Elementary Theosophy — Section 6, Chapter 9, Part 1

CHAPTER IX. REBIRTH: ITS REASONABLENESS

Life is the most elusive thing with which science has to deal but we have learned much about both life and matter in recent years, and it is a noteworthy fact that the more we learn the thinner become the ranks of the materialists.

The only scientist of note who still declares his philosophy of materialism is Haeckel, and of him a brother scientist has written, "He is, as it were, a surviving voice from the middle of the nineteenth century;" and, referring to Haeckel's almost deserted ground in the scientific world, he declares that his voice "is as the voice of one crying in the wilderness, not as the pioneer or vanguard of an advancing army, but as the despairing shout of a standard-bearer, still bold and unflinching, but abandoned by the retreating ranks of his comrades as they march to new orders in a fresh and more idealistic direction."

Thus is the old ground of scientific materialism being deserted by all progressive scientists.

While we do not yet know a great deal about life, science has gone far enough to permit a grasp of facts and principles from which conclusions may be logically drawn and working hypotheses constructed.

Sir Oliver Lodge, who is president of one of the great English Universities, and ranks as one of the world's most eminent scientists, speaking of his conception of life, says that "It is dependent on matter for its phenomenal appearance--for its manifestation to us here and now, and for all its terrestrial activities; but otherwise I conceive that it is independent, that its essential existence is continuous and permanent, though its interactions with matter are discontinuous and temporary; and I conjecture that it is subject to a law of evolution--that a linear advance is open to it--whether it be in its phenomenal or in its occult state."

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Later in the same work he expresses the opinion "that life is something outside the scheme of mechanics--outside the categories of matter and energy; though it can nevertheless control and direct material forces...."

In closing his volume on _Life and Matter_ this distinguished scientist says: "What is certain is that life possesses the power of vitalizing the complex material aggregates which exist on this planet, and of utilizing their energies for a time to display itself amid terrestrial surroundings; and then it seems to disappear or evaporate whence it came.

It is perpetually arriving and perpetually disappearing.

While it is here, if it is at a sufficiently high level, the animated material body moves about and strives after many objects, some worthy, some unworthy; it acquires thereby a certain individuality, a certain character.

It may realize itself, moreover, becoming conscious of its own mental and spiritual existence; and it then begins to explore the Mind which, like its own, it conceives must underlie the material fabric--half displayed, half concealed, by the environment, and intelligible only to a kindred spirit.

Thus the scheme of law and order dimly dawns on the nascent soul, and it begins to form clear conceptions of truth, goodness, and beauty; it may achieve something of permanent value, or a work of art or of literature; it may enter the region of emotion and may evolve ideas of the loftiest kind; it may degrade itself below the beasts, or it may soar till it is almost divine.

"Is it the material molecular aggregate that has of its own unaided latent power generated this individuality, acquired this character, felt these emotions, evolved these ideas?

There are some who try to think that it is.

There are others who recognize in this extraordinary development a contact between this material frame of things and a universe higher and other than anything known to our senses; a universe not dominated by physics and chemistry;

but utilizing the interactions of matter for its own purpose; a universe where the human spirit is more at home than it is among these temporary collocations of atoms; a universe capable of infinite development, of noble contemplation and of lofty joy, long after this planet--nay, the whole solar system--shall have fulfilled its present sphere of destiny, and retired cold and lifeless upon its endless way."

Such a conception of life carries us very far from the old popular view of the origin of the race, but it is a conception that brings science and religion into perfect agreement and will enable us to understand human evolution and explain facts in life that would otherwise remain incomprehensible.

The pre-existence of the soul, as a part of universal life, was taught and commonly accepted in the early Christian period.

If we accept the fact of evolution at all, and are not materialists, there is no escape from the belief of the pre-existence of the soul.

Indeed, not even materialism can save one from the necessity of accepting the pre-existence of the individualized consciousness that we call a human being.

Let us consider the human infant as we see it at birth.

Whence came it--how can we account for it in a universe of law and order?

We can understand it from the physical side.

Its tiny body is a concourse of physical atoms with a prenatal history of a few months.

But its mind, its consciousness, its emotions, what of them?

The average man replies that God made them and they constitute the soul.

But how and when were they "made"?

Even the material part of this infant did not spring miraculously and instantaneously into existence.

How much less possible is it that the soul did so!

