In the Light of Truth

16. Is occult training advisable?

This question must be answered definitely in the negative. Occult training (to which exercises to acquire clair-voyance, clair-audience, etc. belong) is a hindrance to free inward development and real spiritual advancement. The product of this training, if fairly successful, was what in former times was called a magician.

It is a process of one-sided groping forward from below upwards, whereby the physical line of demarcation can never be crossed. Possible results will never be more than phenomena of the lowest, most inferior order, which in themselves cannot elevate the inner man but may well lead him astray. In this way man is but able to penetrate his immediate invisible surroundings where the disembodied spirits are, as often as not, more ignorant than mortal man himself. All that he accomplishes is that he lays himself open to dangers of which he knew nothing and from which he was protected before. A man who has become clair-voyant and clair-audient by training will often see and hear things in this lower plane that have the appearance of being sublime and pure, but which are far from it. Added to this, his own imagination, excited by his training, creates a surrounding that the pupil actually sees and hears. A state of utter confusion is the result. A man thus artificially trained, standing on unsteady ground cannot make distinctions. With the best of intentions he is unable to draw a line between truth and delusion knowing nothing of the thousandfold possibilities of forming invisible substance. And lastly, if he is not equipped with the necessary higher power with which to face these base and injurious influences to which he has with much trouble, voluntarily exposed himself, he will soon become a rudderless wreck on an unknown sea — a danger to all who come into contact with him.

It is just the same as with a man who cannot swim. He is able to cross an element unfamiliar to him with absolute safety in a boat. Should he, however, during his voyage, withdraw one of the planks of his boat, he will tear a hole in his protecting shield; the water will pour in, destroying his defence, and drag him down into the deep. This man, ignorant of the art of swimming, will then become a victim of the unfamiliar element. This is the procedure in occult training. The man only draws a plank out of his protecting boat but does not learn to swim.

However, there are swimmers who call themselves experts. These swimmers are to a certain extent competent by predisposition. They get a helping hand from training to put their ability to use and to develop it further. In such cases predisposition unites with training. But narrow limits are set even to the capacity of the best swimmer. If he dares go beyond them, his strength fails and he is as hopelessly lost as the nonswimmer, unless indeed, help comes to them both.

In the world of ethereal substance such help can but come from the realms of light, the spiritual world. And again such help can only approach the endangered individual provided his inner man has acquired a certain degree of purity to which this help can fasten. The purity here in question cannot be attained by occult exercises but can only be derived from the furtherance of true inner integrity — by a soul constantly striving upwards to the pure light.

By following this path, man will in time attain to a certain degree of purity. This will naturally be reflected in his thoughts, words and deeds, and by degrees he will become linked to spheres of sublimer purity and will receive increased strength from them in return. The contact is maintained through all the intermediary steps: a contact that holds him up and to which he can cling. Before long all that the swimmer strives in vain to attain, is given to him without his troubling himself, but it is given with the wisdom and precaution which are part of the law of reciprocal action for he only gets as much power as his own strength can counter-balance; all danger is, therefore, excluded from the outset. At last, the separating partition, which can be compared to the plank in the boat, becomes thinner and thinner and finally falls away. Then comes the moment, when he feels at home in the ethereal world, in sublime heights. That alone is the right way. What has artificially been forced by training, is premature. It is only for the fish that water is really safe. It is its element, for which it is properly equipped in a manner even an expert swimmer cannot be.

Before a man begins a course of training, he determines on doing so. It is an act of his own free-will, and he must bear the consequences. He cannot reckon that help will and must be afforded him. He had the liberty of decision beforehand.

But a man who induces others to begin such training, whereby they incur all sorts of dangers, must take a great part of the consequences on his shoulders. He becomes irrevocably linked to them all in the transcendental world. After laying aside his material body, he must descend to those departed before him, to those who succumbed to the dangers, down to those who sank lowest of all. He cannot ascend himself till he has helped each one of them up, till he has put their errors right and retrieved what has been neglected. That is the penalty imposed by the law of returns and at the same time it is the merciful means by which he can make good the evil and rise up himself.

If such a man has not only influenced others through his work but also through his writings, the consequences are still worse for him, because his work goes on doing harm after his death. He must tarry in the other world till the last man who has been led astray by his writings, has come over. Centuries may pass before he is able to help this last one.

This is not saying that the ethereal world should remain untouched and unexplored by mortal man. When the hour comes for those who are inwardly matured, that which would be a danger to others will be revealed to them. They will be permitted to look upon the truth and to teach it. But at the same time, they will also recognise and be able to see the dangers that threaten those who by means of occult training have succeeded in entering the lower spheres of an unknown region. They will never advocate occult training.

[Grail Message by Abdrushin]  [Resonances to the Grail Message]