Dr. Assagioli discusses the convergence of telepathic experiments and spiritualism, emphasizing the need to understand metapsychic faculties before delving into esoteric realms.
By Roberto Assagioli. February 23, 1955. (Doc.# 17888 – Assagioli Archives – Florence) (From a Typed Transcript – Transcriber Unknown). Translated and Edited With Notes by Jan Kuniholm
Abstract: Dr. Assagioli discusses the convergence of telepathic experiments and spiritualism, emphasizing the need to understand metapsychic faculties before delving into esoteric realms. He highlights the potential for consciousness beyond the body, citing Eastern yogis’ abilities. The unity of psyche and the exploration of survival after death are underscored, alongside experiences like levitation and bilocation. Spiritual liberation hinges on realizing immortal consciousness. Dr. Assagioli stresses the importance of spiritual attunement and inner contact with higher realms. Supernormal faculties aid in this journey towards true consciousness. He advocates for constant prayerful conversation with the divine, echoing the significance of patience and self-surrender. Recommended readings enrich understanding of these concepts.
Asked about the relationship between our telepathic experiments, etc., and spiritualism (trance, etc.), Dr. Assagioli states that the field of investigation is the same; however, it is necessary, first, to know and investigate what the metapsychic faculties of the living being are or may be, and then to move on to the esoteric field. Only in this way can one avoid the danger of attributing to entities what is due simply to often ignored faculties or potentials of the human being.
If there are possibilities for communication with other forces or entities, one should not be averse to studying phenomena and things which, instead of lowering, can only elevate the field of human possibilities so much that man is seen to be truly made in the “spiritual image” of God.
If one can, for example, prove that the living being can be conscious outside the body, one can come to show that survival can persist even when the living being has laid down its body, or no longer has a body. Thus, for example, Eastern yogis have shown that they can leave their bodies and then re-enter them.
The loss of the body does not mean the annulment of life. The independence of the psyche from the body can be deduced from a great many yogic and non-yogic exercises and telepathic relationships with those who no longer have a physical body, as evidenced by many lofty religious experiences made by Christians and people of other religions. The experiences of levitation, bilocation, of making oneself invisible, and of apparitions show, moreover, that the psyche is unitary and personal, because the unity of the personality is in the entity.
But to come to this, or to experience it, it is necessary to dissolve in the psychic personality whatever binds it to physical or material life, or dissolve as much of it as possible; because the immortal is only the best [part], it is the pure consciousness of one’s spiritual being. There is a permanent “I”or Self unrelated to the mood swings of the ordinary “I” or self. The transition from survival to immortality takes place when the living consciousness of immortality is realized, already in the bodily life: “Whoever lives and believes in me shall not die, but HAVE eternal life.”[i] This is spiritual liberation of what is vital, the living, from the transient or, if you will, from the purely carnal.
Spiritist, and yogic, experiences offer examples or instances, still to be studied or explained or experienced, of leaving one’s body. Thus Brunton[ii] reports a typical one for what happened to him at the Great Pyramid. [iii]
The “evocations” could be part of any evidence of survival. Here, as elsewhere (telepathy, etc.), distances do not matter. Nor does time matter, in this particular case, nor does our concept of them. However, it takes long and deep preparation for such things and in such cases, especially in order not to violate some kind of inviolable, in order not to disturb what cannot be disturbed. It is not “they” who must come to us, but we who must go up to “them,” rise to “them,” to their level, to be “ONE” with “them.” The obstacles are, however, on our side, because we do not have that necessary spiritual attunement.
In any case, just as in telepathic relationships, the probability of success or otherwise does not depend on shorter or longer distances; so we must rise to a level where spatial distances do not matter. What is needed, then, is not the material presence of a body, whether astral or otherwise, but spiritual inner contact. As for contact not being had now, in earthly life, it does not imply that contact will not be there later, “in the hereafter.” Man is but soul clothed in flesh or body.
To seek all the possibilities latent in the total human being is to try to come out of a state of unconsciousness, to rise to a state of true consciousness of being. Believing a priori that one is NOT POWERFUL makes one powerless. To believe, to feel, to have faith in one’s potential is not to be conceited, but is to seek the true synthesis (“Psychosynthesis”) of the two natures, or the two APPARENT human natures: the material and the spiritual.
The development of supernormal faculties can help us in this quest. The essential thing is to always be vigilant in a truly telepathic attitude with what is higher, in a continuous conversation with what is within, in an attitude of receptive silence and listening to grasp the messages echoed only by the deep soul that come to us from the deep soul, in order then to REALIZE them and not leave them inoperative and futile.
It is in a true state of prayerfulness, rather than of formal prayer, that the conversation must take place with the “inner Christ,” with the “God within,” with the “inner spark” in whom alone is the hope of victory, as Paul says: “Christ in us, the hope of Glory.”[iv] That is the true attitude of listening, it is the “Seven Stages” of the “Inner Castles;”[v] it is the conversation referred to in the Imitation of Christ,[vi] it is the internalization that Brunton deals with in The Secret Path — a basic work and recommended to all. [vii]
The sense of God’s presence must be constant, and so must the waiting and the certainty of His response and answer, not forgetting that the law of LATENT ELABORATION[viii] can make us give up believing in a petition, a prayer of ours to God the first few times, and perhaps for a long time — but then comes a WAVE OF SPIRITUAL PRESENCE and we “receive” the exact and expected answer with faith. It is necessary to know how to wait, perhaps suffering and groaning; it is necessary to GIVE YOURSELF IN ORDER TO RECEIVE.
Various recommendable books are also mentioned, especially:
Brunton: A Search in Secret India (1934). French: L’Inde secrète
Brunton: A Search in Secret Egypt (1936). French: L’Egypte secrète
Brunton: The Hidden Teaching Beyond Yoga (1941). French: L’enseignement secret au-delà du Yoga
Brunton: The Quest of the Overself (1937). Italian: Alla ricerca dell’Io supremo
Brunton: The Wisdom of the Overself (1943). French: La sagesse du Moi Suprême
Lin Yutang: The Wisdom of China and India (1942).
[i] All words in capitals in this essay appeared as such in the original manuscript. —Ed.
[ii] Paul Brunton was the pen name of Raphael Hurst (1898-1981), a British author of spiritual books.
[iii] pp. 57-80 of his L’Egypte secrète, Payot, Paris —Author’s Note. The original in English was A Search in Secret Egypt (1936). —Ed.
[iv] Colossians 1:17.
[v] The Seven Stages (or Mansions) of The Interior Castle was written by Teresa of Avila in 1577. The mansions are: vocal-mental prayer; discursive-affective prayer; active-passive recollection; prayer of quiet; prayer of simple union; spiritual betrothal; and spiritual marriage. —Ed.
[vi] The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis, is a Christian devotional book first composed in Latin c.1418-1427. It is a handbook for the spiritual life. —Ed.
[vii] (there is an Italian and a French edition; this one is published by Attinger, Paris: Le sentier caché) —Author’s Note. The Secret Path was published in 1935. —Ed.
[viii] The Assagioli Archives contain a note (Doc.#14940) on “latent elaboration” in which he notes that there is often a period of latency, of “non-response,” between the “invocation” and the “evocation,” which he refers to as a “period of trial.” This is compared to the seed which is planted underground, a time of apparent failure. —Ed.
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