Schools ... Not Monastaries or Ashrams

Is there a difference and, if so, wherein do they differ. When taken individually each has a separate function to perform. At the same time they can also be intermixed where either two or all three can be found combined. An ashram can be considered an institution where people have gathered to practice the teachings received, lust as in a monastery both teachings and its practice can take place simultaneously. By contrast a school has but one function to perform and that is to teach. Thereafter a student may choose to apply such teachings as one sees fit, without having to adhere to religious or philosophical precepts. If a school is connected with a monastery, secular teachings are always prcdominant. Fraternities, as the name in itself would indicate, are likewise practicing by their rites and ceremonies their respective teachings, so that there is hardly any difference between a monastery, where one undergoes daily practice, while a fraternity does so intermittently during a month or year.

For sometime great emphasis has been placed upon secret organizations that offer special teachings not generalIs, offered to the public, but only to those who promise to subscribe to it ahead of time not to reveal any of their schooling or instructions. A certain hire are the promises given to obtain secrets and powers not otherwise known or available. All this is not rim, and has been going on for quite some time and most likely will continue for as long as individuals are trying to gain knowledge without much mental and physical efforts. They wait for things to come to them.

It is interesting to note that those who are of like mind are attracted to each other while opposing minds are avoiding each other. What is said here is not a matter of deciding which system is right or wrong, rather is it a statement made wherein Schools, Monasteries, Ashrams or Fraternities differ.

Krishnamurti, the eminent teacher, who at one time was considered by some to be the reincarnation of Christ, which he denied, coincides with what has been written here, as will those who have attained within themselves the realization that only a schooling, which does not deny an individual the right of free choice, can have preeminence over other forms of schooling or instructions that require adherence to preconcieved religious or philosophical dogmas.

In an interview by Catherine Ingrain and Lconard Jacobs in the East West journal, Krishnamurti, now 88 years of age, was asked: "Do you feel that your teaching has made a deep impression?" To which he replied: "Some have given up their jobs, have said, 'We'll come to your schools. 'They are doing it because they are schools - not monasteries, not ashrams, but schools where you get a degree course." Later on he continues: "Educators have enormous responsibility because they hold the future. More than the parents, educators must be concerned with the holistic view of life. I've talked about it so much. We've got a school in California, a school in England and five schools in India, and I've spent a great deal of time in all of them."

This sums it up in a nutshell: A school has but one objective and that is to teach laws that apply to all men guaranteeing freedom of expression and action under the law, regardless of one's religious, fraternal or philosophical affiliation.

Paracelsus College is such a school.

Exemplar

John Ray Christopher

When it comes to the advocating of the healing power of herbs during the last decades, one name stands out prominently, that of Dr. John Ray Christopher, of Springville, Utah.

Born Nov. 25th, 1909, he passed on Feb. 6th 1983 into the great beyond. He was a Dr. of Herbology and Naturopathy and was not only known in the USA, but internationally for his efforts to stress the importance of herbs for healing purposes. His lectures were sponsored by the National Health Federation and National Cancer Victims and Friends Association. Dr. Christopher received the Ann Arbor Distinguished Service Award among others and is listed under distinguished persons of Provo, Utah. His numerous publications speak for themselves. It can be said of Dr. Christopher that he was the most prominent of the Master Herbalists of the last thirty years. He taught the traditional, nontoxic power of herbs to assist in the natural healing process. He helped popularize herbs on a mass-scale in the face of drug-oriented, "industrial medicine," and was often jailed and harassed - seemingly on behalf of the pharmaceutical interests - for "practicing medicine without a license." Dr. Christopher has left "The School of Natural Healing," "The Three Day Cleansing Prograrn," and "Childhood Diseases," which include his 37 original formulas, and his remedies.

My personal acquaintance with Dr. Christopher has been a stimulating one, as he showed great interest in the spagyric process. At one time he brought to the College his herb collection to have them analyzed for a possible conversion into spagyric preparations. Due to the additional cost factor involved he said that he had to postpone it until a future time. When he visited the College on several occasions he was impressed by the research conducted in Herbology and would have liked to get further involved, but for lack of time, because of his constant lecture engagements, had to postpone this aspect also.

