Today, we will examine our sleep life. The emotional world is the home of passions and emotions, consequently, what you can experience in that world is several orders of magnitude more intense than you can experience on Earth; mercifully. Whilst in the physical body, most of the effect of an emotion is exhausted in its transmission to the physical plane; but in the emotional world the whole of the force is available. Hence it is possible in the emotional world, to feel far more intense affection or devotion than is possible in the physical world. Similarly, an intensity of suffering is possible in the Emotional World, which is unimaginable in ordinary physical life.
An advantage of this state of affairs is that in the Emotional World, all pain and suffering are voluntary and absolutely under your control, hence life there is much easier, for the person who understands their environment. To control physical pain by the mind is possible, but exceedingly difficult: but in the emotional world anyone can, in an instant, drive away the suffering caused by a strong emotion. The person has only to exert their will and the passion disappears. This assertion sounds startling: but it is nevertheless the case. This is a clear demonstration of the power of will and mind over matter. This is the Trinity in action in the correct and balanced order.
To have attained full consciousness in the emotional body, a person has to have made a considerable amount of progress. When an aspirant has taken the (i3) and bridged over the chasm between emotional and physical consciousness, day and night no longer exist since the disciple leads a life unbroken in its continuity. For such a person, even death, as ordinarily conceived, has ceased to exist, since they carry that unbroken consciousness, not only through night and day but also through the portals of death itself. This is carried up to the end of their life on the emotional plane, as we shall see later when we come to deal with the after-death life.
Travelling in the emotional body is not instantaneous: but it is so swift that space and time may be said to be practically conquered: for although a person is passing through space, it is passed through so rapidly that its power to divide is nearly non-existent. In two or three minutes a person can move around the world. A (3) Cultured and (4) Compassionate soul has a consciousness that is fully developed in the emotional body and is capable of employing it as a vehicle. In many cases, these souls do not do so, because they have not made the definite effort, which is at first necessary, until the habit becomes established.
The difficulty for the average person is not that the emotional body cannot act, but that for thousands of years that body has been accustomed to being set in motion only by impressions received through the physical vehicle. People do not realise that the emotional body can work on its own plane and on its own account and that the will can act upon it directly. People remain “unawake” emotionally because they get into the habit of waiting for familiar physical vibrations to call out their emotional activity. Hence they may be said to be awake on the emotional plane, but are not aware of the plane and consequently, they are only vaguely conscious of their their surroundings, if at all.
When an aspirant becomes a pupil of one of the Masters, they are shaken out of their drowsy condition on the emotional plane and fully awakened to the realities around them on that plane. They now set out to learn from what they see and experience and to work in this environment. Consequently, their hours of sleep are no longer a blank but are filled with active and useful occupations. This does not interfere with the healthy slumber of the tired physical body.
In a future presentation on Invisible Helpers, we will deal more fully with carefully planned and organised work in the emotional body. It may be stated that even before that stage is reached, a great deal of useful work may be and is constantly being done. A person who falls asleep with the definite intention in their mind of doing a certain piece of work, will most likely go and attempt to carry out their intention as soon as they are freed from their physical body in sleep. But, when the work is completed, the fog of their own self-centred thoughts will likely close around them once more, unless they have accustomed themselves to initiate fresh lines of action when functioning apart from the physical brain. In some cases, of course, the work chosen is such that it occupies the whole of the time spent in sleep. Such a person would be exerting themselves to the fullest extent possible, within the limit of their emotional development.
Everyone should determine each night to do something useful on the emotional plane: to comfort someone in trouble: to use the will to pour strength into a friend who is weak or ill: to calm someone who is emotionally distraught: or to perform other similar services. Some measure of success is almost certain and if the helper observes closely, they will often receive indications in the physical world of definite results achieved.
There are four ways in which a person may be “awakened” to self-conscious activity in their emotional body.
(1) By the ordinary course of evolution, which though slow, is guaranteed.
(2) By the person themself, having learnt that it is possible, making the requisite steady and persistent effort to clear away the mist from within and gradually overcome the inertia to which they are accustomed. To do this, the person should resolve before going to sleep to try, when they leave the body, to awaken themselves and see something or do some useful work. This, of course, is hastening the natural process of evolution. It is desirable that the person should first have developed common sense and moral qualities. This is for two reasons: first, in case they misuse such powers that they may acquire; second, lest they be overwhelmed by fear in the presence of forces, which they can neither understand nor control.
