March 2013 Newsletter
The following articles are reproduced from the March 2013 Newsletter to members. Non-members may or may not be able to relate to the contents.
Mediums and UFO’s
By Geoffrey Hodson
Reprinted from Theosophy in New Zealand, Vol. 24, No.2, 1963
The National President has honoured me with the opportunity of taking her place in this number of The American Theosophist. I accept with pleasure and begin by expressing gratitude from Sandra and myself for the opportunity to carry out this tour of the American Section and for the great kindness with which we are being everywhere received. I am writing from Cincinnati, where devoted members have thoughtfully and efficiently planned our activities.
Whilst this is Sandra’s first visit to the United States, I have been privileged to tour the Section many times before. On this occasion, however, a noteworthy development has become apparent. To a greater extent than on previous visits, pronouncements are being made by various groups of people here and elsewhere that, through entranced mediums, Cosmic, Solar, and other Space-Intelligences, named and unnamed, are communicating with mankind. Despite the choice of channels and the nature of the communications themselves, resultant proclamations are receiving considerable acceptance.
The cautious and reasoned approach to the comprehension of the laws of being characteristic of students of Theosophy has not prevented some members of our Society — all being free — from associating themselves with groups formed to publicize these alleged interplanetary communications. Time will doubtless reveal where the truth lies, but since the welfare of the Society is thus involved, especially its public image before the world, it may prove both interesting and helpful to examine the phenomenon and to look for its possible causes. The stresses which humanity is experiencing at this time may lead people to accept the comforting thought that help is coming from extraterrestrial sources. Want, homelessness, and hunger amounting to famine can give rise to a continual pressure to take, possess, secure, and expand. Fear arising from the needs of neighbouring nations and the actions they inspire, and from the facts of history, also contribute to the present disturbed state of humanity. It is not perhaps surprising that promises of assistance from outer space should win acceptance. The weakening of faith in dogmatic religion, world unrest, military and industrial warfare, the existence and growing economic, military, and nuclear power of nations which appear to threaten human freedom may also be contributing to the acceptance of similar unverifiable statements from invisible sources.
Addressing the annual meeting of the Academy of Religion and Mental Health in Manhattan in 1966, Dr Viktor Frankl said in effect that psychoanalysts are more and more frequently encountering a new neurosis characterized by loss of interest and lack of initiative, against which conventional psychoanalysis is ineffective. Time and again, the psychiatrist is consulted by patients who doubt that life has any meaning, and this condition, said Dr Frankl, ‘I have called “an existential vacuum”’. For most members of our Society surely, Theosophy proves to be both preventive against and effective treatment for such a condition.
As one such member, I confess to a difficulty in preserving an open mind concerning communications supposedly received through entranced mediums. Such investigation of this process as I have been able to make has convinced me of the unreliability of this method, if only because the communicator is invisible and so beyond the reach of the scrutiny normally applied to those who propose to instruct. In addition, the statements themselves prove to be unacceptable. Since my arrival in this country, letters, books and leaflets proclaiming as profound truth the following items are now reaching me in some quantity: ‘Tremendous messages’ are at this time regularly being received through mediums from lofty Intelligences residing on Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, and Venus. During a battle fought at some unspecified time and locality, the whole of Earth’s civilization was almost destroyed. By the joint efforts of Cosmic Hosts and planetary Hierarchies, the lower astral kingdoms on Earth have now been cleared of those souls who rebelled against divine order. All earth-bound discarnates have been removed from the Astral Plane which is now closed to humanity. Those who die will henceforth be transported to their assigned planets. The Supreme Commander of the Universe supported by Overlords of the System now awaits the approaching day for His arrival and external manifestation to all mankind on earth.
Using entranced mediums, the Solar Logos, with Solar Lords of inconceivably lofty stature, including the Archangel Michael, are regularly communicating with groups of people in different parts of the world. A leader of one recipient group has been specially chosen to fulfil the exalted office of ‘mouthpiece on Earth for an interplanetary parliament’. Flying saucers are interplanetary space crafts used by the Cosmic Masters, and the Star of Bethlehem was a magnificent spacecraft from the planet Saturn. Saturnian Masters, Space-Intelligences, Venusian, Martian, and Jupiterian Sages, the great Lord of the World, Tibetan Adepts and those Masters of the Wisdom, including the Master Jesus, who have permitted their names to be known are now regularly communicating; tape recordings of teachings from the Master Jesus and other great Cosmic Masters speaking through an entranced medium have been made. A worldwide, metaphysical society has been organized at the command of these Cosmic Masters working in conjunction with the Great White Brotherhood on Earth. Lecture material, and titles and subject matter for radio and television transmissions now being sent over various stations are now provided by ‘the people of Mars, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn’. Whilst these statements are dismissed as being completely absurd by some of our members, others either claim to preserve an open mind or feel moved to accept them.
