MASTER MONOGRAPH

NEOPHYTE SECTION
Thls monog"eph elways remdru the property of tlc
Supreme Grand Iadge ol A.l[. O. R. C. It la not
purchased by, but loaned tq the receivlng member.

ROSICRUCIAN ORDER
AMORC

Atrium Atrium
1 I
Monograph
4 VII A Monograph
4

875
RE6ISTERED IN U.S. PATENT OFFICE
iels eecrsrrreo rxrouorcur raE woIDl
lfttt!o li u't.1.
tAxolc liltll

?ho tn.ttGr ontdncd hGr.ln l! otrlclally h.ucd thtluth tha SuDrcnc Councll ol tha
A, U. O. R, C. undcr thc Gmblem above, ?hlch sa! retrlte-r€d ln the Unlted Stat.! Prt.nt
Olltc. ,or the Durrrolc of protecttnE all thc "prht€d; cntreved, typewrttten, and Dhoto-
r?aDhtc coDlcr df o?lclallv irescrlbeil. and copvHghted monographe,-altssertatlons, lcfentlf,c
-dlicrims, lllustratlons.
6osiulatlorir. DhtlosoDhlcial- dlscourlea. acailemiE studles,(The end
ahartr" as duthortzetl bv the ImDemtor ol A. M. O. R. C. alove emblem and nme o(
the Order m als reilstered in countrle! thrcu8hout the world.) All metter5 her€ln
contelned are strlctlv cbnf,dentlal to the member rtcelvtnc. and are lmDarted only u atr
lncldent to membemhlD. The ownemhlD of. the leBsl tltle. and the rlaht ol Dot8eulon to
thts monocmDh tB and lhell remaln ln-the Supreme Grand Ldge of A. M. OaR. C. and lt
itratt oe ie-tufrria1o it u-oon rti ieouest. The 6nt€nts hereln ard loared to be uled for thc
mte ana eictuiiie-inroirfiatton of the receivlnr-8umember and not otherulBe. Any other usa
oi atiempiid use- doea; tp$ {eto, termlnate rithts o( th€ member, and ls a vlolatlon
o( the Statute8 of this Order.
A- M- o. R- c. ls the onlv orsulatlon suthorlzcd to use thc Rerllterad namc atrd
rvmuotr. iura iire ImpCraior'her iole rtght to gBnt the use of them to other suled ort8nl'
atlons or movementr.
 THE CONCURRENCE
This Week's Consideration of a Famous Opinion
VVV
{Perhaps.ma.n'98.regtqt.enemyis1risowns9t{-a99egtrfu
tion, his false beliefs in his perceptioql the things he I K.'..\ffi
'
ruur, hu"tt, tastes, feels, and smells. He has. an over- €r(' v "u
;ffii;;"f l""ira"r.L i,rir,-"
"".rt""v
of his percep- fl
tions and hi, int"mt"l-"t[; ;f th;. in other'words,
ii ir ain.riitodir"b6" the human mind of the opinion that "seeingis
it ir made you ihat *e p"'.,t"]tu-11t]I
9{te plain to you.that,*t
maau quite perceive only
believing." In this -o"onraph it-is
tlri.. monog?ph
pictrr.r"of things, not the-things themselves. The_eminent plilosoPher,and scienttst'
il;;ia H;*;, hid -r"h to say-on this subiect,_and we quote from him below. When
;; [";;;ilil;d- til''iiii'oiii,i;;;;'s'"ih
what he wrote.
you wi]l undoubtedly concur with

