principle that a highly
charged wire will "induce" a weaker current of electricity in a wire brought
close to it; or that a man of strong morals will arouse a like tendency in a
weaker nature. All we do, say, or are reflects itself in our surroundings.
This is why the domestic animals seem to think. They are the highest of their
kind, almost to the point of individualization, and man's thought vibrations
have "induced" in them a similar activity of a lower order.
Only man possessed the complete chain of vehicles correlating him to all
divisions of the three worlds. The animal lacks one link of this chain, the
mind.
The animal "Spirit" has in its descent reached only the Desire World. It has
not yet evolved to the point where it can "enter" a dense body. Therefore the
animal has no individual indwelling Spirit such as man possesses, but a Group-
Spirit which directs it from without. The animal has the dense body, the vital
body, and the desire body. There is a point between the eye brows and about
one half inch below the surface of the skin which has a corresponding point in
the vital body of a human being. These two points were as far apart in the men
and women of the early Atlantean days as they are in the animals of our day.
They are closer together in the dog than in any other animal, except perhaps,
the elephant. The vital body and the desire body of an animal are not entirely
within the dense body, especially where the head is concerned. For instance,
the etheric head of a horse projects far beyond and above the dense, physical
head. When, as in rare cases it happens, the etheric head of the horse draws
into the head of the dense body, the horse can then learn to read, count, and
work examples in elementary arithmetic, etc. Among the animal prodigies who
were so accomplished and attracted attention from far and near were the four
Elberfeld horses of West Prussia, in which scientists became interested just
before World War I. All four horses died during the war, however, before any
accepted explanation was forthcoming. There was also the shy little mare in
the United States by the name of Lady Wonder. Her mistress had a typewriter
especially built for her, on which she typed out the answers to questions from
her many visitors.
For the same reason it is a fact that horses, dogs, cats, and other
domesticated animals sense the Desire World, though not always realizing the
difference between it and the Physical World. A horse will shy at the sight of
a figure invisible to the driver; a cat will go through the motions of rubbing
itself against invisible legs. The cat sees the ghost, however, without
realizing that it has no dense legs available for frictional purposes. The
dog, wiser than the cat or horse, often will sense that there is something he
does not understand about the appearance of a dead master whose hand it cannot
lick. It will howl mournfully and slink into a corner.
The following illustration may perhaps be of service to show the difference
between the man with his indwelling Spirit and the animal with his Group
Spirit.
Let us imagine a room divided by means of a curtain, one side of the curtain
representing the Desire World and the other side the Physical World. There are
two men in the room, one in each division; they cannot see each other nor can
they get into the same division. There are, however, ten holes in the curtain,
and the man who is in the division, representing the Desire World, can put his
ten fingers through these holes into the other divisions, representing the
Physical World. He now furnishes an excellent representation of the Group
Spirit which is in the Desire World. The fingers represent the animals
belonging to one species. He is able to move them as he wishes, but he cannot
use them as freely nor as intelligently as the man who is walking about in the
physical division uses his body. The latter sees the fingers which are thrust
through the curtain, and he observes that they all move, but he does not see
the connection between them. To him it appears that they are all separate and
distinct from one another. He cannot see that they are the fingers of the man
behind the veil and are governed in their movements by his intelligence. If he
hurts one of the fingers, it is not one of the fingers that is hurt, but
chiefly the man on the other side of the curtain.
If an animal is hurt, it suffers, but not to the degree that the Group
Spirit does. The finger has no individual consciousness; it does as the man
dictates; so do the animals move as the Group Spirit dictates. We hear of
"animal instinct" and "blind instinct." There is nothing "blind" about the way
the Group Spirit guides its members; there is wisdom in the Desire World,
spelled with capitals. The trained clairvoyant, when functioning in the Desire
World, can communicate with these Spirits of the animal species and finds
them much more intelligent than a large percentage of human beings. He can see
the marvelous insight they display in marshaling the animals which as their
physical bodies. The separate animal Spirits are as yet not self-conscious,
hence they act without question according to the suggestions of the Group
Spirit. The Group Spirit is an entity belonging to a different evolution, and
it functions in the invisible worlds where things are much more apparent than
they are here. It follows, therefore, that what we call instinct is really the
suggestions of the Group Spirit in the invisible world which guides the
animals.
The Spirit of the group gathers its flock of birds in the fall and compels
them to migrate to the south, neither too early nor too late to escape the
winter's chilly blast. It directs their return in the spring, causing them to
fly at just the proper altitude, which differs for the different species.
