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Mental
retardation is one of the most tragic and least understood of social
problems. In former years the mentally deranged regarded as beyond help
were locked up often under hideously deplorable conditions, and left to
vegetate, out of sight of "respectable" people. More recently of course
gratifying progress has been made in care and treatment of these
unfortunate individuals and a generally more enlightened public attitude
is permitting them increasingly to live as recognized members of society
often operating usefully within their limited range of
capabilities.
Such advances however do not remove the
pain felt by parents of a retarded child or the suffering incumbent upon
families of these sadly afflicted individuals. If the cause of mental
retardation were generally known the conflicts and tortures experienced by
these people would be far better understood and mankind could begin to set
the stage for an eventual end to this problem.
When a person is mentally retarded he
or she lacks an instrument with which to reason communicate and fully
control the body. Why does this happen? When viewed from the perspective
of one lifetime mental retardation seems cruel and unfair. However if we
remember that human evolution continues over a series of lives it helps us
understand the present and gives hope for the future.
Law of Cause and
Effect
Mental retardation is rightly regarded
as an illness. Just as any other illness it is suffered by an individual
engendered solely by his own behavior during the present or a previous
life. Under the Law of Consequence we reap precisely what we sow and if we
engage in excesses or depraved conduct of any sort a comparable toll will
be taken of our ability to function during a future physical embodiment,
and to make consequent evolutionary progress.
Abuse of the Creative
Function
The disabilities which affect humanity
are divisible into two categories: mental and physical. Mental troubles
are particularly traceable to abuse of the creative function. As the Holy
Spirit is the creative energy in Nature, the sex energy is its reflection
in man, and misuse or abuse of that power is the sin that must be expiated
in impaired efficiency of the vehicles, in order thoroughly to teach us
the sanctity of the creative force. Occult science teaches that the sex
function should never be used for sense gratification, but for propagation
only. The tremendous amount of creative force thus saved, then, may be
transmuted into spiritual energy and used on a higher plane as the agent
of epigenesis -- the ability to create something new.
Occult science also teaches that the
brain and the larynx were built by the Angels with half of the creative
force so that man who, prior to the acquisition of these organs, was
bisexual and able to create from himself alone, lost that faculty when
these organs were created and is now dependent upon the cooperation of
another of the opposite sex in order to generate a new vehicle for an
incoming Spirit. There is, therefore, a close connection between sexual
activity and mental activity, as well as the power of speech. Proof of
this is shown in the case of the sex maniac, who becomes an idiot, unable
to think clearly because he is continually occupied in drawing and sending
out not only that part of the sex force which is normally to be used for
propagation, but also much of the force which should be used to build up
the brain, enabling it to produce thought.
Spiritual sight reveals that when man
was yet in the making there was a desire current wherever there is now a
nerve; the brain and larynx themselves were first made of desire
substance. It was desire that first sent a motive impulse through the
brain and created these nerve currents, that the body might be moved and
obtain for the Spirit whatever gratification was indicated by desire.
Speech, also, is used for the purpose of obtaining a desired object or
end. Through these faculties man has obtained a certain mastery over the
world, and if he could just flit from one body to another, there would be
no end to his abuse of his power for gratifying every whim and desire.
Under the Law of Consequence, however, he takes with him into a new body
faculties and organs which are similar to those which he left behind in
the one preceding.
Stamping the Seed Atom
When passion has wrecked the body in
one life, it is stamped upon the seed atom. In the next descent to rebirth
it is, therefore, impossible for the Ego to gather sound material with
which to build a brain of stable construction. He is then usually born
under one of the common signs of the zodiac, and usually, also, the four
common signs are on the angles, for through these signs passionate desire
finds it difficult to express itself. Thus the powerful impulse which
formerly ruled in his brain and which might be used for the purpose of
rejuvenescence is absent; he lacks incentive in life and therefore he
becomes helpless -- often insane.
The Spirit, however, is not insane. It
sees, knows, and has a keen desire to use the body, though that may be an
impossibility, for often it cannot even send a correct impulse along the
nerves. The muscles of face and body are therefore not under the control
of its will. This accounts for the lack of coordination which makes the
afflicted one such a pitiable sight. Thus it is that the Spirit learns one
of the hardest lessons in life: that it is worse than death to be tied to
a living body and unable to find expression through it because the desire
force necessary to accomplish thought, speech, and motion has been spent
in unrighteous living in a previous life, leaving the Spirit without the
necessary energy to operate its present fleshly instrument.
