This Classic Spiritual work is now copyright expired and therefore in the public domain.

Clairvoyance and Occult Powers by Swami Panchadasi

LESSON III TELEPATHY EXPLAINED

page 1 of 5 | Clairvoyance and Occult Powers - home

Telepathy, meaning Thought-Transference, bears a misleading title. Literally translated, it means "suffering at a distance," or, perhaps, "feeling pain at a distance." The name should really indicate "knowing at a distance," in order to be properly descriptive. But as the term has acquired a forced meaning by reason of years of usage, it will probably be continued in popular favor. After all, names do not count, so long as the meaning is accepted and understood.

While the term itself has been generally used in the sense of conscious and deliberate sending and receiving of thought-waves, there is a far wider field of phenomena really covered by it, viz., the unconscious sending and receiving of mental and emotional vibrations. I shall take up this phase of the subject in a moment, after I have called your attention to the mechanism whereby the waves of thought and emotion are transmitted.

In the last chapter, you will remember that I called your attention to the fact that there is a manifestation of energy or force (in the form of vibrations) in every mental or emotional state. This is true not only in the case of deep thought or vivid feeling, but also in the case of general mental "feelings," and emotional states. During such manifestations there is a radiation of mental or emotional vibrations from the brain or nervous centres of the system, which flows out in all directions just as do light and wireless electricity. The principal seats or centres of these radiations are (1) the several brains of man, viz., the cerebrum, cerebellum, and the medulla oblongata, respectfully; and (2) the several great centres of nerve substance in the human system, called the plexi, such as the solar plexus, etc.

The vibrations arising from emotional excitement are sent out principally from the plexi, or great centres of the sympathetic nervous system. Those arising from the more strictly mental states emanate from certain centres and points of the brain, or brains, of the person manifesting them. Certain forms of these vibrations constitute the real essence of what is generally called "human magnetism," which will be treated upon in the proper place in these lessons.

I do not think it advisable to go into the technical details of the generation and mechanism of transmission of these thought and emotional vibrations, in these lessons. To understand the same would require a technical knowledge of physiology and organic chemistry, which is not possessed by the average person. Moreover, such details are neither interesting nor instructive to the general student of occultism. But, I think it proper to give at least a brief description of the receiving of such vibratory-waves by other individuals.

In the first place, every great plexus, or groups of nerve ganglia, in the human system is a receiving station, as well as a sending station. A person manifesting strong emotional excitement tends to awaken similar states in the nervous centres of other persons in whom the conditions are favorable. This explains why the vibrations of anger, fear, panic, are so contagious. It also explains the strong effect of the vibrations emanating from the nerve centres controlling the reproductive system, in certain cases of strong sexual excitation. Each human sympathetic nervous system contains many receiving stations where emotional vibrations are received, and where they tend to be transformed into similar feeling in the receiving system, unless neutralized by other mental and emotional states in the person.

When we come to consider the apparatus by which is received the vibrations arising from what may be called "purely mental" operations of the brain, such as intellectual thought, constructive imagination, etc., we find a more specialized arrangement, as might be expected. There are several minor receiving points of mental vibrations, regarding which I do not consider it worth while to go into detail, because of the technical features involved. The principal apparatus for receiving thought vibrations of this kind is that which is known as the "pineal gland," which I shall now describe.

How to Become Psychic offers further advice on developing your psychic potential.