The world needs men like Dr. John Ray Christopher who fearlessly advocated a principle he firmly believed in, in spite of opposition until one's principles have been established.

Dr. Christopher is survived by his wife, three daughters, three sons and 17 grandchildren.

Isaac Beck, Antwerp, Belgium.

The Land-Rover made slow headway arriving through the African Savannah. Mr. C. R. passed here and there a small village, where, what we will call civilization, was unknown, towards his destination to survey a new road. Passing a shrub he noticed a dead cow whose intestines looking black were protruding out of the animals stomach. He thought a wild beast had ripped it open. But, approaching closer he noticed that the intestines began to move in a rhythmic motion. He was startled and scared! Mambas, black Mambas, deadly snakes that bite and will not release its fangs until the deadly poison has circulated in the body. The Mambas began already to dig their tail end into the sandy soil. This way they gain support to jump up and ahead faster than man can run. The cow was peculiarly thin as everything was taken out. Only one eye was left, the other was a dark hole. With horror R noticed an evil looking snake's head protruding from it. Little by little - it seemed an eternity to him - and inch by inch, the body-of the yard long black snake emerged from the cow's hollow eye. His thought whirled, did the split tongue have only one root? Snakes cannot close their eyes, he thought; don't they ever sleep? Are they always awake? They shed their entire skin, have no feet, only a spine. How filled with hate and fear these living creatures must be. Unable to speak, they remain silent and produce venom to give off in a frenzy of anger. Is there not a teaching about "Serpent Power" somewhere to be found, he mused.

Later Mr. R. began his work as surveyor and several hundred feet down the road was Denis Ngafi - an assistant occupied with establishing markers. All of a sudden Denis gave forth a piercing cry. A black Mamba had bitten and would not let go. Being a native he thought he knew what to do and with a lightning fast move grasped the snake just at the right place below the head, and tore the snake from his flesh and throwing it to the ground smashed its head with his shoe. If the Mamba is grasped too far below the ead, a second bite is possible.

He knew the white surveyor had a snake stone on him. That was his rescue. With all the strength that he could muster he ran as fast as he could. Mr. R. placed the snake stone immediately upon the wound. The black stone stuck at once to the flesh. But it was too late. If he would have remained motionless and would have just called for help, "the stone would have come to him." Because of his over exertion the poison had begun to circulate .through the blood. A few minutes later his eyesight began to grow dim and in about ten minutes he had died, when the snake stone dropped off his leg.

The history of the black snake stone is as follows:

In 1880 in a small West European city a boy was born. Twenty five years later, in 1905 he became a priest. As a Benedictine monk he went to the Dschungls of South America. There, he learned from a tribal chief the secret about the snake stone, as a token of appreciation for the unselfish service he had rendered his tribe. He became later the Rector at a South American university.

On July 8th, 1922 his two sisters died in his homeland, the only ones who knew how to prepare the snake stone. A short time prior to their death at an advanced age they left this secret with a monastery.

The Snake Stone is known as "The Black Stone" and measures about 2 inches long and half as wide. One side is flat and the other slightly rounded. The entire stone looks rather flat, has a slight lustre and is somewhat brittle. On the surface area it has many small holes, in weight much lighter than an ordinary stone of similar size. When bitten by a scorpion, snake or poisonous spider or insect, the inflicted part has to be cut until blood flows and the "stone" placed upon the wound. As soon as the stone comes in contact with the blood it will adhere to it and does not fall off until the poison has been absorbed by the stone.

After use, the stone is immersed for a half hour in warm water. When the effervescence has ceased the stone is placed for two hours in milk and then flushed in fresh water. In this manner the stone can be used again and again. In severe cases the one bitten may have to endure two days of fever.

Mostly missionaries, in remote tropical regions, have this stone available to them. Regular snake serum cannot endure in heat for a greater length of time, sometimes only several days, not to mention side effects and shock.

