The word "ancient" has a definite meaning in Theosophy. When it is claimed that the teachings of Theosophy have been derived from a very ancient source, called WISDOM-RELIGION, it refers to a body of knowledge that is immemorial in time, universal as to space and impersonal. This sacred body of knowledge was known in every age to a few wise men, called Initiates and Adepts. The spiritual perceptions of these Adepts range beyond the material limits, enabling them to penetrate to the actual reality of things. These Adepts—the ancients—are the true scientists. Knowledge possessed by the modern scientists is limited, not only because of the imperfections of the instruments used, but also because of their unwillingness to probe beyond the physical realm. Neither science nor religion admits the existence of an occult or supermaterial region, governed by laws. Religion attributes it to the "will of God"; and science—not being able to weigh, classify, or analyze the knowledge of the ancients—rejects it as fraud and superstition.

Isis Unveiled gives examples of infants born with missing limbs—cases of the imagination of the mother affecting the child in the womb. In one case, a woman gave birth to a child with a wounded and bleeding forehead, because her huband had threatened her with a sword pointed at her forehead. In another instance, a woman witnessed a beheading and went into premature labour, giving birth to a headless child. Physiologists have recorded such instances. While some physiologists described these as "curious-coincidences," only a few are honest enough to admit their ignorance. According to some others, "there is no reason to believe that the imagination of the mother can have any influence in the formation of these monsters; besides, productions of this kind are daily observed in the offspring of other animals and even in plants." (Isis Unveiled, I, 387)

Madame Blavatsky remarks, "How perfect an illustration is this of the methods of scientific men!—the moment they pass beyond their circle of observed facts, their judgement seems to become entirely perverted" (Ibid). She sums up the attitude of modern science toward the ancients:

The field of scientific investigation is bounded by physical nature on every side; hence, once the limits of matter are reached, enquiry must stop and work recommenced....Great is the self-satisfaction of modern science, and unexampled its achievements...they declare that the genuine, real knowledge of the nature of the Kosmos and of man is all of recent growth. The luxuriant modern plant has sprung from the dead weeds of ancient superstition....How many of our distinguished scientists have derived honour and credit by merely dressing up the ideas of those old philosophers, whom they are ever ready to disparage....(H.P.B. Series Pamphlet No. 14, pp. 42 and 44)

Such apparently miraculous phenomena abound—their rationale is given in certain fundamental propositions of Eastern Psychology. The very first proposition is: "There is no miracle." Just as there are laws governing physical nature, so there are laws governing super-nature. There is an invisible side to both man and nature. One of the constituents of invisible man is the astral body—sukshma sarira—which forms a sort of scaffolding for the physical body. The astral body is electro-magnetic in nature and is enmeshed in the physical like the fibres of the mango in the mango-pulp. Science has now been able to photograph it through Kirlian photography. It is elastic and can extend beyond the physical to a considerable distance. An Initiate can make a solid object move without contact by projecting his astral arm. He can lift himself up into the air like a bird by changing the polarity of his body with respect to the earth. This is known as aethrobacy. Earth is a magnet having positive polarity. If, through well-regulated will, a person is able to change the polarity of his body from negative to positive, he escapes the gravitational pull. The altitude of levitation depends upon his ability to charge his body with positive electricity. Thus, the Law of Gravitation known to science is only half the law. The other half is Levitation.

Once we accept the existence of the astral form, upon which the physical is built, it is easy to understand the phenomenon of the mother's imagination affecting the child in the womb. Mr. Judge explains:

The growing physical form is subject to the astral model; it is connected with the imagination of the mother by physical and psychical organs; the mother makes a strong picture from horror, fear, or otherwise, and the astral model is then similarly affected. In the case of marking by being born legless, the ideas and strong imagination of the mother act so as to cut off or shrivel up the astral leg, and the result is that the molecules, having no model of leg to work on, make no physical leg whatever...For knife or acid will not injure the astral model, but in the first stages of its growth ideas and imagination have the power of acid and sharpened steel. (The Ocean of Theosophy, p. 44)

The real centres of touch, taste, smell, sight, etc., are located within the astral body. In nature, there is the astral light, corresponding to the astral body in man. It is the invisible canvas or photographic plate of the universe upon which every feeling, thought and action leaves an impression. Clairvoyance is seeing in the astral light, using the astral organs. Sitting for the development of clairvoyant perception involves the risk of slipping into passivity. Unless properly trained, one can never be sure of one's astral perceptions. An anxious mother imagines her child to be in danger and vividly makes the picture of the child meeting with an accident. This picture is impressed in the astral light. This is the product of mere emotion and imagination; of an accident, which has not actually taken place. A clairvoyant who is not properly trained is unable to distinguish.

Too much involvement in psychic perceptions can lead to the confusion of ego—if the person is introduced to such perceptions before he is ready. In a disciple, the astral senses are allowed to remain sealed; as otherwise, there is a danger of his becoming a medium. While an adept has complete control over his faculties as also over the occult forces and processes of nature, a medium is a sensitive, who exhibits excessive passivity. An adept can consciously withdraw his astral body out of the physical. In a medium such a withdrawal takes place involuntarily.

