The Wordless Dialogue
of
Feelings, in
the Ocean of Human Thoughts
Carlos Cardoso Aveline
Carlos Cardoso Aveline

During a meeting, an
idea occurs to you and in the same instant someone else says to everybody that
which you just thought. You may say to yourself that this is a coincidence.
On another occasion, you think of someone and
the phone rings. You answer the telephone, and it’s the person of whom you
thought. You can force yourself to conclude this also happened by pure
chance. But one day you wake up in the morning thinking of an old acquaintance
from whom you have heard nothing in many years, and you receive a letter or
message from the person. Or you arrive to a meeting in the precise moment when
your name is being mentioned.
Such facts are frequent in daily life, and none of
them is mere coincidence. They constitute concrete examples of one of the most
fascinating functions of human consciousness: telepathy, the perception and
transmission of feelings and ideas at a distance.
The English language term “telepathy” combines two
Greek words: “Tele” (“at a distance”) and “Pathos” (“feeling, suffering”). The
literal meaning is “to feel at a distance”.
The word means therefore much more than mere
transmission of logical and clear-cut thoughts. It includes all kinds of
contact between two or more minds, when such an interaction transcends (though
often including) the help of the five senses.
The phenomenon is more frequent than people
generally think, but in most cases it happens in semi-conscious, unperceived
and undesired ways. Telepathy is present in the various aspects of daily life,
although in partial and distorted ways. Those who know about that are more
careful with what they think and feel regarding persons and situations.
The magnetic affinity that makes telepathy possible
can be harmonious or not. Telepathic exchanges are the source of suffering and
blessings. Not everything that is similar can be harmoniously combined. Some
differences are complementary, and some are not. In order to avoid problems,
the best choice is to stop thinking in wrong ways and to intensify the
unconditional practice of right thought.
In some situations, and especially when we make
silence in our minds, we can listen to thoughts. We don’t hear words, but we
perceive the ideas and intimate feelings of others. Thoughts are transmitted in
natural and inaccurate ways. Telepathy occurs in silence and side by side with
verbal communication. It uses words as its vehicles and instruments. Telepathy gives
another and deeper meaning to whatever a person says or hears. It re-writes an
old popular saying:
“What the eyes can’t see, the heart feels.”
The student of theosophy must reduce the level of
inaccuracy in the way his heart feels, and improve the way his heart talks
without words.
A family, a group of
friends and a school of philosophy are telepathic fields. They are subtle
territories inhabited by groups of thoughts and feelings. The unnoticed
telepathy is partially responsible for collective habits, customs and opinions
that come to be consensus. It explains the process of leadership.
Just like telepathy,
the transmission of written or spoken words is a magnetic process. A correct
idea, emitted by someone in a favourable context and moment, is quickly
transmitted to the consciousness of many.
The same correct idea,
if issued in an unfavourable moment and context, may remain ignored by other
minds and need a long time to have its value socially recognized. In every
epoch, evolutionary pioneers must open new pathways under difficult conditions
and challenge the accumulated power of collective ignorance, until their ideas
are recognized as true and transmitted in wider circles, destroying the veils
of previous illusions. The pioneers of universal brotherhood, for instance,
have been working for many a millennium. They have kept the perception of this
ideal alive and preserved the ethics, the wisdom and the discernment that are
inseparable from it. Their mission will proceed until humanity fully awakens
from the unfortunate dream nightmare of unbrotherly civilizations.
In individual life,
telepathy is a form of direct dialogue between human auras. It reinforces and
accelerates the process of harmony and disharmony. When someone meets another
person and likes him or her, he will think well of the person. The positive
thoughts and feelings get to the other and - if there is real affinity -
friendship and cooperation may take place. When the individual dislikes someone
he meets, his thoughts and feelings also get to the other person and if other
factors are not stronger there will be a tendency for the negative feeling to
become mutual.
There is a practical
conclusion to that. If you stimulate balanced and constructive feelings of
respect for all people - including those with whom you have a difficult
relation - the law of magnetic reciprocity and the unavoidable circulation of
thoughts and feelings will grant you the harvest of what you sowed.
The universe does not
have long-enduring secrets based on separateness or absence of communication,
and it does not allow them to exist. There are some facts which humans do not
understand, and to which many are unprepared. The true esoteric secrets, for
example, are preserved as such because they occur on planes of abstract thought
and universal perception which cannot be grasped by unprepared and inattentive
minds, and would have harmful effects on them.
