The Principles of Occult Healing - A Working Hypothesis Which Includes All Cures - Studies by a Group of Theosophical Students. Mary Weeks Burnett
origin of Life and Form, and to understand that the great law of evolution, together with its sister law, that “whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap,” are forcing each human being irresistibly onward through pain and sorrow to a first-hand knowledge of his divine source and powers. Mankind needs to acknowledge with gratitude the debt it owes to the Shining Ones who distribute health and healing Life through the forms; it must learn to look upon matter as a graded, living substance, endowed with qualities which must be taken into consideration in every case of healing. And never to be lost sight of, is the great occult fact that each ego must learn, is learning—in some cases has learned—to select the higher grades of matter for its bodies, matter which does not respond to discord or disease.
How can it be proved that these statements are facts and therefore worthy of earnest study?
The methods of the occultist are identical with those of the scientist; but the Western scientist restricts himself to the use of physical instruments for his investigations, and his researches are confined to the investigations of solids, liquids and gases and theoretical studies in ether, all belonging to the matter of the physical plane. The occultist, on the other hand, is not limited to physical instruments alone, nor are his studies confined to the denser forms of matter.
The occultist realizes that sense-organs must be built out of each type of matter, for each and every sense-organ responds only to the vibratory power in its own kind of matter. As man, through long ages of evolution has built for himself physical sense-organs in and of physical matter, so now, if he would investigate matter that is finer than the dense physical, he must build a set of finer sense-organs into the finer matter of his own bodies.
This need not be a long process, for now, by “using the knowledge gained by observation of natural laws, by eliminating all obstacles, by working with Nature, utilizing all favorable conditions,” these new sense-organs can be built within a few years instead of through a long evolution. Many professional men and women are today unconsciously working at this building. Each deeply earnest effort to solve the problems which disease presents is another step toward acquiring the new sense-organs; for physical vision having reached its limit, the consciousness attempts to solve the problem by means of, or through the medium of, intuitional-matter, instead of physical. This is a preparatory step toward opening up new sense-organs in the finer types of matter in the body.
This extension of sense-power is known as clairvoyance, clear-seeing. There are two distinct divisions or classifications of this power; the lower, and the higher clairvoyance.
The lower, that exemplified in ordinary medium-ship, and frequently observed in animals, has its chief expression through the sympathetic nerve centers. It may or may not be accurate, for the reading cannot be confirmed by the brain consciousness of the observer.
The higher clairvoyance, however, is the result of definite, purposeful training of the finer bodies and sense-organs, through which the Self, the consciousness, looks at events, past, present and future, from a higher standpoint. Whoever seeks to use this higher clairvoyance must eliminate pride, cupidity and ignorance, for they are fatal to the attainment of this true expression of consciousness.
As we unfold our points of view in the following chapters, it will, we hope, be seen that a recognition of the Life side of Nature, as well as a research into both super- and sub-types of spirit-matter is all important in the understanding of the occult, the hidden side of Health.
* Bhagavad Gita, X, 42.
* A Study in Consciousness, by Annie Besant, p. 13.
CHAPTER II
OCCULT HEALING SCHOOLS
It should be said, before we enter into the details of our subject, that we are not dealing with an extraneous growth which is now attempting to attach itself to the superstructure of Therapeutics. Instead, we find that the principles of Occult Healing are part of the very foundations of the earliest systems of Healing.
The Western world has no theory concerning the origin of Health and Disease, but a very definite one is set forth in the therapeutical books of the East. In the Ayurveda, one of the great medical scriptures of ancient India, it is stated that the knowledge of perfect Health, or the Science of Life, was taught by Brahma, the Creator, to the inhabitants of the highest heaven realms, the Celestial Devas or Archangels.
The Celestial gods communicated the Science of Health received by them from Brahma, to Indra, the next lower in rank to themselves, for they were bound by the ancient law governing the imparting of knowledge, which required that when one had been taught a science he must teach it to another; otherwise he committed a far-reaching sin. Indra was the chief of the gods whose home was in the next lower realm or plane, and he should have taught the science to the lesser gods of his realm, who would have guarded the health of the people by passing on the knowledge to them. But he failed to perform this sacred duty. He kept the knowledge to himself and, as a result, instead of the universal Health which had till then prevailed, decrepitude and diseases of divers kinds, and shortness of life, began to afflict mankind.
Discovering his fatal error too late for the protection of the people, Indra determined that the science should not be wholly lost to mankind. He called together some wise men who, through austerity and self-control, through vows, gifts, study, meditation and the practice of universal compassion, had earned the right to be taught the laws of Perfect Health—“This most sacred of all sciences, which promotes longevity, which prevents the effects of decrepitude and disease, which infuses strength, which is as nectar itself, which is most beneficial to all beings, which affords protection to the afflicted, and which is wholly unsectarian as regards its doctrines.”
To these wise men Indra delivered the true science of Life and Health, and from their works and those of their pupils to whom they passed on the ancient knowledge, have come down through the ages many stories of instantaneous healings, now termed miracles.
Glimpses of what these truths may have been will be found in the records of the Occult Healing Schools of the ancient East, where the hidden side of Nature in all its phases was earnestly studied. Not only did they teach the mysteries concerning the movements of planets and their influence upon the elements of matter in all bodies, and the evolution of the Deva or Angel kingdom and its relation to the human kingdom, but they penetrated into the sacred mysteries of Life itself.
The instantaneous restoration from disease and death to health, which characterized the highest healing in those most ancient records, is found to be characteristic also of the later schools of the Therapeutæ and their earnest students. According to Philo, a learned writer of the first century A.D.,* there had existed for many centuries before that date communities called Essenes, very learned bodies of students, whose chief characteristics were love of God, love of virtue, and love of mankind; and their methods of demonstrating these virtues made them greatly beloved. Within this outer body was an inner School called the Therapeutæ, or wisdom-lovers, who devoted themselves to the study of the super- and sub-physical Nature, and to the understanding of the highest elements of health for both souls and bodies.
They claimed that by means of these studies they obtained an art of healing superior to the ordinary; by constant study of Nature, of Nature’s administrators, the devas, and the union in the One Self, they developed the intuition which enabled them to directly know the nature of pure souls and to be able to understand and use the powers inherent in the essence of matter, and also to know the causes of disease. One aim of the Therapeutæ was to attain to such a state of holiness as to be able to perform instantaneous cures. Only those who, by complete purity of mind and body, and by fullest love and compassion had reached the highest grade in the Schools, were able to bring the dead to life.
To these Essenes were attached outer circles of pupils living in the world, who were in training for the higher grades of healing, and from these schools were sent out from time to time small bodies of colonizers into different countries. They