Self-Development and the Way to Power | Page 2

we have evolved the faculty of clairvoyance,
in our work of self-development, the separation vanishes and our
"dead" friends are as much with us as the living. The only other reason
why death brings grief or fear is because we do not understand it and

comprehend the part it plays in human evolution. But the moment our
ignorance gives way to comprehension such fear vanishes and a serene
happiness takes its place.
Why do we have enemies from whose words or acts we suffer?
Because in our limited physical consciousness we do not perceive the
unity of all life and realize that our wrong thinking and doing must
react upon us through other people--a situation from which there is no
possible escape except through ceasing to think evil and then patiently
awaiting the time when the causes we have already generated are fully
exhausted. When spiritual illumination comes, and we no longer
stumble in the night of ignorance, the last enemy will disappear and we
shall make no more forever.
Why do people suffer from poverty and disease? Only because of our
blundering ignorance that makes their existence possible for us, and
because we do not comprehend their meaning and their lessons, nor
know the attitude to assume toward them. Had we but the wisdom to
understand why they come to people, why they are necessary factors in
their evolution, they would trouble us no longer. When nature's lesson
is fully learned these mute teachers will vanish.
And so it is with all forms of suffering we experience. They are at once
reactions from our ignorant blunderings and instructors that point out
the better way. When we have comprehended the lessons they teach
they are no longer necessary and disappear.
Thus our evolution is going forward and has gone forward in the past.
We know that the human race has passed through a long evolution
during which it has acquired five senses by which knowledge is gained.
Nobody who has given thought to the subject will make the mistake of
supposing that this evolution is completed and that the five senses are
all we shall ever possess.
In this long evolutionary journey the next thing we shall do is to
develop the sixth sense. Some people have already done so and all are
approaching it. This dawning sense is called clairvoyance. Fair
investigation will show that the clairvoyant possesses certain powers

not common to the majority of people. This is merely the beginning of
the development of the sixth sense, and probably with the majority of
clairvoyants it goes no further than etheric and lower astral sight. In
other words, they are able to raise the consciousness only to a grade of
matter a little beyond the grasp of ordinary vision, while the properly
developed, trained clairvoyant raises his consciousness two full planes
beyond.
The higher the consciousness is raised the further the horizon of
knowledge extends and the clairvoyant is able to hand down
information that appears quite miraculous; but it is perfectly natural. If
a certain person were born blind and had never understood any more
about eyesight than most people understand about clairvoyance; if this
person could know how many doorways were in a large building only
by groping along with his hands and thus acquiring the knowledge by
touch, and another person who could see should glance along the block
and instantly tell the blind man the correct number, that would be to the
blind man a miracle. Now, when a clairvoyant sees things at a distance
where the physical eye cannot reach he really does nothing more
remarkable. When we see a thing we receive the vibrations caused by
light. That gives the information. When the clairvoyant "sees" at a
distance through what we mistakenly call solid substances he receives
vibrations of matter so fine that it interpenetrates solids as the ether
does.
Every human being must make, and is making, this long evolutionary
journey from spiritual infancy to godlike power and perfection, but
there are two ways in which it may be done. We may, as the vast
majority do, accept the process of unconscious evolution and submit to
nature's whip and spur that continuously urge the thoughtless and
indifferent forward until they finally reach the goal. Or, we may choose
conscious evolution and work intelligently with nature, thus making
progress that is comparatively of enormous rapidity and at the same
time avoid much of what Hamlet called the "slings and arrows of
outrageous fortune."
The degree to which mind can control circumstances and dominate

matter is far greater than is generally believed. Our impressions about
matter are very illusory. No form of matter is permanent. Change goes
on everywhere at every instant, by physical laws in the physical body
and by astral and mental laws in