C. W. Leadbeater

Invisible Helpers by Charles Webster Leadbeater looks at examples of "invisible helpers" coming to the aid of those in danger. "In his book Invisible Helpers Leadbeater recounts numerous cases of people in distress who have been "miraculously" saved or helped by mysterious beings mistaken for "angels" but who were actually living people who were able consciously to assist others while they are in their astral bodies and their physical bodies are asleep. In many of the accounts, he referred to these as the "band of helpers" who were disciples of ADEPTS and who had the capacity to help even when out of their bodies. Leadbeater outlines the notion that there is a universal belief in spiritual assistance in times of need, from superphysical reality. He also considers what lies in the beyond for us all.

Invisible Helpers by Charles Webster Leadbeater looks at examples of "invisible helpers" coming to the aid of those in danger. "In his book Invisible Helpers Leadbeater recounts numerous cases of people in distress who have been "miraculously" saved or helped by mysterious beings mistaken for "angels" but who were actually living people who were able consciously to assist others while they are in their astral bodies and their physical bodies are asleep. In many of the accounts, he referred to these as the "band of helpers" who were disciples of ADEPTS and who had the capacity to help even when out of their bodies. Leadbeater outlines the notion that there is a universal belief in spiritual assistance in times of need, from superphysical reality. He also considers what lies in the beyond for us all.

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C. W. Leadbeater's classic study Clairvoyance is a theosophical look at the phenomenon of clairvoyance-the mental viewing of things far removed in space and/or time. Leadbeater appeals to the fourth dimension, the Akashic record, and the assistance of unseen spirits, to explain the phenomenon. Includes illustrations.

C. W. Leadbeater was a powerhouse behind much of the Theosophical movement. He left behind a large publishing legacy, which still informs new students today. Here, he explores the use and pitfalls of Psychic abilities. He examines the uses and abuses of those powers, how the trained and untrained handle them, things that aren't psychic, clairvoyance, thought-forms, misuses of these abilities and other related subtopics.

C. W. Leadbeater was a powerhouse behind much of the Theosophical movement. He left behind a large publishing legacy, which still informs new students today. Here, he explores the different aspects of both the black and white sides of magic; unrecognized forces of nature, different types of magicians, talismans, evil invocations, darker magic and many other things

In calling this plane the heaven-world, we distinctly intend to imply that it contains the reality which underlies all the best and most spiritual ideas of heaven which have been propounded in various religions, yet it must by no means be considered from that point of view only. It is a realm of nature which is of exceeding importance to us-a vast and splendid world of vivid life in which we are living now as well as in the periods intervening between physical incarnations. It is only our lack of development, only the limitation imposed upon us by this robe of flesh, that prevents us from fully realising that all the glory of the highest heaven is about us here and now: and that influences flowing from that world are ever playing upon us if we will only understand and receive them. Impossible as this may seem to the man of the world, it is the plainest of realities to the occultist; and to those who have not yet grasped this fundamental truth we can but repeat the advice given by the Buddhist teacher "Do not complain and cry and pray, but open your eyes and see. The light is all about you, if you would only cast the bandage from your eyes and look. It is so wonderful, so beautiful, so far beyond what any man has dreamt of or prayed for, and it is for ever and for ever."

