Some Facts on Birth and Death
The usual lament of the disciple is “I try so hard yet feel I’m getting nowhere.”
The most helpful reply to this is to stop struggling for spiritual states. The highest spiritual state is stillness, stillness of the mind and stillness of the emotions; however, the greater the efforts one makes towards achieving this stillness the further one moves away from it. The very question “Where am I on the path?” tells of non-acceptance of the self, personal dis-satisfaction and inner confusion, all of which are the less obvious emotional states that nevertheless disalign our bodies. No use for the disciple to deny his instability because he has failed to recognize it.
Where there is aspiration of discipleship there is thought of a Path or a Way, which are exotic names for the school of thought, religion, philosophy, doctrine or creed that any person follows depending upon his education, experience of life, environment, race and nationality. Anyone who fully understands this will not try to convert other people to his particular way of thinking. When examined the “come and join us” attitude is rooted mainly in personal desire and can temporarily halt the natural progression of the victim. It is important to know that if we travel with a companion we must suffer distraction on the way. The most we can hope for is a fellow traveler on a parallel path to or own, knowing full well that even although we may travel side by side right on into infinity, we will never meet, for all must make the journey alone. There are many itineraries and while each man is free to choose whatever he favors, the wise man knows that all paths are going in the same direction anyway, and it does not really matter how a man arrives at knowledge so long as he comes to it.
The realization that we will always be alone is made bearable on the lower foothills of the path by the mind clinging to a goal. It may be entices by the prospect of gaining great wisdom, knowledge, peace, powers or the companionship of the masters, but by the time the upper reaches are traversed, the disciple comes to realize that the attainment of his goal is as far away as ever. Hence the “I have tried so hard yet feel no further forward.” Where is the wisdom, the peace, the powers, the companionship of the masters that he dreamed of? He has found none of these, only disappointment in himself and disillusionment in what he trusted. For him, in spite of all his years of effort the expected payoff has not come, and he ceases to look for anything. Then as he stands with apparently empty hands, in a flash of dawning wisdom he sees it all as so many years of self-deception. He sees he has only been bargaining with the gods for what he wanted – his devotion in exchange for his heart’s desire.
The only direction in which effort is permissible is towards increased knowledge of oneself and one’s immediate world. Facts are knowledge. Birth and death are basic facts of life accepted by the vast majority at the physical level only, but the disciple requires more, he requires knowledge of his whole being.
Let us make a start at the point we call death when the material body becomes separated from the subtle bodies, that is, the psyche and the mental aura. We have previously said that when this occurs any entities that are trapped within the deceased body or around it, will now go their separate ways, but this is an oversimplification of what actually happens.
As we understand the situation it is first of all necessary to disabuse the mind of the idea that the dead around us retain their previous human shape. Also it is worthwhile to mention that the act of dying does not rid a person of his passions and desires. These remain latent in the mind body and will manifest in the next life cycle as facets of the person’s character, for good or ill. When a child is conceived, it is actually a small force center that enters the womb, composed of the concentrated essence of the mental and psychic bodies of the human being about to reincarnate. Upon contact with a living physical body, this concentrated essence remolds itself in the womb, NOT into the human form it knew in its previous life cycle, but according to the mental and physical changes brought about in the previous life which have had an effect upon the psyche complete with all past accumulated experience latent in the mental body. This is the evolutionary process thought sometimes the mind so clings to remembrances of life that the last physical form can be reproduced when conditions permit. When sooner or later, death once more claims the physical body, the psyche and aura gather themselves together again in a formless mass of concentrated life force and float away, eventually to reincarnate.
Without a material body the soul is unable to experience life in our coarse earth world, therefore, until the two subtle bodies reincarnate in another life cycle the soul, of necessity, lies dormant. The driving force of desire to experience life is vitally important until the man reaches divinity.
These small centers of concentrated essence have often been seen as little blobs of light, something like large fireflies, hovering over graves where no humans are close enough to give them the necessary energies to assume a definite shape. Anyone who has seen this common enough phenomenon has seen the form the living take after the physical body has gone; in other words it is the psyche and mental body, released from the earth’s matter, which are now free to go forward to further adventures.
