In Search of the Miraculous

'astral body' is necessary for the complete and proper functioning of the 'higher

emotional center' in unison with the lower. Or it can be said that the 'higher emotional

center' is necessary for the work of the 'astral body.'

"The 'mental body' corresponds to the 'higher thinking center.' It would be wrong to say that they are one and the same thing. But one requires the other, one cannot exist

without the other, one is the expression of certain sides and functions of the other.

"The fourth body requires the complete and harmonious working of all centers; and

it implies, or is the expression of, complete control over this working.

"What is necessary to understand and what the 'table of hydrogens' helps us to

grasp, is the idea of the complete materiality of all the psychic, intellectual, emotional, volitional, and other inner processes, including the most exalted poetic inspirations,

religious ecstasies, and mystical revelations.

"The materiality of processes means their dependence upon the quality of the

material or substance used on them. One process demands the expenditure, that is, as

it were, the burning, of hydrogen 48; another process cannot be obtained with the help

of hydrogen 48; it requires a finer, a more combustible substance—hydrogen 24. For a third process hydrogen 24 is too weak; it requires hydrogen 12.

"Thus we see that our organism has the different kinds of fuel necessary for the

different centers. The centers can be compared to machines working on fuels of

different qualities. One machine can be worked on oil residue or crude oil. Another

requires kerosene; a third will not work with kerosene but requires gasoline. The fine

substances of our organism can be characterized as substances of different flashpoints, while the organism itself can be compared to a laboratory in which the combustibles of different strengths required by the different centers are prepared from

various kinds of raw material. Unfortunately, however, there is something wrong with

the laboratory. The forces controlling the distribution of combustibles among the

different centers often make mistakes and the centers receive fuel that is either too

weak or too easily inflammable. Moreover, a great quantity of all the combustibles

produced is spent quite uselessly; it simply runs out; is lost. Besides, explosions often take place in the laboratory which at one stroke destroy all the fuel prepared for the

next day and possibly for even a longer period, and are able to cause irreparable damage to the whole factory.

"It must be noted that the organism usually produces in the course of one day all

the substances necessary for the following day. And it very often happens that all

these substances are spent or consumed upon some unnecessary and, as a rule,

unpleasant emotion. Bad moods, worry, the expectation of something unpleasant,

doubt, fear, a feeling of injury, irritation, each of these emotions in reaching a certain degree of intensity may, in half an hour, or even half a minute, consume all the

substances prepared for the next day; while a single flash of anger, or some other

violent emotion, can at once explode all the substances prepared in the laboratory and

leave a man quite empty inwardly for a long time or even forever.

"All psychic processes are material. There is not a single process that does not

require the expenditure of a certain substance corresponding to it. If this substance is

present, the process goes on. When the substance is exhausted, the process comes to a

stop."

Chapter Ten

ONCE there was a meeting with a large number of people who had not been at our

meetings before. One of them asked: "From what does the way start?" The person

who asked the question had not heard G.'s description of the four ways and he used

the word "way" in the usual religious-mystical sense.

"The chief difficulty in understanding the idea of the way,"' said G., "consists in the fact that people usually think that the way" (he emphasized this word) "starts on the same level on which life is going. This is quite wrong. The way begins on another,

much higher, level. This is exactly what people usually do not understand. The

beginning of the way is thought to be easier or simpler than it is in reality. I will try to explain this in the following way.

"Man lives in life under the law of accident and under two kinds of influences again governed by accident.

"The first kind are influences created in life itself or by life itself. Influences of race, nation, country, climate, family, education, society, profession, manners and

customs, wealth, poverty, current ideas, and so on. The second kind are influences

created outside this life, influences of the inner circle, or esoteric influences—

influences, that is, created under different laws, although also on the earth. These

influences differ from the former, first of all in being conscious in their origin. This