“I do not consider either the just, or the wicked, to be in a supreme state, but to be, every one of them, states of the sleep which the soul may fall into in its deadly dreams of good and evil, when it leaves Paradise following the serpent.” –William Blake, “A Vision of the Last Judgment,” public domain

I agree with William Blake entirely regarding this. –Alice B. Clagett

Image: “The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun,” by William Blake, created between 1805 and 1810, in Wikimedia Commons … https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/William_Blake_003.jpg … public domain … DESCRIPTION: A golden, winged woman, about to give birth, is kneeling with arms defensively outstretched, looking up at a big, muscular, beige-colored dragon hovering menacingly in the air just over her head. The dragon has human legs and arms, ram’s horns, wings, and a tail; it is wearing a simple, spiked crown.

. . . . .

• ON SOULLESS MEN
  • An Incarnation in Which the Personality is Debased Adds Nothing to the Soul’s Knowledge
  • Multidimensionality and the Doctrine of Soulless Men
  • The Hellworld Experience of Soulless Incarnations 
  • The Hellworld Experience of Normal Incarnations
  • A Way to Mitigate the Hellworld Experience Before Passing On
  • Rending of Antahkarana … the Kundalini, or Central Vertical Power Current, or ‘Silver Cord’ … of the Debased Personality Severs the Person from His Soul 
  • The Antahkarana Is the Bridge Between the Lower Mental Body and the Higher Mental Body
  • The ‘Second Death’: The Kâma Rûpa … the Desire Body or Ghost … of a Normal Personality Decomposes after Death of the Physical Body
  • Contacting a Person’s Antahkarana During Sleep Is Like Contacting the Kâma Rûpa … the Desire Body or Ghost … After They Pass On
  • Conversations with a Person’s Antahkarana While They Are Asleep Are Talks with the Desire Body Rather Than the Personality
  • Mental Suggestions to a Person’s Antahkarana While They Are Asleep Are Bound to Fail, as the Waking Personality Overwrites These Suggestions Through Volition and Predisposition
  • Disuse of the Antahkarana Causes Its Atrophy
  • On Asking the Soul to Reconnect to Oneself
  • Esoteric Philosophy Holds That the Antahkarana Must Be Preserved, So as to Attain Enlightenment
  • Exoteric Philosophy Holds That the Antahkaran Must Be Sundered, So As to Establish Oneness with Âtmâ or Soul
  • Premature Sundering of the Antahkarana May Cause Loss of Ego
  • Psychic Surgery to Sever the Antahkarana May Cause Soullessness
  • Alice’s Perilous Tales: Story about Having My Antahkarana Severed Through Psychic Surgery, and How This May Be Healed
  • Antahkarana Naturally Dissolves When, in a State of Nirvana, the Higher Triad Becomes One with the Absolute
  • Is the Soul of a ‘Soulless Man’ Really Doomed?
  • Is the Hellworld Experience as Devastating on the Physical Plane as It is in the Afterlife?
  • The Vampire in Human Form and the Doctrine of the Soulless Man
  • What Becomes of the Higher Ego When the Antahkarana Is Severed?
  • “What Kind of an Animal Is a Human Creature Born Soulless?”
  • The Kâma-Mânasic Spook as ‘Dweller on the Threshold’ 
  • Unlaid Ghost of Prior Evil Incarnation Haunts Newly Incarnated Person?
  • Multiple Personality Disorder and the Doctrine of the Soulless Man
  • Advaita and the Doctrine of the Soulless Man
• SUMMARY BY MADAME BLAVATSKY
  • Two Kinds of Soulless Men
  • More on Multiple Personality Disorder
  • Chanting Aum with a Feeling of Devotion to God May Redeem the Multiple Personality
  • Be Aware that Each Step in Life … Whether Downward or Upward on the Spiritual Path … Generates Causes That Will Manifest Results in This or a Future Lifetime
• MORE INFORMATION
• DEFINITIONS

Dear Ones,

Here is a passage on men who lack Souls, by the Theosophist Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. Subheadings, bolding, bulleting, and paragraphing are my own.

I used bolding throughout, with the idea that the reader pressed for time might glance through the bolded text and arrive at an idea of the main points of the blog. I had some difficulty with the extent of the bolding, because that made printing the blog expensive; so I changed …

• the Madame Blavatsky text that I bolded to a black font,
• and the unbolded portion of her text to a medium grey font.

My comments sometimes are enclosed in square brackets for clarity … [  ] … and are interspersed throughout.

• I used violet for my comments that are bolded,
• and medium blue for my regular comments. 

There is also bracketed text in Madame Blavatsky’s opus; I have changed her brackets to angle brackets … <  > … so that they may be distinguished even if the blog is printed in black and white.

…………………………………………..
ON SOULLESS MEN
from Link: “The Secret Doctrine,” Vol. 3 of 4 by H. P. Blavatsky (2018), Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved 13 July 2018, from https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/56880 ..

An Incarnation in Which the Personality is Debased Adds Nothing to the Soul’s Knowledge

“And now we must speak of the tenet of the ‘second death.’ [which occurs when, after physical death, the disintegrating astral shell has purified enough to allow the Ego to separate out from it and return slowly to consciousness in the heaven realms]

“What happens to the Kâmic [desire-filled; relating to animal passions which promote Soul ignorance or ‘delusion’] Human Soul, which is always that of a debased <pg 521> and wicked man or of a soulless person? This mystery will now be explained.

