by Ernest L. Norman
In his search for Truth and at different points in some particular lifetime (and we could consider the present life as an example), the average truth seeker may find himself more directly concerned with the outside world and the multitudes of people who inhabit these different countries with which he is connected. By some particular rapport with the Inner Consciousness, he has been quickened or alerted to higher spiritual values and these spiritual values, the knowledge of and the living in the spiritual worlds, have become a closer relationship to him. These things in themselves pose many and varied contrasts; some, very striking in nature with the outside world in which he lives. He may thus become acutely aware of the various derelictions, suffering and other particular types of life which can be basically animalistic or reactionary in nature. Thus quickened or sensitized in seeing these varied contrasts, he may immediately wish in some way or manner to change the whole contour of the existing world. This may even be aided and abetted, in a sense, by a psychological equivalent known as an escape mechanism. The sum and total of the various psychic pressures which are oscillating in his psychic self, as they are so concerned and connected with negative indispositions of a destructive nature with past lifetimes, along with this particular quickening (as he is now so spiritually posed), only tend in a way to aid or to further the urgency of his need to see his fellow men changed in their seemingly mad rush to oblivion.
In this way he accomplishes a twofold purpose: He can justify, to some degree (or he believes he can), the various spiritual beliefs and knowledge which he has acquired in higher worlds. He can also divert his attention subconsciously from the sense of his own guilts and iniquities. In this way, that particular individual often becomes quite unreasonable and even fanatical in his expression of life. He may find common union in such cultisms and various other religious expressions which are primarily motivated by the more fanatical expressions concerning man’s interpolations of his daily life. Yes, it is not impossible to find in various churches of the country today, as well as in other religious systems existing in other lands, some very strange and weird customs which are always engendered by this common escape mechanism and the added quickening of the spirit to the higher sense of spiritual values.
This person, either mildly or fanatically inclined to change the world, can become a real menace not only to himself but to everyone with whom he comes in contact. Not only is he prone to exaggerate the position of the world as it presently exists, but quite often the propaganda which he spreads finds sympathetic ears in people who have reached a common borderline but have not yet crossed into that nebulous threshold in which the fanatic is now revolving. This fanatical person will therefore find various and obtrusive manners and forms in which he can express the fanaticism and the escape from reality into some direction which completely detracts from his true constructive evolutionary course.
We will find today, in this modern world, people who are worshiping in strange rituals not only such things as snakes and other forms of animal or vegetable life, but people who chase flying saucers and worship at the altars of the various movie idols in the entertainment world. These things, in themselves, can always be considered diversionary methods or manners of expression in the common escape mechanism. In the fanatic who assumes the religious role of a purveyor of a great truth, we again find a menace of a different sort and one which should be reckoned with. Should this fanatic be so obsessed that he can gather about him – either consciously or otherwise – a supporting band of astral entities, as is so often the case, who are also so fanatically inclined, through the subconscious reaches and in frequency relationship, they will often exert outwardly into the physical of that man’s life a very strange and hypnotic influence which will reach into the lives and conduct of many people whom he contacts.
We shall thus see the reason why people meekly or even hypnotically follow the leadership of some person who is obviously a psychopath in every sense, manner and form; who is obsessed not only with the idea of changing the way and manner of his followers, but also with the dethroning of every known precinct of consciousness in our social structures. Neither can it be said that these fanatics have any real or basic supporting platforms which could, in any sense of the word, give a new world or a justified reason for the change of manners or customs in the people whom they do contact. Usually these fanatics are quite barren in their own lives and upon close scrutiny will be found to possess feet of clay and who are, at the present time, standing upon pedestals of their own erection.