The snake stone cannot be obtained or purchased openly.

Out of Our Think Tank

Gregory Sneddon

Without interference, energy will always take the line of least resistance, forever seeing the perfect harmony of unity with the other half of its polarity. An example of this can be seen in electricity's constant desire to return to Earth, its "Other Half" so to speak.

Although this process has a sense of "Rightness" about it, and indeed takes place in a multitude of different ways throughout nature all the time, without interference, this "Searching" will always prove unsusccessful of fulfillment. There may be a perfect reunion, but there will never be any result or manifestation. For to occur, a manifestation requires there to be more than just a union of complementary energies; it also requires interference from an outside source. There must be a "Field of Force"; produced only when energy meets resistance.

As could well be expected, differing interference will produce differing manifestations. A lot depends on the "Angle of Interference". For example, two differing energies running parallel could be seen as a combined force with the same "direction", but creating the minimum manifestation, as is the minimum resistance of one energy to the other.

The extreme of this can be seen in the perfectly parallel lines which never meet. If they are brought into Manifestation in whatever form, by eventually meeting a "wave" of energy traveling at a different angle, they will manifest at the same time but if perfectly parallel, quite independently as they have not mixed.

Two violins "Perfectly" in tune should be heard as two separate instruments, as there are two parallel "Waves", produced independently running around the room together. In practice, there are only moments when this independence can be noticed, for to sustain perfect tuning between even two mechanical instruments is virtually impossible. So, two waves cross, we have a manifestation something should now be present which was not there before. It is in this case known as an "harmonic", but due to the almost perfect similarity between the two waves, the manifestation is minimal; the harmonic can hardly be discerned.

It is pleasant to reflect on the name "Harmonic" being given to the "Children" of harmony. Unfortunately (for the daydream), the offspring of Dissonance are known by the same name. Any combination of vibrations will produce Harmonies, even if the vibrations be from different ends of the frequency spectrum (e.g. light waves meet sound waves), or acting through differing mediums (sound waves-air, meet ear drums-earth).

This tends to expand the definition of the word "Harmonic" beyond that in common usage, as in this concept it implies the result or manifestation of any meeting of energies, whatever their form and whatever the nature of their meeting. It should be understood that in nature energy is never lost, but simply follows the line of least resistance, often changing mediums of manifestation and thereby leaving our limited perception. Except under specially contrived circumstances; those whereby an "Artist" contrives an Alchemical reaction to take place, it can be assumed that the stronger the conflict upon meeting between energies, the stronger the harmonic produced, also that the energy now "Powering" the harmonic has proportionately reduced the strength of the parent energies. It has though, not effected the source of these energies, only their uninterrupted movement through space.

It should be mentioned here, that the reason an Alchemical reaction is different from a natural one is that a previously unperceived "Outside' energy is drawn to join the reaction. The child grows in strength, but the parents are seen not to be in any way depleated.

In any energy flow, there are always three principles present. These could be called the Active, Receptive and Obstructive principles; the active principle in everything constantly searches and will find its complimentary receptacle. The Obstructive principle is the constantly present possibility of resistance met along the way.

There is another force involved apart from those mentioned above. This is the "Motivating Force; that which causes the Active Principle's search to begin in the first place. It's origin exists outside of the force in question, which until separated into Active and Receptive principles by the action of this outside stimulation, can exist quite happily as a unified but non-productive "Duality." This Duality has no knowledge of or interest in potential obstruction waiting for it "out there"; it lacks any reason to do anything but exist.

So far we have dealt with four principles, energies or forces at work. The Active, the Receptive, the Motivating and the Obstructive. To these can be added the "Vehicular", or the principle which provides a medium along which the "Active" travels to reach it's objective. Any force in motion must have a "path" to travel along, inevitably provided by yet another independent and unsuspecting energy.