“The personal Soul in this case, viz., in that of one who has never had a thought not concerned with the animal self, having nothing to transmit to the Higher, or to add to the sum of the experiences gleaned from past incarnations which its memory is to preserve throughout eternity—this personal Soul becomes separated from the Ego. It can graft nothing of self on that eternal trunk [by this may be meant Buddhi, the eternal, Spiritual Soul?] whose sap throws out millions of personalities, like leaves from its branches, leaves which wither, die and fall at the end of their season ….”

Multidimensionality and the Doctrine of Soulless Men

If by the above-referenced  ‘eternal trunk’ is meant the eternal, Spiritual Soul, then the withering of one personality, which becomes separated from Ego, to the Soulless state, might have no impact on the multidimensional, Spiritual Soul which, according to Ascension lore, is experiencing many incarnations simultaneously in the Higher Dimensions (Fifth Dimension and higher) where the Eternal Now is revealed as underlying reality of Creation.

The Hellworld Experience of Soulless Incarnations

“These personalities bud, blossom forth and expire, some without leaving a trace behind, others after commingling their own life with that of the parent stem. It is the Souls of the former class that are doomed to annihilation, or Avîtchi, [hell] a state so badly understood, and still worse described by some Theosophical writers, but which is not only located on our earth, but is in fact this very earth itself ….” [that is to say, I feel may have been intended, located on the astral Earth planes. –Alice] 

The Hellworld Experience of Normal Incarnations

As to the above-reference hellworlds, I feel a distinction might be made between the difficult cases involving loss of the Soul (withering of an incarnation on the ‘eternal trunk’) … which Madame Blavatsky describes in more detail below … and the more normal case of an incarnation that involved little Soul learning and much ignorant ‘acting out’ …

In the latter case, I feel, the hellworld experience after death would have a redemptive quality, as the Soul might learn, through that incarnation, the pain of ignorance in the Afterlife, as the Ego, still encased in the astral shell, experiences the purifying fire that releases the desires that caused the ‘acting out’, preparatory to cocooning in the mental realms.

A Way to Mitigate the Hellworld Experience Before Passing On

For those who want to experience this purification process prior to death, in a less emotionally sensitive, and therefore less painful, setting, I recommend using Tom Kenyon’s “Aethos” meditation as a purifying agent …

Link: “The Aethos Sound Meditation,” by Tom Kenyon … https://tomkenyon.com/the-aethos-sound-meditation .. 

Rending of Antahkarana … the Kundalini, or Central Vertical Power Current, or ‘Silver Cord’ … of the Debased Personality Severs the Person from His Soul

“Thus we see [in the case of the Soulless man] that Antahkarana [the kundalini, the central vertical power current, or ‘silver cord’ … which is the communication link between the incarnate man and his reincarnating Individuality, the Soul; see next paragraph] has been destroyed before the lower man has had an opportunity of assimilating the Higher and becoming at one with it; and therefore the Kâmic ‘Soul’ becomes a separate entity, to live henceforth, for a short or long period according to its Karma, as a ‘soulless’ creature. 

The Antahkarana Is the Bridge Between the Lower Mental Body and the Higher Mental Body

“But before I elaborate this question, I must explain more clearly the meaning and functions of the Antahkarana. As already said, it may be represented as a narrow bridge connecting the Higher and the lower Manas. [mind] If you look at the Glossary of the Voice of the Silence, pp. 88 and 89, you will find that it is a projection of the lower Manas, or, rather, the link between the latter and the Higher Ego, or, between the Human and the Divine or Spiritual Soul ….

The ‘Second Death’: The Kâma Rûpa … the Desire Body or Ghost … of a Normal Personality Decomposes after Death of the Physical Body

“At death it is destroyed as a path, or medium of communication, and its remains survive as Kâma Rûpa, [that is, at death, this seat of animal passions, or ‘desire body’, survives as the astral shell, which slowly purifies, on the astral plane, until the Ego can separate from it; then the ‘kâma rûpa’ deteriorates and decomposes in the astral world. This is termed the ‘second death’ … the death of the Kâma Rûpa or desire body … the ghost … of a normal personality after death of the physical body.] the ‘shell.’ [i.e., astral shell] It is this which the Spiritualists see sometimes appearing in the séance rooms as materialized ‘forms,’ [ghosts] which they foolishly mistake for the ‘Spirits of the Departed’….

Contacting a Person’s Antahkarana During Sleep Is Like Contacting the Kâma Rûpa … the Desire Body or Ghost … After They Pass On

“So far is this from being <pg 522> the case, that in dreams, though Antahkarana is there, the personality is only half awake; therefore, Antahkarana is said to be drunk or insane during our normal sleeping state.

“If such is the case during the periodical death, or sleep, of the living body, one may judge what the consciousness of Antahkarana is like when it has been transformed after the ‘eternal sleep’ into Kâma Rûpa ….”

Conversations with a Person’s Antahkarana While They Are Asleep Are Talks with the Desire Body Rather Than the Personality

Sometimes newly clair people will wait till a person is asleep, then astrally voyage to them, and converse with their Antahkarana, while the person slumbers. They may then mistake the ‘drunk’ or ‘insane’ chatter of the Antahkarana for the personality of the sleeping person.

