THOUGHT-FORMS

TAKE A SEAT in any café or restaurant and observe the people sitting at the tables around you!

Listen to their conversation and note what they have to say to one another!

Go into families, watch your most intimate friends in their hours of leisure when work no longer presses!

You will be shocked at the hollowness of their conversations when they cannot talk about their various occupations.

If you observe them closely you will sense with disgust the emptiness of their thoughts and the oppressively narrow sphere of their interests, as well as their terrible superficiality.

The few exceptions you encounter, those whose words in their leisure hours of everyday life are penetrated by a longing for a greater development of their souls, will appear to you as solitary strangers in the midst of a fair.

It is just in his so-called leisure hours that you can best recognize the real inner man, when his daily work is done and he has lost the outer hold on life provided by his special field of knowledge.

What then remains is the actual man.

Watch him and listen dispassionately to his words!

You will soon cease your observations because they will become intolerable.

You will be filled with deep sadness when you realize that many people are not very much different to animals, not quite so dull and equipped with a higher intellect, but on the whole the same.

They go through life on earth as if with blinkers, never seeing more than one aspect, i.e., what is purely material.

They attend to eating and drinking and aim to increase to a greater or lesser extent their hoard of earthly treasures, seeking for physical enjoyment and regarding all reflection on things they cannot see as a waste of time, which they consider would be better employed in “rest and recreation”.

They cannot and will not understand that life on earth, with all its pleasures and joys, only gets its real meaning when one has become more or less familiar with the Ethereal World, and knows about the reciprocal actions connecting us with it, for then one no longer has the feeling of being at the mercy of chance.

They repudiate this idea under the misapprehension that, if an ethereal world really exists, it would only bring them discomfort or even dismay as soon as they concern themselves with it.

To them it is a strange idea that life on earth only gets real value through striving upwards, and that then a delightful, vital warmth also pulsates through all earthly joys and pleasures.

These latter are not pushed aside; on the contrary, those who yearn for and earnestly seek what is pure and high will, as a beautiful result of reciprocal action, attain an ardent love of life, often ending in jubilant enthusiasm for all that exists and is proffered.

Fools are they who pass this by!

Cowards, to whom the glorious joy of those who advance courageously will ever be denied!

Rejoice that all around you lives, far away to regions that seem immeasurable!

Nothing is dead, nothing is void as it would appear!

Everything is working and weaving in reciprocal action, in the center of which you stand as men continually forming and directing the threads, being both starting point and final goal.

Mighty rulers are you!

Each one of you is establishing his own kingdom in such a way that it will either uplift you or bury you beneath its ruins.

Awake!

Use the power given to you in the full knowledge of this mighty happening, lest in your stupidity and obstinacy, or even in your indolence, you bring forth only harmful deformities which choke all that is healthy and good and finally cause you as their author to totter and fall!

Even man’s nearest ethereal surrounding can contribute much to uplift or debase him.

This is the strange world of thought-forms, the vital activity of which comprises only a small section of the giant mechanism of the whole Creation.

Their threads, however, penetrate both into the Gross Material World, and further up into the Ethereal World, as well as descending into the realm of Darkness.

Like a gigantic network of veins or nerve-strands, all is intertwined and interwoven, untearable and inseparable!

Mark this well!

There are favored ones who here and there can see a part of this, but much they can only divine.

In this way some things have come to the knowledge of mankind, who have sought to build further upon this knowledge in order to obtain a complete picture.

But in so doing gaps and mistakes were bound to occur.

Many investigators of the ethereal realm jumped to conclusions which inevitably caused the proper sequence to be lost. Others again filled the gaps with fantastic imagery,

bringing disfigurements and distortions which consequently shattered faith in the whole matter.

The result was a justifiable derision which, based on the lack of logic of the so-called spiritual investigators, was certain to be victorious.

If these matters are to be spoken of at all it is necessary that first of all a cord should be drawn through all that happens in the working of Creation, which the onlooker can grasp in order to help him climb upwards.

Many of the processes which perplex him have their origin in his immediate vicinity.

One glance into the world of thought-forms should suffice to make him understand several things that seemed inexplicable before.

In dealing with many a case the Judiciary would also find the real originators to be quite different persons to those accused, and would first of all call such persons to account.

The key to this lies in the connection between the individual and the world of thought-forms, which stands closest to humanity.

It is certainly a blessing for many that they are blindfolded and cannot see further than their physical eyes will permit, for the nature of the existing thought-forms would give them a fright.

Paralyzing horror would grip many who today naively or frivolously lead unscrupulous lives.

For every thought that is generated, like everything in the Ethereal World, immediately takes a form which embodies and expresses the essential meaning of the thought.

The Living Creative Power which flows through man collects ethereal substance through the volition of a completed thought and molds it into a form which gives expression to the will of this thought.

Thus this form is something real, something living, which now, in accordance with the Law of Attraction of Homogeneous Species, attracts what is homogeneous in this world of thought-forms or is attracted by them, depending on the strength it possesses.

Just as a thought when it arises is simultaneously perceived intuitively, with greater or lesser intensity, so its ethereal form will bear an equivalent life.

This world of thoughts is densely populated.

Through the mutual power of attraction complete centers have been formed which, by means of their accumulated energy, exercise a great influence upon human beings.

In the first place those persons will always be influenced who tend towards a similar nature, that is, who bear something similar within themselves.