These adventures can be varied but because the continuity of thought and feeling is preserved in these subtle bodies together with certain basic characteristics of the personality, these entities (as they are now called) are usually attracted to
Around every living person are several of these formless yet viable entities and when the host body becomes disaligned (as we have described elsewhere) the most dominant of the orbiting entities is mercifully drawn into the living frame and partially occupies it, until such time as the living person’s three finer bodies gradually reinstate themselves to their rightful position within and around the physical. The same law I repeated when the entity enters the womb; upon close contact with the living host body, the small center of concentrated psychic and mental matter begins to assume the miracle of form again and using as a matrix the condensed psyche builds, sometimes imperfectly, a new physical body fashioned according to the mental pattern brought about by the experiences of the last life period.
When we said that the host and the presiding entity become separated at death, it is more accurate to say the host body becomes detached from the whole cluster of entities that were around him. However, if the mind of the presiding entity is stronger and more dominant than that of the deceased person it is possible that the deceased person, now also an entity, will become part of the cluster that previously surrounded him, in which case there is really no separation. The entity cluster is then attracted by the nature of their vibrations to another living person for their mutual support, for the unstable living need the dead around them and vice versa. So much then for when the physical body gives out, but reverting to the question of birth, in the case of the average person, the entity that enters the womb will obviously be the most forceful of the cluster that are around the couple at the time of concupiscence. This is borne out by the fact that each succeeding generation is becoming more aggressive, demanding and independent as time goes by, while the more unassuming entities might never have a chance to reincarnate. Te main desire uppermost in the mind of the normal person is to live, this is the main motivation that keeps the psyche and mind of the dead hovering around the living, though when the mind becomes satiated with earthly experience it turns to spiritual matters.
As very often happens the emotional pull between the entity and a particular living person is very strong; the living are often guilty of dwelling fondly, or in grief, upon their beloved dead thereby increasing the psychic empathy between them. Inevitably the entity is attracted to the aura of the one to whom it was emotionally tied and if conditions are right will slip into rebirth. This was clearly demonstrated by the wife of an attorney who suffered a recurring dream in which her dead mother-in-law appeared and begged her daughter to give her back her life. The wife, misinterpreting the dream assumed that the dead woman wanted her son whom she had idolized, and began to fear for her husband’s life. However, a knowledgeable person explained that there was nothing sinister about the dream, that it was merely a request for rebirth. The dreams continued intermittently until the young wife eventually did become pregnant, when they ceased, and the child that was eventually born evinced many familiar characteristics of his late grandmother.
This contact between the entity and the radiations given off by a living body are an essential prerequisite before the dead, as we call them, can manifest their presence. For instance, one never hears of poltergeists knocking the windows out of vacant houses. Drawn together on a similar vibration, the dominant poltergeist works with a cluster requiring the additional power of his group to manifest, but especially the energy of the living s needed, usually one particular person in a family who has the right psychic powers to enable the poltergeist to work with material objects.
Ghosts in their various forms have been seen from earliest times by all sorts and conditions of people, commoners and kings alike, yet not everyone has the ability to do so, nor are all the departed able to materialize as wraiths. Mainly those very close to earth life or “earth bound” or who desire to show themselves do so in this manner. This is to say an entity requires the special energies called ectoplasm that certain living persons emanate, to build up a definite form. The psyche, being a condensation of the last material body, can thus be easily recognized in its ghostly form.
One final word about the condition of the entity; depending upon the manner of dying, depends what immediately happens to it. Every death is different and people die under anesthetics, in a coma, unconscious, or in sleep, or sometimes so suddenly the mind is totally unaware of what has happened. These are the ones that remain around the corpse or stay in the place where death occurred, and although one’s manner of dying is important, in time all minds awaken to the realization of death and continue in the manner described.
Vibration currents gather the entity into wavelengths in harmony with its own and while at this stage there is no real consciousness or mental activity, this changes immediately a living aura is contacted. The entity then comes fully awake, the mental body functions again and can influence for good or ill the living mind it is attached to, especially if dis-alignment has taken place in the three bodies of the host and the entity is close enough to have a grip on the brain.
All this is written in the main, for and about, the masses and for the averagely good person struggling to emerge from the mass of non-thinking humanity, who wishes to learn.
