Other reasons it should be taken seriously is the demonstrated intelligence and knowledge of the subject in Tyger's posts and the importance of these ideas in Tyger's world-view and the fact that these teachings are wide-spread today and have been present throughout history, these ideas have survived and anything that survives deserves to be taken seriously. This does not make them true and it does not mean you have to believe them or that you shouldn't critique them.
Correct - absolutely. Believe nothing - do the inner work and see for yourself.
There are many stories from the journey - some good hair-curling yarns to be told by the fire on a dark and stormy night - entertainment, indications of the way, but only that when all is said and done.
One of the best, most comprehensive teachers of the occult I have come across stated emphatically that: others would come after him who would add to what he discovered - and more importantly, would correct where he was in error.
I am struck by no matter how many times I say to do the inner - that that is the avenue for verification and personal knowledge in these matters - still there is a wish for there to be external evidence. The best answer I can give to that is: observe nature - with passionate interest; observe human nature - with dispassionate interest; observe yourself - with interested dispassion. That said - two observations to make.......because the 'organ of perception' one is forging is oneself, and what one 'sees' will be the result of the precision of one's forging.....
I want to take you back to a scene in the first 'Indiana Jones' film - 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' - where Harrison Ford and his lady love are tied to a stake (I think) - it's at the end of the film - and the Ark of the Covenant is being opened by the Nazi officers. Indiana Jones shouts out the instruction: 'Don't look, Marion!' - and we then see the officers bedazzled by the beauty of the creatures emerging from the Ark but very quickly the creatures morph into something hideous and evil. In that image there resides a subtle truth: the malleability of the astral realm. To explain.....
We see in the physical. Nothing appears to change in what we see based on our mood in a given moment of time. There sits the rock - there the rock will sit in that moment regardless if we look with happy eyes or angry eyes. There it sits.
If we could see into the etheric, there is a bit more malleability than is present in the physical but the etheric is not as responsive as is the astral, which is the next 'sheath' after the physical and etheric. With the astral, hold onto your hat! Consider the lightening speed with which your emotions can shift from one instant to the next - so it is if one is saddled with 'second-sight' into the astral realm: the transitions are lightening quick. Plus what one 'sees' is oneself raw and untransformed. Recall the query: if I was walking down the street and saw myself, would I run to embrace my image or turn away in aversion. Here is the reality of that - you see what are your creations (in the astral), and you see what is around you (in the astral), as well, what you draw to yourself (in the astral) - nothing 'objective' about this kind of 'insight' (seeing-in) and with even the merest flicker of fear, or disgust, and the images shape-shift to be that which you create.
The problem is accentuated when the seer into this realm is not aware that they are creating what they see - and that they must command the creation. A seer at this level of expertise may be able to acquire some accurate information but the hit-or-miss ratio can be on the order of random.
The purification - transformation - call it what you will (the process is spoken of in various ways in various streams) - of the astral 'body' or 'sheath' (the realm of feelings, desires, passions) - is essential if one is to maintain sanity. Taking on the inner journey as a conscious discipline and nothing gets easier - quite the reverse - the path becomes ever steeper and rockier, as the saying goes. Also, though we may enter the path from varying portals (Head, Heart, Solar Plexus) - all portals will be engaged at some point. The path of knowledge requires the heart engaged, and will for sure at some junctures precipitate mystical experiences. [But other chakras - like the second or 'sacral chakra' related to sexuality - will also engage, and is a notorious problem for men and women in their prime - not to be addressed by sublimation or denial - but that's a whole 'nother topic. See: 'Kundalini', 'Cosmic Egg', 'Tantric Yoga'.]