The law of karma has no
exceptions: that which goes, must come back. What one sows, one harvests. Everything
you do, think, feel, dream and wish regarding yourself and others is recorded
and, whether good or bad, will bear its fruits in due time, including future
lifetimes of your spiritual soul. This is the great power and responsibility of
human thought.
The magnetism of
altruistic ideas makes telepathic transmission easier. The fact does not mean
that angry feelings remain isolated. Anger is well transmitted in the short
term. In the medium and longer term, it tends to provoke separateness.
Bitterness and pessimism produce a sense of disconnection. The magnetism of
solidarity unites and stimulates confidence. According to Helena Blavatsky, the
only thing that can separate two minds is the difference between their states
of consciousness, and not physical distance. She wrote:
“The time is not far
distant when the World of Science will be forced to acknowledge that there
exists as much interaction between one mind and another, no matter at what
distance, as between one body and another in closest contact. When two minds
are sympathetically related, and the instruments through which they function
are tuned to respond magnetically and electrically to one another, there is
nothing which will prevent the transmission of thoughts from one to the other,
at will; for since the mind is not of a tangible nature, that distance can
divide it from the object of its contemplation, it follows that the only
difference that can exist between two minds is a difference of STATE. So if
this latter hindrance is overcome, where is the ‘miracle’ of thought transference, at whatever
distance?”[1]
The subconscious
telepathy that unites human minds is the source of that traditional vigilance
of parents who wish to make sure their children have correct friendships. If
someone spends time with an individual who has correct thoughts, the elevated
mental energy is telepathically absorbed.
It is not always
necessary for a wise man to be near people who think right. In the New
Testament, Jesus is surrounded by deluded people and leads them to moral and
spiritual healing. A good and wise man has the power to irradiate light and
peace through his very presence, and is protected by his own purity from the
magnetic contamination of negative feelings. The classic work “The Dhammapada”
says:
“Him I call a Brahamana
who is friendly among the hostile, mild among the violent, ungrasping among the
greedy.” [2]
It is by subconscious
telepathy that, when we are in the presence of a truly saint person, we feel
inspired and elevated. That is the reason why the Golden Verses of Pythagoras
recommend:
“…Make the most
virtuous thy friend.”
The Law of Nature
establishes that attraction must take place by similarity. One must follow his
natural tendency to look for Truth and Goodness, while avoiding or putting
limits to other influences. But how does the transmission of thoughts and
feelings take place? The Indian theosophist Subba Row wrote in the 19th
century:
“The only explanation
we can give of the phenomena of thought-transference depends upon the existence
of the astral fluid - a fluid which exists throughout the manifested solar
system, but which does not extend beyond it.” [3]
According to esoteric
science, the akasha or astral light
is the subtle and transcendent counterpart of the material, vital, emotional
and mental planes of life. Subba Row added, a few paragraphs later: “Perhaps
matter in its ultra-gaseous condition - radiant matter - may help us to a
conception of the astral fluid.”
The concept of “radiant
matter” was used by the end of 19th century to refer to that which was later
called radioactive or atomic energy. Technically, atomic energy belongs to a
lower level of the akasha or astral light.
Subba Row says that the
astral fluid exists uniformly throughout space in the solar system. Yet it is
denser around certain objects or organisms due to their molecular action:
“…This is especially the case around the brain and spinal cord of human beings,
where it forms what is called the aura. It is this aura round the nerve cells
and nerve tubes which enables a man to catch the impressions made upon the
Astral Light in the Cosmos.” [4]
Each thought takes
place together with a corresponding change in the energies of the nervous
system. In the medium and long term, the nervous system always adapts itself to
the nature of the thoughts we produce. The energy of the nerves has its aura
and is united to it by a strong and intimate connection. The aura works like an
antenna to the subtle world. Subba Row writes:
“In certain cases we
find that a sense of calamity is felt by a person at a distance when his friend
is dying (…). We believe that somehow our mental ideas are connected with the
emotions of pleasure and pain (…)”. Other currents are accompanied by “feelings
without images”. [5]
According to the inner
quality of his consciousness, each citizen will have the habit of attuning to
some higher levels of reality, or will be able to attain to them by his own
efforts.
