PSI Annual Journal 2000

Eileen Armstrong is a theosophist and a Unitarian. She retired as head of a general nurse training school and was previously Inspector of Psychiatric Hospitals in England and Wales.

A great deal is known about physical development, and substantial industries have been built on the fact that people wish to improve their appearance, physique or their health. Even if we do none of these things most of us are interested in comfort and seek to reduce the factors which make us uncomfortable. Our bodies help us in this. In health they maintain themselves automatically. We take it for granted that when we cut ourselves we will heal in a matter of days; that whatever the weather at home or abroad our body temperature and blood pressure will stay normal, that when we overexert ourselves the body will produce extra strength and afterwards it will wind down to the normal level of functioning. If we take more sugar than we need our body will either convert it into fat or pass it out in our urine. Only when these or other mechanisms fail do we pause to think what a wonderful self-regulating instrument we have and finally get round to helping it.

Illness and pain are ways in which the body alerts us to the need for our cooperation. Many people smoke and overeat, drink excessively, and have insufficient rest. As long as they have no obvious ill effects, they continue to put this strain on their bodies. This is particularly true of young people who have a lot of energy to draw on which they think is inexhaustible. It' s exactly because the body copes so efficiently that we behave like this. If cars were treated in the same careless way they would soon need expensive repairs, parts replaced or relegation to the scrap yard.

The body develops from an impregnated single-celled organism but theosophists believe that long before the foetus begins to take shape there is an etheric blueprint – a pattern for each one of us upon which the physical form is based. For various reasons it may be flawed and like any other pattern which is faithfully followed the flaws can show up in what is reproduced from it. Many healers know this and base their treatments on correcting not the outer shell which we call the physical body but the dynamic underlying structure of the etheric body – an exact but invisible replica – where important change is instigated by healers or by the self if it is sufficiently advanced. Healers know that it is useless to remedy the outer surface if the trouble is more deeply seated and this is what is wrong with orthodox medicine which is excellent at putting the visible mechanical pieces in order but has not yet realised that the subtle bodies exist and that they influence us profoundly.

These subtle bodies give us our physical basis. Non-theosophists believe that we get everything from our parents and forebears, but there are many other factors involved. We have lived many times and the whole of our ongoing existence (not just any single life) is for the purpose of perfecting our spiritual selves. In each life we are given the physical body, the parents, people and the situations which will provide us with the experiences we need for our current stage of development. Our parents may have been in a different relationship with us in previous lives. We and they may have been of a different sex. We could have been in a love or a hate relationship with them or a completely neutral one. So what do we need to explore with them and with other people this time around? We have forgotten about the circumstances and the planning which occurred before we were born. We often complain and blame others when things aren' t what we would consciously wish them to be. But the imperfections in us and around us arise either because we chose them experimentally beforehand for our learning purposes or because we have not subsequently followed the rules.

So here we are with a body and a set of circumstances – are we aware that these are tools to be used? Are we making the best use of them? Or are we, like so many people, only the ignorant and passive recipients of this experimental laboratory – wasting and frittering away the wonderful opportunities for research and discovery?

What is to be discovered? The average man in the street sees growth as ending in the late teens though he might agree that common sense or the ability to be street-wise takes longer to develop. After that, generally speaking, he sees a gradual physical decline ahead of him. A self-fulfilling prophecy, as it has been shown, that if you think in this way you will decline. The body obliges. It acts in the absence of proper direction in a very basic way and is the slave to our unconscious desires. Ancient Wisdom tells us this and advises us to become aware of what we are doing and to control our physical vehicle. This takes effort but all of us eventually have to do it. The soul enters the body rather as we would enter a car and it is responsible for the controls. Our vehicle has to be steered and braked and conducted in a proper fashion on the roads of life. We can expect years of useful service but neglect can lead to expensive repairs, unsightly corrosion, and if the windows are dirty we cannot see either the beauties or the dangers around us. Your vehicle can injure another person. It can kill you if it gets out of hand. We meet others in their vehicles and if we abide by the rules we may all get to our destination without harming each other. We may even be able to show someone else the way and they can help us.

Part of the discovery, then, is to find out where to take this vehicle and what speed is best for us – remembering, of course, that there are limits and exceeding them brings penalties. Young people are often keen to get into fast cars or on to motor bikes to enjoy the thrills they afford and, in their ignorance, they take risks sometimes with tragic results to themselves or others. The older person is often the opposite – afraid to move out of familiar roads and too fearful of the possible consequences to take risks; but studies in places where elderly people live have shown scientist that amazing things happen when they are stimulated and assisted to be flexible. An Indian doctor called Deepak Chopra says that every body cell is an intelligent unit capable of renewing itself and defeating the aging process if we have the right frame of mind. It' s an interesting thought!

