On Semi-Hypnotic Daylight
Sleep,
And the Process of Awakening
From It
Robert Crosbie
Robert Crosbie
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A
2011 Editorial Note:
The following text was first
published by
“Theosophy” magazine, in Los
Angeles, in July
1922, pp. 258-262, from the
stenographic report
of a talk by Robert Crosbie. [1] The process of
collective suggestion relates
to the Eastern concept
of Maya (Illusion). It is
especially up-to-date in
the first part of 21st
century, when the minds of
hundreds of millions of
citizens are influenced by
the intensive use of propaganda
techniques in paper
and electronic media. Many dominant media are large
corporations which control, up
to a certain extent, the
contents of the minds of
millions of citizens. They sell
their “audiences” - that is, they
sell space in the minds of
people - as a product in the
market. Thus, large political and
economical conglomerates
literally buy portions of the minds
of whole nations and
continents, and transmit and impress
into them - by semi-hypnotic
means - suggestions leading to this
or that sort of behaviour, so as to enhance their own private
profits usually through mass-production
of lower-self desires.
On the other hand, the
Internet - while still partly dominated
by the same mechanisms -, provides
people with opportunities
for a free production and
distribution of real knowledge, and
for a worldwide mutual help in
the search for divine wisdom.
Self-respect, self-knowledge,
self-responsibility and self-control
are among the best antidotes
to blind and negative suggestions.
(Carlos Cardoso Aveline)
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Our
municipal life, our national life, our
political
life, are all under suggestion, and few are
they
who try to go to the root of things and understand
what
the nature of being is, so that they can know for
themselves
and thus act with power and knowledge.
The
power of suggestion means many different things to many minds. It is coupled with
the idea of hypnosis, where the operator is able to make the subject think,
say, do, or imagine anything he chooses. That is possible through the abnormal
condition of the subject. The means and methods of inducing this abnormal
condition are not generally known, although some practitioners have hit upon
various ways of bringing on hypnosis in some subjects.
But what is to be discussed is the fact of suggestion itself, generally
considered, and as it affects all men. People are not aware that they act
almost entirely under suggestion. From our birth we are surrounded by those who
suggest certain ideas to us as true, and we follow these suggested ideas. There
is very little original thought
anywhere, and particularly is this true in those lines to which the public pays
the most attention - that is, politics, religion, science. Whatever system of
thought is presented to us, that we adopt. We follow the suggestion given, with
no attempt to reach to the basis of that which is suggested. The foundation
upon which the suggestion rests is taken for granted, even in the most
important things in life.
Our religion, for example, is stated to be a “revelation”. We accepted
it in childhood, accepted it as a fact, without looking into it to see what it
is and on what it is founded. Our powers of thought and action being based upon
a false suggestion does not inhibit their exercise, but as a result all our
possibilities of thought and action, all our mental creations, the whole super-structure
of our existence, are false, because, thinking from false premises, our
thinking will inevitably lead to false conclusions.
This is just as truly the fact as in the case of the hypnotized subject.
He is thrown into an abnormal condition; he has nothing before his mind; the
operator presents a given idea and with it the suggestion of a certain mode of
action. Immediately the subject adopts the suggestion, goes to work on it, and
will continue working along the suggested line cumulatively until the
suggestion is changed.
Those who are born into any particular sect ought to know this. With our
first sense of understanding, ideas are presented to us, instilled into our
minds as absolute facts. We proceed from that basis, and however long it is
followed, no true understanding or conclusion can be reached. What do we know
of the truth or falsity of these ideas when presented to us in childhood?
Nothing whatever. What do our parents and teachers know of them? Nothing
whatever. They have merely passed on to us the suggestions which they received
in childhood and which have operated in them cumulatively ever since.
We must learn not to accept statements, no matter by whom made, simply
because they are made to us. We must get at the basis of whatever is presented,
know what its principles are - whether those principles are self-evident. If
they are not self-evident, how can
they be basic?
The idea is common to everybody in the Western world that there is a
Creator of this universe. What do we know about it? If it is true that a being
created the universe and all the beings in it, then we are not responsible. In
continuance of that idea other ideas follow it: that man is here but once, that
this is his only birth, and that from here he knows not where he goes. We have
followed the suggestion that a man lives but one life, that he is fundamentally
irresponsible for his being here, and we have built up our thoughts and actions
on that basis. Does it make us wiser, happier, while we live? Does it produce
peace and happiness for others? Does it bring us to the end of life any wiser,
any better off? For we know that when we come to the end of life we leave every
earthly thing we have gained while here.
But this earth is only one of many earths. What of the other planets,
the other solar systems with which space is filled? Have we any vital knowledge
in regard to them or the reason for their existence under the suggestions that
have been handed to us?
When our religious impressions are changed, when other suggestions are
given us, are they not handed to us in the same way? Whatever they are - “Mental
Science”, “New Thought”, “Christian Science”, and so on - we adopt them, move
along the lines suggested by those who give them to us, and what do we really
learn? Nothing. We come to the end of life just as encased in ignorance,
despite all the “revelations” ever given us. What do we know of their bases?
