Soul to Spirit: The New Spiritual Psychology

This second post on the Science of Contact attempts to discuss how contact is actually achieved. In truth, we are always in contact, but with what?  Only as we can truly apply viveka (discernment) and meet the prerequisites that put us into resonance with that which we want to contact, can contact with higher levels of Divinity become possible. That is why in the Chela on the Thread stage so much emphasis is put on knowing how to navigate the subtle realms.

As I have been demonstrating when we get to Group 9 in the Ageless Wisdom teachings, which I have correlated to the Chela on the Thread stage, we must get a handle on the subtle realms from a place of increased objectivity and clarity. As we meditate and move into subtle realms caution is necessary. The Yoga Sutras of Pantanjali, comprised of four different books (which Alice Bailey read and commented on), talk about needing to establish a solid moral foundation (the yamas and niyamas) before moving into developing psychic powers, especially regarding Higher and Lower Psychic Powers. This moral foundation has some parallels to what has to be solidly in place by the Accepted Discipleship stage in the Ageless Wisdom teachings. We also have to have developed the capacity to truly think and intuit. In Integral, they refer to this as post-conventional thinking. But, there is more to contact than all of this, which is what this blog is attempting to explore.

To backtrack, if you are not already oriented to the three blogs on Discerning Between Higher and Lower Psychic Powers I have written, and the two on channeling, I encourage you to read them. They attempt to establish the necessary discernment regarding what we might be contacting and at what level that contact may be occurring at. You might also consider reviewing Chela on the Thread: Science of Contact I as well.

And, to orient us again, here is the chart on Levels and Terms, as well as the major tasks (as I have summarized them) regarding the Chela on the Thread. 

Chela on the Thread — Major Tasks: List

1. Discern Between Higher and Lower Psychic Powers
2. Achieve Group Resonance
3. Learn the Science of Impression and Contact
4. Establish Continuity of Consciousness

Chela on the Thread — Major Tasks: Science of Contact II

3. Learn the Science of Impression and Contact

When it comes to contact, we are reminded that the first contact we make is with what is called our soul or Higher Self. Especially at the what Alice Bailey calls the first initiation (which involves the Little Chelaship and Chela on the Light stages) this is the case. As we move into what is known as the second initiation, that contact shifts. This is because we are becoming that very soul we used to feel we were contacting.  Now, the contact shifts to another level, where other kinds of contact become possible to us because the disciplines we have been going through allow us to resonate with these new levels.

These higher levels of contact are now available to us because we have learned to resonant with them. That resonance involves having strong mental discernment regarding filtering out astral/emotional impressions (often filled with messages that are personal in nature), from those that reside on higher mental levels (which are often represented by complex symbolism and have to do with understanding large complex systems). Once this is achieved Discipleship in the New Age, Vol I tells us we reach “the stage wherein the disciple is taught how (in emergencies) to attract the Master’s attention.” p. 745

Once again, as I spoke about in the post Accepted Discipleship: Service and the Master, we are led into those murky waters where distortions about contact with a Master abound.  In that post I spoke at length about the Pre/Trans fallacy as so artfully highlighted by Ken Wilber. To avoid some glamour along these lines we might want to consider “Masters” to be those saints, sages, archetypal beings that exist both in and some say out of a physical body. The Alice Bailey teachings also tell us that any so called contact with a Master is only for the sake of service. Contact, we are told, is never to help one solve personal problems of any kind. For example, In Discipleship in the New Age, Vol I, we are told, “As the name implies, the disciple at this point is permitted to call the attention of the Master; this is permissible only when the chela can be trusted to use the privilege solely for purposes of group service and never for himself or his own benefiting. This signifies that the disciple is capable of handling his life and problems himself and is not likely, therefore, to intrude his personal crises into the life of the Ashram. It implies also a chela of such devotion and essential basic selflessness that the Ashram needs no protection from his vibratory activity; he never exacts from the Master any of the potency which rebuffs, as it is esoterically called. The Master knows that if a call comes from the chela on the thread, it will not be a waste of His time to respond, because the call will always be launched on behalf of group need and for the establishing of group purpose.  pp. 745 – 746