There is a very good reason why the Active principle will always choose, no matter what, to "do what it aught" and head "home", instead of the multitude of other options (theoretically at least), open to it. Energy in fact never does what it feels like. It does what it must, as that is the Law under which it is allowed to exist. This Law is very exacting and tolerates absolutely no deviation. It is a principle quite different from any other, being at the same time both very complex and very simple.

The actual magnetism involved in drawing the separated Active and Receptive principles together after separation, has it's own very specific qualities, reuniting the opposites despite any hinderance encountered along the way. Imagine a bucket of water taken from a lake by a farmer, to water his cow during a drought. He carries the water several miles up the hillside, spilling quite a bit along the way. He drinks some himself, eventually giving the rest to the grateful cow. The cow drinks her fill, after which the farmer (being a little silly), pours what remains into the fast flowing stream that runs alongside his house.

If we now follow the course of the water as it makes its way back to the Lake, traveling always downhill urged on by the dictates of Gravity, we will see the point to this little story.

You see, there just happens to be a water wheel on the creek driving a mill; a little boy who just loves the cow's milk and a few scattered fennel seeds on the dusty path where the water was spilt. So as the raised water does its "Duty", heading downhill whenever given the chance, it meets various obstructions and gives aid to many other processes along the was..

So we have seven principles or forces of energy:

1. The Active.
2. The Receptive.
3. The Motivating.
4. The Vehicular.
5. The Righteous.
6. The Magnetic.
7. The Obstructive.

This is their order when considered in time, or rather as having an "initial" state, a "changing" state and an "eventual" state.

From another perspective, the Active principle could be seen as the beginning of a new manifestation. An instant ago it wasn't there, this instant it has appeared, although it hasn't done anything yet. The moment this active principle appeared, there arose a place in space for it to exist. Without this "Place", expressible in terms of some form of coordinates (updown - north - south - castwest; or length-breadth - depth and location, etc.) and having a material nature whether perceivable or not, the Active principle in question cannot be said to have a stable existence.

As its name implies, the Active principle is itself but a medium by which "Life Energy" may pass from one place to another. In essence, all of the "Principles" are powered by this energy, first brought into being through the Active. The exception to this would seem to be what is called here the Obstructive principle, mentioned earlier as being an outside force and what would seem to be a completely independent manifestation. In reality, the instant in time and the particular place in space chosen for manifestation of the Active and Receptive, automatically determines the particular nature and effect of the Obstructive principle. It is "Reason" which tells us that we are independent from our fate. Understanding always shows effects to be totally inseparable from their causes, just as causes are from their effects.

Simply by coming into existence at a particular Time and Place, the action of Manifestation through the Active to the Passive Recipient, demands an equal and opposite reac tion. The cause demands the effect.

So if the Active in conjunction with the Receptive, brings "Life Energy" from somewhere outside our present world through a Birth Process into Manifestation in our World, the Re action to this will have to be that of a materialized energy attempting an escape from this world through the womb. But just as a child cannot re turn to the womb once it has left it, so this Reaction of wanting to get to the root of things, is doomed to pro duce an effect of its own. So the reac tion becomes an action, although of a more material nature than before.

The effect of this force upon the Active/Receptive Duality, is to cause a fundamental disturbance of their state of rest. As this disturbance must take an "Equal and Opposite" form to the initial action which took place in the instant; in one place and therefore without movement, it must cause something to move as part of its effect.

What is it though, which moves? Is it the Active or the Receptive or what? If we consider that the Active is no more than a medium for expres sion while the Receptive is a birth vehicle for what is passed on through the Active, then perhaps it is neither of them, but the "What" that is passed on; that "Life Energy" spoken of earlier. But it's nature is slightly different now, in that it is contained at least for the present in a state capable of specific and definable movement.

At this point-now capable of movement, it quickly expands into a thick custard and sucks up the universe. No, in reality it fortunately doesn't. Once again the Cause produces an Effect, equal and opposite to itself. This extremely fine, contained and mobile force, needs direction or it will go astray. So a perfectly matched facility is provided to send this Energy where it should go, which (fortunately or unfortunately) turns out also to be where it is needed.