The Group Spirit of the beaver teaches it to build its dam across a stream
at exactly a proper angle. It considers the rapidity of the flow and all the
circumstances, precisely as a skilled engineer would do, showing that it is
up-to-date in every particular of the craft as is the college bred,
technically educated man or woman. The wisdom of the Group Spirit directs the
building of the hexagon cell of the bee with such geometrical nicety; it
teaches the snail to fashion its house in an accurate, beautiful spiral; it
teaches the ocean mollusk the art of decorating its iridescent shell. Wisdom,
wisdom everywhere! so grand, so great, that one who looks with an observant
eye is filled with amazement and reverence.
Owing to the spiral path of evolution, the higher domesticated animals,
particularly the dog, horse, cat, and elephant see objects somewhat similarly
as man — in sharp, distinct outlines.
The relation of plant, animal, and man to the life currents in the Earth's
atmosphere are symbolically represented by the cross, and the animal, which is
symbolized by the horizontal limb of the cross, is between the plant and the
man. Its spine is in a horizontal position, and through it play the currents
of the animal Group Spirit, which is the guardian of the animal Spirits. No
animal can be made to remain constantly upright, because in that case the
currents of the Group Spirit could not guide it, and if it were sufficiently
individualized to endure the spiritual currents which enter the vertical human
spine, it would die. Animals have only twenty-eight pairs of spinal nerves,
and they are keyed to the lunar moth of twenty-eight days, as compared to man
who has thirty-one pairs of spinal nerves which key him to the solar month.
Therefore, the animal is dependent upon the Group Spirit for an infusion of
stellar rays necessary to produce consciousness. They are altogether incapable
of absorbing the direct rays of the Sun.
The animals are our "younger brother" and though they are not now so finely
organized, they eventually will reach a stage as high as our own. We then
shall have ascended still higher. There are occult reasons clearly explained
in "The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception" by Max Heindel as to why the breeding of animals should be carefully supervised, for the well being and advancement of
the entire animal kingdom. Animals in their wild state are exempt from
sickness and pain because their propagation is carried on under the care and
direction of the wise Group Spirit at only those times of the year which are
propitious to that purpose. The enlightened know the animals to by their
"younger brothers" and should help them as we are being helped along the path,
and for an aspirant to high ideals to kill — either in person or by proxy — is
out of the question. At the present stage of our evolutionary journey,
everyone knows inherently that it is wrong to kill, and man will love and
protect animals in all cases where his greed and selfish interests do not
blind him to their rights. The law protects a cat or a dog against wanton
cruelty. Except in "sports," that most wanton of all our cruelties against the
animal creation, it is always for the sake of money that animals are murdered
and bred to be murdered. By the devotees of "sport," the helpless creatures
are shot down to no purpose save to build up a false idea of prowess upon the
part of the huntsman. It is hard to understand how people who appear otherwise
sane and kindly can trample upon all their gentle instincts and revert to
savagery, killing for sheer lust of blood and joy in destruction. It is
certainly a reversion to the lowest savage animal instincts, and can never be
dignified into the remotest semblance of anything "manly."
After death an animal persists for a longer or shorter time, according to
the stage of its evolution, in a desire body made of the material of the
Desire World. Even the beetle that is stepped upon on the road may be seen by
the clairvoyant to walk a few feet away and then gradually fade to
nothingness. It persists only a few moments in its shape before the Spirit
returns to the central source of the Group Spirit. In the case of the horse or
cow or any of the higher animals, there is a correspondingly longer time and
more consciousness in the Desire World than in the case of these lower forms.
The animal Spirits sent by the Group Spirit into incarnation from time to
time into the animal bodies of its tribe, one Spirit to each body, return to
the Group Spirit at death, having gained a higher grade of consciousness than
when they were born. This helps the Group Spirit to evolve, and in return it
governs the spirits of the separate animals in its tribe.
After the death of the physical body, the spirit of the animal passes out of
the dead body and soon returns to the Group Spirit. The love and care which we
have given them naturally furthers them greatly in their evolution. While the
wild animals act entirely under the dictates of the Group Spirit by what we
call instinct, the domestic animals show a capability of thought entirely
beyond their normal evolution at the present time. Since we know the domestic
animals learn from us and that every kind act we do for them aids them in
their progress, we may safely infer that the animals which have become
domesticated will in time become the teachers of their less advanced brothers.
The service rendered by the lower to the higher as stepping-stones can only
be paid for by service. The higher owes the lower a debt of gratitude. Christ
recognized this, that without pupils there could be no teacher, and in
gratitude for the privilege of teaching and bringing into the world the
wonderful Christian Religion. He washed His disciples' feet. In future aeons
the lower kingdoms now acting as stepping-stones and a means of growth and
experience to us will need help and service, which must then be given by us.
