Copyright, March, 1942 By Supremo Grand Lodge 01 A.M.O.R.C., Inc.

Life and Eternity

Life is existence. This existence is bounded by a future eternity toward which all of us move, and the unknown whence we carne. Between these two lines-the eternity of the future and the one of the past-are the few brief years which we claim as our own. Into this short span we must crowd our hope, love, ambition, and achievements. Power, wealth, wisdom, and understanding are not the gifts of life, for life has only two things to offer you or any man or woman. The first is CONSCIOUSNESS. the faculty of knowing that you are YOU, and the second is THE MIGHTY LA WS AND RESOURCES OF NATURE. These two can make all the others possible. They are instruments with which we can probe beneath the surface and reveal the treasures of happiness and affluence which most men and women trample beneath their feet as they stumble through the years, their eyes fastened upon a blind future. As for consciousness, every human has it, but most of them dissipate it in self-pity, false appraisal of their own importance, and id le wishes that a fortunate combination of circumstances will suddenly bring them ease, freedom from strife, andthe power of wisdom they envy in others. Also, all humanity has the equal right to direct the forces and hidden powers of nature, but most of us lack the patience and initiative to take time from the fleeting pleasures of the day to seek in these mysteries the lasting contentment and a bundance which they conceal. Opportunities are made, not found. The fisherman who made a successful haul did so because he pu.t himself where fish were apt to be, and prepared himself

for a probable eventuality. No physician ever attained success in his profession by excluding himself from humanity and its ailments. No prospector ever found rich veins of ore by sailing the seven seas. No man or woman ever found the real joys of living by drifting with the tide of the times. Life can be successive steps toward the highest ideals you can imagine, each one rich in beautiful experiences and the fullness of living, or it can be a hideous memory, punctuated with the recollection of false starts and disillusionments. Remember, life owes you nothing; you are indebted to it for the opportunity it has glven you.

Self-Examination
There is nothing like a pointed question for compelling thought, causing reflection and self-analysis, if we attempt to answer it fairly, even to ourselves. Therefore, throughout this booklet questions will appear which you should, without hesitation, be able to answer to your own inner satisfaction. If you are not certain of your answers, if they do not bring that immediate intuitive response, that feeling that you are right, it reveals that your personal philosophy of life is not as stable as it should be; that inwardly you have not come to a conclusion regarding some of life's greatest problerns, problems which affect you and every other human being. It is the other purpose of the Rosicrucian teachings to help men and women establish a sound philosophy of living that can and wiU bring them the greatest good in life.

QUESTIO ness?

O E: By what do you measure happi-

Do Y ou Make Y our W orld

or

Does the W orld M ake Y ou?

Environment teaches us a great lesson. It reveals that there are two courses for us to ollow in life. One is negative, limited, even dangerous; the other is positive, unlimited, masterful. We can either be acted upon, which is the negative course, or do the acting, which is the positive course. The blades o grass in your lawn are examples o things which are acted upon. They have no choice o surroundings. They cannot avoid the sun's scorching rays or the chilling frosts, or seek the cooling waters of a nearby stream. They are reared in an environment in which they have no choice, and over which they have no control. They are at the mercy o the elements, and if they flourish there is no assurance that a changing ate may not the next day or month rob them of the strength it gave them. Any gardener or nurseryman would hesitate to predict the eventual fate o a lawn exposed to the changing moods of the elements without the guiding intelligence of mano Millions of humans are like the simple blades of grass. Humanity springs up in every corner of the earth and in every extreme of environment. Men struggle for existence in the blistering sun o the tropics, the paralyzing cold o the polar circles, on top o mountains and on the rolling plains. But it is to be deplored that most o them permit themselves to be acted upon by their environments, and that they consequently bear its mark. It not only affects their physique and the color and texture of their skin, eyes, and hair, but even their thinking and mode of living. As the eminent writer, John Hodgdon Bradley, said: "The fabric of human life has be en woven on earthly looms."