Extract from Helen Quartermaine
The most helpful reply to this is to stop struggling for spiritual states. The highest spiritual state is stillness, stillness of the mind and stillness of the emotions; however, the greater the efforts one makes towards achieving this stillness the further one moves away from it. The very question “Where am I on the path?” tells of non-acceptance of the self, personal dis-satisfaction and inner confusion, all of which are the less obvious emotional states that nevertheless disalign our bodies. No use for the disciple to deny his instability because he has failed to recognize it.
Where there is aspiration of discipleship there is thought of a Path or a Way, which are exotic names for the school of thought, religion, philosophy, doctrine or creed that any person follows depending upon his education, experience of life, environment, race and nationality. Anyone who fully understands this will not try to convert other people to his particular way of thinking. When examined the “come and join us” attitude is rooted mainly in personal desire and can temporarily halt the natural progression of the victim. It is important to know that if we travel with a companion we must suffer distraction on the way. The most we can hope for is a fellow traveler on a parallel path to or own, knowing full well that even although we may travel side by side right on into infinity, we will never meet, for all must make the journey alone. There are many itineraries and while each man is free to choose whatever he favors, the wise man knows that all paths are going in the same direction anyway, and it does not really matter how a man arrives at knowledge so long as he comes to it.
The realization that we will always be alone is made bearable on the lower foothills of the path by the mind clinging to a goal. It may be entices by the prospect of gaining great wisdom, knowledge, peace, powers or the companionship of the masters, but by the time the upper reaches are traversed, the disciple comes to realize that the attainment of his goal is as far away as ever. Hence the “I have tried so hard yet feel no further forward.” Where is the wisdom, the peace, the powers, the companionship of the masters that he dreamed of? He has found none of these, only disappointment in himself and disillusionment in what he trusted. For him, in spite of all his years of effort the expected payoff has not come, and he ceases to look for anything. Then as he stands with apparently empty hands, in a flash of dawning wisdom he sees it all as so many years of self-deception. He sees he has only been bargaining with the gods for what he wanted – his devotion in exchange for his heart’s desire.
The only direction in which effort is permissible is towards increased knowledge of oneself and one’s immediate world. Facts are knowledge. Birth and death are basic facts of life accepted by the vast majority at the physical level only, but the disciple requires more, he requires knowledge of his whole being.
Let us make a start at the point we call death when the material body becomes separated from the subtle bodies, that is, the psyche and the mental aura. We have previously said that when this occurs any entities that are trapped within the deceased body or around it, will now go their separate ways, but this is an oversimplification of what actually happens.
As we understand the situation it is first of all necessary to disabuse the mind of the idea that the dead around us retain their previous human shape. Also it is worthwhile to mention that the act of dying does not rid a person of his passions and desires. These remain latent in the mind body and will manifest in the next life cycle as facets of the person’s character, for good or ill. When a child is conceived, it is actually a small force center that enters the womb, composed of the concentrated essence of the mental and psychic bodies of the human being about to reincarnate. Upon contact with a living physical body, this concentrated essence remolds itself in the womb, NOT into the human form it knew in its previous life cycle, but according to the mental and physical changes brought about in the previous life which have had an effect upon the psyche complete with all past accumulated experience latent in the mental body. This is the evolutionary process thought sometimes the mind so clings to remembrances of life that the last physical form can be reproduced when conditions permit. When sooner or later, death once more claims the physical body, the psyche and aura gather themselves together again in a formless mass of concentrated life force and float away, eventually to reincarnate.
Without a material body the soul is unable to experience life in our coarse earth world, therefore, until the two subtle bodies reincarnate in another life cycle the soul, of necessity, lies dormant. The driving force of desire to experience life is vitally important until the man reaches divinity.
These small centers of concentrated essence have often been seen as little blobs of light, something like large fireflies, hovering over graves where no humans are close enough to give them the necessary energies to assume a definite shape. Anyone who has seen this common enough phenomenon has seen the form the living take after the physical body has gone; in other words it is the psyche and mental body, released from the earth’s matter, which are now free to go forward to further adventures.