If we say "God made it" we have explained nothing.

But it is not necessary to deny that God creates the soul in order for us to move toward an understanding of how the soul came to be.

It is only necessary to say that the process of its creation was evolutionary.

Nobody denies that the earth was created by evolution, although men may differ in opinion on the matter of a divine intelligence guiding its evolutionary development.

The same principle must apply to the human intelligence.

Lodge wrote _Life and Matter_ as a reply to Haeckel's _Riddle of the Universe_, which presented the latter's philosophy of materialism.

But Lodge did more than demolish Haeckel's premises and leave him with not an inch of scientific ground to support his theory.

The English scientist raised questions that have not been answered, and cannot be answered, by the scientific materialist.

He points out that the materialist's philosophy has no explanation for "the extraordinary rapidity of development, which results in the production of a fully endowed individual in the course of some fraction of a century."

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With those two dozen words Lodge leaves the scientific materialist speechless; for all scientists are evolutionists, and it is impossible to account for "_the extraordinary rapidity of development_" by the laws of evolution.

It is well known that the evolutionary age of anything depends upon its complexity.

A simple form is comparatively young while a complex one has a long evolutionary history behind it.

The earth is simple compared to a human being.

If, then, it has required ages to evolve the earth to its present stage how long did it take to evolve the wonderfully complex mental and emotional nature of the human being that inhabits the earth?

And thus Lodge bottles Haeckel up on his own premises and shows that the very evolutionary principles to which the German scientist appeals demolish his theory!

He practically says to Haeckel, "Your philosophy, sir, fails to show how it is possible for the vacuous mind of the infant to evolve into the genius of the philosopher in thirty or forty years."

In other words, if the infant is nothing but the form we see it would be utter absurdity to say that that mass of matter can evolve a high grade of intelligence within a few years when it takes centuries to make a slight evolutionary gain.

Look at an infant the day it is born.

Study its face.

One might as well search the surface of a squash for some indication of intelligence.

But wait only a little while and you shall have evidence not merely of intelligence but of emotions possible only to the highest order of life.

Clearly, here is not something evolved within a brief period from a mass of material atoms.

Such a theory would be as unscientific as the popular belief in miraculous creation at which the scientific materialist scoffs.

The swift change from the vacuity of the infant mind to the intellectual power of the adult in the "fraction of a century" is not the creation of something but its _manifestation_--_the coming through into visible expression of that which already exists_.

The soul, the consciousness, the real man, consisting of the whole of the mental and emotional nature, which has been built up through thousands of years of evolution, is coming once more to rebirth, to visible expression in a material body.

The body is, of course, but the new physical instrument of the old soul--an instrument, as certainly as the violin is the instrument and a vehicle for the musician's expression.

At every turn our materialistic conceptions mislead us and prevent the perception of nature's truth.

It is because we think of the body as being actually the person, that it seems improbable that an old soul has entered the infant body.

We think of the power and intelligence of an old soul and then look at the baby and find no indication of such things.

But that is only because the baby body is such a new and undeveloped instrument that it is at first useless and only slowly can it be brought under control of the soul and made to express its intelligence and power.

The body is a growing instrument, not a completed one.

Let us suppose that musical instruments grow as physical bodies do.

Suppose there was a time when the piano was keyless, as a baby is toothless.

Suppose that sounding boards have a period of immaturity and that the whole mechanism of the instrument is in a state that can only be characterized as infantile.

If a master musician attempts to play on such a piano his performance would by no means be an indication of his ability.

A competent critic who could hear the performance but not see the musician would promptly declare that no really great musician was touching the keys.

And that is precisely the mistake we make in assuming that the immature body of an infant is capable of expressing the intellectual power of the old soul, or, to put it differently, denying that a returned, old soul is in possession of the infant body simply because there is no physical plane evidence of the fact.

If pianos slowly grew to maturity then only when the instrument was mature could the master musician give a practical demonstration of his skill; and only when the physical body has reached its maturity can the soul that is using it fully express itself.

In the early years of the physical body the soul is only very partially expressed through it.

The entrance of the consciousness into the physical world is slow and gradual.

It is somewhat like the growth of a plant, very gradual, but the analogy is not a good one, for a plant is very little like a human body.

It is impossible to find a material equivalent of the dawning of consciousness on the physical plane.

