##### **Spleen** (see also [[Splenic Innervation and Vagal Anti-Inflammation]] ) The Spleen lies close under the ribs on the left side of [[The Body|the body]] right outside the stomach. It is composed of soft, spongy tissue which receives a considerable amount of blood and fluidic lymph. The blood which returns from the Spleen is far more fluid and lively than that which goes into it. The purpose of the Spleen is to modify the blood and prepare it for the separations and processes of the Liver. During this preparation: The mischievous adhesions among its particles are broken up, the worn-out globules are disintegrated, the worthless particles are set free, so as to be easily sifted out by the liver, and the good elements also are set free, so that they may meet and combine with the new chyle with more ready sympathy and greater power for usefulness. Swedenborg continues: the use of the spleen is to prepare the blood so that in the liver the pure, living portion may unite readily with the new chyle, and the hard, inelastic particles may be separated and rejected, <font color="#76923c">the spiritual work of the spleen of the mind is to examine the thoughts of the heart, and prepare them to unite readily with new ideas, affections, and satisfactions which come to us in our work and social intercourse with the community</font>. <font color="#00b0f0">In the spleen of the mind the thoughts are drawn out into a quiet chamber, apart from the busy circulation, and there the feelings and opinions that are beginning to make trouble are candidly inspected, and those elements which do not agree with the practical life of charity are detached from those that are alive and willing, and are made ready for speedy rejection.</font> <font color="#76923c">Their hold upon the mind is loosened, so that when the opportunity for usefulness comes they are immediately given up.</font> <font color="#ffff00">The Spleen is the Center of Solar Ether, into which the Solar Fluids are poured. The Solar Ether is colorless but extremely luminous and is the Light of which we speak about which puts on Robes so that we may see it.</font> It is constantly poured forth into the Solar System via the Sun and enters the Earth’s Atmosphere at all times, the Illumination being transmitted by the Air. The Invisible part of the Human Body is known as the Etheric Double, the vehicle of Life Ether; Vital Force or Prana. The Etheric Spleen absorbs the Universal Life and converts it into Prana which is then distributed over the whole Body in little beads of Rosy Light along channels called ‘nerve-threads’, penetrating every atom of the Etheric Double with the glow of Health. Once absorbed, any left-over Vitality is emitted from [[The Body|the body]] as a Bluish-White Light. At the same time, the activities of the animalistic fires (the lower nature of man) radiate heat from the area near the base of the Spine (the Sun of the Animal Plane), using the Spinal Column as a Broadcasting Antenna. The Heat and Light are blended in proportions related to the Spiritual Advancement and the human functions as desired. “When the spinal column is duly adjusted and aligned, and when the spleen is freed from congestion and in a healthy condition, there will be little trouble in the dense physical body” The area around the Solar Plexus is sensitive to Etheric Relations because this is where the Astral Body is in touch with the Etheric Body. Close to this is the center near the Spleen, which is the direct entrance of Prana into the Human Instrument. (The Center near the Spleen is a mystical euphemism for one of the two Bardonian ‘Hearts’.) The life of the body is one of constant change and renewal. (We can compare this to the tiny sliver of now (the Present) which is the constant gnawing away of the Past into the [[Future]].) This is the Special Image which we have spoken of in the Past, which perpetuates our physical body. This is our Etheric Double. Now you can see first-hand why our images are so tenacious and weed-like, especially once we have conditioned them through the instincts: they are critical to maintaining our survival. Vitality is a Force, really but when cloaked in matter appears to us as a definite thing. The Ether Body is a Bridge by which the wave-vibrations of the Psyche (Thoughts and Feelings) are conveyed to the Physical Body. In the Atoms of the Physical Sheath, this excitement takes place via the following process: Vitality is a force which comes originally from the sun. When an ultimate physical atom is charged with it, it draws round itself six other atoms, and makes itself into an etheric element. The original force of vitality is then subdivided into seven, each of the atoms carrying a separate charge. The element thus made is absorbed into the human body through the etheric part of the spleen. It is there split up into its component parts, which at once flow to the various parts of the body assigned to them. The Six come from the Spectral Tree and are arranged in a Mogen David around their ‘particular’ Tiphareth; just like the Planetary the Orders of Dionysius the Areopagite with its [[Angels|Angels]] in their Concentric Heavens and its outer ring of hell (physical coldness, in which disintegration is the inevitable result), or