It seemseuident, that rnen are carried, by a natural instinct or prepos'

session, to repose faith in their senses; and that, without ang reasoning,
or euen almost before the use of reason, we always suppose an external
unit)erse, which depends not on our perception, but would exist, though
we and. euery sensible creature were absent or annihilated. Euen the
animal creation are gouerned. bg a like opinion, and preserue this belief
of external obiects, in all their thoughts, designs, and actions'
It seems also euident, th,at, when men follow this blind and powerful
instinct of nature, theg alwags suppose the uerg images, presented bg the
senses, to be the external obiects, and neuer entertain ang suspicion, that
the one are nothing but representations of the other. This oery table,
which uJe see white, and which we feel hard, is belieued to exist, in'
dependent of our perception, and to be something external to our mind,
which perceiues it. Our presence bestows not being on it; our absence
d.oes not annihilate it. lt preserues its existence uniforrn and entire, in'
dependent of the situation of intelligent beings, who perceiue or contern'
plate it.
_DAVID HUME, ITII-1776
Neophyte Secti MORC ,The Rosicrucian Order

FIRST ATRIUM NUMBER FOUR PAGE ONE

Respected Neophyte:
14re continue our discussion of vibrations and Spirit energy.
INTERPRETING Everything which exists in this world is sensed by us
VIBRAIIONS or known to us through vibratlons which are in every-
thing and which reach our consciousness. The moment
these vibrations reach us, whether by sight or by ear, sme1l, taste,
or feeling, wo translate them into understandable impressions. For
instance, Vou would be surprised to think that anyone could look at
you-reading this monograph, with the sheets of paper in your hsnfls-
and say that you were not holding sheets of paper in your hands. Yet
if a person who has always lived in the wild parts of the worId, and who
had never seen anything of mod.ern civilization, were brought into your
presence at the present time he would look at you and what you were
holding and would claim that you had in your hands what seemed. like a
piece of white leaf or membrane. He would say this because such is the
only form of sheet material he is familiar with upon which writing can
be placed.
0n the other hand, if a person who had been living in some country
where he had been taught that anything a person sits on is a table
would look at you sitting on a chair and say that you were sitting on
a table, you might smile at him. He would see that very same thing that
others see. Ihe vibrations of the form of the chair passing through
his eyes would give him the same mental picture that others would
have. But he would interpret the picture he received according to his
understanding. He would caII the chair a table and possibly call tho
table a chair.
However, the mere fact that he called the chair a table in all
sincerity and with complete understanding on his part and in good
faithmade the statement as though it were truo, would in no wise turn
your chair into a table. It would not affect the real existence of the
thing whatever, except to HIM, or so far as his consciousness of it
was concerned.
So we can see by these two illustrations and by hundrods more
which you can easily invent that things of the material world have a
certain existence to us which is dependent upon our consciousness, our
understanding, our education, and our beliefs.
We aII know how wonderful the faith of a littte child is;
how he thi.nks that his parents are a1l-wise, wonderfully
good, and magical in the power to provide anything or
accomplish anything. This child's faith affects his reasoning
Neophyte $s6d66-AMORC The Rosicrucian Order