Nobody is a passive
victim of circumstances. Individual human beings create the psychic atmosphere
in which they must breathe and live. A raja-yogi of the Himalayas wrote:
“… Every thought of man
upon being evolved passes into the inner world, and becomes an active entity by
associating itself, coalescing we might term it, with an elemental - that is to
say, with one of the semi-intelligent forces of the kingdoms. It survives as an
active intelligence - a creature of the mind’s begetting - for a longer or
shorter period proportionate with the original intensity of the cerebral action
which generated it. Thus, a good thought is perpetuated as an active,
beneficent power, an evil one as a maleficent demon. And so man is continually
peopling his current in space with a world of his own, crowded with the
offsprings of his fancies, desires, impulses, and passions; a current which
re-acts upon any sensitive or nervous organization which comes in contact with
it, in proportion to its dynamic intensity.” [6]
Wherever he goes, a
human being takes with himself in his aura a luggage full of thoughts, emotions
and records of past facts. He also carries with him the direct and indirect
seeds of his future. Part of such a karmic luggage comes from previous lives.
The contents of his aura guide the individual along life, but do not suppress
his freedom, nor his responsibility.
Free will consists in
choosing the karma one will sow each moment, and in deciding which seeds one
will cause to germinate under existing conditions. Within the limits offered by
karma, one can choose the influences which surround him. One can also work for
the circumstances around to improve, starting from within.
There are numerous
possibilities in the interaction among minds. Theosophy invites us to remember
that each human being is a summary of the cosmos and contains a world in his
consciousness. When two persons have different opinions on someone else, this
often occurs because they detect different factors or layers in the total being
of the third person. There is no such thing as an absolutely neutral
observation. Every examination exerts some form of influence over the being or
object under scrutiny.
When an individual who
is aware of the ongoing involuntary telepathy wants to act in a correct way
regarding the challenge, he makes an effort to purify his mind and leaves aside
the temptation of destructive thought. Self-control and self-purification are
easier when his soul is dedicated to the search for universal wisdom. Human
mind has the size of that which it contemplates, as Patanjali clarified. No
mind is narrow which is dedicated to elevated goals.
Helena P. Blavatsky
wrote that it is hard to find anyone who is not under the influence of another
person’s active will. She gave a few examples. In classical war, when the
beloved general rides along the front, the soldiers get into magnetic sympathy
with him and share his enthusiasm. They follow him without fear and bravely
face danger.
In a church, the
preacher gets up in his pulpit and irradiates his own magnetism. H.P.B.
describes the typical scene:
“…Although what he says
is the most incongruous nonsense, still his actions and the lamenting tone of
his voice are sufficiently impressive to produce ‘a change of heart’ amongst,
at least, the female part of his congregation, and if he is a powerful man,
even skeptics ‘that come to scoff, remain to pray’. People go to theater and
shed tears or ‘split their sides’ with laughter according to the character of
the performance, whether it is a pantomime, a tragedy or a farce.” [7]
We are constantly
affected by the will, the feelings and thoughts of others. And we affect them
at the same time.
The mistake of
carelessly forming an untrue and negative opinion of anyone will never remain
unpunished by the law of karma. He who has common sense abstains from forming
negative views or images regarding the ones he loves, or regarding those with
whom he has no affinity. All are under each one’s influence, up to a certain
extent. One must be careful with any open criticisms, if they are destructive.
But silent negative thoughts can be even worse, for they often remain
unperceived, or are only partially perceived.
We must look at people
from a generous point of view, and honestly criticize the attitudes which we consider
wrong, giving them a chance to answer and to explain.
The general view and
image we have of another person must be positive for at least two reasons. The
first one is that the other is, in part, a psychological mirror to us. The
second one is that, just like ourselves, each human being has an unlimited potentiality
towards goodness. Criticism must be limited therefore to an action, an aspect, and
a given time. One should not criticize a person without sincerely mentioning
some of his virtues. Persons of goodwill will not forget that every human being
has in himself the seeds of perfection. We are all students and teachers in the
school of life. We help build each other’s character in various ways, including
involuntary telepathic interactions.
An individual who pays
attention to life feels responsible before his conscience. He has a clear
purpose in any situation. He is not taken here and there by the illusory wind
of other people’s thoughts. The spiritual apprentice tries to be fully
conscious of the feelings and thoughts he emits. He patiently observes the ways
he harvests the fruits of life. He gradually learns to sow goodness. Gradually the
thoughts and feelings he produces and transmits to others and to the astral
atmosphere become more consistent and beneficent, and his action as a center of
peace expands.
