as the six supernatural faculties, usually without further specification....  In this transitory body the intelligence of Man is enchained.  The ascetic finding himself thus confused, directs his mind to the creation of Manas.  He represents to himself, in thought, another body created from this material body,—­a body with a form, members and organs.  This body in relation to the material body is like a sword and the scabbard, or a serpent issuing from a basket in which it is confined.  The ascetic then, purified and perfected, begins to practice supernatural faculties.  He finds himself able to pass through material obstacles, walls, ramparts, etc.; he is able to throw his phantasmal appearance into many places at once.  He acquires the power of hearing the sounds of the unseen world as distinctly as those of the phenomenal world—­more distinctly in point of fact.  Also by the power of Manas he is able to read the most secret thoughts of others, and to tell their characters.”

These great Masters are above all petty sectarian distinctions.  They may have ascended to their exalted position along the paths of the many religions, or they may have walked the path of no-denomination, sect, or body.  They may have mounted to their heights by philosophical reasoning alone, or else by scientific investigation.  They are called by many names, according to the viewpoint of the speaker, but at the last they are of but one religion; one philosophy; one belief—­TRUTH.

The state of Adeptship is reached only after a long and arduous apprenticeship extending over many lives.  Those who have reached the pinnacle were once even as You who read these lines.  And some of you—­yes, perhaps even You who are now reading these words may have taken the first steps along the narrow path which will lead you to heights equally as exalted as those occupied by even the highest of these great beings of whom we are speaking.  Unconsciously to yourself, the urge of the Spirit has set your feet firmly upon The Path, and will push you forward to the end.  In order to understand the occult custom that finds its full fruit in the seclusion of the Masters, one needs to be acquainted with the universal habit among true occultists of refraining from public or vulgar displays of occult power.  While the inferior occultists often exhibit some of the minor manifestations to the public, it is a fact that the true advanced occultists scrupulously refrain from so doing.  In fact, among the highest teachers, it is a condition imposed upon the pupil that he shall refrain from exhibitions of his developing powers among the uninitiated public.  “The Neophyte is bound over to the most inviolable secrecy as to everything connected with his entrance and further progress in the schools.  In Asia, in the same way, the chela, or pupil of occultism, no sooner becomes a chela than he ceases to be a witness on behalf of the reality of occult knowledge,”