FIRST ATRIUM NUMBER FOUR PAGE TWO

and his understanding for many years of his Iife, but it does not
affect the actual conditions sumounding his parents. The child may
believe that his father or mother can secure anything he desires, but
this does not in any way enable them to do so. The child may also
believe that aII men and women are good, like his parents, and that there
is no evil in the world. While this does have a great effect upon him
and may tend to make him more honest, morehopeful, optimistic, kindly,
considerate, and more ideal in everyWay, it certainly does not have
any effect upon conditions in the world.
As the child's mind casts off one faith or belief after another
and takes on others, two things are caused to come about: The child is
caused to have a different conception of things as they exist and to
have a different relatlonship or different set of experiences with the
world. Iherefore, as we go through life, this obJective phase of mind
is constantly vacillating and changing in its interpretations and. be-
liefs and consequently affects our relationship to the world and con-
sciousness of things as they are.
PART lWO
In our previous discussions we brought to your attention what
we know of things-that is, material thing5-fhpqugh the vibrations
which they give forth. We want to explain to you that schools of
science outside our Order have Iong ago recognized the fact that
vibrations give forth impressions. Scientists have found this out or
discovered it through their experiments, but that way of finding a fact
does not atways exptain it. Often in medicine, specialists take the
symptoms of a disease to find the germ, often overlooking the laws or
principles which wiII explain the cause of the disease. In physics,
when any new phenomena are observed, physiclsts keep on making similar
experiments, hoping they will find laws which make these thlngs pos-
sible. fn this way many scientists principally use this inductive
method-they work from the particular to the general.
THE DEDUCTIVE Rosicrucians have always tried to take ln both the
APPROACH inductive and deductive approach. Through the deductive,
we proceed from the general laws to their particular
purposes and functions. The universe, we have learned, does not consist
of Just a multitude of separate things. It is a united whole. lYhen
one comes to have a fair comprehension of this whole, he begins to dis-
cover gaps; parts of it seem missing to his understanding. This in-
spires him to search for these parts or effects. It is one thing
to analyze the various things around you, that you know exist,
for the purpose of finding their causes; it is still another to
know that there are effects which must exist and which should
be sought. This latter is the principal Rosicrucian objective.
Neophyte $s61i6n-A M O R C-The Rosicrucian Order

FIRST ATRIUM NUMBER FOUR PAGE THREE

Now if you rearize that arr matter is in a state of vibration

and that it is the vibrations of matter which u,e l(nelr/-then you will
have learned a wonderful lesson. so we want to make this one polnt
clear to you tonight. Lret us proceed very carefulty. you say-and
often say-'rr know a thing exists because r sEE it. r' Now Just what do
we mean by that? l{hen r say ur see it, r mean, in the first prace,
that L see it; or, in other words, my mind, my se1f, sees it. It does
not mean my body or my brain, but my seLf. rn the second prace, the
word see means that there is a picture in the consciousness. Ihere is
no way by which we can be sure that when we see a thing, it is realty
there or that what we see rearry is. of course, we can test our eye-
sight and be sure whether a thing exists or not by going to the thing
and touching it, tasting it, and smelring it, to prove that it existi,
but how can we be sure that our feering, tasting, or smelring is
absolutely dependable ?

However, laying aside these points for future ressons, we wilr

say that if we had no sense of feeling, tasting, smelring, or hearing,
we would have to depend upon our seeing to rearn that things exist.
So we would have pictures in our consciousness and every time we had a
picture of anything we would say that thing exists.
Now think one aoment how unreliable that is. Have not all of us
dreamed at night, and in those dreams have we not had pictures; have
we not in our dreams seen buildings, praces, persons Just as crearry,
just as rearistically, and just as full of rife and coror as anything we
have seen in our awakened conditions? Are we ready to say that arr the
things we have seen in our dreams are rearry existing? No, Fratres
and sorores, we wourd not say that. we could be sure at times, perhaps,
because we may know that they do exist from some other impression,-but
this ls not so in every case.
l{hen you see a thing while awake it is not the thing itself which
your mind realizes, but a picture of it. r.ret us take the case of a
brind man and anaryze his position in rife. He may rook toward green
flelds and see nothing. Does that prove to him that a green field does
not exist? 0n the other hand, whenyou or r rookat agreen fierd it
is not the green fierd which our mind rearizes, but a picture of it.
The picture is made upon the retina, the screen of the eye, through the
rens of the eye, and. it is this picture which the mind realizes. rhe
question is, therefore, what makes the picture on the retina of the eye?
I wish to urge you strongly to spend the coming week
thinking over such questions as this during your spare time.
I{hen you think deepry over such questions you are bound to come
to some very startling realizations.
Neophyte Section _A M O R C--The Rosicrucian Order

