The words "psychic" and "psychism" are derived from the Greek psyche. To the ancient Greeks, the term psyche meant a very definite thing; but nowadays it is used very loosely to denote every kind of mental phenomenon, e.g., mediumship and the higher sensitiveness, hypnotic receptivity and inspired prophecy, simple clairvoyance and true divine seership. In short, the word covers every phase and manifestation of the powers and potencies of the animal-human, as well as the human-divine, soul. Neither physiology nor psychology understands the vast range of phenomena that are called abnormal. The hallucinations of the drunkard, of the drug-addict, of the medium, are put in the same category of the abnormal as the clear sight and prophetic vision of the Adept and the Sage. Just as it is said that genius is allied to lunacy, so it is also inferred that the hallucinated medium and the clear-sighted Adept are intimately related. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Incidents and experiences of the abnormal are often brought to life in the print media. There is a general interest, and it is spreading widely, in the super-physical and abnormal phases of mental activity. Medical science is up against mental ailments which it dubs neurasthenia and hallucination, but which it is unable to remedy because it lacks knowledge and understanding. The spiritist revels in phenomena and the psychical researcher catalogues them; they have been doing this for years and years, but neither of them is able to explain because neither understands what actually happens. To brush aside these phenomena as frauds, as some do, is arrogant foolishness, for they do take place. The Earth was round when people thought it flat, and it was rotating on its axis and going round the Sun when people thought it was at the centre of the Universe. Our ignorance of natural phenomena does not stop their occurrence. In the ancient East, physio-psychology was studied as one composite science: there were not two sciences—physiology and psychology; there was one science—physio-psychology. There were and are two schools of thought among psycho-physiologists, one of Hatha Yoga which emphasizes the physiological aspects of man as more important than the psychological, and therefore uses psychology in the service of physiology. The other, the Raja-Yoga school, considers psychology as of primary importance and physiology as subservient to it. In our civilization today, more and more scientists are beginning to recognize that knowledge of physiology and psychology ought to go together.

The knowledge available in the writings of H. P. Blavatsky is most helpful in understanding theoretically all the abnormal phenomena that are taking place around us. Further, that knowledge can be used to make applications to one's own condition and for the purposes of right soul-development. H.P.B. was a Raja-Yogi, one of the best in modern times. Her Isis Unveiled is full of information and instruction; and particularly may be recommended the small volume of articles entitled Raja-Yoga or Occultism. For daily practice, there is no safer and more reliable guide than The Voice of the Silence, "dedicated to the Few" who aspire to live the Higher Life and to walk the Noble Path.

For the study of our subject, it is necessary to understand what psyche is, what psychic powers are, and what the psychic state or condition. The Greeks used the term psyche for the animal, terrestrial soul in man, in contradiction to nous, which was with them the human divine soul. Therefore they attributed to man two sets of faculties and powers—psychic and noetic. Psychic faculties and powers were terrestrial and animal in origin and evil or maleficent in effect, while noetic faculties and powers were celestial and divine in origin and good and beneficent in effect. Both psyche and nous were connected to the physical corpus. Just as the physical body has its senses and organs, so also the psyche has its powers and faculties, and nous has its own.

All of us know that, from the moral and ethical point of view, each man, each woman, is dual—part good, part evil. But how we came to be that, from where and how we derived this dual nature of ours, is not generally inquired into. Many ruin their bodily and mental health by dangerous practices like becoming mediums and mediumistically inclined, without knowing that mediumship is a dire disease. Many more, without true knowledge, fall prey to credulity and superstition. So, if for nothing else than for theoretical understanding, people should know what is taking place, say, at a spiritualistic séance, or with a hallucinated mind, or with a hypnotized subject, or what the influence of suggestion and auto-suggestion is, and a score of other phenomena.

There is another reason: there is a genuine desire in a growing number of people to practise sense-control, to give to their own lives a right direction; and there are hundreds who have gone astray by practising without understanding. Theosophy teaches that an individual can and should take his evolution in his own hands, and guide and direct it with the help of soul-knowledge which is available.

