MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE
Examples of Different Types of Men as Seen by Means of Trained ClairvoyanceBY C. W. LEADBEATERCHAPTER I HOW THESE THINGS ARE KNOWNMan is a curiously complex being, and his evolution, past, present and future, is a study of perennial interest for all who can see and understand. Through what toilsome eternities of gradual development he has come to be what he is, to what round in the long ladder of hisprogress he has now attained, what possibilities of further progress the veil of the futureconceals from us, these are questions to which few can be indifferent—questions which havebeen occurring all through the ages to everyone who has thought at all. In the Western worldthe answers given have been many and various. There has been much dogmatic assertion,based on differing interpretations of alleged revelation; there have been many ingeniousspeculations, the fruit in some cases of close metaphysical reasoning. But dogmatism meetsus with a story which is on the face of it manifestly impossible, while speculation moves chieflyalong entirely materialistic lines, and endeavors to arrive at a satisfactory result by ignoringhalf of the phenomena for which we have to account. Neither dogmatism nor speculationapproaches the problem from a practical point of view, as a matter which can be studied andinvestigated like any other science. Theosophy comes forward with a theory based uponentirely different foundations. While in no way depreciating the knowledge to be gained either by study of the ancient scriptures or by philosophical reasoning, it nevertheless regards theconstitution and the evolution of man as matters, not of speculation, but of simpleinvestigation. When so examined, they prove to be parts of a magnificent scheme, coherentand readily comprehensible—a scheme which, while it agrees with and explains much of theold religious teaching, is yet in no way dependent on it, since it can be verified at every step bythe use of the inner faculties which, though as yet latent in the majority of mankind, havealready been brought into working order by a number among our students. For the past historyof man, this theory depends not only upon the concurrent testimony of the tradition of theearlier religions, but upon the examination of a definite record—a record which can be seenand consulted by anyone who possesses the degree of clairvoyance requisite to appreciatethe vibrations of the finely subdivided matter upon which it is impressed. For its knowledge asto the future which awaits humanity, it depends, first, upon logical deduction from thecharacter of the progress already made; second, on direct information supplied by men whohave already reached those conditions which for most of us still constitute a more or lessremote future; and third, on the comparison which anyone who has the privilege of seeingthem may make between highly evolved men at various levels. We can imagine that a childwho did not otherwise know the course of nature might reason that he would presently growup and become a man, merely from the fact that he had already grown to a certain extent andin a certain way, and that he saw around him other children and young people at every stageof growth between his own and the adult level. The study of the condition of man at thepresent time, of the immediate methods for his evolution, and of the effect upon that evolutionof his thoughts, his emotions, his actions—all this is regarded by theosophical students as amatter of the application of well-known laws as a broad, general principle, and then of careful
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