Zentralblatt für Okkultismus 5, no. 1 (July 1911), 4-10
[Im Grenzlande.]
Translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl[1]
“We are of the same stuff, of which dreams are made.”
—Shakespeare.
The borderland we are talking about here is the land where the appearances of the outer world touch those of inner life; viz., the realm of dreams and visions, the homeland of “ghosts” and phantoms, hunches, and various phenomena belonging to the realm of psychology, metaphysics, and the occult. The fact that “official” science still has so little understanding of these things as a result of its material world view can be explained by the fact that it only knows a small part of the human microcosm, namely, its physical, gross material organism with its physiological phenomena, which is the outer shell or clothing for the inner soul and soul living within it. For the higher science, however, which emerges from its own spiritual perception and knowledge, these phenomena, like so many other things which are unknown to academic science, are no longer mysteries; for while official science considers all dream phenomena to be caused by physiological processes in the material body, occult science knows other components of man’s organization, viz., the etheric part of his physical body, then his “astral body,” which is also called the “dream body,” and his “mental body” or “mental organism,” i.e., the organization of his intellect.” For, as the physical body has organs for communicating with the outer world of senses, hands for greeting, feet for walking, eyes for seeing, etc.; so too does the “thought body” have its spiritual organs to get in touch with the spiritual world; Organs for searching, perceiving, grasping, holding, absorbing, analyzing and reassembling ideas. All these bodies form a whole in man and are not separate from one another in his normal state. Nevertheless, everyone exists to a certain extent for themselves; just as the skeleton in man is different from his muscular and nervous system, and every organ in the body, lungs, liver, etc., is a separate unit in the unity of the whole. Through these three different bodies, man is connected to the three worlds of the macrocosm, lives in them at the same time and is accessible to their influences. He has his “headquarters” in that world in which he focuses his consciousness. When he is completely occupied with external things, he dwells in the physical sense world; if he devotes himself to his instincts and passions, he moves into the astral world, if he engages in philosophical reflections, he lives in the world of thoughts, and it may be added that if he immerses himself completely in the sanctuary of his inner being, then the kingdom of God, the kingdom of truth, can open itself to him. There he truly finds himself, his “Father in heaven,” his true Self, said to be immortal, and which is known with certainty to be not a product of the material body, and its mental life independent of the existence of the three above-named bodies, though it inhabits and uses them to observe, feel, and think therein.
If we ask our scientific authorities what this I, the heavenly Soul, is, we shall hardly get a satisfactory answer; for true self-knowledge, from which knowledge of God emerges, is not taught in schools, it is not a matter of scientific research or dogmatics, but of religion, i.e., it emerges from the higher self-consciousness of the human spirit. No man can teach another Self-awareness and Self-knowledge, any more than one can show him his higher Self, his “Father in heaven.” Everyone must acquire this Self-awareness by going into the sanctuary and through their own spiritual contemplation.
The higher or “occult” science which springs from this Self-knowledge, teaches that this ego or soul is man’s enduring spiritual individuality, which, in its trek through the periods of human evolution, accrues according to the law of reincarnation, as successive personal appearances on our earth or on another planet.
This is not the place to enter into a treatise on the origin of man and the spiritual evolution of mankind. He who is not in his inmost being conscious of his heavenly origin can hardly be persuaded that his soul is of heavenly origin; but the doctrine of “taking on flesh” or incarnation brings before us how this heavenly soul, on entering the lower spheres, clothes itself in ever denser coverings; until she finally appears on earth in material clothing, only to shed this clothing again after the death of the material body and returns to her celestial heaven. These three sheaths which are here considered are the “mental body” or “mind organization,” the “astral body” or “dream body,” and the gross visible body made up of the four elements,[2] together with its invisible etheric part upon which his etheric body or “double” is formed. It is in these three bodies that the soul works on the three planes of existence in which it lives, feels and thinks and which it uses as its tools in the sensual, astral and intellectual.
Whether the happy mind can fully use these tools in every respect depends on the relative perfection of their development. I am not my foot, but my feet are mine and, if they are healthy, I can use them to walk. I am not my brain, but I can use my brain to think as long as it is not disabled. In the I is the source of reason, the seat of life, love and intelligence. The “Iness” consists in the individual self-consciousness, whose reflection in the lower levels is personality consciousness and finally self-consciousness. If the ego withdraws from the lower regions of the soul during sleep, then self-consciousness disappears from it; the dreaming body emerges from the physical body without separating itself completely from it, and the material body falls asleep. If the separation were complete, it would be the death of the physical body; but the dreaming body remains magnetically connected to it, and thereby the “telegraphic” connection with the ego also remains uninterrupted, so that even during its withdrawal it can perceive what is going on in the physical, astral and mental bodies, and it can become more or less clearly conscious, even if it does not judge these perceptions correctly, because it cannot exercise complete control over its sleeping thinking machine. I cite the following as an example:
I dreamed that I found a bag of gold and held it in my hand. I said to myself: “Now you are asleep and finding this bag is a dream; and no one will be able to make me believe that this bag that I see and grasp is not really there; if I don’t let go of it when I wake up, it won’t be gone even then.” I woke up slowly and carefully, and when I opened my eyes I saw that the thing I was clutching convulsively was a corner of my bedclothes.