So we have this truly amazing physical body which matures in a recognisable sequence. I' ve indicated that many people think that is all there is. They see no connection between their bodies and minds with anything else. In fact they often say that there is nothing else and such people may live and die without any conviction that there is a purpose to life. But there is so much underneath the surface and it is this theosophists explore. Theosophical teaching regarding life and death is the greatest gift we can bring to other people if they are ready to listen to us. And I emphasise the IF.

The state of readiness is important in all development whether it be of body, mind or spirit. What happens superficially in the body is well-documented but let us take a closer look. The baby is born with certain inabilities. It cannot focus its eyes or co-ordinate its muscles and so it is able to make little sense of the environment. How is it then that people can be hypnotised back to this stage and can recount things that happened long before they had developed the physical apparatus for registering anything? Resuscitated persons have reported a temporary break from the body in the near-death experience when the mind has been at liberty to roam about observing and recording distant verifiable events at the time of apparent death. How can these things be? Esoteric science tells us that the mind is something apart from the immature physical brain – yes, even in adulthood the brain is immature. The mind, however, is something far more mysterious which carries over from previous lives as the Higher Mind, which we can access as we grow in spiritual maturity but not before that. These are mysteries of life and death and power.

Theosophy holds that we have chosen to incarnate again and again on earth because there is work to be done. This work starts with the maturation of the physical body which provides us with the tools we need. Occurring concurrently, there is soul development of which we are unconscious at first. We experiment with people and situations repeatedly, learning how to cope, selfishly at first in order to survive but as time goes by we learn how to postpone self-gratification and how to make necessary sacrifices. Initially everything we do is for the advantage of ourselves or of the people we love. Later this changes to a concern for the general good. Some people are slow to make this transition. They may never make it in this life or in the next but we are told that they will be given every opportunity to evolve physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. The sequence may vary – we may mature emotionally before the physical body matures or we may mature mentally before emotionally maturity but each level of consciousness needs time to mature.

Modern man has advanced in intellect and spirituality but there have been philosophers, mystics and rulers through the ages with even greater intellects and spirituality. The difference was that they lived at the same time as masses of people with poor minds and worse bodies. The lot of the common people has gradually improved so perhaps what is happening is that powers and faculties possessed only by a few are being made available to all. I am convinced that this is so and that a nucleus of enlightened people is irradiating and lifting up the rest of us.

Humanity today is at an evolutionary crossroads. Many people have passed through physical and emotional maturation and are now at the level of mental development. A few have prepared themselves for the next stage of spiritual unfoldment beyond the mind and are being endowed with intuition as well as intelligence. This does not come without effort and renunciation of the lower self but a quickening is taking place at the moment which is affecting us all to a greater or lesser extent. It could be causing the widespread unrest and pockets of violence which we see around us – for when energies are stimulated the negative as well as the positive are heightened, which is the price we have to pay for progress.

Things are happening now which are causing us to examine our ideas about life and death and other worlds. Many people previously very self-centred are taking an interest in philosophical and ethical matters even though they may be only dimly aware of this. I think that these changes are not accidental. Theosophists believe that there is a Divine Plan and although they cannot know what it is they do, appreciate the need for preparation and vigilance. Clairvoyant channellers, such as Julie Soskin, speak of great changes already begun on the planet which, according to them, are affecting our bones, blood, nervous systems and probably ever body cell. We are told by clairvoyants and astrologers alike that cosmic energies are playing on us at this time which will quicken the human race and particularly the spiritually inclined. Many people know, of course, that electrical, biochemical, and magnetic forcers operate in our bodies but, unfortunately, they do not know, as yet, that there are unseen interactions between the physical and non-physical worlds.

Quite a few disorders baffle the medical profession – the mysterious musculo-skeletal afflictions and energy sapping states such as M.E. (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis), violent immune system reactions, allergies, meningitis, brain tumors, heart rhythm irregularities, and disturbances of the various ductless glands such as the thyroid and the pancreas. I believe that all of these and many others stem from abnormal quickening of the body' s organisation. Not that the quickening process is malignant but that illness is an unfortunate by-product of it. Perhaps it helps us to understand how this happens if we think about using a microwave oven which focuses energy and accelerates the cooking process. Which is what the positive energies coming in are doing to us. Unless conditions are absolutely right, force can be applied beyond the capacity of the object to receive it, whether it be a potato in the oven, a man in space, or a spiritually evolving person.

Accepting then that there are unleashed energies in the environment, both natural and artificial, how do these affect us? The simple truth is that every person has a different response depending on their receptivity and sensitivity. We also have to take into account the natural maturing process. To use a gardening analogy – if plants are forced some can be brought into flower and others can be damaged because they are not ready or because something inside them resists the process.