Mental Suggestions to a Person’s Antahkarana While They Are Asleep Are Bound to Fail, as the Waking Personality Overwrites These Suggestions Through Volition and Predisposition

Or they may attempt to alter the future course of the slumbering person by conveying the Antahkarana to the abodes of people on the astral plane, whom they intend as mate for the sleeping person (as happened to me and others of my acquaintance last night). As the Antahkarana is not the personality, they are mistaken in this attempt, which cannot but fail. The waking personality, recognizing these mental suggestions as foreign to itself, is bound to overwrite them through volition and predisposition.

Disuse of the Antahkarana Causes Its Atrophy

“But to return. In order not to confuse the mind of the Western student with the abstruse difficulties of Indian metaphysics, let him view the lower Manas, or Mind, as the personal Ego during the waking state, and as Antahkarana only during those moments when it aspires towards its Higher Ego, and thus becomes the medium of communication between the two. It is for this reason that it is called the ‘Path.’

“Now, when a limb or organ belonging to the physical organism is left in disuse, it becomes weak and finally atrophies. So also is it with mental faculties; and hence the atrophy of the lower mind-function, called Antahkarana, becomes comprehensible in both completely materialistic and depraved natures.

On Asking the Soul to Reconnect to Oneself

As it is ignoring and going against the wishes of the Soul that causes the Silver Cord to be rent in twain, I suggest that the person in this hapless circumstance spend his waking hours in professing his alignment with his Soul purpose, and petitioning the Soul to return. My hope is that this will ‘lighten up’ the Desire Body, so that the Antahkaranic link may be re-established.

Esoteric Philosophy Holds That the Antahkarana Must Be Preserved, So as to Attain Enlightenment

“According to Esoteric Philosophy, however, the teaching is as follows: Seeing that the faculty and function of Antahkarana is as necessary as the medium of the ear for hearing, or that of the eye for seeing; then so long as the feeling of Ahankâra, that is, of the personal ‘I’ or selfishness, is not entirely crushed out in a man, and the lower mind not entirely merged into and become one with the Higher Buddhi-Manas, [where ‘manas’, the mind, is drawn to Buddhi, or discrimination, rather than to the animal principles of the Lower Mental Body] it stands to reason that to destroy Antahkarana is like destroying a bridge over an impassable chasm; the traveller can never reach the goal on the other shore.

Exoteric Philosophy Holds That the Antahkaran Must Be Sundered, So As to Establish Oneness with Âtmâ or Soul

“And here lies the difference between the exoteric and Esoteric teaching. The former makes the Vedânta state that so long as Mind (the lower) clings through Antahkarana to Spirit (Buddhi-Manas) it is impossible for it to acquire true Spiritual Wisdom, Gnyâna, and that this can only be attained by seeking to come en rapport with the Universal Soul (Âtmâ); that, in fact, it is by ignoring the Higher Mind altogether that one reaches Râja Yoga.

Premature Sundering of the Antahkarana May Cause Loss of Ego

“We say it is not so. No single rung of the ladder leading to knowledge can be skipped. No personality can ever reach or bring itself into communication with Âtmâ, except through Buddhi-Manas; to try and become a Jîvanmukta [liberated Spirit] or a Mahâtmâ, [great Soul] before one has become an Adept or even a Narjol (a sinless man) is like trying to reach Ceylon from India without crossing the sea. Therefore we are told that if we destroy Antahkarana before the personal is absolutely under the control <pg 523> of the impersonal Ego, we risk to lose the latter and be severed for ever from it, unless indeed we hasten to re-establish the communication by a supreme and final effort.

Psychic Surgery to Sever the Antahkarana May Cause Soullessness

From the above discussion, it occurs to me that the practice of some Spiritual Adepts, to sever the Antahkarana through Psychic Surgery above the second chakra, so as to provide a short-cut to enlightenment through dismissal of animal urges present in the Lower Mental Body, may cause the phenomenon termed by Madame Blavatsky ‘soullessness’. For an earlier discussion of the bad effects of such psychic surgery, see …

Link: “Effects of Psychic Spinal Surgery above the Second Chakra,” by Alice B. Clagett, published on 19 June 2016 … https://wp.me/p2Rkym-5Ad ..

Alice’s Perilous Tales: Story about Having My Antahkarana Severed Through Psychic Surgery, and How This May Be Healed

About 20 years ago, on the astral plane, I observed this kind of psychic surgery being done by two spiritual women, upon a spiritual man, with the intent of allowing him to better control his sex drive.

The group in question had a loathing of sexuality, feeling it to be beneath them, in their quest for enlightenment. Thus, their founder’s teachings with regard to sexual intercourse minimized this practice to a few times a year, for married couples; and not at all, for those not married.

Their spiritual practice emphasized meditation more than yoga or physical culture. Thus members of the group became more mental than sexual in outlook and practice. In this context, the psychic surgery that was performed would have had the intention of allowing the patient to adapt to group expectations.

Because of a love curse laid by a jealous member of the group, my desire body had been linked to that of the operated upon patient. Thus when the psychic surgery occurred, through astral cording, my Antahkarana was severed as well.

