But it is quite true that no one can 'prove' anything about such phenomena, and also, that in the present case not enough time has elapsed for a detailed study. This article, therefore, must not be construed as argumentative, but merely as factual reporting.
The clairvoyante, whom we shall call Janet S., or Janet, is a young married woman, active, in fair health, of good average education, does not belong to any religious faith or esoteric Order, has never commercialized her psychic gifts or made any systematic effort to develop them. The mass of material in the communications appears to lie quite outside her conscious knowledge, and she denies any understanding of it. She has never attended a seance and was unfamiliar with spiritualistic ideas, prior to her recent experiences.
It is not important to recount here further details of the case history, since we wish to present the communications themselves, at least in part and in substance. Some of them are withheld because the Communicators gave instructions to that effect, and we think it proper to comply; still others seem unsuitable for general dissemination.
The first part of the communications was by means of a psychic 'screen'; afterward the screen was withdrawn and clairaudience developed.
The clairvoyante perceived, as if some ten or fifteen feet in front of her, what she described as a screen, on which letters and words appeared in luminous writing. There was no trance state in this connection, though the subject has frequently entered trance at other times.
The Communicators have never identified themselves by name, in the "VAU" messages. One of them, however, gave a sigil which turned out to be the Enochian letter VAU, and for this reason the whole of the communications are here referred to by that name. (This is not the Hebraic VAU, nor is it a letter from the Masonic Enochian; it is found only, so far as we know, in the alphabet received by Dee and Kelly, employed in the Golden Dawn Order, and described in the 4th volume of The Golden Dawn, by Dr. F.I. Regardie). The Communicators have indicated that they are far removed from the earth plane in terms of space. The intense interest which the Communicators have evinced in the glyph of the Otz Chiim, or Tree of Life, is probably due in our opinion to the fact that the present writer has long been a student of the Glyph, and that two other sitters have a lively though newly developed interest in the same subject. It seems likely that if this interest had been centered in some other mode of esoteric thought, the [5] communications would have been of a corresponding character. If this is suggestive of telepathy, it also may be only a matter of talking in terms familiar to the hearers and interesting to them - certainly a very natural procedure.
It may also be noted that various references were made to Tibetan magic and deities, and that this writer was at the time reading books dealing with that same subject. But a number of the references were unfamiliar to him, and were discovered by him afterward in going on with the reading. This, of course, is a fairly familiar phenomenon in seance work.
The tone of the Communicators was friendly and their language usually as simple as the subject matter would permit. They asked numerous questions, inviting the sitters to express their own understanding of a matter, and then correcting or ruling out the ideas expressed. An exceptional feature is the willingness to answer any question (if not too trivial and personal); sometimes the reply would be delayed for several minutes, as, for example, in the question as to the exact speed of light. Five or six minutes elapsed, during which other matters were discussed; then the Communicator broke in with a series of figures carried to the fourth decimal place (193,737.3295 miles/sec). It would indeed be interesting if future research should confirm this datum. Apparently, in such cases, some other source of information has to be tapped (other personalities, or the 'Akashic Records'?)
It is our opinion, that wherever definitive replies can be received to questions of this type (possibly verifiable, and objects of research) the replies should go on record - no matter how absurd they may sound to us at the time.
It is a matter of much regret that much material of possible scientific value, including mathematical formulae and instructions for technical apparatus, has been hopelessly lost in the course of this VAU affair, through being given to irresponsible persons. Similar happenings have occurred many times, and the situation seems to be that the Communicators must seize on rare and favorable circumstances, combinations of psychic conditions, and make what use they can of them. But it must also be admitted that communicators, even of the highest types of intelligence, often display a singular naivete in their attitude toward the here-living - as if one were to lecture to school boys on Einsteinian mathematics or Hegelian logic. Possibly these dwellers in the Neant no longer recall our human limitations - or else, despairing of the intelligentsia of our time, are constrained to offer their wisdom to the ears of fools, rather than keep silent entirely.
Verbatim reporting of the communications is not practicable here, except in brief passages, nor is it easy to make topical organization of the material. Notes were taken by several persons, with varying degrees of verbal accuracy and understanding, but the gist of the matter is given as correctly as possible. The sittings had continued for three or four weeks before the present writer attended them, so that he feels no responsibility for most of the questions asked, nor for the loss of potentially valuable material . . . So lengthy a preface may prove tiresome to some of our readers, but those familiar with studies of this kind will understand the necessity for it, and indeed find it too short for purposes of critical examination. On the following page, then, we come to the substance of part of the communications. The channel may not be finally closed, and if not, we may be able to offer further material in a later issue.
| Q. | Would you say that the identity of a personality depends on conscious memory? |
| A. | It is not entirely conscious memory but definitely subconscious memory that controls personality. However, you have not touched on one point, the control of the soul, which is continuous throughout (by) the spirit in every incarnation, and its influence upon the personality - that part of the personality which is carried on from one incarnation to another.
