Why Animals Seem to Think
Do animals think? We know that some animals appear
to do so, but they are the highest domesticated animals which have come into
close touch with man for generations and have thus developed a faculty not
possessed by other animals which have not had that advantage. This is on the
same principle that a highly charged wire will "induce" a weaker
current of electricity in a wire brought close to it; or that a man of strong
morals will arouse a like tendency in a weaker nature. All we do, say, or are
reflects itself in our surroundings. This is why the domestic animals seem to
think. They are the highest of their kind, almost to the point of
individualization, and man's thought vibrations have "induced" in them
a similar activity of a lower order.
Only man possessed the complete chain of
vehicles correlating him to all divisions of the three worlds. The animal lacks
one link of this chain, the mind.
The Group Spirit
The animal "Spirit" has in its
descent reached only the Desire World. It has not yet evolved to the point where
it can "enter" a dense body. Therefore the animal has no individual
indwelling Spirit such as man possesses, but a Group-Spirit which directs it
from without. The animal has the dense body, the vital body, and the desire
body. There is a point between the eye brows and about one half inch below the
surface of the skin which has a corresponding point in the vital body of a human
being. These two points were as far apart in the men and women of the early
Atlantean days as they are in the animals of our day. They are closer together
in the dog than in any other animal, except perhaps, the elephant. The vital
body and the desire body of an animal are not entirely within the dense body,
especially where the head is concerned. For instance, the etheric head of a
horse projects far beyond and above the dense, physical head. When, as in rare
cases it happens, the etheric head of the horse draws into the head of the dense
body, the horse can then learn to read, count, and work examples in elementary
arithmetic, etc. Among the animal prodigies who were so accomplished and
attracted attention from far and near were the four Elberfeld horses of West
Prussia, in which scientists became interested just before World War I. All four
horses died during the war, however, before any accepted explanation was
forthcoming. There was also the shy little mare in the United States by the name
of Lady Wonder. Her mistress had a typewriter especially built for her, on which
she typed out the answers to questions from her many visitors.
Animal Clairvoyance
For the same reason it is a fact that
horses, dogs, cats, and other domesticated animals sense the Desire World,
though not always realizing the difference between it and the Physical World. A
horse will shy at the sight of a figure invisible to the driver; a cat will go
through the motions of rubbing itself against invisible legs. The cat sees the
ghost, however, without realizing that it has no dense legs available for
frictional purposes. The dog, wiser than the cat or horse, often will sense that
there is something he does not understand about the appearance of a dead master
whose hand it cannot lick. It will howl mournfully and slink into a corner.
An Analogy
The following illustration may perhaps be
of service to show the difference between the man with his indwelling Spirit and
the animal with his Group Spirit.
Let us imagine a room divided by means of a
curtain, one side of the curtain representing the Desire World and the other
side the Physical World. There are two men in the room, one in each division;
they cannot see each other nor can they get into the same division. There are,
however, ten holes in the curtain, and the man who is in the division,
representing the Desire World, can put his ten fingers through these holes into
the other division, representing the Physical World. He now furnishes an
excellent representation of the Group Spirit which is in the Desire World. The
fingers represent the animals belonging to one species. He is able to move them
as he wishes, but he cannot use them as freely nor as intelligently as the man
who is walking about in the physical division uses his body. The latter sees the
fingers which are thrust through the curtain, and he observes that they all
move, but he does not see the connection between them. To him it appears that
they are all separate and distinct from one another. He cannot see that they are
the fingers of the man behind the veil and are governed in their movements by
his intelligence. If he hurts one of the fingers, it is not one of the fingers
that is hurt, but chiefly the man on the other side of the curtain.
If an animal is hurt, it suffers, but not
to the degree that the Group Spirit does. The finger has no individual
consciousness; it does as the man dictates; so do the animals move as the Group
Spirit dictates.
The Wisdom of Instinct
We hear of "animal instinct" and
"blind instinct." There is nothing "blind" about the way the
Group Spirit guides its members; there is WISDOM in the Desire World, spelled
with capitals. The trained clairvoyant, when functioning in the Desire World,
can communicate with these Spirits of the animal species and finds them much
more intelligent than a large percentage of human beings. He can see the
marvelous insight they display in marshalling the animals which is their
physical bodies. The separate animal Spirits are as yet not self-conscious,
hence they act without question according to the suggestions of the Group
Spirit. The Group Spirit is an entity belonging to a different evolution, and it
functions in the invisible worlds where things are much more apparent than they
are here. It follows, therefore, that what we call instinct is really the
suggestions of the Group Spirit in the invisible world which guides the animals.
The Spirit of the group gathers its flock
of birds in the fall and compels them to migrate to the south, neither too early
nor too late to escape the winter's chilly blast. It directs their return in the
spring, causing them to fly at just the proper altitude, which differs for the
different species.