When Jesus said, “By their fruits ye shall know them,” He gave us a sort of slide rule or a common denominator wherein we could, in all phases and concepts of life, truly measure the worth of any particular one of our expressionary values. This one in particular was concerned with the spiritual values. It was of the utmost importance that we should find this fruit would yield large and abundant returns in a manner and form which could change the way and manner of life for one or many individuals — not in some fanatical and unrealistic pursuit of some miasmic or mesmeric form or some cultism which leads a person down the primrose trail to oblivion — but real transforming elements in this person’s life which would not only dissolve the confusion in his mind but actually clear away his physical difficulties as they existed in the body. Such fruit is indeed hard to find; and again, a close examination of our various religious systems in the world will find the ground is very sterile and barren. There are few, if any, trees which bear fruit.
Yes, we can include even such particular evangelistic movements which are supposed to have had great healing influences upon certain particular thousands of adherents who have clung tenaciously to the skirts and robes of these factions. They have hung up their crutches and braces in the foyer of the temple wherein they worshiped at this false idol, when the truth of the matter was that here again they found only a certain conjunction of energy relationships which started a ringing action and a direct rapport into the higher psychic centers which enabled those persons to remove themselves from the obsessive relationships of karmic experiences. It should always be remembered when following one of these fanatics and so-called faith healers, that while you are looking hypnotically into his eyes, he will quite likely have his hand in your pocket while he is so mesmerizing the intent and purpose of your life. Thus you can be completely diverted from the natural and constructive evolution in your progress.
Nor can we fail to consider the practitioners as they are concerned in the various cults and religious systems. They are practicing their so-called healing arts at great expense to the public, for we shall find them also in doctors’ offices here and there and wherever we go in this world about us. In this sense of the word, it can be said that this is an outgrowth of the natural desire of every man to dominate another. The old law of the survival of the fittest, as posed by Darwin, has been in a sense greatly overworked and has gone far beyond the bounds from which it was originally intended by the Infinite Creator, to substantiate or to increase the propensities of some particular specie of animal life. When it begins to involve propensities which can be considered vampirish in nature, that is, preying upon the souls of our fellow men, then we must of course draw the line. The astral underworlds are full of the adherents of these religious fanatics; each in turn is, in common relationship, trying very diligently in any manner and form to perpetuate his false fanaticism in whatever way and manner he can into the material world.
It can be said at this time, the fanatic is very easy to recognize. The first criterion is of course, to closely examine his life and that of his adherents and if there is any real and constructive fruit which has been born, then it could be said that this fanatic has at least some virtue in his expression. However, with a true fanatic, such virtue is extremely rare and difficult to find and lies, whenever so found, within the very nature and virtue of the adherents themselves. Many of his followers may be people who are more advanced spiritually or, at least not so preconditioned and deviated with escape mechanisms and have still been able to reach through these miasmic energy forms and maintain some sort of a constructive relationship with the Higher Self, thus correcting their own difficulties and the practitioner or the fanatic usually gets the credit.
A second evaluation of all such divers components of humanitarian efforts can be analyzed on the basis of constructive, intelligent progression, not only in the various values of the reactionary life in which man finds himself, but especially into such spiritual values as are so strangely missing from the numerous pantheologies as they exist today. While man is basically and essentially a spiritual creation and always functions from a spiritual plane of relationship, yet this in itself is the greatest of all paradoxes, for by far, the greatest number of people who swarm the face of the earth do not seem to know the first rudimentary equivalents of this progressive cycle which is called life.
Here again we have found reversions and sterilizations in spiritual principles among our so-called Christians for the very pagans they try to teach are quite often further advanced in their knowledge of the spiritual worlds than the Christians who are supposedly bringing them the new and only Gospel. So, then you may ask, how is humanity to be changed in this particular time and place? Are we all headed down that trail and over the precipice to oblivion? Are any of the other various and sundry fears and calamities – atomic explosions and world-wide destructions – to be realized, or shall the old prophecies of the Bible such as are contained in the Epistle of Peter, come to pass? These things should not be answered with a yes or a no because any particular position in which an individual finds himself so contained collectively regarding the masses of people about him, represents a very definite point on his scale of evolution.
Excerpt from Cosmic Continuum