Book excerpt: The cis-Himalayan Mahatmas are Great Souls and Masters of Wisdom; their higher individuality is en rapport with the Universal Soul. Through occult training in successive births, the hold of lower Manas weakens until the whole Manas identifies with the Universal Soul, which runs through humanity at large, and lo and behold! a new Saviour of Mankind is born. Only a pure and unexpecting soul, whose brotherly love has uplifted his Manas above the fog of separateness, can ever hope to approach the majesty of a Mahatma. Manasic perception is enlightened belief without intellectual understanding. That is the real meaning of faith, not the blind belief implied by the religious meaning of faith. The adept is the rare efflorescence of a generation of enquirers. Their three higher aspects are merged into One. A Planetary Spirit can roam the interstellar spaces in full consciousness, while continue living on earth in his original body. That is highest form of adeptship man can hope for on our planet. Only an Occultist, by analysing and experiencing sentient life in all its phases, whether on earth or beyond, whether mineral, vegetable, animal, or spiritual life, can figure out the Great Problem of Consciousness. Spirit and Matter are co-existent, inseparable, interdependent, and convertible to each other. This androgynous Force is Mind and Soul. Since motion is all-pervading and absolute rest inconceivable, under whatever form or mask may appear, whether as light, heat, magnetism, chemical affinity or elec-tricity — all these must be phases of One and the same universal omnipotent Force. Consciousness is not only transformable into other aspects or phases of the all-pervading Force, but that it can be infused into, and animate, an artificial man. The three extant centres of Occult Brotherhood, though widely separated geographically, and as widely exoterically, promulgate the same esoteric doctrine. Self is a passing guest, whose concerns are all like a mirage of the great desert. It is upon the serene and placid surface of the unruffled mind that the visions gathered from the invisible find a representation in the visible world. Nature has linked all parts of her Empire together by subtle threads of magnetic sympathy. By subduing the lower Manas and thus identifying with his higher counterpart, man can become master and ruler over blind molecular motion.