This "Providing" function must have a way both of being told what is needed where, and of sending the potentially fickle moving energy through space to where it is required, without the chance of deviation or mistake. This facility, as always, must be correctly equal and opposite the one before it. Instead of distributing All to the Many indiscriminately, its nature will have' to be one of selectively re ceiving a particular One to Itself. So the idea of the Union of complementary opposites becomes manifest, and once put into motion must eventually' result in the return of the now living energy to its complementary opposite, despite any difficulties encountered along the way.

This is all very well and could almost he seen as the end of the story, except for two things. First of all, what of the encounters between this Energy Package and the innumerable others which make up the universe. Secondly and following on from this, what guarantees are there of the "Purity" of this wandering force when it finally makes it home?

If we imagine that by now the "Moving Life Force" is heading home at a rate which is increasing proportionately the closer the polar "Halves" get to each other and that the closer they get the stronger their attraction for each other, we can see why this is the point chosen to introduce "Obstacles", "Work" or "Tests"; call it what you like. It is essentially the strength of the Active's attraction for the Receptive which enables it to overcome any and all obstacles encountered along the way.

The reason behind the need for what appears to be "The Principle Of The Spanner In The Works", is that without restriction there can be no growth; without growth there is no potential for change, without potential for change no Evolution and without Evolution, no "Point" to the Universe and therefore no Universe.

Without the restriction imposed by the environment surrounding every living being, there would be no "Reason" for that being to do anything, as it is essentially the constant struggle for survival that leads beings to "get up in the morning". just as the Obstacles overcome by a Living Being are the of the Growth of a Being, they are also the measure of the purity of that being at any given time. For the ability of a being to overcome certain obstacles or difficulties of it's environment, defines it's level on the "Evolutionary Scale".

The "Level of Purity" of the Energy Package, or rather its lack of contamination by outside influences, determines its state of readiness to return from whence it came; back through the "Hole in the Wall" provided by the Active, to the Source from where it began. An impure or "Influenced" energy will simply not be capable when the time comes of the perfect blending of complementary opposites required for this return to be successful.

Thus the Obstructive principle performs the function of testing the Wanderer's state of purity, opening the 'Invisible Door?' if appropriate and allowing the Illuminating journey home of a now Conscious being.

What has been discussed so far: Energy flow into, around and then out of this world of ours, has been based on a circular seven-fold system, where one point on the circumference of the circle represents the Entry and Exit point of Life Energy into the System. But just as any circle can be divided into seven equal parts, it can just as casily be divided into twelve, three hundred and sixty, or even two million equal sections, each with its own place on the circumference and angle to the Entry and Exit point. So the one given point on a circle (say 45 degrees), can be described in a variety of different ways depending on the particular system of division in use, without changing in itself one iota.

There is a difference in the appearance of this point to an observer who is at it through different systems, a the point will take on the character of either more or less of the -)ints around it, depending on the number of divisions in use in each system. In the seven-fold system we outlined up to now, each of the "Points" or sections has covered an area of about 51 degrees, each with areas of maximum strength or focus. These "In Focus" areas would be those that would answer the description associated with that area most correctly. But in constructing any system, the influcnce of the out of focus areas of each section must be taken into account when describing the overall influence of that section.

This weakening of the value of each individual point for the sake of easier system comprehension, is unfortunate but necessary. The finer the definition a point, the more points there are in the system that need defining and therefore the more complex the system beomes to comprehend. A balance needs to be struck when constructing a working system, between these two factors.

With this in mind, if we take another look at the seven-point "Energy Charging" system outlined above, it it not too difficult to see points between the points. The most obvious thing to do when refining a system by increasing the number of defined points, is to give separate descriptions to the areas most out of focus in the system. These are the points half way between any two points in the original system.

This would convert our Seven-Point System into a Fourteen-Point System. We would expect the new definitions to fit comfortably between the old and for the old point descriptions to be slightly modified in the interests of greater clarity. In essence, nothing must change.