Everything in the
universe is made of pulsating energy and there are numerous levels of
vibration. The colors, lights and sounds we perceive are all vibratory layers
and waves, just like the sensations of
taste, touch or smell. In the heart-beating rhythm, in the breathing movement
of the lungs and in the flow of thoughts and feelings, all life is cyclic and
undulatory. Its precise rhythm, however, is not always easy to perceive. The
ocean of life has many different currents. Each human being uses his free will
to establish his individual mantra, his particular way of vibrating and
expressing the One Law. However, there is no separation. Everything that
vibrates in an individual is transmitted to others, and goes back to him after
undergoing a number of changes.
Human beings constantly
produce vibrating currents on the various levels of thought, emotion and on the
physical reality, and these lines of action are recorded in the astral light
for his debit or credit. The thoughts and feelings he creates have - up to a
certain extent - a life of their own. Their effects and destiny depend above
all on the intention and the intensity with which they were emitted.
Appearances make scarce difference: a harsh criticism is good karma when the
intention is to have a mistake corrected in the effort toward wisdom. The kind
compliment is bad karma when not sincere. Astuteness is the opposite of
intelligence.
There are positive and
negative forms of telepathy, and the one we ought to stimulate the most is that
which takes place as a sense of communion with all beings in the universe. Our
thoughts, feelings and intentions create a corridor of magnetic affinities
which unites us to all and to each one upon whom we concentrate our attention
and with whom we interact in our minds. Life and the Law of Karma “listen” to
our thoughts and have them recorded. Each human being can improve the quality
of the unique “occult sound” which is peculiar to him, and which results from
the sum total of his intentions, emotions, thoughts - and actions.
The universe is an
ocean, and it has a superficial layer of life where one finds apparent
confusion and disharmony. As we look from a deeper point of view we see that
everything flows in unity in the sea of human thoughts. He who takes responsibility
for his own life ceases to act in a self-defeating way and concentrates his
vital energy around permanent goals.
Although probations are
necessary so that progress is firm and durable, inner peace expands in one’s
life from the starting point of such an effort. One’s mind obtains stability; a
distance is naturally established from confusing thoughts. One’s eyes see
across larger distances. The sky of one’s consciousness gets wider and clearer,
free from unnecessary tempests. As a stronger sense of communion takes place, the
conscious perception of thoughts and feelings gets more accurate.
NOTES:
[1] “The Key to Theosophy”, Helena P.
Blavatsky, Theosophy Company, Los Angeles, 310 pp., 1987, see Section XIV, p.
291.
[2] “The Dhammapada”, Theosophy Company,
Los Angeles, 139 pp., see chapter 26, p. 93, aphorism 406.
[3] “Esoteric Writings”, T. Subba Row,
Theosophical Publishing House, 576 pp., India, 1980, see p. 130.
[4] “Esoteric Writings”, T. Subba Row,
Theosophical Publishing House, 576 pp., India, 1980, see p. 131.
[5] “Esoteric Writings”, T. Subba Row,
Theosophical Publishing House, 576 pp., India, 1980, see p. 135.
[6] “The Occult World”, by Alfred P.
Sinnett, 1884 edition, Kessinger Publishing Co., Montana, USA, 140 pp. plus
Appendix, see pp. 89-90.
[7] See the third and fourth paragraphs
in the article “Are Chelas ‘Mediums’?”, by H. P. Blavatsky. The text is
published in “Theosophical Articles”, Helena P. Blavatsky, Theosophy Co., Los
Angeles, Volume I, pp. 295-298.
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The initial version of “Telepathy,
the Silent Conversation” was published in Brazil by “Planeta” magazine. In
the first semester of 2009, the text appeared in another magazine, “Bodigaya”.
A Portuguese language version of the article, revised in 2014, is available at our associated websites under the title of “Telepatia,
a Comunicação Silenciosa”. The present English language version was
published in December, 2014.
See the short-story “The Islands of the Mind-Readers”, about
the large-scale occurrence of natural telepathy. Written by Edward Bellamy, the
classical story can be found at our associated websites.
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In September 2016, after a careful analysis of the state of the
esoteric movement worldwide, a group of students decided to form the Independent Lodge of Theosophists,
whose priorities include the building of a better future in the different
dimensions of life.
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