OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING Go back to Burlington UFO and Paranormal Research Page Ancient Mysteries Living in the Light Study Group Living in the Light Ancient Mysteries Study Group by MAX HEINDEL [1865-1919] AUTHOR OF "THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION" "THE ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY IN QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS" "ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION" "SIMPLIFIED SCIENTIFIC ASTROLOGY" "THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES" "TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE" "THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS" ETC. THE ROSICRUCIAN FELLOWSHIP MT. ECCLESIA P.O. BOX 713 OCEANSIDE, CALIFORNIA, 92054, USA [PAGE III] OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING FOREWORD This compilation of material concerning the health and healing of the hu- man organism as considered from the occult viewpoint affords those inter- ested in attaining and maintaining health a treasure chest of valuable in- formation. Max Heindel, a trained clairvoyant and investigator of the super-physical worlds, devoted much time and effort to ascertaining the real causes of physical and mental disorders as revealed in the realm of cause, the higher or superphysical planes, and this volume contains the fruits of his labor. It embodies some of the most priceless truths in regard to the origin, functions, and proper care of the vehicles of man to be found on the printed page, and those concerned with the true art of healing will find it an indispensable addition to their libraries. Christ admonished His disciples: "Preach the Gospel, and heal the sick." Maintaining health, when once gained or regained, requires a knowledge of "the Gospel," or laws of God, and it is therefore in the light of both parts of the command of the Great Teacher that this book is dedicated to the af- flicted of humanity. May the contents of its pages, permeated as they are with the love and compassionate understanding of the mystic heart of the au- thor, be the means of bringing new solace and relief to countless aching hearts and suffering bodies, as well as speed the day for the generation of more perfect human vehicles. [PAGE V] OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING CONTENTS Foreword ..........................................................iii PART I--MAN AND HIS VEHICLES Chapter I The Dense Body...................................................11 Introduction...............................................11 Evolution..................................................12 The Brain and Nervous Systems..............................19 The Blood..................................................22 The Ductless Glands........................................30 The Lymphatic System.......................................39 Chapter II The Vital Body...................................................41 Evolution and General Purpose..............................41 The Ethers and Their Functions.............................42 Chapter III The Desire Body and the Mind.....................................48 PART II - DISEASE Chapter IV General Causes of Disease........................................55 Introduction...............................................55 Causes of Mental Disabilities..............................57 Causes of Physical Disabilities............................61 Chapter V Specific Causes of Disease.......................................65 Insanity...................................................65 Mediumship.................................................68 Obsession..................................................69 [PAGE VI] OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING Hysteria, Epilepsy, Tuberculosis, and Cancer...............78 Impairment of Vision.......................................79 Shell Shock................................................82 Sclerosis or Hardening of Arteries.........................85 Chapter VI Heredity and Disease.............................................87 CHAPTER VII Effects of Alcohol and Tobacco...................................90 PART III--HEALING Chapter VIII Origin and Development of Healing................................97 Curing vs. Healing ..............................................99 Chapter ix The Rosicrucian Fellowship Method of Healing....................102 Why Rosicrucians Heal.....................................102 The Invisible Helpers.....................................105 The Spiritual Panacea.....................................109 Chapter X The Science of Nutrition........................................111 General Principles........................................111 Reasons for a Vegetarian Diet.............................123 Necessity for an Attractive, Balanced Diet................131 The Role of Stimulants in Evolution.......................133 Fasting as a Means of Healing and a Factor in Soul Growth.135 Health Value of Indigestible Foods........................137 Results of Eating Too Frequently..........................141 Chapter XI Astrology as an Aid to Healing..................................143 Astrological Basis for Healing............................143 [PAGE VII] OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING Laws of Compatability and Systemic Receptibility.........148 Influence of the Moon in Healing..........................152 Planetary Polarities......................................154 Chapter XII The Therapeutic Basis of Light, Color, and Sound................160 Chapter XIII Sleep and Health................................................167 The Value of Sleep........................................167 How to Treat Disease During Sleep.........................169 The Effect of Hypnotic Sleep..............................170 Protective Influence......................................172 Chapter XIV Mind and Healing................................................174 The True Cause of Contagion...............................174 Power of Thought..........................................178 Chapter XV Dangers of Excessive Bathing....................................181 Chapter XVI Transfusion of Blood............................................185 Chapter XVII Effects of Removal of Physical Organ............................188 Removal of Tonsils........................................190 Chapter XVIII Form of Healing to Use..........................................192 Introduction..............................................192 Taking Medicine...........................................193 Laying on of Hands........................................193 Vaccination and Antitoxin.................................195 [PAGE VIII] OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING Chapter XIX The Scope of Healing............................................199 The Law of Destiny........................................199 Relation of Spirituality to Health........................202 Nervousness Helped by Exercises...........................203 Chapter XX On Conducting Healing Centers...................................204 General Suggestions.......................................204 Advice to Healers.........................................206 Healing Service Inaugurated...............................208 PART IV--"THERE IS NO DEATH" Chapter XXI The Real Nature of Death........................................213 Chapter XXII Effects of Suicide..............................................217 Chapter XXIII Causes of Death During Infancy..................................219 Chapter XXIV Proper Care of the Deceased.....................................222 Chapter