Human beings have resistors of various kinds within them. Those concerned with spiritual development form the ETHERIC WEB – a protective network in the blueprint body I mentioned earlier which operates particularly in the region of the etheric head and spine. Zachary Lansdowne in his book The Chakras and Esoteric Healing describes the processes involved. (p. 43) Important energy centres in the etheric body called CHAKRAS step down higher plane energy – acting like transformers to prevent our physical bodies from being burnt out. The etheric web does not normally allow contact between the chakras until we are spiritually ready, whether consciously or unconsciously. A that point the appropriate web is dissipated by the passage of KUNDALINI, the Sanskrit name for physical plane energy, which prepares the way for the free flow of higher energies between the chakras. Unfortunately, many people are being encouraged today by false ‘gurus' to deliberately raise kundalini energy without requiring that there should be purity of conduct and thought. If extremely powerful electrical currents are aroused they can have very dangerous effects. Conditions must be right or the effect can be like that of a thunderbolt or of a microwave on something which has been left on for too long.

So how can we activate this spiritual energy without harm to ourselves? We can start by not being too anxious about it. The process is natural and must eventually occur as our learning proceeds. It can be accelerated with the help of a highly evolved spiritual teacher but only if we have prepared ourselves properly. We must ensure that the channels are free from blockages by purification brought about by right action, right feeling and right thought. There is no need for us to separate ourselves from everybody else or to undergo rigorous physical practices as was once the case. Our learning takes place in the arena of daily living. The pilgrimage is within rather than without ourselves although some prefer exotic routes to enlightenment and we must each find our own way.

Alice Bailey was one of the first to address the subject of spiritual development in her book on Esoteric Psychology published in 1942 and also in Esoteric Healing published posthumously in 1953, A more obviously scientific researcher, Itzhak Bentov, dealt cogently with it in the appendix of a book called Stalking the Wild Pendulum (now out of print) put out in 1977. He died before he could take his enquiries further but his theories regarding spiritual evolution are of great interest. He suggested that certain resonating and oscillating circuits are created in the heart and brain of spiritually developing people by meditation and the purificatory processes I have mentioned. Other researchers bore out his findings, notably doctors investigating the effects of Transcendental Meditation and Yogic practices where dramatic effects on blood pressure and other functions were seen. Bentov explored various aspects of consciousness and coined the term PHYSIO-KUNDALINI SYNDROME to describe the abnormal effects on the body of energy rising through the chakras. If blocked in any way this causes painful sensations and muscular movements in a progressively upward direction from the feet to the top of the head. Psychological symptoms can also arise and the well known Italian doctor and psychologist Roberto Assagioli commented "we should not be surprised to find that so fundamental a transformation is marked by critical states which are not infrequently accompanied by various nervous emotional and mental troubles."

Bentov reported that many people experience the physio-kundalini syndrome spontaneously who are not particularly spiritual and they have no idea that an evolutionary process causes it. The syndrome can be caused in susceptible people by vibrational energies in the environment such as electrical equipment, faulty car suspensions and air conditioning plants which may give off frequencies similar to those of the kundalini force. There is so much electrical equipment around today it is hardly surprising and we are advised not to have it near us for too long. The distressing symptoms whether arising internally or externally, cannot be accounted for by orthodox medicine and anyone experiencing these discomforts is labeled as a hysterical hypochondriac because the symptoms ma6y be so diffuse and ordinary tests fail to show recognised abnormalities. Of course! This is something which is happening in the etheric body – causing results in the physical body.

In people who are aware of spiritual evolution and who perhaps meditate deliberately, this process takes a less violent course as their bodies are attuned and in harmony with it. The heart and brain are principally concerned and it seems that the heart has to be openly harmonious and new nerve fibres have to formed amazingly by right thinking between the hemispheres of the brain creating a bridge which corresponds to the antakharana which connects us to the Higher Self and divine energies. According to Bentov the chambers of the heart and the ventricles, which are chambers in the brain, have to synchronise and resonate together and he calls this ‘the coming of age of the nervous system' . Perhaps it is the key to making available those vast areas in the brain, which have no known function at the moment and contain powers of which we have not dreamed.

The work by Bentov is quoted extensively in an excellent book put out in 1988 by an American doctor, Richard Gerber, entitled, Vibrational Medicine. He says that the ‘subtle bodies take in (through the chakras) and process energy of a higher vibrational nature so that it may be properly assimilated and used to transform the physical body' . He goes on to describe how each chakra (or chakram) is connected to a particular nerve network and set of organs. Changes in the physical body are, he says ‘the observable end result of events occurring simultaneously on a variety of energy levels' and not just on the etheric.