FIRST ATRIUM NUMBER FOUR PAGE FOUR

I suppose that nearly every member of our organization has

attended motion pictures. As I have previousJ-y said, there is a
screen behind the lens of each eye. Ihis screen is cafled the retina.
Pictures are thrown upon that screen through the lens just as pictures
are thrown upon the screen from the motion-picture projector.
You may ask what it is that comes from the motion-picture
proJector, passes through the air, and leaves an impression on the
screen. Physlcists will say that it is light. So it is, but what is
Iight but vibrations? And so we explain that what makes the picture
on tlre retina-picture screen of the eye, Iike that which makes the im-
pressiion on the motion-picture screen, is VIBRATIONS. (See illustra-
Lion on fina] page of this monograph. ) We even say that these vibrations
which make the picture on the retina of the eye are vibrations that
come from the thing that we THINK WE SEE. So, after all, when we
think we see a thing, lt is not the thing itself but rather the picture
'Lhat the vibrations of the thing make upon the retina of the eye.
Now, if something interferes with the vibrations from the thing
we are looking at, then our picture of it wil} be changed but the
thing itself WIIJIT NOT CHANGE. If I put blue glasses over my eyes, then
the picture on the retina of my eye will be predominately tinted blue
whether the thing is actuaLly blue or not. I do not change the color
of the thing itself, but I change the vibrations entering the eye.
]lefore the vibrations coming from the thing reachmy eyes, I change the
vibrations s:lightIy by interposing a glass which filters or deletes
certain vibrations. Then the altered vibrations reach the retina of
my eye and I have a picture of a condition which seems real but' is not
actually so. Iherefore, what we see depends upon the vibrations we
receive and not upon the existence of the thing. This law plays a very
important part in all mystical work and soon you will appreciate the
wonderful scope of this evenlng's lesson.
In addition to the fact that the nature of the vibrations we
receive determines the sort of impression we wiLl have, there is another
important fact-namely, our interpretation of these vibrations. We
have just told you that the vibrations of light, for instance, pass
'l,hrough the lens of the eye and cast a picture on the retina of the eye.
lVe have also said that the retina is like the motion-picture screen in
1;he theater, upon which Iight vibrations cast a picture after having
passed through the lens of the projecting machine. When you are in the
i,heater, yorl have no idea of what is going on behind the screen.
There may be a number of men and women back there arranging
the next scene, or the next act, or the next stage-setting. You
trre only concerned with what you see upon the screen or on
its surface.
Neophyte Section4 M O R C-The Rosicrucian Order

FIRST ATRIUM NUMBER FOUR PAGE FIVE

Iret us continue our analogy and say that the retina of the eye
is very much Iike the screen in the motion-picture theater, except that
the retina is a curved surface and not a flat plane like the screen in
the theater; and instead of the retina's being a very thin sheet of some-
thing, it has a very rough surface composed of rods and cones of skin
or membrane protruding toward the lens f or a littIe distance-thousands
and thousands of these to every quarter of a square inch and aII of
them are connected with nerves running back to the retina and finally
meeting in one great cable of nerves called the optic nerve. I am
merely stating this in a pictorial or schematic way now aud not accord-
ing to the technical terms of physiology. It is as though thousands
and thousands of electric wires were connected to every inch of surface
of the big screen in the theater, and aII of these wires finally came
together andwere twisted into one great cable, and this cable passed
on to a part of the brain that was concerned with the reception of
impressions.
THE MENTAT In other words, as the picture is thrown upon the retina
IMAGE of the eye, the light vibrations of the picture cause
electrical disturbances in these projecting points of the
retina screen. These electrical disturbances are carried by the nerves,
like electrical vibrations, through the great optic cable to that part
of the brain where the vibrations crowd together and make another im-
pression. The impression made on the brain at that point. is not the
impression of a picture but the impression of thousands of interrupted
andvaried vibrations, causing a stimulus of the nerve centers of that
section of the brain.
Here a great and wonderful thing takes place which we can only
understand by analogy. At this section of the brain where the vibra-
tions are received as a stimulus, the stimulus is translated into an
understandable picture-the mental image. Ihe translation, or inter-
pretation, of the vibrations goes on rapidly, as vibrations continue to
pulsate and stimulate the centers of the brain; and the translating and
interpretation of these rapid stimulations are based upon our ed.uca-
tion, our comprehension, and our understanding.
Therefore, in the ultimate analysis, what we see and comprehend
or what we hear depends upon our translation, or interpretation, of the
vibrations we receive. tr'or that reason, whenwe lookat a thing that we
have never seen before, the vibrations reach our brain area, but because
of lack of education or lack of knowledge about the thing that
is interpreted there, we have no name for it; we have no con-
sciousness or understanding of its real nature, or use, or
intent, and therefore we may be looking at the thing and stiII
not know it. From the mystical point of view, when we do not
Neophyte Section ,The Rosicrucian Order

