Theos-Talk Archives (June 2004 Message tt00171)

Leadbeater's say so that he saw anything materialized can be 
discounted as another one of his lies. However, there is another 
account ny more credible witnesses od a letter being materialized at 
Adyar which has been dismissed as poor observation. In this case the 
letter was reportedly observed in the process of materialization,

One thing I might add to this discussion is a brief description of 
the matter from a technical point of view.

Every object has not only atoms but a shape into which the atoms have 
been formed. A computer, for example, has atoms, but is also shaped 
like a computer. This shape is the computer's form or rupa. We 
would think of this as something which exists obly conceptually, but 
Theosophy maintains that it exists as a thing in itself, although 
exactly what it is is never made clear.

What is clear is that the rupa precedes the physical manifestation. 
Atoms could not be formed into a computer if the rupa did not exist. 
More intriguingly, the rupa is said to exist at least briefly after 
the manifestation ceases. This is why Blavatsky favored cremation. 
As long as the body has not completely disintegrated, the rupa 
continues to exist. If the body is reduced to dust by means of 
cremation, the rupa supposedly disintegrates shortly afterward. 
Since the rupa is one of the skandhas it is one of the sub principles 
of the fourth principle, kama. Since rupa is the first of the 
skandhas, kama rupa is the first and lowest of the seven sub 
principles of kama. (No, Dallas, I am not going to take the time to 
look up page numbers to support all these statements. They are all 
in HPB's writings.)

Kama, being the fourth principle, is noumenal to prana, which is the 
third principle. The seven sub principles of prana are the seven 
forces, one of which is cohesion. In theory if cohesion could be 
completely suspended in a solid object, the object would disappear 
from view. The atoms of which it was composed would not go anywhere, 
but they would cease to reflect light, and would be finer than the 
finest dust. In very short order those atoms would be dispersed into 
the environment.

So goes the theory. If this were to occur, the rupa of the newly 
disintegrated object would have a brief life expectancy but would 
continue to exist. Once again, it is not clear how this is to be 
understood. But unlike atoms, the rupa is said to be transmissible, 
so that it would be sent to the other end of the planet and even 
further instantaneously.

Once there if the force of cohesion could somehow be reinstated, 
atoms would collect into the rupa like plaster of paris into a mold. 
An object disintegrated at one end of the earth would mysteriously 
reappear at the other end, BUT THE ORIGINAL ATOMS OF WHICH THE 
ORIGINAL OBJECT WAS COMPOSED WOULD NOT HAVE GONE ANYWHERE. The only 
thing that would have moved would be the mysterious rupa, or kama 
rupa if you please.

Now Theosophy maintains that elementals are noumenal to the forces 
and are part of the fourth (kama) principle. They are moreover 
subservient to the superior principles, notably manas. If anything 
ever has been dematerialized it is therefore manas which dominates 
the elementals, which control the force of cohesion, which makes this 
possible. This is only a high level overview since a complete 
description would occupy a book length treatise. Now for a very 
brief discussion of how this is done.

In a inconspicuous footnote, not even an article, Madame Blavatsky 
offered "the key so much desired by enterprising ? indeed all ? 
students. It is by means of the correlations of color, sound, form, 
number, and substance that the trained will of the Initiate rules and 
uses the denizens of the elemental world. Many Theosophists have had 
slight conscious relations with elementals, but always without their 
will acting, and, upon trying to make elementals see, hear, or act 
for them, a total indifference on the part of the nature spirit is 
all they have got in return. These failures are due to the fact that 
the elemental cannot understand the thought of the person: it can 
only be reached when the exact scale of being to which it belongs is 
vibrated, whether it be that of color, form, sound, or whatever 
else." (Footnote to Charles Johnston, F.T.S., "The Tide of Life," 
Theosophy September 1918, p. 516n.)

The same thought appears in one of the Mahatma Letters. "How," the 
Mahatma asks Sinnett, "could you make yourself understood by, 
command, in fact, those semi?intelligent forces, whose means of 
communication with us are not through spoken words, but through 
sounds and colors in correlation between the vibrations of the two?" 
(SD 1.514n. The "Mahatma Letter" in question is quoted from Sinnett's 
Occult World, p. xxx, and appears in ML, p. xxx)

I will leave it to readers to figure out the matter of will, which is 
discussed all throughout Isis and other texts. Mouni Sadhu discusses 
HPB's will training method in his book CONCENTRATION. Besant refers 
briefly to this in her book THOUGHT POWER.

HPB quotes this letter and adds that "this 'correlation' was many 
times explained by the Alchemists." (SD 1.514n) "In the Occult 
Sciences the alchemist can be useful to the philologist and vice 
versa," she says. (HPB, "Le Phare de l'Inconnu," Theosophy, January, 
1920, reprinted from The Theosophist September 1889, thence from La 
Revue Theosophique, p. 83.) And she admits that this refers to the 
then-secret Instructions to the Esoteric School of Theosophy. 
Those "secret" papers have all been reprinted and anyone can look at 
the alchemical correspondences in them. The correspondences are 
between the seven alchemical metals, planets, colors, tattvas, and so 
on.

I suspect this may have been a distraction, because "the correlations 
of color, sound, form, number, and substance" are described in Rama 
Prasad's book NATURE'S FINER FORCES. This is undoubtedly the real 
reason why HPB condemned this book as "black magic." The 
correlations are also referred to briefly in THE GHERANDA SAMHITA and 
THE YOGATATTVA UPANISHAD (one if the yoga Upanishads) as the secret 
to controlling elementals. Cohesion is traditionally associated with 
the earth element, which has a seed (bija) mantra or sound associated 
with it, the color yellow, a square shape or form, the number four, 
and so on. Somewhere Judge says mantras are the key to dominating 
the elementals.

You will have to do a considerable amount of work to turn that into 
anything practical. Further information of interest can be found in 
Buddhaghosa'a VISUDDHIMAGGA (Path of Purification), which is 
explicitly mentioned by Olcott in his BUDDHIST CATECHISM. In his 
book LIVING BUDDHIST MASTERS Jack Kornfield claims some devotees in 
Thailand and elsewhere have had interesting results with this 
system. Interesting stuff on the kasina meditations referred to can 
also be found in an ancient text translated by Xonze in his BUDDHIST 
SCRIPTURES.

Other information of interest can be found in Vyasa's commentary on 
Patanjali's YOGA SUTRAS. Translations of this text can be found in 
the better translations of Patanjali, but not in the Alice Bailey 
translation nor in the Judge translation. Vyasa does not deal with 
the correlations, but he does discuss the theory of how operating on 
subtler levels could produce manifestations on grosser levels.

That is the merest of intros to a very complex subject which requires 
years of study to completely fathom. With that much information to 
start anyone who wants to do so badly enough can figure out or find 
out the rest. I don't believe any of the people who consider reading 
to constitute a "Path" will do anything with this. However, I will 
delete this post from the archive in 24 hours.