This is true not only of the ordinary form of clairvoyance, in which the occultist sees astrally the happenings and doings at some distant point, at the moment of observation; it is also true of what is known as past clairvoyance, or astral seeing of past events; and in the seeing of future events, as in prophetic vision, etc.  These are all simply different forms of one and the same thing.

Surely, some of you may say, “These things are supernatural, far above the realm of natural law—­and yet this man would have us believe otherwise.”  Softly, softly, dear reader, do not jump at conclusions so readily.  What do you know about the limits of natural law and phenomena?  What right have you to assert that all beyond your customary range of sense experience is outside of Nature?  Do you not realize that you are attempting to place a limit upon Nature, which in reality is illimitable?

The man of a generation back of the present one would have been equally justified in asserting that the marvels of wireless telegraphy were supernatural, had he been told of the possibility of their manifestation.  Going back a little further, the father of that man would have said the same thing regarding the telephone, had anyone been so bold as to have prophesied it.  Going back still another generation, imagine the opinion of some of the old men of that time regarding the telegraph.  And yet these things are simply the discovery and application of certain of Nature’s wonderful powers and forces.

Is it any more unreasonable to suppose that Nature has still a mine of undiscovered treasure in the mind and constitution of man, as well as in inorganic nature?  No, friends, these things are as natural as the physical senses, and not a whit more of a miracle.  It is only that we are accustomed to one, and not to the other, that makes the astral senses seem more wonderful than the physical.  Nature’s workings are all wonderful—­none more so than the other.  All are beyond our absolute conception, when we get down to their real essence.  So let us keep an open mind!

LESSON II.

Telepathy vs.  Clairvoyance.

In this work I shall use the term “clairvoyance” in its broad sense of “astral perception,” as distinguished from perception by means of the physical senses.  As we proceed, you will see the general and special meanings of the term, so there is no necessity for a special definition or illustration of the term at this time.

By “telepathy,” I mean the sending and receiving of thought messages, and mental and emotional states, consciously or unconsciously, by means of what may be called “the sixth sense” of the physical plane.  There is, of course, a form of thought transference on the astral plane, but this I include under the general term of clairvoyance, for reasons which will be explained later on.