In the Light of Truth

68. Types of clairvoyance

For a long time I have hesitated to answer the various questions about clairvoyance, because anyone who has read my Grail Message aright must be completely informed on the subject; provided of course that he has not read the Message as he would read a novel, to pass the time or with preconceptions. Rather, he must have delved deeply and earnestly into It and must have made every effort to fathom the deep meaning of each sentence as such, and also of each sentence as an integral part of the Message as a whole; for that is how it was intended from the outset.

For this, the spirit must be awake. Superficial people will thus be automatically excluded.

I have repeatedly pointed out that a particular species can only be recognized by the same species. Naturally the species referred to here are Creation species.

Viewed from below upwards, there are the species of gross matter, the species of ethereal matter, the species of animistic substantiality, and the species of spiritual substance as the highest. Each of these species is again divided into many levels so that the danger easily arises of confusing the levels of fine gross matter with those of coarse ethereal matter. The transitions are quite subtle and in their working and effects, not actually firmly connected, but only meshing with each other.

On each of these levels life manifests in a different manner. Man has a cloak of each species of Creation which is below the spiritual. The core itself is spiritual. Each cloak is equivalent to a body. Thus man is a spiritual core which, in the development of self-consciousness, takes on human form, which with increasing development toward the Light, becomes ever more ideal up to the most perfect beauty, while in the case of a downward development it takes on more and more of the opposite up to the most grotesque deformations. In order to avoid any errors I wish to mention especially that the gross material covering or body is not subject to this development. It is involved for only a short time, and on the gross material earth-plane can be subject only to very limited changes.

Man on earth, that is, man living in the World of Gross Matter, bears the cloaks of all the species in Creation simultaneously. Each cloak, each body of the different species, also has its own separate sensory organs. The gross material organs, for example, can function only within the same species, i.e.,the gross material species. A more refined development provides the possibility, under the most favorable conditions, to see up to a certain degree of finer gross matter.

People engaged in these matters call this finer gross matter “astral,” a concept which is not even really understood by those who introduced the term, much less by those who repeat it. I use this definition because it is already known. However, as is typical in occult research, this term serves only as a sort of collective term for everything that is known and felt to exist, but is not yet correctly understood, much less explained. All of the pseudo-knowledge that occultists have established up till now is nothing but a great, self-created labyrinth of ignorance, a rubbish heap of presumptions produced by intellectual thinking, which is inadequate for these things. Nevertheless I wish to stay with this much-used term “astral.” That which men see and mean by “astral” however, does not even belong to the World of Ethereal Matter, but merely to fine gross matter.

The investigators, filled with human presumptions, have not yet stepped beyond the World of Gross Matter in these fields, but have remained in the lowest species of Subsequent Creation, and therefore make much ado with all kinds of “high-sounding” foreign words! They do not even see with their ethereal eye, but merely to the ethereal world with the transitory perception of the gross material eye. This could be called practice clairvoyance, or partial clairvoyance.

When a human spirit lays aside its gross material body through physical death, naturally the gross material sensory organs are also laid aside, because they belong to the cloak concerned. Thus earthly death is nothing but the stripping off of the outermost cloak or shell which enabled man to see and work in the World of Gross Matter. Immediately after the human spirit has cast aside this cloak it stands in the so-called other world or, more precisely, in the planes of the World of Ethereal Matter. Here it can only work with those sensory organs of the ethereal body, which has now become its outer shell or covering. Thus it sees with the eyes and hears with the ears, etc., of the ethereal body.

It is natural that on entering the Ethereal World the human spirit must first learn to make proper use of the sensory organs of the ethereal cloak which has suddenly been forced into activity, as formerly it had to learn to use the organs of the physical body in the World of Gross Matter. Since this different species of matter is not as heavy as gross matter, proper use of the organs is learned more quickly and easily. And this applies to each of the other species as well.