Because of my experience as a kundalini yoga practitioner and instructor, I understood the psychic surgery had damaged my Soul, and that my health had also been imperiled by it. I searched around for a good spiritual healer, and had the damage repaired by him in a remote healing session. 

For those who have been so afflicted, I suggest following up spiritual energetic healing with gentle yoga and pranayam (breathing) practices … see youtube for these.

My familiarity is with the Healthy, Happy, Holy Organization (3HO) … https://www.3ho.org/  … where I taught kundalini yoga and morning sadhana daily for 6 years, quite some while ago. For those of middle years who are in good health,  I heartily recommend 3HO yoga and breathing  practices … slowly but surely is the best way.

For those in poor health, or very young or very old, then hatha yoga and breathing techniques might be preferable to keep the Antahkarana in good health.

Antahkarana Naturally Dissolves When, in a State of Nirvana, the Higher Triad Becomes One with the Absolute

“It is only when we are indissolubly linked with the essence of the Divine Mind, that we have to destroy Antahkarana.

“Like as a solitary warrior pursued by an army, seeks refuge in a stronghold; to cut himself off from the enemy, he first destroys the drawbridge, and then only commences to destroy the pursuer; so must the Srotâpatti [a person who has entered the ‘stream’ to Nirvana] act before he slays Antahkarana.

“Or as an Occult axiom has it:

“The Unit becomes Three, and Three generate Four. It is for the latter [the Quaternary, aka the Lower Quaternary, consisting of the Rupa (the physical body), Prana (vital force), Linga Sharira (the astral body), and Kama rupa (seat of animal passions)] to rebecome Three, and for the Divine Three to expand into the Absolute One.

• “Monads, [1 principle; the Unity]
• “which become Duads [2 principles; may refer to Atma-Buddhi, or Spirit and its vehicle Spiritual Soul; or else to kama-manas, desire-mind] on the differentiated plane,
• “to develop into Triads [aka The Upper Imperishable Triad: Atma-Buddhi-Manas … Spirit–Spiritual Soul–Mind] during the cycle of incarnations, 

“… even when incarnated know neither space nor time, but are diffused through the lower Principles of the Quaternary, being omnipresent and omniscient in their nature. But this omniscience is innate, and can manifest its reflected light only through that which is at least semi-terrestrial or material; even as the physical brain which, in its turn, is the vehicle of the lower Manas [mind] enthroned in Kâma Rûpa ….” [the desire form or shape]

[In the below paragraph, it seems to me Madame Blavatsky may be using the term ‘second death’ in a manner different from the usual. Here, I feel, she may be speaking of a form of ‘second death’ in which the Antahkarana, through over-exertion of animal desire and animal passions, is severed. It feels to me, from other reading, that the Lower Quaternary becomes so ‘heavy’ that too much stress is put on the Antahkarana (the ‘silver cord’) … and that causes the silver cord to be snapped in two.

Thus the lifeline connecting the Lower Quaternary to the Upper Imperishable Triad is cut, and the Lower Quaternary must, perforce, perish.]

“And it is this [the lower Manas or mind and the Kâma Rûpa] which is gradually annihilated in cases of ‘second death.’ But such annihilation—which is in reality the absence of the slightest trace of the doomed Soul ….”

Is the Soul of a ‘Soulless Man’ Really Doomed?

[By ‘doomed Soul, I feel, may be meant the Kâma Rûpa (the animal Soul) and Manas (the human Soul) as distinct from Buddhi, the Spiritual Soul, which is eternal. Such an interpretation would lend weight to the notion that manifestation as a Soulless Man would represent only one failed life-line in a series of incarnational life-lines that are learning experiences for the Buddhi, the Spiritual Soul. This would go along with the above description of an ‘eternal trunk’ with some leaves that thrive, and others that wither.

As well, one might take it, in the usual sense, that one life-line of many multitemporal, multidimensional incarnations delineates the boundary of an Ego. In this context, the death of the Soul would be individually a good deal more catastrophic.

On the other hand, as individuality is an artificial construct, artfully veiling from the omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent Divine essence so that it may experience the play of lila, or duality … since All is God … it little matters which understanding of Soullessness, expressed in human form, we profess.]

“… from the eternal memory, and therefore signifies annihilation in eternity—does not mean simply discontinuation of human life on earth, for earth is Avîtchi, and the worst Avîtchi possible ….”

Is the Hellworld Experience as Devastating on the Physical Plane as It is in the Afterlife?

This last is an overstatement, I feel: Avîtchi experienced on the astral plane is, by all accounts, felt to be much deeper anguish than that felt while in human form, where the sensations of the physical form are purported, through diversion of awareness, to buffer the experience of negative emotions.

“Expelled for ever from the consciousness of the Individuality, the reincarnating Ego, the physical atoms and psychic vibrations of the now separate personality are immediately reincarnated on the same earth, only in a lower and still more abject creature, a human being only in form, doomed to Karmic torments during the whole of its new life. Moreover, if it persists in its criminal or debauched course, it will suffer a long series of immediate reincarnations ….”

The Vampire in Human Form and the Doctrine of the Soulless Man

[The above paragraph speaks to all too common arcane lore; that of the Soulless beast in human form, the Brother of the Shadow, the Elementary, the dweller on the threshold, the Dark Soul, the Undead, the person ‘possessed’, the Black Magician or Shaman whose Soul has been sent packing by a ‘Big Bad’.

