The Secret Doctrine Volume 3.pdf

produced from mind, but are principles, colleagues. You cannot have knowledge
without memory, for memory stores all things, garnishing and furnishing. If you teach
a child nothing, it will know nothing. Brain-consciousness depends on the intensity of
the light shed by the Higher Manas on the Lower, and the extent of affinity between
the brain to this light. Brain-mind is conditioned by the responsiveneness of the brain
to this light; it is the field of consciousness of the Manas. The animal has the Monad
and the Manas latent, but its brain cannot respond. All potentialities are there, but are
dormant. There are certain accepted errors in the West which vitiate all their theories.
How many impressions can a man receive simultaneously into his consciousness
and record The Western say one: Occultists say normally seven, and abnormally
fourteen, seventeen, nineteen, twenty-one, up to forty-nine, impressions can be
simultaneously received. Occultism teaches that the consciousness always receives
a sevenfold impression and stores it in the memory. You can prove it by striking at
once the seven notes of the musical scale: the seven sounds reach the
consciousness simultaneously, but the untrained ear can only recognize them one
after another, and if you choose you can measure the intervals. The trained ear will
hear the seven notes at once simultaneously. And experiment has shown that in two
or three weeks a man may be trained to receive seventeen or eighteen impressions
of colour, the intervals decreasing with patience.
Memory is acquired for this life, and can be expanded. Genius is the greatest
responsiveness of the brain and brain-memory to the Higher Manas. Impressions on
any sense are stored in the memory.
Scales of Consciousness(Page 575) Before a physical sense is developed there is a
mental feeling which proceeds to become a physical sense. Fishes who are blind,
living in the deep sea, or subterranean waters, if they are put into a pond will in a few
generations develop eyes. But in their previous state there is a sense of seeing,
though no physical sight; how else should they in the darkness find their way, avoid
dangers, etc. The mind will take in and store all kinds of things mechanically and
unconsciously, and will throw them into the memory as unconscious perceptions. If
the attention is greatly engrossed in any way, the sense perception of any injury is
not felt at the time, but later the suffering enters into consciousness. So, returning to
our example of the seven notes struck simultaneously, we have one impression, but
the ear is affected in succession by the notes one after another, so that they are
stored in the brain-mind in order, for the untrained consciousness cannot register
them simultaneously. All depends on training and on attention. Thus the transference
of a sensation passing from any organ to the consciousness is almost simultaneous if
your attention is fixed on it, but if any noise distracts your attention, then it will take a
fraction more of a second before it reaches your consciousness. The Occultist should
train himself to receive and transmit along the line of the seven scales of his
consciousness every impression, or impressions, simultaneously. He who reduces
the intervals of physical time the most has made the most progress.
Consciousness, Its Seven Scales
There are seven scales or shades of consciousness, of the Unit; e.g., in a moment of
pleasure or pain; four lower and three higher.
Consciousness, Its Seven Scales
1 Physical sense-perception:
2
Self-perception or
apperception:
Perception of the cell (if paralyzed, the
sense is there, though you do not feel it).
I.e., self-perception of cell.
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