Are they true or only partially so? We are never asked to look into their
fundamentals, to see for ourselves if they are true, self-evident. No; we are
asked to accept what is given us and go to work on that. That is suggestion.
Our municipal life, our national life, our political life, are all under
suggestion, and few are they who try to go to the root of things and understand
what the nature of being is, so that they can know for themselves and thus act
with power and knowledge. As we look the field over, we find that we are all
prey to the power of suggestion in every direction.
What is the criterion which we should apply to every suggestion
presented to us? Just this: If we have the truth, it will explain what was
before a mystery. And as we are surrounded by mysteries, the Truth must explain
them all.
This power of suggestion must still be used, whatever line may be
pointed out to us. If Truth exists and is possible to us - the Truth in
religion, science and philosophy - it must first come to us by suggestion from
Those who know. If it were not possible for this to be done, were not possible
for us to avail ourselves of it, then there would be no use talking of these
things. But when the true is suggested to us, there is always a means presented
by which we may see and verify it. That means is not in anyone’s authority or
endorsement, but in the fact that we can perceive it and test it for ourselves.
The final authority is the man himself.
An outside God is an idol. We have to reach into the very recesses of
our own being and understand that it is our self that chooses and determines
for itself what it shall accept and what reject. The very power of Divinity - the
power of choice - is in each one of us. When we begin to understand that, we
get the first clue to our own immortality. So we may see that That which lives
and thinks in man is the Eternal Pilgrim. If you prefer to use the term God, you may say, “So many men on earth,
so many Gods in heaven.”
There are many beings below man; perhaps some will admit that there may
be, that there are, beings greater than man. None of these beings can be
omnipresent, none of them can be the Supreme. What is that which is omnipresent
and supreme in each and every being - in man, in the beings below man, in the
beings above man? Is it not this Power to perceive, to think, to choose, to act
upon the thinking and the choosing - upon the Intelligence which the being has?
That Power transcends all beings, all conceptions. It is that Power which lies
at the root of all evolution, and is the very Essence of every being. No one is
separate from That. No one is without That. All are rays from and one with
That. There is no possibility of any existence apart from That.
Man stands in the midst of a vast and silent evolution - the evolution
of Intelligence, of Soul. All the beings below man must be coming up the ladder
of being to our stage, and whatever beings may exist beyond man, they must have
passed through our stage and gone still farther up the ladder. They are our
Elder Brothers and have passed through civilizations before ours - many, many
ages before ours - and have reached a point of development far higher than
ours. It is They who have carried forward all the knowledge gained in that vast
evolution which has preceded ours.
These Elder Brothers of the human family are not spirits in the ordinary
sense of the word, nor are they hazy beings, “gods” or “angels”. They are men, Mahatmas (Great Souls), who are
perfected beings physically, mentally, morally, psychically, spiritually - who
stand now where we shall one day stand, when we have perfected ourselves in the
same way that They have done, through self-induced and self-devised exertions.
These Masters stand to us in Their knowledge and power, in Their ability
and efforts to help and guide us, as the greatest and most powerful suggestion
that could be made to any human being. They are willing and ready to help
whenever and where ever we are willing and ready to receive. They never ask for
anything; They are always ready to give
to those who may be willing to follow the lines indicated, so that we in our
turn may become as They are - may know for ourselves.
If we take Their philosophy as given to us in Theosophy, if we take it
as a theory to be examined on its merits, we shall find that it explains. It explains why there are so
many different kinds of people; it explains different natures; it explains why
some suffer more and others suffer less. It explains why each one is born in a
particular place, in that family, in that nation, at that time. It explains
every inequality in life, every injustice, every mystery. It will enable a man
to realize his own immortality, to
live a conscious existence in Spirit, even while incarnated in a body here on
this earth. At present we live in matter; we think that we exist in matter and
are dependent on matter for our existence. We think in matter. Our religion is
materialistic; our science is materialistic; our philosophy is materialistic.
All this is due to the misuse of the power of suggestion and to our acceptance
of ideas without investigation, without comparison, upon authority. We believe; we do not know.
There is no Divinity, save it has evolved as such from the One Spirit.
Every Divine being is an evolution. Wherever divinity is spoken of it means an
evolution of a being. All intelligence is based in the Power to perceive, and
that exists in every grade of being. Intelligence is the extension of the power
to know. This idea sets aside a great many suggestions that we have perhaps
depended upon. It would be well for us if we did not depend upon anything save
our own inherent power to learn, to extricate ourselves from our difficulties.
All our powers are born with us; all our past experiences are with us, but they
are crowded out by the suggestions given to us when we were children, and by
the false ideas which we still entertain. Nothing but the Truth can ever set us
free, and that Truth each one can find and follow, and thus come to know for
himself.
NOTE:
[1] “The Power of
Suggestion” was later included in the volume “The Friendly Philosopher”, by
Robert Crosbie, Theosophy Co., Los Angeles, 416 pp., 1934-1946-2008, see pp.
320-325.
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On the role of the esoteric movement in the
ethical awakening of mankind during the 21st century, see the book “The Fire and Light of Theosophical Literature”, by
Carlos Cardoso Aveline.
Published in
2013 by The Aquarian Theosophist,
the volume has 255 pages and can be obtained through Amazon Books.
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