Hopefully there will come a time when the average doctor will be aware of these ramifications and will know how to deal with them because sick individuals often have multiple chakras functioning abnormally. For instance, blockage in one may result in too much energy residing in the one below it, which leads to congestion there and weakness in the one which is depleted. Such illnesses are often temporary and do not need the stringent permanent remedies so often given when people complain, for example, of heart or thyroid conditions which could prove to be transient as the energy works its way through.

Pain can be felt in all the lower planes of consciousness manifesting as organic disease in the physical plane, psychosomatic disease in the etheric plane, emotional disorders in the astral plane, and psychiatric disease in the mental plane. Pain of any sort alerts us to work needing to be done and Alice Bailey gives wide ranging information regarding the illnesses which may arise at each stage of development. Briefly she observed that physiological disturbances and neurotic characteristics are frequently found in the spiritually polarised person. Inexplicable conditions seem to exist, she says, in combination with deep spiritual knowledge, mystical phenomena and high aspiration for divine contact. (P.513, EP2) she goes on to say that these conditions are due to the strain put on to the physical vehicle by the shift of forces made worse by the foolish things done by aspirants as they seek to bring the physical body under control instead of waiting for natural unfoldment through virtuous living and the important mechanism of meditation.

If we have pains she advises us not to dwell on them because energy follows thought and matters can thus be made much worse. (P.546, EP2) We merely observe what is happening and accept the work we need to do whether it be on attitudes, relationships etc. remembering that we are particularly vulnerable because we have deliberately invited a rapid change in our spiritual status. Our bodies may also be abnormally sensitive because of the altered vibrational frequencies in operation and which we have induced. Bentov tells us that the kundalini force will beat on our brain until blockages in its path give way and it can complete its intended circuit. If we know beforehand that painful bodily sensations and movements are likely, because sensitive areas in the brain are being stimulated, this will help us to endure them and will encourage us to rely more on the facilitating and soothing mechanism of meditation which is absolutely essential. Another psychological aid to endurance is the knowledge that we are sent suitable karma for our stage in development and that the stronger we become the more severe are the ordeals to which we are subjected. We also know that good, constructive work done in previous incarnations goes to our credit account and that we do not suffer in vain!

Professor Motoyama of Tokyo, who has invented a machine which registers chakra activity, has written an excellent book call Theories of the Chakras: Bridge to Higher Consciousness. The foreword to this book assures us that ‘altered states of physiological functioning associated with the awakening of each chakra are quite distinct from disease conditions, although they produce a variety of physical and mental symptoms which temporarily initiate them' . I would say that if we do not positively respond to these signals then the bodily condition must deteriorate and this may be the key to better health which occurs in people who have successfully made these changes. Many of us still struggle however and it may be that we have chosen to carry some burdens which are not directly ours. So let us stop worrying, let us accept what happens with equanimity and simply continue to do the best we can.

For many people the transformation process is relatively painless and as time goes by we shall eventually be stress free but here I have tried to draw attention to the possibility of painfully accelerated spiritual development occurring in ourselves or others either by accident or design. If we understand that this is happening we can flow with it instead of resisting, and we may also be able to help those who are experiencing unpleasant symptoms without realising what they represent. I know that it made a great difference to me when I read Bentov' s book and realised the precise nature of what was going on in my life and I have been able to use my experiences to give hope to people similarly afflicted.

Bibliography

Assagioli, Roberto. Psychosynthesis. (N.W. 1965: Turnstone Press, 1975).
Bailey, Alice A. Esoteric Psychology (Lucis Trust 1942).
Bentov, Itzhak. Stalking the Wild Pendulum: On the Mechanics of Consciousness. 1977. (Fontana Collins 1979). out of print but extensively quoted by R. Gerber).
Chopra, Deepak. The Awesome Power of the Mind. (inquire at bookshop).
Gerber, Richard. Vibrational Medicine: New Choices for Healing Ourselves. (Bear & Co.1988).
Lansdowne, Zachary. The Chakras and Esoteric Healing. (Samuel Weiser, Inc. 1986).
Motoyama, Professor Hiroshi. Theories of the Chakras: Bridge to Higher Consciousness. (Quest Books 1988).
Soskin, Julie. The Cosmic Dance. (Barton House 1991).

Editors Note

The following poem was written by Eileen in 1948 and seems to foreshadow her subsequent development as revealed in her article.

ENIGMA (Written 18.6.48 by Eileen Armstrong)

What destiny is this
That breathes in me
A whispering restless sigh
For bygone joys lost long ago,
This waking mind knows not
But did my soul eer know?

These vague experienced joys,
I cannot tell,
Lost in their timeless haze,
If they are past or yet to come
Or never to occur
My mortal mind is numb
Divining not the cause
Nor able yet
To reason out these things
Which tax my feeble brain

The fleet impression fades,
Too mystic to remain

PSI Symposium Annual Journal 2000