THINKING AND DESTINY

Harold W. Percival

CHAPTER VI

PSYCHIC DESTINY

Section 2

Form destiny. Prenatal influences. Six classes of psychic destiny.

The first kind of psychic destiny, form destiny, comprises the prenatal influences which mold the physical body. These influences are the doer’s past desires while in animal forms, which come together again when summoned for the descent of the doer. The mother and heredity are merely the channels for the shape and endowments of the newborn. The period of prenatal development subjects the mother as well as the child to influences from the form world, for childbearing is a distinctly psychic period.

The second kind of psychic destiny, strictly psychic destiny, becomes manifest after birth, in the endowments and conditions under which the doer works in life. Formative influences appear in the first years, others come later in life; all are exteriorizations of thoughts. So come cheerfulness, content, courage, modesty, frankness, and their opposites. In a few instances special features appear as psychic destiny, as in mediumship and the premature development of functioning on the form plane. But since men are unable to govern their feelings and desires it is well that they do not develop along these lines. Among practices to force such a development are postures and breathing in a certain way. They usually end disastrously, for interference with the physical breath brings on far-reaching disturbances. The psychic nature should not be dreaded because of these dangers; many benefits may be derived from a normal and natural development of the psychic powers, now latent in most people.

The ability to diagnose and prescribe for diseases, the acquisition of personal magnetism and the power to heal by laying on of hands, are advantages which may accrue because of psychic development. Some space is given to those who explain all things by the law of vibrations, and to those who believe that a study of colors is a key to occult powers, and to those who want to be astrologers. Sensing astrally that which is ordinarily concealed comes as the result of natural growth of the sense of sight. If the development is premature or is abused, the doer instead of controlling forces and beings in the elements will be controlled by them.

Religions are psychic, and are psychic destiny. They affect the emotions and satisfy the need of the suffering doer and the demand for being saved, that is, that it may not perish after death.

Government, institutions, laws and politics are largely psychic destiny, and changes in them are due to emotional reactions of those who are affected by them. Party spirit is not merely a figure of speech; it is an entity which represents the feelings and desires of many, united in one form. Likewise there are spirits of definite classes clinging to their special conservatism and prejudices. These spirits make an impression on the astral body of the embryo of one who belongs to them, and so comes the inborn predisposition for or against certain institutions. Habits, customs and fashions are psychic effects. These various aspects of psychic destiny relate to form destiny and to the first and second classes of psychic destiny, those which comprise feeling through the physical body and feeling by the doer without contact.

The six classes of strictly psychic destiny are all subjective states. These, as well as mental and noetic destiny, are the interiorizations and their effects, which are produced upon a doer by what happens to its body on the physical plane.

Some of the interior effects of the first class, which are those of pleasure and pain from physical contact, result with certainty. These are directly reward and punishment and, while they are not decreed by the law of thought, they result necessarily. They are used to make or enforce payment and to teach lessons. While it does not follow that there can be no learning without previous payment, there is in most cases no learning without it. Besides, the paying is a part of universal adjustment and, as it consists in having pleasure or pain as the immediate result of exteriorizations in physical events, it cannot be avoided.

Psychic destiny of the second class—joy or sorrow without physical contact—is also unavoidable.

The third class relates to the character of the human being, his disposition, endowments, sentiments, instincts, virtues and vices. While the make-up of the doer portion in the body is stamped in rudimentary form on the aia, the human can exercise a right of choice whether he will submit to or fight against his temperament, disposition and desires. Therefore character does not necessarily result from exteriorizations of thinking and thoughts alone. The character brought over from the past life was impressed upon the aia, and when time, condition and place are fit, the traits will appear in physical actions. Psychic effects appear also in some of the vices, such as drunkenness and gambling, and in certain psychic states, as gloom, pessimism, malice, fear and despair and, on the other hand, as hopefulness, joyousness, trust and ease.

The fourth class of psychic destiny is sleep and other states where the doer is not in control of the four senses, as hallucinations, somnambulism, hypnosis and self-suggestion.

The fifth class is death and the process of death.

The sixth class relates to states after death, (Fig. V-D), the Judgment, the hells and heaven. From heaven the doer sinks at last at the fullness of its eternity, onto the light plane of the form world and there awaits connection with the physical body which is being prepared for it and in which it will re-exist.

The psychic destiny of the fourth, fifth, and sixth classes is unavoidable.

With these preliminary remarks on psychic destiny as a basis, we can now proceed to a more detailed discussion of form destiny and strictly psychic destiny.