The very first step is to perceive, not vaguely but clearly, that two sets of energies function in us—the divine and the demoniac. These are the terms used in the Gita. Each of us is dual, and therefore can choose between two modes of action; each can behave in a divine or demoniac way. When by constant behavioural habits our actions pile up in one class or another, we become divine beings or demoniac beings. The Gita says that "light and darkness are the world's eternal ways." In great Nature herself the law of light and darkness operates. We are a part of Nature, and so in us too the law of duality is at work. There is the combination of Spirit and Matter in us, and as a result we have within us two sets of forces or two natures. In ethical language we call them good and evil, but these terms are so loosely used that it would be necessary to define them with some precision.

In Theosophy, we speak of the two natures of man as lower and higher; the lower is the psychic nature, the higher is the noetic nature. In this, Theosophy but follows the ancient Greeks. The psychic or lower is called the demoniac or asuric nature in the Gita; the noetic or higher is the divine or suric nature. The psyche is the lower soul; nous, the higher soul. Further analysis brings us to a more definite terminology: Nous is the higher mind, called in Sankrit Buddhi-Manas; psyche is the lower mind, called Kama-Manas. But the word mind is very differently used by different people.

Because of our dual nature, each one of us can behave psychically or noetically. Most of us are part psychic or evil and part noetic or good; but there are people in whom the psychic nature has come to predominate because of past actions and behaviour, and there are others in whom the noetic nature has become predominant, also through their past efforts. Theosophy teaches that the end of evolution is dual; men and women will ultimately develop into Lords of Light or Lords of Darkness. Each one of us determines for himself, by his daily attitude and behaviour, his own direction. For most, at the present moment, life is a battlefield and the choice is not made, it is being made. The Day of Judgment is not some one specific day for all; we shall come, if we have not already done so, to our own Day of Judgment when the predominance of good over evil, or of evil over good, is so strong that our future course gets determined. The battle between the lower and the higher in us is still going on, and we ourselves as free-willed beings can tip the scales one way or the other. Theologians and priests have distorted the concept of the Day of Judgment: the believer is going to be safe, the non-believer is to be damned, and so forth. The truth is that each one of us, by his mental attitude and his daily actions, determines his own fate—near and distant.

That brings us to another practical idea: When we know that two natures war within us and that the result of the battle is still in the balance, we ask: "What can I do to defeat the lower in me, to bring victory to the higher?" Theosophy answers: Acquire knowledge of the laws that function in the dual nature of man.

Just as a field of battle is occupied by the opposing armies, so also our psyche and our nous encounter each other on a common territory. This common territory or battlefield is what we call our mind. The two natures are waging a war for the sole possession of the human mind. The psyche is called Kama-Manas, passion-mind; the nous is called Buddhi-Manas, intuitive mind. The first is energized by desires which are personal, separative and selfish; the second or intuitive mind is energized by aspirations which are impersonal, unifying and altruistic. Mind is the field of battle on which lower desires and higher aspirations are waging a war, for the final and complete possession of the field—the mind.

Anyone who is desirous of understanding the problems of his own dual nature and who aspires to give the right direction to his own life has to recognize the primary fact that the fight is in the mind—not in the bodily senses or the brain, nor in the blood and the flesh, but in the mind, part of which has been conquered by Kama-passion. But if Kama-passion has taken possession of a part of the mind, the remaining portion of Manas is connected with Buddhi. If Kama is passion, Buddhi is compassion. If Kama produces egotism, Buddhi produces altruism. If Kama is defiled reason, Buddhi is pure reason. In each of these pairs there is a common factor. The task before us is to free the mind from the dominance and influence of Kama-passion and to bring it under the guidance and control of Buddhi-compassion; to free it from the lower, analytical reasoning with which all worldly knowledge is obtained, and bring it under the guidance of the higher, synthetical pure reason which is intuition. The intuitive faculty is not developed in most people, while in a few it has developed very partially. The development of intuition has to be undertaken by those who aspire to tread the path which leads to enlightenment and peace.