In my teachings, this is the energy vampire in human form, which, through a defect in the function of the central vertical power current or of the heart chakra, cannot gather prana from the Universe, but instead must siphon it off of other human beings, in order to sustain its earthly body. This makes sense, as snapping of the Antahkarana would cut this being off from Source, or God, and from the flow of Prana from the Infinite. It must, therefore, seek sustenance from the phenomenal world. –Alice]

“Here two questions present themselves: [1] What becomes of the Higher Ego in such cases? [2] What kind of an animal is a human creature born soulless?

“Before answering these two very natural queries, I have to draw the attention of all of you who are born in Christian countries to the fact that the romance of the vicarious atonement and the mission of Jesus, <pg 524> as it now stands, was drawn or borrowed by some too liberal Initiates from the mysterious and weird tenet of the earthly experience of the reincarnating Ego.

“The latter is indeed the sacrificial victim of, and through, its own Karma in previous Manvantaras, [the life of a Manu, one of the forebears of humankind, who regulates the world for a span of time] which takes upon itself voluntarily the duty of saving what would be otherwise soulless men or personalities.

“Eastern truth is thus more philosophical and logical than Western fiction. The Christos, or Buddhi-Manas of each man is not quite an innocent and sinless God, though in one sense it is the ‘Father,’ being of the same essence with the Universal Spirit, and at the same time the ‘Son,’ for Manas is the second remove from the ‘Father.’

“By incarnation the Divine Son makes itself responsible for the sins of all the personalities which it will inform. This it can do only through its proxy or reflection, the lower Manas. The only case in which the Divine Ego can escape individual penalty and responsibility as a guiding Principle, is when it has to break off from the personality, because matter, with its psychic and astral vibrations, is then, by the very intensity of its combinations, placed beyond the control of the Ego. Apophis, the Dragon, having become the conqueror, the reincarnating Manas, separating itself gradually from its tabernacle, breaks finally asunder from the psycho-animal Soul …”

[Gosh, the above is quite disrespectful of Christian beliefs; but then, on the other hand, empowering from the personal perspective, I feel.]

What Becomes of the Higher Ego When the Antahkarana Is Severed?

“Thus, in answer to the first question, I say:

“{1) The Divine Ego does one of two things: either …

“(a) it recommences immediately under its own Karmic impulses a fresh series of incarnations; or

“(b) it seeks and finds refuge in the bosom of the Mother, Alaya, the Universal Soul, of which the Manvantaric aspect is Mahat. Freed from the life-impressions of the personality, it merges into a kind of Nirvânic interlude, wherein there can be nothing but the eternal Present, which absorbs the Past and Future. Bereft of the ‘labourer,’ both field and harvest now being lost, the Master, in the infinitude of his thought, naturally preserves no recollection of the finite and evanescent illusion which had been his last personality. And then, indeed, is the latter annihilated ….”

Ascensioneers call item (b), above, ‘return to Source’ or ‘return to God’. I feel that Madame Blavatsky describes this in much milder tones then Ascensioneers are apt to envision it. I like her description very much.

“What Kind of an Animal Is a Human Creature Born Soulless?”

“(2) The future of the lower Manas [mind] is more terrible, and still more terrible to humanity than to the now animal man.

“It sometimes happens that after the separation the exhausted Soul, now become supremely animal, fades out in Kâma Loka, as do all other animal souls. [This would be the best case scenario, would it not?]

“But seeing that the more material [the more physical and the less spiritual in nature] is the human mind, the longer it lasts, even in the intermediate stage, it frequently happens that after the present life of the soulless man is ended, he is again and again <pg 525> reincarnated into new personalities, each one more abject than the other.

“The impulse of animal life is too strong; it cannot wear itself out in one or two lives only. In rarer cases, however, when the lower Manas is doomed to exhaust itself by starvation; when there is no longer hope that even a remnant of a lower light [it] will, owing to favourable conditions—say, even a short period of spiritual aspiration and repentance [or possibly through the prayers of a well-meaning, but mightily ill-advised person]—attract back to itself its Parent Ego, and Karma leads the Higher Ego back to new incarnations, then something far more dreadful may happen.

The Kâma-Mânasic Spook as ‘Dweller on the Threshold’

Image: “The Dweller on the Threshold,” painting by Reginald W. Machell, circa 1895, in Wikimedia Commons … https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Machelldweller.jpg … public domain

. . . . .

“The Kâma-Mânasic spook may become that which is called in Occultism the ‘Dweller on the Threshold.’ This Dweller is not like that which is described so graphically in Zanoni, but an actual fact in Nature and not a fiction in romance, however beautiful the latter may be. Bulwer, however, must have got the idea from some Eastern Initiate ….”

Unlaid Ghost of Prior Evil Incarnation Haunts Newly Incarnated Person?

It seems that Madame Blavatsky is describing, here, the ghost … desire body and Lower Mind … the “Kâma-Mânasic spook,” as she terms it … of a very bad person’s last incarnation, which has, through the weight of it, been severed from Ego.