The transitional or partial sight into the intermediate planes is given to facilitate adaptation to the respective species. Through a certain tension caused by extraordinary conditions of the physical body, the gross material eye may be able to get a small glimpse of the intermediate plane between gross matter and ethereal matter, while the ethereal eye in the beginning of its activity may also, upon looking back, obtain partial sight of this same plane where fine gross matter joins coarse ethereal matter. This partial sight provides a certain support to the human spirit on its transit so that it need never feel completely lost. This applies to every border between two different species. Animistic power currents, the magnetic quality of which has a holding and binding effect, ensure that the two different species of matter cling to each other and do not form a gulf because they are never able to merge.

After the human spirit has passed through the different sections of the World of Ethereal Matter, it also lays aside its ethereal body and enters the World of Animistic Substantiality. Remaining as its outermost cloak is the animistic body, the eyes and ears of which it must now use to see and hear, until it is able also to lay aside the animistic cloaks and enter the Spiritual Realm. Only here is it really itself alone, unveiled, and it must see, hear and speak, and so on, with its spiritual organs.

Readers must keenly think through these statements of mine so that they can visualize this properly for themselves. Materializations of souls who have left the earth are nothing more than the process by which those departed ones wearing their ethereal bodies can, with the help of a medium, envelop themselves with a cloak of fine gross matter. This is probably the only exception which allows earthmen of today to clearly see and grasp fine gross matter with their physical eyes and other physical senses. They can see it and feel it because, in spite of its fineness, the same kind of sensory organs are still involved, that is, those of gross matter.

Man should therefore be mindful of the fact that gross matter can only be “perceived” by what is of gross matter, ethereal matter by what is of ethereal matter, animistic substantiality by what is of animistic substantiality and spiritual substantiality by what is of spiritual substantiality. No intermingling is possible.

However, there is one thing: a man on earth may here and there behold with his gross-material eye, and, while still in the flesh, open his ethereal eye, at least from time to time. That is not simultaneously, but consecutively. When he sees with his ethereal eye his physical sight is wholly or in part inactive, and vice versa. He will never be able to see truly ethereal things with his physical eye, nor gross material things with his ethereal eye. That is impossible. Statements to the contrary would only be based on errors springing from ignorance of the Laws of Creation. They are delusions to which such people fall victim when they assert that they can recognize ethereal matter with their physical eyes or spiritual substantiality with their ethereal eyes.

He who considers all of this rightly, and tries to picture the process clearly to himself, will recognize what indescribable confusion must at present exist in evaluating clairvoyance, that it is virtually impossible to obtain reliable information on this subject as long as the governing laws are not made known, which is something that cannot be done through manifestations or revelations in spiritist circles, because neither the revealing nor the manifesting souls from the beyond have an overall view, but must always move within the limits of their own respective state of maturity.

It is only possible to achieve an orderly explanation of the wonderful weaving of Subsequent Creation if there is an all-embracing knowledge. Otherwise it is impossible. Men, however, in their well-known morbid presumption to know never recognize this, but take on a hostile attitude toward all such teachings from the start.

They prefer to go on strutting jauntily about in their pathetic seeking, with the result that they can never agree on anything nor achieve any real success. If they would but once show the greatness of overcoming their conceit and, without prejudice and in all seriousness, consider the Grail Message as the explanation of the world, and if they eliminated their own presumed knowledge while studying It, perspectives would soon be revealed to them which, in logical sequence, would clarify every happening not understood, and in one broad sweep pave the way to what was hitherto unknown.

However, it is well known that obstinacy is only one of the unmistakable signs of real stupidity and narrow-mindedness. None of these people ever suspect that, through such behavior they brand themselves as utterly incapable and that in the near future this brand will burn them with shame and eliminate them, because they can no longer hide or deny it.

There must be, as the basis of any assessment of a case of clairvoyance, the knowledge of which eye the clairvoyant sees with, i.e. what plane his sight pertains to and the stage of his development therein. Only then may further conclusions be drawn. The person who leads such investigations would need to have an absolutely clear knowledge about the various steps within the different species, as well as of the resulting various effects and activities within them. And therein lies the problem of the present time, in which it is the very people who presume to know, who understand nothing at all.