the Orbits of Truth, with God at the center and the Bible on the outer periphery. When we look around at His Myrionymous Excellence we see differentiation; Specialization (aka, Species). And so we understand, finally, that we have come into this existence from a Higher Plane of Unity and diverged into many parallel lives or existences. This is related through the metaphor of the White of White Light having diverged into Seven Rays or various Spectral Colors. From the Unity beyond Time and Space, we emerged (mc) to experience linear time as an orderly process that we can make sense of. When we put the segments back together again (Past, Present and Future), we are reunited, just as the divided Spectra reunites to form White Light again. This Spectral proteability arises from the interplay of Spirit and Matter, or Light and darkness; producing Color. Now there is sometimes a reticence on the part of a personality to follow through with the investment that the Higher Self has made through these extensions. Swedenborg addresses these thusly: Any who suffer themselves to be hindered in their usefulness by too strong attachments to persons and ways, or by too limited views or set opinions, need to be brought within the influence of the province of the spleen, that their states of life may be taken out of their routine and thoroughly examined. With gentle reproof those natural limitations are there broken, and they are prepared to receive broader views, and more comprehensive, freer affections, more fit for their uses. Sullen, disappointment feelings, and whatever selfish affections there may be mingled with the good, are there exposed and loosened; and if any cling to such feelings, or if evil persons have forced themselves into the company of the good, they are detached and sent on to the places of instruction, whence they are at once cast out for the sterner warnings of the gall ducts, where all such bitterness is rendered harmless. Before the Last Judgment there were many evil spirits, especially of the dragonists, who thus intruded themselves; so that the province of the spleen was crowded with them. The Province of Heaven is constantly being enlarged and Renovated (Renewed). For new membership is being included on-goingly. With continued expansion comes the need for constantly expanding Sympathies, Thoughts and Associations. The Estates of the Good Spirits and [[Angels|Angels]] is one of Perpetual Renewal, Becoming and Perfecting; thus they are conducted to the Interior Regions and re-emerge near the outer regions to greet new arrivals, etc. in a continuous Circulation of Progress. The correspondences of renewal of bodily tissues and blood globulin is consistent with the purification of thought-forms and affections in the heavens. No Angel who has ever been received by Heaven becomes useless or cast-off. The worn-out aspects of the heavens are not the Angels themselves but the inadequate thought-forms and States of Feelings. However, as mentioned above, the farther away from the source of Life we get (that is, the more physical and fragmented) the more we have to deal with these disintegrative processes, described vis-à-vis the Spleen, as well as other Newtonian entropies. The multitudes of Thoughts, Feelings and Experiences that we have had since Incarnation have all travelled down the road with us and on their own journeys, as well; and countless path-work on all [[Dimensions|dimensions]]. And they all require feeding. If we cannot reintegrate them all (if we do not ‘call back our Soul Fragments’), they will all be as the Prodigal Son, and they will drain our Vitality and Substance. The situation is similar to the leaching out of the Vital Etheric in the case of a Medium during a materialization séance. Only that the materializations occur from the surrogate lives that we have orphaned in our fugues from our [[Memories|memories]] and experiences, as they take on vicarious parallel lives in our stead. ‘Calling back our Soul fragments’ revitalizes us with the whole Spectrum. This includes all your [[Future|future]] selves, all your past selves and all your current lives. Many of us have come back from the Future to help in the development of ourselves and others. When we come from a Future State of Advancement and affect Advancement in the Present, we simultaneously affect Advancement in the Past and our Future Futures. This, in turn affects the Future advancement which comes back to affect the Past and Present again, likewise re-affecting the Future Advanced Future Futures; like a hall of beveled mirrors, each reflecting itself reflecting the others, reflecting themselves. These States of Advanced Advancement are only made possible through the reintegration of our ‘Soul Fragments’ via of Correspondence with our Higher Unity. Opening up to the Acceptance of All our Existences is really the opening of the [[Consciousness]] to all of the totality of Experiences (which is a function of the Yellow in Green; when it requires Healing or some Transformation it is of the Yellow in Orange). 1. PSYCH IC POWERS 281.        