The variety of the causes of phenomena is great, and one need
be an Adept, and actually look into and examine what
transpires, in order to be able to explain in each case what
really underlies it.[53]

To complete the statement it may be added that what the average Soul
can do when it has passed through the gateway of Death, it can do on
this side, and communications may be as readily obtained by writing,
in trance, and by the other means of receiving messages, from embodied
as from disembodied Souls. If each developed within himself the
powers of his own Soul, instead of drifting about aimlessly, or
ignorantly plunging into dangerous experiments, knowledge might be
safely accumulated and the evolution of the Soul might be accelerated.
This one thing is sure: Man is to-day a living Soul, over whom Death
has no power, and the key of the prison-house of the body is in his
own hands, so that he may learn its use if he will. It is because his
true Self, while blinded by the body, has lost touch with other
Selves, that Death has been a gulf instead of a gateway between
embodied and disembodied Souls.

* * * * *




APPENDIX.


The following passage on the fate of suicides is taken from the