Hellsehen (Clairvoyance)

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is an adjustment of consciousness to one aspect or another of the object being viewed. Although the person in question has the aspect on which their attention is focused for the moment clearly in view, they will also always be generally aware of the other aspect. This is much like how, when we direct our gaze at an object in our hands, we still see the opposite wall of the room as a general background.

Another very remarkable change associated with the possession of this Sehkraft visual power is that the solid ground on which a person walks becomes transparent to a certain degree. This allows the observer to look into it to a considerable depth, much as we can currently see through clear water. This enables them to observe a creature burrowing under the ground, or to discover a coal or metal deposit that is not too far below the surface, among other things.

One could compare the limit of ätherisches Hellsehen etheric clairvoyance when looking through solid matter to the limitations imposed on us when looking through water or fog. We cannot see beyond a certain distance because the medium through which we look is not perfectly transparent.

The appearance of living beings is also greatly changed for the person who has developed their sight to this extent. The bodies of humans and animals are mostly transparent to them, so that they can observe the activity of the various internal organs and, to a certain degree, recognize some of their diseases.

This expanded vision also enables them to perceive, more or less clearly, various classes of elementaren elemental and other creatures. The bodies of these beings are unable to reflect light rays within the spectrum as it is commonly seen. Among the entities seen in this way will be some of the lower types of Naturgeister nature spirits, namely those whose bodies consist of the denser etheric matter. To this class belong Elfen elves, Gnomen gnomes, and Kobolde kobolds, about whom so much is still told today in the Scottish and Irish Highlands

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and in all remote villages of the world.

The great kingdom of the Naturgeister nature spirits is, on the whole, an astrales astral one. However, there are many of them who belong to the etheric part of the physischen Planes physical plane, and these come to the consciousness of ordinary people much more easily than the others. Thus, when reading ordinary fairy tales, we actually find frequent and very clear indications that we are dealing with this class of beings. Anyone who studies stories of sorcerers and fairies knows how often some mysterious ointment or magical remedy is mentioned. When someone rubs their eyes with it, it enables them to see the beings of the fairy realm wherever they may meet them.

The tales of the use of such a remedy and its effects occur so frequently and in such different parts of the world that there is certainly a truth hidden behind them, as is always the case in truly universal, popular traditions. Now, such an application alone could not possibly help someone achieve astrale Sehkraft astral vision, although certain ointments used to rub the whole body make it much easier for the Astralkörper astral body to leave the physical body in full consciousness. This was a fact known even into the Middle Ages, as seen from the evidence that came to light during some judicial investigations into sorcery and Hexenprozessen witch trials. Nevertheless, the rubbing of the physical eye may stimulate its sensitivity so that it becomes receptive to some of the Ätherschwingungen etheric vibrations.

In stories of this kind, it is then frequently told that the person who has used such a magic ointment betrays their new ability to a fairy being in some way. The latter then stabs the person in the eye and thus deprives them not only of etheric sight, but also of physical sight. See "The Science of Fairy Tales" by E. S. Hartland, in the "Contemporary Science" series, or also in any large collection of fairy tales. If the acquired sight had been astral, then such a procedure would have been perfectly useless, because no