Then the Kâma-Mânasic spook incarnates without the over-lighting Higher Triad, as an animal in human form. Then some dilly-dallying happens … some unexpected, favorable reversal, or positive thoughts by the bestial human (or possibly by another person on behalf of the bestial human) … and that favorable reversal attracts the Kâma-Mânasic spook’s Ego to it.

Madame Blavatsky mentioned above that it may take a number of incarnations, in ever lower and more bestial human form, for a Kâma-Mânasic spook to ‘unwind’ down to annihilation. Thus, it could be that there is an incarnation in which something happens that makes the bestial Lower Quaternary a little less heavy, and either during the incarnation, or between times, in the brief interlude spent by the Kâma-Mânasic spook between incarnations, the called-upon Ego manifests another incarnation, with a newly created Lower Quaternary and Higher Triad.

The Kâma-Mânasic spook relates to this new Ego incarnation as the Dweller on the Threshold. It thrills to the Ego in the newly incarnate person, but there it is, left ‘out in the cold’, excluded from the incarnation. Thus it stands ‘at the threshold’ of the incarnation; and because of the density of its astral aspect, it seems to the newly incarnate personality to be ‘the devil himself’.

“This Dweller, led by affinity and attraction, forces itself into the astral current, [a movement like a wind blowing, or a river flowing, of astral matter in the astral realm] and through the Auric Envelope, [universal primordial force] of the new tabernacle inhabited by the Parent Ego, [another person’s Parent Ego?] and declares war to the lower light [by this may be meant the Lower Quaternary of the newly incarnate Ego] which has replaced it.

“This, of course, can only happen in the case of the moral weakness of the personality so obsessed. No one strong in virtue, and righteous in his walk of life, can risk or dread any such thing; but only those depraved in heart. Robert Louis Stevenson had a glimpse of a true vision indeed when he wrote his Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. His story is a true allegory. Every Chelâ will recognise in it a substratum of truth, and in Mr. Hyde a Dweller, an obsessor of the personality, the tabernacle of the Parent Spirit ….”

Multiple Personality Disorder and the Doctrine of the Soulless Man

The reference to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, I feel, has to do with what psychologists term ‘multiple personality disorder’. It seems to me that this may be a cross-discipline label for what occultists term the ‘soulless man’. In other. See Alice’s blog category: multiple personality disorder

From an occult point of view, then, Multiple Personality Disorder might involve an act of obsession by a Dweller on the Threshold, {1} during which an onlooker would see a sudden shift in personality from the mild-mannered Dr. Jekyll to the  malevolent arch-criminal Mr. Hyde.

It seems to me that Madame Blavatsky may be saying, though, that the same Soul is responsible for both aspects of the Multiple Personality … both Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, as it were. To the newly incarnate Dr. Jekyll, though the Mr. Hyde … the Kâma-Mânasic spook lurking about and drawn to the new incarnation because it was, in fact, the Lower Quaternary of another of the Ego’s incarnations … must seem to be completely alien to it; to have popped up ‘out of nowhere’, and through no fault of the new personality. This might be the new personality’s point of view from a perspective ‘beneath the Veil’ …

Advaita and the Doctrine of the Soulless Man

To some degree, then, this interpretation of Madame Blavatsky’s teaching would agree with advaita. To the person so afflicted, the impingement of the Mr. Hyde upon the socially acceptable normal personality might seem like the cruel act of a heartless Creator … However, from an advaita stance, there is only oneself … one’s God-created hologram … and God.

Thus, whatever appears in one’s hologram … no matter how seemingly unassailable and undefeatable … is one’s own responsibility to transform to the Light. The incarnation of a Dr. Jekyll is not for the faint of heart! Yet comfort may be had in knowing that God is Love, and God is All, and that we can rely upon grace to transform the most insistent nuisance of a hologrammatic effect. God can do anything, I would feel. I would seek refuge in His power and grace.

“’This is a nightmare tale!’ I was often told by one, now no more in our ranks, who had a most pronounced ‘Dweller,’ a ‘Mr. Hyde,’ as an almost constant companion. ‘How can such a process take place without one’s knowledge?’ It can and does so happen, and I have almost described it once before in the Theosophist ….”

I hypothesize that the Soul may be experiencing many more successful incarnations in other dimensions and timelines, in the eternal Now, and that these two rather gruesome antagonists … the Dr. Jekyll and the Mr. Hyde … the hapless victim and the obsessing entity … may be doing a horrific tango in but two of these; or more aptly, one incarnation, and the dissolving tail-end of another incarnation. This interpretation I feel to be more resonant with the beneficent plan of the Almighty.

SUMMARY BY MADAME BLAVATSKY

“The Soul, the lower Mind, becomes as a half animal principle almost paralyzed with daily vice, and grows gradually unconscious of its subjective half, the Lord, one of the mighty Host; <and> in proportion to the rapid sensuous development of the brain and nerves, sooner or later, it (the personal Soul) finally loses sight of its divine mission on earth.

“Truly,

“Like the vampire, the brain feeds and lives and grows in strength at the expense of its spiritual parent … and the personal half-unconscious Soul becomes senseless, beyond hope of redemption. It is powerless to discern the voice of its <pg 526> God. It aims but at the development and fuller comprehension of natural, earthly life; and thus can discover but the mysteries of physical nature…. It begins by becoming virtually dead, during the life of the body; and ends by dying completely—that is, by being annihilated as a complete immortal Soul. Such a catastrophe may often happen long years before one’s physical death: “We elbow soulless men and women at every step in life.” And when death arrives … there is no more a Soul (the reincarnating Spiritual Ego) to liberate … for it has fled years before.