Man is a little copy of the universe. He has in him a centre or focus corresponding to every force or power in nature. For instance, nature exhibits the power of drawing materials from the air and compressing them into the ideal forms of a tree or animal, and making them visible. Man also has the power to make visible what is ideal and invisible. This is done by filling the ideal form with matter condensed from the air. For instance, it is possible for an Initiate to precipitate the message at a distance on a paper. He can draw the carbon and other chemicals from the air and then pack them into a mould or a matrix. Using the power of imagination, a picture is made of every letter in a sentence to be precipitated. The picture is held by the combined action of will and imagination.

Will, faith and imagination are all attributes of the mind and play an important role in performing apparently miraculous-looking phenomena. "Mind is the name given to the sum of the states of Consciousness grouped under Thought, Will and Feeling." (S.D., I, 38). Man has the power of Kriyasakti, i.e., "the mysterious power of thought which enables it to produce external, perceptible, phenomenal results by its own inherent energy. The ancients held that any idea will manifest itself externally if one's attention is deeply concentrated upon it. Similarly, an intense volition will be followed by the desired result."

"A Yogi generally performs his wonders by means of Itchasakti and Kriyasakti." (S.D., I, 293)

Mind is not the by-product of brain activity. Brain is only an instrument of the mind. There are three aspects of the mind. Modern psychology at best describes the lower mind or Kama-Manas—mind involved in passions and desires. The "Ego" mentioned by Freud is the "I" that links inner and outer worlds. It evaluates, plans, remembers and deals with the real world. Freud's Super-Ego falls far short of what Theosophy describes as the Higher Mind. Madame Blavatsky describes the position of modern psychology thus:

"Thought is to the psychologist metamorphosed sensation and man a helpless automaton, wire-pulled by heredity and environment"...It is psychology, minus soul; psyche being dragged down to mere sensation; a solar system minus a sun; Hamlet with the Prince of Denmark not entirely cast out of the play, but in some vague way suspected of being probably somewhere behind the scenes. (H.P.B. Series Pamphlet No. 31, pp. 3-4)

Modern psychology mentions only three states of consciousness: sub-conscious, conscious and super-conscious. According to ancient psychology, there are not three but seven states of consciousness. For instance, when we are angry or sad, we are at the kamic plane; while reasoning, discussing and cogitating, the consciousness functions on the mental plane; when in deep meditation, it is on the Buddhic plane. Similarly, in waking, dreaming and dreamless sleep the same consciousness functions, and uses different sets of senses.

Unless modern psychology admits the presence of a higher mind in man, free-will, soul-memory, intuition, etc., must remain a mystery. A great majority of scientists and psychologists reject the idea of free-will. But occultism teaches that if we deny free-will, we have to reject psychic individuality, i.e., the self-determining power which enables man to override circumstances. Madame Blavatsky argues, "Place half a dozen animals of the same species under the same circumstances, and their action, while not identical, will be closely similar; place half a dozen men under same circumstances and their actions will be as different as their characters, i.e., their psychic individuality," (Raja Yoga or Occultism, 1973 ed., p. 63)

Higher Manas is the storehouse of all our thoughts. All impressions, feelings, events are stored in the higher mind. While psychologists define memory as an innate power of reproducing past impressions, which is dependent upon normal, healthy functioning of the brain, they are only able to explain remembrance and recollection. How little is known even of these two forms of memory is clear from H. P. Blavatsky's explanation of memory:

There are cells in our brain that receive and convey sensations and impressions, but this once done their mission is accomplished. These cells of the supposed "organ of memory" are the receivers and conveyers of all the pictures and impressions of the past, not their retainer. Under various conditions and stimuli, they can receive instantaneously the reflection of these astral images back again and this is called memory, recollection, remembrance: but they do not preserve them. When it is said that one has lost his memory, or that it is weakened...it is our memory cells alone that are enfeebled or destroyed. The window glass allows us to see the sun, moon, stars and all the objects outside clearly; crack the pane and all these outside images will be seen in a distorted way....The Universal Memory preserves every motion, the slightest wave and feeling...of man or of the Universe. (U.L.T. Pamphlet No. 25, Foreword)

But they know nothing about reminiscence, or soul-memory—which is not a part of physical memory. It is the memory of the soul. It is this soul-memory which enables a person to recall his past lives. When the incarnated mind is put en rapport with the Higher Mind, one has memory of past incarnations. When the lower mind is paralyzed, either because of pure living or in certain conditions like somnambulic trance, the memory of the soul comes to the surface. Madame Blavatsky gives an instance of the servant-girls who could speak Hebrew and play violin in a trance state, but not in the normal condition. She writes (Key, p. 129):

How is it that the servant girls in a poor farmhouse could speak Hebrew and play the violin in their trance or somnambulic state, and knew neither when in normal condition? Because as every genuine psychologist of the old, not your modern school, will tell you, the Spiritual Ego can act only when the personal Ego is paralyzed. The Spiritual "I" in man is omniscient and has every knowledge innate in it; while the personal self is the creature of its environment and the slave of the physical memory.