When consciousness withdraws from the lower regions of the soul, it loses control over them; but the lower soul forces still remain active. In physical bodies the organs remain active, the dreaming body is guided by its instincts, and in the organism of thought the imagination is at play. The physical man, when he is asleep, is no different from a sleeping animal, for animals also dream. He is unreasonable, but a kind of vegetative life and consciousness still remains in him, which is why he reacts to external stimuli, which can then produce the most diverse events through the association of ideas in his mental body. There emerges from the ethereal part of his brain stored memories; Things that one experiences while waking up or that one has read, and from these the most incongruous stuff is then often put together into ever-changing images, like in a kaleidoscope, in which the concepts of time and space play a strange role.
I dreamed that I was about to go on a trip to the north. The ship was surrounded by icebergs and foundered on one of them during a storm. I escaped to land and was taken in by Eskimos, with whom I lived for years without being able, despite all my efforts, to understand their language. My shoes ran out and I had to walk barefoot across the snow to participate in a reindeer hunt. Then I woke up and there was nothing to do with the hunt. A cold breeze had touched my feet.
But not all dreams come from such physiological causes. Often the irrational astral body, which has left the physical body, does its own thing. In addition to this, it departs from the sleeping body, appears in distant places, and even materializes under certain conditions, even as a plaything of certain inhabitants of the astral world, which is also called the “dream world” and to which the “nature spirits” and “Elementals” belong.
Two ladies I know, English, who were visiting Florence, and I shall call one Mary and the other Annie, had a strange experience. Mary dreamed the same dream three nights in a row. It seemed to her that she was in a completely unfamiliar, elegantly furnished room, and was amused by knocking over and throwing the furniture about. She related this dream to her friend and expressed her astonishment that such nonsense could be dreamed. Soon afterwards the two ladies returned to London, and on the very day of their arrival Annie paid a visit to a relative of hers, Mrs. N. . . . and took her friend Mary to accompany her, but she was completely unknown to Mrs. N. On entering the parlour, Mary uttered a cry of surprise, for she recognized the room and its furniture at once as the one she had dreamed of and had described to her friend. Mrs. N. came soon after, but with every sign of horror she backed away from under the door. Annie followed her and asked her the reason for her strange behavior: “The reason is,” Mrs. N. replied, “that some time ago, three nights in a row, this room was haunted and all the furniture was thrown about. I saw the ghost myself, and that ghost was the lady you brought.” Needless to say, those three nights were the same as when Mary had dreamed that she herself was that poltergeist.[3]
But the thought-body can also take such walks, or emit a thought-form that is a part of itself like a ray of light from a lamp, without the emitter sleeping, and that thought-form can appear as a “Māyāvirūpa” in distant places. The long-distance effect of thought or “telepathy” is also based on this. Hundreds of examples could be given from books, but I prefer to choose only those from my own experience:
I lived in Tyrol a few years ago and had a ladyfriend on the Baltic Sea; We used to correspond diligently; but now I hadn’t heard from her for months. One evening at eight o’clock I was sitting at my desk, busily occupied with writing. Suddenly I saw my girlfriend standing in front of me in her wedding dress. She seemed to want to tell me something, but I couldn’t understand it, just wondering about her wedding dress. A few days later I received a letter from her, in which she informed me that she had celebrated her engagement at eight o’clock that evening. It turned out that she wasn’t wearing a wedding dress; but the fact that she appeared in one can be explained by the fact that when she was engaged she had had the wedding celebration in mind.
There are countless proofs that these “dream apparitions” are not bodiless:
One evening when I was in Florence, I suddenly felt myself in the arms of one of my relatives living in Germany, who clung to me as if seeking protection, and never have I felt the touch of a human body more clearly. It soon turned out that this relative had been attacked by a vicious dog just at the same time, and in her fright had instinctively sought refuge with me.
Also, possession of a material body seems to be of little importance in such phenomena; for the astral man of a deceased, even after he has been liberated from the material body by death, is the same man as before.
A farmer with whom I lived died and I had expressed to his daughter that I wanted to buy a funeral wreath for him, but I forgot. The next morning at eleven o’clock I was busy writing when the deceased farmer suddenly stood in front of me. He was in his Sunday suit, and I could tell by his demeanor that he wanted to thank me for something, but I didn’t know what it was. The apparition disappeared, but a few minutes later the farmer’s daughter came to tell me that the wreath I wanted had arrived. Only then did I realize what the farmer was thanking me for.
It must seem downright ridiculous to an occultist skilled in such matters to see what limited views certain “psychologists” and “recognized authorities” have on this subject, or what the grieving bereaved of a “deceased” have at his loss in despair, as if he were destroyed forever, while they themselves, when their own bodies are asleep, commune comfortably with them in their astral body, as before, although after waking up they no longer remember it, or only vaguely, because their physical brain is still not refined enough to absorb and retain the finer etheric vibrations.
