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Chapter X: Astral Religious Experiences2217
Chapter X: Astral Religious Experiences
The student of comparative religions is struck with the fact that from
the primal stock of religious belief there emerges an almost countless
number of creeds, sects, and divisions of religious thought. From the very
primitive superstitions of the simple races to the most advanced conceptions
of the cultured peoples, there runs a uniting thread of fundamental belief
in a something which is above the phenomenal universe, and which is the
Causeless Cause of the Universe. Coupled with this conception we find
the fundamental belief that the soul survives after the death of the body.
But this conception, also, is variously interpreted by the different religious
authorities and sects. The third general conception, the fundamental
religious instinct of the race, is that which holds that the future life of the
soul depends upon the character and actions of the individual during his
earth-life.
It is a long journey from some of the most primitive interpretations of these
three fundamental principles of religious belief, to that high conception of
the advanced occultists which has been stated by a gifted author as follows:
“There are three truths which are absolute, and which cannot be lost, but yet may
remain silent for lack of speech. (1) The soul of man is immortal, and its future is the