Prevision* and memory

The Great Memory might be described as containing the record of every vibration of universal life. All experience has its duplicate in this register, this chronicle of eternity. Past, present and future may be said to be enshrined within the Imagination of the Supreme Mind. But this Great Memory should not be confused with the memory of the individual. These two are separate in the sense that they are different aspects of the One. Each individual should be likened to a river. Only part of his memory rises to the consciousness of the soul at a certain given time. After death, however, the mind is freed and less trammelled. But, until the soul reaches permanently, the Fifth and Sixth planes, the individual still lives within very definite limitations. On the Fifth plane he enters into the memories and experiences of the other members of his Group, and his wisdom and capacity for living intensely are thereby greatly increased. Even on the Fifth level of consciousness he may not conceive the whole of the Great Memory, he customarily registers merely the experiences and knowledge of his Group.

However, the soul, when trapped in the physical body, may rise&emdash;as I have told you&emdash;to higher levels of consciousness. It may enter, perhaps momentarily, into the Great Memory and perceive some image of a past or future event which is not contained within its individual memory. The mystery of prevision, the "Highlander's second sight", can be explained thus by the uprise of

* Meaning prophecy.

BEYOND HUMAN PERSONALITY

consciousness which, lifted on to a higher level, perceives in a fragmentary manner some experience in the past or in the future of which the soul had no previous knowledge. In other words, it passes from individual memory into the Universal Memory, lives, cosmically, for a lightning flash of time, and then falls back again into the confinement of the individual self and the individual memory.

When discarnate beings seek to communicate with the earth they may be recognised through the fragments of individual memory they convey and, above all, through the sense of character they suggest in their conversation, in their phraseology and outlook. Be assured that, unless they are gifted&emdash;as some men on earth are gifted, with prophecy&emdash;they will not be able to foresee future events, they will not, in other words, draw on the Great Memory, for the power is not within them to pass into that state.

However, quite a number of discarnate beings live in a realm of mind which has a larger scope, and they may on occasions catch a glimpse of certain events which will very soon take place. For they can see a little farther along the road, they have a greater knowledge of the forces which are engaged on earth in the daily conflict of life.

The Conceptual World

Since the days when Joseph interpreted the prophetic dreams of Pharaoh, men have, in certain instances all through the ages, brought back from sleep little subjective pictures of future events, some only seen in miniature. In full waking consciousness others have foreseen often vaguely but still correctly, certain happenings that take place a few months, a year or a few years after the predictions made.

These dreamers of dreams, these prophets, seers and even genuine though humble and despised, fortune tellers, all temporarily enter into another time-dimension, or

APPENDIX I

rather, the mind leaps forward six months or perhaps five years and, for one brief moment, enters that future world which is already conceived as an act of thought within the Imagination of God.* Call this section of the Great Memory the "conceptual world."

It is possible for the soul or waking consciousness on occasions deliberately to choose the future scene of vision. The actual process is as follows: The sensitive's focus of consciousness becomes temporarily allied with the mind of some individual who opens the door to him by desiring that he shall read his future. Then, through this person's mind, the clairvoyant is switched on to that wave in the ether which is connected with that portion of the conceptual world which contains his personal history.

The clairvoyant has no easy task. For his sitter may possess active, urgent desires, and these are expressed in emotional thought; particularly if the reader of the future describes events that are of the greatest importance to him. He may then switch off the clairvoyant from the wave line that connects his mind temporarily with the conceptual world. Drawn back thus, the mind of the sensitive will read only the imaged desire of the sitter and will interpret it as some future happening. Many wrong prognostications are made in this way.

The Suggestibility of Mediums

When a medium is in full trance the intelligence that controls him temporarily is often in a partially hypnotic state and therefore easily open to suggestion. Many instances of fraud, committed by mediums who practice physical phenomena, may be traced to this condition. If any of those persons present at the seance suspect or anticipate, even subconsciously, deception and trickery on

*For further details see The Road to Immortality, p. 98, 105-106.&emdash;E.B.G.

BEYOND HUMAN PERSONALITY

the part of the medium, their thoughts&emdash;particularly when based on emotional prejudice&emdash;will be as powerful in their effect as the commands of a hypnotist to his patient. Acting on the auto-suggestions made by those present, an honest medium will commit fraudulent acts, and yet will be completely innocent. The authors of this deception are, in reality, the witnesses of the alleged phenomena, and no real advance in the investigation of physical mediumship will be made until sceptics and scientifically minded persons realise this fact, realise that they are not dummies or mere observers, that they play a part in the sitting and may either stultify results, or actually exercise a directing influence on the actions of the communicating spirit.

If a circle of emotionally sceptical people assume subconsciously that no phenomena can possibly be produced, they will inhibit the phenomena, persuade the hypnotised communicator that he is powerless, and, because of this inhibition be wholly responsible if the sitting is barren of results.

APPENDIX II

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