In Search of the Miraculous
Chapter Eight
“The two… lowest, states of consciousness are… sleep… (a)nd.. the ‘waking state of consciousness.’…
“The third state of consciousness is self-remembering or self-consciousness… (W)e do not possess this state of consciousness and… we cannot create it in ourselves by desire or decision alone…
“…the third state of consciousness constitutes the natural right of man as he is, and… it can be made more or less permanent in him only by means of special training.
“For most people… the chief obstacle in the way of acquiring self-consciousness consists in the fact that they think they possess it, …and everything connected with it … the sense of a permanent and unchangeable I, will, ability to do, and so on…
“The two higher states of consciousness—’self-consciousness’ and ‘objective consciousness’—are connected with the functioning of the higher centers… in man, the ‘higher emotional’ and the ‘higher thinking.’ These centers are in us; they are fully developed and are working all the time, but their work fails to reach our ordinary consciousness. The cause of this lies in the special properties of our so called ‘clear consciousness.’
“…the first state of consciousness… is sleep… Then a man wakes up… he is in almost the same state as when he is asleep… He is a machine, everything with him happens… He lives in a subjective world of ‘I love,’ ‘I do not love,’ ‘I like,’ ‘I do not like,’ ‘I want,’ ‘I do not want,’ … The real world is hidden from him by the wall of imagination. He lives in sleep… What is called ‘clear consciousness’ is sleep and… far more dangerous… than sleep at night in bed.
“Both states of consciousness, sleep and the waking state, are equally subjective. Only by beginning to remember himself does a man really awaken…
Chapter 9
“The centers of the human machine work with different ‘hydrogens.’ This constitutes their chief difference. The center working with a coarser, heavier, denser ‘hydrogen’ works the slower. The center working with light, more mobile ‘hydrogen’ works the quicker.
“The thinking or intellectual center is the slowest of all the three centers we have examined up to now. It works with ‘hydrogen’ 48…
“The moving center works with ‘hydrogen’ 24. …many times quicker… than ‘hydrogen’ 48. The intellectual center is never able to follow the work of the moving center… Still less are we able to follow the work of the… instinctive functions of our organism…
“The emotional center can work with ‘hydrogen’ 12. (H)owever, it very seldom works with this fine ‘hydrogen.’ And in the majority of cases its work differs little in intensity and speed from the work of the moving center or the instinctive center.
“…This present teaching… affirms that the higher centers exist in man and are fully developed.
“It is the lower centers that are undeveloped. And it is precisely this lack of development, or the incomplete functioning, of the lower centers that prevents us from making use of the work of the higher centers. ..
“If the emotional center were to work with hydrogen 12, its work would be connected with the work of the higher emotional center… But in ordinary conditions the difference between the speed of our usual emotions and the speed of the higher emotional center is so great that no connection can take place, and we fail to hear within us the voices which are… calling to us from the higher emotional center.
“The higher thinking center, working with hydrogen 6, is still further removed from us, still less accessible. Connection with it is possible only through the higher emotional center. It is only from descriptions of mystical experiences, ecstatic states, and so on, that we know cases of such connections…
“In order to obtain a correct and permanent connection between the lower and the higher centers, it is necessary to regulate and quicken the work of the lower centers…
“…Thus in order to regulate and accelerate the work of the lower centers, the primary object must consist in freeing each center from work foreign and unnatural to it, and in bringing it back to its own work which it can do better than any other center…
“In order to regulate and balance the work of the three centers whose functions constitute our life, it is necessary to learn to economize the energy produced by our organism, not to waste this energy on unnecessary functions, and to save it for that activity which will gradually connect the lower centers with the higher.
“All that has been said before about work on oneself, about the formation of inner unity and of the transition… to the level of man number four and further, pursues one and the same aim. What is called according to one terminology the ‘astral body,’ is called in another terminology the ‘higher emotional center’… different aspects of the next stage of man’s evolution. It can be said that the ‘astral body’ is necessary for the complete and proper functioning of the ‘higher emotional center’… Or it can be said that the ‘higher emotional center’ is necessary for the work of the ‘astral body.’
Inner Octaves, Michel Conge
Prayer
…We don’t realize that, apparently without praying, we ceaselessly formulate requests. Now, these requests always receive a response… ‘Your being attracts your life.’
Attention is a property of real being, which exists on different levels. Vigilance is a state in which the attention is in dynamic equilibrium everywhere. Then it is truly voluntary attention, balanced and equally distributed.
Attention is an energy. Vigilance is an act that brings this energy into play. Vigilance is the awakening of a part of me that until now has been sleeping. It is a disposition of being, quite different from my usual disposition…
Prayer is a pre-existing, unknown reality to which I must find a way of opening myself. Prayer cannot come from the ego. That gift, that capacity, belongs to a very special aspect of one’s being. Call it the higher emotional centre if you like, but know that this centre has always prayed without interruption and that its ceaseless prayer is what keeps you alive…