Isis Unveiled, Vol. 2, Page 590- 591
H.P. Blavatsky on Clairvoyance
a fragment from Isis Unveiled
There are two kinds of seership -- that of the soul and that
of the spirit. The seership of the ancient Pythoness, or of the modern
mesmerized subject, vary but in the artificial modes adopted to induce
the state of clairvoyance. But, as the visions of both depend upon the
greater or less acuteness of the senses of the astral body, they differ
very widely from the perfect, omniscient
spiritual state; for, at best, the subject can get but glimpses of
truth,
through the veil which physical nature interposes. The astral
principle, or
mind, called by the Hindu Yogin fav-atma, is the sentient soul,
inseparable from our physical brain, which it holds in subjection, and
is in its turn equally trammelled by it. This is the ego, the
intellectual life-principle of man, his conscious entity. While it is
yet within the material body, the clearness and correctness of its
spiritual visions depend on its more or
less intimate relation with its higher Principle. When this relation is
such
as to allow the most ethereal portions of the soul-essence to act
independently of its grosser particles and of the brain, it can
unerringly comprehend what it sees; then only is it the pure, rational,
supersentient soul. That state is known in India as the Samaddi; it is
the highest condition of spirituality possible to man on earth. Fakirs
try to obtain such a condition by holding their breath for hours
together during their religious exercises, and call this practice
dam-sadhna. The Hindu terms Pranayama, Pratyahara, and Dharana, all
relate to different psychological states, and show how much more the
Sanscrit, and even the modern Hindu language are adapted to the clear
elucidation of the phenomena that are encountered by those who study
this branch of psychological science, than the tongues of modern
peoples, whose experiences have not yet necessitated the invention of
such descriptive terms.
When the body is in the state of dharana
-- a total catalepsy of the physical frame -- the soul of the
clairvoyant may liberate itself, and perceive things subjectively. And
yet, as the sentient principle of the brain is alive and active, these
pictures of the past, present, and future will be tinctured with the
terrestrial perceptions of the objective world; the physical memory and
fancy will be in the way of clear vision. But the seer-adept knows how
to suspend the mechanical action of the brain. His visions will be as
clear as truth itself, uncolored and undistorted, whereas, the
clairvoyant, unable to control the vibrations of the astral waves, will
perceive but more or less broken images through the medium of the
brain. The seer can never take flickering shadows for realities, for
his memory being as completely subjected to his will as the rest of the
body, he receives impressions directly from his spirit. Between his
subjective and objective selves there are no obstructive mediums. This
is the real spiritual seership, in which, according to an expression of
Plato, soul is raised above all inferior good. When we reach "that
which is supreme, which is simple, pure, and unchangeable, without
form, color, or human qualities: the God -- our Nous."
This is the state which such seers as Plotinus and Apollonius termed
the "Union to the Deity"; which the ancient Yogins called Isvara,* and
the modern call "Samaddi"; but this state is as far above modern
clairvoyance as the stars above glow-worms. Plotinus, as is well known,
was a clairvoyant-seer during his whole and daily life; and yet, he had
been united to his God but six times during the sixty-six years of his
existence, as he himself confessed to Porphyry.