9. Distinction Between Objective Psychic Attack And Subjective Psychic Disturbance-a
PSYCHISM, however genuine, is a fruitful cause of self-delusion.
A psychic is invariably highly sensitive and suggestible.
This is the basis of his gifts.
Psychism not being a normal development, among Europeans at any rate, the psychic is, in the language of nautical engineers, “over-engined for his hull.” He is consequently unstable, liable to violent emotional reactions, and in general exhibits those aberrations of conduct we are accustomed to associate with artistic genius.
Unless a psychic is trained, disciplined, protected and watched over by those who understand his condition, his psychism is never reliable because he is blown about by every wind of influence.
The psychic and the neurotic are closely akin in their reactions to life, but the neurotic differs from the psychic in that, instead of being over-engined for his hull, he is under-hulled for his engines.
The result is the same, however - a discrepancy between the force and form with the consequent inability to maintain a central, reasoned, directing control.
The technique of the occult discipline is largely directed towards maintaining control of the disparate forces, compensating the sensitiveness of the psychic, and protecting him from unwanted impressions.
It is never well to learn how to open the door of the Unseen unless at the same time one learns how to close and latch it.
As was noted in the Introduction, it is comparatively seldom that the Unseen comes in search of human beings.
As the Caterpillar told Alice concerning the Puppy-dog, “You let it alone, and it will let you alone.” But if we begin to study occultism, or even to dabble in it, sooner or later we are liable to obtain results, provided, of course, that the system we are using contains the germs of efficacy.
In the case of a person who is coming on to the Path for the first time, progress is necessarily slow and laborious; but a soul that has taken initiation in previous incarnations may reopen the latent psychic faculties so rapidly that the problem of maintaining the harmonised co-ordination of the personality becomes a serious one.
It is exceedingly common for a person who is making his first contact with the occult movement to experience psychic disturbance.
This is sometimes attributed to evil influences, sometimes to evil entities.
Neither of these inferences may be just.
There is a third possibility, which is responsible for by far the greater percentage of victims - the mere fact that consciousness is being disturbed by an unaccustomed force.
How common a thing it is to see a child feverish and fretful during the first few days of a seaside holiday.
It is not necessarily sickening for an illness.
The strong air and unaccustomed food and the excitement of its new surroundings are disturbing its sensitive physical equilibrium.
So it is when the neophyte is disturbed at the outset of his occult career.
The unaccustomed vibrations are upsetting him, and he is having an attack of occult indigestion.
In both cases the treatment is the same - temporary restriction of the diet which has caused the disturbance.
Another cause of psychic upset may lie in the partial recovery of the memories of past incarnations if these include any painful episodes, especially such as are connected with esoteric studies.
The entry of occult concepts into the conscious mind tends to awaken the subconscious memory of similar experiences in past lives.
The emotion surrounding a memory is invariably recovered before the actual image of the incident.
(This is one of the best tests for the accuracy of memories of past lives.) This foreshadowing emotion may hang about for a long time on the threshold of consciousness before the images clarify sufficiently to became tangible.
If the emotion that is rising over the horizon is of a painful nature it may cause considerable disturbance, and in the absence of an experienced adviser may be attributed to an occult attack, or to the psychic perception of evil influences in the occult group to which the neophyte is affiliated.
The ritual admission of an individual into esoteric knowledge or a sacred order through a formal rite of passage — testing, ordeal, or ceremony — marking a definite before/after threshold in the initiate's status and access. Distinct from hidden_sayings (the doctrine being concealed, not the rite of admission to it) and esoteric_lineage (the historical chain of transmission across generations, not a single individual's admission).
The passage mentions a 'soul that has taken initiation in previous incarnations' and the process of coming onto the 'Path' for the first time.
The balance of two contrary forces as the structural law of cosmos and operation — Lévi's equilibrium, expressed in Kabbalah by the senary: the will of God in its first cause, liberty in man, mathematical equilibrium in matter; the twofold vibration required to direct the Astral Light safely.
The text emphasizes maintaining 'control of the disparate forces' and 'harmonised co-ordination of the personality' to prevent instability.
Gurdjieff and Ouspensky's claim that ordinary human beings live in a state of waking sleep, reacting mechanically without unified will or consciousness, and that the spiritual path begins with recognising this condition.
The description of the untrained psychic being 'blown about by every wind of influence' parallels the idea of reacting mechanically without unified will or control.
The doctrine and practice of one person deliberately inflicting harm on another through trained will, mind-power, or occult technique alone, without physical contact — producing exhaustion, illness, breakdown, or death in the victim; recognised cross-culturally as witchcraft, hexing, or the evil eye, and treated in Western esotericism as a genuine occult hazard requiring diagnosis and defence rather than dismissed as superstition. Distinct from magical_will (the general doctrine that trained volition has causal power, of which this is one malevolent application) and from spirit_conjuration (which subordinates an already-existing summoned spirit, rather than directing the operator's own power at a person).
The passage is titled 'Distinction Between Objective Psychic Attack And Subjective Psychic Disturbance' and discusses the attribution of disturbances to evil influences or entities versus internal causes.
The Hermetic doctrine that nothing rests — matter, energy, mind, and spirit are a single continuum differing only in rate of vibration, from the grossest matter to the least material spirit. Distinct from cosmic_sympathy (affinity resonating BETWEEN separate things) in being a claim about what constitutes any one thing in the first place, and from magical_equilibrium (Lévi's operational balancing technique, which presupposes some vibration doctrine rather than stating this general principle).
The text attributes psychic disturbance to 'unaccustomed vibrations' upsetting the neophyte's equilibrium, aligning with the Hermetic doctrine of vibrational states.