To Light a Thousand Lamps - The Theosophical Society

Psychism / 119
consciousness: the divine, the spiritual, and the higher
mind, the lower mind combined with the desire principle,
and the vital, astral, and physical. The desire/mental part of
man forms our ordinary personal self, and when illumined
by the intuitional and higher mind, we have an awakened
soul. Soul is a rather broad term that can be used for many
aspects of our being. Usually the Greeks spoke of nous as
the higher mind, the higher intelligence, and of psyche,
daughter of nous, as the soul.
To take a dogmatic stance, however, and condemn out
of hand all extranormal phenomena is as shortsighted as to
endorse everything astral or psychic. Judgment is required:
the wisdom of ages has shown that to open wide the
entrance into astral realms is tantamount to opening a
Pandora’s box of elemental energies, both benign and
malignant. We caution against deviation from altruistic intent
because in any astral dealings, however innocent the
motive may be at the start, the excitement of easy success
too often leads to corrosion of moral principle. Human
nature is ever susceptible to appeals to self-benefit; the more
disguised they are, the greater the need for caution, lest
unawares the seed of pride germinate. Psychic vanity in
many and strange forms constitutes a most seductive snare,
binding the aspirations to the personal level instead of freeing
them to respond to the call of one’s deepest being.
There are of course many degrees of psychic or astral
involvement. As noted earlier, we use nonphysical power
all the time: love, hate, thought, and emotion of every kind
are manifestations of psychic or spiritual faculties. Most
people, moreover, are naturally telepathic, experiencing