Publisher's Synopsis
As evolution steadily carries on the mass of humanity, the crest of its wave must ever be advancing towards new and hitherto unexplored - or only partially explored - regions. Great religious teachers have laid down certain doctrines, far-reaching in their consequences, drawn from a knowledge of super-physical worlds, and their followers have accepted these doctrines on faith, since they were incapable of acquiring for themselves the knowledge of the facts on which they were based. The doctrines of reincarnation and karma, of man's immortality, of the existence of super-physical worlds and their inhabitants - all these recommended themselves to the reason; anyone of fair intelligence could grasp them, but their claim to acceptance rested more on authority than on proof. Reincarnation, for instance, may be shown to be the most reasonable hypothesis for man's continual life. Intuition is sufficient for the person in whom its light is burning, but that light is useful only to its possessor; intuition in A cannot satisfy the demand of the reason in B for proofs, and no firm edifice can be built on the foundation of another's intuition. Hence, in an age when the concrete mind has grown powerful and little willing to yield to authority. Religion has found itself in parlous case. But the progress of evolution is beginning to come to its aid by unfolding in many the powers latent in all, powers which belong to the super-physical worlds and find therein their appropriate field of exercise. An ever -increasing number of people occupies the crest of the evolutionary wave pouring onwards into the *Borderland* and across it. Where a century ago there was a single seer, there are now dozens. Seers trained, half-trained, untrained, are numerous. Sensitives impressed by influences from the super-physical worlds are on the increase. For seventy years discarnate entities have been offering information through mediums. The "otherworld" is pressing into this world. Under these circumstances it is surely desirable that all students should understand something about investigations into the super-physical, in order that they may avoid the blind credulity which accepts all, on the one side, and the equally blind incredulity which rejects all, on the other. Before dealing with investigations, let me make clear my own position with regard to all questions of opinion and belief within the Theosophical Society itself.