So, the fight is in the mind. Theosophy teaches that the first step on the spiritual path is a mental step. What food is to the physical body, that ideation is to the mind. The mind is shaped and moulded by our ideation. It is nowadays recognized by all that "as a man thinks, so he becomes." But by what process is not understood, nor is it deemed very important. People do not watch their own thoughts, do not examine the nature of their own ideation. They allow their minds to follow the dictates of their own desires and passions, and to go in the direction of things they like, and away from things they dislike. Even those who aspire to a high and noble living make the mistake, because they do not know what to do with the mind, how to handle it.

Theosophy recommends two definite exercises or practices to the beginner: one may be called negative; the other, positive. The first is to give up the lower passivity of the mind; the second is to develop the higher receptivity of the mind. The minds of most people are passive in their functioning and wander from object to object, subject to subject. Our desires and passions, loves and lusts, likes and dislikes, attractions and aversions, possess the mind, just as the spook possesses the medium at a spiritistic séance. When a person is very angry, or full of hatred or malice or jealousy, we say, "He is as one possessed." That is not just a figurative saying; it is a literal truth of occultism. His mind is possessed and controlled by his anger or jealousy. So the first exercise is to get over the mediumistic tendency of the mind. When we undertake this task, we find that the human mind is possessed not only by personal inclinations, personal tastes and attractions, but also by all kinds of notions, superstitions and beliefs. When through several lives the habit of passivity is developed, the person becomes a medium, who cannot control his own bodily organism. A medium is a diseased person and the name of the ailment is passivity. In that condition the human mind abrogates its own right, and the medium is an easy and unfortunate prey to forces of passivity, evil and darkness.

To remove the passive tendency of our own mind, let us control the motion of the mind as it wanders in this direction and that. Very soon we shall find that the impelling power which moves the mind is within ourselves. The energy of ignorance has to be replaced by the energy of knowledge, which study brings. Just as to know a particular subject we must study it, so also to free the mind from passivity we must know the right subject that must be presented to the mind. The passive mind is personal, separative and selfish. Give to that mind food of the opposite kind; present to it impersonal ideas, universal ideas, altruistic ideas. We must set apart at least half-an-hour every day to give the necessary medicine to the passive mind; to give it metaphysical and philosophical ideas, which are not related to our personality, our likes and dislikes. As the mind is freed, even for a while, from the possessing entities, it gains strength.

Next, to develop the higher receptivity of the mind, it has to be made receptive to the flow of wisdom and compassion, i.e., of Buddhi. Only when Buddhi fecundates Manas, intuition results. If study of Theosophy frees the mind from passivity, practice-application will bring that mind to receive the radiance of Buddhi. What kind of practice or application? The practising of the paramitas, the virtues, says the Buddha; practising dana, tapas and yagna, says the Gita; practising the Beatitudes, says the Christian mystic. The human constitution, as it is today, needs a more direct answer.

The Voice of the Silence says: "Help Nature and work on with her; and Nature will regard thee as one of her creators and make obeisance." To become a creator of Nature is to become its transmuter. Nature in Sanskrit is Prakriti or matter. We have to learn to practise the transmutation of matter—not turning base metals into gold, which the alchemist claims to do, but transmuting the base metal of passion and passivity into the gold of compassion and altruistic activity. This transmutation is the very purpose of human evolution. Through the process of reincarnation, slowly but surely, we are transmuting gross matter into subtle matter, we are raising all the beings in the lower kingdoms one step higher. As we ourselves rise, we raise others. This task of transmutation or creation must be according to the laws which operate in Nature. What these laws are, how they operate, how man can use them and work with them, is taught in Theosophy. The result: Nature herself makes obeisance to man.

Freeing ourselves from the lower psyche, we shall help humanity to do so; becoming worthy channels, however humble, of the divine nous, we shall help the race to rise in the scale of evolution. Doing the double task, we shall come nearer to the mighty company of those Masters who are the creators to whom Nature herself makes obeisance.

True religion is real living: living with all one's soul.

—Albert Einstein