(Soul here presumably has its proper meaning of spirit body, or 'vehicle'. ML) |
| Q. | Would not conscious memory of the astral life, and of former incarnations, negate the principle of the mortality of the personality? |
| A. | It does negate that factor and conception. |
| Q. | Could not the mortal 'put on immortality' simply by the process of 'lifted memory'? |
| A. | Yes, indeed. That can be done and is often done by those who have the closeness to that all-powerful, omniscient and omnipotent Intelligence which we call God. |
| Q. | Is there a homogeneous ether? |
| A. | Decidedly so. There is a homogeneous ether and there is also a particulate ether. The former is on the higher levels and is a creamy substance which can be wielded, and which is illimitable. It is all things of God and yet no thing, just as white is all colors and yet no color. It is the hardest thing in the world to explain, the most difficult thing in the cosmos to conceive of, and yet it exists as surely as you and I AM exist. It is open to the hand of God and of God-Beings to wield . . . It is gold, water, cloth, rock, tree, grass, flame, the universe from which all is drawn and to which all returns. |
| Q. | Isn't this getting us into the Absolute? |
| A. | Yes. When the Adept learns the lesson of how to wield this substance he ascends - for he cannot wield it unless he is worthy to do so. He cannot wield it if he does not love enough - if he does not have the love and perfection of his I AM. Referring again to the ether: all things on the lower planes are particulate. The homogeneous ether exists not above us, but above and about each solar system and is the supply for that solar system. When called into action upon the lower planes it becomes particulate. However the thought that mathematically speaking the homogeneous ether is denser and more impenetrable than steel is a false conception. It is not so. It is nothingness and it is all things. It has the qualities and capabilities of all things, and yet of nothing.
(All this obviously raises very difficult concepts. A particulate ether on the lower planes still requires some kind of inter-fill; if both ethers are existents in space, the nature of space itself remains unexplained.) |
| Q. | Where is the particulate ether? |
| A. | Above us and above you, around us and around you. It is that in which the planes are built, and we draw from the universal and cosmic substance as if one opened a faucet to let the ocean drain out.
One can wield this substance for another, or for himself, or for anything which is of God. Open your hand and you hold it. Call for light and it fills every cell of your body fully, immediately, instantaneously. |
| Communicator: Children have begun to reembody from Betelgeuse. It is thought to be a star but it is not a star at all - it is a planet, very beautiful, as highly elevated as any. It is not as well known as Venus, but it is very definitely developed in the use of the fire element. They have great contact with the cosmic wisdom, and their purpose here is the same as with those embodying from Venus or any other planet - to raise the vibratory action of earth. | |
| Q. | Is the speed of light a constant? |
| A. | Yes. |
| Q. | Can you give correct and exact figures for the speed of light? |
| A. | (after delay). 193,737.3295 miles per second.
(Note: This is extremely important if true. Michelson's figures are 186,285 plus-or-minus 2.5; and this would also be the velocity of all radiation, X rays, radio waves, and gamma waves. "In the theory of electricity and magnetism it comes out that the value of the ratio of the electro-magnetic unit of current to the corresponding electro-static unit is equal to the velocity of light expressed in centimeters per second ( 3 x 10 to the 10th power cm/sec.) No velocity according to our present theory can exceed this." (N.H. Black, Physics, 1935. p. 608) |
| Q. | Can you tell us whether inter-planetary communication is possible, or will ever be achieved? |
| A. | Interplanetary communication will take place within three years from this time. |
| Q. | (by CDE): I do not want to take up the time with personal matters, but I think I could handle my own problems better if I knew something about my last incarnation. |
| A. | (after some delay): The Querent lived in India and belonged to the third class above the Untouchables. (Presumably the Brahmin priesthood? ML.) (Later on, as the sitting was breaking up a different Communicator recurred to the question and said: The Querent who asked about previous incarnation has also been a Geisha girl). (The first Communicator also recurred to the question, and added: The Querent had a very long period of instruction in the inter-life). |
Notes from these sittings will be continued in RR for April.