The Gaelic Manuscripts
by Betty White
with Stewart Edward White

Chapter 24
Danger and its Avoidance

1. The basis of illusion

The basic danger in psychics, according to Gaelic, is illusion. This may be of different degree, naturally. At one end we are like to have mistaken partisanship on the other downright insanity.

"The first step in illusion," Gaelic began, "is an over-eager expansion. This, as in an old figure we have used before, so extends the radius without corresponding growth of its comprising particles as to bring about a condition of undue permeability, without that solid individual constitution, that compact inner spiritual core, which provides its own insulation. This undue permeability, at first a little, then a little more, admits a heterogeneous influx of influence without constructive plan or purpose.

"A dominating entity or force, or group is by chance or tempermental predilection enabled to attract attention, as it were – to obtain the subject’s attention. From this slight beginning a single small seed or idea of one sort or another is implanted. That one small seed or idea is sufficient to establish a preliminary premise, on which at first a simple, and later a more complex syllogism may be formed. This syllogism is irrefragibly formed on the laws of logic; and once the initial premise is either forgotten or accepted, obtains sympathetic acquiescence. Note the word sympathetic. Sympathy involves always a partial identification with its object. This identification becomes little by little more and more complete. A time comes when what you call obsession may supervene."

2. Obsession

"Obsession faces in two directions. This is not generally known. The obsessing entity functions on your plane through its object – that you understand. The object also functions on the obsessor’s plane through the obsessor.

We will leave aside the earth experience of the obsessing entity as self-evident. The victim of obsession – either partial or complete, mind you – functions on the other plane through the obsessor. What are his experiences there? It is almost self-evident that they are either those possible to the obsessor’s knowledge and capacity, or they are those which the obsessor desires him to have. Whether they are real or illusory, or partially one or the other, depends on the obsessor’s capacity and good will; also on the obsessor’s cleverness in building more syllogisms, based on a speck of irrefutable reality, but carried in the direction of his own purposes."

3. The relief from obsession

"Whatever of your earth is comprised within your personal awareness comes to the experience of a disembodied possessing entity only as you yourselves see it. In corollary: experience of other planes comes to you only as the obsessing entity sees it. Only those two awareness mechanisms are available, on the one side and on the other side, for the purposes of perception.

"But suppose an entity still on your plane, functioning also on the other plane, obtains obsession over someone; and suppose him possessed of a malignant or selfishly limited understanding. Then it would be quite possible for him with that dual comprehension of conditions to build for his own purposes a complete but false system of logic, and to show a solid but illusory cosmos, complete to the extension of finity. And the whole vision would be comprised within the pinpoint limits of a single malignant purpose – a pinpoint so minute that its importance in troubling the great sweeping tide of cosmic movement would be laughable were it not at the same time tragic in the view of one.

"I am for the moment sketching a process, exposing a situation. I will go on to expose also, not only how unimportant this is in itself, but its large and dynamic ultimate effect in final development.

"Now it is almost impossible to assist one in this condition, as long as it remains fairly complete, for the simple reason that whatever we may do or say, if it be reality – as we try to make it – is seized upon in its interpretation and formed into a symbol appropriate to the desire or purpose of the obsessor. This point is unimportant, but I mention it merely in passing to account for what may often appear to be abandonment. It is not really such – but we bide our time.

"Now I must say summat which may be misunderstood, but it is necessary to understanding.

"Possibility of this type of obsession can come only through a mistake on the part of the victim. Mind you, I say mistake, not fault. Mistakes are unavoidable in any walk of life, even the most accustomed. They are increasingly probable when one ventures from the beaten track over the pathless countries. They are certain when one rushes forward in haste, heeding not his footsteps, which in itself is a mistake. And the more obscure the way, the more the haste, the harder the fall. But the very spirit of undauntedness that leads one forth into untried ways, the very eagerness of purpose that hastens one’s steps beyond safety, are a warrant of the will that will pick itself up again. Only he who strays like a thief in the night, seeking power and aggrandizement, only he who hastens grasping guiltily of forbidden things, once fallen rises not. And the moment when once more one stands upon his own two feet we may take him by guiding hand."

4. The firm foundation

The third principle, said Gaelic, applies not only to this subject, but is inherent to most other activities of the human race.

"It is impossible to function safely in advance without a foundation of complete functioning in the plane of life in which one is placed.

"Those few who have safely attained in your earth life and elsewhere have done so on a foundation of complete earth function. This is an ininvariable rule and an indispensable safeguard. Life in advance is a blossoming on firm earth roots. Perception in advance is a true perception only when it is a growth from complete earth living. All other perception is partial and veiled with phantasms of illusion."

5. Insanity

"Insanity, as the world understands it, is not an abrogation of intelligence, except in such cases as a diseased physical mechanism places the person in a position of complete insulation from his environment. Insanity is intelligence acting quite normally and smoothly in a mixture of several environments, harmonized completely with none. The mind is unimpaired in the sense that its mechanism of function is unimpaired. It is acting often on realities, but it is interpreting the realities of one sphere in symbols of another, or vice versa, or even more confusing is the intermingling of the two in both. If that could be fully understood and worked out from this point of view, the benefit to all of humanity at large, here and there, would be greater than any other one thing I can think of at the moment. The principles I enunciate are a very short step in that direction.