Such persons will thereby be strengthened in their corresponding will, and encouraged to continue producing new and similar forms which, working in the same manner, enter the world of thought-forms.

But also other people who do not possess these special tendencies can be bothered by these influences and gradually be attracted to them, if these centers are continually reinforced and so obtain unsuspected power.

Only those are protected who possess other tendencies in greater strength, making a connection with what is dissimilar impossible.

Unfortunately, however, it is hate, envy, jealousy, lustfulness, avarice and all other evils which, through their greater numbers of adherents, form the strongest power centers in the world of thought-forms. Far less great are those of purity and love!

This is the reason why evil is spreading with such uncanny rapidity.

In addition these power centers of thought-forms in turn obtain a connection with analogous spheres of darkness.

From there they are specially roused to ever greater activity so that as a consequence they are able to create downright devastation among mankind.

Therefore, blessed be the hour when thoughts of pure love will once more take a greater place among mankind, so that similarly strong centers will develop themselves in the world of thought-forms, which can be reinforced from the more luminous spheres and thus not only strengthen those striving towards what is good, but also slowly work on darker minds with a gradually purifying effect!

Yet another activity is to be observed in the Ethereal World.

According to the wishes of their originator, thought-forms are sent out to certain persons to whom they may then cling.

If these thought-forms are of a pure and noble nature, they will beautify the person for whom they are meant, strengthen the shield of purity around him and, if they meet with inner intuitive perceptions of a similar nature, they can uplift him further and strengthen him for his ascent.

Impure thoughts, however, cannot fail to soil the person for whom they are meant in just the same way as a physical body is soiled if mud and dirt is thrown at it.

If a man so attacked is not inwardly anchored firmly to the centers of light-streams, it may very well happen that in time his intuitive perception may become confused under this barrage of impure thoughts.

This is possible because these impure thought-forms clinging to him are able to attract others of a like nature, which strengthen them so that by degrees they poison the thoughts of the person so encompassed.

The greater part of the responsibility naturally falls back upon the man who generated the impure thoughts and whose wish or desire sent them out to the person concerned, for the thought-forms also remain attached to their author and react upon him accordingly.

It is therefore necessary repeatedly to call out to all true seekers:

“Give heed to the purity of your thoughts!”

Put all your energy into this effort!

You have no idea what you are thus doing; something stupendous lies in it!

You can work with this like mighty warriors and pioneers for the Light, and thus liberate your fellow-men from the poisonous creepers that infest the world of thought-forms!

If now the bandage could be removed from the eyes of a man so that he could look into his immediate ethereal environment, he would at first be alarmed and terrified at the wild confusion he would see there.

But this would only last until he realized the power within him, with which, as with a sharp sword, he can without effort clear a free passage merely by exerting his volition.

He would see thought-forms in a hundred thousand varieties in all possible and, to the physical eye, often impossible shapes.

Each one, however, is sharply defined, showing and expressing what was the actual volition, unadorned and without artificial disguise, when the thought was generated.

Still, in spite of the thousands of varieties, one learns in time to recognize at a glance the nature of each thought-form, that is to say, one knows to which category they belong in spite of their different shapes.

Just as one can distinguish a man from an animal by his face, or indeed recognize the different human races by certain facial characteristics, so in precisely the same way thought-forms have also quite marked expressions that clearly indicate whether the form belongs to hatred, envy, lust, or some other basic type.

Each of these fundamental types has its own particular stamp which has been impressed on each thought-form as the foundation of the characteristics embodied in it, no matter what outer shape each form has taken through the generating thought.

Thus, in spite of the most grotesque distortion of a form, which may reach the most terrible deformity, one can immediately recognize to what fundamental type it belongs.

Once this is recognized that which appears to be wild confusion no longer remains so.

One sees the inexorable order and strictness of the fundamental laws governing all Creation which, if one knows them and has adapted oneself to their course, afford unbounded protection and great blessing.

He, however, who opposes these laws will naturally be attacked and, if not utterly cast down and crushed, will at least undergo a severe grinding between the great millstones which, through pain and bitter experiences, will remodel him until he fits into the working of these laws and is no longer an obstacle.

Only then can he be carried along upwards!

These thought-forms not only return their effects to humanity, but go further.

For to the same Ethereal World belong the greater number of the elementals.

He who has reconciled himself to the fact that all is alive and also has a form, whether physically visible or not, will not find it difficult to go a step further and realize that the elemental powers also have forms.

To these belong the gnomes, elves, sylphs, water-sprites, etc., the earth, air, fire and water elementals, which have been seen by many, but formerly more often than now.

These are being influenced by the thought-forms so that also there much good or evil arises.

And so it goes on!

One thing gears into another like cogwheels in the finest and most highly-perfected mechanism.

In the midst of all this “machinery” stands man!

He is equipped with the means to decide the nature of the weaving that shall proceed from the loom of Creation and to set the mechanism in motion in different directions.

Be conscious of this immeasurable responsibility, for it all takes place only within the circle of your earthly limits.

By the wise ordinance of the Creator nothing goes beyond this, but falls back upon you yourselves.

Through your wishes, your thinking and your volition you are able to poison this world and the beyond, or you may purify and uplift them towards the Light.

Therefore direct your destiny so that it

may lead upwards through the purity of your thoughts!

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