Resisting a Hard Life
There is one notable exception to the
general rule that mental disabilities are traceable to abuse of the
creative function in a past life. When an Ego comes down to rebirth he
sees, upon entering the womb, a panorama of the coming life. If it appears
that the life is to be particularly hard, and the Ego feels unwilling to
undergo the experience, it sometimes tries to run away from the school of
life. At this time, the connection between the vital body and the sense
centers of the brain in the forming fetus already has been made;
therefore, the effort of the Spirit to escape from the mother's womb is
frustrated. The wrench that is given by the Ego, however, deranges the
connection between the etheric and physical sense centers, so that the
vital body is not concentric with the physical, causing the etheric head
to extend above the physical cranium. Thus it is impossible for the Spirit
to use the dense vehicle; it is tied to a mindless body which it cannot
use, and the embodiment is practically wasted.
There are also cases where a great
shock later in life causes the Spirit to endeavor to run away with the
invisible vehicles. As a result, a similar wrench is given to the etheric
sense centers in the brain, and the shock deranges the mental expression.
Everyone, after being particularly frightened, has probably felt a similar
sensation -- a surging, as if something were endeavoring to get out of the
dense body. This sensation is caused by the desire and vital bodies, which
act so swiftly that an express train is slow in comparison. They sense the
danger, and are frightened before the scare is transmitted to the inert
and slow physical body in which they are anchored, and which prevents
their escape under ordinary strain. Sometimes, however, the shock is
sufficiently severe as to give them such an impulse that the etheric sense
centers are deranged. Just as a ligament that has been stretched and torn
gradually may regain comparative elasticity, however, so also, in these
cases, is it easier to restore the mental faculties than it is in cases in
which congenital insanity, brought over from past lives, has caused
inadequate connection. Thus we see that mental retardation is not the
result of "injustice" on the part of a capricious God, as some have
suggested, nor is it an unfortunate accident. It is the result of the
Ego's own conduct and, as in the case of all ailments, the afflicted
individual has brought it upon himself.
The Value of
Encouragement
This is certainly not to say, of
course, that the mentally retarded should be regarded in any way except
with deep sympathy and concern. Every effort should be made to continue
and expand the fine programs of education and self- help now being
administered for many of these individuals. Certainly, the more
compassionate help they receive during the present distressed and
disoriented lifetime, and the more they are encouraged to work with their
personal limitations, restricted though these may be, the more progress
they will be able to make in this incarnation.
We can help a person suffering from
mental retardation by respecting his right to grow at his own rate. Try to
understand how he views the world, how he feels, and what he wants to do.
However "inferior" a mentally retarded person seems to be, we do well to
remember that all humanity's present mental development is primitive in
comparison with God-like potential which eventually will be
realized.
Transmuting the Creative
Force
If mental retardation is to be
prevented, however, it is high time that the relationship between this
affliction and the improper use of the sacred creative force becomes
universally recognized. The generally prevalent modern attitude which
condones moral laxity and encourages sexual indulgence for the sake of
pleasure cannot help but result in disastrous future consequences for many
individual members of the human race. Such extreme behavior will have to
be expiated, and it is certain that one who indulges his passions in this
lifetime will reap the painful consequences in another, if not in the
present one.
We already have lived through a
mineral-, a plant-, and an animal-like existence before becoming human as
we are today. Beyond us lie still further steps of evolution where we
shall approach the Divine more and more. Our animal passions restrain us
on the path of attainment, and chastity -- except for purposes of
procreation -- is essential to spiritual progress. It is obvious, too,
that very little material progress can be made by the mentally
handicapped.
At our present stage of evolution, all
our vital force -- save that insignificant quantity required to propagate
the race -- should be transmuted by sublimation of the mind and emotions
into soul power. Not until this fact becomes generally known and accepted
will the race free itself from the mental, as well as the physical,
limitations which now cause so much suffering and impede our evolutionary
advancement.
If a mentally retarded person sparks
within us a sense of the tremendous growth we ourselves have yet to
achieve, we may thank the person for this spiritual lesson and bless him
or her in the struggle to learn, speak, and direct the body.
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