Many are successful only because their surroundings, like a rich soil alive with potential gestation, bear fruit without their efforts. But unfortunate are the many who are planted in a sterile environment which, like a poor soil wanting in fertility, brings forth an everyday monotonous existence, lacking in the beauty and splendor of a radiantly happy life. Humans that are left to the mercy of environment bring about strange effects in society and civilization. To again quote Mr. Bradley: "The works and thought of the Montanan are not those of the Mississippian. Their outlooks on life are different, largely because nature has given metals to the one and denied them to the other." But men and women need not be denied by nature because of where they were born, for they can bring into their province the things they need and desire, or wish to comprehend. You can shake off the shackles of old habits, the association and influence of people around you with limited minds, biased opinions, and outworn ideas. Therefore, why push against a stone wall? Why try to change day into marble? You can, if you but know the simple secret, take your present environment and make it produce rich returns, for everything has its purpose when you learn the Cosmic plan.

UNEMPLOYMENT-of

Man or Mind?

Soon the world will be facing again a great economic and social crisis. Why? Because there wiIJ have been too much concern over the employment of man and too little concern over the employment of his mind. What wiIJ the thousands who will be in line in front of the gates of milis, factories, and doors of large corporations, be waiting for? For employment? Yes, eventually. But tirst they are dependent upon some individual or group of individuals employing their minds, their inner creative faculties, to set into motion the business, the demands. which will give these thousands work. Man must employ his mind before he can ernploy his hands or his trade. Every act worth while is precede'd by thought and the exercise of the mental faculties. Thousands tomorrow, if they learn to employ the innate faculties of their minds, wiIJ not tind their hands or feet idle. They will not be subject to the whims and fancies of those few who do think, plan, and control the destiny or our present civilization.

QUESTION TWO: Just what do you really think is the purpose of lije, and are you living according to that purpose?

A Straight Line ls the Shortest Path Between Two Points

The first practical step forward toward atta inment is the establishment of an ideal. It must be a sound ideal; one that is in accord with reason and the law of nature. An ideal which violates common sense, or the laws of nature, or the decency of society, is false, and the road one travels to reach it is filled with the inevitable pitfalls of disgrace, misfortune, and disillusionment. The man or woman whose ideal is to live for today finds life slowly becoming drab, dull and sordid, for the lack of change becomes irritating. The newness of living wears off after youth has waned. Life's commonplace functions which were at first thrilling surprises become routine. The mind of man must create new worlds to be conquered, new fields of human endeavor to be explored. The fundamental joy of life is expectancy, and the highest is realization. Nothing pleases like building mental pictures and finally realizing them as realities-dreams that have come true through your own efforts. othing brings as much happiness to the soul of aman or woman as the satisfaction of looking upon his own handiwork well done. When the mind has established its ideal, that ideal draws us forward like a magneto Each day that we approach it brings us added pleasure; but the line to that ideal must be straight, and the straight line between you and your fondest hopes and desires is knowledge. Thousands, yes, millions, ha ve failed to reach their goals, to atta in their ideal s in life, beca use of detours, wrong starts, mistakes, costly errors. Others

have finally reached their goals too late in life to enjoy them. Look back over your life today. If you were to live it again would you do many of the things you have done? Certainly noto Then why wait until tomorrow arrives to reveal to you the mistakes that you are making today? You can be directed. You can be shown how to avoid these things that would hinder yOU.

Do You Face These Problems?

Have you a faulty memory? Are some of the finest experiences of your life lost to you forever behind the closed doors of forgetfulness? The improvement of memory is a simple process, but it might as well be complex if you do not know it. Are you forever promising yourself to stop that orbegin this, and yet seem to lack the necessary wiIl to enforce your wishes? Are you subject to the dictatorial influence and domination of others, held down by the arrogance and self-interest of those around you? These conditions of life can be overcome. You can think, read, and write-these are the simple requirements. y ou have them; therefore, let the Rosicrucians teach you how to adapt them to your life and its problems as they have taught thousands of others for centuries.

QUESTION TRREE: Do you actually know what your latent talents or slumbering abilities are? QUESTION FOUR: Do you act only according to suggestions made by those around you, and do you let the affairs 01 the day suggest the things you should do? QUESTION FIVE: Do you knoio how to aioaken the creatiue [crees 01 your mind, to arouse the dormant intuitiue ideas unthin you?

