In Search of the Miraculous

a vivid thought, or a vivid emotion, there results, on the contrary, a complete blank, a

state of unconsciousness. The memory retains only the first moment when the flood

rushed in on the mind and the last moment when the flood was receding and

consciousness returned. But even these moments are so full of unusual shades and

colors that there is nothing with which to compare them among the ordinary

sensations of life. This is usually all that remains from so-called 'mystical' and

'ecstatic' experiences, which represent a temporary connection with a higher center.

Only very seldom does it happen that a mind which has been better prepared succeeds

in grasping and remembering something of what was felt and understood at the

moment of ecstasy. But even in these cases the thinking, the moving, and the

emotional centers remember and transmit everything in their own way, translate

absolutely new and never previously experienced sensations into the language of usual

everyday sensations, transmit in worldly three-dimensional forms things which pass

completely beyond the limits of worldly measurements; in this way, of course, they

entirely distort every trace of what remains in the memory of these unusual

experiences. Our ordinary centers, in transmitting the impressions of the higher

centers, may be compared to a blind man speaking of colors, or to a deaf man

speaking of music.

"In order to obtain a correct and permanent connection between the lower and the

higher centers, it is necessary to regulate and quicken the work of the lower centers.

"Moreover, as has been already said, lower centers work in a wrong

way, for very often, instead of their own proper functions, one or another of them

takes upon itself the work of other centers. This considerably reduces the speed of the

general work of the machine and makes acceleration of the work of the centers very

difficult. Thus in order to regulate and accelerate the work of the lower centers, the

primary object must consist in freeing each center from work foreign and unnatural to

it, and in bringing it back to its own work which it can do better than any other center.

"A great deal of energy is also spent on work which is completely unnecessary and

harmful in every respect, such as on the activity of unpleasant emotions, on the

expression of unpleasant sensations, on worry, on restlessness, on haste, and on a

whole series of automatic actions which are completely useless. As many examples as

you like can be found of such unnecessary activity. First of all there is the constantly

moving flow of thoughts in our mind, which we can neither stop nor control, and

which takes up an enormous amount of our energy. Secondly there is the quite

unnecessary constant tension of the muscles of our organism. The muscles are tense even when we are doing nothing. As soon as we start to do even a small and

insignificant piece of work, a whole system of muscles necessary for the hardest and

most strenuous work is immediately set in motion. We pick up a needle from the floor

and we spend on this action as much energy as is needed to lift up a man of our own

weight. We write a short letter and use as much muscular energy upon it as would

suffice to write a bulky volume. But the chief point is that we spend muscular energy

continually and at all times, even when we are doing nothing. When we walk the

muscles of our shoulders and arms are tensed unnecessarily; when we sit the muscles

of our legs, neck, back, and stomach are tensed in an unnecessary way. We even sleep

with the muscles of our arms, of our legs, of our face, of the whole of our body tensed,

and we do not realize that we spend much more energy on this continual readiness for

work we shall never do than on all the real, useful work we do during our life.

"Still further we can point to the habit of continually talking with anybody and

about anything, or if there is no one else, with ourselves; the habit of indulging in

fantasies, in daydreaming; the continual change of mood, feelings, and emotions, and

an enormous number of quite useless things which a man considers himself obliged to

feel, think, do, or say.

"In order to regulate and balance the work of the three centers whose functions

constitute our life, it is necessary to learn to economize the energy produced by our

organism, not to waste this energy on unnecessary functions, and to save it for that

activity which will gradually connect the lower centers with the higher.

"All that has been said before about work on oneself, about the formation of inner

unity and of the transition from the level of man number

one, number two, and number three to the level of man number four and further,

pursues one and the same aim. What is called according to one terminology the 'astral

body,' is called in another terminology the 'higher emotional center,' although the

difference here does not lie in the terminology alone. These are, to speak more

correctly, different aspects of the next stage of man's evolution. It can be said that the