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This Classic Spiritual work is now copyright expired and therefore in the public domain. Clairvoyance and Occult Powers by Swami PanchadasiLESSON VIII CLAIRVOYANT REVERIE
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"Some people begin by a plunge, as it were, and under some unusual stimulus become able just for once to see some striking vision; and very often in such a case, because the experience does not repeat itself, the seer comes in time to believe that on that occasion he must have been the victim of hallucination. Others begin by becoming intermittently conscious of the brilliant colors and vibrations of the human aura; yet others find themselves with increasing frequency seeing and hearing something to which those around them are blind and deaf; others, again, see faces, landscapes, or colored clouds floating before their eyes in the dark before they sink to rest; while perhaps the commonest experience of all is that of those who begin to recollect with greater and greater clearness what they have seen and heard on other planes during sleep."
The authority in question gives the following excellent advice regarding the subject of the development of clairvoyant power and astral visioning: "Now the fact is that there are many methods by which it may be developed, but only one which can be at all safely recommended for general use--that of which we shall speak last of all. Among the less advanced nations of the world the clairvoyant state has been produced in various objectionable ways; among some of the non-Aryan tribes of India, by the use of intoxicating drugs or the inhaling of stupefying fumes; among the dervishes, by whirling in a mad dance of religious fervor until vertigo and insensibility supervene; among the followers of the abominable practices of the Voodoo cult, by frightful sacrifices and loathsome rites of black magic. Methods such as these are happily not in vogue in our own race, yet even among us large numbers of dabblers in this ancient art adopt some plan of self-hypnotization, such as gazing at a bright spot, or the repetition of some formula until a condition of semi-stupefaction is produced; while yet another school among them would endeavor to arrive at similar results by the use of some of the Indian systems of regulation of the breath. All these methods are unequivocally to be condemned as quite unsafe for the practice of the ordinary man who has no idea of what he is doing--who is simply making vague experiments in an unknown world. Even the method of obtaining clairvoyance by allowing oneself to be mesmerized by another person is one from which I should myself shrink with the most decided distaste; and assuredly it should never be attempted except under conditions of absolute trust and affection between the magnetizer and the magnetized, and a perfection of purity in heart and soul, in mind and intention, such as is rarely to be seen among any but the greatest of saints.
"Yet there is one practice which is advised by all religions alike--which if adopted carefully and reverently can do no harm to any human being, yet from which a very pure type of clairvoyance has sometimes been developed; and that is the practice of meditation. Let a man choose a certain time every day--a time when he can rely upon being quiet and undisturbed, though preferably in the daytime rather than at night--and set himself at that time to keep his mind for a few minutes entirely free from all earthly thoughts of any kind whatever, and, when that is achieved, to direct the whole force of his being towards the highest ideal that he happens to know. He will find that to gain such perfect control of thought is enormously more difficult than he supposes, but when he attains it it cannot but be in every way most beneficial to him, and as he grows more and more able to elevate and concentrate his thought, he may gradually find that new worlds are opening before his sight. As a preliminary training towards the satisfactory achievement of such meditation, he will find it desirable to make a practice of concentration in the affairs of daily life--even in the smallest of them. If he writes a letter, let him think of nothing else but that letter until it is finished; if he reads a book, let him see to it that his thought is never allowed to wander from his author's meaning. He must learn to hold his mind in check, and to be master of that also, as well as of his lower passions; he must patiently labor to acquire absolute control of his thoughts, so that he will always know exactly what he is thinking about, and why--so that he can use his mind, and turn it or hold it still, as a practiced swordsman turns his weapon where he will."
I have given the above full quotation from this authority, not merely because that from another angle he states the same general principles as do I; but also because his personal experience in actual clairvoyant phenomena is so extended and varied that any word from him on the subject of the development of clairvoyant power must have a value of its own. While I differ from this authority on some points of detail of theory and practice, nevertheless I gladly testify to the soundness of his views as above quoted, and pass them on to my students for careful consideration and attention. The student will do well to heed what he has to say, and to combine such opinion with what I have uttered in the earlier part of this chapter--there will be found a close agreement in principle and practice.
And, now let us pass on to a consideration of the various forms and phases of the clairvoyant phenomena itself. The subject is fascinating, and I am sure that you will enjoy this little excursion into the strange realm of thought regarding the astral phenomena of clairvoyance. But, be sure to master each lesson before proceeding to the rest, as otherwise you will have to turn back the leaves of the course in order to pick up some point of teaching that you have neglected.
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