Death as an opportunity Stellar radiations of colour and sound The Single Eye of the Soul

Wisdom: not freedom from law but freedom under law.
Truly secret knowledge is communicated in silence.
Attempted communication through speech reveals ignorance.

Having been liberated by death from the limitations of the body, man gains one advantage over his incarnate state: he has come to function in, and become a part of, that subjective world of which our objective sphere is but the shadow. Certain mechanisms of creation are, therefore, uncovered to his view. If his understanding is sufficient, he may gain a better estimate of comparative values and degrees of truth. It follows that the more he has perfected his faculties during physical life, the greater will be his appreciation of the mysteries revealed to him while in the invisible world. Plutarch declares that when a man dies he passes through the same experience as those who have had their consciousness increased by the ceremonials of the Mysteries. Thus death is an initiation and every initiation is a form of death.

But, as the Mysteries refused admission to those who had not qualified themselves to receive the arcana secret or hidden knowledge, so the invisible world denies entrance to the unworthy, who must remain in the shadow land between place and eternity until it is appointed for them to return again into the dimensions of the body and physical life. Thus, to the informed, death imparts further instruction, but to the uninformed it renders issues more confused. There is no greater good than to behold and understand that which is beheld; and there is no greater grief than to be in the presence of wisdom and, through the poverty of the faculties, be incapable of partaking of the good thereof. When Cicero declared that the Mysteries taught men how to die, he intimated that the initiates were prepared to interpret correctly the phenomenon of death. Death is not only an experience but also an opportunity. As the majority of people, however, profit but little from these factors in this life, they can scarcely be expected to do better in the next. So, for the many, existence there is but a continuance of their existence here, with the purposes of life as obscure in the one as in the other.

From an examination of the philosophic attitude towards death, we learn that at the end the soul disentangles itself from the mortal skein and retires into its own source. Being a superphysical essence, the soul can insinuate itself into the body and depart therefrom unperceived, being recognizable only through the consequences which these acts engender. It is also possible for the soul to separate itself temporarily from the body and afterwards return thereto. While its vital agent is thus absent, the body must remain inert; but when the psyche soul or animating spirit returns, it can lift the physical lump again into a state of action. Under such conditions, the soul retains its hold upon the body by certain magnetic threads, so that the vital functions are preserved. Returning along these threads, the soul again penetrates the labyrinth of matter and reanimates the frame. If the threads by which the body hangs suspended in the soul are broken, however, then death is complete. The body becomes a derelict upon the sea of matter and the soul no longer can affect or control the empty shell.

That the ancients experimented in these wonders and instructed themselves in all the aspects thereof is attested by Proclus who, in a manuscript commentary upon the Tenth Book of the Republic of Plato writes: "That it is possible for the soul to depart from, and enter into the body, is evident from him who, according to Clearchus, used a soul-attracting wand on a

sleeping lad; and who persuaded Aristotle, as Clearchus relates in his Treatise on Sleep, that the soul may be separated from the body, and that it enters into the body, and uses it as a lodging. For, striking the lad with the wand, he drew out, and, as it were, led his soul, for the purpose of evincing that the body was immovable when the soul was at a distance from it, and that it was preserved uninjured; but the soul being again led into the body, by means of the wand, after its entrance narrated every particular. From this circumstance, therefore, both the spectators and Aristotle were persuaded that the soul is separate from the body."

The most famous of those who have returned from the dead to a more sober and constructive existence is Aridæus, of Soli, of whom Plutarch learned from his friend, Protogenes. In The Vision of Aridæus, G. R. S. Mead gives an account of this extraordinary happening, with useful commentaries. Aridæus, who was a man of great wealth and even greater profligacy, stopped at no villainy and gained the unenviable reputation of being one of the greatest scoundrels of his time. He seemingly grew weary of evil and went so far as to ask the oracle of Amphilochus if there was any probability of his being able to improve the latter part of his life. The oracle is reputed to have answered with the enigmatical statement that he would do better after he was dead. Whether this answer preyed upon his mind or whether Providence turned defender of prophecy is not known. Aridæus met with an accident, however, and, although seemingly uninjured, the shock brought on a semblance of death. There was complete suspension of animation which deceived the cleverest physicians.

Three days later, just as the plans for his funeral had been completed, he rose from his couch of death and, recovering entirely from his strange experience, narrated to a few of his closest acquaintances the strange things which had happened to him during the period of his temporary decease. "After this unpleasant experience," writes Mead, "Aridæus became an entirely reformed character, of quite exemplary virtue." Aridæus explained the amazing change in his mode of life and thought by what he had seen and experienced. Plutarch immediately recognized the integrity of the vision because of its agreement with the ceremonials of initiation.

Aridæus explained that when his consciousness escaped from the body he experienced a sensation similar to that of a sailor who had been swept overboard into deep water. After a little time, he seemed to breathe in every part of him and to see in all directions at once, as though the single eye of the soul had been opened. He was in space and no objects were visible save the stars, which were at enormous distances from each other and of great size, and poured forth marvelous radiations of color and sound. The most significant statement in the vision is that concerning the souls of the dead which rose in flamelike bubbles auras. These bubbles finally broke and human forms the astral bodies emerged. He then describes the confusion of those who, passing into death unenlightened, face eternity terror-stricken and move in panic-driven herds. Later he discovers others who are shining with radiance and peace and move...

A black and white photograph captures an electric spark discharge. The image displays a central dark void. From this center, numerous white, branching, lightning-like filaments radiate outwards against a dark background. The filaments possess a fuzzy, energetic appearance, resembling neural pathways or static electricity.