The Unknown You

You have often heard of the inner radiations of self, the slumbering being within, the subconscious mind, and a host of other terms implying and declaring that man possesses an inner intelligence that is capable of great attainment if he but knows how to direct it. A discussion of the subject with a friend or acquaintance would perhaps elicit the usual, "pooh-pooh, nothing to it." These remarks may ha ve discouraged you, made you somewhat self-conscious. But the masses ha ve always ridiculed and decried the unusual, the new. They stoned Galileo, imprisoned Columbus, laughed at Marconi, ridiculed the Wright brothers, would not listen to Bell's experimental telephone, and were going to lynch a professor because he dared to discuss the topic of evolution. For cen turies the Rosicrucians and other schools of advanced thought have had to extend information regarding the mysteries of life cautiously because people do not want to believe. However, now it is an indisputa ble scientific fact that there is an inner intelligence which is capable of miracles in the affairs of humans if they learn its use. Even the most conservative scientists in orthodox laboratories have proved that a hidden power of mind exists. Read what Dr. Carrel, while with the Rockefeller Institute of Science, stated:
"Knowledge of the external world may come lo man through other channels than sense organs. It is certain that lhought may be transmitted from one individual to another. even if they are separated by long distance. These facts which belong to the new science of metaphysics must be accepted as they are:' Those individuals who cry "bunk and bosh" are placing themselves in the ludcrous position of opposing the world's ioremost thinkers and erninent scientists. The greatness or life. the fulfillment of your fondest hopes, depend upon your understanding of this innate power and intelligence of self and of nature. The Rosicrucians have been rationally and practically teaching the methods of contacting it to thousands or intelligent men and women throughoul the world for centui ies.

;..

Try This Experiment

Great minds of the past, as well as our modern scientists, ha ve conducted many experiments to prove that man has two nervous systems. First is the commonIy known, spinaI nervous system; second, the sympathetic nervous system. It was originally named sympathetic because, in a very strange way, it sympathetically influences the actions of the spinaI nervous system and thus the human body and mind. This sympathetic nervous system contains an energy of a very high vibratory nature reIated to the psychic functions and faculties of man, his emotions, instincts, and intuition-or the inner nature of mano This energy radiates principally from the first two fingers and thumb of each hand, and can be used to accompIish many useful things ioithin and without our bodies. You can simply prove to yourself that you ha ve such an infinite power and that you can increase it if you desire. Conduct the following easy experiment for self-proof.
C".3~ Place your five fingers of both hands together, in such a way that they point away from the body. Be sure that the palms of the hands are separat ed by about 111., inches (see iIIustration No. L). Do not press the t ips of the fingers too strongly, just firmly. Hol d them this way for three minutes and you will notice that heat is being generated in the open space between the palms. That wi ll be only ordinary body heat. No\V take a long breath, hold it for a few seconds, and as you take this energy into your lungs, you will flnd the heat increasing between the palms so that the flesh of the palms begins to tingle. Next, take the thumb of the right hand flrmly in the grip of the thumb and first two flngers of the left hand. (See iIIustration No. 2.) Rave the other fingers of the right hand extended, so that they do not touch the left hand. Do not squeeze the thumb. Keep this grip for three minutes; then take one long breath and hold it while you feel, not just the ordinary body warmth, out the positi ve ener gy generated in the right thurnb, passing to the left thumb, and going up the left armo This k nd of energy s passing from your body-dissipating itself hourly. You can increase it, as these experiments have proved. The Rosicrucians can teach you how to use it for mental and physca l efficiency. This is but one of the many simple demonstrations of those natural laws which are taught by the Rosicrucians. 'This psychological experiment must NOT be confused with a belief in any supernatural powers or any form of superstition, necromancy or prognostication.

. (This experome nt .a nd illustrahted by tion are copyrC'9) AMOR.

LEFT HAND

No. I No. 2

RIGHT THUMB

DISTANCE BETWEEN PALMS ONE ANO ONEHALF INCHES

l

FINGERS OF RIGHT HAND EXTENDED SO AS NOT TO TOUCH LEFT HAND HT HAND TURNEO (PALM OF RR10GYOUR BODY) TOWA

nomena.

. romises .of (This experi!"ent tt 15 meracl~n~alsni~;I~ :sychol09lcal

eerre and

p h ysiological or uncanny

phej test.

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