THE possession of psychic powers does not necessarily involve high moral [[Character|character]], any more than does the possession of great physical strength. It is quite true that the man who enters the Path of Holiness will presently find such powers developing in him, but it is quite possible to gain many of the powers without the holiness. Powers can be developed by anyone who will take the trouble, and a man may learn [[Clairvoyance|clairvoyance]] or mesmerism just as he may learn to play the piano, if he is willing to go through the necessary hard work. It is far better and safer for the vast majority of people to work at the development of character, to try to fit themselves for the Path, and to leave the powers to unfold in due course, as they certainly will. Some people are in too much of a hurry to do this, and set themselves to force the powers sooner. Well, if they are quite certain that they desire them only for the sake of helping others, and that they are wise enough to use them rightly, it may be that no harm will come of it; but it is not easy to be quite certain on these points, and the slightest deflection from the right line will mean disaster. 282.        If a man must try to obtain the powers, there are two ways open to him; of course there are many more than two methods, but I mean that they all fall under two heads-- the temporary and the permanent. The temporary method is to deaden the physical sense in some way-- actively by drugs, by self-hypnotization, or by inducing giddiness, for example, or passively by being mesmerized-- so that the astral senses may come to the surface. The permanent way is to work at the development of the ego, so that he may be able to control the lower vehicles and use them as he wishes. 283.        It is somewhat like controlling a troublesome horse. A man who knows nothing of riding may so stupefy a horse with drugs that he can somehow keep on his back, but that will not in the least enable him to control any other horse. So a man who stupefies his physical body may use his astral senses to some extent, but that will in no way help him to manage another physical body in his next birth. The man who will take the far greater trouble of learning to ride properly can then manage any horse, and the man who develops his ego until it can manage one set of vehicles will be able to control any others that are given to him in [[Future|future]] lives. This latter course means real evolution; the other does not necessarily involve anything of the sort. It does not follow that everyone who is on the Path must have psychic powers; they are not absolutely necessary until a certain stage of it is reached. 284.        Short of the real psychic powers there are various other methods by which men endeavor to obtain some of the same results. One of these, for example, is the repetition of invocations. Charms and ceremonies may sometimes produce an effect; it depends upon the way in which they are performed. I have seen a man who was able to answer questions in rather a curious way; he first entranced himself by repeating charms over and over again, and his invocations not only influenced himself, but also attracted nature-spirits who went for the desired information, obtained it and put it into his mind. 285.        Lord Tennyson, by repeating his own name over and over again and drawing his [[Consciousness|consciousness]] further and further within himself, raised himself into touch with the ego, and then all this life seemed to him child’s play, and death nothing but the entrance into a greater life. 286.        The result of many repetitions may often be to throw oneself into the trance condition; but this is not a training of the ego. Its effects last at most only for one life, whereas the powers which result from real spiritual development reappear in subsequent bodies. The man who entrances himself by the repetition of words or charms may probably return as a medium or at least a mediumistic person in his next life, and it must be remembered that mediumship is not a power, but a condition. 287.        Such repetitions may easily lead on to the coarser physical mediumship (by which I mean the sitting for materialization and sensational phenomena of all sorts) which is frequently injurious to health. I do not know that mere trance-speaking injures [[The Body|the body]] quite so much, though considering the feebleness of the platitudes which are usually the staple of the communications it might certainly be thought likely to weaken the mind! 288.        Let us consider what it is that is required from a physical medium. When an entity on the astral plane, whether it be a dead man or a nature-spirit, wants to produce any result on dense physical matter-- to play on a piano for example, to cause raps, or to hold a pencil in order to write-- he needs an etheric body through which to work, because astral matter cannot act directly on the lower forms of physical matter, but requires the etheric matter as an intermediary to convey the vibrations from the one to the other-- much in the same way as a [[Fire|fire]] cannot be lighted with paper and coals alone; the wood is needed as an intermediary, otherwise the paper will all burn away without affecting the coal. 289.        