Beginning about four and a half months before the birth of the physical body and continuing for a period of several years the soul, or consciousness, is engaged in the process of anchorage in the physical world.

For a long time the center of consciousness remains above the material plane and during the early years of childhood the consciousness is divided between the astral and physical worlds, with the result that the child is often somewhat confused and brings fragments of astral consciousness into physical life.

When the physical body is about seven years old the consciousness may be said to be centered on the physical plane, but only when the body and brain of the soul's new instrument are mature has the opportunity come for the fullest expression.

Some of the difficulties commonly associated in the mind with the thought of the pre-existence and rebirth of the soul will disappear if we do not lose sight of the fact that the soul is a center of consciousness, which is always consciousness somewhere, but which very gradually shifts its focus from plane to plane.

Its permanent home is in that body of filmy matter drawn about the ego in the higher levels of the heaven world.

From that point it sends energies outward and draws about itself in the lower levels of the mental world a body, or vehicle of consciousness, that is not permanent but which will serve the purpose of functioning for a period on that plane.

Downward again the energies are sent, building about the center of consciousness on the astral plane a temporary body of astral matter, temporary in the same sense that the physical body is temporary, and which shall serve the consciousness in the astral, or emotional world, during the whole of the physical plane life and for some time afterward.

Still outward, or downward, the soul sends its energies till the material world is reached, when it begins to function partially, and very feebly, through the infant physical body.

For the time being the soul's evolution lies on the physical plane where certain lessons are to be learned.

After the early years of childhood are over the consciousness is firmly anchored here, where the chief work is to be done, during the hours of the waking consciousness.

During sleep the ego temporarily lays aside the physical body and functions in the astral body in the astral world.

The material body sleeping here is merely a deserted and empty vehicle, magnetically connected with the soul, and awaiting its return.

As childhood, youth, maturity and old age pass, complex experiences come to the soul thus functioning here.

Other souls functioning through physical bodies are encountered and various relationships are established.

Out of the complexity of social, business, religious and political activities the soul gets a large and varied experience.

Sooner or later the death of the physical body closes the chapter.

The gathering of such experience has ceased, not because the soul has acquired all possible physical world knowledge, but because its instrument of consciousness here has worn out.

Death cuts the soul off from its physical plane connection and the center of its consciousness is then shifted to the astral plane.

There the purgative process goes forward, as explained in a previous chapter.

As that proceeds the soul gradually gets free from one grade of astral matter after another and with the loss of each the man becomes conscious on a higher level.

The physical body is lost suddenly but the matter of the astral body gradually wears away until there is so little left that the soul has lost connection with the astral world also.

This means that the center of consciousness has shifted to the mental plane, or heaven world, where the man will function on the lower levels.

There in the mental world, functioning through the vehicle of mental matter, a very important process goes on.

The heaven world life is a harvest time in which assimilation of experience takes place.

The consciousness there deeply broods over the experiences of life and extracts the essence from them which is transmuted into faculty and power for future greater expression.

It is thus that the soul grows in wisdom and power through its long evolution.

When the heaven life is finished, when the harvest of experience has been threshed out and the net gain has been built into the enduring causal body, the mental body, like the astral, has been completely dissipated.

The end of a cycle of experience--of a day in the evolutionary school--has come and the physical, astral and mental bodies have all perished.

Nothing remains but the soul, the real man, the ego, functioning through the causal body which persists.

From that the ego again sends the forces outward, in the first activity toward rebirth, first forming a new mental body by drawing about itself the matter of the lower levels of the mental plane, then securing a new astral body on the astral plane and finally taking possession of another infant body in process of formation on the physical plane, into which it will in due course be reborn.

The period between these successive appearances of the soul in a succession of physical bodies varies greatly and depends on a number of things.

The length of time spent upon the astral plane has already been discussed.

The time spent in the heaven world depends upon the mental and moral forces generated during the physical and astral life.

If there is a great harvest of experience it will require a longer time to transmute it, while, of course, one who has thought little and loved but little will have a shorter period there, for it is the heart and head forces that have their culmination in the mental world.

The question is a rather complex one and other factors come into play, including the intensity of the heaven world life.

In general terms, however, it can be said that the heaven life of the ordinarily intelligent person will commonly be a period several times the length of his combined physical and astral life.

Some people will have only two or three hundred years between incarnations while others may have six or seven centuries and still others a much longer period.