These adventures can be varied but because the continuity of thought and feeling is preserved in these subtle bodies together with certain basic characteristics of the personality, these entities (as they are now called) are usually attracted to
- what was their greatest attachment in life or
- are drawn by their particular vibrations to a group of similar discarnate
Around every living person are several of these formless yet viable entities and when the host body becomes disaligned (as we have described elsewhere) the most dominant of the orbiting entities is mercifully drawn into the living frame and partially occupies it, until such time as the living person’s three finer bodies gradually reinstate themselves to their rightful position within and around the physical. The same law I repeated when the entity enters the womb; upon close contact with the living host body, the small center of concentrated psychic and mental matter begins to assume the miracle of form again and using as a matrix the condensed psyche builds, sometimes imperfectly, a new physical body fashioned according to the mental pattern brought about by the experiences of the last life period.
When we said that the host and the presiding entity become separated at death, it is more accurate to say the host body becomes detached from the whole cluster of entities that were around him. However, if the mind of the presiding entity is stronger and more dominant than that of the deceased person it is possible that the deceased person, now also an entity, will become part of the cluster that previously surrounded him, in which case there is really no separation. The entity cluster is then attracted by the nature of their vibrations to another living person for their mutual support, for the unstable living need the dead around them and vice versa. So much then for when the physical body gives out, but reverting to the question of birth, in the case of the average person, the entity that enters the womb will obviously be the most forceful of the cluster that are around the couple at the time of concupiscence. This is borne out by the fact that each succeeding generation is becoming more aggressive, demanding and independent as time goes by, while the more unassuming entities might never have a chance to reincarnate. Te main desire uppermost in the mind of the normal person is to live, this is the main motivation that keeps the psyche and mind of the dead hovering around the living, though when the mind becomes satiated with earthly experience it turns to spiritual matters.
As very often happens the emotional pull between the entity and a particular living person is very strong; the living are often guilty of dwelling fondly, or in grief, upon their beloved dead thereby increasing the psychic empathy between them. Inevitably the entity is attracted to the aura of the one to whom it was emotionally tied and if conditions are right will slip into rebirth. This was clearly demonstrated by the wife of an attorney who suffered a recurring dream in which her dead mother-in-law appeared and begged her daughter to give her back her life. The wife, misinterpreting the dream assumed that the dead woman wanted her son whom she had idolized, and began to fear for her husband’s life. However, a knowledgeable person explained that there was nothing sinister about the dream, that it was merely a request for rebirth. The dreams continued intermittently until the young wife eventually did become pregnant, when they ceased, and the child that was eventually born evinced many familiar characteristics of his late grandmother.
This contact between the entity and the radiations given off by a living body are an essential prerequisite before the dead, as we call them, can manifest their presence. For instance, one never hears of poltergeists knocking the windows out of vacant houses. Drawn together on a similar vibration, the dominant poltergeist works with a cluster requiring the additional power of his group to manifest, but especially the energy of the living s needed, usually one particular person in a family who has the right psychic powers to enable the poltergeist to work with material objects.
Ghosts in their various forms have been seen from earliest times by all sorts and conditions of people, commoners and kings alike, yet not everyone has the ability to do so, nor are all the departed able to materialize as wraiths. Mainly those very close to earth life or “earth bound” or who desire to show themselves do so in this manner. This is to say an entity requires the special energies called ectoplasm that certain living persons emanate, to build up a definite form. The psyche, being a condensation of the last material body, can thus be easily recognized in its ghostly form.
One final word about the condition of the entity; depending upon the manner of dying, depends what immediately happens to it. Every death is different and people die under anesthetics, in a coma, unconscious, or in sleep, or sometimes so suddenly the mind is totally unaware of what has happened. These are the ones that remain around the corpse or stay in the place where death occurred, and although one’s manner of dying is important, in time all minds awaken to the realization of death and continue in the manner described.
Vibration currents gather the entity into wavelengths in harmony with its own and while at this stage there is no real consciousness or mental activity, this changes immediately a living aura is contacted. The entity then comes fully awake, the mental body functions again and can influence for good or ill the living mind it is attached to, especially if dis-alignment has taken place in the three bodies of the host and the entity is close enough to have a grip on the brain.
All this is written in the main, for and about, the masses and for the averagely good person struggling to emerge from the mass of non-thinking humanity, who wishes to learn.
Extract from Helen Quartermaine
