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...due to the temporary application of a visual mechanism of incredible accuracy, the world of the infinitely small is seen so clearly. In the same way, or rather in the opposite way, by temporarily enlarging the form of the mechanism used, it becomes possible to broaden our gaze, in a physical sense as well as, hopefully, a moral one, much more than science has ever hoped was possible for man. Thus, the change in size is actually to be sought in the vehicle of consciousness of the student, and not in anything that lies outside of him. Therefore, the old book of the Oriental Likely referring to ancient Indian scriptures or the Yoga Sutras, which describe the "siddhis" or powers of becoming infinitely small or large. has described this case more accurately than we have.
Our friend will also find psychometry the ability to perceive the history of an object through touch and "Second Sight" in excelsis original Latin: in the highest degree among the abilities at his disposal. However, it will be better to treat these in a later chapter, as in almost all their manifestations, they include either clairvoyance in time or in space.
So far, although only in very general outlines, it has been described what a trained researcher, who possesses the full power of astral clairvoyance sight pertaining to the emotional or astral plane, would see in the infinitely larger world that opens up to him through this vision. But nothing has yet been said about the astonishing change in his altered way of thinking, which is brought about by the certainty, won through his own experience, of the existence of the soul, its survival after death, the effect of the law of karma the principle of cause and effect in human life, and other questions of the highest importance. One must feel the difference between the strongest intellectual conviction and the definite knowledge obtained through personal experience to properly appreciate it.
The experiences of the untrained clairvoyant, however, and it should be remembered that all European clairvoyants, except for a few, belong to this category, will fall far short of what I have tried to describe. They will fall short in various ways: in degree, in variety, or in duration, but especially in accuracy.
For example, in some people, the ability of clairvoyance will be permanent but very one-sided, extending to only one or two classes of the phenomena to be observed. These individuals are then perhaps endowed with an isolated, fragmentary power of higher vision, without apparently possessing the other powers of sight that are usually associated with it or are often even its precursors. One of my colleagues, for example, has possessed the gift throughout his whole life of seeing the etheric atom the fundamental unit of the etheric plane and atomic astral matter the finest state of matter on the astral plane, and of recognizing, both in darkness and in light, how they permeate everything else. Yet he has only rarely seen entities living beings of the subtler worlds whose bodies consist of the much more easily visible lower etheric or denser physical matter, and in any case, he is not constantly capable of perceiving them. He simply possesses this special ability, seemingly without reason, and without one being able to recognize any connection to anything else. Aside from the fact that it proves to him the existence of these atomic planes and shows their arrangement, one cannot easily see how it benefits him now. Yet it is there, and it is a pledge for greater things to come, for further powers that are yet to be developed.