In many ways we might want to relate contact to the cry that many put forward when they are attempting to breakthrough and solve a problem that is almost always of a mental nature, pioneering in implication, and broad in scope. The problem could be mathematical or along the lines of finding a medical treatment or cure. Or, it may be intuiting how to help to warring countries come into greater peace, the best means to bridge racial tensions, new methods of mass education, ways to synthesis various religions together into a more unified format, and so on. I am using these kinds of examples because to get to the Chela on the Thread stage we are told we have a highly developed, focused and discerning mind that is also capable of synthesizing and unifing various realms of thought along a particular line. We are also told that the impulse for such contact must be increasingly selfless, with the emotional nature for the most part consistently calm. And, we are told we must be decentralized and know very concretely what our service is in the world. Discipleship in the New Age, Vol I puts it this way: “The major tasks of the Master when a disciple first enters His Ashram is to make him think along the lines of decentralisation. This involves the shift of the disciple’s consciousness from himself to the work to be done and, incidentally, the answering of the questions:

1. Do you, in reality, know what your life task is?
2. Have you tried to carry this out in your current life processes?
3. Is your main objective the building of character and the development of purity? If this is so, do you not think that you should be on the Path of Probation and not deluding yourself with the idea that you are on the Path of Discipleship?
4. Are you preoccupied with human need or are you engrossed with your own position as a disciple, with your own spiritual problems, and with the delusion of the terrific difficulties in your personal life?

As long as you believe that your life is one of all engrossing interest and also one of exceeding hard places, you are only in the very early stages of accepted discipleship and have not yet cast off ancient habits of thought. These questions have eventually to be answered before the student has what I might call ‘the full freedom of the Ashram.'” p. 746

Again we are told that these Masters, whoever they may be, are not contacted to channel information for entertainment. They never talk about what past life someone had, or what someone needs to do in a relationship and so forth. The teachings they give are advanced and require real mental effort that can hold up to scrutiny, debate, and analysis. They are never considered the “gospel truth” because they come from some high being.  And, finally we are told that they for the most part are only to be contacted in an emergency, for the sake of getting answers to problem solve a particular line of work that has to do with solving a human need usually on a large scale. Any other kind of contact we are told is most likely a glamour. But, to be able to see that glamour for what it is, one has to pass through the stage of Accepted Discipleship where glamour (and the need to contact any kind of Master) is greatly diminished. We must also get through the phase of really discerning between higher and lower psychic powers, as well as clean up a great deal of glamour regarding channeling. When all of this is worked through, then contact begins to become possible. And, that is when the Science of Impression and Contact can really be understood. In the Alice Bailey writings, the main book that teaches about this topic is known as Telepathy and the Etheric Vehicle. And, even there we are told that only hints are given. Why? Because in Discipleship and the New Age, Vol I we are told that the technique is only truly given when, “you are ‘on the thread,’ [then] you will inevitably have the information given to you.” p.748

Keeping this in mind, I would like to quote somewhat from Telepathy and the Etheric Vehicle, where some hints are given about how such contact takes place. After each quote I will comment, keeping my comments in BLUE. Also, here is the Levels and Terms chart again to help us know where we are developmentally. 