It is deplorable to see the flood of publications in magazines and books about all kinds of occult observations and experiments, and to read the more or less illogical and untenable attempts at explanation, which in most cases presumptuously even receive the stamp of definite knowledge, while on the whole they not only remain divorced from the facts, but even convey the opposite. And how infuriated and hostile the army of such wiseacres becomes when the structure of Subsequent Creation is put before them in simple, easily verifiable sequence, and yet without the exact knowledge of which they cannot understand anything at all. We will not even speak of Primordial Creation in this connection.

He who would evaluate or even condemn clairvoyants must know, really know, the entire Creation! As long as this is not the case he should keep silent about it. Nor should zealous champions of the facts of clairvoyance make assertions which cannot be substantiated without an exact knowledge of Creation. So many fateful errors are currently being circulated about all processes outside the World of Gross Matter that it is now high time to bring some order and lawfulness into it. Fortunately the time is not far off when a clean sweep will be made among the countless absolutely ridiculous figures in the actually very serious fields of occultism who, as everybody knows, clamor the loudest and who are most obtrusive in their teachings. Unfortunately, however, these babblers have already led many seekers astray through their behavior. The responsibility for this will not fail to manifest, and it will fall with dreadful force upon all those who attempt to deal with the most serious matters in such a frivolous manner; however, this will be of little benefit to those who have gone astray, and who have been seduced thereby; rather, they themselves will have to suffer the damage for having allowed themselves to be so easily tempted into the adoption of false opinions. On the average, it is safe to say that for the time being it is just in the occult fields that the fine term “research” is still being used, and that consequently, most researchers are mere prattlers.

Thus, among clairvoyants there is seeing of fine gross matter, seeing of ethereal matter, and seeing of animistic substantiality. Always with the eyes belonging to the same species. Spiritual seeing, however, has remained closed to men, and it would have to be an especially called one, who for a specific purpose was so gifted that he could open his spiritual eye while he was still on the earth.

But the countless present-day clairvoyants do not belong to these. Most of them can only recognize one of the various steps of the World of Ethereal Matter, and in time perhaps more. Thus their ethereal eye is opened. It happens only rarely that the eye of the animistic body is also able to see.

If in connection with certain earthly events, such as criminal or other cases, a clairvoyant human being is called in to bring clarification, the interested person must know the following: the clairvoyant sees with his ethereal eye, and is therefore not able to see the gross material event that actually took place. But every earthly happening has its concomitant ethereal phenomena, which are often the same as the earthly happening, or at least similar. For instance, in the case of a murder the clairvoyant will see the ethereal happening which occurs at the same time, not the actual gross-material event which, in accordance with existing mundane laws, is the only standard for the courts. This ethereal happening, however, may differ in detail to a greater or lesser degree from the earthly event. Consequently it would be wrong to speak hastily of the failure of clairvoyance or of a false vision.

Let us stay with a case of murder or theft. The clairvoyant who has been asked to help with solving the crime will see partly on the astral plane and partly on the ethereal plane. He will see the location of the action astrally, that is, in fine gross matter, and the action itself he will see ethereally. To this must be added the fact that he can also see various thought-forms which came into being through the thoughts of the murderer as well as of the murdered person, or of the thief. To distinguish between all these things must be part of the knowledge of the person conducting the investigation! Only then will the result be correct. However, a person proficient enough in such knowledge to conduct such investigations does not as yet exist. Although it may sound grotesque, since it is really not analogous, I would still like to give a secondary example by mentioning the work of a police dog, which is also used to help in the uncovering of crimes. Naturally the leader of a police dog must be thoroughly acquainted with the manner in which the dog works, and must closely and very actively collaborate with it, as is well known to experts. We only need to think of this kind of work in a much more ennobled form and we have the activity of the director of an investigation collaborating with a clairvoyant in the solution of a crime. Here also the leader of the investigation must do the actual work, observing and combining the various factors, and taking the greater part of the activity upon himself, while the clairvoyant merely remains the passively working assistant. Every judge must go through protracted studies of such activities before he may consider them. It is a far more difficult course of study than the study of the law.

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