We have often heard it said that thoughts are things, and there are many among us who are persuaded of the truth of this statement. Yet very few of us have any clear idea as to what kind of thing a thought is, and the object of this little book is to help us to conceive this. Man, the Thinker, is clothed in a body composed of innumerable combinations of the subtle matter of the mental plane, this body being more or less refined in its constituents and organised more or less fully for its functions, according to the stage of intellectual development at which the man himself has arrived. The mental body is an object of great beauty, the delicacy and rapid motion of its particles giving it an aspect of living iridescent light, and this beauty becomes an extraordinarily radiant and entrancing loveliness as the intellect becomes more highly evolved and is employed chiefly on pure and sublime topics. Every thought gives rise to a set of correlated vibrations in the matter of this body, accompanied with a marvellous play of colour, like that in the spray of a waterfall as the sunlight strikes it, raised to the nth degree of colour and vivid delicacy. The body under this impulse throws off a vibrating portion of itself, shaped by the nature of the vibrations-as figures are made by sand on a disk vibrating to a musical note-and this gathers from the surrounding atmosphere matter like itself in fineness from the elemental essence of the mental world. We have then a thought-form pure and simple, and it is a living entity of intense activity animated by the one idea that generated it. If made of the finer kinds of matter, it will be of great power and energy, and may be used as a most potent agent when directed by a strong and steady will. Into the details of such use we will enter later. When the man's energy flows outwards towards external objects of desire, or is occupied in passional and emotional activities, this energy works in a less subtle order of matter than the mental, in that of the astral world. What is called his desire-body is composed of this matter, and it forms the most prominent part of the aura in the undeveloped man. Where the man is of a gross type, the desire-body is of the denser matter of the astral plane, and is dull in hue, browns and dirty greens and reds playing a great part in it. Through this will flash various characteristic colours, as his passions are excited. A man of a higher type has his desire-body composed of the finer qualities of astral matter, with the colours, rippling over and flashing through it, fine and clear in hue. While less delicate and less radiant than the mental body, it forms a beautiful object, and as selfishness is eliminated all the duller and heavier shades disappear. This desire (or astral) body gives rise to a second class of entities, similar in their general constitution to the thought-forms already described, but limited to the astral plane, and generated by the mind under the dominion of the animal nature.

We often speak of Theosophy as not in itself a religion, but the truth which lies behind all religions alike. That is so; yet, from another point of view, we may surely say that it is at once a philosophy, a religion and a science. It is a philosophy, because it puts plainly before us an explanation of the scheme of evolution of both the souls and the bodies contained in our solar system. It is a religion in so far as, having shown us the course of ordinary evolution, it also puts before us and advises a method of shortening that course, so that by conscious effort we may progress more directly towards the goal. It is a science, because it treats both these subjects as matters not of theological belief but of direct knowledge obtainable by study and investigation. It asserts that man has no need to trust to blind faith, because he has within him latent powers which, when aroused, enable him to see and examine for himself, and it proceeds to prove its case by showing how those powers may be awakened. It is itself a result of the awakening of such powers by men, for the teachings which it puts before us are founded upon direct observations made in the past, and rendered possible only by such development. As a philosophy, it explains to us that the solar system is a carefully-ordered mechanism, a manifestation of a magnificent life, of which man is but a small part. Nevertheless, it takes up that small part which immediately concerns us, and treats it exhaustively under three heads-present, past and future. It deals with the present by describing what man really is, as seen by means of developed faculties. It is customary to speak of man as having a soul. Theosophy, as the result of direct investigation, reverses that dictum, and states that man is a soul, and has a body-in fact several bodies, which are his vehicles and instruments in various worlds. These worlds are not separate in space; they are simultaneously present with us, here and now, and can be examined; they are the divisions of the material side of Nature-different degrees of density in the aggregation of matter, as will presently be explained in detail. Man has an existence in several of these, but is normally conscious only of the lowest, though sometimes in dreams and trances he has glimpses of some of the others. What is called death is the laying aside of the vehicle belonging to this lowest world, but the soul or real man in a higher world is no more changed or affected by this than the physical man is changed or affected when he removes his overcoat. All this is a matter, not of speculation, but of observation and experiment. Theosophy has much to tell us of the past history of man-of how in the course of evolution he has come to be what he now is. This also is a matter of observation, because of the fact that there exists an indelible record of all that has taken place-a sort of memory of Nature-by examining which the scenes of earlier evolution may be made to pass before the eyes of the investigator as though they were happening at this moment. By thus studying the past we learn that man is divine in origin and that he has a long evolution behind him-a double evolution, that of the life or soul within, and that of the outer form. We learn, too, that the life of man as a soul is of, what to us seems, enormous length, and that what we have been in the habit of calling his life is in reality only one day of his real existence. He has already lived through many such days, and has many more of them yet before him; and if we wish to understand the real life and its object, we must consider it in relation not only to this one day of it, which begins with birth and ends with death, but also to the days which have gone before and those which are yet to come.