“Result: Bereft of its guiding Principles, but strengthened by the material elements, Kâma-Manas, from being a ‘derived light’ now becomes an independent Entity. After thus suffering itself to sink lower and lower on the animal plane, when the hour strikes for its earthly body to die, one of two things happens: either Kâma-Manas is immediately reborn in Myalba, [in Tibetan Buddhism, the lowest plane of hell] the state of Avîtchi on earth … or, if it become too strong in evil—‘immortal in Satan’ is the Occult expression—it is sometimes allowed, for Karmic purposes, to remain in an active state of Avîtchi in the terrestrial Aura.

“Then through despair and loss of all hope it becomes like the mythical ‘devil’ in its endless wickedness; it continues in its elements, which are imbued through and through with the essence of Matter; for evil is coeval with Matter rent asunder from Spirit.

“And when its Higher Ego has once more reincarnated, evolving a new reflection, or Kâma-Manas, the doomed lower Ego, like a Frankenstein’s monster, will ever feel attracted to its Father, who repudiates his son, and will become a regular ‘Dweller on the Threshold’ of terrestrial life.

“I gave the outlines of the Occult doctrine in the Theosophist of October, 1881, and November, 1882, but could not go into details, and therefore got very much embarrassed when called upon to explain. Yet I have written there plainly enough about ‘useless drones,’

• “those who refuse to become co-workers with Nature and who perish by millions during the Manvantaric life-cycle;
• “those, as in the case in hand, who prefer to be ever suffering in Avîtchi under Karmic law rather than give up their lives ‘in evil,’ and finally,
• “those who are co-workers with Nature for destruction. These are thoroughly wicked and depraved men, but yet as highly intellectual and acutely spiritual for evil, as those who are spiritual for good. 

“The (lower) Egos of these may escape the law of final destruction or annihilation for ages to come. <pg 527>

Two Kinds of Soulless Men

“Thus we find two kinds of soulless beings on earth:

• “those who have lost their Higher Ego in the present incarnation,
• “and those who are born soulless, having been severed from their Spiritual Soul in the preceding birth.

… “The former are candidates for Avîtchi [hell … possibly hell in a redemptive sense];

More on Multiple Personality Disorder

… the latter are ‘Mr. Hydes,’ whether in or out of human bodies, whether incarnated or hanging about as invisible though potent ghouls. In such men, cunning develops to an enormous degree, and no one except those who are familiar with the doctrine would suspect them of being soulless, for neither Religion nor Science has the least suspicion that such facts actually exist in Nature.

Chanting Aum with a Feeling of Devotion to God May Redeem the Multiple Personality

“There is, however, still hope for a person who has lost his Higher Soul through his vices, while he is yet in the body. He may be still redeemed and made to turn on his material nature. For either an intense feeling of repentance, or one single earnest appeal to the Ego that has fled, or best of all, an active effort to amend one’s ways, may bring the Higher Ego back again.

“The thread of connection is not altogether broken, though the Ego is now beyond forcible reach, for ‘Antahkarana is destroyed,’ and the personal Entity has one foot already in Myalba; … yet it is not entirely beyond hearing a strong spiritual appeal.

“There is another statement made in Isis Unveiled … on this subject. It is said that this terrible death may be sometimes avoided by the knowledge of the mysterious Name, the ‘Word.’ What this ‘Word,’ which is not a ‘Word’ but a Sound, is, you all know. [Would this be Aum?]

“Its potency lies in the rhythm or the accent. This means simply that even a bad person may, by the study of the Sacred Science, be redeemed and stopped on the path of destruction. But unless he is in thorough union with his Higher Ego, he may repeat it, parrot-like, ten thousand times a day, and the ‘Word’ will not help him.

“On the contrary, if not entirely at one with his Higher Triad, it may produce quite the reverse of a beneficent effect, the Brothers of the Shadow using it very often for malicious objects; in which case it awakens and stirs up naught but the evil, material elements of Nature ….”

[I have heard Aum chanted in this self-serving way before, on the astral plane by Black Magickers. I heard as well, on the astral plane, that they attempted to copyright the word Aum so that no spiritual people on Earth could chant it without their permission; but, through God’s grace, they failed in their suit to make this universal holy word their proprietary trademark. On another tack, t is good to hear that this same word may be chanted, with love in our hearts.]

“But if one’s nature is good, and sincerely strives towards the Higher Self, which is that Aum, through one’s Higher Ego, which is its third <pg 528> letter, and Buddhi the second, there is no attack of the Dragon Apophis [per Wikipedia, an Ancient Egyptian mythological snake demon] which it will not repel.

“From those to whom much is given much is expected. He who knocks at the door of the Sanctuary in full knowledge of its sacredness, and after obtaining admission, departs from the threshold, or turns round and says, ‘Oh, there’s nothing in it!’ and thus loses his chance of learning the whole truth—can but await his Karma.

“Such are then the Esoteric explanations of that which has perplexed so many who have found what they thought contradictions in various Theosophical writings, including ‘Fragments of Occult Truth,’ in vols. iii. and iv. of The Theosophist, etc.