"Nor must it be understood", Gaelic continued his definition, "that insanity in its wide acceptation invariably implies obsession by an external entity. It may be so that obsession exists – varying from almost complete substitution to undue influence only – but it is not a necessity of the situation.

"Insanity is an orderly functioning of intelligence in a wrong or mixed environment. Note I say intelligence; and use the word orderly instead of normal, merely to avoid misunderstanding. Mind, in the narrow sense, is confined to the physical while normal has become synonymous with its functioning in one environment. But in a wider sense of normal the intelligence is always so functioning. In any understanding and treatments of the future of insanity this one fact must be accepted and understood; the mind is functioning normally according to the laws of its being, but the materials on which it functions and which it shapes into the pattern of conduct and actions mental and physical, are incongruous one to the other.

"If drawn entirely from an environment in which the patient is not placed, the action and idea are also divorced wholly from the environment, and the patient is what you call quite mad. If these materials, however, are drawn only partially from another plane, then the incongruity expresses itself in a similar mixture of action and idea. I speak now of the type in which no obsessing entity has taken charge, or attempted to take charge, of the patient.

"In the treatment of such a case one must first of all assume that the action of the intelligence is rational, that it is orderly, in its own environment, however constituted. One must then, through experience, imagination and empirical accumulation of observation, try to determine of what that environment consists. If that understanding can be reached, then one has a solid foundation of knowledge of the case upon which to build. Seek first of all the rationale of the case. Upon these principles future treatments of such patients will proceed."

6. The healing procedure

"In the case of one who is, or has been, wholly or partially taken over by an obsessing entity or entities the situation is more complex. One must attempt to determine, first, whether the purpose is actuating the obsession, or whether it is a chance affiliation without definite larger purpose as distinguished from mere motive. This larger purpose is certain to be in inception, either mistaken or malignant, for those in knowledge of constructive purpose do not adopt these methods. In either case the healings of the future will attempt to disentangle, in the structure built up as the habitation of the mind, the realities from the syllogistic illusions attached to them. The healing process will then begin by a stripping of illusion, and the subsequent relating together of the remaining bits of reality, thus reestablishing the lost harmony with truth. For when this in either case is accomplished, the intelligence, which, be it remembered, is in function only impaired, will by its very nature, once its eyes are unbandaged. proceed to its proper function in the environment in which it actually is by its own specific gravity, so to speak. That is all I would say upon that subject."

7. The damage sustained

"Now to take up another aspect; what of the damage to the one who has so wandered in functioning of intelligence? The answer to that is that there is no damage to that person’s reality. You have been told before that of real gain nothing can be lost, and that is still true now as when we first told you. Furthermore, any experience whatever contains within itself the raw material of gain – not the finished product, mind you, but the raw material. When material is offered you in any sphere you may leave it dumped in your close, or you may set to with wisdom and intelligence to order, to sort, and finally to build it, not only into an enrichment of your own eternal property, but mayhap a shelter wherein one storm-buffeted may find refuge. Of the experience so utilized nothing essential is destroyed by understanding. Only illusions or false hopes built upon mistake and overvaulting desire are reduced to what they have been all along.

"I have, told you today the manner of illusion. I will not repeat. Read that over again to fit in here.

"The tearing down of the false structure requires a certain boldness and courage to face the reality of the actual; to acknowledge that evolution is harmonious and self-effacing; that the difference between the highest entity and the humblest atom is in the face of eternity of no account; that each can do his appointed task according to his capacity; and that that task will fit into the unhasting, untarrying course of progress; that there never has been and never will be, in the finite, however appearances may perceive, an exceeding, of capacity; that capacity is finite and limited by the laws of harmony. Understood; faced; utilized; the apparent destruction of years of perhaps earnest effort will result, not in retrogression, but in a progression even farther in reality than the fondest hopes built on illusion might aspire. So that in final result life is not stopped, is not even checked, but overrides magnificently and proceeds upon its appointed path."

8. A type of illusion and its healing

It was no part of his purpose, Gaelic informed us, to deal with details. Nevertheless, the discussion of one very common, and very annoying, type of illusion harbored by the mentally unbalanced might illustrate his point. That is, the illusion that food, or certain foods, are poisonous to them. Sometimes this illusion is carried to the point of starvation – it is absurd. "Nevertheless", said Gaelic, "there is in that statement more than a mere core of reality. He apprehended it correctly, and he has reasoned correctly from that apprehension; but in that reasoning he has transferred the application of a thing from an environment where it is true to an environment where that truth is not active. I will now speak entirely figuratively, and not literally. Understand that.