FIRST ATRIUM NUMBER FOUR PAGE SIX

know a thing, our seeing lt does not prove anything to us, because we
learn from many experiences that an impression of a picture in our
mind does not prove that the thing is as we interpret it or as we believe
it to be.
The illustration indicates how our mind
individually interprets vibrations coming
to it whlch may have no corresponding
reality outside of our minds. What do these
ink blots resemble to you? What mental image
do they form in your consciousness?
In our next monograph we will relate
these principles to sone everyday experiences.
UntiI then,
May you experience Cosmic Peace.

FraternalIy,
YO1IR CIJASS MASTER
 The Weekly Application
Whatsoever thou resoluest to do, do it quic\ly, Def er not till the
euening what the morning may accomplish.-UNro Tnee I Gnaxr

Bot} these diagrams are to be studled ln

connection with each other. Llght waves &re
refracted, bent, by the cornea, ttte anterior
".1.<6/.
...,
aqueous humor, and t}te (crystalline) lens.
tr.
al.;.t.,,,,,
(Note position of these in opposite diagram.)
'.'.. ..rI II II II fn the diagram below, you will see that tltls
refraction causes the parallel rays of light
.-.-.-.-.-.-1 l i iosi*r coming from an object to cross each otler in
Rov llll the eye. When they cross each other, an ln-
llll
ittl version of the image takes place-tltat ls, tJre
picture is reversed in position on the retina of
the eye. But when the impulses from the
optic nerve reach the consciousness, it causes
us to have t}te visual sensatlon of the image
being erect,
The above dlagram shows t}te essentlal parts R.v
of the eye and tleir relationship to each other.
It also depicts light waves falling on a ma- Principal Rry
tertal object and having their nature cha^nged. Obiect
It is these changes in tJle nature of light waves
whlch, when transmltted through the eyes to
the brain, cause us to have the sensatlons
of different visual forms or, ln other words,
Ro{racliv6
SurfacE
{"
^...^
"y
tlings tf,tat we see.
 Summary of This Monograph
VVV
Below is a summary of the important principles of this monograph. It contains
the essential
.ti"*""i, ;hl;ti y",1 ;h";l,l ffiti"rs"t1 4tt9r y-ou have.cargTYtly
-T"1te c;11Plete^moro-
you
;;;ti. trv to recail as many as you ian of the important p-ointssuir*ary read' Ihen reao tn$
.6iff,i1i7;"d';;'if;#t;"'r. i"'.g"tt"; u'ry. el.oiefer toihis during the ensuing
week to refresh your memory'

{J Consciousness isthat state of mind which interprets the vibrations of matter received
through the senses. rt causes you to have a mental picture of the thing you sensed'

{ youn coNsclousNEss does not see the thing itself which you realize, but a

picture of it.

$ Interference with the vibrationsof a thing we see, hear, feef smell, or taste will not
change the natufe of the thing but will change the picture of it in our consciousness'

are affected by our understanding and interpretation of things within ouf

cor'
{ V" which is out'
sciousness. That beyond our consciousness, which we cannot perceive,
side of our experience, has no reality to us'