(3) By some accident, or by unlawful use of magical ceremonies, a person may so tear the veil that it can never wholly be closed again. Instances of this are to be found in “A Bewitched Life” by H.P. Blavatsky, and in “Zanoni” by Lord Bulwer Lytton. It does not have to be as dramatic as engaging in magic. Just pop the right pill and you can catapult yourself into oblivion, but this is not a recommended course of action.
(4) A friend may act externally on the closed shell surrounding the person and gradually arouse the person to higher possibilities. This, however, should never be done unless the friend is quite sure that the person to be awakened possesses the courage, devotion and other qualifications necessary for useful work.
But the need for helpers on the emotional plane is so great that every aspirant may be certain that there will not be a day’s delay in arousing them, as soon as they are seen to be ready. It should be noted that when a child has been awakened on the emotional plane, the development of the emotional body can proceed so rapidly that they are soon in a position, on that plane, to be almost as effective as an awakened adult. When you can be effective on the emotional plain, you are much further along the path than the wisest person, who is unawakened.
But unless the persona, expressing itself through the child-body, possessed the necessary qualification of a determined, yet loving disposition and had manifested it in their previous lives, no esotericist would take the very serious responsibility of awakening the child on the emotional plane. When it is possible to arouse children in this way, they often prove very effective workers on the emotional plane and throw themselves into this work with a degree of devotion, which is beautiful to witness. Also, while it is comparatively easy to awaken a person on the emotional plane, it is practically impossible, except by a most undesirable use of mesmeric influence, to put them to sleep again. Sleeping and waking life are thus seen to be, in reality, a continuum. During sleep, we are aware of that fact and have the continuous memory of both, i.e., emotional memory includes the physical, though, of course, the physical memory by no means always includes the memory of the emotional experiences.
On a related topic, the phenomenon of sleep-walking (somnambulism), may be produced in several distinct ways.
(1) The persona may be able to act more directly upon the physical body during the absence of the mental and emotional vehicles. In cases of this nature, a person might be able, for example, to write poetry, paint pictures, etc., which would be far beyond their ordinary powers when awake.
(2) The physical body may be working automatically and by force of habit, uncontrolled by the person. Instances of this occur where domestic staff would rise in the middle of the night and light a fire or attend to other household duties to which they are accustomed: or where the sleeping physical body carries out, to some extent, the idea dominant in the mind before falling to sleep. Is this the persona carrying out this activity, or is it the tertiary matter of the muscles, having the memory and acting habitually?
(3) An outside entity, incarnate or discarnate, may seize the body of a sleeping person and use it for their own ends. This would be most likely to happen with a person who was mediumistic, i.e., whose bodies are more loosely joined together than usual and therefore more readily separable. With normal people, however, the fact that the emotional body leaves the physical body during sleep does not open the way to obsession, because the persona always maintains a close connection with their body and they would quickly be recalled to it by any attempt that might be made to capture it.
(4) A directly opposite condition may also induce sleep-walking. When the principles or bodies fit more tightly than usual, the person, instead of visiting a distant place in their emotional body only, would take their physical body along as well, because they are not wholly dissociated from it. Just hope the person did not intend to cross an ocean.
(5) Somnambulism is probably also connected with the complex problem of the various layers of consciousness in a person, which under normal circumstances are unable to manifest themselves.
Closely akin to sleep-life is the condition of trance, which is a sleep state, artificially or abnormally induced. Mediums and sensitives, readily pass out of the physical body into the emotional body, usually unconsciously. The emotional body can then exercise its functions, such as that of travelling to a distant place, gathering impressions there from surrounding objects and bringing them back to the physical body. We discussed this in the Adventures of the Monad series of presentations. In the case of a medium, the emotional body can describe these impressions using the entranced physical body. As a rule, when the medium comes out of the trance, the brain does not retain the impressions made on it, no trace being left in the physical memory of the experiences acquired. Occasionally, but rarely, the emotional body is able to make a lasting impression on the brain, so that the medium can recollect the knowledge acquired during trance.
Let us look at this from another perspective, that of dreams, in the next presentation.