ACHARYA, CAN I ENDORSE -2

Selling out to Demonology

“So many more reasons are there, but I will not talk about them. This much is enough. Other reasons will be revealed, and it is better that they should not be revealed now. There are things which should not be talked about, because even by talking about them one becomes superficial. There are things which should remain occult, should remain secret, because they work in secrecy, otherwise they won’t work. They are just like roots of a tree: the roots must remain underground, in the dark, unknown to the tree. Only then do they work.

So there are occult things which must remain unconscious, underground. You must not know them. The roots must not be known. They must remain hidden. So there are many things you ask that I will not answer, or I will answer only up to that limit where the hiddenness is not uncovered. The hidden must remain hidden. You will come to know, but only by experience.”

Osho does not elaborate. He abhors the idea. He is in the know of things but he doesn't want his followers to get distracted. The enlightened Master who does see clearly steers his followers away from psychic phenomena of any sort. For he knows that they will most often be a distortion. To explain further, let me do a ‘copy-and-paste’ job from Rick M. Chapman.

 

ratheesh t.

Psychic transmission and other similar “communication from the beyond” can be dangerously misleading. Real Masters have consistently discouraged seekers from getting involved in paths which lead towards such experiences.

ratheesh t. -- war baby - acrylic on canvas

Psychic phenomena are often more confusing than helpful.  For example if an Ouija board tells you that it is Jesus who is communicating with you how are you really going to know? Many persons think that a spirit who communicates from disembodied state is quite advanced or unusually spiritual.  In fact disembodied spirits have the same inclinations, problems and faults as human-beings on earth.

Many of the spirits who are on the talking side of an Ouija board are ones whose heavy attachment to the gross world has delayed the proper course of their departure from it after their death. Because of either overwhelming gross (physical) desires, malevolent self-seeking intentions or simple mischievousness, such spirits often harass and confuse human beings on earth. They get away with their mischief because of some naive people.

It is as easy for such spirits to take on the appearance of Jesus or Buddha or any other person as it is for us to change our clothes. In addition, from their vantage point in the astral world – which interpenetrates our physical plane (see footnote) – these spirits can read minds and appear to know things which some naive people think no one else knows. Deceitful spirits can most readily enlist the attention or services from a human being by puffing up his/her ego.

ratheesh t.

Because they are relatively rare, the psychic senses of clairvoyance (seeing things in the astral plane) attracts a lot of attention and is regarded to be signs of spiritual advancement. This is not at all necessarily the case. Every human-being experiences the astral plane when he/she dreams and schizophrenics and other psychotics find themselves involuntarily engrossed in the astral plane owing to the lack of integration between their minds and their bodies. Certain drugs also induce disjointed experiences of astral phenomena and because these sights are often dramatic and bizarre they are frequently mistaken for real spiritual experiences. In fact, such phenomena are no more important than dreams themselves. The important thing to remember, however, is that no psychic power and certainly no drug experience can provide a glimpse of anything beyond the astral plane which is merely the shadow of the first plane of the spiritual path.

While seeing the shadow may seem to be better than seeing nothing at all beyond the gross world, frequently the reverse is true. Psychics and those attracted to them sometimes spend a good part of their lives experimenting with occult practices for self gratification and end up being addicted to it. Their ego becomes so bloated that they are unable to look beyond the astral plane. Their life is punctuated with violent upheavals and their end is more often than not, tragic.

So, if you have been toying with the idea that any form of Satan worship can lead you to higher consciousness, sober up by reading the story of Dr. Faustus.

Remember, when you ask a psychic for the solution of your problems, you as much give up on the inner process. You get accustomed to finding your answers outside yourself, and the voice of your intuition becomes increasingly hard to hear. 

Footnote

Astral World -  It is sort of a limbo state between the physical world and the first plane of the subtle world. The astral world is the realm of disembodied spirits. It is an area of existence which lies between the everyday world of physical matter and the first rung of the ladder of spiritual path, the first subtle plane of Consciousness. It is not however, path of the spiritual path, by itself.

There is nothing ‘spiritual’, in the sense of being particularly elevated, about the astral plane- every person dwells there both before and after life on earth, reviewing his/her most recent experiences in the body and learning lessons that will help him/her in lives to come. This realm is fascinating  because it is completely unknown to most people  - our physical senses do not give us any clue of its existence  - and the information we have about it is a hodgepodge of perceptions.

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