XXV How to Help Those Who Have Passed On ...........................228 Index .............................................................233 PLATES Max Heindel................................................Frontspiece Rosicrucian Fellowship Healing Temple ..............................iv The Healing Christ..................................................96 [PAGE IX] OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING PART I MAN AND HIS VEHICLES [PAGE 11] OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING CHAPTER I THE DENSE BODY INTRODUCTION: Occult science teaches that man is a complex being who possesses: (1) A DENSE BODY, which is the visible instrument he uses here in this world to fetch and carry; the body we ordinarily think of as the whole man. (2) A VITAL BODY, which is made of ether and pervades the visible body as ether permeates all other forms, except that human beings specialize a greater amount of the universal ether than other forms. That ethereal body is our instrument for specializing the vital energy of the Sun. (3) A DESIRE BODY, which is our emotional nature. This finer vehicle pervades both the vital and dense bodies. It is seen by clairvoyant vision to extend about sixteen inches outside our visible body, which is located in the center of this ovoid cloud as the yolk is in the center of the egg. (4) THE MIND, which is a mirror, reflecting the outer world and enabling the Ego to transmit its commands as thought and word, also to compel action. The Ego is the threefold Spirit which uses these vehicles to gather expe- rience in the school of life. [PAGE 12] OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING EVOLUTION: The dense body was the first vehicle built and has therefore an enormous period of evolution back of it. It is in its fourth stage of development and has now reached a great and marvelous degree of efficiency. It will, in time, reach perfection, but even at present it is the best organized of man's vehicles. It is a wonderfully constructed instrument and should be recognized as such by everyone pretending to have any knowledge of the con- stitution of man. The germ of the dense body was given by the Lords of Flame during the first Revolution of the Saturn Period, the first of the Seven Great Days of Manifestation according to the Rosicrucian Teachings. This germ was some- what developed during the remainder of the first six Revolutions, being given the capacity for developing the sense organs, particularly the ear. Therefore, the ear is the most highly developed organ we possess. In the first half of the Saturn Revolution of the Sun Period, the second of the Seven Great Days of Manifestation, the Lords of Flame were concerned with certain improvements to be made upon the germ of the dense body. It became necessary to change the germ in such a way as to allow of interpen- etration by a vital body, also capability of evolving glands and an alimen- tary canal. This was done by the joint action of the Lords of Flame and the Lords of Wisdom. In the first or Saturn Revolution of the Moon Period, the third of the Seven Great Days of Manifestation, the Lords of Wisdom cooperated with the Lords of Individuality to reconstruct the germ of the dense body. This germ had unfolded embryonic sense organs, digestive organs, glands, etc. and was [PAGE 13] OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING interpenetrated by a budding vital body. Of course, it was not solid and visible as it is now, yet in a crude sort of way it was somewhat organized. In the Moon Period it was necessary to reconstruct it and make it capable of being interpenetrated by a desire body, and also capable of evolving a ner- vous system, muscle, cartilage, and a rudimentary skeleton. This recon- struction was the work of the Saturn Revolution of the Moon Period. These Moon beings were not so purely germinal as in the previous periods. To the trained clairvoyant they appear suspended by strings in the atmosphere of the fire-fog, as the embryo hangs from the placenta by the umbilical cord. Currents, which provided some sort of nourishment, flowed in and out from the atmosphere through those cords. When the Earth came out of chaos, at the beginning of the Earth period, it was at first in the dark red stage known as the Polarian Epoch. There humanity first evolved a DENSE BODY, the germ of which was given by the lords of Flame during the First Revolution of the Saturn Period. It was not then at all like our present vehicle, of course. When the condition of the Earth became fiery, as in the Hyperborean Epoch, the VITAL BODY was added and man became plant-like, that is to say, he had the same vehicles as our plants have today, and also a similar consciousness, or rather, unconscious- ness, to that which we have in dreamless sleep when the DENSE and VITAL bod- ies are left upon the bed. At that time, in the Hyperborean Epoch, the body of man was like an enor- mous gas bag, floating outside the fiery Earth, and it threw off plant-like [PAGE 14] OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING spores, which then grew and were used by other incoming entities. At that time man was double sexed, a hermaphrodite. In the Lemurian Epoch, when the Earth had somewhat cooled and islands of crust had begun to form amid boiling seas, then also man's body had somewhat solidified and had become more like the body we see today. It was apelike, a short trunk with enormous arms and limbs, the heels projecting backward, and almost no head--at least the upper part of the head was nearly entirely wanting. Man lived in the atmosphere of steam which occultists called fire-fog, and had no lungs, but breathed by means of tubes. He had the gill-like apparatus still present in the human embryo while passing through the stage of antenatal life corresponding to that epoch. He had no warm, red blood, for at that stage there was no individual Spirit. He had a bladder-like organ inside, which he inflated with heated air to help him leap enormous chasms when volcanic eruptions destroyed the land upon which he was living. From the back of his head there projected an organ which has now drawn into the head and is called by anatomists the PINEAL GLAND, or the third eye, although it was never an eye, but a localized organ of feeling. The body was then devoid of feeling, but when man came too close to a volca- nic crater, the heat was registered by this organ to warn him away before his body was destroyed. At that time the body had already so far solidified that it was impos- sible for man to continue to propagate by spores, and it was necessary that he should evolve an organ of thought, a brain. The creative force which we now use to build railways, steamships, etc., in the outer world, was then used inwardly for the building of organs. Like all forces it was positive [PAGE 15] OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING and negative. One pole was turned upward to build the brain, leaving the other pole available for the creation of another body. Thus man was no longer a complete creative unit. Each possessed only half the creative force, and it was therefore necessary for him to seek his complement outside himself. In the latter part of the Lemurian Epoch the form of man was yet quite plastic. The skeleton had formed, but man himself had great power in mold- ing the flesh of his own body, and that of the animals about him. At this time, when he was born, man could hear and feel, but his percep- tion of light came later. The Lemurian had no eyes. He had two sensitive spots which were affected by the light of the sun as it shone dimly through the fiery atmosphere of ancient Lemuria, but it was not until nearly the |