PDF version - Geae

In this independent activity it lives, in anticipation, the free life of the spirit. For this life (the natural
continuation of the planetary existence which accompanies death) it must prepare itself, not only by terrestrial
works, but also by its occupations in sleep. Thanks to reflections from that luster on high, which lights our
dream paths and illumines the occult side of destiny, we can foresee the conditions of life Beyond. If it were
possible to embrace in one glance of the eye the whole of our existence, we would recognize that the waking
state is far from constituting the essential and most important phase. The souls who watch over us profit by our
sleep to exercise their powers and develop our sense of intuition. They accomplish a work of initiation for the
hungry humans, eager to elevate themselves - a work of which the dreams of the night carry indicating traces.
The dreams of flying, or of moving rapidly above the earth, show that the etheric body is making an effort at
freedom in the superior life. When we dream of mounting great heights without fatigue, of crossing space
without difficulty, or floating over water freely, is it not a proof that our etheric bodies are free? For such
sensations and images, completely reversing the laws of nature, could not come to the mind if they were not
the result of a transformation in our method of existence. In reality they are not dreams, but real actions
accomplished in another domain of sensation, and of which the memory is left in the brain.
These memories and impressions demonstrate that we possess two bodies; and the soul, the seat of the
conscience, is attached to its subtle envelope, while the material body is plunged in sleep. There is always one
difficulty: the farther the soul separates from the body and penetrates in the etheric regions, the weaker is the
tie which unites them, and more vague is the memory of the dream. The soul soars far into immensity of space,
and the brain cannot register its sensations. The result is, that we cannot analyze our most beautiful dreams.
Often the last sensations of our night travels remain on awakening. If, at this moment, we take the precaution
to fix them firmly in memory, they remain engraved there. One night I had the sensation of feeling vibrations
in space - the last with a sweet, penetrating melody - and the souvenir of the closing words of a chant which
terminated thus:
‘There are Heavens innumerable.’
Sometimes one feels, on awakening, vague impressions of powerful experiences without precise
memories. This sort of intuition, the result of perception registered in the deep consciousness, but not in the
brain consciousness, persists with us for a certain time, and influences our actions at other times. These
impressions are clearly translated in the dreams. Myers says of this subject: ‘The permanent result of a dream
is often such that it shows us clearly that the dream is not the effect of confused experiences in waking life, but
possesses an inexplicable power, like that of suggestion or hypnotism, coming from the profound depths of our
existence, which waking life is incapable of attaining.’ Two groups of this sort are easily recognized - notably
the dream which has been the point of departure of an obsessing idea, or acts of madness. We can explain this
phenomenon in two ways: as a communication from the superior consciousness, or as the intervention of a
lofty intelligence, which judges, disapproves, and condemns the conduct of the dreamer, and leaves with him a
salutary sense of fear. The obsession might have been caused by evil spirits, which were exorcised by means
of the dream. We should demand aid from the mysterious properties of sleep, and ask that our memory may be
extended. Normal memory is restricted and precarious. It embraces only the narrow circle of the present, and
the ensemble of daily events. The profound memory embraces all the history of life since its origin, its
successive stations, its modes of existence, planetary and celestial. All the past souvenirs and sensations,
forgotten in the waking state, are engraved in us; this past is awakened only during sleep - ordinary, or
provoked by suggestion. It is a rule known to all experimenters, that the more profound is the sleep when
produced hypnotically, the greater is the extension of memory. Myers deals fully with this subject in his book.
He says: ‘Ordinary sleep is considered as occupying an intermediary position between waking life and
profound hypnotic slumber. It appears probable, that the memory, which pertains to ordinary sleep, is attached
on one side to actual daily life, and on the other, to that which exists in the hypnotic state. The fragments of
memory in our nightly sleep are interlaced by the two chains.’ We will see this in treating the question of
reincarnation. Myers has been pushed much farther than he foresaw, and the consequences are immense. Not
only can we, by hypnotic suggestion, reconstruct the smallest souvenirs of actual life, which have disappeared
from the normal memory, but also we can restore the broken chain of past lives. At the same time that a vast
and rich memory is awakened, we see appear in sleep faculties superior to all those which we enjoy awake.
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