One other element: the determination of where you leave off and others begin.This can be more of a problem for the Individuality when incarnating in a female body (I have thought), but the issue of boundaries is universal. In one of my trainings - I relayed this particularly troublesome emotional experience: I was at work at my desk. My boss was squiring a group of visitors past my desk whereat they stopped just in front of me. As I sat there, suddenly - from one moment to the next - I was beset with the most intense emotional pain, the heartache of a 'lost love' experience with ferocious intensity to the point of agony. I sat struck numb as this 'squall' tore through my being - when the group moved off to the other side of the room - and finally disappeared into another room. As they were across the room the pain in me dramatically subsided - and with them no longer in physical connection with me - the pain was gone entirely.
My teacher's guidance was this: first, I had been 'sensing' the emotional state of someone in that group. [How was I to know this for the future? Such sensings come into the soul (emotional body in this case) just like I had described - like a squall - with a definite beginning and a definite end. Earmark of an empathic event taking place. A 'not you' moment though until we learn that boundary we react as though it is us and suffer.] Second, my experience was more intense than the person's emotional state I was picking up. [This seemed very 'unfair', I protested - and I said as much. Unfair though it might seem, I was told, such was the nature of such empathic responses.] Further, I would not have 'picked up' this emotion had I not had an experience of the same or similar emotion in my personal 'cache' - which enabled me to resonate to the emotion of heart-break in the other. I had to go back into the experience and pull up any internal images that had occurred at the time. Had I looked at the group? Yes. Had anyone stood out? Yes, a man - and as my teacher walked me through the experience I was shown that I had the information already as to where (from who) the experience was coming - and I was shown how I might have, could have, 'healed' in that moment.
I tell the above as an illustration of knowing the boundaries of the self. Generally we are a mass of feelings, desires, errant thoughts - and we identify it all as 'us' - when in fact it is not so. I knew someone whose empathic response was so keen that they could not be present in large groups of people. One friend told a story of being in a circle of strangers, when a man entered the room and sat in the empty seat beside her. Within minutes she was overcome with sorrow and began to sob uncontrollably. Even at it took place, the 'observer' in her, was mystified about what was happening to her. People came round to pat her and give the usual clucks - when the man stood up and left. At once the sorrow vanished and the crying ceased. A squall. When I told her the 'explanation' - she resonated at once. That was it - and she sensed it at the time: the man was carrying some sorrow. But when I told her that she felt his sorrow keener than he did to the point of open sobbing but he did not - she as well thought that was very 'unfair.
But so it is.
I had to learn how to identify when an emotion was arising from within me and was 'my own' and when it was arising from elsewhere. ['My own' had a slow organic birthing, not in any way extreme; 'from another' was exactly like a squall - abruptly beginning and ending - and extremely unpleasant, totally consuming while occurring.] Learning how to handle all this before 'second-sight' is accessed is on the order of a gift - be grateful you are not 'psychic' to see what battles are being waged in the astral! Ha!
The above has been proved with me time-and-time again. I see women tending to be more empathic - be it for nature or nurture - but anyone on the empathic spectrum would find themselves in this situation. This also goes for thoughts. How do thoughts arise? The most dangerous situation I found myself in was when I was in a relationship with someone and found myself having moments of intense suicidal despair with suicidal thoughts. This was not like me. The nature of the feelings and thoughts indicated an empathic response - and I identified who it was. At that realization I was able to 'objectif'y the experience and in 'healing' myself hopefully some healing went to the person who was feeling this despair - though not to the point if suicide (remembering that the empathic response is always more intense than the original emotion is in the originating person - totally unfair).
From just the little bit I have shared you can see that this is not a minor undertaking - it is very much a transformation of the entire being - as new capacities are being forged. The Path of Knowledge is the Path of Power - and it is a power that is oft time wielded for personal gain. Many 'fall' in this way. That is the sure and certain path to destruction when such capacities begin to be used for self. Happens all the time - all around us - we hear the rail and rant against those who are 'suppose to be' better, wiser - yep. Try it - see how far you go before you stumble. Luckily there is only one way but forward - and while the universe is exacting it is also forgiving.
Scientific exploration is often stimulated as much by hopes and wishes - a vision of what might be possible - as much as by a 'scientific problem'. More is pursued through the imagination than we know.