Be Aware that Each Step in Life … Whether Downward or Upward on the Spiritual Path … Generates Causes That Will Manifest Results in This or a Future Lifetime

“Before finally dismissing the subject, I must add a caution, which pray keep well in mind. It will be very natural for those of you who are Esotericists to hope that none of you belong so far to the soulless portion of mankind, and that you can feel quite easy about Avîtchi, even as the good citizen is about the penal laws. Though not, perhaps, exactly on the Path as yet, you are skirting its border, and many of you in the right direction.

“Between such venal faults as are inevitable under our social environment, and the blasting wickedness described in the Editor’s note on Éliphas Lévi’s ‘Satan,’ … there is an abyss. If not become ‘immortal in good by identification with (our) God,’ or Aum, Âtmâ-Buddhi-Manas, we have surely not made ourselves ‘immortal in evil’ by coalescing with Satan, the lower Self.

“You forget, however, that everything must have a beginning; that the first step on a slippery mountain slope is the necessary antecedent to one’s falling precipitately to the bottom and into the arms of death. Be it far from me the suspicion that any of the Esoteric students have reached to any considerable point down the plane of spiritual descent.

“All the same I warn you to avoid taking the first step. You may not reach the bottom in this life or the next, but you may now generate causes which will insure your spiritual destruction in your third, fourth, fifth, or even some subsequent birth.

“In the great Indian epic you may read how a mother whose whole family of warrior sons were slaughtered in battle, complained to Krishna that though she had the spiritual vision to enable her to look back fifty incarnations, yet she could see no sin of hers that could have begotten so dreadful a Karma; and Krishna answered her: ‘If thou could’st look back to thy fifty-first anterior birth, as I can, thou would’st see thyself killing in wanton cruelty the same number of <pg 529> ants as that of the sons thou hast now lost.’ This, of course, is only a poetical exaggeration; yet it is a striking image to show how great results come from apparently trifling causes ….” (1)

In love, light and joy
This is Alice B. Clagett.
I Am of the Stars … and so are you!

Written and published on 13 July 2018; revised on 30 April 2025
For the Madame Blavatsky text, I expressed bolding as BLACK FONT, and lack of bolding as MEDIUM GREY FONT. My comments are interspersed throughout; I used violet for my comments that are bolded, and medium blue for my regular comments. 

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MORE INFORMATION

Link: “Syncretic Theory on the Antisocial Personality and the ‘Elementary’ (Black Soul or Dark Soul),” by Alice B. Clagett, filmed on 9 November 2016; published on 12 November 2016; transcribed and revised on 4 March 2019. … https://wp.me/p2Rkym-6nV ..

See also … Link: “Compendium: Ensoulment, Soullessness, and Soul Evolution,” by Alice B. Clagett, published on 28 August 2018; revised on 4 October 2018 … https://wp.me/p2Rkym-a4p ..

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DEFINITIONS
by Alice B. Clagett, mostly in agreement with Theosophical sources

Ahankâra … the faculty in a person that creates a sense of I-ness

Antahkarana … the Kundalini, or Central Vertical Power Current, or ‘Silver Cord’ … the communication link between the incarnate man and his reincarnating Individuality, the Soul

astral current … a movement like a wind blowing, or a river flowing, of astral matter in the astral realm

Auric Envelope … universal primordial force

Buddhi-Manas … where ‘manas’, the mind, is drawn to Buddhi (the Spiritual Soul), rather than to the animal principles of the Lower Mental Body

Duad … 2 principles; may refer to Atma-Buddhi, or Spirit and its vehicle Spiritual Soul; or else to kama-manas, desire-mind

Gnyâna … Spiritual Wisdom

Jîvanmukta … liberated Spirit

Kâma Rûpa … the ‘desire body’, the seat of animal passions

Kâmic … desire-filled; relating to animal passions which promote Soul ignorance or ‘delusion’

Linga Sharira … the astral body

Mahâtmâ … great Soul

Manas … mind

Manvantara … the life of a Manu, one of the forebears of humankind, who regulates the world for a span of time

Monad … 1 principle; the Unity

Myalba … in Tibetan Buddhism, the lowest plane of hell

Narjol … a sinless man

Prana … vital force

Quaternary … aka the Lower Quaternary, consisting of the Rupa (the physical body), Prana (vital force), Linga Sharira (the astral body), and Kama rupa (the desire body, seat of animal passions)

Rupa … the physical body

Second Death …’second death’ occurs when, after physical death, the disintegrating astral shell has purified enough to allow the Ego to separate out from it and return slowly to consciousness in the heaven realms

Srotâpatti … a person who has entered the ‘stream’ to Nirvana

Triad … aka the Upper Imperishable Triad: Atma-Buddhi-Manas … Spirit–Spiritual Soul–Mind

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FOOTNOTE

{1} Note that there is another meaning of the term Dweller on the Threshold, as expressed by The Tibetan, Djwhal Khul: that of the glamour of maya created by the brain that must be overcome in order to escape from the world of illusion …

Link: “The Dweller on the Threshold,” by Djwhal Khul through Alice Bailey, with comments by Alice B. Clagett, published on 1 November 2014; revised … https://wp.me/p2Rkym-7JX ..

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0). Attribution: By Alice B. Clagett.
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