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 divisions, 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 as 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 moth 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 by
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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