What is “dream” and what is “reality”? The two are as indistinguishable as body and soul are distinct, and from the point of view of the Higher Self, perhaps man’s whole life on all planes of existence is but a dream. When we enter a higher existence, that which we have left soon seems like a shadow play or perhaps like a monkey comedy in which one had to act as long as one was, oneself, a monkey and the inhabitant of the cage.
Every state with all its associated phenomena is reality for us as long as we are in it. The dreaming does not doubt the reality of the dream images that he sees, and the outside world does not exist for him; the waking person keeps to the phenomena of our senses and relegates what he has experienced in his astral body to the realm of fantasy. An example of such doubtfulness is contained in Solovyoff’s diatribe about Blavatsky. He writes:
“After a visit to Blavatsky, I went back to the Hotel Viktoria, retired to my room, locked the door, took off my clothes, and fell asleep. — Suddenly I awoke or imagined that I was awakened by a warm breeze. I saw that I was in the same room, and before me in the semi-darkness stood a tall figure clad in white. I felt a voice, not knowing how or in what language, telling me to light the candle. I was neither surprised nor scared. I turned on the light and saw that it was two o’clock on my watch. The apparition did not go away. Before me stood a living human being and this was undoubtedly none other than the original portrait of Mahatma Morya that I had seen. He sat down in a chair next to me and spoke to me in a language that was unfamiliar to me, but nevertheless understandable, about various things that were of interest to me. He told me that I had a great and ever increasing magnetic power. I asked him how I should use the same; — then he was gone. I seemed to jump after him, but the door was locked. Then I thought it was all a hallucination and I was afraid I was going crazy; but there Mahatma Morya was back in his seat. He did not move, but his piercing gaze was fixed on me. Then he shook his head, smiled and said: “Be assured that I am not a hallucination and that your reason does not fail you. Madame Blavatsky will prove to you tomorrow that I really came to see you.” — He disappeared; I saw on my watch that it was three. I turned off the light and fell asleep again.
I awoke at ten o’clock and remembered the event clearly. The door was bolted, the candle partially burned out. I went to Gebhard’s with Miss A.; Madame Blavatsky came towards us and asked me with a meaningful smile how I had slept.
“Very good,” I replied. “Do you know something new”?
“Nothing special,” she said; “I only know that the master has come to you.”
Now it will be clear from the foregoing to any occultist who knows the laws of such a spiritual encounter that Mahatma Morya did in fact appear in his Māyāvirūpa to Solovyoff at that time in Elberfeld, but this man, obsessed with doubt and ignorant of these laws, is searching then persuading himself that it was all just self-deception and deception, and pouring out the poison streams of his anger on Blavatsky.[4]
That such manifestations are possible is evident from numerous similar reports and from the personal experiences of every initiate. But much more astonishing processes take place, such as the almost instantaneous magical displacement of living people to great distances, about which a report has already appeared in the “Zentralblatt” under the title “Dematerialization and Re-materialization of Living Persons.”[5] Official science will only be able to explain such phenomena when it has become clear to it that “spirit” and “matter” are essentially one and only differ from one another in the way they are revealed.
Note
[1] In the borderland. [Im Grenzlande. Dr. Franz Hartmann. Zentralblatt für Okkultismus 5, no. 1 (July 1911), 4-10] {This article was reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than fixing minor typos. Translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl, ©2025}
[2] {R.H.—That is, the symbolic earth, water, fire, air which the ancients speak of, through the subplanes of solid, liquid, gas.}
[3] The following experience from my student days in Dresden belongs here: I lived in two rooms with a friend and one day we both tried to hold a “session” there based on a spiritistic book. Indeed we soon received knocking sounds in the furniture of the room. But when we were about to go to bed that evening, there was such a knocking on the bedsteads, the door, the floor, the walls and the ceiling in the bedroom that there was no question of falling asleep. Finally I asked who the ghost was. With knocking sounds and with the help of the alphabet, the invisible intelligence answered me that she was the spirit of my deceased grandmother and wished that I would have her read 30 masses for the salvation of her soul. I did that on time the next day. But in the evening there was no peace again. The phenomena increased more and more despite the presence of doubters. Objects were thrown over, pictures wobbled on the wall, thunder was heard throughout the apartment, skeptics were badly beaten by an invisible hand, the house dog could no longer be brought over the doorstep of our apartment. It was just maddening and despairing! Finally on the fifth night, with an unshakable effort of will (the writer of these lines kept saying: I want nothing to do with you spirits who behave like this) they succeeded to bring peace. Two months later I learned that during those five nights in Vienna a relative of mine lay in hysterical convulsions, and since the patient in question was very hostile to me, the obvious explanation is that this relative was the cause of all the spook. This is by no means to say that all haunted apparitions come from living people. Undoubtedly, haunted apparitions can be cited where any animistic explanation fails. It is now the task of unprejudiced research to create clarity about this. The editor.
[4] Blavatsky’s greatest enemies have always been people who approached her with the selfish intent of learning occult powers from her and then found themselves disappointed.
[5] Volume 2, page 352.