y
enable him to invent new and subtle means and ways of gratifying his
senses to a degree impossible to the animals. Some men make a religion of
the gratification of their sensuality--their appetites--and become beasts
magnified by the power of Intellect. Others become vain, conceited and
puffed up with a sense of the importance of their Personality (the false
"I"). Others become morbidly introspective, and spend their time
analyzing and dissecting their moods, motives, feelings, etc. Others
exhaust their capacity for pleasure and happiness, but looking outside
for it instead of within, and become _blase_, bored, _ennuied_ and an
affliction to themselves We mention these things not in a spirit of
Pessimism but merely to show that even this great Mental Consciousness
has a reverse and ugly side as well as the bright face that has been
ascribed to it.

As man reaches the higher stages of this Mental Consciousness, and the
next higher stage begins to dawn upon him, he is apt to feel more keenly
than ever the insufficiency of Life as it appears to him. He is unable to
understand Himself--his origin, destiny, purpose and nature--and he
chafes against the bars of the cage of Intellect in which he is confined.
He asks himself the question, "Whence come I--Whither go I--What is the
object of my Existence?" He becomes dissatisfied with the answers the
world has to give him to these questions, and he cries aloud in
despair--and but the answer of his own voice comes back to him from the
impassable walls with which he is surrounded. He does not realize that
his answer must come from Within--but so it is.

Psychology stops when it reaches the limits of Mental Consciousness, or
as it calls it "Self-Consciousness," and denies that there is anything
beyond--any unexplored regions of the Mind. It laughs at the reports that
come from those who have penetrated farther within the recesses of their
being, and dismisses the reports as mere "dreams," "fantasies,"
"illusions," "ecstatic imaginings," "abnormal states," etc., etc.
But, nevertheless, there are schools of thought that teach of these
higher states, and there are men of all ages and races that have entered
them and have reported concerning them. And we feel justified in asking
you to take them into consideration.

There are two planes of Consciousness, of which we feel it proper to
speak, for we have obtained more or less information regarding them.
There are still higher planes,