1. Telepathic work between soul and mind. This is the technique whereby the mind is “held steady in the light,” and then becomes aware of the content of the soul’s consciousness, an innate content, or that which is part of the group life of the soul on its own level, and when in telepathic communication with other souls, as mentioned under our fourth heading.This is the true meaning of intuitional telepathy. Through this means of communication the mind of the disciple is fertilized with the new and spiritual ideas; he becomes aware of the great Plan; his intuition is awakened. One point should here be borne in mind, which is oft forgotten: The inflow of the new ideas from the buddhic levels, thus awakening the intuitional aspect of the disciple, indicates that his soul is beginning to integrate consciously and definitely with the Spiritual Triad, and therefore to identify itself less and less with the lower reflection, the personality. This mental sensitivity and rapport between soul and mind remain for a long time relatively inchoate on the mental plane. That which is sensed remains too vague or too abstract for formulation. It is the stage of the mystical vision and of mystical unfoldment.  [Here meditation practices are implied particularly along the lines of Raja Yoga. The first step in such meditation practices we are told again involve first becoming aware of one’s own soul, as well as other souls. All of this is learned during the stages of the 1st initiation primarily and all correspondences in the rows related to that initiation in the Levels and Terms chart I have provided above apply here in both the Ageless Wisdom and Integral Systems]. 
2. Telepathic work between soul, mind and brain. In this stage the mind still remains the recipient of impression from the soul but, in its turn, it becomes a “transmitting agent” or communicator. The impressions received from the soul, and the intuitions registered as coming from the Spiritual Triad, via the soul, are now formulated into thoughts; the vague ideas and the vision hitherto unexpressed can now be clothed in form and sent out as embodied thought-forms to the brain of the disciple. In time, and as the result of technical training, the disciple can in this way reach the mind and brains of other disciples. This is an exceedingly interesting stage. It constitutes one of the major rewards of right meditation and involves much true responsibility. You will find more anent this stage of telepathy in my other books, particularly A Treatise on White Magic. (Pages 176-180, 415, 427-428, 477-478.)This much that I have outlined here is practically all that concerns man in his own inner individual contacts and work and training. There is, however, a whole range of telepathic contacts which should be noted because they constitute the goal for humanity.” [Here we have shifted into what the Ageless Wisdom teachings call the second initiation. Again, Accepted Disciple requires freedom from glamour, and the ability to formulate ideas that are clear cut, precise, capable of holding up under analytic scrutiny, are wide in either application or scope, and useful for solving broad and far-ranging problems that will when implemented demonstrate results, especially along the lines of creating greater unity and synthesis]. 

Telepathic work between a Master (the focal point of a group) and the disciple in the world. It is an occult truth that no man is really admitted into a Master’s group, as an accepted disciple, until he has become spiritually impressionable and can function as a mind in collaboration with his own soul. Prior to that he cannot be a conscious part of a functioning group on the inner planes gathered around a personalized force, the Master; he cannot work in true rapport with his fellow disciples. But when he can work somewhat as a conscious soul, then the Master can begin to impress him with group ideas via his own soul. He hovers then for quite a while upon the periphery of the group. Eventually, as his spiritual sensitivity increases, he can be definitely impressed by the Master and taught the technique of contact. Later, the group of disciples, functioning as one synthetic thought-form, can reach him and thus automatically he becomes one of them. To those who have the true esoteric sense, the above paragraph will convey a good deal of information, hitherto hidden.” pp. 21 – 23  [Again, note the emphasis on Accepted Disciple and ultimately of Chela on the Thread, for such contact to begin to occur.  I say ‘begin’, because the Chela is on the ‘Thread’, meaning the contact is infrequent and to be used only in the case of an emergency to solve a problem regarding humanity’s need. On a final note it might be good to research the notion of peak experiences as well as study what was happening at the moment when many pioneers of thought might have had a ‘eureka’ experience that led them to new discoveries. Such research and study would help to further clarify what happens when solutions come ‘down the thread’ and what state someone is likely to be in when they take place]. 

In conclusion, overall, I continue to avoid the idea of who the Master’s are as there is so much glamour there it becomes in my mind a bit of a waste of time.  To me, it is much more important to study the ideas coming through various people, the quality of those ideas, the freedom from glamour regarding those ideas, and so forth, than to get caught up in a Master of some kind having spoken them. Also, what I take away most from the writings is that the entire point of “contact” is to be able to bring forth new ideas that are truly of service and progress the human family forward.  By developing our minds and the discerning faculties of our minds, we help move that process forward.

Have comments, questions, suggestions?  They will be posted so long as they are civil and expand the discussion.

Namaste,

Lisa

Copyright ©2016 by Lisa Love. All rights reserved. No part of this blog may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, computer, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.