The Group Spirit of the beaver teaches it
to build its dam across a stream at exactly a proper angle. It considers the
rapidity of the flow and all the circumstances, precisely as a skilled engineer
would do, showing that it is up-to-date in every particular of the craft as is
the college bred, technically educated man or woman. The wisdom of the Group
Spirit directs the building of the hexagon cell of the bee with such geometrical
nicety; it teaches the snail to fashion its house in an accurate, beautiful
spiral; it teaches the ocean mollusk the art of decorating its iridescent shell.
Wisdom, wisdom everywhere! so grand, so great, that one who looks with an
observant eye is filled with amazement and reverence.
Owing to the spiral path of evolution, the
higher domesticated animals, particularly the dog, horse, cat, and elephant see
objects somewhat similarly as man--in sharp, distinct outlines.
Horizontal Spine
The relation of plant, animal, and man to
the life currents in the Earth's atmosphere are symbolically represented by the
cross, and the animal, which is symbolized by the horizontal limb of the cross,
is between the plant and the man. Its spine is in a horizontal position, and
through it play the currents of the animal Group Spirit, which is the guardian
of the animal Spirits. No animal can be made to remain constantly upright,
because in that case the currents of the Group Spirit could not guide it, and if
it were sufficiently individualized to endure the spiritual currents which enter
the vertical human spine, it would die. Animals have only twenty-eight pairs of
spinal nerves, and they are keyed to the lunar month of twenty-eight days, as
compared to man who has thirty-one pairs of spinal nerves which key him to the
solar month. Therefore, the animal is dependent upon the Group Spirit for an
infusion of stellar rays necessary to produce consciousness. They are altogether
incapable of absorbing the direct rays of the Sun.
The animals are our "younger
brother" and though they are not now so finely organized, they eventually
will reach a stage as high as our own. We then shall have ascended still higher.
There are occult reasons clearly explained in "The Rosicrucian
Cosmo-Conception" by Max Heindel as to why the breeding of animals should
be carefully supervised, for the well being and advancement of the entire animal
kingdom. Animals in their wild state are exempt from sickness and pain because
their propagation is carried on under the care and direction of the wise Group
Spirit at only those times of the year which are propitious to that purpose.
The enlightened know the animals to be
their "younger brothers" and should help them as we are being helped
along the path, and for an aspirant to high ideals to kill--either in person or
by proxy--is out of the question.
Killing Animals
At the present stage of our evolutionary
journey, everyone knows inherently that it is wrong to kill, and man will love
and protect animals in all cases where his greed and selfish interests do not
blind him to their rights. The law protects a cat or a dog against wanton
cruelty. Except in "sports," that most wanton of all our cruelties
against the animal creation, it is always for the sake of money that animals are
murdered and bred to be murdered. By the devotees of "sport," the
helpless creatures are shot down to no purpose save to build up a false idea of
prowess upon the part of the huntsman. It is hard to understand how people who
appear otherwise sane and kindly can trample upon all their gentle instincts and
revert to savagery, killing for sheer lust of blood and joy in destruction. It
is certainly a reversion to the lowest savage animal instincts, and can never be
dignified into the remotest semblance of anything "manly."
After death an animal persists for a longer
or shorter time, according to the stage of its evolution, in a desire body made
of the material of the Desire World. Even the beetle that is stepped upon on the
road may be seen by the clairvoyant to walk a few feet away and then gradually
fade to nothingness. It persists only a few moments in its shape before the
Spirit returns to the central source of the Group Spirit. In the case of the
horse or cow or any of the higher animals, there is a correspondingly longer
time and more consciousness in the Desire World than in the case of these lower
forms.
The animal Spirits sent by the Group Spirit
into incarnation from time to time into the animal bodies of its tribe, one
Spirit to each body, return to the Group Spirit at death, having gained a higher
grade of consciousness than when they were born. This helps the Group Spirit to
evolve, and in return it governs the spirits of the separate animals in its
tribe.
Animal Evolution
After the death of the physical body, the
spirit of the animal passes out of the dead body and soon returns to the Group
Spirit. The love and care which we have given them naturally furthers them
greatly in their evolution. While the wild animals act entirely under the
dictates of the Group Spirit by what we call instinct, the domestic animals show
a capability of thought entirely beyond their normal evolution at the present
time. Since we know the domestic animals learn from us and that every kind act
we do for them aids them in their progress, we may safely infer that the animals
which have become domesticated will in time become the teachers of their less
advanced brothers.
The service rendered by the lower to the
higher as stepping-stones can only be paid for by SERVICE. The higher
owes the lower a debt of gratitude. Christ recognized this, that without pupils
there could be no teacher, and in gratitude for the privilege of teaching and
bringing into the world the wonderful Christian Religion. He washed His
disciples' feet. In future eons the lower kingdoms now acting as stepping-stones
and a means of growth and experience to us will need help and service, which
must then be given by us. Thus the human race, which now abuses the animals,
will then have to act as their servitors, aiding them to attain the very utmost
from the school of evolution as it will be carried on in that day.
