Question: From the occult point of view is it right or wrong to let a
defective infant die, as was done in the Bolinger case? Please let us have
your view on the matter. (Vol. II, #146)
Answer: When we consider the defectives as a class, it is first necessary to
realize that the Spirit is not defective. It has had innumerable past lives
during which it has sown certain seeds and reaped appropriate experiences
therefrom. Experiences which could not be reaped in one life have been held
over until the next life or later lives, and have there attained their
fruition. None of us, however, are capable of expressing in one body all of
the attainments that we have acquired in our many previous lives, therefore we
have many seeming anomalies brought to light in the investigation of psychical
researchers who have found that ignorant people in the peasant class in this
life, have been able under the spell of hypnosis or in trance to speak Greek
and Hebrew, also to discourse learnedly on abstruse subjects. Thus it is
evident that the Spirit may be likened to a diamond in the rough which is
being gradually ground upon the grindstone of experience. In each life a new
facet permits the light to enter and adds that light to the light already
obtained through facets ground in many previous lives. By this process we
shall eventually attain to the perfect light which makes us divine.
Because of our limited perception, we call certain actions evil and certain
other actions good, whereas from the larger point of view it is simply a
question of experience. Some characters or facets of the spiritual diamond
seem to be fairly perfect in this life. At least they do not seem out of the
ordinary to be sufficiently marked, and therefore we call them perfect. Others
are different from the rest and we therefore in our ignorance call them
defective. Similarly with bodies. Although as a matter of fact none of us
possess a perfect body, nevertheless, we take an average as a standard and
anything that does not come up to that mark we call defective. We allow those
who are not mentally very different from the general run of us, to go about
unmolested, but imprison those who seem to have a decidedly different turn of
mind. We pay no attention to the ordinary deformities of body, but designate
those which are materially different form our standard as defective. Some
think that they have a right to destroy anything or anybody that is not up to
the standard which they think ought to be normal.
As a matter of fact, the normal body is the result of a certain mode of life
in previous existences which was then standard. But the so-called defective
minds and defective bodies are the results of the efforts of Spirits to be
free to move among what we would call unconventional lines of thought or
action. Therefore genius and idiocy have always been twin brothers, and any
doctor who attempts to cut short the life of one he may think a defective is
just as liable to deprive the world of a great genius as he is to rid it of a
poor creature that would be a burden to himself and others during his
miserable existence. Thus, even from that point of view it would be absolutely
contrary to the interest of society to allow anyone to decide arbitrarily
whether a child should live or die. It is the duty of every doctor to do all
in his or her power to prolong life in the body so that the Spirit may gain
the experience it has come for. If that life is to be cut off nature will take
care to do that herself.
Investigation of the Bolinger case shows that that Ego had lived its
previous life a nun, and was burned at the stake. The result was that it lost
the fruit of that life, and under the law of infant mortality it was therefore
necessary for the new body to die soon after birth. Thus no operation could
have saved the life in this instance, but that does not do away with the fact
that the doctor was negligent of duty in not endeavoring to preserve the life.
This Spirit has now gone into the First Heaven and will there receive the
moral training which will restore to it the fruits of experience garnered
during that past unhappy life. Thus when it is reborn in the course of a few
years it will probably have a perfectly normal body.
The Results of
Burning Incense
Question: Will it raise the vibrations of a room to burn spices, and if so
what kind of spices should be used? (Vol. II, #148)
Answer: When disembodied Spirits wish to influence those who are still
enmeshed in the mortal coil, it is necessary for them to have a vehicle of
sufficient density to impinge upon the brain centers, or under certain
circumstances upon the coordinating mechanism of the cerebellum. Given such a
vehicle these Spirits can and do impress their victims physically, morally, or
mentally, according to their disposition.
It is a self-evident truth that one does not gather grapes of thorns, and
because a Spirit has no dense body is not a sign that it is a philanthropist.
There are more weeds in the physical world than flowers and there are more
evil (because undeveloped) Spirits in the invisible world than there are good
and noble ones.