Thus the human race, which now abuses the animals, will then have to act as
their servitors, aiding them to attain the very utmost from the school of
evolution as it will be carried on in that day.
The animal spirits whose bodies are now tortured in the vivisection hells
for no purpose, or slaughtered for food, will in that day become our pupils,
and it will be our duty as their guardians to help them grow and propagate the
life man now deprives them of. Vivisection is looked upon by all occult
students as an abomination and among the blackest of all crimes. If it were
only possible for the vivisectionist to realize what is in store for them
after death, vivisection would be abolished, and the torture chambers would be
empty. As Christians we believe it to be our duty to avoid sacrificing the
lives of animals for any purpose whatsoever. We hold vivisection to be
diabolical and inhuman.
It is evident that evolutionary progress is elevating the lower kingdoms as
well as humanity. The animals, particularly the domesticated species, are
nearing individualization, and their withdrawal from manifestation has already
commenced. As a result it will in time be impossible to obtain flesh food.
Then the death knell of "King Alcohol" will have struck, for only flesh eaters
crave liquor.
In the Rosicrucian terminology, the names of the seven periods of our Earth
are as follows: 1) The Saturn Period; 2) The Sun Period; 3) The Moon Period;
4) The Earth Period; 5) The Jupiter Period (Animals will reach a stage similar
to ours in development but under different conditions in the Jupiter Period);
6) The Venus Period (Plants will be the humanity here under different
conditions); 7) The Vulcan Period (Minerals will reach the human stage under
the conditions here.).
These periods are past, present, or future incarnations of our Earth,
conditions through which it has passed, is now passing, or will pass in the
future.
From the point at which the pioneers our our life wave occupied ape-like
forms, they have progressed to their present stage of development, while the
"missing link" the scientists have been searching for these many years, have
degenerated and are now ensouled by the last stragglers of the Saturn Period.
The lower monkeys, instead of being the progenitors of the higher species,
are stragglers occupying the most degenerated specimens of what was once the
human form. Instead of man having ascended from the anthropoids, the reverse
is true — the anthropoids have degenerated from man. Material science, dealing
only with form, has thus misled itself and drawn erroneous conclusions in this
matter.
Each life-wave, however, remains definitely confined within its own borders.
The anthropoids may overtake us and become human beings, but no other animal
will reach our particular point of development. They will reach a similar
stage, but under different conditions, in the Jupiter Period.
Science has discovered that hemolysis results from the inoculation of the
blood of one individual into the veins of another of a different species,
causing the death of the lower of the two. Thus any animal inoculated with
the blood of a man dies. The blood of a dog transfused into the veins of a
bird kills the bird, but it will not hurt the dog to have the bird's blood
inoculated into its veins.
When the blood of a higher animal is inoculated into the veins of one from
a lower species, the Spirit in the blood of the higher animal, of course, is
stronger than the Spirit of the less evolved; hence, when it endeavors to
assert itself, it kills the imprisoning form and liberates itself. When, on
the other hand, the blood of a lower species is inoculated into the veins of
a higher animal, the higher Spirit is capable of ousting the less evolved
Spirit in the strange blood and assimilating the blood to its own purpose,
therefore no visible catastrophe ensues.
The Group Spirit always aims to preserve the integrity of its domain in the
blood of the species under its charge. It resents the breeding of animals
which produce hybrids. When a horse and a donkey produce a mule for instance,
the mixture of strange blood destroys the propagative faculty so as not to
perpetuate the hybrid which is an abomination from the standpoint of the Group
Spirit. The mule is not so definitely under the domination of the Group Spirit
of the horse or of the Group Spirit of the donkey as is the pure breed, yet it
is not so far away as to be entirely exempt from their influence.
Therefore, as the Group Spirit of the animals sends the separate Spirits of
the animals into embodiment, it simply withholds the fertilizing seed-atom
when animals of widely differing species are mated. It permits one of its
charges to take advantage of an opportunity for re-embodiment when two animals
of nearly the same nature are mated, but refuses to let the hybrids perpetuate
themselves. Thus, we see that the infusion of strange blood weakens the hold
of the Group Spirit, and that, therefore, it destroys either the form or the
propagative faculty where it has the power.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox offers the rightful claim of the entire animal kingdom
in the following beautiful words:
I am the voice of the voiceless; Through me the dumb shall speak, Till a deaf
world's ear Shall be made to hear The wrongs of the wordless weak.
The same force formed the sparrow That fashioned man the King. The God of the
Whole Gave a spark of soul To furred and feathered thing.
And I am my brother's keeper; And I will fight his fight, And speak the word
For beast and bird Till the world shall set things right.
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