The Evil of Vivisection
The animal spirits whose bodies are now
tortured in the vivisection hells for no purpose, or slaughtered for food, will
in that day become our pupils, and it will be our duty as their guardians to
help them grow and propagate the life man now deprives them of. Vivisection is
looked upon by all occult students as an abomination and among the blackest of
all crimes. If it were only possible for the vivisectionist to realize what is
in store for them after death, vivisection would be abolished, and the torture
chambers would be empty. As Christians we believe it to be our duty to avoid
sacrificing the lives of animals for any purpose whatsoever. We hold vivisection
to be diabolical and inhuman.
Phasing Out Flesh Food
It is evident that evolutionary progress is
elevating the lower kingdoms as well as humanity. The animals, particularly the
domesticated species, are nearing individualization, and their withdrawal from
manifestation has already commenced. As a result it will in time be impossible
to obtain flesh food. Then the death knell of "King Alcohol" will have
struck, for only flesh eaters crave liquor.
In the Rosicrucian terminology, the names
of the seven periods of our Earth are as follows: 1) The Saturn Period; 2) The
Sun Period; 3) The Moon Period; 4) The Earth Period; 5) The Jupiter Period
(Animals will reach a stage similar to ours in development but under different
conditions in the Jupiter Period); 6) The Venus Period (Plants will be the
humanity here under different conditions); 7) The Vulcan Period (Minerals will
reach the human stage under the conditions here.).
These periods are past, present, or future
incarnations of our Earth, conditions through which it has passed, is now
passing, or will pass in the future.
From the point at which the pioneers of our
life wave occupied ape-like forms, they have progressed to their present stage
of development, while the "missing link" the scientists have been
searching for these many years, have degenerated and are now ensouled by the
last stragglers of the Saturn Period.
Animals - Human Ancestors or Descendants?
The lower monkeys, instead of being the
progenitors of the higher species, are stragglers occupying the most degenerated
specimens of what was once the human form. Instead of man having ascended from
the anthropoids, the reverse is true--the anthropoids have degenerated from man.
Material science, dealing ONLY with form, has thus misled itself and drawn
erroneous conclusions in this matter.
Each life-wave, however, remains definitely
confined within its own borders. The anthropoids may overtake us and become
human beings, but no other animal will reach our particular point of
development. They will reach a similar stage, but under different conditions, in
the Jupiter Period.
Science has discovered that haemolysis
results from the inoculation of the blood of one individual into the veins of
another of a different species, causing the death of the lower of the two. Thus
any animal inoculated with the blood of a man dies. The blood of a dog
transfused into the veins of a bird kills the bird, but it will not hurt the dog
to have the bird's blood inoculated into its veins.
When the blood of a higher animal is
inoculated into the veins of one from a lower species, the Spirit in the blood
of the higher animal, of course, is stronger than the Spirit of the less
evolved; hence, when it endeavors to assert itself, it kills the imprisoning
form and liberates itself. When, on the other hand, the blood of a lower species
is inoculated into the veins of a higher animal, the higher Spirit is capable of
ousting the less evolved Spirit in the strange blood and assimilating the blood
to its own purpose, therefore no VISIBLE catastrophe ensues.
Hybrids
The Group Spirit always aims to preserve
the integrity of its domain in the blood of the species under its charge. It
resents the breeding of animals which produce hybrids. When a horse and a donkey
produce a mule for instance, the mixture of strange blood destroys the
propagative faculty so as not to perpetuate the hybrid which is an abomination
from the standpoint of the Group Spirit. The mule is not so definitely under the
domination of the Group Spirit of the horse or of the Group Spirit of the donkey
as is the pure breed, yet it is not so far away as to be entirely exempt from
their influence.
Therefore, as the Group Spirit of the
animals sends the separate Spirits of the animals into embodiment, it simply
withholds the fertilizing seed-atom when animals of widely differing species are
mated. It permits one of its charges to take advantage of an opportunity for
re-embodiment when two animals of nearly the same nature are mated, but refuses
to let the hybrids perpetuate themselves. Thus, we see that the infusion of
strange blood weakens the hold of the Group Spirit, and that, therefore, it
destroys either the form or the propagative faculty where it has the power.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox offers the rightful
claim of the entire animal kingdom in the following beautiful words:
I am the voice of the voiceless; Through me
the dumb shall speak, Till a deaf world's ear Shall be made to hear The wrongs
of the wordless weak.
The same force formed the sparrow That
fashioned man the King. The God of the Whole Gave a spark of soul To furred and
feathered thing.
And I am my brother's keeper; And I will
fight his fight, And speak the word For beast and bird Till the world shall set
things right.
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