That which constitutes in man a physical medium is a want of cohesion between the etheric and the dense parts of the physical vehicle, so that an astral entity can easily withdraw a good deal of the man' s etheric body and use it for his own purposes. Of course he returns it-- in fact its constant tendency is to flow back to the medium, as may be seen from the action of the materialized form-- but still the frequent withdrawal of part of the man's body in this way cannot but cause great disturbance and danger to his health. 290.        The etheric double is the vehicle of vitality, the life-principle, which is perpetually circulating through our bodies; and when any part of our etheric double is withdrawn that life-circulation is checked and its current broken. A terrible drain on vitality is then set up, and that is why the medium is so often in a state of collapse after a séance, and also why so many mediums in the long run become drunkards, having first taken to stimulants in order to satisfy the dreadful craving for support which is caused by this sudden loss of strength. 291.        It can never under any circumstances be a good thing for the health to be constantly subjected to such a drain as this, even though in some cases the more intelligent and careful “spirits” try to pour strength into their medium after a séance, in order to make up for the loss, and thus support him without absolute breakdown for a much longer period than would otherwise be possible. 292.        In cases of materialization, dense physical matter, probably chiefly in the form of gases or liquids, is frequently borrowed from the body of the medium, who actually decreases temporarily in size and weight; and when it takes place, naturally that is a further source of serious disturbance to all the functions. 293.        Of the mediums with whom I used to have sittings thirty years ago one is now blind, another died a confirmed drunkard, and a third, finding himself menaced apoplexy and paralysis, escaped with his life only by giving up séances altogether. 294.        Another form of materialization is that in which the astral body is temporarily solidified. The ordinary materializing “spirit” takes his material from the medium, because that, being already specialized, is more easily arranged into human form, and more readily condensed and molded than free ether would be. No one connected with any school of white magic would think it right to interfere with the etheric double of any man in order to produce a materialization, nor would he disturb his own if he wished to make himself visible at a distance. He would simply condense, and build into and around his astral body a sufficient quantity of the surrounding ether to materialize it, and hold it in that form by an effort of will as long as he needed it. 295.        When part of the etheric double is removed from the physical, as in the case of materialization of the ordinary kind, a connecting current is visible to any one capable of seeing matter in the etheric condition; but the method of connection with the astral body is entirely different, for nothing in the nature of a cord or current of astral matter joins the two forms. Yet it is difficult to express in terms of this plane the exact nature of the exceeding closeness of the sympathy between them; perhaps the nearest approximation we can get to the idea is that of two instruments tuned to exactly the same pitch, so that whatever note is struck upon one of them instantly evokes a precisely corresponding sound from the other. 296.        There is no harm in using will-power to cure diseases, so long as no money or other consideration is taken for what is done. There are several methods; the simplest is the pouring in of vitality. Nature will cure most diseases if the man can be strengthened and supported while she is left to do her work. This is especially true of the various nervous diseases which are so painfully common at the present day. The rest-cure, which is often advised for them, is quite the best thing that can be suggested, but recovery might often be greatly hastened if vitality were poured into the patient in addition. Any man who has surplus vitality may direct it by his will to a particular person; when he is not doing that, it simply radiates from him in all directions, flowing out principally through the hands. If a man is depleted of strength so that his spleen does not do its work properly, the pouring in of specialized vitality is often of the greatest help to him in keeping the machinery of the body going until he is able to manufacture it for himself. 297.        Many minor diseases can be cured merely by increasing the circulation of the vitality. A headache, for example, is generally due either to a slight congestion of blood, or to a similar congestion of the vital fluid; in either case a clairvoyant who can see the obstruction may deal with it by sending a strong current through the head, and washing away the congested matter. A man who cannot see can also produce this result, but since he does not know exactly where to direct this force he generally wastes a great deal of it. 298.        Sometimes people perform cures by imposing their own magnetic conditions upon others. This is based on the theory (which is quite correct) that all disease is in harmony of some sort, and that if perfect harmony can be restored the disease will disappear.