When one burns incense in a room, the smoke and the odor which we see and
sense is material of such density that it may be made use of by certain
classes of Spirits which are attuned to the vibratory rate of that incense
which is being burned. When a reputable occultist, who has evolved spiritual
sight and is able to see the various entities in the invisible world, has
compounded an incense which he finds offers a vehicle only for Spirits of a
helpful nature who incline to raise the vibrations of those who breathe the
incense and the Spirits with it, then it may be an aid during periods of
prayer to raise the consciousness of the devotees to a union with the Divine.
On the other hand, if the incense has been compounded by someone ignorant of
occultism, perhaps by one who has a selfish motive in view, then it is a
vehicle for Spirits of a similar nature who clothe themselves in the smoke and
odor, enter the bodies of those who are present where the incense is being
burned and incite them to acts of debauchery and sensualism. The Chinese punk
sticks are a good example of this variety. It is also possible that when this
practice has been indulged in for some time the obsessing Spirits may obtain
such control over their victims that they incite them to frenzy, causing them
to exhibit the symptoms of epilepsy, frothing at the mouth, etc., or they
interfere with the bodily movements in a manner similar to that exhibited in
the so-called St. Vitus dance. Therefore, the practice of burning incense is
very dangerous, and ought to be strenuously discouraged.
Euthanasia
Question: Is "legalized euthanasia," or lawful execution of the aged, infirm,
or suffering persons who desire death, such as I read is being considered in a
certain city, legitimate in your opinion? (Vol. II, #152)
Answer: At first blush and from the standpoint of people not versed in the
teachings of occultism such a measure would seem to have considerable claim to
commendation. Most people on seeing an animal suffering agonies and beyond
hope of recovery would feel prompted by humane instincts to put it out of its
misery, and the questions, "Why should we not do as much for our fellow men
and women? Why should we keep them alive in excruciating suffering maybe for
months or years when we know they have no chance of regaining their health and
that they are looking and longing for death to put them out of pain?" seem
from the common point of view to call for acquiescence. However, when we have
a knowledge of the law of consequence and are sure that what we sow we reap,
if not in this life then in some future existence, the matter appears in a
different light.
We cannot escape out just dues. The suffering that comes to us is needed to
teach us a lesson or mellow our character. The only way to shorten such
suffering is by an endeavor to understand why we are in the condition that
brings us pain. If it is cancer of the stomach, then how have we abused that
organ? By overindulgence of food of a nature not suited to our system? Is it
the heart? How many times have we lost our tempers and raged like mad, putting
a tremendous strain on this part of the body? Or are the other organs of our
system weak and debilitated? We may be sure that in some way, either in this
life or a previous one, we have abused our body in such a manner as to cause
these ailments. Otherwise we would not now be suffering, and the sooner we
take the lesson to heart and commence to live a better life more in harmony
with the laws of nature we have broken, the sooner our suffering will cease.
It is always in our grasp to alter conditions, though of course we cannot
remedy in a day what it has taken years or lives to break down, but certainly
there is no other way in which a permanent cure can be effected. Even if now,
by the enactment of such a law as contemplated, the suffering is shortened, we
may be sure that when the person so released from his or her body is reborn,
his or her new vehicle will have the tendency to develop the same disease from
which he or she escaped in such an untoward manner. Besides, as the Western
Wisdom Teachings thoroughly explains, this physical body of ours is fashioned
in an invisible mold which is called the archetype, and so long as that
archetype persists our physical body remains alive. When death occurs from
natural causes, or even in the so-called accidents, (which usually are not
accidents at all but events used to terminate a life according to the design
of the invisible guardians of human affairs) the archetype is disrupted and
the Spirit flees.
A suicide, however, is different. In this case the archetype persists after
death for a number of years until death should have occurred according to
natural events, and being unable to draw to itself the physical atoms it
imparts to the suicide during those years of his post-mortem existence a
continuous aching feeling, something like a gnawing hunger, or a dull but
exceedingly painful toothache. If the plan you mention becomes a law and
people are allowed to obtain the services of others to commit sucicide (for
that is what it really amounts to), there is no doubt that they will suffer in
their post-mortem existence in the same manner as the suicide who prescribed
his or own poison, or cut his or her own throat. It is a very dangerous plan
in other respects, also, and we trust no such practice will be sanctioned by
law.
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