Students of occult science are in general advised to exercise the same extreme caution concerning ideas as invariably characterizes the approach of the student of physical sciences. I therefore wish to utter a grave warning against the danger of undue credulity concerning flying saucers, Adepts as their crews, and communications from outer space from whomsoever they may be said to emanate and by whatever means they are received. An open mind can be valuable in the pursuit of truth, I submit, only if it is also a lucid mind, a logical mind, which judges the credibility of all statements by their reasonableness and general conformity with the discoveries of philosophy and science; for these are the products of rechecked observations and experiments objectively recorded with absolute honesty and without fear or favour.
Personal experience will, however, always be the acid test. This can be achieved only after due obedience to the rules governing inquiry in any field. Self-training and the practice of research according to the laws of evidence also — and, more especially, I suggest — apply where superphysical phenomena are concerned. No generally available physical evidence exists for the presence of human beings in flying saucers or for messages from so-called Cosmic Masters. The only recourse open to the would-be investigator — by obedience to the laws and procedures which govern such development — is to arouse into activity and apply the appropriate occult instruments of research, always, of course, in a state of full waking consciousness.
Guidance from those said to have done this is, however, available and such information as has been granted to us concerning the powers (siddhis) of Adepts indicates that mediums are neither necessary to, nor customarily used by, them as channels of communication, whether to individuals or to humanity at large. The transmission of thought by perfected telepathy, of written documents by occult means, and self-manifestations at any desired part of the Earth are all possible to the Adept whether of this or any other planet in our Solar System. It would thus appear that the potentially uncertain process of speaking through an entranced medium would be neither necessary nor reliable as a means of communication. Exceptions may, however, exist, and such messages must therefore be carefully examined as to reasonableness and harmony with existing knowledge.
One example may suffice. In the year 1952, Cosmic and Solar beings are reported to have initiated specially effective action on behalf of humanity. In spite of the passage of some fifteen years, one fails to observe any marked effects of such ministrations said to be promised by relatively omnipotent and omniscient Intelligences. The world of men remains much the same today as it was at that time, the war in Viet Nam having become even more sanguinary and apparently more inconclusive. Crime and cruelty are on the increase in some countries, and the population explosion still threatens the food supply of mankind. Room for grave doubt, at least, of the authenticity of the fifteen year old proclamation of immediate Adept action thus exists, and harm could be done, I suggest, to our Society by its acceptance by known Theosophists. This damage would be increased and extended by affirmation in conversations, from our platforms, and in our magazines that such communications from outer space are indeed matters of fact.
In conclusion, whilst not forgetting for a moment the freedom of thought granted to all members of The Theosophical Society, I venture to utter a warning to all serious students of Theosophy against undue credulity concerning flying saucers and their supposed passengers.
The term ‘Unidentified Flying Objects’ would seem still to describe them correctly. Official investigation is now proceeding and may provide acceptable evidence. Until that time, I suggest, a reservation of judgment is eminently desirable.
Geoffrey Hodson writing The Guest Editorial in The American Theosophist, Vol. 55, Issue 6, June 1967.
Angels And Fairies -- Do They Exist?
“The devas are a mighty kingdom of spirits, the next above humanity, just in the same way as the animal kingdom is the next one below it. You may think of them as great and glorious angels, but of course they are of many different kinds, and different degrees of evolution. None of them are so low down as to have physical bodies such as we have. The lowest kind are called kamadevas, and they have astral bodies, while the next higher variety have bodies made of lower mental matter, and so on. They will never be human, because most of them are already beyond that stage, but there are some of them who have been human beings in the past. When men come to the end of their evolution as men, and become something greater than human, several paths open before them, and one of these is to join this beautiful deva evolution.” So wrote C. W. Leadbeater, in The Inner Life. Come and listen to what Lily Chong has to say on Saturday, 9 March at 5 p.m. about the “Shining Ones” in her talk including many interesting illustrations of angels and fairies. This talk was last given in November 2010 and it has been brought back by popular request! Please note that this talk is restricted to members only.
What Did Jesus Come to Fulfill?
Mainstream Christianity believes that Jesus came, in person as the Son of God, to die for our sins. This process is called atonement. It is represented by his crucifixion & resurrection in the Bible story. However most bible scholars say that these Bible stories are only fables, with no historical reliability. So what is the true spiritual mission that Jesus came to fulfill, as conveyed in the Bible stories? By examining the biblical sayings of Jesus, apostle Paul & the Prophets, one will come to startling conclusions. This can be corroborated by reviewing the original Christian concepts of Jew, Christ, God, name Iesous, Christmas & Easter. It certainly reveals the esoteric aspects written into the teachings in the Bible. Wong Weng Tuck gives this presentation on 30/3/13 at 4:30 p.m.