PREFACE » 



It is very natural that those who have not developed 

 the power of spiritual perception will not believe in its 

 existence, because for them this faculty does not exist. 

 Therefore the outward reasoner is like a man who keeps 

 his eyes closed, and calls for proofs of the existence of 

 that which he cannot see ; while he who is able to see 

 with the eye of the soul or the intellect requires no other 

 proof that the things which he sees exist, and he is right- 

 fully entitled to speak authoritatively of his experience 

 in regard to that which is invisible to the majority, just 

 as a man who has returned from a previously unexplored 

 country is entitled to speak authoritatively about the 

 things which he has seen, and to describle his experi- 

 ences ; while, as a matter of course, every listener has 

 the right to accept that which appears to him reasonable, 

 and to reject whatever goes beyond his capacity to under- 

 stand ; but to deny the power of spiritual perception 

 because one does not possess it himself is as foolish and 

 arrogant as if a blind man were to deny to others the 

 power to see. 



This power of spiritual perception, potentially con- 

 tained in every man, but developed in few, is almost 

 unknown to the guardians of science in our modern 

 civilisation, because learning is often separated from 

 wisdom, and the calculating intellect seeking for worms 

 in the dark caverns of the earth cannot see the genius 

 that floats towards the light, and it cannot realise his 

 existence. And yet this ancient science, which the 

 moderns ignore, is perhaps as old as the world. It was 

 known to the ancient prophets, to the Arhats and Kishis 

 of the East, to initiated Brahmins, Egyptians, and Greeks. 

 Its fundamental doctrines are found in the Vedas as well 

 as in the Bible. Upon these doctrines rest the funda- 