"In a certain plane of existence it might be that the reality of what is on the earth plane a peach, for instance, would as a matter of ingestion, to put it that way, have certain effects – we will assume them deleterious. Now the precipitation of that reality on the earth plane, in combination with the earth embodiment of exactly the same entity would, as a matter of ingestion, be beneficial, not injurious. I speak figuratively, illustratively. Now an intelligence operating on the first plane acts reasonably and properly in avoiding this peach. On the earth plane he acts as reasonably and properly in accepting the peach. Acting on an intermingling of the two, an acceptance of the peach on the earth plane might well be deleterious – literally so because the consciousness, being badly centered, functioning outside its proper environment, brings to the earth environment the effect not natural thereto. As long as the functioning is thus confusedly intermingled the effect may be real. When functioning is resumed in its proper environment and unconfused, the influence of reality on the first plane disappears.

"I cite this merely as an instance of how functioning outside an environment, without losing touch with reality results in illusion."

9. The defense

"Any human experience", Gaelic reverted to his main theme, "no matter what its nature, no matter what its inception, no matter what its guiding influence, may be analyzed into two elements; a reality which is its core and substance; and its interpretation, which may be deed or thought. The core of reality must always exist, for if a thing is in this orderly universe it must have back of it an indubitably real essence. The interpretation varies according to circumstance. In the most harmonious adjustment it may approach a comparative correspondence, and in any case will encompass what may be called a working correspondence. In circumstances involving maladjustment or activities mistaken, the core of truth may be so overlaid with uncorresponding interpretations as to suffer almost complete falsification. In the simplest direct working of an accomplished evolution the interpretations may bear to the reality almost an equalizing ratio. This general principle may be stated: that for the nearest perfection of function of any reality a minimum of interpretation is a desideratum – provided that it is sufficient to assure the working of that inner truth. Multiplicity and complexity of interpretation may so accumulate that the initiating reality may become a mere pinpoint in a luxurious but noxious growth. Nevertheless in all cases the reality is existent, indestructible, untarnishable. The disentangling – or rather the brushing off – of the parasitic however, is all that is necessary as a prerequisite for further forward movement. Then, and then only, can the progress be evaluated.

"How must this be done? Not by a detailed intellectual puzzling out. That way lies confusion in a maze of misunderstandingsthrough further interpretations. Understanding will come, and the truth be very evidently placed to one side from the illusion; but that will come about as a natural sequence to a manner of inner life. One must, after accepting the bare fact of the situation, after acknowledging the condition of affairs, after ceasing regret at what is not regrettable after all, retire calmly and peacefully within the inner citadel of quiet heart relaxation, there to dwell while the inevitable natural processes take place. Rest calm in one thing, and one thing only, confident that given the chance these natural processes will not only take place, but cannot be prevented. In the meantime ordinary outside common interests of life should be followed as the appetite for them grows. The only needed precipitating element is a spiritually calm acquiescence for the moment. Then, as certainly as the stars revolve in their appointed orbits, the pattern will silently adjust itself, the gold of reality will shine in indubitable genuineness and all else will fall away as a veil that is rent asunder."

10. The one sin

"As a general admonition to all who push ahead in pioneering", Gaelic made this statement;

"No genuine truth", said he, "no good that comes to mortal man is to him aught but simple. If it be not simple, and beautifully in the order of the universe as he knows it through his own capacity, then either it is not a truth, or it is not a truth intended for him. Revelation accompanies due and natural growth of capacity. The reception of revelation also is, if genuine, simple, humble. To him who receives it, it appears, not a departure from the normal, beautiful natural order of things, but an extension in kind. If it departs from that, it is suspect. And furthermore, again, to him who receives it seems a natural and simple thing that it should come to him in the ordinary course of the life he is leading. In his own thought it adds not one tittle to his stature above his fellow men, above his conception of himself.

"For at this point enters what one would call – if one admitted such a thing at all the one sin. I would prefer to call it the one corrosive. It is the one element of one’s nature within one’s control. It is the one element of character capable, on the one side of turning into mistaken direction the experience of reality; and on the other side, by proper understanding, of rendering possible safe acceptance of whatever may come. That one thing is pride.

"There is a physical pride, which is amusing. There is a mental pride, which may be annoying. There is a spiritual pride, which may become dangerous. It was of pride, and pride only, that Lucifer was said to have fallen.

"That in a way is a simplification, for it narrows the point of safeguarding so that one may watch at a sinple portal for the danger of disintegration. If one begins to set himself aside as differing, then he should beware. We do not differ. The greatest of all who have lived the earth life did not differ save in legend; nor did he, nor will ever anyone, by sudden quirk or twist snatch aside the appointed order, and no true promise will ever be, carried out that such will be the case.

"I might almost say, in one sense, we do not hasten progress. I would not be misunderstood. That which I mean is that our best efforts, our highest efforts, our utmost efforts within our capacity are needed to prevent us from hindering progress by our inertia, our omissions, and our hangings back. All there is of power, of energy, of good will and eagerness of spirit have full scope within our possibilities for their exercise. It might almost be said that none ever does all he could, but that pushing forward toward our present limitations is a continuous process. In that sense we have no right to assume that far in advance or in the o’erleaping of intervales lies a capability unearned by sequential approach. It may well be that such a thing is within our radius. If so we must approach it properly. A leap in the dark may project us where we should not be."