In getting a right understanding of the subject of rebirth, or reincarnation, it is necessary to keep in mind the fact that the soul, or center of individualized consciousness, is the man and that the physical body is merely an instrument he uses for a number of years;

that the causal body is his permanent body for the whole of human evolution; that the mental plane is his home plane and that from there he sends forth successive expressions of himself into these lower planes.

With such facts before us there should be no confusion of thought about the successive personalities of an individual.

Yet we sometimes hear people speak of the absurdity of supposing that a person can be one man in one incarnation and another man at a later rebirth.

Of course no such thing occurs.

An individual remains the same individual forever.

"But," objects the critic, "may I not have been Mr. Jones, in England six hundred years ago, whereas I am now certainly Mr. Brown, in America at this moment?

If so is that not a case of being two individuals?"

It is certainly not a case of being two individuals.

It is a case of one individual being expressed through a physical body six hundred years ago in England, dying from it, spending a fairly long period in the astral plane and heaven world, and then again expressing himself through another physical body in America at the present time.

The confusion of thought on the part of the questioner arises from thinking of the physical body as being the man.

But it is no more the man than the clothing he wears.

It is true that he is known at one period as Jones and at another as Brown, but that no more affects his individuality than the assumption of an _alias_ by a fleeing criminal changes him.

The name applies exclusively to the physical body, or personality, as distinguished from the individuality.

That body is but the temporary clothing of the soul.

Let us suppose that a man's name were applied to his clothing and changed with his clothing as it does with his body.

We might then know him as Mr. Lightclothes in the summer and as Mr. Darkclothes in the winter, but neither the change of clothing or name would in the least degree make him somebody else.

The majority of women change their names in each incarnation.

A man may know a certain woman as Miss Smith when she is a slip of a girl, free from care and with little serious thought of life.

Twenty years later she may be Mrs. Brown, his wife, a thoughtful matron, the mother of children.

She has changed her name and greatly changed in character, too, but she is the same individual.

It seems probable that a person may change quite as much between infancy and old age as between one incarnation and the next.

Even the difference between a youth of twenty years who is an artist and the same man at three score and ten who has given forty years to scientific study and research, may be enormous, but the individuality is, of course, identical.

It has rapidly evolved and greatly improved, and that is just what occurs to the soul by repeated rebirths--steady evolutionary development of the eternal individual.

The reincarnating process by which the soul evolves is somewhat analogous to the growth of a young physical body.

The process consists of alternating periods of objective and subjective activity.

How does the body of a child grow?

It consumes food, the objective activity.

It then digests and assimilates it, the subjective activity.

These periods must alternate or there can be no growth, because neither alone is the complete process.

The one is the complement of the other.

So it is in the evolution of the soul by reincarnation.

The experience of life is the food on which the soul grows.

The physical plane existence is the objective period in which the food is gathered.

At death the man passes into the invisible realms where the subjective process is carried on.

He digests and assimilates his experiences and the gist is stored in the causal body and its growth includes an actual increase in size, just as in the case of the child's physical body.

The same law governs mental and moral growth as it operates in our daily affairs.

A young man is in college.

How does his intellect grow?

By precisely the same process of alternating periods of objective and subjective activity.

In the class room the instructor puts a mathematical problem on the blackboard and explains it.

With the outward senses of sight and hearing, aided by pencil and notebook, the student gathers the food for mental growth.

This period of objective activity comes to an end and he then retires to the privacy of his room and there the subjective period begins.

He deeply thinks over the problem.

His material, the food for mental growth, is only a few notes that serve to keep the experience in his mind.

At first all that they signify is not obvious, but as he turns the various points over and over in his mind their significance becomes clearer and fuller.

It is the subjective process of digestion.

Little by little new light dawns in the student's mind.

Finally he has complete comprehension of the mathematical principles involved, and the process of assimilation is finished.

This subjective period is the complement of the objective period and they must go on alternating or intellectual growth will stop.

When the process of digestion and assimilation is finished the student must return to the classroom for further mental food and when he arrives it is by virtue of the fact that he did digest the previous lesson that he is able to take a higher and more difficult one.

And precisely so it is with the reincarnating soul.

In the interval between incarnations it so assimilates the experiences of the last physical life that it comes to rebirth with added abilities which enable it to take higher and more difficult lessons than it could previously master.