66 wisdom within itself and is conscious of its possession. All things that the Father hath are mine,' said the Christ, in which, he assured us, he but exemplified the possibility and privilege of all. It would be a delusive and cruel sham for the great Master to call upon men to follow him, if he was not certain of their inherent capacity to enter into every step of divine realization reached by him. 232. The Christian world has too long attempted to extract nutriment from the dry husks and chaff of tradition, without entering within and partaking of the real bread of life, that "true bread which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world." Is it not high time that we take the Master at his word and become his actual followers, or discard at once and forever the New Testament story and its gospel as a delusion or fraud? "Why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?" 233. To this higher and spontaneous intuitive wisdom, into the direct possession of which we come by illumination, that which is born of outward experience can add nothing. This is why we are not under these outward limitations to acquire spiritual development and the higher wisdom through the discipline of experience. On the plane of the higher consciousness, the soul knows in advance of experience; this higher consciousness therefore is not reached by the ladder of development, but entered directly through an inward opening, a door opened within the soul. The experience acquired on the sense plane of the soul's primary activities is needed for the perfection of the individuality, and the sense of an indestructible personal identity; but when this is effected, "the time is fulfilled," and the man is ready for the "second birth," the final awakening to the consciousness of his original and indestructible deific nature and possessions. 234. All this will be more clearly understood, appreciated and, we trust, convincingly realized, if we briefly consider, in the second place, the threefold relation of man to the Macrocosm, previously referred to, and the three corresponding planes of consciousness, mental activity and experience which these make possible and legitimate to him, and which, we repeat, is the key to the entire mystery; the mystery of our genesis, our exodus, and our final possession of the transcendent gifts of the Spirit. VIII. THE THREE PLANES OF CONSCIOUSNESS. 235. These we have defined as Sense-Consciousness, Soul-Consciousness, and God-Consciousness; each based upon a corresponding specific line of relationship which our individuality holds to the universe about and within us; the external, the internal, and the innermost departments of the world, and of the beings and things in the world. 236. The inner and higher planes of consciousness are opened and established within us through practically the same process, the operation of the same law and the exercise of the same soul powers, by which the sense-consciousness has been opened and established in all men, the only difference being in the objects, and the character of the objects to which each plane relates us, and so of the things upon which the thought and attention are centered. 237. If this rule is fixed in the mind and kept constantly in view, much of the mystery and difficulty which attend the seeker's efforts at opening the inner and higher planes of consciousness and of obtaining satisfactory results will disappear. First remember that we have no new faculties to develop, but have simply to learn to exercise those we have, on the inner and higher planes of our being. The very same faculties of perception and communication by which we have come into selfconscious communication with the things of the external world through the senses, when exercised on the higher psychic and spiritual planes will bring us into as perfect self-conscious communication with the things of these higher planes as we have of the things of the sense plane. All that one needs by way of preparation is to get a clear and definite conception and understanding of the nature and character of the things to which the attention is to be directed, and of the experience to be sought and expected. The best external aid to this is the testimony of those who have the inner vision and genuine spiritual experience. 238. We speak of self-conscious communication with something not ourselves. By this we mean the distinct recognition and realization of our own identity, and the equal recognition and realization of the identity and character of the beings and things with which we are in communication, and of the relation we sustain to them and they to These three factors constitute the basis of all our knowledge and consciousness of the external world and its objects, and must be equally the basis of all our knowledge and consciousness of the inner soul world and the internal of things, a knowledge which is as possible and legitimate as is our knowledge of the outward world and the external of things. The same is true of the deeper and us. innermost plane of Divine relation and communion which belongs to us as the children of God. The individual relationship is as distinct, definite, specific and positive with these inner and higher planes of. being, as it is with the outward world and the external plane of the soul's activities. 239. We have bodies which stand in both vital and mechanical relations to other bodies that make up the physical world. But we ourselves are living souls, individualized spiritual entities, with a self-conscious personal identity, standing in distinct personal relations to other souls, the souls of men and of things which belong not only to the inner side of the physical world and the realm of the occult, but to the higher and independent soul world. So, we repeat, the soul's powers of perception and communication by which it comes into conscious relation with the external of things through the senses, have as distinct and specific action on the inner and higher psychic plane through the psychometric or independent psychic-sense; and when this is opened and active, perceives and communicates with other souls as freely and perfectly as it does with external things through the senses; and thus perceives and knows with absolute certainty the true character, condition and reality behind every appearance. LAW OF CONSCIOUSNESS. 240. How, it will be asked, is the personal consciousness awakened, first on the sense plane and |